[424] It was pretended that the lamps in the church of the Holy Sepulchre were miraculously ignited on Easter Eve.
[425] Bernard, with two companions, sailed from Italy to Alexandria, and travelled thence by land to Jerusalem in the year 870. Their travels are printed in “Mabillon’s Acta Benedictinorum.” The account is short, but has several interesting particulars. There is also a good MS. in the British Museum, Bib. Cott. Faust, b. 1, where, by a mistake of the scribe, it is dated A.D. 970, but this is clearly wrong, for Bernard mentions Lewis, king of Italy, as then living, and he died A.D. 875.
[426] Some MSS. insert the name of another John after Juvenalis, but no patriarch of this name is known to have lived at that period. Malmesbury has, moreover, omitted the names of eleven patriarchs, between Juvenal, who died A.D. 458, and Zacharias who died A.D. 609.
[427] Cosroes, or Chosroes the Second, king of Persia.
[428] “The church of Jerusalem was vacant after the death of Sophronius, A.D. 644, until the year 705, when John V succeeded, whom Theodorus followed, A.D. 754.”—Hardy.
[429] “The tower of David was the old tower Psephina or Neblosa; it was likewise called Castellum Pisanum, from the patriarch Daimbert. (D’Anville, pp. 19–23.)”—Hardy.
[430] That is to say, with several floors or apartments, one above the other; each of which contained soldiers.
[431] Interested motives and conduct, it is to be observed, are several times imputed to the adventurers from Sicily and Calabria.
[432] In allusion to the custom of painting and gilding the ceilings.
[433] Godfrey would not, however, accept the name of king, nor wear a crown of jewels in a city where his Saviour had been crowned with thorns. He therefore contented himself with the title of “Defender and Baron of the Holy Sepulchre.”