Some years after Omar's conquest, Arculfe visited A. D. 636. Palestine. Adamannus, abbot of Iona, a British island, drew up a description of the Holy Land, from the account of the French bishop. This curious description is yet extant. Seranius published it in 1619, at Ingolstadt, under this title: De Locis Terræ Sanctæ, lib. 3. An extract from it may be found in the works of the venerable Bede: De Situ Hierusalem et Locorum Sanctorum liber. Mabillon has introduced the performance of Adamannus into his great collection: Acta S. S. Ordin. S. Benedicti II. 514.

Arculfe describes the holy places as they were in the time of St. Jerome, and as we behold them at the present day. He represents the church of the Holy Sepulchre as a circular building: he found churches and oratories at Bethany, on the Mount of Olives, in the garden of the same name, and in that of GethseHe admired the magnificent church at Bethlehem. These are precisely the same objects as are still shown, and yet this description is of about the year 690, if we place the death of Adamannus in 704.* It is to be observed that, in the time of St. Arculfe, Jerusalem still went by the name of Ælia.

mane.

In the eighth century, we have two narratives of A. D. 700. Travels to Jerusalem, by St. Guillebaud:† in which A. D; 765. the same places continue to be described, and the same traditions to be faithfully repeated. These narratives are short, but the essential stations are marked. The learned William Cavet mentions a manuscript of the venerable Bede, in bibliotheca Gualtari Copi, cod, 169, under the title of Libellus de Sanctis Locis. Bede was born in 672, and died in 732. Whatever may be the nature of this little work, it must be placed in the eighth century.

During the reign of Charlemagne, at the commence- A. D. 800.

* Guil. Cav. Script. Eccl. Hist. litter. p. 328.

+Canisii Thesaur. Mon. Eccles. et Hist. a Barn. tom. II, p. 1.

Mabil. II. 372.

Guil, Cav. Script. Eccl. Hist. litter. p. 336.

A. D. 800.

A. D. 905.

A. D. 1000.

ment of the ninth century; the chalif Haroun al Raschid, ceded to the French emperor the property of the Holy Sepulchre. Charles sent alms to Palestine, for one of his capitularies is extant, with this head: De Eleemosyna mittenda ad Jerusalem. The patriarch of Jerusalem had solicited the protection of the monarch of the west. Eginhard adds, that Charle magne protected the Christians beyond sea.* At this period the Latin pilgrims possessed an hospital to the north of Solomon's Temple, near the convent of St. Mary; and Charlemagne made a present of a library to this establishment. We are informed of these particulars, by Bernard, a monk, who was in Palestine about the year 870. His account, which is very circumstantial, gives all the positions of the sacred places.†

Elias, the third of that name, patriarch of Jerusalem, wrote to Charles the Fat, at the commencement of the tenth century, soliciting his assistance towards the rebuilding of the churches of Judea. "We shall not," says he, "enter into any recapitulation of our misfortunes; they must be well known to you from the pilgrims who daily come to visit the holy places, and who return to their own country.‡

The eleventh century, which terminates with the crusades, furnishes several travellers in the Holy Land. Oldric, bishop of Orleans, witnessed the cere mony of the sacred fire at the Holy Sepulchre. Glaber's chronicle, it is true, should be read with caution; but we have here to record a fact, not to discuss a point of criticism. Allatius, in Symmictis, sive Opusculis, &c. has also handed down to us the journey to Jerusalem of Eugesippus, a Greek. Most of the sacred places are described in it, and this account agrees with all that we know on the subject. In the

In Vit. Car. Mag.

Mabill. Act. S. S. Ord. S. Ben. sect. III. part 2.

+ Acheri Spicileg. tom. 11. Edit. à Barr.

§ Glaber, Chronic. lib. IV. Apud, Duch. Hist. Franc.

course of this century, William the Conqueror sent considerable alms to Palestine. Finally, the travels of A. D. 1099. Peter the Hermit, which were attended with such important consequences, and the crusades themselves prove how strongly the attention of the Christian world was attracted to that remote region where the mystery of salvation was accomplished.

Jerusalem continued in the hands of French princes A. D. 1100. eighty-eight years; and the historians of the collection Gesta Dei per Francos have recorded every thing that occurred in the Holy Land during that period. Benjamin of Tudela visited Judea about the year 1173.

A. D. 1173.

When Saladin had retaken Jerusalem from the cru- A. D. 1187. saders, the Syrians ransomed the church of the Holy Sepulchre for a considerable sum,a and pilgrims still continued to visit Palestine in defiance of all tha dangers attending the expidition.

Phocas in 1208,6 Willdebrand of Oldenburg in 1211, A. D. 1200. Jacob Vetraco, or of Vetri, in 1231,c and Brocard, a Dominican friar, in 1283,d visited the sacred places and repeated, in their Travels, all that had been said before them on the subject.

For the fourteenth century we have Ludolph,e Man- A. D. 1300. deville,f and Sanuto.g

For the fifteenth, Breidenbach,h Tuchor,i and A. D. 1400. Langi.k

For the sixteenth, Heyter,l Salignac,m Pascha,n &c. A. D. 1500 For the seventeenth. Cotovic, Nau, and a hundred A. D. 1600.

a Sanut. Lib. Secret. Fidel. Cruc. Sup Terr. Sanct. II. Itiner. Hieros. ap. Allat. Symmiet.

Lib. de. Terr. Sanet.

Descript. urb. Jerus. et. Loc. Terr. Sanct.

e De Terr. Sanct. et Itin. Hierosol.

f Descript. Jerusalem.

g Lib. Secret. Fidel. Crue.

A Peregrinat. ad. Sepulch. Dom.

i Reise-beschreib. zum heil. grab. Hierosol. Urb. Templ.

Lib. Hist. Part. Orient.

m Itin. Ierosol. et Terr. Sanet.

Peregrin, cum exact. Descript, Jerusalem.

A. D. 1700.

For the eighteenth, Maundrel, Pococke, Shaw, and Hasselquist.*

These travels which are multiplied ad infinitum, are all repetitions of each other, and confirm the traditions relative to Jerusalem in the most invariable and striking manner.

It

What an astonishing body of evidence is here! The apostles saw Jesus Christ; they knew the places honoured by the Son of Man; they transmitted the tradition to the first Christian church of Judea; a regular succession of bishops was established, and religiously preserved the sacred tradition. Eusebius appeared, and the history of the sacred places commenced. was continued by Socrates, Sozomenes, Theodoret, Evagrius, and St. Jerome. Pilgrims thronged thither from all parts. From this period to the present day, an uninterrupted series of travels for fourteen centuries, gives us the same facts and the same descriptions. What tradition was ever supported by such a host of witnesses? He who has doubts on this subject, must refuse credit to every thing: and, besides, I have not made all the use of the crusades that I might have done. To all these historical proofs I shall add some reflections on the nature of religious traditions, and on the local situation of Jerusalem.

It is certain, that religious traditions are not so easily lost as those which are purely historical. The former are in general treasured in the memory of but a small number of enlightened persons, who may forget the truth or disguise it according to their passions: the latter are circulated among a whole nation, and mechanically transmitted from father to son. If the principles of religion are rigid, as is the case with Christianity; if the slightest deviation from a fact, or an idea becomes a heresy, it is the more probable, that whatever relates to that religion will be preserved from age to age with scrupulous fidelity.

* I shall add no more to this list, which, perhaps, is already too long. In the following sheets will be found the names of many other travellers that are here omitted.

I know that, in a long series of years, an extrava- A. D. 1600. gant piety, an indiscreet zeal, the ignorance attached to the times and to the inferior classes of society, may overload a religion with traditions which will not stand the test of criticism; but the ground work still remains. Eighteen centuries, all pointing out the same facts and the same monuments in the same places, cannot err. If certain objects of devotion have been mistakenly multiplied at Jerusalem, this is no reason for rejecting the whole as an imposture. Let us not, moreover, forget, that Christianity was persecuted in its cradle, and that it has almost always continued to suffer at Jerusalem. Now it is well known what fidelity prevails among partners in affliction: to such, every thing becomes sacred, and the remains of a martyr are preserved with greater respect than the crown of a monarch. The child that can scarcely lisp, is already acquainted with this treasure; carried at night by his mother to perilous devotions, he hears the singing, he beholds the tears of his kindred and friends, which engrave upon his tender memory, objects that he can never afterwards forget; and, at an age when he might naturally be expected to display nothing but cheerfulness, frankness, and levity, he learns to be grave, discreet, and prudent; adversity is premature old age.

I find in Eusebius a remarkable proof of this veneration for a sacred relic. He relates that, in his time, the Christians of Judea still preserved the chair of St. James, the brother of our Saviour, and the first bishop of Jerusalem. Gibbon himself could not forbear admitting the authenticity of the religious traditions current in Palestine. "They" (the Christians) says he, "fixed by unquestionable tradition, the scene of each memorable event;"-an acknowledgement of considerable weight from a writer so well-informed, and at the same time so prejudiced against religion.

Finally, the traditions concerning places, are not so apt to be distorted as those relative to facts, be

H