Page:Travels from Aleppo, to the city of Jerusalem, and through the most remarkable parts of the Holy Land, in 1776.pdf/7

 and about four in the afternoon we went. Ten or twelve fathers live there continually, and have their church there. The door is sealed with the caddy’s seal, and when any man goes in, he pays fourteen livres. We being entered the temple, the fathers came and saluted us, and conducted us to their lodgings; where, after we had been about an hour, they prepared to go in procession to all the holy places, presenting us every one a book of holy songs, for every place in Latin.

And so we set out, the fathers being dressed in white surplices, and the chief among them with cloth of silver over his surplice, with two more dressed in the like garb to lead him; there was a great silver crucifix carried before him, and two men going on each side of it, with pots of incense to perfume every holy place that we came to. And so we went to the places following.

I. The pillar to which our Saviour was bound when he was scourged 2. The prison wherein he was put. 3 The place where the soldiers divided his garments. 4. The place where St. Helena found our Saviour’s cross. 5. The pillar to which he was bound when he was crowned with thorns. 6. Mount Calvary, where he was crucified. 7. Where our Saviour was nailed to the cross. 8. Where he was anointed 9. The sepulchre of Christ 10. Where our Saviour appeared to Mary Magdalen in the shape of a gardener. 11. The chappel of the Virgin Mary, where our Saviour first appeared to her after his resurrection. I might give you a particular description of the adornment of these places; but, to be short, every one have lamps burning at them, some are paved with marble, others are hung with pictures; the place where our Saviour was laid down to be nailed to the cross, is paved with marble, also; but in the exact place where the cross stood, the marble is covered over with silver, with silver lamps, and wax candles continually burning, and our Saviour crucified standing on it; the sepulchre also is covered with marble, with silver lamps continually burning on it; so hath the anointing stone. You must go into the sepulchre bare-foot, as also on Mount Calvary.

Here all sorts of Christians have their churches, the Greeks have best; but the Latins, the Arminians, the Coptes and the Syrians, have each of them churches here. The Greeks and Latins are the two powerful religions in the temple, and with great sums of money, and the credit they have at Stambul or Constantinople, buy these holy places out of one another’s hands. The other parties are poor, and squeezed into a small part of the temple. The Latins once offered ten thousand livres for a piece of the cross, which the Greeks bought out of their hands. These religious people bear little respect one to another, speaking very basely of each other. After our procession we went to view all the places and churches again. The Greeks have a place in the middle of their church, which