When evening was come on St. Procopius's day, we girded ourselves up for our journey, and went out of the hospice in the same order as we had come in, bearing our scrips slung about our necks. As we passed through the town the people ran together from all sides, and the streets were full of people of both sexes, who stood there desiring to see us. There was much crowding, and therewith so thick a dust was stirred up from the earth, that a man could scarce see the comrade by his side, and if he could see him, he assuredly could not recognise him, so thick was the dust. My black hood was so covered with dust that it looked not black, but gray. No one could open either his eyes or his mouth as he needed. And this we endured throughout the whole country, save in the stony parts, and when we journeyed by night. In the narrow streets there was danger of being smothered by reason of the thick dust. During this scuffle I was by chance thrust against the wall of a dwelling, near the windows. As the crowd moved very slow, and kept me wedged in there, I looked through the window into the dwelling, and, within there stood women with little children, who made crosses with their fingers, and kissed them, thereby giving me to know that they were followers of the Crucified; and methought they wept. It is indeed piteous that the people of that land wherein our Lord, was crucified, if they be followers of the cross, dare not wear the sign of the cress openly, [88a] for in that land the glorious cross is hated and despised. The same thing has befallen the holy cross which befell the prophets: they are not without honour, save only in their own country (Luke iv.). Even so the holy cross hath no honour, nor is it acceptable in its own country, but pilgrims from the uttermost parts of the earth openly carry about the sign of the cross, because among them the reproach of the cross hath been taken away. When the crowd moved forward I was forced away from that place, and we came outside the city, and found our asses with their drivers in a field, and near them the troop of Saracens who were to bear us company and protect us on our way. So we mounted our beasts and started very hurriedly towards the mountains, and we came to the field of Joshua beside the city of Bethshemesh, wherein fifty thousand men were smitten because they had looked upon the Ark of the Lord when it stood there, as we read in Sam. iv., v., etc. In this same field Arabs had pitched their tents, about three hundred of them; and at the sight of the tents both we and our escort were sore afraid. When we drew near to the tents we saw none therein save most wretched women and little black naked children, and a few old men, for all the other men were roaming over the country, plundering and robbing: so we passed through their camp, nor was there anyone who raised his hand against us. Howbeit, when we were about to enter the hill country through a valley, we saw at the mouth of the valley a multitude of men. with camel, asses, and horses, who were making ready to fall upon us. Our escort likewise took order to resist them, and were disturbed and full of dread, seeing that these men were Arab robbers, and that we could not pass them without blows, neither could we turn aside to the right hand nor to the left, for our way led straight through the midst of them along a narrow valley. When we drew near to them they stood guarding the entrance to the valley from the one side to the other, and holding.it against us; their daggers were drawn, their swords raised, their lances couched, and their bows bent; I, never remember to have seen any men like them: they were naked, and black, burned by the heat of the sun, wearing only a worthless rag about their middle, with shields hanging from their necks; and they were fierce, savage, and terrible to look upon. When we looked at them and compared them with our Moors and Saracens, whom hitherto we had thought to be scarce human, we regarded the latter as civilized, pious men, almost the same as ourselves. When our escort saw what the Arabs meant to do, they fell upon them violently, drove them out of the way by force of arms, and opened the road to us, calling to us to push on fast. So we hurried on through the space left open for us. Whenever a pilgrim fell in with those Arabs, they laid hold either of his cloak or his scrip, and pulled at it until either he let the thing go, or was pulled off his ass, or was rescued by one of our party, [b] wherefore many fell from their asses, and had they not been rescued the Arabs would have plundered them. There was a hideous yelling on either side, and they rode wondrous dashingly at one another as though they meant to fall upon one another and come to blows. While this disturbance was going, on we passed up through the valley into the hills. When our enemies saw this, they took up stones from the torrent-bed and threw them after us at our escort. But when they saw that they could get nothing from us by force, they ran after us and humbly and tamely begged us to. give them something; but they did not get much. So we got away from them: and there can be no doubt that had they been stronger than we, they would have robbed us all, our safe conduct from the Soldan notwithstanding. We escaped without any pilgrim being hurt, save some who were struck by stones, and some lost their scrips in the scuffle, and some their hats. No one was wounded, for the Easterns have this good in them, that they shrink from shedding blood So we went our way up this shady valley, up an exceeding rough torrent-bed, with high stony mountains on either side of us. After a long climb we came to a tower, near which water had gathered into a pond, and here we meant to await the dawn of another day, because the night was dark, and besides this the valley lay in shadow: so we dismounted from our asses. But of a sudden fear came upon our escort lest those Arabs might fall upon us while we were lying asleep, and they would be unable to defend us in that narrow torrent-bed; and they called to us to remount our asses and go further up into the mountains. So we left the tower, which stands at the foot of the mountains, and climbed up a steep and dangerous path till we came to a field where again they thought of resting; but as both we and our beasts were thirsty, and there was no water there, we went on further in the twilight, for there was neither sun nor moon to help us, but we were only guided by the light of the firmament and the feeble twinkle of the stars. We could not see the path, but each man followed his leader. When we reached the top we went down again on the other side of the mountain, and came to a small village, where there was a fountain of good and cool water, and there, in a stony field on the side of the mountain, we gave up our asses to their drivers, and sate ourselves down on the ground. Our escort with their horses, and our drivers with their asses, ranged themselves all round about the pilgrims, so that they shut us in on every side. We struck lights, and brought out of our scrips the food which we had bought in Rama: our drivers brought water to us, which we bought of them, and the villagers brought us loaves of bread, fruit, and water, whereof we bought what we pleased, and so we supped. This place of our camp was very rough, and full of stones, like those Alps which are between Ulm and Weissensteig. Beneath the stones lurked scorpions, which we did not know until the lights showed them to us. The Saracens, when they saw that we were afraid, told us that we might sleep without fear, because scorpions in the field do not sting like those in houses. Wherefore we were comforted, and none of us moved from his place: While we were sitting thus, resting ourselves, [89 ] the moon rose before our faces, and at its rising we were exceeding glad, for those who cannot sleep delight in whatever puts the darkness to flight and drives away the shadows: No sleep visited our eyes, neither did slumber weigh down our eyelids, nor did our temples desire rest, for albeit weariness after toil naturally brings about sleep; and we were weary and tired, yet sleep was denied us, because our whole being seemed to have gone forth into our faculties of sense, and our souls craved for nought save to gaze and look earnestly, round about us, so that all our, soul seemed contained in our eyes, and cared only for the sense of sight. Our excitement overcame sleep; as we read in the forty-second chapter of Ecclesiasticus: `Thoughts drove sleep away from them.' For we were looking for the morrow with exceeding hot desire, knowing that then we should see the noble city of Jerusalem, whereof the holy Tobias said, standing a great way off from it: `I shall be happy if there be any of my seed, left to behold the splendour of Jerusalem.' And another writer with; `For Zion's sake I will not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest' (Isa. lxii. i). Who would not wish to behold that chosen city whereof we read in the sixth chapter of the second book of Chronicles: `I have chosen Jerusalem that My name might be there.' For this is the city wherein praise and vows are performed to God, as in the sixty-fifth Psalm: `Praise waiteth for Thee, O God, in Sion, and unto Thee shall the vow be performed,' ` Who will grant to me,' quoth the eager pilgrim; 'that this night may pass away; and the sun come swiftly; that I may behold Jerusalem, the joy of the whole earth; the city of the Great King, and of God most high?' Oh! had anyone hearkened that night to our prayers and yearnings for the sun and the day to come, they would have kindled within him as hot a desire as our own to see Jerusalem. We lay on the hard stones like Jacob in the twenty-eighth chapter of Genesis, and the scorpions were our companions that night, even as the ostriches were of Job* Indeed, because of the multitude of the scorpions this place might as well be called the Hill of Scorpions as that mentioned in the fifteenth chapter of Joshua.**

**The reference is to Josh. xv. 3, `the ascent of Akrabbim,' or `Scorpion Pass,' in the Vulgate `Ascensus Scorpionuns.'

We embraced the rock itself, as Job (xxiv.8); nay, I know some pilgrims who so loved the Holy Land, that both by day and by night they would constantly bow themselves to the earth and caress it with the sweetest kisses, and would venerate the stones themselves as relics. These stones Christ chose to aid Him in the work of our redemption; for He was conceived in a stony cavern, born beneath the rock and the stone, laid upon a stone when born; He preached standing upon a stone, thrice prayed in a cave in the stony rock, was scourged beside a pillar of stone, stood upon a stone to receive His crown, stood upon a stone before Pilate His judge, was crucified over a stone, anointed on a stone, buried in a stone, and ascended into heaven from a stone. In short, it was by stones that He consummated all the mysteries of our redemption: wherefore during His passion the stony rocks were rent. What Christian, then, would not rest more pleasantly upon these sacred stones than on any softer bed ? Who would not find stones sweet which have been touched by the feet of the Lord Jesus, the Virgin Mary, Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, and other saints beyond number?

On the twelfth we were roused before sunrise, mounted our asses, and went on our way over the holy mountains. After we had climbed several hills, and gone down into several valleys, lo! the wished-for day began to break; the firmament grew white in the east, the morn gleamed from thence, the sun looked over the mountain-tops and shed abroad his rays over the earth, and yet we were still far from Jerusalem. We journeyed along rough paths, and saw only hard and rocky ground: wherefore some pilgrim knights who were shocked at the roughness of the land would say to me: `What do our priests tell us? What do our preachers preach? They say that this land is the best of all lands, and lo! how rough is the way, how barren the mountains! [90 ]. Wherefore did: the Lord Jesus choose to dwell in this land, which is untitled, and burnt by the heat of ,the sun ?' While they talked thus; two pilgrims began to quarrel so fiercely that they could scarce be parted, and had they disputed any longer: they would in the end have come to blows, for they wrangled most bitterly. Both were pure laymen, the one very dull, the other, clever. The dull man railed against the Holy Land, the other withstood him, saying that, it was the best of. lands. Howbeit, I myself said secretly in my heart:`Lo, now!, this is that land which is said to flow with milk and honey; but. I see no fields to bring forth bread, no vineyards for wine, no green meadows, no orchards. Lo! it is all stony, sunburned, and barren.' While I thus silently communed with myself, ere, long the answer,came to me; to wit, that this barrenness, drought, and roughness is the curse laid upon it by God because of the breaking of His commandments, whereof, we read in Deuteronomy xxviii.23: `And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron.' Moreover our murmurs and disappointment with the Holy Land have been foretold many thousand years ago as we read in Deuteronomy, ch. xxix.: `The generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the pilgrim that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and, the sicknesses which the Lord hath laid upon; it, and that the whole land, thereof. is, brimstone, and:.salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Seboim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger and in His wrath. Even, all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land? what meaneth.the heat of this great anger? Then men shall say, Because its inhabitants have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers.'

From this it is clear that the land is in the state wherewith it was threatened in holy Scripture: nor was it always thus, as we could see with our eyes: for we saw throughout those deserted mountains exceeding old walls built of great stones, which are believed to have been built by the children of Israel, and they had oil, wine, corn, and all the necessaries of life from the highest and stoniest of these mountains. Even at the present day, in spite of the infidelity and wickedness of the dwellers in the land, all the necessaries of life grow there in abundance: for on the slopes of the mountains among the old walls we saw vines, olives, corn, barley and other plants growing. Moreover, even were the land free from the aforesaid curse, yet it must needs remain hard and barren, because it has none to till it save a few, and they bad men and infidels. Whosoever looks narrowly into Scripture would argue this land to be exceeding fertile. rather than barren. Howbeit, St. Jerome, in his Epistle to Dardanus, decides in what sense we ought to understand. this land to flow with milk and honey, and thinks that these magnificent praises ought to be understood to refer to the kingdom of heaven. Meanwhile we entered a fairly wide valley, with cultivated fields, girded on either side by high hills, and adorned with olive-trees. On our left-hand we had the mountains of Ephraim, whose foremost part is the Mount Shiloh,* the top, whereof appears [b] to be the loftiest of all the mountains of Israel.

[b] The chief cause of our wanderings was the most sweet city of Jerusalem, whose fragrance, spread abroad throughout the world; makes the faithful run thither from all sides. So we climbed up out of the valley of the Terebinth, and ceasing to go eastward, went up the slope of a hill towards the south, and came to gardens of fruit trees, pot-herbs, and figs as we went up among dry stone walls. Casting our eyes to the right, lo! like a flash of lightning the oft-mentioned and oft-to-be-mentioned holy city of Jerusalem shone forth. The part of it which we saw was that which adjoins the Mount Sion, and we saw the holy Mount Sion itself, with all its buildings and ruins. Above all we saw the citadel of Sion, fortified with exceeding strong walls and towers, in such a clear light that the lofty walls and towers of the citadel seemed to enclose the whole city, and the pilgrim, or stranger who had never seen Jerusalem could not but think that the walls of the citadel of Sion were the walls of Jerusalem, which however is not so. When we beheld with our eyes the long-desired holy city, we straightway dismounted from our asses and greeted the holy city, bowing our faces to the earth, first greeting her King, the Lord God, with the, sign of the cross, and, then addressing her in these words, or words like these: "Hail Jerusalem, city of the. Great King, glory and crown of the whole earth, joy and delight of the believer's soul. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, arise, lift up thine eyes round about and see all these pilgrims, thy sons, who have come together from the uttermost parts of the world, who, still are coming in hosts that they may see thy brightness, and the glory of the, Lord risen upon thee," as saith the prophet Isaiah, ch. Ix. And Tobias praises thee in these words: " Thou shalt shine glorious with light, and all the ends of the earth shall worship thee, nations shall come from afar, bringing gifts, and shall worship the Lord in thee" (Tobit xiii.). Likewise St. Bernard, in the fifth chapter of his sermon to the. Knights Templars, greets the most glorious city of Jerusalem in these words: " Hail," saith he, " holy city, which the Most Highest hath sanctified, as a tabernacle for Himself, that thereby in thee and through thee so great a generation might be saved. Hail, city of the Great King, whence at no, time, from the.beginning new wonders have been wanting to make glad the world. Hail, mistress of nations, first among countries, home of the patriarchs, mother of the prophets and Apostles, fountain of the faith, and glory of the people of Christ, which God hath always suffered to be attacked from the beginning, that thou mightest be for brave men a means of showing their courage and winning their salvation withal. Hail, chief city of the Promised Land; which of old flowed with milk and honey for those alone who dwelt therein, now givest to the whole world the means of salvation, the bread of life. Thou good, thou best of lands, which received in thy most fertile bosom, the holy grain from the ark, the heart of the Father, and hast brought forth such crops of martyrs from that heavenly seed, and fruit withal from thy fertile soil in all other sorts of faithful people, sixty and a hundred-fold, throughout all the earth. Wherefore all they who have seen thee, being filled with the abundance of thy sweetness, and most richly satisfied with the. memory of thy plenteousness, overflow with thy delights; tell of the greatness of thy glory to those who have not seen thee, even to the uttermost parts of the earth, and, describe the wonders that are in thee. Very excellent things are spoken of thee, thou city of God. Soon we also who come from the west shall taste of the joys wherewith thou art overflowing, and lo! at the sight of thee our souls melt away with the plenteousness of thy delights:" When we had finished our prayer we remounted our asses, having our eyes full of tears and our cheeks wet with joy. The priests and monks among us all together began to sing Te Deum laudamus, but in a low and subdued voice; that we might not offend our escort, whom perhaps our hymn of joy, might have moved to anger if loudly and clearly sung. So we sang aloud only with the voice of our minds, because the joy wherewith we,rejoiced was deep and great, beyond what any outward words could express. This joy did not arise from passion, but from reason; not from the presence of an object of desire, but of a thing deserving of love because it is precious: it was not a gladness which leads to licentiousness; but rather to seriousness; which moves one not to laughter, but rather to sobs; which does not shake the body, but bends the limbs [92a] does not broaden the mouth for laughter; but rather draws the face together for tears; does not lead to speech; but to silence; does not bring one forth among men, but rather into a quiet corner; does not make one shout aloud, but, rather pray inwardly with singing of psalms. With this unspeakable and sweet gladness, we came to the fuller's field, whereon Rabshakeh stood and blasphemed God, railing against those who stood on te walls of Jerusalem (2 Kings xviii.17; Isaiah xxxxi.). In this field, beside the castle which the Soldan has built there; we dismounted from our asses, gave them. up to their drivers, and taking our scrips, walked, two and two towards, the Gate of the Merchants; or Fish Gate, in silent prayer; with our hands clasped before ours breasts. Some of the pilgrims out of piety, threw away their shoes, and walked barefoot all the time that we were in the Holy Land, thereby, honouring the glorious footsteps of our Lord, of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and of the saints, of the Old and New Testament. When we. were come to the gate which is called the Gate of David, the Gate of the Merchants; or the Fish Gate, we passed through it with bowed heads, for by the act of so passing we obtained plenary indulgences (^^). From the gate we went through a long street, and came to a great closed church; before which was a fair large court yard, paved with polished marble of exceeding whiteness. When we were all standing in the courtyard, one of the brethren of the convent of Mount Sion put himself in a higher place and addressed us, saying that this was that holiest of churches, worshiped by the whole world;: wherein is laid up the treasure most precious to all Christians, the sepulchre of our Lord. When we heard this, we flung ourselves down in the court-yard before the door of the church, and prayed, and kissed the very earth many times. Of a surety it seemed to the pilgrims as they lay thus on the ground that virtue breathed forth from the earth itself, whereby their feelings were forcibly driven to prayer. O. Lord God, how sweet must the kiss of Thy mouth be, when to kiss not even Thy feet, but only Thy footsteps; so sweetly softens our hearts. O. my brother! hadst thou been with me in that Court at that hour; thou wouldst' have seen such plenteous tears, such bitter heartfelt groans, such sweet. wailings in such deep sighs, such true sorrow, such sobs from the inmost breast, such peaceful and gladsome silence, that hadst thou a heart of stone it must have melted, and thou wouldst have burst into a flood of tears together with the weeping pilgrims. I.saw there some pilgrims lying powerIess on the ground; forsaken by their strength, and as it were forgetful of their own being by reason of their excessive feeling of devotion. Others I saw who wandered hither and thither from one corner to another beating their breasts, as though they were driven by an evil spirit. Some knelt on the earth with their bare knees; and prayed with tears, holding their arms out in the form of a cross. 0thers were shaken with such violent sobs that they could not hold themselves up, and were forced to sit down and hold their heads with their hands, that, they. might endure their thick-comings sobs. Some lay prostrate so long without motion, that they seemed as though they were dead. Above all our companions and sisters the women pilgrims shrieked as though in labour, cried aloud and wept. Some pilgrims out of excess of devotion, lost all command of themselves, forgot how they should behave, and out of excessive zeal to please God, made strange and childish gestures. It was indeed pleasant to behold the very earnest and yet different behaviour of the pilgrims as they prayed at the holy places, which places have a wondrous power of moving to tears, groans, arid sighs, men who in any other place could not be moved by any speech, advice, or passage of Scripture, by any painting or carving, examples, promise, or threats, by prosperity, or by adversity. Yet as a rule those who visit the holy places are not affected even to this extent, but merely roused to unusual devotion and piety. Indeed, I have. seen some--would that I had not seen them--whose feelings were acted upon in an exactly contrary direction by the pious behaviour of good devotees. I have seen during all the aforesaid devotions of the pilgrims some dull and unprofitable pilgrims, nay rather brute beasts, not.having the spirit of God, who stood, and smiled mockingly at the prayers, tears, prostrations, beating of breasts, and the like, which were done by the rest. What is even more damnable is that these brutish men, blind to all piety, void of all religious feeling, full of all uncleanness, held such devout people to be fools, hypocrites, vain-glorious deceivers and brain-sick, and ever thereafter treated them with scorn, disdained to converse with them, and disparaged them, calling them fools, hypocrites, and Beghards.*

On the, thirteenth, which was the seventh Sunday: after Trinity, and the .Feast of St. Margaret the Virgin, the Father Guardian.sent some of his brethren to the Hospital of St. John, and invited all the pilgrims to the service of Mass on Mount Sion. All of them came with those brethren to the church of Sion, to await [b] therein the time for, the service of High Mass. For the sun now rose early, yet was he not risen when the pilgrims came up thither. To show their respect for the pilgrim lords the brethren had adorned the choir, the church, and the altars beautifully, covering them with precious hangings. I never have seen anywhere more precious hangings than those in this place, which are embroidered by women with figures showing the life and death of Christ. Indeed, great Saracen lords, Turks, and Mamelukes come from afar and ask to be shown those hangings or tapestries; and when the lords, governors, and captains of the city of Jerusalem entertain honoured guests, they lead them to the Mount Sion, and beg the brethren there to show and hang up those works. These hangings were made for that church by the orders of Philip, Duke of Burgundy, who bestowed many other benefactions upon that convent. The high altar stood crowded with gilded monstrances and reliquaries, and over the altar was a picture, wherein together with St. Francis stands our holy patron St. Dominic, most notably well painted. The church is not large, because it is only a part of the church of Sion. In the old time when the Christians bore rule in the land there was a great church on that spot, which the Saracens have destroyed as far as the apse or chapel which joined the choir of the church on the right-hand side. This part is now the church and choir of the brethren. The ruins of the old choir and church are still plainly to be seen, as will be shown by what follows. So when the sun had risen and the time for the celebration of Mass was come, the sacristan beat a wooden board,* because they have no bells of any kind, nor are they suffered to have them by the infidels, but give notice of divine service by beating wooden boards, as we do on Good Friday.

** John xx.27.

After service the Minorite brethren made preparations for a solemn procession, wearing their sacred vestments, and they went bearing with them a cross, banners, candles, reliquaries, thuribles, and holy water. As we all walked in procession with them their precentor, a man of a powerful voice, began loudly to sing that glad some hymn of the songs of Sion, Pange lingua gloriosi corporis mysterium, and to this song we marched; we priests leading the way, and the other pilgrims following; so we came into the choir to the high altar, which is believed to be built over the holy place wherein the Lord Jesus ate the Last Supper with His disciples, where He turned bread and wine into his body and blood, and gave them to His disciples to eat and drink, and where He ordained them priests to administer that Sacrament. We went to this most holy place one after another, and, bowing our. selves to the ground, kissed the place beneath the hollow altar, and received plenary indulgences (^^). Behold, best-beloved brother-pilgrim, here is the house, here the upper chamber, here the table whereat was given to you that ineffable gift, the bread from heaven, the bread of angels, which alone has power to kindle desire in us, to implant humility, to bring about contrition, to give faith, to raise hope, to warm us to love, to rouse us to reverence„ to melt the mind, and cause the. sweetest feelings. To this place is due the highest honour--honour beyond all other holy places--for every place wherein we are brought as it were into contact with God is alike worthy of reverence„ as, for example, Nazareth, where we received God incarnate in our flesh; Bethlehem, which gave us Him born; and Calvary, which gave us Him crucified. These places are right worthy of honour, yet even more that place, above all, wherein this closer and more saving communion was, made, where He gave Himself for food, His body for meat and His blood for drink, that He might become heavenly and earthly food together, because, saith He, `He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood abideth in Me, and I in him: Also, besides these ineffable mysteries, it was here that He brought typical sacrifices and the law to an end, and ordained new sacraments. Here He suffered John to lie upon His bosom; here He affirmed that He knew Judas His betrayer; here He foretold His fall to Peter; here He prophesied how all the disciples would forsake Him and flee; here He preached a long and most sweet sermon, and bade all His disciples a last farewell, leaving peace with them. So, after we had done all that was right for us to do in that holy place, having sung hymns and read what is marked therefor in the; 'Processional for pilgrims in the holy land,' we came back again with giving of thanks. These `processionals' are little books wherein are marked all the versicles, collects, responses, hymns, and psalms which ought to be said or sung at all the holy places and throughout the course of a. pilgrimage beyond sea. Of these books I obtained one for myself, and made use of it at the holy place.

From that place we walked in procession further on towards the right-hand part of the choir, singing the hymns appointed for the day of the Last Supper, and came to the holy place where the Lord Jesus washed the feet of His disciples after supper. Here is a fair altar, before which we bowed ourselves to the earth and kissed the ground, and received indulgences (^^). I beg of thee, beloved pilgrim, leave not this place, any more than the other, without previous meditation. See and reflect upon the importance of what was done here. The Son of God, mighty by reason of His eternal Godhead, and mighty with the beauty of the mind of the Father, He who laid the foundations of the world, and made it pleasant to sight; He to whom the heavens and all the stars in their courses do homage, He who, as Job, saith, shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble, did so bow down and abase His Divine majesty in this place as with His own hands to wash the foul, filthy, muddy feet of His disciples, low-born fishermen, sinners, and traitors as they were, that He might thereby give us a most wholesome example of humility.

After this the precentor began that most joyous of all the songs of Sion, Veni, creator Spiritras, etc. Singing this song we came out of the church into the convent on the top of the cloister, because the choir and church are built on the top of other chambers, so that one has to reach the church by going upstairs on every side, and when one comes out of The church one can walk on the top of the vault of the cloister or ambulatory round three sides of the square: for the cloister has only three sides, and the fourth side is the wall of the church. So now we passed through the church, going down from the eastward to the westward, and at the west end of the church we came out of a door on the south side, walked along one side of the cloister, then turned ourselves towards the north, and came to the head of the choir, where we went up some stairs to a chamber whose door is blocked up with stones for a reason which will be told on page 290b.

This chamber is at the head of the choir, because [95a] the choir has no windows looking towards the east, this chamber being in the way; but it is lighted from the south alone. We went in procession up the aforesaid stairs, and bowed ourselves down in prayer before the blocked-up door, where also we received plenary indulgences (^^), and sang the hymn which we had begun with a dulcet harmony, so that the sound thereof rang out all over the Mount Sion and the city of Jerusalem. For the place was not enclosed, but we stood on a high place in the open air, and sang exceeding merrily, remembering that it was in this place that the heavens dropped at the presence of the God of Sinai, the presence of the God of Israel, and that a gracious rain was sent down upon the inheritance of Christ. [Ps. lxviii.8.] For here the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples with a rushing sound, and changed their carnal minds into love of Him, so that while tongues of flame appeared outwardly, inwardly their hearts were kindled into flame, because while they received God in the visible form of fire their hearts were sweetly burning with love. For Christ, when He was about to ascend on high, charged His disciples that they should not depart out of Jerusalem, but should await therein the promise of the Father. Wherefore they came into this chamber and abode shut up therein because of the tumults among the Jews, and here they stayed, desolate and orphaned, ignorant and unknowing, timid, and full of fear. But the Holy Spirit, when it came upon them, brought most sweet consolation to them, poured into their minds the clearest wisdom, gave them the stoutest courage, and so, constant in soul and confirmed in grace, they received dominion over the world. I shall describe this place more fully when I come to speak of the tomb of David.

We next left this place and went down the stairs which are near it into the cloister, and came to the chapel of St. Thomas, where that same Apostle, by his most profitable doubts, won the privilege of touching the resplendent scars of Christ's body. As we walked in procession to that place, we sang the joyous hymn Exultet coelum laudibus,resultet terra gaudiis, etc., and in this place we again bowed ourselves to the earth, and received plenary indulgences (^^). In this place we meditated on the especial grace extended to the Apostle St. Thomas: for all those of whom we read that they had anything to do with Christ's side, into which St. Thomas, at His bidding, thrust his hand, were rewarded by some especial mark of grace. Longinus, the unbelieving and cruel soldier, who, by Pilate's order, stood beside the cross, who thrust his spear into the Saviour's side, and pierced the most sacred heart of Christ, was weak-sighted; but it chanced that his eyes were touched by the blood which ran down the spear, upon which he saw clearly, received the light both in his body and in his mind, and endured a celebrated martyrdom. St. John the Evangelist beheld His side, saw the water and blood come forth from it, and believed, and bore testimony to the most sublime mysteries. St. Thomas saw it, touched it [b], and was made thereby a most firm and open confessor of the faith, and also heard a saying which is exceeding comfortable for us. `Thomas,' said our Lord, `because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed blessed are they which have not seen and yet have believed.' The other Apostles, also, to whom the Lord showed His hands and His side, saw it, and their eyes were opened, so that they understood the Scriptures, and they were filled with unspeakable joy. St. Bernard when praying before the crucifix, seemed to see the Crucified One loose Himself from the cross and lean upon him as he prayed: he prayerfully received Him into his arms, put his mouth to the Crucified One's side, and sucked from thence honey-sweet truths of doctrine. St. Francis also was so deeply touched by the thought of the wounds of Christ that he was rewarded by miraculously and visibly bearing on his body the marks of the Lord Jesus. St. Catharine, of Siena, also drank from this most holy side, and became intoxicated with the sweetest draught of piety: for that virgin spouse of Christ once was ministering to a sick woman who had a dreadful and most foul ulcer on her breast, which smelled so intolerably that no one could remain with her. One day, when the holy maid had taken off the dressing from this ulcer in order to wash it clean, there arose from it a stench so horrible as to completely turn her stomach and make her feel sick. The holy maid, when she felt this, was angry with her own flesh, and swore an oath, saying: `By the life of the Most Highest, the most sweet spouse of my soul, that very thing which you loathe shall be taken into your own stomach.' Straightway she collected the washings and blood from that foul wound upon a dish, went to a place apart and swallowed the whole. When she had done this her loathing ceased, and not only did she no longer feel sick, but experienced unspeakable pleasure. The following night the Lord Jesus appeared to her, showing her the five wounds which He received upon the cross, and said, `Because yesterday, out of the warmth of thy love for Me, thou didst trample upon the natural feelings of thine own body and swallow a loathsome drink, therefore I say unto thee: As in this act thou hast gone beyond thine own nature, even so I will give thee a drink beyond all that human nature is wont to receive.' Then laying his right hand upon the maiden's neck, and drawing her towards the wound in His side, He said: ` Drink, my daughter, a draught from My side, whereby thy soul will be filled with sweetness which will overflow in wondrous fashion even to thy body.' She, seeing herself placed beside the spout of the fountain of life, put her natural mouth, but still more her spiritual mouth, to that most sacred wound, and for no short space of time drank both eagerly and plenteously of that unspeakable and miraculous drink. At last she tore herself from the fountain, full, and yet thirsty, and thenceforth led a new life and grew in grace, as we read in her Legend, Part II., chapter iv. See how great is the virtue of the wound of Christ. The iron spear-head, by which Christ's side was pierced, is kept at Nuremburg: I have both seen and handled it. It hath such virtues that many thousands of people flock thither every year on the first Friday after the octave of Easter to see and worship the iron which rent His sacred side. Draw near, therefore, beloved pilgrim, and in thy heart touch His wounds like St. Thomas, praying the holy Apostle that he may admit you to fellowship with himself. In this chapel [96a] stands a fair altar, at which, while I was living at Jerusalem, I often read my canonical hours.

After we had finished the processional service at this chapel, we circled round the lower walk of the cloister, round three sides of it, and came to another chapel, very sacred and very dark, hidden beneath the church itself. This chapel is believed to be the privy place apart, to which the Lord Jesus led His disciples, when He said, `Arise, let us go hence,' as we read in the fourteenth chapter of St. John. Those learned doctors, St. Thomas (Aquinas), Albertus Magnus, Hugo, and De Lyra, tell us that after supper, when the disciples had been washed and had received the Communion, as, the Lord spoke to them sitting in the place where they had supped, and openly said that He should be betrayed, and that after a little while they would see Him no more, the disciples became afraid and were disquieted at His words, and continually cast their eyes upon the door of the supper-chamber, fearing that men would come and take their Master from them, so that they paid less attention to His words; then, because he wished still to speak some more hard sayings to them, in order that they might listen to them more attentively, and might be less afraid, He said, `Arise, let us go hence.' So they came down from the upper chamber to the one beneath it, wherein He finished His sermon, and that most devout prayer which is to be found in the seventeenth and two following chapters of St. John's Gospel. In the whole course of the Holy Scriptures there is no prayer so devout, so sweet, so consoling, and so plain as that in the seventeenth chapter of St. John, which prayer, we believe, was offered by Christ in this place. So we went up to the altar, begging our Lord Jesus to suffer us to join with Him in His most devout prayer there offered, and we received indulgences (^). In this holy chamber is part of the pillar at which Christ was scourged, made fast to the wall by iron bars, yet so that it can be touched by the fingers. By the side thereof also are beds for guests, upon which I slept during my first pilgrimage. There, too; is the cell of the Brother Sacristan, and of Brother John, who dubs men knights in the holy sepulchre, and also acts as mancipler to the brotherhood. From that place we went up the stone stairs again into the church, and brought our procession to an end. These are the holy places which are situated within the precincts of the convent. Without there are many more holy places, as will appear hereafter.

After we had finished our procession, which lasted. almost till mid-day, when the pilgrims were about to go down to the hospital, there came the venerable Father Guardian and Brother John the Bursar, and invited all the pilgrims to dinner. They had set out tables and long boards for us in the convent garden, because we were many, and the place was cramped, and above the board was stretched a cloth reaching the whole length, of the board, to make a shelter from the heat of the sun. The, subject with which this cloth was embroidered was the descent of the Holy Spirit. So we all sat down, with the exception of certain noble knights, who (b) out of humility offered themselves to serve the tables. When we were all seated, and were eating in orderly fashion, there came a poorly dressed man whom I had not seen before in the ranks of the pilgrims, who, standing in the midst of us as we sat at meat, preached in the Latin tongue with such rich eloquence and beauty of expression that all eyes were turned towards him, and even those who did not understand him were astounded at his fluent and delightful language. His sermon was in glorification of the holy places, and in praise of pilgrimage. After the preacher had finished, his place was taken by the Lord John, Baron von Cymbern, a wise and eloquent man, who was one of those who had waited at table, who, at the instance of the Father Guardian, made a speech in German in his name, wherein he thanked the Lord's pilgrims for having sat at the table of the poor brethren, and begged them to be content with their food and drink. If any of them wished to repay the brethren for their kindness, and show pity for their poverty, they might talk upon that subject with Brother John of Prussia, the Bursar of the convent, whom they would find standing in the cloister; for the Father Guardian would on no account have a collection made at the table, nor would he have let them know that Brother John would receive money in the name of the brethren, but the nobles did this of their own accord. When the dinner was over and we had well dined, we rose up with thanksgiving. After this the noblemen went to Brother John, and gave a notable alms to the convent, some six ducats, some five, some four, some three, some two. The smallest alms given by anyone was one ducat.

When we had done all that has been described, we pilgrims went to the Father Guardian and begged him to be good enough to appoint some of the brethren to be our guides to the remaining holy places on Mount Sion without the monastery. Our request pleased the Father, and he wondered at the fervent zeal of the pilgrims, that even after the fatigue which they had undergone they should offer to encounter further toils. Indeed, no one should think visiting the holy places to be a light task; there is the intense heat of the sun, the walking from place to place, kneeling, and prostration: above all, there is the strain which everyone puts on himself in striving with all his might to rouse himself to earnest piety and comprehension of what is shown him in the holy places, and to devout prayer and meditation, all of which cannot be done without great fatigue, because to do them fitly a man should be at rest and not rambling about. To struggle after mental abstraction whilst bodily walking from place to place is exceeding toilsome; some of our pilgrims were unable to undergo it and went down to the hospital to rest, so that it was only less than half of them that persevered in the labour of pilgrimage. The Father Guardian gave us several brethren as guides, with whom we started on our way from the inner garden of the brethren, where we had dined. When we came out of that garden into the cloister, before the refectory and the kitchen, we came to a deep cistern of water, which is cooler than any other water in Jerusalem. They say that it was from this cistern that water was drawn by Christ's disciples for the Lord's Supper--that is, for mixing with the wine in celebrating the Sacrament, for washing their hands and feet, and for other uses at the supper. Out of respect for the aforesaid facts, we drew up some of this water and devoutly drank it. Since that time I often drank plenteously of it during the fiercest heats, and took no harm from it. I believe that this is literally one of the wells of salvation spoken of in the twelfth chapter of Isaiah, `Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation;' and in the following verse, `Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Sion.' From that well we went into the covered passage to the convent gate, which leads out into the public road. This gate is a small low-browed portal, through which no one can pass without bending down his head and back. The door is a strong iron-bound one, which when closed is fastened with chains and iron bolts, and this is because of the rage of the infidels, lest they should be able in some sudden riot to burst in and sack the convent, as, indeed, they once did. Traces of this may be seen in the dormitory near the rosary and the library, where there once were fair cells built with arched roofs, which they destroyed, and cast down their vaults, and will not at this day suffer them to be rebuilt as they were before. They are very lightly and easily moved to attack the Christians, and rage furiously against them, wherefore the brethren shut themselves in firmly, lest when the heathen rise in tumult they should be able to do mischief. So also the other Eastern Christians have their houses fenced with closed iron doors for the same reason.

We came out of the convent through that door accompanied by the brethren, but without the pomp of a solemn procession, and without singing, and the first place we came to was some stone steps, up which one ascends into the church above. On these steps we prostrated ourselves in prayer, adoring the holy sacrament and the holy places within. Thence we rose and went to the outer angle of the church, where is the place where the Virgin Mary had her oratory. So, in that place We bowed ourselves to the earth, prayed, and received indulgences (^). There the thought came into our minds how both in this place and elsewhere [b] the blessed Virgin Mary was wont to pour forth most frequent and most acceptable prayers of intercession for us to God, and indeed will pour them forth to the end of time, which it is equally needful for her to do. For as the sun's rays are needful for the earth, to make it fertile, even so are the prayers of Mary for us miserable sinners. Wherefore St. Bernard says: `Take away the sun, which lights the world, and where will be the day? Take away Mary, the star of the sea, and what will be left in all the universe save all-embracing gloom, black darkness, and the shadow of death ?'

We now left the place of the blessed Virgin's oratory, which, as I have said, is at the corner of the church, at that corner where the wall of the church which comes from the east joins the wall which comes from the south. We went up from that corner along the wall leading towards the east, and came upon another low wall which led out from the wall of the church in a square form like a small court. Into this court we climbed over the wall, and when we came in we found a small door in the wall of the church, iron-bound, and most carefully shut, so that we could not pass through it, and even if we could have passed through we certainly should not have dared to do so, because it is a Saracen mosque. This is a very holy place, adored by all Christians, Jews, and Saracens alike, for within is the burial-place of the prophets and sainted kings, such as David, Solomon, Rehoboam, Abia, Asa, Joram, and the rest, whose names are inserted into the book of the generations of Jesus Christ, in the first chapter of St. Matthew. This place is often mentioned in the books of Kings and Chronicles, wherever the phrase is used : `He was buried in the sepulchre of his fathers in the city of David.' These kings were buried in this place with exceeding great pomp. Josephus in his seventh Book of Ancient History, chapter xvi., and also the author of the `Scholastics Historia,' tell us about the death of David, that when he died, Solomon, his son, put his father's body into a most precious coffin, not one made of stone or wood, but of goldsmiths' work, of gold adorned with precious gems, and buried with him an inestimable treasure in gold and silver. When Solomon himself died his son Rehoboam buried him and a great treasure with him near the coffin of David. Now Solomon so built the place of his sepulchre by mathematic art that no man was able to come at those coffins. Thirteen hundred years after the death of Solomon, when Jerusalem was being besieged by Antiochus the son of Demetrius, Hyrcanus the chief priest of the holy city, being unable to bear the siege longer, or to drive away the enemy, promised Antiochus money if he would go away. Now as he could. not find enough money in the treasury of the temple, and the poor citizens of Jerusalem had no money, the high priest came up to Mount Sion, opened this place whereof I speak, and took from thence three thousand talents of gold, wherewith he made peace with Antiochus. Again, after many years had passed, Herod, being [98a] in want of money and hearing that Hyrcanus had found money there, came secretly into this place by night, accompanied only by his trustiest friends. He found there no coined money, but got out of it some gold and silver cups, whereby he was enticed into trying to dig deeper down, till he came to the urns and coffins of David and Solomon. But two of his attendants, while they were digging, were burned to ashes by flames which burst out from the inner parts of the place. When the king saw this, he and the others fled, and to atone for what he had done he built an exceeding rich tomb of white stone. The brethren of Mount Sion once counted this place among those belonging to their convent, and indeed it is a part of the church of Sion, for it is within the same walls, at the head of the choir. The Soldan took this place away from the brethren for the following reason. The Jews have many times begged the Soldan to give them that place, that they may make an oratory of it, and they beg it of him even to this day: while the Christians have always refused it to them. So at last the Soldan inquired wherefore this place was holy. When he was told that David and the other kings of Jerusalem of his seed were buried there, he said : `We Saracens also count David holy, even as the Christians and the Jews do, and we believe the Bible as they do. Wherefore neither the Christians nor the Jews shall have that place, but we will take it for ourselves. He thereupon came to Jerusalem and blocked up the door by which one entered that chapel from inside the monastery, desecrated the chapel, turned out Christ's altars, brake the carved images, blotted out the paintings, and fitted it for the worship of the most abominable Mahomet, making. a door on the outside by which the Saracens could enter it when they pleased. And because the place above it, over the vaulted roof of the chapel, belonged to the Christians and to the brethren, and a great and costly chapel had been founded there by the king of France, in the place where, as has already been told, the Holy Spirit came down upon the disciples on the day of Pentecost, the Soldan caused this chapel also to be destroyed, its vault to be thrown down, and its door blocked up, that the Christians might not walk about upon the vaulted roof of the mosque: and so the brethren have lost those two precious holy places, through the eagerness of the Jews to possess the lower place, for which they are pleading with the Soldan even at this day, and promise to give many thousand talents of silver for it. Yet they do not do this merely out of reverence for the tombs of the sainted kings, and the holiness of the place, but they hope that they may be able to make their way to the coffins of the kings, and find the treasure: for they believe that those treasures are stored up there, and are fated to be theirs. Wherefore they are often found going thither and prying about at night, and sometimes they practise witchcraft and magic arts there. I had a great longing to see the inside of that place, and was not disappointed; for the Saracen keeper of the mosque one day trying to open the door and shut it quickly, hampered the lock with the key, so that the key would not move the iron bolt; so he went away leaving the mosque open: and it remained open as long as I was in Jerusalem, and more than ten times I have gone into it and looked round it, though I always went in and came out with fear and trembling, because if any Saracen [b] had seen me there I should lave come into great trouble, even had I escaped from the peril of death. The chapel is a long one, with a vaulted roof, and has two windows on its eastern side, and a marble tomb on its north side. The paved floor is covered with mats. Two lamps hang in it, and there is no altar, no painting, no carved work, only bare whitewashed walls. So also are all Saracen mosques, empty and void. A doubt strikes the mind in the aforesaid story as to why those saintly kings allowed treasure to be buried with them, seeing that this seems to be a heathen and superstitious practice. And how was Solomon able to hide those coffins with such art that no man is able to find them? In answer to the first question I say, that we must steadfastly believe that what those holy men did was not done out of vain superstition, or intemperate love of temporal riches, or sinful pride, but by the prompting of the Holy Spirit, in order that in the fulness of time the treasure might come to the use of mankind in general, and might not minister to the insatiate avarice of the Jews. As for the second question, I must admit that Josephus tells us that Solomon hid those tombs by magical arts, but the author of ` Historia Scholastica' defends him from this charge, and declares that he only hid them by subtle ingenuity. About the tomb of David see what the Apostle St. Peter says in the second chapter of the Acts: `Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre .is with us to this day,' which proves that even in the time of the Apostles this place was well-known. St. Jerome believes that David rose with our Lord, grounding his argument on St. Peter's having said that the sepulchre of David was plainly to be seen, as though he did not venture to say that David was still therein. We talked of these and of such like matters at this place, and we devoutly read all that the processional of the holy land marks as fitting to be read there, and received indulgences (^).

We speedily left the little court, and entered the old choir of the church of Sion, which is utterly destroyed, save the eastern part, where a part of the wall is still standing, with the broken vault hanging above it. The place whereon this choir is built is one to be looked upon with reverence by all who believe in the Holy Bible. The Jews pay it especial honour, because they believe, as we do, that here stood the oratory or tabernacle of David, into which he and all Israel brought the ark of the Lord with songs and instruments of music and great rejoicing as we read in the sixth chapter of the Second Book of Samuel. Likewise in this place he received the promise that Christ should be born of his seed, as is written in the seventh chapter of the Second Book of Samuel. Even after the building of the temple this place always remained well frequented and beloved by the people, wherefore the Lord Jesus often was wont to preach here. In memory thereof two stones are placed over against one another in the midst of the pavement: the one lies in the place where our Lord stood and preached; the other in the place where the Blessed Virgin was wont to listen to her Son's preaching. We kissed these places and stones [99a], and bowed ourselves to the earth, and received indulgences (^). In this place we stood for a good while, and mourned over the ruins, and looked round us with sorrow at the scattered stones of the sanctuary. Here once stood an exceeding great church, whereof there is nothing left save the part which once joined that great church on the right hand side, which part at the present day is the choir and church of the brethren, as I said before: the head of the choir also remains, with the east window, and with its half-broken vault which threatens to fall in. On the inside of the church there is a way up some stairs from the place where the Holy Spirit was sent down to the top of that piece of broken vault. I went up these stairs, and found above the broken vault a pavement of polished marble of divers colours, wherefore I suppose that once there was another church up above, on the top of the church and choir. Thus the church of Sion must have had three consecrated stories--that is to say, the crypt beneath the earth, the church built upon the earth, and another decorated chamber above the church. In the old choir the high altar still stands, but it is a ruin. Afterwards we went towards the left-hand side of the old choir, that we might go to visit other holy places, and there we found some Eastern Christians sitting beside a square stone, part of which rises out of the foundation of the old choir, and part of which still joins the old wall. Upon that stone these Easterns were practising sortilege with four small stones, as though they had been dice. At first, indeed, I supposed that they were playing at dice, and wondered that they should sit there in a public place where there is no dwelling house; for I did not know that this stone alone is used for their superstitious divinations. They pick up four small stones from the ground, and he who would cast them shakes them round in his hand just as a dice-player shakes the dice round before he casts them; then he casts them down upon that square stone, and by the figure which those four small stones form as they fall, they foretell that which they wish to know: as, for instance, if the stones fall in a straight line, they think that the matter will turn out one way; if they fall in a crooked line, it will turn out in some other way; if they form a square or a cross, in some other way; if a circle some other way yet, and so on for other figures.

The figure of the cross is the chief one at this game, and the nearer the figure approaches to it, the luckier it is esteemed to be; and all the figures are reckoned by their likeness to it. We stood and laughed at these men's follies; but they were very serious, giving their whole attention to their sortilege, and waiting on fortune.

I have sometimes seen bishops and priests of the Eastern Church, and grave respectable men, sitting there playing and divining; they do not play there for gain, but merely out of superstition, of which the Easterns are full. The stone, which in itself is coarse and rough, has been made so smooth on the surface by the constant sortilege which is practised on it, that it looks as though it had been regularly polished.

After we had seen these things we turned away from the stone, and came to the place where [b] men suppose the kitchen to have stood, wherein the disciples prepared the Easter feast, roasting the paschal lamb, pounding the wild lettuce, and heating water for the washing of feet, and the cleansing of plates and dishes, and (making a fire) to burn the leavings of the paschal lamb, the skin and bones and other parts [Exod. xii. 46 ; Numb. ix.12.] which could not be eaten. This place is not without holiness or edification, for the cooks in that kitchen were holy men, and holy victuals were cooked therein. We are told in the twenty-second chapter of St. Luke's Gospel that Peter and John, the best-beloved and the holiest of Christ's disciples, were the cooks who made ' ready the Paschal Supper in this kitchen. Moreover, the Paschal Lamb which was roasted therein was holy, being the type of that true Lamb that suffered on the cross. So also was the water holy which was warmed there, which was used by the Lord Jesus to wash the feet of His disciples. Albeit the Evangelist says nought about the warming of the water, yet it is likely that the washing was not done save with warm water, for warm water takes dirt away better than cold, and refreshes and strengthens the feet and legs. Warm water also shows the piety and love of him who uses it, for it is no great proof of friendship to use cold water for washing a man's feet, even as it shows no great affection to offer one warm or lukewarm water to drink. It is he who offers a cup of cold water who, as we are told in the tenth chapter of St. Matthew, shall in no wise lose his reward. Now, as cold water is desired by a thirsty man to drink, even so is warm water delightful for a tired man to wash his feet withal. We cannot suppose that Christ would have left out any of the signs of perfect love; wherefore as at supper He did not give His disciples a cup of cold water, although this is a sign of love and has its reward, as has just now been said, but gave them what shows a more abounding love, to wit, a full cup of good wine temperately mixed with cola water; even so when He washed their feet He did not use cold water, though that would have shown His love, but warm water, in sign of a more abounding love; and perchance not mere warm water, but water containing fragrant herbs and strong scented roots, mixed with aromatic cordials and distilled waters, to show His perfect affection. We know that Christ reproached the Pharisee for not having given Him water for His feet, and He praised the Magdalen because she washed His feet with ointment and hot tears. Now Christ loved His disciples more even than the Magdalen loved Christ, wherefore He must have washed their feet with fair water, pleasantly warm, and miffed with exceeding precious cordials. So, we stood on the place where this sacred kitchen once was, and where even at this day there stands an ancient and lofty wall; wherein is a long hollow channel leading upwards; as though it were meant to draw up smoke from a fire. Here we knelt and read the proper prayers and received indulgences (^).

Leaving the aforesaid kitchen we went further on till we came to the place wherein' St: Stephen was buried for the second time, together with the others who were found in the field of Galaber* (sic), which, as I suppose, was not far from Anathoth, a village which stands above the place of the stoning of Stephen on the north side, and this was the field of Gamaliel, who drew the body of St.Stephen from under the stones, and took him into his own field, where he himself, and his son Abybos,** and Nicodemus were afterwards buried: and in the course of time they were forgotten.

**Conybeare and Howson's `Life of St. Paul,' 2nd edition, Vol. I., pp. 69, ff.

Then we left that place and went on further, and crossed over the street to the house of the Marthas, which is a pretty large one, and stands over against the church of Sion. In that house dwell some Italian Christian women of our rite, who are called the Marthas of the brethren, because they serve the brethren for the love of God, by washing, sewing, and spinning for them, and they worship in the church of the brethren. They are elderly women, very grave and respectable, who live under the third rule of St. Francis with great patience and endurance. Less than a year before I was at Jerusalem, some Arabs broke open the door by night, rushed riotously into the house of these ladies, and then fled, carrying off everything which they could lay their hands on, pillaging the whole house. While I. was living there [b] they washed my tunic and scapular for me, and wrought other works of charity for me. The lady of the court of the Queen of Cyprus whom I mentioned on page 69a, lived there with them. From this house we went eastward, turned aside to the righthand out of the road which leads into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and came to a house, strongly fenced and locked, as are all Christians' houses. When we knocked at the door there came to us black men, burned by the sun, tall of stature, and with their faces scarred with burns, who opened it to us. This was a monastery of Indians, wherein monks and women dwell together, and they live under an exceeding strict rule, and it is strange to see the lowliness of their dress. When we were come in, they led us through a porch into an ill-lighted chamber, wherein is a darksome way down through a cleft in a rock, down which we went, carrying lights, and came into a dirty underground cave, overhung by the rock; indeed the whole cave is hollowed out of the rock. Here we found a place for prayer. According to a very ancient tradition this is the place where David did penance for his sin in the death of Uriah, whereof we read in the twelfth chapter of the second book of Samuel, where we are told of David that he went into a place apart, fasted, prayed, wept, scourged himself with whips and rods, and there composed the seven penitential psalms, which he often read and chanted with doleful wailings. Now at that time this cave of David was not without the royal palace, but within it; because the palace was large and wide. In this cavern we fell upon our faces, begging God to have mercy upon us; arid we received indulgences (^).

When we had received our indulgences we came up again, left that house, and went down towards the valley; keeping our faces towards the Mount of Olives, to the eastward; with the city of Jerusalem on our left hand, and the church of Sion on our right, and thus we came to the place, where the Jews essayed to the following sacrilege. After the death of the most glorious Virgin Mary, when her body was being carried down from Mount Sion by the Apostles to be buried in the valley of Jehoshaphat, and they had come thus far with song and gladness, lo! the Jews, who had learned the cause of this procession, broke out of the city with an armed force, full of rage out of their old hatred for the glorious Virgin, fell upon those who were accompanying the funeral and walking beside the bier, and forced them to halt. Their intention was to seize her most holy corpse, to cast it forth like an unclean carcass, and to put the disciples to flight. So they stood nigh unto it, and shouted loudly Themea Kesesa, which is, being interpreted, polluted harlot. One of them came up boldly and caught hold of the coffin with both hands, trying to throw it and the sacred body which it contained on to the ground: but no sooner had he touched the bier with his hands, than both his hands and arms withered away, and hung down useless, like sticks. [101a] At this miracle the unhappy man was touched with contrition, while the rest of the attacking host stood affrighted, full of fear and confusion. The palsied man bade them lift up his arms which hung helpless, and lay them upon the sacred body, whereupon he was straightway healed, and became a Christian. The rest went back confounded into the city; and suffered the disciples to bear the sacred body to the burial-place in Gethsemane. So in this place we read the Salve Regina, and after receiving indulgences (^) went on our way.

After this we went down from, the aforesaid place towards the valley, and came to an upright stone. Beneath this stone St. Peter sat weeping, mourning, and repenting, after he had left the house of Caiaphas after his third denial of his Lord, and here he won indulgence for his sin and the penalty thereof. Here we said the appointed prayers, and received plenary indulgences (^^). It was here that on the day of His resurrection the Lord Jesus appeared to St. Peter and comforted him. Once a great and fair church stood on this spot, but now it is utterly ruined, so much so that no traces of it remain. Even the rock beneath which St. Peter sat weeping, which once was hollowed out into a large cave, grows less daily, and now is but a small stone, because pilgrims break pieces off it and carry them away. By the side of this stone flows the water which is brought into the city of Jerusalem from the mountains of Hebron in a watercourse in a wondrous fashion, whereof I shall speak at length on page 249a. There stands there also a deep cistern from which the water may be drawn up. I believe that when there was a church here, this hollow cistern was the crypt of that church.

After we had seen this place we went on our way, turning our backs to the valley, and climbing back again up the hill down which we had, come, yet not by the same way, but turning aside more towards the holy city, among ruined houses. We came to a house whose door was strongly fastened, whereat we knocked and were let in, and when inside came into a fair church, dedicated in honour of the holy angels, wherefore it is called the Church of the Holy Angels. Round about this church were cells and chambers, wherein dwelt Armenian monks, Eastern Christians, black and respectable men. At the time of our Lord's passion, this was the house of Annas, the high priest, to whom the Lord Jesus was first brought from the garden wherein He was taken. This house and the bringing of the Lord Jesus thither is distinctly mentioned in the eighteenth chapter of St. John's Gospel, where we read how Annas the high priest scornfully questioned Him about His doctrine and His disciples, and how one of the officers with frenzied hand struck Jesus an exceeding hard buffet in the face, so that, according to some, His teeth were smitten from His mouth, and His face was [b] covered with blood, upon receiving which blow the Lord Jesus neither said nor did anything harsh, nor did He in any wise punish him who smote Him. Wherefore St. Augustine says: ` If we reflect upon who it was who received the buffet, should we not suppose that fire came down from heaven and consumed him who gave it, or that the earth opened and swallowed him up, or that he was carried off to be tormented by devils, or that he underwent some punishment of this kind, or even more? For which of these things is there that He by whom the world was made could not have ordered with power to come to pass; had He not rather preferred to teach us patience, whereby the world may be overcome.' By this we may perceive the corrupt falsehood of those who say that the Lord Jesus straightway punished him that smote Him on that very spot, saying unto him: `Here thou shalt stand and, bear testimony to my innocence even to the day of the last judgment, and then thou shalt be saved.' From that hour forth, therefore, they say that he stands there .and lives, but neither eats, drinks, nor sleeps, but looks forward, with exceeding longing to the end of the world, that he may be set free, and asks all the pilgrims who come thither whether women still bear men-children, saying that when the end of the world draws nigh women will cease to bear men-children; and so he stands there, asking questions and answering them. These stories are vain and sinful, being against the Scripture and the Gospels, contrary to faith and truth, and are invented by foolish and deceitful vagabonds who under the cloak of piety wander about the country, and invent such lies as these because they cannot fill themselves with the truth, and therewith delude silly men: nay, sometimes men who seem to be wise attend to their words and give them money for their lies. The truth obliges me to confess that this befell me myself, for in the same year in which I was preparing for my first pilgrimage to the Holy Land, there came to Ulm two vagabonds from Flanders, who declared that they had just come from Jerusalem, and from Mount Sinai, and told many wondrous tales as they sat among the poor people in the hospital, and many flocked round them, both men and women, to hear their stories. A certain respectable widow named Lady Anna von Kingseck was so charmed by their talk, that she took them into her own house and treated them exceeding hospitably that she might have greater freedom for discoursing with them. One day she caused me to be invited to her house to meet them, that I might hear what they said, because she knew that I was about to begin my journey to the holy places. They began their lying story so clearly and circumstantially that I stuck at nothing which they told me. I do not like to repeat the lies that they told me. They advised me not to travel by sea, but to go on foot through Hungary and Dalmatia to Constantinople, where the Emperor of Constantinople would give me fifty ducats, because he was bound to give that sum to every pilgrim going to the Holy Land. When I said in answer to this that this emperor was not a Christian, but a Turk, he was straightway able to meet my argument with a fresh lie; for he declared [102a] that the King of Jerusalem (sic) had been made a Christian, that the city was converted to Christ, and that this king allowed no man to be dubbed a knight in the holy sepulchre unless he had himself wrestled with him and proved his strength. They declared that the chapel of the sepulchre of our Lord was all covered with yellow gold, and that its lamps hung in golden chandeliers, and that above the little chapel of the sepulchre of Christ there was one lamp which burned continually without being lighted, and which received fire and oil from heaven, and that the whole of Jerusalem was built of precious stones; and he brought out one unpolished stone, which he said he had found in a street in Jerusalem, and which he would not sell for twenty ducats, and he said that if a man knew precious stones he could find them in numbers there among the common stones of the place. Moreover, one of them uncovered his right shoulder in my presence, and showed us a round red scar thereon, of the shape which is shown in the margin, and told us that the abbot of St. Catharine's monastery on Mount Sinai has a golden wheel, which he puts upon burning coals, and when it is hot, lifts it off with tongs and brands the pilgrim, who is bared to receive it, thus on his right shoulder. Nor did they fear to repeat the aforementioned falsehood about him who gave Jesus the buffet, but said that they had spoken to him, and that it was not all pilgrims who were allowed to see him. They told me these and many other lies, and they never had seen Jerusalem. Now when I was in the house of Annas, I jestingly asked our guide, one of the Minorite friars, where the man stood who gave the Lord Jesus the buffet? The friar took me to the outside of the church and pointed to an olive-tree which grew beside it, saying, `Lo, this is the man, and they say of him that his toe-nails have grown into the earth, and his beard hangs sideways,' pointing to the roots and branches of the tree. The dwellers in the convent, and, indeed, all the Eastern Christians, reverence this tree, and declare that in their most ancient books it is written that the Lord Jesus stood bound to that tree while the officers ate and drank, for Annas was so glad at the taking of the Lord Jesus that he gave food and drink to those who took Him. Wherefore we also kissed the trunk of the tree; which is very ancient, and so forth. Then we went back into the church, said the prayers appointed in the Processional, and received plenary indulgences (^^).

When we left the house of Annas the high priest, we hastened toward the house of Caiaphas, gravely and devoutly treading in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus. When we came to the house we found it locked up, but when we knocked at the door it was opened to us. We entered the church, said the prayers marked in the processional, and received plenary indulgences (^^) [b]. This church is called St. Saviour's, and stands on the place where stood the house of Caiaphas, wherein every Christian knows what sufferings Jesus endured. There it was that they sought false witness against Him and found it not; there Peter thrice denied that he knew the man; there the Lord Jesus was blindfolded, spat upon, buffeted, and smitten with the palms of their hands almost all night, and there He stood for three hours shut up in close prison. Wherefore as we meditated upon these things we remained there a long while in prayer, and filled the place with our tears, sobs, and groans. Then, after we had risen from our prayers, the priests of this church led us round all the holy places therein, and first we came to the high altar in the choir, which they stripped of its hangings that we might see the stone which formed the table of the altar. This was a very large stone, thick and wide, and is a part of the stone which was rolled to the mouth of the Lord's sepulchre, whereof we read in the sixteenth chapter of St. Mark's Gospel. It once was an exceeding large stone; for after many years the faithful cut the stone in two, and left one part near the holy sepulchre, while they brought the other part hither to this church, and appointed it for a slab, or table, for the altar. We kissed this sacred stone, and viewed it narrowly. Meanwhile the priests of the church watched us carefully, that none of us should break pieces off the stone with any iron tool, for they greatly reverence that stone, and, indeed, had it not been for that stone they would have sold the place the year before, for they are exceeding poor Armenian monks, and for very want they were going to sell the place to the Minorite brethren, because they were not able to keep the church and monastery in repair; but they wanted to sell the place with the condition that they should take this stone away with them, for they were in no wise willing to sell the stone with it. Howbeit this year there came to Jerusalem an exceeding rich Armenian, who has rebuilt the ruined church and cloister, and has held out a helping hand to these poor men. During my first pilgrimage a good-sized piece of this stone came into my hands. It was bought by a knight for two ducats from an Armenian priest, who entered the church with the knight by stealth, lest the other Armenians should see them, and broke off a piece of the stone. This same knight died at sea, and I inherited this piece of stone from him, and brought it with me to Ulm. After this we left the altar, and over against the altar, on the right hand side of the church, we passed through a little door into a narrow and darksome cell, set about with thick walls, and capable of holding only one man standing up at once, so we went into it one after the other. This small cell was the lock-up, wherein men who had been tried, and who had to be brought before the judge, or to be put to death, were shut up until the time came for them to be brought into court. So the Lord Jesus, after Ibis trial, was locked up there, and stood there for three hours with His hands tied behind His back, blindfolded, with His face spat upon, covered with insults, suffering from cold. Here we bowed ourselves to the earth and prayed devoutly, giving thanks to our Redeemer. [1O3a] After this we came out of the church into the court or yard outside, where was the fire round which Peter stood with the servants when he denied the Lord, and when the Lord turned and looked upon him. Moreover, we were shown the place where the cock stood, at whose crowing Peter came to himself, and we looked devoutly at all these places.

After this we came out of that house, and went on our way to the corner of a house from which one can look straight at the door of Caiaphas's house, so that one who stands on the further side of the corner, by stretching out his head, or only one eye, if he chooses, can see the door of Caiaphas's house, and can himself be seen by no one, who does not know that he is standing behind the wall and peeping furtively round the corner. In this place they say that the Blessed Virgin stood in hiding all that time, and watched the door through which Christ had been led in bonds, wishing to see whither He would be taken at the last. Oh, with what bitter pains and tears must the Blessed, Virgin have stood waiting there! What, think you, would the Virgin have answered, had anyone asked her wherefore she stood there, or what she was waiting for.