Returning to the arch, and going along the street westward as far as the central valley, we come on the south side to the Station of the First Fall of Christ. The Evangelists make no mention of any falls; but, from reading their narrative, we may well suppose that, worn by the sorrow and agony of that night, He fell many times: still to the faithful heart and thoughtful mind all additions to the sublimity of the Gospel narrative are offensive, while they cannot be instructive to the man in whom these qualities are wanting.
Some yards from this spot, rather to the west, are the ruins of a church, perhaps of the date of the Crusades; said to be on the spot where the Virgin Mary swooned at the sight of her Son's sufferings; to record which a chapel was erected, bearing the name Chapel of the Virgin's Swoon. This had already been destroyed in the time of Quaresmius; but it appears that afterwards the Mohammedans repaired it, converting it into a mosque. The upper part has again fallen to ruin; in the lower is the Agency of the Austrian Lloyd.
Following the street southward from the Station of the First Fall, we come to the spot pointed out as the place where the Virgin Mary met Jesus. There is no mention of this circumstance in the Evangelists; it is therefore only a tradition; and how can it be true of a place in a street which has only existed a few centuries (as is shewn by the houses on each side), and runs over a mass of ruins? Moreover, in this direction the Roman armies under Pompeius, and again under Titus, made their attacks on the Temple; it is therefore very improbable that after the time of the latter there would be any traces of a street left. When Hadrian rebuilt the city he set up idols in the principal sacred places to insult the Jews and Christians; and we may therefore believe that, in laying out the streets afresh, he would have swept away every trace of the tradition, if any had then existed. Close to the station, on the south, is a great pointed arch with delicately executed details, supported by two well-built piers. It dates from the Crusades, and very probably was the entrance to some religious building, erected to commemorate one of the events of the Passion; or perhaps a convent may have been at this place. Arab houses are built on each side of it facing the street, so that nothing can be made out there. I entered these to see if I could ascertain anything, but my examination produced little result, because an Arab wall completely masks it; while a number of small longitudinal and transverse party-walls, all of Arab work, have entirely transformed the appearance of the place. However, in these I found some polished stones, and fragments of ornaments, with mutilated capitals and broken columns; all proofs of the existence of a building of the time of the Crusades. Perhaps a nunnery[480], dedicated to S. John, once stood on this spot, belonging to the Benedictines of Bethany, and used by them as a refuge in time of war. Here the guides not unfrequently point out the house of the beggar Lazarus, opposite to the arch; and also shew the palace of the wicked Dives, at a little distance to the south in the same street. This is a house built of different coloured stones. These 'Jerusalem antiquarians' have converted the parable into a historic fact, and so endeavoured to preserve the traces of the dwellings! I suppose they think that the poor men "full of sores" were of more importance in former times than now. There are still numbers of lepers, who, from morning to evening, wait outside the Jaffa Gate to beg; and many give them an alms, but who now ever bestows a second thought on them, or would remember where they lived? The 'palace of Dives' is a handsome building of the sixteenth century, erected by the liberality of Solyman for a hospital. It is still used for the same purpose by the soldiers belonging to the garrison; but if not soon repaired, it will share the usual fate of Mohammedan government property, and fall into ruins.
The Evangelists tell us that Simon the Cyrenian aided our Lord in bearing His Cross, but do not mention the place where he encountered Him[481]. It very probably was near the present Station, or a little to the south of it, as he no doubt entered the city from the country by the North Gate or Gate of Ephraim (now the Damascus Gate). A small stone built into a modern Arab wall marks the place. We must, however, remember that this street runs upon a mass of rubbish 17 feet thick, as I discovered during the repairs of the sewer; so that the actual site of the meeting is covered up. This remark also applies to the next station. The Mohammedans and Jews are wont to throw dirt at the stone, when they see Christians kneeling before it, so that one frequently finds it necessary to make the fanatics undo their work, reminding the former that Isa (Jesus) was one of their prophets, and the latter that it is no longer the time to renew the ancient scenes of persecution. I mention this to shew how serious quarrels frequently arise in Jerusalem, which are not appeased without much difficulty.
The Evangelists make no mention of Veronica. Much has been written upon this point: some considering her to be the sick woman who was healed by touching the hem of the Saviour's garment[482]; others, a lady of noble birth named Berenice, whose name was changed to Veronica after she became a follower of Christ; deriving the word from Vera-icon (true image)! The tradition of Veronica and the Holy Napkin dates from a very early period in the history of Christianity; as do the different Holy Napkins, which are in existence in various places. In 1854 the walls (Arab work) of the House of Veronica were in a ruinous condition, and were entirely rebuilt by the Mohammedan owner. I then discovered that its foundations rested on made ground, so that they were of no very great age. On digging down for the rock, to lay the new foundations, the workmen came upon large stones, which I consider to be the remains of the second wall of the city, not of any former House of Veronica.
Further on the street is arched over, and in the side-walls are remains of ancient masonry. Here some place the House of the Wandering Jew! This tradition however (or rather legend) is not accepted by the Christians of Jerusalem. The number of stones of ancient Jewish workmanship in the lower parts of the wall and inside the buildings on each side, and the position in the line of the second wall, in its course from the Antonia across the Tyropœon, lead me to think that the Gate of Ephraim formerly stood exactly on this spot. The pointed arches in the doors half buried in the accumulated earth seem to shew that some building occupied this site in the time of the Crusades.
Tradition asserts that the sentence of death was affixed to the Judgement Gate, by which the condemned criminal went out on his way to execution, and that as our Lord passed by here He fell the second time. Adrichomius holds that the name is derived from its being the place where the Sanhedrim assembled to pronounce sentence, but he gives no reason for their meeting there rather than in any other place. I consider that probably it was called the Gate of Ephraim[483] previous to the building of Herod's wall, and that the name was afterwards changed. The Evangelists make no mention either of it or of the second fall of Christ.
Our Lord's meeting with the 'daughters of Jerusalem' is mentioned by S. Luke[484], but, owing to the circumstance that Titus attacked the second line of walls from this side, it is obvious that, even if the event happened in this neighbourhood, all traces of the exact spot must have been swept away in the changes that the place has undergone; so that the tradition is valueless.
The station of the Third Fall needs no comment. With regard to the Calvary and Sepulchre I have already expressed my opinion in the fourth chapter. I believe the other stations to be in the neighbourhood of them, so that while I cannot undertake to fix their exact position, I do not absolutely refuse to give any credence to them.
I hold, therefore, that the present Via Dolorosa is only a representation of the true one; and regard it in the same way as I do the Stations in Churches; that is, as a useful agent in arousing religious feelings, and bringing to remembrance the solemn scenes of the Redeemer's Passion. The changes wrought in the city at its destruction by Titus and rebuilding by Hadrian, and the numerous alterations at other times, the accumulation of rubbish, and, above all, the impossibility of the position of one part of the street, lying, as it would do, in the north ditch of the Antonia, seem to me insuperable difficulties in the way of establishing the identity of this with the road trodden by our Saviour. That I believe to have commenced on the west side of the Antonia, and to have followed the line of the present street of S. Helena's Hospital up to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Along this, in my opinion, the Stations might more reasonably be placed; for, whatever theory be adopted about the tower Antonia, the difficulty of the valley cannot be explained away.