DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10357#0051
28
PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
on the north side of the chapel to the wall of the church. By the aperture itself stands
a priest to catch the fire; on each side of the lane hundreds of bare arms are stretched out
like the branches of a leafless forest—like the branches of a forest quivering in some violent
tempest.....
" At last the moment comes. A bright flame as of burning wood appears inside the
hole—the light, as every educated Greek knows and acknowledges, kindled by the bishop
within—the light, as every pilgrim believes, of the descent of God himself upon the Holy
Tomb. Any distinct feature or incident is lost in the universal whirl of excitement which
envelops the church as slowly, gradually, the fire spreads from hand to hand, from taper to
taper, through that vast multitude, till at last the whole edifice, from gallery to gallery and
through the area below, is one wide blaze of thousands of burning candles. It is now that,
according to some accounts, the bishop or patriarch is carried out of the chapel in triumph,
on the shoulders of the people, in a fainting state, ' to give the impression that he is overcome
by the glory of the Almighty, from whose immediate presence he is supposed to come.' It is
now that the great rush to escape from the rolling smoke and suffocating heat, and to carry
the lighted tapers into the streets and houses of Jerusalem, through the one entrance to the
church, leads at times to the violent pressure which in 1834 cost the lives of hundreds. For
a short time the pilgrims run to and fro, rubbing the fire against their faces and breasts to
attest its supposed harmlessness. But the wild enthusiasm terminates from the moment that
the fire is communicated ; and perhaps not the least extraordinary part of the spectacle is the
rapid and total subsidence of a frenzy so intense—the contrast of the furious agitation of the
morning with the profound repose of the evening, when the church is once again filled—
through the area of the Rotunda, the Chapels of Copt and Syrian, the subterranean Church of
Helena, the great nave of Constantine's basilica, the stairs and platform of Calvary itself, with
the many churches above—every part, except the one Chapel of the Latin Church, filled and
overlaid by one mass of pilgrims, wrapt in deep sleep and waiting for the midnight service.
" Such is the Greek Easter—the greatest moral argument against the identity of the
spot which it professes to honour—stripped, indeed, of some of its most revolting features,
yet still, considering the place, the time, and the intention of the professed miracle, probably
the most offensive imposture to be found in the wrorld."
Intimately connected with those historical and legendary events, that have found a local
habitation within the walls of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, are the traditions which
during the course of centuries have clustered round certain spots in the narrow, crooked
streets that lead from the Turkish Barracks, north of the Haram esh Sherif, to the church-
the stations of the Via Dolorosa. The course of the Via Dolorosa depends on the site of
the Praetorium, or residence of Pilate, and this has never been satisfactorily ascertained. At
one period the Praetorium was supposed to have stood on the eastern hill, Moriah ; at another
on the western, the modern Zion ; and it was not till the close of the crusading period that
its present position was assigned to it, and the first station of the Via Dolorosa was located
PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
on the north side of the chapel to the wall of the church. By the aperture itself stands
a priest to catch the fire; on each side of the lane hundreds of bare arms are stretched out
like the branches of a leafless forest—like the branches of a forest quivering in some violent
tempest.....
" At last the moment comes. A bright flame as of burning wood appears inside the
hole—the light, as every educated Greek knows and acknowledges, kindled by the bishop
within—the light, as every pilgrim believes, of the descent of God himself upon the Holy
Tomb. Any distinct feature or incident is lost in the universal whirl of excitement which
envelops the church as slowly, gradually, the fire spreads from hand to hand, from taper to
taper, through that vast multitude, till at last the whole edifice, from gallery to gallery and
through the area below, is one wide blaze of thousands of burning candles. It is now that,
according to some accounts, the bishop or patriarch is carried out of the chapel in triumph,
on the shoulders of the people, in a fainting state, ' to give the impression that he is overcome
by the glory of the Almighty, from whose immediate presence he is supposed to come.' It is
now that the great rush to escape from the rolling smoke and suffocating heat, and to carry
the lighted tapers into the streets and houses of Jerusalem, through the one entrance to the
church, leads at times to the violent pressure which in 1834 cost the lives of hundreds. For
a short time the pilgrims run to and fro, rubbing the fire against their faces and breasts to
attest its supposed harmlessness. But the wild enthusiasm terminates from the moment that
the fire is communicated ; and perhaps not the least extraordinary part of the spectacle is the
rapid and total subsidence of a frenzy so intense—the contrast of the furious agitation of the
morning with the profound repose of the evening, when the church is once again filled—
through the area of the Rotunda, the Chapels of Copt and Syrian, the subterranean Church of
Helena, the great nave of Constantine's basilica, the stairs and platform of Calvary itself, with
the many churches above—every part, except the one Chapel of the Latin Church, filled and
overlaid by one mass of pilgrims, wrapt in deep sleep and waiting for the midnight service.
" Such is the Greek Easter—the greatest moral argument against the identity of the
spot which it professes to honour—stripped, indeed, of some of its most revolting features,
yet still, considering the place, the time, and the intention of the professed miracle, probably
the most offensive imposture to be found in the wrorld."
Intimately connected with those historical and legendary events, that have found a local
habitation within the walls of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, are the traditions which
during the course of centuries have clustered round certain spots in the narrow, crooked
streets that lead from the Turkish Barracks, north of the Haram esh Sherif, to the church-
the stations of the Via Dolorosa. The course of the Via Dolorosa depends on the site of
the Praetorium, or residence of Pilate, and this has never been satisfactorily ascertained. At
one period the Praetorium was supposed to have stood on the eastern hill, Moriah ; at another
on the western, the modern Zion ; and it was not till the close of the crusading period that
its present position was assigned to it, and the first station of the Via Dolorosa was located