And After The Year Of Twelve Months, He Was Of Age Thirty-
Three Year And Three Months.
Also, within the mount of Calvary, on the right side, is an altar,
where the pillar lieth that our Lord Jesu was bounden to when he
was scourged.
And there beside be four pillars of stone, that
always drop water; and some men say that they weep for our Lord's
death. And nigh that altar is a place under earth forty-two
degrees of deepness, where the holy cross was found, by the wit of
Saint Helen, under a rock where the Jews had hid it. And that was
the very cross assayed; for they found three crosses, one of our
Lord, and two of the two thieves; and Saint Helen proved them by a
dead body that arose from death to life, when that it was laid on
it, that our Lord died on. And thereby in the wall is the place
where the four nails of our Lord were hid: for he had two in his
hands and two in his feet. And, of one of these, the Emperor of
Constantinople made a bridle to his horse to bear him in battle;
and, through virtue thereof, he overcame his enemies, and won all
the land of Asia the less, that is to say, Turkey, Armenia the less
and the more, and from Syria to Jerusalem, from Arabia to Persia,
from Mesopotamia to the kingdom of Aleppo, from Egypt the high and
the low and all the other kingdoms unto the depth of Ethiopia, and
into Ind the less that then was Christian.
And there were in that time many good holy men and holy hermits, of
whom the book of Father's lives speaketh, and they be now in
Paynims' and Saracens' hands: but when God Almighty will, right as
the lands ere lost through sin of Christian men, so shall they be
won again by Christian men through help of God.
And in midst of that church is a compass, in the which Joseph of
Arimathea laid the body of our Lord when he had taken him down off
the cross; and there he washed the wounds of our Lord. And that
compass, say men, is the midst of the world.
And in the church of the sepulchre, on the north side, is the place
where our Lord was put in prison (for he was in prison in many
places); and there is a part of the chain that he was bounden with;
and there he appeared first to Mary Magdalene when he was risen,
and she wend that he had been a gardener.
In the church of Saint Sepulchre was wont to be canons of the order
of Saint Augustine, and had a prior, but the patriarch was their
sovereign.
And without the doors of the church, on the right side as men go
upward eighteen grees, said our Lord to his mother, MULIER, ECCE
FILIUS TUUS; that is to say, Woman, lo! thy Son! And after that he
said to John, his disciple, ECCE MATER TUA; that is to say, Lo!
behold thy mother! And these words he said on the cross. And on
these grees went our Lord when he bare the cross on his shoulder.
And under these grees is a chapel, and in that chapel sing priests,
Indians, that is to say, priests of Ind, not after our law, but
after theirs; and alway they make their sacrament of the altar,
saying, PATER NOSTER and other prayers therewith; with the which
prayers they say the words that the sacrament is made of, for they
ne know not the additions that many popes have made; but they sing
with good devotion. And there near, is the place where that our
Lord rested him when he was weary for bearing of the cross.
And ye shall understand that before the church of the sepulchre is
the city more feeble than in any other part, for the great plain
that is between the church and the city. And toward the east side,
without the walls of the city, is the vale of Jehosaphat that
toucheth to the walls as though it were a large ditch. And above
that vale of Jehosaphat, out of the city, is the church of Saint
Stephen where he was stoned to death. And there beside, is the
Golden Gate, that may not be opened, by the which gate our Lord
entered on Palm-Sunday upon an ass: and the gate opened against
him when he would go unto the temple; and yet appear the steps of
the ass's feet in three places of the degrees that be of full hard
stone.
And before the church of Saint Sepulchre, toward the south, at 200
paces, is the great hospital of Saint John, of which the
hospitallers had their foundation. And within the palace of the
sick men of that hospital be 124 pillars of stone. And in the
walls of the house, without the number above-said, there be fifty-
four pillars that bear up the house. And from that hospital to go
toward the east is a full fair church, that is clept NOTRE DAME LA
GRANDE. And then is there another church right nigh, that is clept
NOTRE DAME DE LATINE. And there were Mary Cleophas and Mary
Magdalene, and tore their hair when our Lord was pained in the
cross.
CHAPTER XI
OF THE TEMPLE OF OUR LORD. OF THE CRUELTY OF KING HEROD. OF THE
MOUNT SION. OF PROBATICA PISCINA; AND OF NATATORIUM SILOE
AND from the church of the sepulchre, toward the east, at eight
score paces, is TEMPLUM DOMINI. It is right a fair house, and it
is all round and high, and covered with lead. And it is well paved
with white marble. But the Saracens will not suffer no Christian
man ne Jews to come therein, for they say that none so foul sinful
men should not come in so holy place:
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