Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/418

 JERUSALEM

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JERUSALEM

It seems that later the name Sion began to be used for all Jerusalem. Josephus never uses it at all; already in the Old Testament the way was prepared for this extended use. Jerusalem is the "daughter of Sion" (Jer., vi, 2; etc.), all its inhabitants without distinction are "Sioh" (Zach., ii, 7; etc.). In early Christian times Sion seems to have lost its special meaning as one definite hill and to have become merely another name for Jerusalem. Naturally then they called their centre there l)y the name of the city, although it did not stand on the original Moimt Sion. The pilgrim Etheria (Silvia), at the end of the fourth century, always speaks of the Coenaculum as Sion, just as the Holy Sepulchre is always Anastasis (see ed. Hersus, Heidelberg, 1908).

From this Coenaculum the first Christian bishops ruled the Church of Jerusalem. They were all con- verts from Judaism, as were their flocks. Eusebius (Hist. Eccl., IV, v) gives the list of these bishops. .According to a universal tradition the first was the Apostle St. James the Less, the "brother of the Lord ". His predominant place and residence in the city are implied by Gal.,i, 19. Eusebius says he was appointed bishop by Peter, James (the Greater), and John (II, i). Naturally the other Apostles when they were at Jerusalem shared the government with him (Acts, XV, 6, etc.; Eus., " Hist. Eccl.", II, xxiii). He was thrown from a rock, then stoned to death by the Jews about the year 63 (Eus., ib.; Josephus, " Antiq. Jud.", XX, ix, 1, ed. cit., p. 786). After his death the sur- viving Apostles and other disciples who were at Jeru- salem chose Simeon, son of Cleophas (also called Our Lord's brother, Matt., xiii, .55), to succeed him. He was bishop at the time of tlie destruction (70) and probably then went to Pella with the others. About the year 106 or 107 he was crucified under Trajan (Eus.. "Hist. Eccl.", Ill, xxxii). The line of bishops of Jerusalem was then continued as follows: Judas (Justus), 107-113; Zachjeus or Zacharias; Tobias; Benjamin; John; Matthias (d. 120); Philip (d. c. 124); Seneca; Justus; Levi; Ephraim; .Joseph; Judas Quir- iacus (d. between 134—148). All these were Jews (Eus. ' ' Hist., Eccl. ", I V, v) . It was during the epi.sco- pate of Judas Quiriacus that the second great calamity, the revolt of Bar-Kochba and final destruction of the city, took place. Goaded by the tyranny of the Romans, by the re-erection of Jerusalem as a Roman colony and the establishment of an altar to Jupiter on the site of the Temple, the Jews broke out into a hopeless rebellion under the famous false Messias Bar-Kochba about the year 132. During his rebel- lion he persecuted the Jewish Christians, who natu- rally refused to acknowledge him (Eus., "Chron.", for the seventeenth year of Hadrian). The Emperor Hadrian put down this rebellion, after a siege that lasted a year, in 135. As a result of this last war the whole neighbourhood of the city became a desert. On the ruins of Jerusalem a new Roman city was built, called .<Elia Capitolina (yElia was Hadrian's family nomen), and a temple to Jupiter Capitolinus was built on Mount Moria. No Jew (therefore no Jewish Christian) was allowed under pain of death in- side the town. 'This brought about a complete change in the circumstances of the Church of Jerusalem. The old Jewish Christian commimity came to an end. In its place a Church of Gentile Christians, with Gentile bishops, was formed, who depended much less on the sacred memories of the city. Hence the Church of Jerusalem did not for .some centuries take the place in the hierarchy of sees that we should expect. yElia was a town of no importance in the empire; the governor of the province resided at Caisarea in Palestine. The use of the name A'lVa among Christians of this time marks the insignificance of the little Gentile church, as the restoration of the old name Jerusalem later marks the revival of its dignity.

Even as late as 325 (Nicaea I, can. vii) the city is still called only vElia. The name lasted on among the Arabs in the form Iliya till late in the Middle Ages. As the rank of the various sees among themselves was gradually arranged according to the divisions of the empire (Orthodox Eastern Church, p. 22 sq.), Cajsarea became the metropolitan see; the Bishop of ^lia was merely one of its suffragans.

The bishops from the siege under Hadrian (135) to Constantine (312) were: Mark (the first Gentile bishop, d. 156); Cassian; Publius; Maximus; Julian; Caius; Symmachus; Caius II; Julian II (ordained 168); Capito (d. 185); Maximus II; Antonius; Valens; Dolichianus (d. 185); Narcissus (Eus., " Hist. Eccl.", V, xii). Narcissus was a man famous for his virtues and miracles, but hated by certain vicious people in the city who feared his severity. They accused him of various crimes and he, for the sake of peace, retired to an unknown solitude (Eus., "Hist. Eccl.", VI, ix). The neighbouring bishops, hearing nothing more of him, proceeded to elect and consecrate Dios as his successor. Dios was succeeded by Germanion and Gordios. Then suddenly Narcissus reappeared, an old man of 110 years. The other bishops persuaded him to resume his place as bishop. Too old to do anything but pray for his flock, he made a Cappa- docian bishop, Alexander, who came on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, his coadjutor. .Alexander thus became a practically diocesan bishop even before the death of Narcissus in 212. Alexander was a friend of Origen and founded a library that Eusebius used for his "History" (VI, x). He died in prison in the Decian persecution (250). Then followed Mazabanes or Mega- bezes (d. 266) ; Hymenaeus (d. 298); Zabdas; Hermon (d. 311); Maearius (d. 333).

(2) Constantine and the Holy Places (31S-S37). — During the episcopate of Maearius a great change came to the whole empire that incidentally afi'ected the See of Jerusalem profoundly. The Christian Faith was acknowledged as a religio licita and the Church became a recognized society (Edict of Milan, Jan., 313). At Constantine's death (337) Christianity had become the religion of the Court and Government. As a natural result the Faith spread very rapidly everywhere. The same generation that had seen Diocletian's persecution now saw Chris- tianity the dominant religion and the old paganism gradually reduced to country villages and out-of-the- way towns. There was then a great movement of organization among Christians; churches were built everywhere. A further result of the freedom and the dominance of Christianity was a revival of enthusiasm for the holy places where the new religion had been born, where the events that every one now read about or heard of in sermons had taken place. Already in the fourth centiuy there began those great waves of pilgrimage to the Holy Land that have gone on ever since. It was in the fourth century that the Bordeaux pilgrim and Etheria made their famous journey thither (Peregrinatio Silvia"). St. Jerome (d. 420) says that in his time pilgrims came there from every |iart of the world, even from distant Britain (Ep. xlivad Paulam; Ixxxivad Oceanum). Agreat number of monks from Egypt and Libya also came and estab- lished themselves in the desert by the Jordan. This led to an increased respect for the bishop who ruled over the very places where Christ had lived and died. These pilgrims on their arrival found them- selves under his jurisdiction; they took i)art in the services of his church and eagerly watclietl the rites that were carried out at the Mount of Olives, the Coenaculum, and the Holy Sepulchre. Etheria's care- ful aecoimt of all she saw in the ehin-ehes of Jerusalem at Eastert idc is typical of this interest. Wlien the pil- grims returned liome they rcmcmberod and told their friends about thi^ services tlicy had seen in the most sacred places of Christendom; .'ind they began to