soil, population, and commerce of the Morea are excellent and new.

At the time of M. Scrofani's travels, two Englishmen ascended the most elevated summit of the Taygetus.

In 1797, Messrs. Dixo and Nicolo Stephanopoli A. D 1797. Dixo and Niwere sent to the republic of Maina by the French colo Stephagovernment. These travellers highly extol that re- nopoli. public, which has been the subject of much discussion. For my part, I have the misfortune to consider the Mainottes as a horde of banditti, of Sclavonian extraction, and no more the descendants of the ancient Spartans, than the Druses are the offspring of the Count de Dreux. I cannot, therefore, share the enthusiasm of those who behold, in these pirates of Taygetus, the virtuous heirs of Lacedæmonian liberty.

M. Poucqueville would certainly be the best guide A. D. 1798. Poucqueville. for the Morea, if he had been able to visit all the places that he has described. He was, unfortunately, a prisoner at Tripolizza.

About this time Lord Elgin, the English ambassador Lord Elgin, Swinton, and at Constantinople, caused researches and ravages to Hawkins. be made in Greece, which I shall have occasion to praise and to deplore. Soon after him, his countrymen, Swinton and Hawkins, visited Athens, Sparta, and Olympia.

Bartholdi.

The fragments designed to contribute to the Know- A. D. 1803. ledge of modern Greece conclude the list of all these travels. They are, indeed, but fragments.

Let us now sum up, in a few words, the history of the monuments of Athens. The Parthenon, the tem. ple of Victory, great part of the temple of the Olympian Jupiter, another monument denominated, by Guillet, the lantern of Diogenes, were seen, in all their beauty, by Zygomalas, Cabasilas, and Deshayes.

De Monceaux, the marquis de Nointel, Galland, father Babin, Spon, and Wheeler, also admired the Parthenon while yet entire; but the lantern of Diogenes had disappeared, and the temple of Victory had been

F

A. D. 130.

INTRODUCTION.

blown up by the explosion of a powder magazine ;* so that no part of it was left standing but the pedi

ment.

Pococke, Leroi, Stuart, and Chandler, found the Parthenon half destroyed by the bombs of the Venetians, and the pediment of the temple of Victory demolished. Since that period the ruins have kept continually increasing. I shall relate in what manner they were augmented by Lord Elgin.

The learned world consoles itself with the drawings of M. de Nointel, and the picturesque tours of Leroi and Stuart. M. Fauvel has taken casts of two cariatides of the Pandroseum, and some basso relievos of the temple of Minerva. A netope of the same temple is in the hands of M. de Choiseul. Lord Elgin took away several others, which, perhaps, perished with the ship that foundered at Cerigo. Messrs. Swinton and Hawkins possess a bronze trophy, found at Olympia. The mutilated statue of Ceres Eleusina is also in England. Lastly, we have in terra colla the choragic monument of Lysicrates. It is a melancholy reflection, that the civilized nations of Europe have done more injury to the monuments of Athens, in the space of one hundred and fifty years, than all the barbarians together in a long series of ages; it is cruel to think that Alaric and Mahomet II. respected the Parthenon, and that it was demolished by Morosini and Lord Elgin.

This accident happened in 1656.

SECOND MEMOIR.

I HAVE already observed, that it is my intention to inquire, in this Second Memoir, into the authenticity of the Christian traditions relative to Jerusalem. The history of that city being involved in no obscurity, has no occasion for preliminary explanations.

The traditions respecting the Holy Land derive their certainty from three sources: from history, from religion, and from places of local circumstances. Let us first consider them in a historical point of view.

Christ, accompanied by his Apostles, accomplished, at Jerusalem, the mysteries of his passion. The writings of the four Evangelists are the earliest documents that record the actions of the Son of Man. The acts of Pilate, preserved at Rome, in the time of Tertullian,* attested the principal event of that history, the Crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth.

The Redeemer expired. Joseph of Arimathea obtained the sacred body, and deposited it in a tomb at the foot of Calvary. The Messiah rose again on the third day; appeared to his apostles and disciples; gave them his instructions, and then returned to the right hand of his Father. At this time the church commences at Jerusalem.

It is natural to suppose that the first apostles and relatives of our Saviour, according to the flesh, who composed this first church in the world, were perfectly acquainted with all the circumstances attending the life and death of Jesus Christ. It is essential to remark, that Golgotha was out of the city, as well as the Mount of Olives: whence it follows, that the apostles might the more freely perform their devotions in the places sanctified by their divine master.

• Apolg. advers. Gent,

A. D. 33.

A. D. 51.

The knowledge of these places was not long confined within a narrow circle of disciples; Peter, in two harangues, converted eight thousand persons at Jerusalem;* James, the brother of our Saviour, was elected the first bishop of this church, in the year 35 of our era; and was succeeded by Simeon, the cousin of Jesus Christ. We then find a series of thirteen bishops, of Jewish race, who occupy a space of one hundred and twenty-three years, from Tiberius to the reign of Adrian. The names of these bishops are Justus, Zacheus, Tobias, Benjamin, John, Mathias, Philip, Seneca, Justus II., Levi, Ephraim, Joseph, and Jude.§

If the first Christians of Judea consecrated monuments to their religious worship, is it not probable that they erected them, in preference, on those spots which had been distinguished by the miracles of their faith? Can it be doubted, that in those times there existed sanctuaries in Palestine, when the believers possessed such at Rome, and in all the provinces of the empire? When St. Paul, and the other apostles, gave exhortations and laws to the churches of Europe and Asia, to whom did they address themselves, unless to a congregation of believers, meeting in one common place, under the direction of a pastor? Is not this even implied by the word Ecclesia, which, in Greek, signifies either an assembly, or a place of assembly? St. Cyril takes it in the latter sense.¶

The election of the seven deacons, in the year 33 of the Christian era ;** and the first council, held in 51,t show that the apostles had particular places of meeting in the Holy City. We find no difficulty in believ ing, also, that the Holy Sepulchre was honoured, from the first institution of Christianity, under the name of Martyrion, or the Testimony. At least, St. Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem, preaching in 347, in the church *Acts of the Apostl. c. 2. and 4. Eus. Hist. Eccl. lib. I. c. 2. Eus. Hist. Eccl. lib. III. c. 11-33.

$ Eus. Hist. Ecel. lib. III. c. 35. and lib. IV. c. 5.

Catech. XVIII. **Acts, c. 6. †† Acts, c. 15.

of Calvary, says, "This temple does not bear the name of church, like the others, but is called Marturion Testimony, as the prophet predicted.*

A. D. 70.

At the commencement of the troubles in Judea, during the reign of Vespasian, the Christians of Jerusalem withdrew to Pella,† and as soon as the city was demolished they returned to dwell among its ruins. In the space of a few months, they could not have forgotten the position of their sanctuaries, which being, moreover, without the walls, must not have suffered much from the siege. Simeon, the successor of James, governed the church of Judea when Jerusalem was taken, since we find the same Simeon, at the age of one hundred and twenty years, receiving the crown of martyrdom during the reign of Trajan.|| The succeeding bishops, whose names I have men- A. D. 117. tioned, fixed their residence on the ruins of the Holy City, and preserved the Christian traditions respecting

it.

That the holy places were generally known in the A. D. 137. time of Adrian, is demonstrated by an undeniable fact. That emperor, when he rebuilt Jerusalem, erected a statue of Venus on Mount Calvary, and another of Jupiter on the holy sepulchre. The grotto of Bethlehem was given up to the rites of Adonis. The folly of idolatry thus published, by its imprudent profanations, the silly doctrine of the Cross, which it was so much to its own interest to conceal. The faith made such rapid progress in Palestine, before the last insurrection of the Jews, that Barcochehas, the ringleader on this occasion, persecuted the Christians to oblige them to renounce their religion.*

**

*S. Cyr. Cat. XVI. Illum. † Euseb. Hist. Eccl. lib. III. c. 5. # Titus appeared before Jerusalem about Easter, in the year 70, and the city was taken in the month of September, the same year.

Eus. Hist. Eccl. lib. III. c. SS.

Hieron. Epist. ad Paul-Ruff. Sozom. Hist. Eccl. lib. II. c. 1. Socrat. Hist. Eccl. lib. I. c. 17.-Sev. lib. II.-Niceph. lib. XVII. * Eas. lib. IV. c. 8.

37