"The entrance to the city of Jerusalem is from the west, under the citadel of King David, by the gate which is called the Gate of David. The first place to be visited is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, called the Martyrdom, not only because the streets lead most directly to it, but because it is more celebrated than all the other churches.... In the middle of this church is our Lord's Sepulchre, surrounded by a very strong wall and roof, lest the rain should fall upon the Holy Sepulchre, for the church above is open to the sky.... In the court of the church of our Lord's Sepulchre are seen some very holy places, namely, the prison in which our Lord Jesus Christ was confined after He was betrayed, according to the testimony of the Assyrians; then, a little above, appears the place where the holy cross and the other crosses were found, where afterwards a large church was built in honour of Queen Helena, which however has since been utterly destroyed by the Pagans; and below, not far from the prison, stands the marble column to which our Lord Jesus Christ was bound in the common hall, and scourged with most cruel stripes. Near this is the spot where our Lord was stripped of His garments and clad in a purple robe by the soldiers, and crowned with the crown of thorns, and they parted His raiment amongst them, casting lots. Next we ascend Mount Calvary, where the patriarch Abraham raised an altar, and prepared, by God's command, to sacrifice his own son; there afterwards the Son of God, whom he prefigured, was offered up as a sacrifice to God the Father for the redemption of the world. The rock of that mountain remains a witness of our Lord's passion, being much cracked near the hole, in which our Lord's cross was fixed, because it could not suffer the death of its Maker without rending, as we read in the Passion, 'and the rocks rent.' Below is the place called Golgotha, where Adam is said to have been raised from the dead by the stream of the Lord's blood which fell upon him, as is said in the Lord's Passion, 'And many bodies of the saints which slept arose.' But in the Sentences of S. Augustine, we read that he was buried at Hebron, where also the three patriarchs were afterwards buried with their wives; Abraham with Sarah, Isaac with Rebecca, and Jacob with Leah; as also the bones of Joseph which the children of Israel carried with them from Egypt. Near the place of Calvary is the church of S. Mary, on the spot where the body of our Lord, after having been taken down from the cross, was anointed with spices and wrapt in a linen cloth or shroud.
"At the head of the church of the Holy Sepulchre, in the wall outside, not far from the place of Calvary, is the place called Compas, which our Lord Jesus Christ Himself signified and measured with his own hands as the middle of the world, according to the words of the Psalmist, 'For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.' Some say that this is the place where our Lord Jesus Christ first appeared to Mary Magdalene, while she sought Him weeping, and thought He had been a gardener, as is related in the Gospel.
"These most holy places of prayer are contained in the court of our Lord's Sepulchre, on the east side. In the sides of the church itself are attached, on one side and the other, two most beautiful chapels in honour of S. Mary and S. John, who, sharing in our Lord's sufferings, stationed themselves one on each side of Him. On the west wall of the chapel of S. Mary is seen the portrait of the mother of our Lord, who once, by speaking wonderfully through the Holy Spirit, in the form in which she is here painted, comforted Mary the Egyptian, when she repented with her whole heart, and sought the help of the mother of our Lord, as we read in her life.
"On the other side of the church of S. John is a very fair monastery of the Holy Trinity, in which is the place of the baptistery, to which adjoins the chapel of S. James the Apostle, who first filled the pontifical chair at Jerusalem. These are all so composed and arranged, that any one standing in the furthest church may clearly scan the five churches from door to door.
"Without the gate of the Holy Sepulchre, to the south, is the church of S. Mary, called the Latin, because the monks there perform divine service in the Latin tongue; and the Assyrians say that the blessed mother of our Lord, at the crucifixion of her Son, stood on the spot now occupied by the altar of this church. Adjoining this church is another church of S. Mary, called the Less, occupied by nuns who serve devoutly the Virgin and her Son. Near which is the Hospital, where is a celebrated monastery founded in honour of S. John the Baptist."
Note VI. William of Tyre, VIII. 3. "On the eastern slope of the same hill is the Church of the Resurrection in the form of a rotunda, which being situated on the slope, and almost over-topped by the hill close to it, and so darkened, has a roof composed of beams placed upright, and wrought together by wondrous art into the shape of a crown, uncovered, and always open, by which the necessary light is conveyed into the church. Under this opening is the tomb of our Saviour. Beyond the entrance for the Latins is the scene of our Lord's passion, which is called Calvary, or Golgotha; where it is said that the wood of the life-giving cross was found, and where our Saviour's body, having been taken down from the cross, is said to have been embalmed with spices and wrapt in fine linen, as was the Jews' custom of burial. Beyond the limits of the Calvary aforesaid are many small houses of prayer. But after that the Christians, by the help of the divine goodness, occupied the city with a strong hand, the aforesaid building appeared to them too contracted, and by enlarging the church with most solid and excellent work, and enclosing the old building within the new, they succeeded wonderfully in putting together in one the aforementioned places."
John of Würtzburg, who visited the Holy Land in the twelfth century, when the Crusaders had already completed their works in the Church of the Resurrection, has transmitted to us a valuable detailed description, the principal passages of which I quote: "Whilst everything was in preparing for the crucifixion," he says, "our Lord was kept bound in a place at some distance from Calvary, which served as a prison: this place is marked by a chapel, and is called to this day the prison of our Lord, and is on the side opposite to Calvary, on the left of the church.... To the right of the entrance in the greater church is a place forming a portion of Calvary, in whose upper part is shewn a rent in the rock. In the same is depicted in fine mosaic work the Passion of Christ, and His burial, together with the testimony of the prophets, agreeing on all sides with the fact.
"In the middle of the choir, not far from the site of Calvary, is a spot where an altar has been formed of raised slabs of marble, supported by a trellis of iron. Beneath these slabs are some small circles traced in the pavements, which, they say is the centre of the earth, according to the saying, 'In the middle of the earth He hath wrought salvation.'
"A building of large dimensions, erected in a circular form round the monument, has at its further end a continuous wall adorned by different statues, and lighted by several lamps. In the inner circle of this larger building are eight round columns, on square bases, adorned on the outside with the same number of square slabs of marble, and erected all round the building, so as to sustain the weight of the building and the roof, which, as we have said, is open in the middle.