The city is not full great,
but it hath good baths within him.
And there, as the flome Jordan parteth from the sea of Galilee, is
a great bridge, where men pass from the Land of Promission to the
land of King Bashan and the land of Gennesaret, that be about the
flom Jordan and the beginning of the sea of Tiberias. And from
thence may men go to Damascus, in three days, by the kingdom of
Traconitis, the which kingdom lasteth from Mount Hermon to the sea
of Galilee, or to the sea of Tiberias, or to the sea of Gennesaret;
and all is one sea, and this the tank that I have told you, but it
changeth thus the name for the names of the cities that sit beside
him.
Upon that sea went our Lord dry feet; and there he took up Saint
Peter, when he began to drench within the sea, and said to him,
MODICE FIDEI, QUARE DUBITASTI? And after his resurrection our Lord
appeared on that sea to his disciples and bade them fish, and
filled all the net full of great fishes. In that sea rowed our
Lord often-time; and there he called to him Saint Peter, Saint
Andrew, Saint James and Saint John, the sons of Zebedee.
In that city of Tiberias is the table upon the which our Lord ate
upon with his disciples after his resurrection; and they knew him
in breaking of bread, as the gospel saith: ET COGNOVERUNT EUM IN
FRACTIONE PANIS. And nigh that city of Tiberias is the hill, where
our Lord fed 5000 persons with five barley loaves and two fishes.
In that city a man cast a burning dart in wrath after our Lord.
And the head smote into the earth and waxed green; and it growed to
a great tree. And yet it groweth and the bark thereof is all like
coals.
Also in the head of that sea of Galilee, toward the septentrion is
a strong castle and an high that hight Saphor. And fast beside it
is Capernaum. Within the Land of Promission is not so strong a
castle. And there is a good town beneath that is clept also
Saphor. In that castle Saint Anne our Lady's mother was born. And
there beneath, was Centurio's house. That country is clept the
Galilee of Folk that were taken to tribute of Zebulon and Napthali.
And in again coming from that castle, a thirty mile, is the city of
Dan, that sometime was clept Belinas or Cesarea Philippi; that sits
at the foot of the Mount of Lebanon, where the flome Jordan
beginneth. There beginneth the Land of Promission and dureth unto
Beersheba in length, in going toward the north into the south, and
it containeth well a nine score miles; and of breadth, that is to
say, from Jericho unto Jaffa, and that containeth a forty mile of
Lombardy, or of our country, that be also little miles; these be
not miles of Gascony ne of the Province of Almayne, where be great
miles.
