Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/404

 JERONYMITES

344

JERUSALEM

principal work of the community the care of orphans, poor, and sick, and demands that dweUings, food, and clothing shall bear the mark of religious poverty. Jerome fell a martyr to his zeal; contracting a disease at Bergamo, he died at Somascha. He was beatified by Benedict XIV in 1747, and canonized by Clement XIII in 1767. The Office and Mass in his honour were approved eight years later. His biography was first written by Scipio Albani (1600); another by Andreas Stella (1605). The best was written by Aug. Tortora (Milan, 1620; in "Acta SS.", Feb., II, 217 sq.).

After the death of Jerome his community was about to disband, but was kept together by Gambarana, who had been chosen superior. He obtained the approval (1.540) of Paul III. In 154 7 the members vainly sought affiliation with the Society of Jesus; then in 1547- 1555 they were united with the Theatines. Pius IV (1563) approved the institution, and St. Pius V raised it to the dignity of a religious order, according to the Rule of St. Augustine, with solemn vows, the privi- leges of the mendicants, and exemption. In 1569 the first six memliers made their profession, and Gam- barana was made first superior general. Great favour was shown to the order liy St. Charles Borromeo, and he gave it the church of St. Mayeul at Pavia, from which church the order takes its official name "Clerici regulares S. Majoli Papiie congregationis Somascha;". Later the education of youth was put into the pro- gramme of the order, and the colleges at Rome and Pavia became renowned. It spread into Austria and Switzerland, and before the great Revolution it had 1 19 houses in the four provinces of Rome, Lombardy, Venice, and France. At present the order has ten houses in Italy, two of which are in Rome. The general resides in Rome at S. Girolamo della Carita.

Heimbucher, Orden u. Kongregationen (Paderbom, 1908), III, 275; KlENLE in Kirchenlex., s. v. Somasker; Holsten- Brockie, Coil. Regvl., Ill, 199 sqq.; Hubert, Der hi. Hierony- miisAemiliani (Mainz, 1895).

Francis Mershman. Jeronymites. See Hieronymites.

Jerusalem. — I. Before a. d. 71. — This article treats of the " City of God ", the political and religious centre of the People of Israel, with its destruction by the Romans after it had become the scene of the Redemp- tion. This part of the subject will be divided as fol- lows: A. Names; B. Topography; C. History; D. Development of the City and its Chief Monuments.

A. Names. — According to Jewish trailition (Jose- phus, "Antiq. Jud.", I, x, 1, ed. Dindorf; Targum Onkelos, Gen., xiv, 18), Jerusalem was originally called Salem (Peace), and was the capital of King Melchisedech (Gen., xiv, 18). This tradition is con- firmed by the cuneiform tablets discovered in 1888 at Tell Amarna, in Egypt (see below, under C. Histarij). Five of these letters, written at Jerusalem about the year 1400 B.C., inform us that the city was then called U-ru-sa-iim (Conder, "The Tell Amarna Tablets", London, 1894, pp. 143-51). It figures in Assyrian inscriptions under the name of Ur-sa-li-ira-mu (E. Schrader, "Die Keilinschr. u.d. A.T.", 1883, p. 290). According to the Assyrian syllabaries, uru and ur sig- nify "city" (Hebrew ir). In several of the Tell Amarna Tablets the word salim is used in the sense of " peace ". Ursalim, therefore, means " City of Peace ". The Psalmist, too, connects Salem with Sion: "He hath his tabernacle in Salem, and his abode upon the mountain of Sion" [Ps. Ixxv (Ixxvi), 3]. When the Israelites came into the Land of Promise, Jerusalem was in the power of the Jebusites, and bore the name of Jebus. The Hebrews, however, were not ignorant of its ancient name; they often called it Jerusalem (D^tyiT) (Jos., X, 1 ; Judges, xix, 10; II Kings, v, 6, etc.). In other passages of the Bible it is called Jerusalem (D'i'KnT) (I Par., iii, 5; Jer., xxvi, 18; Esther, ii, 6, etc.). The Septuagint writes its name 'lepovaa\^ii. Under the hellcnizing influences which invailed Pales-

tine, Salem became 26\w/itt (Antiq. Jud., I, x, i), and Jerusalem to. 'lepoiriXti^na (The Holy Solyma) (I Mach., i, 14, 20; II Mach., i, 10; Bell. Jud", VI, x, etc.). The New Testament employs sometimes the Septua- gint form and sometimes that of Machabees, which the Vulgate renders by Jerusalem and Jerosolyma. The Syriac Version gives 'Uris lem, a form more nearly approaching the Assyrian. When the Emperor Ha- drian rebuilt the city, a. d. 136, he gave it the name of jElia Capitolina. From the Mohammedan conquest of Palestine, in the seventh century, until our own times, the Arabs have called it El Quds, " The Holy " - — the ir hag qodes, or "Holy City", of II Esd., xi, 18 (cf. Matt., iv, 5, etc.). Among all other people the name Jerusalem has continuetl in use until now.

B. Topography. — (1) Geographical Position. — Jeru- salem is situated in latitude 31° 46' 45" N. and longi- tude 35° 13' 25" E. of Greenwich, about 32 English miles in a straight line from the Mediterranean on the west, and 13 from the Dead Sea on the east. It stands on the crest of a chain of mountains which traverses Palestine from north to south, and the highest point of which, at the north-we.st corner of the city, is 2577 feet above the level of the Mediterranean, and 3865 above that of the Dead Sea. Owing to this differ- ence of level the western slope of these mountains, to- wards the Plain of Sephela, which extends to the Mediterranean, is gentle, while that to the east is very steep. A girdle of high hills surrounds the city, forming a sort of natural rampart. On the north is Mt. Scopus (2705 feet), ne.xt to it, on the east, the Mount of Olives (2665 feet), beyond which again is the Mount of Offence (2410 feet) (III Kings, xi, 7; IV Kings, xxiii, 13). To the south is the Mount of Evil Counsel (2549 feet), which forms the eastern boundary of the Plain of Raphaim, and next, on the south-west, comes a hill (2557 feet) to which no name has been given. Towards the north-west the city is more ex- posed; at some distance in that direction it is domi- nated by the Nebi Samwil, the ancient Maspha. which has an altitude of 2935 feet. Notwithstanding the difficulty of access in its natural situation, Jerusalem is the centre of a network of ancient roads which con- nect it, on the east, with Jericho and the Jordan; on the south, with Hebron and Gaza; on the west, with Jaffa and Ciesarea; on the north, with Samaria and Galilee. It was, however, situated beyond the great military and commercial highways between Egypt and Assyria.

(2) Site; Hills and Valleys. — The ancient city occu- pied the same position as the present, except that its southern extremity has remained outside of the walls since the reign of Hadrian (a.d. 136). Thanks, how- ever, to systematic operations undertaken by English, American, and German engineers, much of the okl southern wall has been brought to light. While, in many places, masses of ruins have changed the ap- pearance of the ground, excavations and vertical bor- ings, made within the last fifty years, have, neverthe- less, enaljled the explorers to construct sufficiently exact maps of the i)riniitive configuration. The ground on which Jerusalem stands, within this ring of sur- rounding mountains, is by no means uniform in char- acter: on three sides — the east, south, and west — it stands upon terraced heights bordered by deep valleys which give it the appearance of a promontory jutting out to the south. The city itself is furrowed with ravines which cut it up into a number of little hills. The longest of these valleys measures scarcely two miles and a half; they have all been formed by erosion, due to torrential rainfall, in the (piaternary period. To the north of the city they take the shape of mere depressions in the soil, then, as they descend, sinking rapidly in the calcareous rock of which the mountains are formed, they soon liecome deej) gorge.s, all coming together at the soi'th-cast an^jlc of the city, at a depth of about 600 feet below their starting-poiiit. The two