Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 7.djvu/223

 HEBRON

185

HEBRON

was the most important of the Levitical toT^tis be- longing to the sons of Caath, from whom came Zach- ary, father of the Precursor. However there is a fairly strong local tradition in favour of identifying the "city of Juda" with Carem, the modern Ain- Karim (seeCAKEM; Heidet inVig., "Diet, dela Bible", s. V. Carem; and Meistermann, "La patrie de S. Jean Baptiste "). At the time of the great Jewish rebellion, Simon ben Giora captured Hebron from tlie Romans; but the town was soon retaken, shortly before the siege of Jerusalem, by Cerealis, one of Vespasian's gen- erals, who ravaged it with fire and sword (Josephus, " Bel. Jud.", IV, ix, 7-9). It was with great difficulty that Hebron ever recovered. Euseljius (Onomast., s. V. ' Ap^ii) tells us that in liis day (fourth century) it was merely a large hamlet; but the neighbourhood has always been dear to pagans, Jews, and Christians alike (Eusebius, " VitaConstantini ", III, li, lii, in P. G. XX, 1112-11 17; Socrates, "Hist. Eccl.", I, IS, in P. G. LXVII, 124; Sozomen, " Hist. Eccl.", in P. G., LXVII 941-9-16). Even the Mussulmans held it dear by reason of its many Scriptural associations, especially the apparition of the angels to Abraham, and because it contains the tomb of the patriarchs. This tomb is mentioned by Jo.sephus (loc. cit.; "Ant.", I, 14), by Eusebius (Onomasticon, loc. cit.), by the Pilgrim of Bordeaux in 333, and by visitors of after-ages, as a sanctuary held in the highest reverence. At the time of the Arab conquest in 637, Hebron, for all the.se reasons, was chosen as one of the four holy cities of Islam. Previously Khusrau (614), the Persian king, had spared it in deference to the Jews of whom there were many in his army. Eusebius, Socrates, and Sozo- men (loc. cit.) relate that Constantine ordered a church to be built at Mambre, w-ith the oljject of putting an end to the superstitious practices that took place there every year during a semi-religious fair. But we do not know at what epoch a basilica was first built over the cave of Machpelah. It is certain that the Cru- saders took the town in 1100, and that the sanctuary became the church of Saint Abraham, also called the church of the Holy Cave (Sancta Caverna or Spelunca, liyioi' (TwrjXatoi'). The town itself is often styled by the chroniclers of that period Castel Saint--4.braham, Presidium or Castellum ad Sanctum Abraham. A priory of Canons Regular of St. Augustine was in- stalled to take charge of the basilica (de Roziere, "Cartulaire du Saint-Sepulchre", 120, 142, etc., 171).

A curious document relating to the medieval period and taken from a fifteenth-century manuscript, is found in the " Recueil des historiens des croisades " (Hist. Occid., V, 302-316) under the heading: "Ca- nonic! Hebronensis tractatus de inventione sanctorum patriarcharum Abraham, Ysaac et Jacob " [see Riant, " Invention de la sepulture des patriarches ... a Hebron, le 25 juin 1119", in "Archives de I'Orient latin", II (1883), 411-421; also "Acta SS.", Oct., IV, 68.3-691; and "Analecta BoUandiana", XX (1901), 464]. This story seems to be founded on fact; two Arab historians, who may have lived contemporane- ously, mention such a discovery (Recueil des Hist, des Croisades, op. cit., p. 64).

Its most interesting liistorical materials are; a de- scription of the sanctuary existing on the site of the tombs before the coming of the Franks; the sending of an embassy from Constantinople to Palestine by Theodosius the Younger, about 415, to bring back the bodies of the three patriarchs, and the failure of this attempt; the existence of a synagogue at Hebron at the time of the First Crusade; the spoliation of the sanctuary at Hebron between 1099 and 1102 by a Latin archbishop, probably Pierre de Narbonne, trans- ferred from the See of Alban to that of Apamea be- tween 1112 and 1119. A reference is made, at the year 1119, to Rainier, prior of Hebron, and to two monks, Odo and Arnulph, who gave the anonymous

wTiter the facts he relates; mention is also made of Baudouin, seigneur of Saint-.\braham; Guermond, Patriarch of Jerusalem (d. 112S); and a description occurs of the sepulchral crypt where the bodies of the patriarchs lay. In 1167 Hebron became a Latin see; its first titular was Rainaldus (1167-1170), nephew of the patriarch Foucher (Du Cange, "Families d'outre- mer", 794).

A letter of Clement IV, dated 1 June, 1267, orders the Patriarch of Jerusalem to supply the church of Hebron with a priest (Eubel, " Hicrarcliia CathoHca", I, 283). After Geoffrey (Gaufridus), O.P., 1273- 1283, the bishops of Hebron were merely titulars, and a great confusion existed in their list (Lequien, "Oriens Christ.", Ill, 639-642, 1269-1270; Gams, "Series episc", 435 Eubel, op. cit., I, 283, II, ISO). Cardinal Mermillod was at one time Titular of Heliron. The titular at present is Monsignor Pet- koft'. Vicar Apostolic of the LTniat Bulgarians in Thrace, who resides at Adrianople. As a residential see, Hebron enjoyed a very brief existence. How- ever it survived the triumph of Saladin in 1187, and the march of the Kharesmian hordes in 1244. Saladin, after the victory at Hattin (15 July, 1187), and that at Ascalon (5 September), hastened, before marching on Jerusalem, to occupy Heliron, and to associate the sanctuary of Abraham with the worship of Islam. The Kharesmians destroyed the town, but did not touch the sanctuary (Riant, "Archives", II, 420-421).

In spite of Mohammedan fanaticism, which since the fourteenth century had forbidilen a non-Mussul- man to enter the hallowed place (Isaac Chelo, 1334, " Les chemins de Jerusalem", in Carmoly, "Itin^- raires", 243), the schismatic Greeks, after the depart- ure of the Latins, retained for a time a residing bishop in Hebron. Lequien (III, 641-642) mentions one of these bishops, Joannilcios, whose name appears with that of Christodoulos of Gaza in the .A.cts of the Council of Jerusalem in 1672 (Mansi. XXXIV B, 1771) under the title of luawiKiou toO 6eotpiXe(rTdTov dpxt-- cTnaKdirov Tov ayiov awifKalov (Joannildos, most holy Archbishop of the holy Cave). Among the other signa- tories (ibid., 1174) were two priests of the .same church, George and Isas, both of whom describe themselves as Upei)^ KoL ^(pyfi^pio! tov aylov ffwrfKatov (priest and servant of the holy Cave). This Greek see did not last long; and it is not mentioned in the notice of Chrysanthus, Patriarch of Jeru.salem, 1707-1731. In 1834, after defeating, near the Pools of Soloman, the inhabitants of Hebron who had risen against his authority, Ibraliim Pasha took their town by assault.

Hebron is to-day one of the principal towns of Pales- tine. It is about twenty-four miles to the south of Jerusalem, is the residence of a kaimakam, and has a population of 20,000, of whom 2000 are Jews of Ger- man, Spanish, or Portuguese origin; the remainder are Mussulman fanatics. Its Arab name, El-Khalil, signifies " the friend of God ", and calls to mind Abra- ham who is given that appellation in James, ii, 23. The town is picturesquely situated at about 3000 feet above the sea, on a narrow plateau among the hills of Judea. Its only monument of interest is the " Holy Enclosure" (Haram-el-Khalil), within which stands the mosque over the burial cave of Machpelah. The Haram is in the form of a rectangular parallelogram about 200 feet long, by 120 broad, and 50 to 60 feet high. The walls are adorned with many pilasters, and are built of enormous rough stones. The style of the construction belongs to the time when the crypts of the Haram at Jerusalem were built, and seems Roman in character. The modern mosque is built on the site of an ancient basilica restored by the Crusad- ers (La Palestine, Guide historique et pratique, par des professeurs de N.D. de France a Jerusalem, p. 268). The sacred enclosure is one of the finest relics