CHAP.

VIII.

dome of that building; that we must look else-
where for the place of our SAVIOUR'S Tomb;
and that the city never was so limited in its
extent, towards the north-west, as to admit of a
wall in that situation. A sepulchre, such as was
that of the MESSIAH, being, of all others, the
least liable to injury, would remain in spite of
the devouring element. It is, perhaps, not im-
possible to develope the true cause of the selec-
tion made by Helena, in fixing upon that spot as
the place of crucifixion. Persons who have been
accustomed to compare the manners of different
countries, must be well aware how general the
practice is, among all nations, of connecting with
a Lusus Naturæ, or any extraordinary physical
appearance, some wild and superstitious fantasy.
Thus in the similitude of a hand in the surface
of a rock, as at Nazareth'; of a foot, as at the
Mount of Olives; any remarkable shape in a log
of wood, as in the Palladium of antient Ilium3 ;

着

(1) See Chap. IV. of this volume, p. 178.
(2) "There standeth a little Chappell
paved with the na-
rall rocke, which beareth the impression of a footstep; they say of
ur Saviour's." Sandys' Travels, p. 166. Lond. 1637.

(3) The Palladium, like many other of the antient idols of Greece,
was, according to some authors, nothing more than a piece of wood, of
an extraordinary form. Heyné, in his Excursus, says that the Palla-
dium and the Penates were lignea. See also Ovid's account of the
preservation of the Palladium by Metellus, when the Capitol was on

the places venerated by Laplanders, and the idols worshipped by the Chinese3; in short, in every country of the earth where uncultivated man is found, Fear, the parent of Superstition, has pointed out objects of adoration, or multiplied articles of faith. The state of human intellect is not less degraded among Christians of the Holy Land, making prostrations and processions before stocks and roots, than among the forlorn worshippers of Thor, the loggerheaded idol of Northern nations'. Such superstitions disgraced

(4) "Loca quæ Lapponibus sancta erant et religiosa, singulari quâdam et inusitatâ formå et figurâ a reliquis distinguebantur." Lemii Comment. de Lappon. &c. p. 442. Hafn. 1767.

(5) In Cuchiung, near to which they cover yearly quite Nieuhoff's Dutch Embassy to Lond. 1669.

Hangam, there is a great stone, &c.
over with gold, and then worship it."
China, englished by Ogilby, p. 224.

(6) See the account given by Quaresmius of a Lusus Naturæ found near Jerusalem, to which miraculous powers were ascribed in healing diseases. Also the engraving "CRUCIFIXI EX LILII Radice, PRODIGIOSA ET NOVA IMAGO." The representation really excites horror. Speaking of it, he says, "Mirabilis est virtutis et efficacia: illo et enim aqua benedicitur, quæ etiam post annum, etsi in parvo vase recondita, incorrupta ac velut recens è fonte hausta invenitur: febricitantibus feliciter propinatur, qui et sanitatis inde beneficium consequuntur. Ad eum (i. e. possessorem) habentur stationes et processiones, et in quibusvis afflictionum et tribulationum necessitatibus, post Deum, ad illum confluunt fideles, ut ab omni animi et corporis adversitate liberari, et necessariis bonis ditari mereantur." Elucidat. T. S. lib. iv. c. 10. tom. II. p. 18. Antv. 1639.

(7) Thor, or the Thunderer,' of Northern nations, (See Verstegan's Restitution of Decayed Intelligence, p. 75. Lond. 1628.) from whom Our Thor's Day, or Thursday, is derived, is always an image of wood

VOL. IV.

Ꮓ

CHAP.

VIII.

CHAP.

VIII.

both the Greek and the Catholic churches long after the time of Constantine: and Helena, whether the daughter of a British Prince', or of an inn-keeper at Drepanum, cannot be supposed to have possessed attainments beyond the age in which she lived, or the circumstances of her origin. That she was amiable,-that she merited, by her virtues, her exalted station, has not been disputed; but her transactions in Palestine bear the stamp of dotage and infirmity. Few things, considering her sex and the burthen of her years, have occurred more extraordinary than was her journey to the Holy Land, and its consequences. Whatsoever might have been her mental endowments, her bodily energies, at a season of life when human strength is said to be "but labour and sorrow," were superior to the weight of age, and to the fatigues of a pilgrimage sufficient to

wood among the Laplanders. The account given of it by Scheffer proves it to have been the trunk of a tree, having at one end an accidental similitude of the human head. See Scheffer's Hist. of Lapl. p. 103. Lond. 1704.

(1) "Filia fuit unius Britanniæ Reguli, Coel nomine." Quaresmii Eluc. T. S. tom. II. p. 424.

(2) “ Τὴν πόλιν Δρέπανον, Ελενόπολιν τὴν μητέρα τιμῶν, προσηyópevɛ. Oppidum Drepanum, matrem honorans, Helenopolim adpellavit." Nicephorus Callistus, lib. vii. c. 49. Paris, 1630.

(3) "Paulo ante mortem, quam octogesimum ætatis agens oppetebat, stud iter fecit." Theodoret. lib. i. cap. 18. Paris, 1642.

VIII.

have exhausted the most vigorous youth'. CHAP. Nothing could surpass the zeal with which she visited every spot consecrated by the actions of JESUS CHRIST, and by his Apostles, from the hills of Jerusalem to the shores of the Sea of Galilee, and over all Samaria, nor the piety with which she endeavoured to perpetuate the remembrance of the holy places by the monuments she erected. But, after all, the manner in which the identity of any of those places was ascertained seems not less an object of derision, than the gross superstition, founded upon their supposed discovery, has long been of contempt. From the time of Adrian, to that of Constantine, Jerusalem had been possessed by Pagans: HELENA arrives, overturns their temples, and prepares to identify the situation of every place connected with our SAVIOUR'S history. The first thing to be ascertained is the site of Mount Calvary. An accidental fissure in one of the rocks of Jerusalem suggests the idea of a possible consequence

66

(4) Cum ætate recipiens incrementa virtutum, sexu et ætate quidem infirma, sed divinâ virtute promptior et fortior reddita," &c. Quaresm. Elucid. T. S. lib. v. cap. 28. Antv. 1639.

(5) Vid. Nicephor. lib. viii. c. 30. Paris, 1630.

(6) Nicephorus, (ibid.) after enumerating twenty-six churches and chapels built by Helena in the Holy Land, adds, "Quin et plures ecclesias alias in sanctis illis locis, supra triginta, amantissima Dei fœmina Imperatoris mater condidit.”

VIII.

CHAP. resulting from the præternatural convulsion of Nature at the Crucifixion, and is immediately adopted as an indication of the spot. This fissure had been already an object of traditionary superstition, as the repository of the body

Identity of the Holy Sepulchre

head of Adam'. It served to identify the place. The ground is ordered to be cleared for the foundations of a church. That which never indicated even an ascent, by means of a raised altar and a flight of steps, becomes a mount, and is called Calvary3. The Pagan idols in its neighbourhood are thrown down and removed; the

again con- Holy Sepulchre itself, a few yards from this fissure, and upon the same level with it, is after

tested.

(1)" Venit enim ad me traditio quædam talis, quod corpus Adæ primi hominis ibi sepultum est, ubi crucifixus est Christus: ut sicut in Adam omnes moriuntur, sic in Christo omnes vivificentur ; ut in loco illo, qui dicitur Calvariæ locus, id est locus capitis, caput humani generis Adam resurrectionem inveniat cum populo universo per resurrectionem Salvatoris, qui ibi passus est, et resurrexit." Origen. Tract. 35. in Matth. See also Hieronym. in cap. 27 Matth. Cyrill. et Basil. in cap. 5 Isaiæ. Athanasius in lib. de Passione Domini, &c. &c.

(2) "Sicut Apostolus dicit, (2 Cor. xi. 3.) OмNIS VIRI CAPUT EST CHRISTUS.' O magnam propheticam appellationem!" Cyrill. Catech. 13. Vid. Quaresm. lib. v. c. 4. tom. II. p. 489. Antv. 1679. Hear also Jerom. "Audivi quemdamn exposuisse Calvariæ locum in quo sepultus est Adam; et ideo sic appellatum esse, quia ibi antiqui hominis sit conditum caput." Hieronym. in cap. 27 Matth. Quaresmius, lib. v. c. 14. tom. II. p. 488.

(3) "E sacratissimo Calvariæ monte per scalam, quam antea ascendimus, descendimus. Quaresm. lib. v. tom. II. p 481.

(4) Theodoret. Hist. lib. i. cap. 18. Paris, 1642.