DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6910#0091
OBSERVATIONS ON ROUND CHURCHES.
55
the blessed Virgin Mary. Our great Alfred seems also to have caused his monastery
at Athelney to be erected in a figure which may be referred to the circular.
The Temple at Jerusalem, as described by latter writers, seems to have been in
much the same state at the time of the crusades.* Of these expeditions you have
given some hints, agreeably to the sentiments of Gibbon, &c. We yet enjoy certain
benefits derived from this extraordinary warfare, severely as its consequences might
have been felt among the different nations concerned ;f and I propose to offer, in a
few words, the sentiments of one or two of the better writers who lived near those
times. " About the beginning of the reign of William Rufus," says William of
Newbridge, " the Lord excited the spirit of the Christians against the Saracens,
who had, by his secret judgments, as if by hereditary right, possessed the sanctuary
of God, that is, the holy places in which our redemption was celebrated. By the
religious endeavours of Urban, the Roman pontiff, and other servants of God, a
vast concourse of Christian people was got together: the bravest leaders, signed
with the character of our Lord, and surrounded by numerous bands of soldiers,
penetrated the kingdoms of the East in this most laborious expedition, taking by
their pious efforts the large cities of Nice in Bithynia, Antioch in Syria, and at
length the holy city." J Simon of Durham deems it little less than a miracle that
the commanders and troops of so many different states should have so unanimously
combined their endeavours ;§ and M. Paris, who writes rather largely on this point,
relates the sighs and tears of devotion which burst from the Christian army at the
distant sight of Jerusalem, and their reverently approaching with bare feet.|| These
sentiments have since been drawn by the pen of Tasso, in his Jerusalem Delivered.
Let us not then wonder, if there were many very early imitators of the Church of
the Resurrection, within whose site the triumphs of the cross were rendered com-
plete, and of which it was itself the splendid memorial.
* Compare the plan in Sandys' Travels with that in Bernando Araico, and the descriptions of Le Brun and
Sandys for a pretty correct state of this edifice. Butler, in the Lives of Saints, says, this sacred building, raised
by Constantine, consisted properly of two churches, the one called Anastasis, or of the Resurrection or Sepulchre,
the other Martyrium, or of the Cross, which covered the spot where Christ was crucified, and refers to Adamnan,
lib. 1. de Locis Sanctis, c. 4, apud Ababill. Act. Bened. saec. 3, part 2, p. 506. Butler, vol. 5. 51.
t These benefits were the breaking and retaining at home the Saracenic and Turkish powers, and thus pre-
venting the doctrines of Mahomet, so dear to a certain sect of philosophers, being propagated throughout the west,
that one is almost tempted to say, Hinc illae lacrym*. See Whitaker's Review of Gibbon, where he has irrefragably
proved a certain pruritus inguinis, that accounts for a vast deal against crusades and crusading knights.
t Guil. Neubrigensis Hist. Ang. 9 edit. Picardi. 1632. § De Scriptore. || Ad. ann. 1099.
55
the blessed Virgin Mary. Our great Alfred seems also to have caused his monastery
at Athelney to be erected in a figure which may be referred to the circular.
The Temple at Jerusalem, as described by latter writers, seems to have been in
much the same state at the time of the crusades.* Of these expeditions you have
given some hints, agreeably to the sentiments of Gibbon, &c. We yet enjoy certain
benefits derived from this extraordinary warfare, severely as its consequences might
have been felt among the different nations concerned ;f and I propose to offer, in a
few words, the sentiments of one or two of the better writers who lived near those
times. " About the beginning of the reign of William Rufus," says William of
Newbridge, " the Lord excited the spirit of the Christians against the Saracens,
who had, by his secret judgments, as if by hereditary right, possessed the sanctuary
of God, that is, the holy places in which our redemption was celebrated. By the
religious endeavours of Urban, the Roman pontiff, and other servants of God, a
vast concourse of Christian people was got together: the bravest leaders, signed
with the character of our Lord, and surrounded by numerous bands of soldiers,
penetrated the kingdoms of the East in this most laborious expedition, taking by
their pious efforts the large cities of Nice in Bithynia, Antioch in Syria, and at
length the holy city." J Simon of Durham deems it little less than a miracle that
the commanders and troops of so many different states should have so unanimously
combined their endeavours ;§ and M. Paris, who writes rather largely on this point,
relates the sighs and tears of devotion which burst from the Christian army at the
distant sight of Jerusalem, and their reverently approaching with bare feet.|| These
sentiments have since been drawn by the pen of Tasso, in his Jerusalem Delivered.
Let us not then wonder, if there were many very early imitators of the Church of
the Resurrection, within whose site the triumphs of the cross were rendered com-
plete, and of which it was itself the splendid memorial.
* Compare the plan in Sandys' Travels with that in Bernando Araico, and the descriptions of Le Brun and
Sandys for a pretty correct state of this edifice. Butler, in the Lives of Saints, says, this sacred building, raised
by Constantine, consisted properly of two churches, the one called Anastasis, or of the Resurrection or Sepulchre,
the other Martyrium, or of the Cross, which covered the spot where Christ was crucified, and refers to Adamnan,
lib. 1. de Locis Sanctis, c. 4, apud Ababill. Act. Bened. saec. 3, part 2, p. 506. Butler, vol. 5. 51.
t These benefits were the breaking and retaining at home the Saracenic and Turkish powers, and thus pre-
venting the doctrines of Mahomet, so dear to a certain sect of philosophers, being propagated throughout the west,
that one is almost tempted to say, Hinc illae lacrym*. See Whitaker's Review of Gibbon, where he has irrefragably
proved a certain pruritus inguinis, that accounts for a vast deal against crusades and crusading knights.
t Guil. Neubrigensis Hist. Ang. 9 edit. Picardi. 1632. § De Scriptore. || Ad. ann. 1099.