Pal Est I N E
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EARLY TRAVELS IN PAL EST IN E, COMPRISING THE NARRATIVES 01' ARCUL~', WILLIBALD, BERNARD, SJEWULF, SIGURD, BENJA~IIN OF TUDELA, SIR JOHN MAUNDEVILLE, DE LA BROCQUIERE, AND MAUNDRELL. EblTED, WITH NOTES, By THOMAS WRIGHT, ESQ., M.A., ]'.S.A., &c. LONDON: IIENRY G. BOIIN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. SF.CTION M' .IF.RI"SALEK FROM W SW TO E N F. ON THE LINE MARKED AB ON PLAN. I - -- ----- MDCCCXLVIII. CONTENTS. P.~Gg INTRODUCTION by the Editor.................................... •••.•...•...•• vii The Travels of BISHOP ARCULF, in the HOLY LAND, towards A.D. 700 The Travels of WILLIBALD, A.D. 721-727 13 The Voyage of REMARD THE WISE, A..D. 867............ 23 The Travels of S&WULll', A.D. 1102 and 1103 31 The Saga of SIGURD THE CU.l:SADER, A.D. 1107-1111 !j0 The Travels of RABBI BENJAMIN, of TUDELA, A.D. 1160-1173 63 The Book of SIR JOHN MAUNDEVILLE, A.D. 1322-13fi6 127 The Travels of BERTRANDON DE LA BROCQUIERE, A.D. 1432 and 1433 283 The Journey of HENRY MAUNDRELL, from ALEPPO to JERUSiLEM, .A.D. 1697 383 REFERENCES 'ro PLAN OF JERUSALEM, REDUCED FROM A LARGE PLAN, CONSTRUOTED BY SCBULTZ, PRUSSIAN CONSUL AT JERUSALEM. INTRODUCTION. 1. Chapel of Scourgin~. 2. Scala Sancta. 3. Pilate'a House. THE attentive reader of hist.ory cannot fail to remark how 4. Chapel of Crowning with Thorns. often, in th.e confusion of the middle ages, the very move 5. Arch of I Ecce Homo.' ments or principles which seem in themselves most barbarous, 6. Fir.,t place where Simon carried the Cross. or are most strongly tinctured with the darkest shades of super 7. Second do. do. stition, have been those which, in the sequel, gave the 8. Gate of Judgment (Porta J udiciaria). strongest impulse to the advancing spirit of civilization which 9. House of Urias. has at length changed that dark past into this hright. present 10. 13ath of 13athsheba. It is in the contemplation of this oft-recurring fact, that we 11. House of the High Priest Zacharias. trace, more distinctly, perhaps, than inanyother, theinscrutable l-2. St. Marcus. but unerring ways of that higher Providence to whose rule all 13. 81. Thomas. things are subjected. Few of those duties enjoined by the 14. High Priest Annas. ancient Romish Church were accompanied with, and seemed to lead to, more abuses and scandals than the pilgrimages to 15. 11 Caiphaa. 16. Room in which the Last Supper was instituted. the Holy Land, so natural an attra.ction to every Christian; few 17. House of the Virgin :Mary. were attended with so much bigotry, and blindness, and un 18. Place where St. Peter wept. charitableness, or ended in observances and convictions so 19. House of Sta. Anna. grossly superstitious and so degrading to the intelligence of 20. the Pharisee Simon. mankind. Yet it was this throwing of people upon the wide and distant scene, on which they were forced into continual 21. Place where Stephen was stoned. intercourse, hostile or friendly, according to the circumstances 22. J eSllS sweated blood. of the moment, with people of different manners., creed, sen 23. the Disciples slept. timent, and knowledge, that gradually softened down a.ll pre 24. Jlldas kissed Christ. judices, and paved the way for the entire destruction of that 25. Jeaus taught the Lord's PmJer. system to which it seemed intended to give support. If the 26. " wept oyer Jerusalem. seeds of civilization ever existed in the cloister, they were 27. the Apostles learned the Creed. seeds cast upon the barren rock, and it was not until they 28. Jodas hanged himself. ,vere transplanted to another and richer Boil, that they began 29. Tomb of J ehoshaphat. to sprout and give promise of fruit. ~O. " Absolom. Even ill this point of view the narrative of those ea.rly pil 31. " Jacob. grimages must possess no ordinary degree of interest, and it .32. " Zacbarias. gives us no little insight into the history of the march of in tellectual improvement to accompany these early travellers in viii INTRODUCTION. INTRODUOTION'. ·is their wanderings, as they have themselves described them to authentic traditions concerning the localities of the more us, and ~ \\·a~h their feelings and hear their opinions. The important events of Gospel history. human mInd IS one of those important objects of study that We have fortunately one document of a very remarkable ,ve ~ never look upon from too many standing-places. But character, which has preserved to us the loeol traditions of the there IS another point ofvie\vinwhich the narratives of the early Christians of Syria under the IWmans. I t was first brought pi~grims, o! \Yhich. S,o many have been preserved, are perhaps to light by the celebrated French antiquary, Pierre Pithou, stIll more InterestIng. That favoured land to which they re who printed it, in 1588, from a manuscript in his own library, l~te, th~ 8Ce?e of 80 many events of deep import to our hap under'the title of "Itinerarium a BurlligalaHiertUlalem mque;" pIness In thIS world and in the future, has never lost its at and it was afterwards inserted in the editions of the "Antonins tractions, and more steps, as well as more eyes, are now Ttinerary," by Schott and Wesseling. The author of thisItine turned ~wards it, than in those so-called ages of faith, when rary was a Christian of Bordeaux, who visited the HolyLand every mIle on the road was believed to count in heaven for so in the year 333 *, and it was evidently compiled for the use much towards the redemption of the past crimes and offences, of his countrymen. This visit took place two years befo!e h?~ever great, of the traveller. Pilgrims innumerable still the consecration of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, buIlt VISIt the h~ly places, with a purer faith and a less prejudiced by the emperor Constantine and his mother Helena. The understandIng, ye~ wi~h the desire of kno\ving what others in compiler of this Itinerary, who is the first traveller to the East past ages saw, whIch IS now not to be seen~ or 'which is seen who has left us lin account of his journey, departed from Bor un.der diff~rent ~ircumstanceB; to know ,vhat they thought of deaux, then one of the chief cities of Gaul, passed by ArIes objects whIch stIll offer themselves to view· and to trace in and other towns, and crossed the Alps into Italy, which theirsuccessiv~obserrat~onsand reflections th~gradualdevelop country he traversed, passing throug~ Turin., Pavia, ~i1~n, ment of,a thIrst for dIscovery and knowledge which has at Brescia. Verona, &c., to the then magnificent CIty of AqulleI8; length gIven them the power of being so much wiser than their thence he crossed the J ulian Alps, and passed through Non f~ref~ther~.. It was the interest created by the objects these cum, Pannonia, Illyria, Dacia, and Thrace, to Cons~tinop]?, pllgnm~ VIsIted. persona~ly, and the curiosity excited by the and thence, after crossing the Bosphorus, he contlnued hIS vague Information obtained from intercourse with men who route through Asia Minor to Syria. Hitherto the Itinerary came from parts still more distant, that laid the first founda is El. mere recapitulation of. names ~nd distances.' but, aft~r his tion of geographical science, and that first gave the impulse to arrival in Syria, he contInuall:r Interrupts hl~ bare ,hst of geographical discovery. names, to mention some holy SIte, or other obJect whIch at A comparison of the numerous narratives to which we tmcted his attention. On his arrival at Jerusalem, he gives allude, places before our eyes the most distinct view we can us a long description of that city and its neighbourhood. possibly have of the various changes which have swept over From Jerusalem lie returns to Constantinople, varying a little the land of Palestine since it was snatched from the power his route, and thence he retraces his steps as far as H~ra of th? Roma~ emperors. The more ancient are, of course, the clea in Thrace, where he leaves his former road, passing mostInterestIng,becausetheyrelate to a periodwhenafargreater through Macedonia to Thessalonica, and thence to Italy, ~umber of ~onumentsof still earlier antiquity remained in ex.. where he visited Brundusium, Capua, and Rome, and thence Istence tlli}.n .I~ has been the lot of any modern pilgrims to visit, returned to Milau. ~nd the trad~tIons of the locality were then much more deserv Ing of attentIon, because they were 80 much nearer to the time • This date is fixed by a statement of the writer of the Itinerary: of the events to wh~c~ th~y rel~ted. It can hardly be sup II Item ambulavimus Dalmatio et Dalmaticei Zenopbilo cons. iii. Kal. Jun. a posed that the Chnstlan InhabItants of ,Terusalem and its Kalcidonia et reversi 8umU8 ad Constantinopolim vii. Kalend. J BD. cODsule 8upralcrip~/' We know from the hi.t~riRJ1B that Flavins Val~riu. Dd neighbourhood, under the Roma.ns, did not preserve Bome matius (brother of the emperor Conatantlne) and !clarcua AureliUl Xen~ philua were conauls together in 333. x ntTJIODtJC'J'I01f. DTBODucnON. Although this ItiDer8.ry has come dOWJJ to us as & solitary Racbel. At Bethlehem she deseended into the grotto ()f the narrative, we learn from the writings of some of the Greek Nativity. She next visited the tower of Ader of the Flocks. faLbers, that pilgrimages to the Holy Land had already, at .A.t Bethphage, she saw the sepulchre of Lazartl8, and the that period, become 80 frequent as to lead to many abuses; house of Martha and Mary; on Mount Ephraim, she was and the early sainta' lives have been the means of preserving shown the sepulchre of Joshua, and of the high priest Eleazar; to us brief notices of some of the ad~entnre8 of the pilgrims, at Sichem, she entered the churchbuilt over the well of Jacob, which are obseured by the incredible mi'racles with which where our Saviour spoke to the Samaritan woman; she next those narratives abound.