And In That Same Garden, Saint Peter Denied Our Lord
Thrice.
Afterward was our Lord led forth before the bishops and the masters
of the law, into another garden of Annas; and there also he was
examined, reproved, and scorned, and crowned eft with a sweet
thorn, that men clepeth barbarines, that grew in that garden, and
that hath also many virtues.
And afterward he was led into a garden of Caiphas, and there he was
crowned with eglantine.
And after he was led into the chamber of Pilate, and there he was
examined and crowned. And the Jews set him in a chair, and clad
him in a mantle; and there made they the crown of jonkes of the
sea; and there they kneeled to him, and scorned him, saying, AVE,
REX JUDEORUM! that is to say, 'Hail, King of Jews!' And of this
crown, half is at Paris, and the other half at Constantinople. And
this crown had Christ on his head, when he was done upon the cross;
and therefore ought men to worship it and hold it more worthy than
any of the others.
And the spear shaft hath the Emperor of Almayne; but the head is at
Paris. And natheles the Emperor of Constantinople saith that he
hath the spear head; and I have often time seen it, but it is
greater than that at Paris.
CHAPTER III
OF THE CITY OF CONSTANTINOPLE, AND OF THE FAITH OF GREEKS
AT Constantinople lieth Saint Anne, our Lady's mother, whom Saint
Helen let bring from Jerusalem. And there lieth also the body of
John Chrisostome, that was Archbishop of Constantinople. And there
lieth also Saint Luke the Evangelist: for his bones were brought
from Bethany, where he was buried. And many other relics be there.
And there is the vessel of stone, as it were of marble, that men
clepe enydros, that evermore droppeth water, and filleth himself
every year, till that it go over above, without that that men take
from within.
Constantinople is a full fair city, and a good, and well walled;
and it is three-cornered. And there is an arm of the sea
Hellespont: and some men call it the Mouth of Constantinople; and
some men call it the Brace of Saint George: and that arm closeth
the two parts of the city. And upward to the sea, upon the water,
was wont to be the great city of Troy, in a full fair plain: but
that city was destroyed by them of Greece, and little appeareth
thereof, because it is so long sith it was destroyed.
About Greece there be many isles, as Calliste, Calcas, Oertige,
Tesbria, Mynia, Flaxon, Melo, Carpate, and Lemnos. And in this
isle is the mount Athos, that passeth the clouds. And there be
many diverse languages and many countries, that be obedient to the
emperor; that is to say, Turcople, Pyncynard, Comange, and many
other, as Thrace and Macedonia, of the which Alexander was king.
In this country was Aristotle born, in a city that men clepe
Stagyra, a little from the city of Thrace. And at Stagyra lieth
Aristotle; and there is an altar upon his tomb. And there make men
great feasts for him every year, as though he were a saint. And at
his altar they holden their great councils and their assemblies,
and they hope, that through inspiration of God and of him, they
shall have the better council.
In this country be right high hills, toward the end of Macedonia.
And there is a great hill, that men clepe Olympus, that departeth
Macedonia and Thrace. And it is so high, that it passeth the
clouds. And there is another hill, that is clept Athos, that is so
high, that the shadow of him reacheth to Lemne, that is an isle;
and it is seventy-six mile between. And above at the cop of the
hill is the air so clear, that men may find no wind there, and
therefore may no beast live there, so is the air dry.
And men say in these countries, that philosophers some time went
upon these hills, and held to their nose a sponge moisted with
water, for to have air; for the air above was so dry. And above,
in the dust and in the powder of those hills, they wrote letters
and figures with their fingers. And at the year's end they came
again, and found the same letters and figures, the which they had
written the year before, without any default. And therefore it
seemeth well, that these hills pass the clouds and join to the pure
air.
At Constantinople is the palace of the emperor, right fair and
well-dight: and therein is a fair place for joustings, or for
other plays and desports. And it is made with stages, and hath
degrees about, that every man may well see, and none grieve other.
And under these stages be stables well vaulted for the emperor's
horses; and all the pillars be of marble.
And within the Church of Saint Sophia, an emperor sometime would
have buried the body of his father, when he was dead. And, as they
made the grave, they found a body in the earth, and upon the body
lay a fine plate of gold; and thereon was written, in Hebrew,
Greek, and Latin, letters that said thus; JESU CHRISTUS NASCETUR DE
VIRGINE MARIA, ET EGO CREDO IN EUM; that is to say, 'Jesu Christ
shall be born of the Virgin Mary, and I trow in him.' And the date
when it was laid in the earth, was two thousand year before our
Lord was born. And yet is the plate of gold in the treasury of the
church. And men say, that it was Hermogenes the wise man.
And if all it so be, that men of Greece be Christian yet they vary
from our faith. For they say, that the Holy Ghost may not come of
the Son; but all only of the Father.
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