Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/641

 WELLS

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WELLS

plot, and on 30 November, 1586, he was discharged from the Fleet prison. He was again examined 5 March, 1587, and on this occasion speaks of the well known recusant, George Cotton of Warblington, Hampshire, as his cousin. On 1 Nov., 1591, Edmund Gennings was taken saying Mass at Wells's house in his absence, but in the presence of Mrs. WeUs and the venerable martyrs Polydore Plasden, Brian Lacy, Sydney Hodson, and John Mason. Accord- ing to one account Ven. Eustace White was also taken at this Mass. When WeUs returned to his house he also was arrested. All the above-mentioned martjTS, including Mrs. Wells (but with the possible e.xception of Brian Lacy), were indicted at West- minster. 4 Dec, 1591, and were condemned, 5 Dec, under 27 Eliz. c. 2. According to another account they were arraigned, 6 December. Mrs. Wells was reprieved, and died in prison in 1602. All the rest suffered on the same day, Gennings and Wells at Gray's Inn Lane, and the other five at Tyburn. Of his brother-in-law Gerard Morin, to whom the letter printed by Bishop Challoner is addressed, no in- formation is to hand. Swithin's eldest brother Gilbert, alive in 1598, suffered much in purse and per- son for the Faith. Another brother, Henry, of Purbcck, who entered W'inchester College in 1.541, aged twelve, and was a fellow of New College, Oxford, 1549-50, was also a Catholic. Our martyr was a follower of Blessed Thomas More and jested both at his apprehension and at his execution; but his last words were of pardon to his persecutor, Topcliffe: "God pardon you and make you of a Saul a Paul . . . I heartily forgive you."

Calh. Hec. Soc. Publ. (London, 1905 ), II, 261. 267; V, 131-3,

206-8, 292; CaAi.u)f;En,Mis$ionari/Priests. I. n. 91; Pollen, Acts 0/ English Martyrs (London, 1,S91), 100-1, 107-8; Bebrt. Hamp- shire Genealooies (London, 1833). 110-1; Morris, Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers, III (London, 1872-7), 48, 49; Foley, Records English Province S.J. (London, 1875-83), III, 295; V, 791 ; VI. passim.

John B. Wainewright.

Wells in Scripture. — It is difficult for inhabi- tants of a more humid climate to realize the impor- tance which in a country like Palestine attaches to any source of fresh water. The Litany and the Jordan are the only rivers of any size; perennial brooks are very scarce and the wadis, while numerous and im- petuous in the rainy sea.son, are dry during the rest of the year. Job (vi., 16-17) aptly compares faithless friends to these torrent-beds, swollen in the spring, but vanishing in the hot weather. Five months of parching summer heat pass without rain, and when the hot sherkiveh, the Arabian sirocco, blows from the desert, Ufe itself seems a burden. Nothing will save the shepherd and his flock, the farmer and the caravan from perishing with thirst, but unfailing springs and reser\'oirs of uncontaminated water. Hence the Son of Sirach twice enumerates water as the first among the " principal things necessarj- for the hfe of man" (P-cclus., xxix, 27; xxxix, 31). From time immemorial, to own a well and to possess the surrounding country were synonj-mous terms (Prov., v, 1.1-17). On the other hand, .so serious might be the disputes arising out of the use or claim of a well that the sword was appealed to as the sole arbiter (Gen., xxvi, 21; Ex., ii, 17; Num., xx, 17). If the approach of an enemy was feared, his progress might be seri- ously hampered, if not altogether frustrated, by stop- ping or destroying the wells along his route (II Par., xxxii, 3). The enemy, in his turn, might reduce a city to starvation and submission by cutting off its water supply, as Holofemes did when besieging Bethulia (Jud., vii).

Springs and fountains were the centres of ancient Hebrew life. Hither the shepherd of the sun-baked hillside would lead his flock of sheep and goats oiM of the thirsty stretches of rock and prickly shrubs. Hither long caravans, legions of soldiers, and soHtary

wayfarers would hasten toward sunset to refresh their weary Umbs and forget the blazing heat of noon. Here the women of the neighbourhood would gather to gossip and to replenish their jars. Wells and springs and cisterns have inspired the Hebrew poets with some of their choicest images, and Christ Himself used them to illustrate His own truths. They have become landmarks in the topography of Palestine and links in its varied history extending from Abraham, who dug weUs near Gerara some 4000 years ago, down to Christ, Who, sitting on the brim of Jacob's Well, taught the Samaritan woman the passing of the Old Covenant.

A spring (tttjS^, fons) is the "eye of the landscape", the natural burst of living water, flowing all year or drying up at certain seasons. In contrast to tht "troubled water" of weUs and rivers (Jer., ii, 18), there gushes forth from it "hving water", to which Jesus aptly likened the grace of the Holy Ghost (John, iv, 10; vii, 38; cf. Is., xii, 3; xhv, 3). How highly these natural springs were valued is clear from the number of towns and hamlets that bear names compounded with the word Ain (En), as, e. g., Endor (spring of Dor), Engannim (spring of gardens), Engaddi (spring of the kid), Rogel or En-rogel (spring of the foot), Ensemes (spring of the sun), etc. But springs were comparatively rare, and the dense population was compelled to have recourse to arti- ficial sources. Holy Writ is always careful in dis- tinguishing the natural springs from the wells ("lNi,i/'p^ap, putcus), which are water pits bored under the rocky surface and having no outlet. Naturally, they belonged to the person who dug them, and he alone could give them a name. Among the Arabs of to-day they are the property of tribes or famihes; a stranger desiring to draw water from them is expected to give a bakshish. Many names of places, too, are compounded with B'er, such as Bersable, Beroth, Beer Elim, etc.

Cisterns (iXii ^^kkos, cislerna) are subterranean reservoirs, sometimes covering as much as an acre of land, in which the rainwater is gathered during the spring. Their extreme necessity is attested by the countless number of old, unused cisterns with which the Holy Land is Uterally honeycombed. They may be found along the roads, in the fields, in gardens, on threshing-floors, in the hamlets, and above all in the cities. Jerusalem was so well sup- plied with them that in aU the sieges no one within its walls ever suffered from want of water. Cisterns were hewn into the native rock and then lined with impervious masonry and cement. As their construc- tion involved great bodily labour, it is easily imder- stood why Jehovah promised to the children of Israel, when coming out of Egj-pt, the possession of cisterns dug by others as a special mark of favour (Deut., vi, 11; II Esd., ix, 25). If the cement of the cistern gave way, the reser\-oir became useless and was aban- doned. It was then one of the "broken cisterns, that can hold no water" (Jer., ii, 13). The mouth of wells and cisterns was generally surrounded by a curb or low wall and closed with a stone, both to prevent accidents and to keep away strangers. If the owner neglected to cover the cistern, and a beast fell into it, the Mosaic law obliged him to pay the price of the animal (Ex., xxi, .33-34; cf. Luke, xiv, 5). Some- times the stone placed on the orifice was so heavy that one man was unable to remove it (Gen., xxix, 3). When dry, cisterns were used a-s dungeons, because, narrowed at the top, like "huge bottles", they left no avenue open for escape (Gen., xxxvii, 24; Jer., xxxviii, 6; I Mach., vii, 19). They also offered con- venient places for hiding a person from his pur- suers (I Kings, xiii, 6; II Kings, xvii, 18). The methods used for raising the water were the same as those in vogue all through the ancient East (cf. Egypt).