Chapel erected in the supposed place of . Ascension A B C The Road to Bethany D Bridge L over the Brook Kedron. & The Garden of Gethse. F Modern Tombs. mane. The place where the Angel is supposed to have addressed the Apostles. "You men London:Published by Black, Young &Young. 2. Tavistock Street, Covent Garden. from fire about eight or ten years since, the Greek Catholics, who are proprietors of this part of the building, either from neglect or caprice, allowed the tablet to be plastered over. H During the whole of the time that we were engaged in examining the objects of veneration, the numerous altars were thronged with votaries of the different sects, exercising, in their respective rituals, the solemnities of religion. On quitting the church, we proceeded to the mount of Olives: our road lay through the Via dolorosa, so called from its having been the passage by which Christ was conducted from the place of his imprisonment to mount Calvary. The outer walls of what was once the residence of Pilate, are comprehended in this street; the original entrance to the palace is blocked up, and the present access is at one of the angles of the court. The portal was formerly in the centre, and approached by a flight of steps, which were removed some centuries ago to Rome, and are now in a small chapel near the church of San Giovanni di Laterano. Very little of this structure is still extant; but the Franciscan monks imagine they have accurately traced out the dungeon in which VOL. 1. G ness the descent includes fifty steps. The several tombs are distinguished by chapels and altars, with the usual accompaniments of lamps and tapers, and embellished with decorations adapted to the respective characters whose virtues they commemorate. We had no means of ascertaining on what authority it is asserted that the mother of the Messiah expired at Jerusalem, or that her mortal remains were preserved in such a receptacle. It is worse than useless to apply for information on points of this nature at the convent: any attempt to investigate traditionary statements, seems to be regarded by our hosts as conveying an oblique reflection on their own credulity. The date of the sepulchre is totally unknown: the gospel represents the Virgin as being consigned, by the dying injunction of our Saviour, to his beloved disciple, and some authors have conjectured that she closed her earthly existence at Ephesus: yet, whatever was the original destination of this vault, the cost and labour which must have been expended in its construction, sufficiently entitle it to be classed amongst those objects which claim an attentive examination. Tasso has evidently alluded to its existence in the following passage, though the conduct of his poem did not allow him accurately to describe its situation: Nel tempio de' Cristiani occulto giace Contínua splende: egli è in un velo avvolto. Che vi portaro i créduli devoti. LA GERUSALEMME LIBERATA, Canto ii. stan. 5. After passing the bridge thrown over the bed of the rivulet, a few paces brought us to the garden of Gethsemane, where the Messiah prayed in agony, and the sweat fell from him as it were great drops of blood. 1 Here too was the scene of Judas's treason. This spot, scarcely half an acre in extent, is partly enclosed by a low wall, and contains eight venerable olive trees, which are said to have been growing at the time of Christ's entrance into the city: they have certainly the marks of extreme age; but Josephus expressly states, that all the trees, which were in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, were cut down by Titus, for 1 Luke xxii. 44. |