Moses fled for dread when he | cloth; and they are right felosaw our Lord face to face. And nious and foul, and of a cursed in that rock is imprinted the nature. form of his body; for he threw himself so strongly and so hard on that rock that all his body was buried into it, through the miracle of God. And near it is the place where our Lord gave to Moses the ten commandments of the law. And under the rock is the cave where Moses dwelt when he fasted forty days and forty nights. CHAPTER III. Of the desert between the Church of St. Catherine and Jerusalem -How roses first came into the world-Of the temple of our Lord-Mount Sion. AFTER people have visited these holy places, they proceed towards Jerusalem, having taken leave of the monks and recommended themselves to their prayers. And then the monks give the pilgrims victuals to pass the desert towards Syria, which desert extends full thirteen days' journey. In that desert dwell many of the Arabians, who are called Bedouins and Ascopardes, who are people full of all evil conditions, having no houses, but tents which they make of the skins of camels and other beasts that they eat. They carry but one shield and one spear, without other arms; they wrap their heads and necks with a great quantity of white linen When you pass this desert, on the way to Jerusalem, you come to Beersheba, which was formerly a very fair and pleasant town of the Christians, some of whose churches still remain. From thence we go to the city of Hebron, a distance of two good miles; it was formerly called the Vale of Mamre, and sometimes the Vale of Tears, because Adam wept there a hundred years for the death of Abel, his son, whom Cain slew. Hebron was the principal city of the Philistines, and was inhabited sometime by giants. And it was a sacerdotal city, that is, a sanctuary, of the tribe of Judah; and was so free, that all manner of fugitives from other places, for their evil deeds, were received there. In Hebron, Joshua, Calephe, and their company, came first to espy how they might win the Land of Promise. Here king David first reigned, seven years and a half; and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years and a half. In Hebron are all the sepulchres of the patriarchs, Adam, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and their wives, Eve, Sarah, Rebekah, and Leah; which sepulchres the Saracens keep very carefully, for they hold the place in great reverence, on account of the holy fathers, the patriarchs, that lie there. Two miles from Hebron is the grave of Lot, Abraham's brother. And a little from Hebron is the mount of Mamre, from which the valley takes its name. From Hebron we proceed to Bethlehem, in half a day, for it is but five miles; and it is a very fair way, by pleasant plains and woods. Bethlehem is a little city, long and narrow, and well walled, and on each side enclosed with good ditches. It was formerly called Ephrata, as Holy Writ says, 'Lo, we heard it at Ephrata.' And towards the east end of the city is a very fair and handsome church, with many towers, pinnacles, and corners strongly and curiously made; and within are fortyfour great and fair pillars of marble. And between the city and the church is the Field Floridus, that is to say, the field flourished; for a fair maiden was blamed with wrong, and slandered, that she had committed fornication, for which cause she was condemned to be burnt in that place; and as the fire began to burn about her, she made her prayers to our Lord, that as truly as she was not guilty, he would by his merciful grace help her, and make it known to all men. And when she had thus said, she entered into the fire, and immediately the fire was extinguished, and the fagots that were burning became red rosebushes, and those that were not kindled became white rosebushes, full of roses. And 1 Psalm cxxxii. 6. these were the first rose-trees and roses, both white and red, that ever any man saw. And thus was this maiden saved by the grace of God. And therefore is that field called the field that God flourished, for it was full of roses. Also near the choir of the church, at the right side, as men go down sixteen steps, is the place where our Lord was born; which is full well made of marble, and full richly painted with gold, silver, azure, and other colours. And three paces from it is the crib of the ox and the ass. And beside that is the place where the star fell, which led the three kings, Jaspar, Melchior, and Balthazar: but the Greeks call them Galgalathe, Malgalathe, and Saraphie: and the Jews call them in Hebrew Appellius, Amerius, and Damasus. These three kings offered to our Lord gold, incense, and myrrh; and they met together by a miracle of God, for they met together in a city in India called Cassak, which is fifty-three days from Bethlehem, and yet they arrived at Bethlehem on the thirteenth day, which was the fourth day after they had seen the star, when they met in that city; and thus they were nine days from that city to Bethlehem : and that was a great miracle.1 From Bethlehem to Jerusalem it is but two miles. And in the way to Jerusalem, half 1 The medieval legendary history of the three kings will be found printed at the end of the first volume of the Chester Mysteries.-THOMAS WRIGHT. a mile from Bethlehem, is a church, where the angel announced to the shepherds the birth of Christ. And in that way is the tomb of Rachel, the mother of Joseph the patriarch, who died immediately after she was delivered of her son Benjamin; and there she was buried by Jacob, her husband, and he caused twelve great stones to be placed over her, in token that she had borne twelve children. In the same way, half a mile from Jerusalem, the star appeared to the three kings. In that way also are many churches of Christians, by which men go towards the city of Jerusalem. Jerusalem, the holy city, stands full fair between hills; and there are no rivers or wells, but water comes by conduit from Hebron. And you must know that Jerusalem of old, until the time of Melchisedek, was called Jebus; and afterwards it was called Salem, until the time of king David, who put these two names together, and called it Jebusalem; and after that king Solomon called it Jerosoluma; and after that it was called Jerusalem, and so it is called still. Around Jerusalem is the kingdom of Syria, and there beside is the land of Palestine; and beside it is Ascalon; and beside that is the land of Maritaine. But Jerusalem is in the land of Judea; and it is called Judea, because Judas Maccabeus was king of that country. When men come to Jerusalem, their first pilgrimage is to the church of the holy sepulchre, where our Lord was buried, which is without the city on the north side; but it is now enclosed by the town wall. And there is a very fair church, round, and open above, and covered in its circuit with lead; and on the west side is a fair and high tower for bells, strongly made; and in the middle of the church is a tabernacle, as it were a little house, made with a little low door; and that tabernacle is made in manner of half a compass, right curiously and richly made of gold and azure and other rich colours. And in the right side. of that tabernacle is the sepulchre of our Lord; and the tabernacle is eight feet long, and five wide, and eleven in height; and it is not long since the sepulchre was all open, that men might kiss it and touch it. But because pilgrims that came thither laboured to break the stone in pieces or in powder, therefore the Sultan has caused a wall to be made round the sepulchre, that no man may touch it. In the left side of the wall of the tabernacle, about the height of a man, is a great stone, the magnitude of a man's head, that was of the holy sepulchre; and that stone the pilgrims that come thither kiss. In that tabernacle are no windows; but it is all made light with lamps which hang before the sepulchre. And there is one lamp which | support the house. From that hangs before the sepulchre hospital, going towards the east, which burns bright; and on is a very fair church, which is Good Friday it goes out of called Our Lady the Great ; and itself, and lights again by itself after it there is another church, at the hour that our Lord rose very near, called Our Lady the from the dead. And you shall Latin; and there stood Mary understand that when our Lord Cleophas and Mary Magdalene, was placed on the cross he was and tore their hair, when our thirty-three years and three Lord was executed on the cross. months old. In the church of St. Sepulchre there were formerly canons of the order of St. Augustin, who had a prior, but the patriarch was their head. And towards the east side, without the walls of the city, is the vale of Jehoshaphat, which adjoins to the walls as though it were a large ditch. And over against that vale of Jehoshaphat, out of the city, is the church of St. Stephen, where he was stoned to death. And there beside is the golden gate, which may not be opened, by which gate our Lord entered on Palm Sunday, upon an ass; and the gate opened to him when he would go unto the temple; and the marks of the ass's feet are still seen in three places on the steps, which are of very hard stone. Before the church of St. Sepulchre, two hundred paces to the south, is the great hospital of St. John, of which the Hospitallers had their foundation. And within the palace of the sick men of that hospital are one hundred and twenty-four pillars of stone; and in the walls of the house, besides the number aforesaid, there are fifty-four pillars that One hundred and sixty paces from the church of the Sepulchre, towards the east, is the temple of our Lord. It is a very fair house, circular and lofty, and covered with lead, and well paved with white marble. You must know that this is not the temple that Solomon made, which lasted only one thousand one hundred and two years. For Titus, the son of Vespasian, emperor of Rome, had laid siege about Jerusalem to overcome the Jews, because they put our Lord to death without the emperor's leave. And when he had won the city, he burnt the temple and beat it down and all the city, and took the Jews, and put to death one million one hundred thousand of them; and the others he put in prison, and sold them to slavery thirty for a penny, because they said they bought Jesus for thirty pennies; and he sold them cheaper, giving thirty for one penny. that, Julian the Apostate, when emperor, gave the Jews permission to make the temple of Jerusalem, for he hated the Christians although he had been After christened; but he forsook his law, and became a renegade. And when the Jews had made the temple, an earthquake came and cast it down (as God would), and destroyed all that they had made. And after that, Hadrian, who was emperor of Rome, and of the lineage of Troy, rebuilt Jerusalem and the temple, in the same manner as Solomon made it. And he would not suffer Jews to dwell there, but only Christians. For although he was not christened, yet he loved Christians more than any other nation, except his own. And on the other side of the temple there is a rock which men call Moriah, but after it was called Bethel, where the ark of God with relics of Jews, was wont to be put. And Jacob was sleeping upon that rock when he saw the angels go up and down by a ladder, and he said, 'Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not.' And there an angel held Jacob still, and changed his name, and called him Israel. And in that same place David saw the angel that smote the people with a sword, and put it up bloody in the sheath. And St. Simeon was on that same rock when he received our Lord into the temple. And in this rock he placed himself when the Jews would have stoned him; and a star came down and gave him light. On that rock our Lord preached frequently to the people; and 1 Gen. xxviii. 16. out of that same temple our Lord drove the buyers and sellers. Upon that rock also our Lord set him when the Jews would have stoned him; and the rock clave in two, and in that cleft was our Lord hid; and there came down a star and gave him light; and upon that rock our Lady sat and learned her psalter; and there our Lord forgave the woman her sins that was found in adultery; and there our Lord was circumcised; and there the angel gave tidings to Zacharias of the birth of St. John the Baptist his son; and there first Melchisedek offered bread and wine to our Lord, in token of the sacrament that was to come; and there David fell down praying to our Lord, and to the angel that smote the people, that he would have mercy on him and on the people; and our Lord heard his prayer, and therefore would he make the temple in that place; but our Lord forbade him, by an angel, because he had done treason, when he caused Uriah, the worthy knight, to be slain, to have Bathsheba his wife; and therefore all the materials he had collected for the building of the temple he gave to Solomon his son, and he built it. And in that church is a well, in manner of a cistern, which is called Probatica Piscina, which hath five entrances. Angels used to come from heaven into that well and bathe them in it, and the man who first bathed after the moving of the water |