8. The land is accursed, you say, because it has drunk in the blood of the Lord. On what grounds, then, do men regard as blessed those spots where Peter and Paul, the leaders of the Christian host, have shed their blood for Christ? If the confession of men and servants is glorious, must there not be glory likewise in the confession of their Lord and God? Everywhere we venerate the tombs of the martyrs; we apply their holy ashes to our eyes; we even touch them, if we may, with our lips. And yet some think that we should neglect the tomb in which the Lord Himself is buried. If we refuse to believe human testimony, let us at least credit the devil and his angels. [992] For when in front of the Holy Sepulchre they are driven out of those bodies which they have possessed, they moan and tremble as if they stood before Christ's judgment-seat, and grieve, too late that they have crucified Him in whose presence they now cower. If--as a wicked theory maintains--this holy place has, since the Lord's passion, become an abomination, why was Paul in such haste to reach Jerusalem to keep Pentecost in it? [993] Yet to those who held him back he said: "What mean ye to weep and to break my heart? For I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem, for the name of the Lord Jesus." [994] Need I speak of those other holy and illustrious men who, after the preaching of Christ, brought their votive gifts and offerings to the brethren who were at Jerusalem?
9. Time forbids me to survey the period which has passed since the Lord's ascension, or to recount the bishops, the martyrs, the divines, who have come to Jerusalem from a feeling that their devotion and knowledge would be incomplete and their virtue without the finishing touch, unless they adored Christ in the very spot where the gospel first flashed from the gibbet. If a famous orator [995] blames a man for having learned Greek at Lilybæum instead of at Athens, and Latin in Sicily instead of at Rome (on the ground, obviously, that each province has its own characteristics), can we suppose a Christian's education complete who has not visited the Christian Athens?
10. In speaking thus we do not mean to deny that the kingdom of God is within us, [996] or to say that there are no holy men elsewhere; we merely assert in the strongest manner that those who stand first throughout the world are here gathered side by side. We ourselves are among the last, not the first; yet we have come hither to see the first of all nations. Of all the ornaments of the Church our company of monks and virgins is one of the finest; it is like a fair flower or a priceless gem. Every man of note in Gaul hastens hither. The Briton, "sundered from our world," [997] no sooner makes progress in religion than he leaves the setting sun in quest of a spot of which he knows only through Scripture and common report. Need we recall the Armenians, the Persians, the peoples of India and Arabia? Or those of our neighbor, Egypt, so rich in monks; of Pontus and Cappadocia; of Cæle-Syria and Mesopotamia and the teeming east? In fulfilment of the Saviour's words, "Wherever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together," [998] they all assemble here and exhibit in this one city the most varied virtues. Differing in speech, they are one in religion, and almost every nation has a choir of its own. Yet amid this great concourse there is no arrogance, no disdain of self-restraint; all strive after humility, that greatest of Christian virtues. Whosoever is last is here regarded as first. [999] Their dress neither provokes remark nor calls for admiration. In whatever guise a man shows himself he is neither censured nor flattered. Long fasts help no one here. Starvation wins no deference, and the taking of food in moderation is not condemned. "To his own master" each one "standeth or falleth." [1000] No man judges another lest he be judged of the Lord. [1001] Backbiting, so common in other parts, is wholly unknown here. Sensuality and excess are far removed from us. And in the city there are so many places of prayer that a day would not be sufficient to go round them all.
11. But, as every one praises most what is within his reach, let us pass now to the cottage-inn which sheltered Christ and Mary. [1002] With what expressions and what language can we set before you the cave of the Saviour? The stall where he cried as a babe can be best honored by silence; for words are inadequate to speak its praise. Where are the spacious porticoes? Where are the gilded ceilings? Where are the mansions furnished by the miserable toil of doomed wretches? Where are the costly halls raised by untitled opulence for man's vile body to walk in? Where are the roofs that intercept the sky, as if anything could be finer than the expanse of heaven? Behold, in this poor crevice of the earth the Creator of the heavens was born; here He was wrapped in swaddling clothes; here He was seen by the shepherds; here He was pointed out by the star; here He was adored by the wise men. This spot is holier, me-thinks, than that Tarpeian rock [1003] which has shown itself displeasing to God by the frequency with which it has been struck by lightning.
12. Read the apocalypse of John, and consider what is sung therein of the woman arrayed in purple, and of the blasphemy written upon her brow, of the seven mountains, of the many waters, and of the end of Babylon. [1004] "Come out of her, my people," so the Lord says, "that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." [1005] Turn back also to Jeremiah and pay heed to what he has written of like import: "Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul." [1006] For "Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit." [1007] It is true that Rome has a holy church, trophies of apostles and martyrs, a true confession of Christ. The faith has been preached there by an apostle, heathenism has been trodden down, the name of Christian is daily exalted higher and higher. But the display, power, and size of the city, the seeing and the being seen, the paying and the receiving of visits, the alternate flattery and detraction, talking and listening, as well as the necessity of facing so great a throng even when one is least in the mood to do so--all these things are alike foreign to the principles and fatal to the repose of the monastic life. For when people come in our way we either see them coming and are compelled to speak, or we do not see them and lay ourselves open to the charge of haughtiness. Sometimes, also, in returning visits we are obliged to pass through proud portals and gilded doors and to face the clamor of carping lackeys. But, as we have said above, in the cottage of Christ all is simple and rustic: and except for the chanting of psalms there is complete silence. Wherever one turns the laborer at his plough sings alleluia, the toiling mower cheers himself with psalms, and the vine-dresser while he prunes his vine sings one of the lays of David. These are the songs of the country; these, in popular phrase, its love ditties: these the shepherd whistles; these the tiller uses to aid his toil.
13. But what are we doing? Forgetting what is required of us, we are taken up with what we wish. Will the time never come when a breathless messenger shall bring the news that our dear Marcella has reached the shores of Palestine, and when every band of monks and every troop of virgins shall unite in a song of welcome? In our excitement we are already hurrying to meet you: without waiting for a vehicle, we hasten off at once on foot. We shall clasp you by the hand, we shall look upon your face; and when, after long waiting, we at last embrace you, we shall find it hard to tear ourselves away. Will the day never come when we shall together enter the Saviour's cave, and together weep in the sepulchre of the Lord with His sister and with His mother? [1008] Then shall we touch with our lips the wood of the cross, and rise in prayer and resolve upon the Mount of Olives with the ascending Lord. [1009] We shall see Lazarus come forth bound with grave clothes, [1010] we shall look upon the waters of Jordan purified for the washing of the Lord. [1011] Thence we shall pass to the folds of the shepherds, [1012] we shall pray together in the mausoleum of David. [1013] We shall see the prophet, Amos, [1014] upon his crag blowing his shepherd's horn. We shall hasten, if not to the tents, to the monuments of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and of their three illustrious wives. [1015] We shall see the fountain in which the eunuch was immersed by Philip. [1016] We shall make a pilgrimage to Samaria, and side by side venerate the ashes of John the Baptist, of Elisha, [1017] and of Obadiah. We shall enter the very caves where in the time of persecution and famine the companies of the prophets were fed. [1018] If only you will come, we shall go to see Nazareth, as its name denotes, the flower [1019] of Galilee. Not far off Cana will be visible, where the water was turned into wine. [1020] We shall make our way to Tabor, [1021] and see the tabernacles there which the Saviour shares, not, as Peter once wished, with Moses and Elijah, but with the Father and with the Holy Ghost. Thence we shall come to the Sea of Gennesaret, and when there we shall see the spots where the five thousand were filled with five loaves, [1022] and the four thousand with seven. [1023] The town of Nain will meet our eyes, at the gate of which the widow's son was raised to life. [1024] Hermon too will be visible, and the torrent of Endor, at which Sisera was vanquished. [1025] Our eyes will look also on Capernaum, the scene of so many of our Lord's signs--yes, and on all Galilee besides. And when, accompanied by Christ, we shall have made our way back to our cave through Shiloh and Bethel, and those other places where churches are set up like standards to commemorate the Lord's victories, then we shall sing heartily, we shall weep copiously, we shall pray unceasingly. Wounded with the Saviour's shaft, we shall say one to another: "I have found Him whom my soul loveth; I will hold Him and will not let Him go." [1026]
[937] Sus Minervam.
[938] 2 Esdras. i. 30; Matt. xxiii. 37.
[939] Gen. xii. 1.
[940] I.e. Babel--Gen. xi. 9.
[941] Gen. x. 11.
[942] Gen. xi. 2, 4.
[943] Ps. cxxxvii. 1.
[944] Ezek. viii. 3.
[945] Deut. xi. 10.
[946] Rom. xiv. 2.
[947] Deut. xi. 14.
[948] Deut. xi. 11.
[949] Luke i. 26-31, 39.
[950] 1 Sam. xvii. 49.
[951] 1 Sam. xviii. 6, 7.
[952] 1 Chron. xxi. 15, 18; 2 Chron. iii. 1.
[953] Gen. xiv. 18.
[954] Mysterium christianum in salvatoris sanguine et corpore dedicavit.
[955] Cant. ii. 4 b, Vulg. Hebrew = A.V.
[956] I.e. the place of a skull (Latin, Calvaria).
[957] One of Jerome's fanciful ideas. Haddam hrs is the Hebrew for "the blood."
[958] ho protoplastos = "the first-formed." The word is applied to Adam in Wisd. vii. 1.
[959] Eph. v. 14.
[960] Cf. Hymns Ancient and Modern, No. 235. "Truly Jerusalem name we that shore Vision of peace that brings joy evermore."
[961] Hebrew, Shelomoh, connected with shalem, peace.
[962] Ps. lxxvi. 2, LXX.
[963] Ps. lxxxvii. 1, 2.
[964] Matt. xxiii. 37, 38.
[965] Matt. xxvii. 51.
[966] Bellum Judaicum, vi. 5.
[967] Rom. v. 20.
[968] Matt. xxviii. 19.
[969] Acts xiii. 46.
[970] Sacramentum.
[971] Luke xix. 41.
[972] Joh. xi. 35, 36.
[973] Heb. ix. 3-5.
[974] John xx. 6, 7, 12.
[975] I.e. Joseph of Arimathæa.--Joh. xix. 38 sqq.
[976] Isa. xi. 10.
[977] Rev. xi. 7, 8, R.V.
[978] Rev. xi. 2.
[979] Rev. xi. 7, 8.
[980] Rev. xxi. 16-18.
[981] Gen. iv. 17.
[982] Ezek. xvi. 55.
[983] Deut. xxix. 23.
[984] A.V. "the Lord."
[985] Jude 5.
[986] Jude 6.
[987] Jude 7.
[988] Matt. xxvii. 51, 53.
[989] E.g. Origen in his commentary on the passage.
[990] Ps. cxxxii. 7.
[991] Matt. v. 35.
[992] Matt. xxv. 41.
[993] Acts xx. 16.
[994] Acts xxi. 13.
[995] Cicero of Cæcilius (in Q. Cæc. xii.).