It Seems To Me, Therefore, Highly Probable That In Fixing
The Site Of Calvary The Empress Was Rightly Guided.
Recollect,
too, that the voice of tradition at Jerusalem is quite unanimous,
and that Romans, Greeks, Armenians, and Jews, all hating each other
sincerely, concur in assigning the same localities to the events
told in the Gospel.
I concede, however, that the attempt of the
Empress to ascertain the sites of the minor events cannot be safely
relied upon. With respect, for instance, to the certainty of the
spot where the cock crew, I am far from being convinced.
Supposing that the Empress acted arbitrarily in fixing the holy
sites, it would seem that she followed the Gospel of St. John, and
that the geography sanctioned by her can be more easily reconciled
with that history than with the accounts of the other Evangelists.
The authority exercised by the Mussulman Government in relation to
the holy sites is in one view somewhat humbling to the Christians,
for it is almost as an arbitrator between the contending sects
(this always, of course, for the sake of pecuniary advantage) that
the Mussulman lends his contemptuous aid; he not only grants, but
enforces toleration. All persons, of whatever religion, are
allowed to go as they will into every part of the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre, but in order to prevent indecent contests, and also
from motives arising out of money payments, the Turkish Government
assigns the peculiar care of each sacred spot to one of the
ecclesiastic bodies. Since this guardianship carries with it the
receipt of the coins which the pilgrims leave upon the shrines, it
is strenuously fought for by all the rival Churches, and the
artifices of intrigue are busily exerted at Stamboul in order to
procure the issue or revocation of the firmans by which the coveted
privilege is granted. In this strife the Greek Church has of late
years signally triumphed, and the most famous of the shrines are
committed to the care of their priesthood. They possess the golden
socket in which stood the cross of our Lord whilst the Latins are
obliged to content themselves with the apertures in which were
inserted the crosses of the two thieves. They are naturally
discontented with that poor privilege, and sorrowfully look back to
the days of their former glory - the days when Napoleon was Emperor,
and Sebastiani ambassador at the Porte. It seems that the
"citizen" sultan, old Louis Philippe, has done very little indeed
for Holy Church in Palestine.
Although the pilgrims perform their devotions at the several
shrines with so little apparent enthusiasm, they are driven to the
verge of madness by the miracle displayed before them on Easter
Saturday. Then it is that the Heaven-sent fire issues from the
Holy Sepulchre. The pilgrims all assemble in the great church, and
already, long before the wonder is worked, they are wrought by
anticipation of God's sign, as well as by their struggles for room
and breathing space, to a most frightful state of excitement.
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