INTRODUCTION.

IN the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, I am about to write a book concerning the Holy Places.

Arculf, a holy bishop, a Gaul by nation, well acquainted with many far distant lands, a truthful and right worthy witness, who dwelt in the city of Jerusalem for a space of nine months, and examined the Holy Places by daily visits, told me, Adamnan, all that is hereafter to be written, as I sedulously asked him to tell me his experiences, which at first I wrote down on tablets as he dictated in a faithful and unimpeachable narrative, and now briefly inscribe upon parchment [membranes].

I--THE SITUATION OF JERUSALEM, THE GATES OF THE CITY, THE YEARLY MARKET, THE SITE OF THE TEMPLE, THE ORATORY OF THE SARACENS, THE GREAT HOUSES.

AS to the situation of Jerusalem, we shall now write a few of the details that the sainted Arculf dictated to me, Adamnan; but what is found in the books of others as to the position of that city, we shall pass over. In the great circuit of its walls, Arculf counted eighty-four towers and twice three gates, which are placed in the following order in the circuit of the city: The Gate of David, on the west side of Mount Sion, is reckoned first; second, the Gate of the Place of the Fuller; third, the Gate of St. Stephen; fourth, the Gate of Benjamin; fifth, a portlet, that is a little gate, by which is the descent by steps to the Valley of Josaphat; sixth, the Gate Thecuitis.

This then is the order round the intervals between those gates and towers: from the above-mentioned gate of David it turns towards the northern part of the circuit, and thence towards the east. But although six gates are counted in the walls, yet of those the entries of three gates are more commonly frequented; one to the west, another to the north, a third to the east; while that part of the walls with its interposed towers, which extends from the above-mentioned Gate of David across the northern brow of Mount Sion (which overhangs the city from the south), as far as the face of that mountain which looks eastwards, where the rock is precipitous, is proved to have no gates.

But this too, it seems to me, should not be passed over, which the sainted Arculf, formerly spoken of, told us as to the honour of that city in Christ: On the fifteenth day of the month of September yearly, an almost countless multitude of various nations is in the habit of gathering from all sides to Jerusalem for the purposes of commerce by mutual sale and purchase. Whence it necessarily happens that crowds of various nations stay in that hospitable city for some days, while the very great number of their camels and horses and asses, not to speak of mules and oxen, for their varied baggage, strews the streets of the city here and there with the abominations of their excrements. the smell of which brings no ordinary nuisance to the citizens and even makes walking difficult. Wonderful to say, on the night after the above-mentioned day of departure ;with the various beasts of burden of the crowds, an immense abundance of rain falls from the clouds on that city, which washes all the abominable filths from the streets, and cleanses it from the uncleannesses. For the very situation of Jerusalem, beginning from the northern brow of Mount Sion, has been so disposed by its Founder, God, on a lofty declivity, sloping down to the lower ground of the northern and eastern walls that that over abundance of rain cannot settle at all in the streets, like stagnant water, but rushes down, like rivers, from the higher to the lower ground : and further this inundation of the waters of heaven, flowing through the eastern gates, and bearing with it all the filthy abominations, enters the Valley of Josaphat and swells the torrent of Cedron and after having thus baptized Jerusalem, this over abundance of rain, always ceases. Hence therefore we must in no negligent manner note in what honour this chosen and glorious city is held in the sight of the Eternal Sire, Who does not permit it to remain longer filthy, but because of the .honour of His Only Begotten cleanses it so quickly, since it has within the circuit of its walls the honoured sites of His sacred Cross and Resurrection.

BETHLEHEM.-THE PLACE OF THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD, THE CHURCH OF ST. MARY.

In the extreme eastern angle of this city is a sort of natural half cave, the extremity of the interior of which is the Manger of the Lord, in which His mother laid the newborn babe; while another, contiguous to the manger we have just mentioned, is shown to such as enter, as being the traditional site of His real nativity. The whole of this cave of the Manger of the Lord at Bethlehem has been adorned on the inside with precious marble, in honour of the Saviour, while in the half cave, above the stone chamber, there has been built the Church of St. Mary, above the place where the Lord is said to have been actually born, which is a grand structure.

III.-THE ROCK SITUATED BEYOND THE WALL, UPON WHICH THE WATER, IN WHICH HE WAS FIRST WASHED AFTER HIS BIRTH, WAS POURED.

Here I think I must briefly mention the rock lying beyond the wall, upon which the water of the first bathing of the Lord's body after His birth, was poured from the top of the wall out of the vessel into which it had been put. This water of the sacred bath, poured from the wall, found a receptacle in a rock lying below, which had been hollowed out by nature like a trench: and this water has been constantly replenished from that day to our own time during the course of many ages, so that the cavity is shown full of the purest water without any loss or diminution, our Saviour miraculously bringing this about from the day of His nativity, of which the prophet sings: `Who brought water out of the rocką [Isaiah xlviii. 21] and the Apostle Paul, 'Now that Rock was Christ,'[Cor. x.4] who, contrary to nature, brought water or a stream out of the hardest rock in the desert to console His thirsting people. Such is the power of God and the wisdom of God, who brought out water also from that rock of Bethlehem and keeps its cavity always full of water; this our Arculf inspected with his own eyes, and he washed his face in it.

Arculf, the sainted man, who gave us all these details as to the Cross of the Lord, which he saw with his own eyes and kissed, gave us also an account of a Confessor named George, which he learned in the city of Constantinople from some well- informed citizens, who were accustomed to narrate it in this form:

In a house in the city of Diospolis there stands the marble column of George the Confessor, to which, during a time of persecution, he was bound while he was scourged, and on which his likeness is impressed; he was, however, loosed from his chains and lived for many years after the scourging. It happened one day that a hard-hearted and unbelieving fellow, mounted on horseback, having entered that house and seen the marble column, asked those who were there, `Whose is this likeness engraved on the marble column?' They reply, `This is the likeness of George the Confessor, who was bound to this column and scourged.' On hearing this, that most rough fellow, greatly enraged at the insensible object, and instigated by the devil, struck with his lance at the likeness of the sainted Confessor. The lance of that assailant penetrating the mass in a marvellous manner, as if it were a ball of snow, perforated the exterior of that stone column, and its iron point sticking fast was retained in the interior and could not be drawn out by any means. Its shaft, however, striking the marble likeness of the sainted Confessor, was broken on the outside. The horse also of that wretched fellow, on which he was mounted, fell dead under him at that moment on the pavement of the house. The wretched man himself too, falling to the ground at the same time, put out his hands to the marble column, and his fingers, entering it as if it were flour or clay, stuck fast impressed in that column. On seeing this, the miserable man, who could not draw back the ten fingers of his two hands, as they stuck fast together in the marble likeness of the sainted Confessor, invokes in penitence the. name of the Eternal God and of His Confessor, and prays with tears to be released from that bond. The merciful God, who does not wish the death of a sinner but that he may be converted and live, accepted his tearful penitence, and not only released him from that present visible bond of marble, but also mercifully set him free from the invisible bonds of sin, saved by faith.

Hence it is clearly shown in what honour George has been held with God, whom he confessed amid tortures, since his bust, which, in the course of nature, is impenetrable, was made penetrable by penitence, which also made the equally impenetrating lance of his adversary penetrating, and made the weak fingers of that fellow, which in the same course of nature were impenetrating, powerfully penetrating, which at first were so fastened in the marble that even that hard man could not draw them back, but which, when in the same moment he was so terrified and thus softened into penitence, he drew back by the pity of God. Marvellous to say, the marks of his twice five fingers appear down to the present day inserted up to the roots in the marble column; and the sainted Arculf inserted in their place his own ten fingers, which similarly entered up to the roots. Further, the blood of that fellow's horse, the haunch of which, as it fell dead on the pavement, was broken in two, cannot be washed out or removed by any means, but that horse's blood remains indelible on the pavement of the house down to our times.