Page:Historical Works of Venerable Bede vol. 2.djvu/235

 Rh uncertain, and it rushes with much noise amid the hollows Fountain of in the ground and the hard rocks. On the level summit of Mount Sion are numerous cells of monks surrounding a large church, built there, as they say, by the Apostles, because they received the Holy Spirit in that place, and Saint Maria died there. The place of our Lord's holy supper is shown within; and a marble pillar stands in the middle of the church, to which our Lord was tied when he was scourged. The figure of the church is said to have been something like this:—

(The drawing is wanting in the Manuscripts.)

Here is also shown, on the outside of the city, the rock on which the first martyr, Stephen, was stoned: but in the middle of Jerusalem, where the dead man came to life when our Lord's cross was placed above him, stands a lofty pillar, which at the summer solstice does not throw a shadow, wherefore it is thought that the centre of the earth is in this place; and it has been said in history, "God, ages ago, hath wrought our salvation in the middle of the earth." According to which opinion Victorinus, Bishop of the church of Pictavia, writing of Golgotha, hath these words:—

CHAPTER IV.

passing out through David's gate, we come to Acheidea fountain which runs through the valley towards the south. Half-way down the stream on the western side, Judas is said to have hanged himself. For there is