The city of Jerusalem

by C. R. Conder

The abbot of St. Saba stood before the sepulchre, while services in Greek and in Latin went on. The Fire was sometimes delayed three days, or appeared in the Temple or in the Hospital. It was believed to fall from heaven through the open roof. On the occasion described a fine rain was falling on the densely packed crowd round the tomb. They sang the Song of Moses, and at length “a small cloud coming suddenly from the East rested over the open dome of the church.... It was at that moment that the Holy Light illuminated the Holy Sepulchre, shining with an awful and splendid brightness. The bishop and four deacons then opened the doors of the tomb, and entered with the taper of Prince Baldwin.”

The canons of the Holy Sepulchre were of the Augustinian order. They received from Godfrey twenty-one villages lying near Jerusalem on the north in the royal domain, but other kings and barons added many other lands “for the saving of their souls” till they numbered seventy “casales” in all, besides fishing rights on the Sea of Galilee, and churches at Bari, Brindisi, and in Sicily.[525] Five of the villages were in Lower Galilee, and all the other Palestine property of this church was lost for ever in 1187 A. D.

THE HOSPITAL

South of the cathedral was the large block of buildings belonging to the Knights of St. John. It occupied an area of 500 feet side, or nearly 55 acres. It was bounded by Patriarch Street on the west, Herb Street on the east, Palmer Street on the north, and David Street on the south, while a narrow lane (in which the Latin goldsmiths had shops) ran north and south in the middle of the area. The east half was excavated by the German Government in 1872, and the west half by the Greek patriarch some thirty years later. Thus the whole of the remaining buildings are now visible. In the north wall the fine Norman gateway, with an arch carved with the signs of the twelve months, still remains, and in the north-east corner is the Church of St. Mary Latin, now rebuilt and consecrated as the German cathedral. Under its foundations, rock was found at a level 60 feet lower than that of the Calvary rock, showing how steeply the north bank of the Tyropœon Valley here falls south. The cloisters of the Benedictine monastery, with their fine west window, are to the south of this church, and in the south-east part of the area was the Benedictine nunnery, under which is a great tank, the rock floor in the bed of the valley being more than 70 feet lower than Calvary. In the west half of the area the remains of a larger church—St. Mary Magna—exist, with buildings belonging to the Hospital proper. The Chapel of St. John Baptist[526] is in the south-west part of the block, close to Patriarch Street and David Street. It is a basilica, with a narthex on the west, an apse on the east, and two other apses facing north and south respectively. The stone altar is still in situ, and the building forms the crypt of the later Greek church of St. John the Forerunner. The floor of this chapel of the knights is on the same level as that of the cathedral, and 10 feet above the rock; but the rubbish of later demolitions has now raised the street 25 feet higher, and the mediæval buildings were, till recently, quite covered over above their roofs.

Such was the home of the most popular of the military orders.[527] It was first supported by tithes granted by the Church in the diocese of Cæsarea, in Tripoli, Nazareth, and Acre. Baldwin I., in 1110, made a large grant of lands, and the master owned villages in the plains, and bought property in Nâblus. The knights were even given “tents of Beduins” by Baldwin III., and one of the results of the distribution of their lands was, that while the canons of the Holy Sepulchre lost all their villages in the mountains, the Hospitallers retained their property in the plains for nearly another century, and were not greatly concerned in imperilling this, in 1192, for the recovery of the Holy City by the Church. Even as early as 1155 they were at feud with the patriarch, and rang all their bells to annoy him when he preached in the cathedral.

Near the hospital were the two exchanges: that of the Latins (called Khân es Ṣerf—“inn of exchange”—by Mejîr ed Dîn in the sixteenth century) at the turn where David Street joined Temple Street; and that of the Syrians (now Khân ez Zeit, “the oil inn”), east of the Street of St. Stephen.[528] Other churches in the north part of the city included St. Chariton, north of the cathedral, the Chapel of the Spasm farther east, with St. Mary Magdalen and St. Anne in the Jews’ quarter. All these still remain, showing Norman origin by their style. The tank west of St. Anne, in which traces of frescoes on the walls are still visible, was, as already said, shown as the Pool of Bethesda. The Chapel of the Flagellation, opposite Antonia, already existed, and a Chapel of St. Gilles was at the causeway near the “Beautiful Gate” of the Temple.

The order of the Templars[529] grew out of the Augustinians. The canons of this order were established in the Temple by Godfrey; and in the reign of Baldwin II., in 1118 A. D., eight Burgundian knights, under Hugh de Payen, vowed to poverty, obedience, and chastity as tonsured monks, were established in the Aḳṣa Mosque as their hospice. A rule was given them by Pope Honorius in 1128. The Templars were the richest and proudest of the four orders, and it is curious that they were always unpopular, and constantly suspected of treachery. They seem to have been willing to establish good relations with Moslems in time of peace, and to have studied Oriental philosophy; and for such reasons, as also because they were independent of the patriarch, they were coldly regarded by the Church. Their records were destroyed when the order was suppressed in 1312 A. D., but their possessions in Europe were yet more numerous than in Palestine or Syria. They held castles near the coast, and escorted pilgrims. They had also a castle on the Jericho road, and built ’Athlit under Carmel in 1218, or seventy-three years before the fall of Acre. They acted as bankers, and they were given, or bought, many properties in the later times when the barons of Palestine and Syria were eager to get rid of their lands.

THE STABLES

The Templars carried out considerable works in the Ḥaram area. They added a Norman porch to the Aḳṣa Mosque, and a refectory, on the west of that building which was converted into a church with three apses on the east; and a long hall south of them was perhaps the vestry, with windows on the south Ḥaram wall, and pillars with braided shafts and elaborate capitals. John of Würzburg, about 1160 A. D., says that “the new and large church is not yet finished.” Their hospice was called “the Palace of Solomon,” and the same writer says, “There is the wonderful stable, of such size as to be able to hold two thousand horses, or five hundred camels.” He evidently means the vaults now called “Solomon’s Stables,” near the south-east part of the Ḥaram, for he says, “Near the Templar buildings, on the city wall, was the house of Simeon the Just.... In this house [converted into a church] blessed Simeon lies buried. In the same church, in the crypt below, ... is the wooden Cradle of Christ.” The crypt in question still exists at the south-east angle of the Ḥaram, and a cradle (a Roman statue niche) is still shown. The stables were formed by setting on end the great Herodian stones (drafted on one side) which formed stout piers with barrel vaults for roof. The holes made for the halters of the horses can still be seen, and the so-called “Single Gate,” in the south wall east of the Triple Gate, now walled up, shows its late date by its pointed arch. This was one entry to the Templars’ stables, and a larger one was made by altering the Triple Gateway itself, at the west end of the vaults. Theodorich says that the stables would hold ten thousand horses, and that the Templar Hospice included “gardens, halls, vestibules, consistories, rain-water tanks, splendid cisterns hewn beneath, baths, barns, granaries, wood-houses, ... and on the west the new house of the Templars with cells and refectories.... The roof, contrary to the custom of the country, has a high-pitched ridge.” There was a garden near the Chapel of the Cradle, and the city wall outside the Aḳṣa formed an “out-work” as it does now. The church itself had a dome—probably the Arab dome of the mosque.

The Dome of the Rock was not altered, but the octagonal wall was painted inside in fresco; and remains of this work were still visible when the marble facing was removed in part in 1873. The holy rock was covered with marble flags, and an altar erected on it. The footprint of Muhammad was shown as that of Christ. Ibn el Athîr, writing of 1187, says that Saladin ordered this marble pavement to be removed. He also covered up the frescoes, which represented Jacob’s Vision at Bethel and the Presentation in the Temple, with Latin verses inscribed beneath or around. The beautiful grille of French hammered iron-work, with lily heads between the spikes, was also now carried round the circle of the drum, between the piers and pillars. The cave under the rock was called “Confessio,” and was said to be the place where our Lord met the woman taken in adultery. It still contains a Norman altar with twisted pillars. Above this was an image of Christ, and a picture of Zacharias and the Angel.[530] The Templar churches in Europe were built round or polygonal in imitation of the Templum Domini, or “Temple of the Lord,” which was the new name for the Dome of the Rock now surmounted by a cross. The “Cloisters of the Canons” (now removed) appear to have occupied the north part of the platform. The Dome of the Chain was called the “Chapel of St. James,” and the “Dome of the Roll” became the “School of the Virgin”; for the legends of the apocryphal gospels created several new sites in the Ḥaram. Another image of Christ also stood over the porch of the west door, built, in 831 A. D., by El Mâmûn.