by Bede
Returning to his island, after having celebrated the canonical Easter in Ireland, he was instant in preaching the Catholic observance of the season of Easter in his monastery, yet without being able to achieve his end; and it so happened that he departed this life before the next year came round, the Divine goodness so ordaining it, that as he was a great lover of peace and unity, he should be taken away to everlasting life before he should be obliged, on the return of the season of Easter, to be at greater variance with those that would not follow him into the truth.
This same man wrote a book concerning the holy places, of great profit to many readers; his authority was the teaching and dictation of Arculf, a bishop of Gaul, who had gone to Jerusalem for the sake of the holy places; and having wandered over all the Promised Land, travelled also to Damascus, Constantinople, Alexandria, and many islands in the sea, and returning home by ship, was cast upon the western coast of Britain by a great tempest. After many adventures he came to the aforesaid servant of Christ, Adamnan, and being found to be learned in the Scriptures, and acquainted with the holy places, was most gladly received by him and gladly heard, insomuch that whatsoever he said that he had seen worthy of remembrance in the holy places, Adamnan straightway set himself to commit to writing. Thus he composed a work, as I have said, profitable to many, and chiefly to those who, being far removed from those places where the patriarchs and Apostles lived, know no more of them than what they have learnt by reading. Adamnan presented this book to King Aldfrid, and through his bounty it came to be read by lesser persons. The writer thereof was also rewarded by him with many gifts and sent back into his country. I believe it will be of advantage to our readers if we collect some passages from his writings, and insert them in this our History.
CHAP. 16
Scriosit ergo de loco dominicae natiuitatis in hunc modum:
— Bethleem ciuitas Dauid in dorso sita est angusto ex omni parte uallibus circumdato, ab occidente in orientem mille passibus longa, humili sine turribus muro per extrema plani uerticis instructo; in cuius orientali angulo quasi quoddam naturale semiantrum est, cuius exterior pars natiuitatis dominicae fuisse dicitur locus; interior Praesepe Domini nominatur. Haec spelunca tota interius pretioso marmore tecta supra locum, ubi Dominus natus specialius traditur, sanctas Mariae grandem gestat ecclesiam.
Scripsit item hoc modo de loco passionis ac resurrectionis illius:
— ‘Ingressis a septentrionali parte urbem Hierosolymam, primum de locis sanctis pro condicione platearum diuertendum est ad ecclesiam Constantinianam, quae Martyrium appellatur. Hanc Constantinus imperator, eo quod ibi crux Domini ab Helena matre reperta sit, magnifico et regio cultu construxit. Dehinc ab occasu Golgothana uidetur ecclesia, in qua etiam rupis apparet illa, quae quondam ipsam adfixo Domini corpore crucem pertulit, argenteam modo pergrandem sustinens crucem, pendente magna desuper aerea rota cum lampadibus. Infra ipsum uero locum dominicae crucis, excisa in petra crypta est, in qua super altare pro defunctis honoratis sacrificium solet offerri, positis interim in platea corporibus. Huius quoque ad occasum ecclesiae, Anastasis, hoc est resurrectionis dominicae rotunda ecclesia, tribus cincta parietibus, XII columnis sustentatur, inter parietes singulos latum habens spatium uiae, quae tria altaria in tribus locis parietis medii continet, hoc est australi, aquilonali, et occidentali. Haec bis quaternas portas, id est introitus, per tres e regione parietes habet, e quibus IIII ad Uulturnum, et IIII ad Eurum spectant. Huius in medio monumentum Domini rotundum petra excisum est, cuius culmen intrinsecus stans homo manu contingere potest, ab oriente habens introitum, cui lapis ille magnus adpositus est; quod intrinsecus ferramentorum uestigia usque in praesens ostendit. Nam extrinsecus usque ad culminis summitatem totum marmore tectum est. Summum uero culmen auro ornatum auream magnam gestat crucem. In huius ergo monumenti Aquilonali parte sepulchrum Domini in eadem petra excisum, longitudinis VII pedum, trium mensura palmarum pauimento altius eminet; introitum habens a latere meridiano, ubi die noctuque XII lampades ardent, IIII intra sepulchrum, VIII supra in margine dextro. Lapis, qui ad ostium monumenti positus erat, nunc fissus est; cuius pars minor quadratum altare ante ostium nihilominus eiusdem monumenti stat;
maior uero in orientali eiusdem ecclesiae loco quadrangulum aliud altare sub linteaminibus exstat. Color autem eiusdsm monumenti et sepulchri albo et rubicundo permixtus uidetur.
Chap. XVI.
The account given in the aforesaid book of the place of our Lord’s Nativity, Passion, and Resurrection.
He wrote concerning the place of the Nativity of our Lord, after this manner: “Bethlehem, the city of David, is situated on a narrow ridge, encompassed on all sides with valleys, being a mile in length from west to east, and having a low wall without towers, built along the edge of the level summit. In the eastern corner thereof is a sort of natural half cave, the outward part whereof is said to have been the place where our Lord was born; the inner is called the manger of our Lord. This cave within is all covered with rich marble, and over the particular spot where our Lord is said to have been born, stands the great church of St. Mary.” He likewise wrote about the place of His Passion and Resurrection in this manner: “Entering the city of Jerusalem on the north side, the first place to be visited, according to the disposition of the streets, is the church of Constantine, called the Martyrium. It was built by the Emperor Constantine, in a royal and magnificent manner, because the Cross of our Lord was said to have been found there by his mother Helena. Thence, to the westward, is seen the church of Golgotha, in which is also to be found the rock which once bore the Cross to which the Lord’s body was nailed, and now it upholds a large silver cross, having a great brazen wheel with lamps hanging over it. Under the place of our Lord’s Cross, a crypt is hewn out of the rock, in which the Sacrifice is offered on an altar for the dead that are held in honour, their bodies remaining meanwhile in the street. To the westward of this church is the round church of the Anastasis or Resurrection of our Lord, encompassed with three walls, and supported by twelve columns. Between each of the walls is a broad passage, which contains three altars at three different points of the middle wall; to the south, the north, and the west. It has eight doors or entrances in a straight line through the three walls; four whereof face the south-east, and four the east. In the midst of it is the round tomb of our Lord cut out of the rock, the top of of which a man standing within can touch with his hand; on the east is the entrance, against which that great stone was set. To this day the tomb bears the marks of the iron tools within, but on the outside it is all covered with marble to the very top of the roof, which is adorned with gold, and bears a large golden cross. In the north part of the tomb the sepulchre of our Lord is hewn out of the same rock, seven feet in length, and three hand-breadths above the floor; the entrance being on the south side, where twelve lamps burn day and night, four within the sepulchre, and eight above on the edge of the right side. The stone that was set at the entrance to the tomb is now cleft in two; nevertheless, the lesser part of it stands as an altar of hewn stone before the door of the tomb; the greater part is set up as another altar, four-cornered, at the east end of the same church, and is covered with linen cloths. The colour of the said tomb and sepulchre is white and red mingled together.”
CHAP. 17
De loco quoque ascensionis dominicae praefatus auctor hoc modo refert: — Mons Oliuarum altitudine monti Sion par est, sed latitudine et longitudine praestat; exceptis uitibus et oliuis, rarae ferax arboris, frumenti quoque et hordei fertilis. Neque enim brucosa, sed herbosa et florida soli illius est qualitas; in cuius summo uertice, ubi Dominus ad caelos ascendit, ecclesia rotunda grandis, ternas per circuitum cameratas habet porticus desuper tectas. Interior namque domus propter dominici corporis meatum camerari et tegi non potuit;
altare ad orientem habens angusto culmine protectum, in cuius medio ultima Domini uestigia, caelo desuper patente, ubi ascendit, uisuntur. Quae cum cotidie a credentibus terra tollatur, nihilominus manet, eandemque adhuc speciem ueluti inpressis signata uestigiis seruat. Hae
c circa aerea rota iacet, usque ad ceruicem alta, ab occasu habens introitum, pendente desuper in trocleis magna lampade, totaque die et nocte lucente. In occidentali eiusdem ecclesiae parte fenestrae octo, totidemque e regione lampades in funibus pendentes usque Hierosolymam per uitrum fulgent; quarum lux corda intuentium cum quadam alacritate et conpunctione pauefacere dicitur. In die ascensionis dominicas per annos singulos, missa peracta, ualidi flaminis procella desursum uenire consueuit, et omnes, qui in ecclesia adfuerint, terrae prosternere.
De situ etiam Chebron et monumentis patrum ita scribit: — Chebron quondam ciuitas et metropolis regni Dauid, nunc ruinis tantum, quid tunc fuerit, ostendens. Uno ad orientem stadio speluncam duplicem in ualle habet, ubi sepulchra patriarcharum quadrato muro circumdantur, capitibus uersis ad Aquilonem; et haec singula singulis tecta lapidibus instar basilicae dolatis; trium patriarcharum candidis, Adam obscurioris et uilioris operis, qui haud longe ab illis ad borealem extremamque muri illius partem pausat. Trium quoque feminarum uiliores et minores memoriae cernuntur. Mamre collis mille passibus a monumentis his ad Boream, herbosus ualde et floridus, campestrem habens in uertice planitiem; in cuius aquilonali parte quercus Abrahae duorum hominum altitudinis truncus ecclesia circumdata est.
Haec de opusculis excerpta praefati scriptoris ad sensum quidem uerborum illius, sed breuioribus strictisque conprehensa sermonibus, nostris ad utilitatem legentium historiis indere placuit. Plura uoluminis illius, siqui scire delectat, uel in ipso illo uolumine, uel in eo, quod de illo dudum strictim excerpsimus, epitomate requirat.
Chap. XVII.
What he likewise wrote of the place of our Lord’s Ascension, and the tombs of the patriarchs.
Concerning the place of our Lord’s Ascension, the aforesaid author writes thus. “The Mount of Olives is equal in height to Mount Sion, but exceeds it in breadth and length; it bears few trees besides vines and olives, and is fruitful in wheat and barley, for the nature of that soil is not such as to yield thickets, but grass and flowers. On the very top of it, where our Lord ascended into heaven, is a large round church, having round about it three chapels with vaulted roofs. For the inner building could not be vaulted and roofed, by reason of the passage of our Lord’s Body; but it has an altar on the east side, sheltered by a narrow roof. In the midst of it are to be seen the last Footprints of our Lord, the place where He ascended being open to the sky; and though the earth is daily carried away by believers, yet still it remains, and retains the same appearance, being marked by the impression of the Feet. Round about these lies a brazen wheel, as high as a man’s neck, having an entrance from the west, with a great lamp hanging above it on a pulley and burning night and day. In the western part of the same church are eight windows; and as many lamps, hanging opposite to them by cords, shine through the glass as far as Jerusalem; and the light thereof is said to thrill the hearts of the beholders with a certain zeal and compunction. Every year, on the day of the Ascension of our Lord, when Mass is ended, a strong blast of wind is wont to come down, and to cast to the ground all that are in the church.”
Of the situation of Hebron, and the tombs of the fathers, he writes thus. “Hebron, once a habitation and the chief city of David’s kingdom, now only showing by its ruins what it then was, has, one furlong to the east of it, a double cave in the valley, where the sepulchres of the patriarchs are encompassed with a wall four-square, their heads lying to the north. Each of the tombs is covered with a single stone, hewn like the stones of a church, and of a white colour, for the three patriarchs. Adam’s is of meaner and poorer workmanship, and he lies not far from them at the farthest end of the northern part of that wall. There are also some poorer and smaller monuments of the three women. The hill Mamre is a mile from these tombs, and is covered with grass and flowers, having a level plain on the top. In the northern part of it, the trunk of Abraham’s oak, being twice as high as a man, is enclosed in a church.”
Thus much, gathered from the works of the aforesaid writer, according to the sense of his words, but more briefly and in fewer words, we have thought fit to insert in our History for the profit of readers. Whosoever desires to know more of the contents of that book, may seek it either in the book itself, or in that abridgement which we have lately made from it.
CHAP. 18
Anno dominicae incarnationis DCCV Aldfrid, rex Nordanhymbrorum, defunctus est, anno regni sui XXo necdum inpleto;
cui succedens in imperium filius suus Osred, puer octo circiter annorum, regnauit annis XI. Huius regni principio antistes Occidentalium Saxonum Haeddi caelestem migrauit ad uitam. Bonus quippe erat uir, ac iustus, et episcopalem uitam siue doctrinam magis insito sibi uirtutum amore quam lectionibus institutus exercebat. Denique reuerentissimus antistes Pecthelm, de quo in sequentibus suo loco dicendum est, qui cum successore eius Aldhelmo multo tempore adhuc diaconus siue monachus fuit, referre est solitus, quod in loco, quo defunctus est, ob meritum sanctitatis eius multa sanitatum sint patrata miracula, hominesque prouinciae illius solitos ablatum inde puluerem propter languentes in aquam mittere, atque huius gustum siue aspersionem multis sanitatem egrotis et hominibus et pecoribus conferre; propter quod frequenti ablatione pulueris sacri fossa sit ibidem facta non minima.
Quo defuncto, episcopatus prouinciae illius in duas parrochias diuisus est. Una data Daniheli, quam usque hodie regit; altera Aldhelmo, cui annis IIII strenuissime praefuit; ambo et in rebus ecclesiasticis, et in scientia scripturarum sufficienter instructi.
Denique Aldhelm, cum adhuc esset presbyter et abbas monasterii, quod ‘Maildufi urbem’ nuncupant, scripsit, iubente synodo suae gentis, librum egregium aduersus errorem Brettonum, quo uel pascha non suo tempore celebrant, uel alia perplura ecclesiasticae castitati et paci contraria gerunt, multosque eorum, qui Occidentalibus Saxonibus subditi erant Brettones, ad catholicam dominici paschae celebrationem huius lectione perduxit. Scripsit et de uirginitate librum eximium, quem in exemplum Sedulii geminato opere, et uersibus exametris, et prosa conposuit. Scripsit et alia nonnulla, utpote uir undecumque doctissimus; nam et sermone nitidus, et scripturarum, ut dixi, tam liberalium quam ecclesiasticarum erat eruditione mirandus. Quo defuncto, pontificatum pro eo suscepit Fortheri, qui usque hodie superest; uir et ipse in scripturis sanctis multum eruditus.
Quibus episcopatum administrantibus statutum est synodali decreto, ut prouincia Australium Saxonum, quae eatenus ad ciuitatis Uentanae, cui tunc Danihel praeerat, parrochiam pertinebat, et ipsa sedem episcopalem, ac proprium haberet episcopum; consecratusque est eis primus antistes Eadberct, qui erat abbas monasterii beatae memoriae Uilfridi episcopi, quod dicitur Selaseu; quo defuncto, Eolla suscepit officium pontificatus. Ipso autem ante aliquot annos ex hac luce subtracto, episcopatus usque hodie cessauit.
Chap. XVIII.
How the South Saxons received Eadbert and Eolla, and the West Saxons, Daniel and Aldhelm, for their bishops; and of the writings of the same Aldhelm. [705 a.d.]
In the year of our Lord 705, Aldfrid, king of the Northumbrians, died before the end of the twentieth year of his reign. His son Osred, a boy about eight years of age, succeeding him in the throne, reigned eleven years. In the beginning of his reign, Haedde, bishop of the West Saxons, departed to the heavenly life; for he was a good man and a just, and his life and doctrine as a bishop were guided rather by his innate love of virtue, than by what he had gained from books. The most reverend bishop, Pechthelm, of whom we shall speak hereafter in the proper place, and who while still deacon or monk was for a long time with his successor Aldhelm, was wont to relate that many miracles of healing have been wrought in the place where he died, through the merit of his sanctity; and that the men of that province used to carry the dust thence for the sick, and put it into water, and the drinking thereof, or sprinkling with it, brought health to many sick men and beasts; so that the holy dust being frequently carried away, a great hole was made there.
Upon his death, the bishopric of that province was divided into two dioceses. One of them was given to Daniel, which he governs to this day; the other to
Aldhelm, wherein he presided most vigorously four years; both of them were fully instructed, as well in matters touching the Church as in the knowledge of the Scriptures. Aldhelm, when he was as yet only a priest and abbot of the monastery which is called the city of Maildufus, by order of a synod of his own nation, wrote a notable book against the error of the Britons, in not celebrating Easter at the due time, and in doing divers other things contrary to the purity of doctrine and the peace of the church; and through the reading of this book many of the Britons, who were subject to the West Saxons, were led by him to adopt the Catholic celebration of our Lord’s Paschal Feast. He likewise wrote a famous book on Virginity, which, after the example of Sedulius, he composed in twofold form, in hexameters and in prose. He wrote some other books, being a man most instructed in all respects, for he had a polished style, and was, as I have said, of marvellous learning both in liberal and ecclesiastical studies. On his death, Forthere was made bishop in his stead, and is living at this time, being likewise a man very learned in the Holy Scriptures.