Bishop Willibald next descended to the valley of Jehoshaphat, which is close to the city of Jerusalem, on the east side. And in that valley is the church of St. Mary, which contains her sepulchre, not because her body rests there, but in memory of it. And having prayed there, he ascended Mount Olivet, which is on the east side of the valley, and where there is now a church, where our Lord prayed before his passion, and said to his disciples, "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation."[36] And thence he came to the church on the mountain itself, where our Lord ascended to heaven. In the middle of the church is a square receptacle, beautifully sculptured in brass, on the spot of the Ascension, and there is on it a small lamp in a glass case, closed on every side, that the lamp may burn always, in rain or in fair weather, for the church is open above, without a roof; and two columns stand within the church, against the north wall and the south wall, in memory of the two men who said, "Men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?"[37] And the man who can creep between the wall and the columns will have remission of his sins.
He next came to the place where the angel appeared to the shepherds, and thence to Bethlehem, where our Lord was born, distant seven miles from Jerusalem. The place where Christ was born was once a cave under the earth, but it is now a square house cut in the rock, and the earth is dug up and thrown from it all round, and a church is now built above it, and an altar is placed over the site of the birth. There is another smaller altar, in order that when they desire to celebrate mass in the cave, they may carry in the smaller altar for the occasion. This church is a glorious building, in the form of a cross. After prayers here, Willibald came to a large town called Thecua, where the children were slain by Herod, and where there is now a church; here rests one of the prophets. And then he came to the valley of Laura, where there is a large monastery; here the abbot resides in the monastery, and he is porter of the church, with many other monks who belong to the monastery, and have their cells round the valley on the slope of the mountain. The mountain is in a circle round the valley, in which the monastery is built. Here rests St. Saba. He next arrived at the place where Philip baptized the eunuch, where there is a small church, in an extensive valley between Bethlehem and Gaza, where the travellers prayed. Thence they went to St. Matthew, where there is great glory on the Sunday. And while our bishop Willibald was standing at mass in this church, he suddenly lost his sight, and was blind for two months. And thence they went to St. Zacharias, the prophet, not the father of John, but another prophet. They next went to the castle of Aframia, where the three patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, repose, with their wives, and thence he returned to Jerusalem, and there, entering the church where the holy cross of our Lord was found, he recovered his sight.
After remaining some time at Jerusalem, Willibald set out on another journey, and came first to St. George, at Diospolis, which is ten miles from Jerusalem, and then to a town where there is a church of St. Peter the apostle, who here restored to life the widow named Dorcas. He went thence to the coast, far away from Jerusalem, to Tyre and Sidon, which stand on the sea-shore six miles from each other; after which he passed over Mount Libanus, to Damascus, and so again to Cæsarea, and a third time to Jerusalem, where he passed the following winter. And then he went to the town of Ptolemais, on the extreme bounds of Syria, and was obliged by sickness to remain there all Lent. His companions went forward to the king of the Saracens, named Emir-al-Mumenin, with the hope of obtaining letters of safe conduct; but they could not find the king, because he had fled out of his kingdom. Upon this, they came back, and remained together at Ptolemais until the week before Easter.
Then they went again to Emessa, and asked the governor there to give them letters, and he gave them a letter for each two, because they could not travel in a company, but only two and two, on account of the difficulty of obtaining food. And then they went to Damascus, and returned a fourth time to Jerusalem, where they remained a short period.
They now left Jerusalem by another route, and came to the town of Sebaste, which was formerly called Samaria, and they call the castle Sebastia. Here repose St. John the Baptist, and the prophets Abdiah and Elisha; and near the castle is the well at which our Lord asked for water of the Samaritan woman, and over which well there is now a church. And near is the mountain on which the Samaritans worshipped; for the woman said to our Lord, "Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship."[38] Here the travellers performed their devotions, and then they proceeded to a large town on the farthest borders of Samaria, where they reposed that night. And thence they continued their journey over an extensive plain covered with olive trees, and they were accompanied by a black with two camels and a mule, who was conducting a woman through the wood. And on their way they were met by a lion[39], which threatened them much with fearful roaring; but the black encouraged them, and told them to go forwards; and when they approached it, the lion, as God willed, hurried off in another direction, and they soon heard his roaring in the distance. They supposed he came there to devour people who went into the wood to gather olives. At length they arrived at a town called Thalamartha, on the sea-coast; and they proceeded onwards to the head of Mount Libanus, where it forms a promontory in the sea, and where stands the tower of Libanus. Nobody is allowed to pass this place without letters of safe conduct, for there is a guard in it; those who are without such letters, are seized and sent to Tyre. That mountain is between Tyre and Thalamartha. And so the bishop arrived again at Tyre.
Willibald had formerly, when at Jerusalem, bought balsam, and filled a gourd with it; and he took a gourd that was hollow, and had flax, and filled it with rock oil[40]; and poured some in the other gourd, and cut the small stalk, so that it fitted exactly and closed up the mouth of the gourd. So, when they came to Tyre, the citizens stopped them, and examined their burthens to see if they had any thing concealed; for if they had found any thing, they would immediately have put them to death. But they found nothing but Willibald's gourd, which they opened, and, smelling the rock oil in the stalk, they did not discover the balsam that was within. So they let them go. They remained here many days waiting for a ship, and when they had obtained one they were at sea all the winter, from the day of St. Andrew the apostle[41] till a week before Easter, when they reached Constantinople. Here repose in one altar the three saints, Andrew, Timothy, and Luke the evangelist; and the sepulchre of John Chrysostom is before the altar where the priest stands when he performs mass. Willibald remained there two years, and was lodged in the church, so that he might behold daily where the saints reposed. And then he came to the town of Nice, where the emperor Constantine held a synod, at which three hundred and eighteen bishops were present. The church here resembles the church on Mount Olivet, where our Lord ascended to heaven, and in it are the pictures of the bishops who were at the synod. Willibald went thither from Constantinople, that he might see how that church was built, and then returned to Constantinople.
At the end of the two years they sailed, in company with the envoys of the pope and the emperor, to the isle of Sicily, to the town of Syracuse, and thence to Catania, and so to the city of Regia, in Calabria; and thence to the isle of Vulcano, where is Theodoric's Hell[42]. And when they arrived there, they went on shore to see what sort of a hell it was; and Willibald especially, who was curious to see the interior, was wishful to ascend to the summit of the mountain where the opening was; but he was unable to accomplish his wish, on account of the cinders which were thrown up from the gulf, and settled in heaps round the brim, as snow settles on the ground when it falls from heaven. But though Willibald was defeated in his attempt to reach the summit, he had a near view of the column of flame and smoke which was projected upwards from the pit with a noise like thunder. And he saw how the pumice-stone, which writers use[43], was thrown with the flame from the hell, and fell into the sea, and was thence cast on the shore, where men gathered it and carried it away. After having witnessed this spectacle, they sailed to the church of St. Bartholomew the apostle, which stands on the sea-shore, and came to the mountains which are called Didymi. Thence they went by sea to Naples.
THE VOYAGE OF BERNARD THE WISE.
A.D. 867.