Page images
PDF
EPUB

CHAPTER VI.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre-Its traditions-Their fabulous character —Light thrown upon the subject by Scripture, and by topography of the ancient city-Dishonour done to Christianity by scenes exhibited around the pretended sepulchre of our Lord-Some account of these scenes, and of the miracle of the holy fire-Probable position of Calvary.

THERE is one place in Jerusalem which few who enter the city would like to leave it without visiting. Since the earlier part of the fourth century, it has been an object of the deepest reverence and most sacred interest to by far the larger proportion of the nominally Christian world. By that time the religion which began with a few peasants and fishermen of Galilee, had spread from the Baltic to Abyssinia, and from India to the British isles. The faith whose founder expired on a malefactor's cross, had been embraced by the Roman empire; and he who wore the crown of the Cæsars had recently become the avowed disciple of the despised and persecuted Nazarene.

Unhappily, however, while Christianity had been rising to this height of political ascendency, its primitive purity had been suffering a lamentable decline. The Christian church, now loaded with wealth and honours, and wielding most formidable powers, was fast losing its grand primitive distinction as a "kingdom not of this world." Lifeless forms were rapidly usurping the place of great spiritual truths; and pilgrimages to the shrines and tombs of saints were coming to be regarded as better proofs of piety than taking up the cross and following Christ in a life of self-denying goodness and holiness.

It was about this period that an illustrious stranger appeared in Jerusalem. This stranger was Helena, the mother of Constantine, the first Christian Emperor of Rome. By a dream, or by some other mysterious impulse, she had been moved, in her

INVENTION OF THE CROSS.

237

old age-as those who have chronicled her doings tell-to undertake this journey, and especially to make inquisition for the very spot on which the Saviour suffered, and for the cross on which He died. Two centuries before, as some say, one of the imperial predecessors of her son had erected over Christ's tomb, a temple, if not also a statue of Venus, by way of pouring contempt upon the name and worship of our Lord. Time, however, and the many changes the city had meanwhile undergone, had so completely obliterated every trace and record of the exact locality, that when Helena came to seek for it, her long journey seemed as if it must prove to have been made altogether in vain. But the mother of the Roman emperor was no common pilgrim. It was a thing not to be thought of that the pious zeal which had brought her all the way to Jerusalem should come to nought. The case was worthy of a miracle; and a miracle accordingly came to her aid. The same divine instinct that prompted the enterprise, guided her to the grand object of her search. After long and laborious digging amid rubbish and ruins, lo! at length a rock is laid bare. The rock is found to be pierced with three holes, and beside it three crosses are lying. Beyond all question this is Calvary; and these are the crosses of Christ and of the two thieves between whom He suffered. But a great difficulty remained. The crosses were all alike; and how should it be known which was that of Jesus? Macarius, the Bishop of Jerusalem, was present, of course, on an occasion that was to bring such renown to his see. A happy thought struck him. "Let the suffering victim of some hopeless disease be immediately brought." According to some versions of this marvellous tale, it was one, not simply diseased, but dead, whose body was straightway carried to the spot. The body was placed in contact first with one cross, then with a second, but still there was no result. No sooner, however, does it touch the remaining cross, than the disease or the death, whichever of the two it was, instantaneously fled. Life, or at the very least health, was restored; and the great fact was complete of what is known in history by the sin

gularly significant and suggestive name of the invention of the cross. This, it is to be presumed, is that same cross of which portions so numerous have been distributed among the worshippers of such sacred relics, that it is confidently said to have supplied as much timber as would have sufficed to build a seventyfour!

To perpetuate the memory of this amazing discovery, and to guard the spot from all future profanation, a splendid basilica was erected over it by Helena, of which, however, no part now remains. Two or three times over, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre has been completely destroyed; but still there can be no reasonable doubt, that the church of the present day stands precisely where that of Helena stood.

It is hardly worth any one's while to sift out the few grains of truth from the huge pile of chaff and dust which pious fraud and monkish superstition have heaped up upon the floor of this ancient edifice. Almost the only thing to be relied on, in the whole story, is the fact that the mother of Constantine did visit Jerusalem; and that she, or her son, or the two conjointly, did build a church on the pretended site of our Saviour's sepulchre. The fact, already noticed in an earlier chapter, that the same lady fixed the scene of the ascension on the summit of the Mount of Olives, while Scripture tells us in so many words, that it took place at Bethany, far down the farther side of the hill, is conclusive as to the amount of reliance to be placed on the traditions of her time.

In visiting this world-famous church, we were most kindly favoured with the company and guidance of Madame Gobat, and had, in consequence, the advantage of being preceded by the bishop's tall cawass, with his long silver-headed staff of office, to clear the way of all interruptions to our progress. The church has a patched and half-ruinous look, which impairs a good deal the effect of such remnants of its ancient grandeur as are still to be traced in many parts of the building. After making our way through a crowd of dealers in crosses, rosaries, and such

CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE.

239

like, who hang about the little court in front of the only entrance to the church, the first thing that attracted our notice was the guard of Turkish soldiers smoking their pipes immediately inside of the door. What are these Moslems doing here in a Christian church? It is not to bar the way, or to exact any fee for admission, for all who come are allowed to pass without question. To the shame and dishonour of the Christian name and faith, the guard is in attendance to keep order among the pilgrims who resort to this holy place. Few who know anything on the subject can be ignorant of the savage conflicts of which it is oftentimes the scene. During the Easter festival especially, when the church is crowded with thousands of pilgrims, all frantic with excitement, tumults and outrages are of frequent occurrence. Not even the wildest mixture of fun and fighting ever seen at Donnybrook Fair could surpass what has been witnessed, times without number, in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

"Only suppose for a moment," says one describing what he saw, "the mighty edifice crowded to excess with fanatic pilgrims of all the Eastern churches, who, instead of lifting pure hands to God without wrath or quarrelling, are led, by the petty jealousies about the precedency which they should maintain in the order of their processions, into tumults and fightings which can only be quelled by the scourge and whip of the followers of the false prophet. Suppose, further, these thousands of devotees running from one extreme to the other-from the extreme of savage irritation to that of savage enjoyment-of mutual revellings and feastings, like Israel of old, who, when they made the golden calf, were eating and drinking, and rising up to play. Suppose troops of men, stripped half-naked to facilitate their actions, running, trotting, jumping, galloping to and fro, the breadth and length of the church; walking on their hands with their feet aloft in the air; mounting on one another's shoulders -some in a riding, some in a standing position, and by the slightest push are all sent to the ground in one confused heap,

which made me fear for their safety. Suppose, further, many of the pilgrims dressed in fur caps, like the Polish Jews whom they feigned to represent, and whom the mob met with all manner of contempt and insult, hurrying them through the church as criminals who had been just condemned, amid loud execrations and laughter, which indicated that Israel is still a derision among those heathens, by whom they are still counted as sheep for the slaughter.""

It is, however, when the great miracle of the occasion has been accomplished that the frenzy reaches its height. And what is this pretended miracle? One almost trembles to name the horrid impiety. It is nothing less than the descent of the Holy Ghost in the form of fire! To make this hideous fraud the more detestable, it is enacted within the very tomb which they profess to regard as that in which the body of the crucified Redeemer lay. There, in the middle of the floor of the vast edifice, immediately beneath the central point of the lofty dome, stands a sort of catafalque, like a miniature temple, built, or at least cased, with white marble, and within is the pretended tomb. In this small chapelle ardente of the sacred edifice, lighted up with its massive lamps of silver and gold, the miracle is wrought.

It is on the Saturday of the Greek Easter week that this daring impiety is annually perpetrated. When the hour for this crowning event of the festival arrives, processions of bishops and priests, arrayed in their most splendid robes, are seen advancing with gilded crosses uplifted, and flaunting banners displayed. The dense crowd closes in on all sides around them. The procession is ere long buried in the living mass. At length the Moslem soldiers, by sheer force and violence, cleave a path through the heart of the tumultuous throng for an aged hierarch—the representative for the day of the Greek patriarch, and known in the ceremonial as the Bishop of the Fire-who is dragged rather than led along to the narrow door that opens into the sepulchre. The

* Calman, quoted by Dr. Wilson, in Lands of the Bible, vol. ii.

« PreviousContinue »