ACELDAMA
Our pilgrimage round mediæval Jerusalem thus ends at the appropriate site of Chaudemar (Aceldama), where the powdered dust of the bones of countless pilgrims still covers the floor of the great pit, on the south precipice of Hinnom. The rock fosse measured 30 feet by 20 feet, and the vaulted roof, supported on two stout piers of masonry—drafted and with rustic bosses—is 34 feet above the floor. The rock to the west is carved with endless rows of crosses. Zuallardo, in 1586, pictures this building as covered with four small domes which do not now exist. As early as 1143, William, patriarch of Jerusalem, took charge of the “church in the field Acheldamach, where the bodies of pilgrims are buried, with all the land of the field, granted facing it by ancient Syrians.”[547] It continued to be used for pilgrim burials even two centuries later.
Such was the Holy City in the day when Saladin won it from the Christians, and destroyed the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem.
FOOTNOTES TO CHAPTER XIII
[495] Will. of Tyre, “Hist. Bel. Sacr.,” i. 11. “Pusillus, persona contemptilis, vivacis ingenii, et occulum habens perspicuum, gratumque, et sponte fluens ei non deerat eloquentia.”
[496] Ibid., i. 8–10.
[497] See “The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem,” 1897, published by Pal. Expl. Fund, 1 vol. octavo, 443 pp.
[498] Röhricht, “Regesta,” Nos. 4, 8.
[499] “Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem,” pp. 95–8, 107–8.
[500] Will. of Tyre, iii. 1-viii. 24; Albert of Aix, ii. 20-vi. 50.