But still, whether it was that I had some lingering doubts on the subject, or whether it was the name it bore, and the silent and lamp-lit chamber in which it is presented, I cannot say: but though I visited this chamber repeatedly, it was always with a feeling of awe mingled with a degree of reverence.
There was in the city, at the time of our visit, an English gentleman, who had become a Roman Catholic, and was now a priest, but was a man of enlightened and liberal views; he had been residing some time at Lisbon, and had now been sent to Jerusalem with the contribution of the Portuguese churches for this year. He visited us frequently at Mr. Nicholayson’s; and we were all struck both with his intelligence and very gentlemanly manners. He informed me that a short time previous to this, when occupied one day in examining the library of the principal Latin convent, he lighted on an old musty book, written in Latin by the father guardian of Jerusalem about three centuries since. The author said, that during his residence here it was found necessary to take up the pavement of this church in order to make some repairs; that he watched the process with deep attention, and that his satisfaction can scarcely be imagined, when, on coming to the native rock, he found, immediately under this spot, a chamber cut in the rock, and corresponding exactly to the tombs we find about the city. That on further research among the old records of the convent, he (the father guardian) found it stated, that in ancient times the sepulchre had stood open and exposed; and was beginning to be greatly mutilated by pilgrims, each one being desirous of carrying away some portion of the sacred rock. In order to preserve it, a strong railing was built around; but that now, the visitors being debarred from touching the sepulchre, votive offerings, rags,[52] &c. were thrown in by them in such quantities that the place soon become offensive; and that finally, to prevent this new evil, the tomb was filled up, and a small chapel was erected over it, with a sarcophagus, as a representative of the real sepulchre beneath.
The account of the father guardian has the appearance of probability, but the reader is left to take it for what he may consider it worth. I tried to get sight of the book; but as the convent was in quarantine on account of the plague, could not succeed; and I regret to say that I have forgotten its title.
The light which we can gain from the Scriptures on this subject, joined with the uniform tradition, lead me to suppose that this is the spot; whatever may be the fact with regard to the sepulchre itself, whether it be now beneath the structure going by its name, or whether it has been cut away to make room for a heathen temple erected by Hadrian, or for the present church.
The little chapel of the Sepulchre stands in the centre of the great church, facing the east. Directly in front of it is a large opening into a church owned by the Greeks, and no wise remarkable, except for a ball suspended from the ceiling, and a plate beneath it, on which is an inscription, telling that this is the centre of the world.
The authority for this is in Ps. lxxiv. 12. “For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth;” and here I must warn the reader that his feelings will sometimes be shocked in the course of these visits, and I must be allowed to warn him also against allowing his disgust to operate so as to make him reject the truth with the error. This is not consistent with the principles of sound judgment, but the contrary. Where truth is, error will generally come; and error, as I have already remarked, is to a certain degree a proof that there is truth somewhere; for man could not hang up such a mass of fictions if there was not something real to hang it upon; and generally, the more important the truth, the more earnest is error to draw advantage therefrom.
I cannot, however, join in the frequent outcry of imposition, craft and falsehood against the sects who hold these places, and recite these traditions to the visitor. That such things as these are to be found in high and sacred seats, is doubtless true, and that they are sometimes practised here is also very probable; but I can find, for a great many of these traditions, an origin of a more charitable nature, and I believe one more consonant with the real state of the case. We live now in an age of light and knowledge, and find it hard even to imagine the darkness that once covered Europe and all these lands. We can form only some idea of it from the books of the middle ages—books full of fable and false philosophy on every subject. These fables on medicine, on alchemy, on astrology, and on a multitude of other topics, grew up, we are willing to believe, from men’s ignorance; in some cases there may have been deliberate deception; but in most, their origin was in the gross ignorance of the times; they show the strivings of minds shorn of their strength by diseases hereditary and for ages universal; men saw but dimly, and wandered into the ways of error when really and honestly in search of truth. And if we are willing to extend this charity to the other sciences, why not also to that of religion, where men’s feelings are apt to be more warmly affected, and even in a good cause, to warp the judgment, particularly if it be weak, than in any other? In this very city, the Mahomedans have a great variety of traditions with respect to the mosque of Omar, and some other of their sacred places about Jerusalem, quite as wild as any thing among the Christian sects; yet when we listen to them, we do not at once cry out “craft and roguery,” and believe the narrator to be wilfully imposing on us. We are willing to suppose him honest. We look at him; his face is grave; he has the appearance of sincerity; and we attribute the error to the deep and dark ignorance in which these people are known to live. Now I wish to claim for the Christian traditions just what we are willing to give to those of the Mahomedans. The principle of charity may, it is true, be carried too far, but I wish to see it carried further than it is. Let us go among these sacred places cautious, as cautious as you choose; but not sneering, or cultivating bitter feelings towards one another; let us pity the ignorance of our brother and commiserate him, but not load him with harsh epithets. Uncharitable insinuations are certainly very much out of place in this region, which should excite only humble and tender feelings; where, amid tauntings and contumely showered upon him, the Saviour prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
After leaving the Greek chapel, we crossed to the western side of this circular church; and here entering a narrow winding passage, came presently to a floor of naked rock with two graves cut in it, called the Sepulchres of Joseph of Arimathea and of Nicodemus. They are just deep enough to contain a body; that of Nicodemus is only about four and a half feet in length.
From this place we were taken to a chapel on the northern side of the church, where, they say, our Saviour appeared to the Virgin after his resurrection; and next, by a winding passage, to a place in the rear of the Greek church, where are altars marking, it is said, the spots where they cast lots for his garments; where he was confined till they had prepared the cross; where occurred the conversion of Longinus, the officer who pierced his side with a spear, &c. Here also we were conducted, by a descent of forty steps, into a large cave, the place where Helena discovered the cross. They tell us that the Jews, in order to stop the adoration of the cross by the early Christians, cast it here into a hole called the “Valley of Corpses,” where it remained three hundred years; that Helena, on digging for it, discovered three crosses, and, unable to distinguish which was the one she was searching for, had them carried to the place where is now the chapel of the Virgin, and where was then a woman at the point of death; and that the sick person being made to touch them, two produced no effect, but the third or true cross restored her immediately to health.