THREE CHURCHES. 13 this is the place where stood the crosses of the two thieves. That of the penitent thief was to the north, and the other to the south; so that the first was on the right hand of our Saviour, who had his face turned towards the west, and his back to Jerusalem, which lay to the east. Fifty lamps are kept constantly burning in honour of this holy spot. "Below this chapel are the tombs of Godfrey de Bouillon and his brother Baldwin, on which you read these inscriptions: HIC JACET INCLYTUS DUX GODEFRIDUS DE REX BALDUINUS, JUDAS ALTER MACHABEUS "Mount Calvary is the last station of the church of the Holy Sepulchre; for twenty paces from it, you again come to the Stone of Unction, which is just at the entrance of the church.” Deshayes having thus described in order the stations of all these venerable places, I have now nothing to do but to exhibit to the reader a general view of the whole together. It is obvious, in the first place, that the church of the Holy Sepulchre is composed of three churches that of the Holy Sepulchre, properly * Besides these tombs, four others are to be seen, half demolished. On one of them may still be read, but not without great difficulty, an epitaph given by Cotovic. so called; that of Calvary; and the church of the Discovery of the Holy Cross. The first is built in the valley at the foot of Calvary, on the spot where it is known that the body of Christ was deposited. This church is in the form of a cross, the chapel of the Holy Sepulchre constituting in fact the nave of the edifice. It is circular, like the Pantheon at Rome, and is lighted only by a dome, beneath which is the sepulchre. Sixteen marble columns adorn the circumference of this rotunda: they are connected by seventeen arches, and support an upper gallery likewise composed of sixteen columns and seventeen arches, of smaller dimensions than those of the lower range. Niches corresponding with the arches. appear above the frieze of the second gallery, and the dome springs from the arch of these niches. The latter were formerly decorated with mosaics, representing the twelve apostles, St. Helena, the emperor Constantine, and three other portraits unknown. The choir of the church of the Holy Sepulchre is to the east of the nave of the tomb: it is double, as in the ancient cathedrals; that is to say, it has, first, a place with stalls for the priests, and beyond that a sanctuary raised two steps above it. Round this double sanctuary run the ailes of the choir, and in these ailes are situated the chapels described by Deshayes. It is likewise in the aile on the right, behind the choir, that we find the two flights of steps leading, the one to the church of Calvary, the other to the church of the Discovery of the Holy Cross. The first ascends to the top of Calvary, the second conducts you down underneath it for the Cross was erected on the summit of Golgotha, ITS ARCHITECTURE. 15 and found again under that hill. To sum up then what we have already said, the church of the Holy Sepulchre is built at the foot of Calvary; its eastern part adjoins that eminence, beneath and upon which have been constructed two other churches, connected by walls and vaulted staircases with the principal edifice. The architecture of the church is evidently of the age of Constantine: the Corinthian order prevails throughout. The columns are either too heavy or too slender, and their diameter is almost always disproportionate to their height. Some double columns which support the frieze of the choir are, however, in a very good style. The church being lofty and spacious, the profile of the cornices displays a considerable degree of grandeur; but as the arches which separate the choir from the nave were stopped up about sixty years ago, the horizontal line is broken, and you no longer enjoy a view of the whole of the vaulted roof. The church has no vestibule, nor any other entrance than two side doors, only one of which is ever opened. Thus this structure appears to have never had any exterior decorations. It is besides concealed by shabby buildings, and by the Greek convents erected close to its walls. The small structure of marble which covers the Holy Sepulchre is in the figure of a canopy, adorned with semi-gothic arches ; it rises with elegance under the dome, by which it receives light, but is spoiled by a massive chapel which the Armenians have obtained permission to erect at one end of it. The interior of this canopy presents to the view a very plain tomb of white marble, which adjoins on one side to the wall of the monument, and serves the Catholic religious for an altar. This is the tomb of Jesus Christ. The origin of the church of the Holy Sepulchre is of high antiquity. The author of the Epitome of the Holy Wars (Epitome Bellorum sacrorum) asserts, that, forty-six years after the destruction of Jerusalem by Vespasian and Titus, the Christians obtained permission of Adrian to build, or rather to rebuild, a church over the tomb of their God, and to enclose in the new city the other places venerated by the Christians. This church, he adds, was enlarged and repaired by Helena, the mother of Constantine. Quaresmius contests this opinion," because," says he, "the believers were not allowed till the reign of Constantine to erect such churches." This learned monk forgets that, anterior to the persecution by Dioclesian, the Christians possessed numerous churches, and publicly celebrated the mysteries of their religion. Lactantius and Eusebius boast of the opulence and prosperity of the believers at this period. Other writers worthy of credit, Sozomenes, in the second book of his History; St. Jerome, in his Letters to Paulina and Ruffinus; Severus, in his second book; Nicephorus, in his eighteenth; and Eusebius, in the Life of Constantine, inform us that the Pagans surrounded the sacred places with a wall; that they erected a statue of Jupiter on the tomb of Jesus Christ, and another of Venus on Mount Calvary; and that they consecrated a grove to Adonis on the spot where our Saviour was born. These testimonies not only demonstrate the antiquity of the true worship at Jerusalem, by this very profanation of the sacred places, but prove that the Christians had sanctuaries on those sites. ORIGIN AND HISTORY. 17 Be this as it may, the foundation of the church of the Holy Sepulchre dates at least as far back as the time of Constantine. A letter of that prince is yet extant, in which he commands Macarius, bishop of Jerusalem, to erect a church on the place where the great mystery of salvation was accomplished. This letter Eusebius has preserved. The bishop of Cæsarea then describes the new church, the dedication of which occupied eight days. If the account of Eusebius required confirmation from other testimonies, we might adduce those of Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem (Catechism 1, 10, 13,) of Theodoret, and even of the Itinerary from Bourdeaux to Jerusalem, in 333, which says: Ibidem, jussu Constantini imperatoris, basilica facta est mira pulchritudinis. This church was ravaged by Cosroes II. king of Persia, about three hundred years after its erection by Constantine. Heraclius recovered the genuine Cross; and Modestus, bishop of Jerusalem, rebuilt the church of the Holy Sepulchre. Some time afterwards, the caliph Omar made himself master of Jerusalem, but he allowed the Christians the free exercise of their religion. About the year 1009, Hequem, or Hakem, who then reigned in Egypt, spread desolation around the tomb of Christ. Some will have it, that this prince's mother, who was a Christian, caused the church to be again rebuilt; while others assert, that the son of the Egyptian caliph, at the solicitation of the emperor Argyropilus, permitted the believers to enclose the sacred places with a new structure. But as the Christians of Jerusalem possessed, in Hakem's time, neither the resources nor the skill requisite for the erection of the edifice which now covers |