But I Came In There And In
Other Places There I Would, For I Had Letters Of The Soldan With
His Great Seal, And Commonly Other Men Have But His Signet.
In the
which letters he commanded, of his special grace, to all his
subjects, to let me see all
The places, and to inform me pleinly
all the mysteries of every place, and to conduct me from city to
city, if it were need, and buxomly to receive me and my company,
and for to obey to all my requests reasonable if they were not
greatly against the royal power and dignity of the soldan or of his
law. And to others, that ask him grace, such as have served him,
he ne giveth not but his signet, the which they make to be borne
before them hanging on a spear. And the folk of the country do
great worship and reverence to his signet or seal, and kneel
thereto as lowly as we do to CORPUS DOMINI. And yet men do full
greater reverence to his letters; for the admiral and all other
lords that they be shewed to, before or they receive them, they
kneel down; and then they take them and put them on their heads;
and after, they kiss them and then they read them, kneeling with
great reverence; and then they offer them to do all that the bearer
asketh.
And in this TEMPLUM DOMINI were some-time canons regulars, and they
had an abbot to whom they were obedient; and in this temple was
Charlemagne when that the angel brought him the prepuce of our Lord
Jesus Christ of his circumcision; and after, King Charles let bring
it to Paris into his chapel, and after that he let bring it to
Peyteres, and after that to Chartres.
And ye shall understand, that this is not the temple that Solomon
made, for that temple dured not but 1102 year. For Titus,
Vespasian's son, Emperor of Rome, had laid siege about Jerusalem
for to discomfit the Jews; for they put our Lord to death, without
leave of the emperor. And, when he had won the city, he burnt the
temple and beat it down, and all the city, and took the Jews and
did them to death - 1,100,000; and the others he put in prison and
sold them to servage, - thirty for one penny; for they said they
bought Jesu for thirty pennies, and he made of them better cheap
when he gave thirty for one penny.
And after that time, Julian Apostate, that was emperor, gave leave
to the Jews to make the temple of Jerusalem, for he hated Christian
men. And yet he was christened, but he forsook his law, and became
a renegade. And when the Jews had made the temple, came an
earthquaking, and cast it down (as God would) and destroyed all
that they had made.
And after that, Adrian, that was Emperor of Rome, and of the
lineage of Troy, made Jerusalem again and the temple in the same
manner as Solomon made it. And he would not suffer no Jews to
dwell there, but only Christian men. For although it were so that
he was not christened, yet he loved Christian men more than any
other nation save his own. This emperor let enclose the church of
Saint Sepulchre, and walled it within the city; that, before, was
without the city, long time before. And he would have changed the
name of Jerusalem, and have clept it Aelia; but that name lasted
not long.
Also, ye shall understand, that the Saracens do much reverence to
that temple, and they say, that that place is right holy. And when
they go in they go bare-foot, and kneel many times. And when my
fellows and I saw that, when we came in we did off our shoes and
came in bare-foot, and thought that we should do as much worship
and reverence thereto, as any of the misbelieving men should, and
as great compunction in heart to have.
This temple is sixty-four cubits of wideness, and as many in
length; and of height it is six score cubits. And it is within,
all about, made with pillars of marble. And in the middle place of
the temple be many high stages, of fourteen degrees of height, made
with good pillars all about: and this place the Jews call SANCTA
SANCTORUM; that is to say, 'Holy of Hallows.' And, in that place,
cometh no man save only their prelate, that maketh their sacrifice.
And the folk stand all about, in diverse stages, after they be of
dignity or of worship, so that they all may see the sacrifice. And
in that temple be four entries, and the gates be of cypress, well
made and curiously dight: and within the east gate our Lord said,
'Here is Jerusalem.' And in the north side of that temple, within
the gate, there is a well, but it runneth nought, of the which holy
writ speaketh of and saith, VIDI AQUAM EGREDIENTEM DE TEMPLO; that
is to say, 'I saw water come out of the temple.'
And on that other side of the temple there is a rock that men clepe
Moriach, but after it was clept Bethel, where the ark of God with
relics of Jews were wont to be put. That ark or hutch with the
relics Titus led with him to Rome, when he had discomfited all the
Jews. In that ark were the Ten Commandments, and of Aaron's yard,
and Moses' yard with the which he made the Red Sea depart, as it
had been a wall, on the right side and on the left side, whiles
that the people of Israel passed the sea dry-foot: and with that
yard he smote the rock, and the water came out of it: and with
that yard he did many wonders. And therein was a vessel of gold
full of manna, and clothing and ornaments and the tabernacle of
Aaron, and a tabernacle square of gold with twelve precious stones,
and a box of jasper green with four figures and eight names of our
Lord, and seven candlesticks of gold, and twelve pots of gold, and
four censers of gold, and an altar of gold, and four lions of gold
upon the which they bare cherubin of gold twelve spans long, and
the circle of swans of heaven with a tabernacle of gold and a table
of silver, and two trumps of silver, and seven barley loaves and
all the other relics that were before the birth of our Lord Jesu
Christ.
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