From hence they removed to the adjoining altar, where the cross is supposed to have been erected, bearing the image of our Lord's body. At this altar is a hole in the natural rock, said to be the very same individual one in which the foot of our Lord's cross stood. Here they set up their cross, with the bloody crucified image upon it; and, leaving it in that posture, they first sung their hymn, and then the father guardian, sitting in a chair before it, preached a passion-sermon in Italian.
At about one yard and a half distance from the hole in which the foot of the cross was fixed, is seen that memorable cleft in the rock, said to have been made by the earthquake which happened at the suffering of the God of Nature, when (as St. Matthew witnesseth[572]) "the rocks rent, and the very graves were opened." This cleft, as to what now appears of it, is about a span wide at its upper part, and two deep, after which it closes; but it opens again below, as you may see in another chapel contiguous to the side of Calvary, and runs down to an unknown depth in the earth. That this rent was made by the earthquake that happened at our Lord's passion, there is only tradition to prove; but that it is a natural and genuine breach, and not counterfeited by any art, the sense and reason of every one that sees it may convince him; for the sides of it fit like two tallies to each other, and yet it runs in such intricate windings as could not well be counterfeited by art, nor arrived at by any instruments.
The ceremony of the passion being over, and the guardian's sermon ended, two friars, personating the one Joseph of Arimathea, the other Nicodemus, approached the cross, and, with a most solemn and concerned air, both of aspect and behaviour, drew out the great nails, and took down the feigned body from the cross. It was an effigy so contrived that its limbs were soft and flexible, as if they had been real flesh; and nothing could be more surprising than to see the two pretended mourners bend down the arms, which were before extended, and dispose them upon the trunk in such a manner as is usual in corpses.
The body, being taken down from the cross, was received in a fair, large winding sheet, and carried down from Calvary, the whole company attending as before, to the stone of unction. This is taken for the very place where the precious body of our Lord was anointed and prepared for the burial[573]. Here they laid down their imaginary corpse, and casting over it several sweet powders and spices, wrapped it up in the winding sheet. Whilst this was doing they sung their proper hymn; and afterwards one of the friars preached, in Arabic, a funeral sermon.
These obsequies being finished, they carried off their fancied corpse and laid it in the sepulchre, shutting up the door till Easter morning; and now, after so many sermons and so long, not to say tedious, a ceremony, it may well be imagined that the weariness of the congregation, as well as the hour of the night, made it needful to go to rest.
March 27.—The next morning nothing extraordinary passed, which gave many of the pilgrims leisure to have their arms marked with the usual ensigns of Jerusalem. The artists who undertake the operation do it in this manner. They have stamps in wood of any figure that you desire, which they first print off upon your arm with powder of charcoal; then, taking two very fine needles tied close together, and dipping them often, like a pen, in certain ink, compounded, as I was informed, of gunpowder and ox-gall, they make with them small punctures all along the lines of the figure which they have printed, and then, washing the part in wine, conclude the work. These punctures they make with great quickness and dexterity, and with scarce any smart, seldom piercing so deep as to draw blood.
In the afternoon of this day, the congregation was assembled in the area before the holy grave, where the friars spent some hours in singing over the lamentations of Jeremiah, which function, with the usual procession to the holy places, was all the ceremony of this day.
Sunday, March 28.—On Easter morning the sepulchre was again set open very early. The clouds of the former morning were cleared up, and the friars put on a face of joy and serenity, as if it had been the real juncture of our Lord's resurrection; nor doubtless was this joy feigned, whatever their mourning might be, this being the day in which their Lenten discipline expired, and they were come to a full belly again.
The mass was celebrated this morning just before the holy sepulchre, being the most eminent place in the church, where the father guardian had a throne erected, and being arrayed in episcopal robes, with a mitre on his head, in the sight of the Turks, he gave the host to all that were disposed to receive it, not refusing children of seven or eight years of age. This office being ended, we made our exit out of the sepulchre, and returning to the convent, dined with the friars.
After dinner, we took an opportunity to go and visit some of the remarkable places without the city walls; we began with those on the north side.