Skip to main content

Full text of "The Stations of the Cross : an account of their history and devotional purpose"

See other formats 


c 


•S* 


THE  STATIONS 
OF  THE  CROSS 


By  the  same  Author 

LENT  fcf  HOLY  WEEK:  Chapters  on  Catholic  Observance 
and  Ritual.  With  3  Platet  and  14  Illustrations  in  the  text.  Crown 
8vo,  6s.  net. 


VERONICA 

The  Fourth  of  the  set  of  Seven  Stations  carved  by  Adam  Krafft  at  Nurem- 
berg (c.  1490-1505)  It  ivill  be  noticed  that  the  Carving  is  set  in 
the  ivall  of  a  bouse.  See  p.  63. 

The  inscription  runs :  "  Hier  hat  Cristus  sein  heiligs  angesicht  der  heiligen  Frau 
Veronica  auf  iren  Slayr  gedruckt  vor  irem  Haus  Vc  (500)  Sritt  von  Pilatus  Haws. — 
Here  has  Christ  left  the  impress  of  His  holy  Face  for  the  holy  woman  Veronica 
upon  her  veil  in  front  of  her  house,  500  paces  from  Pilate's  House." 


Frontispiece 


THE  STATIONS 

OF  THE  CROSS 


Account  of  their  History  and 
Devotional  Purpose 


By 

HERBERT  THURSTON,  SJ. 


BURNS  &  GATES 
2  8  Orchard  Street,  London,  W, 


Reprinted  1914 


rJUL  1  51957 


The  Preface 

THIS  little  book  upon  the  Stations  of  the 
Cross  explains  itself  sufficiently  to  dispense 
with  any  lengthy  preface.  Although  its  purpose  is 
mainly  historical,  it  will  not,  I  trust,  be  found  so 
devoid  of  edification  as  to  be  unsuitable  for  Len- 
ten reading.  That  devotional  attitude  of  mind  on 
the  part  of  our  forefathers  which  is  illustrated  in 
t^e  following  pages  may  be  full  of  naivete  and  is 
bometimes  even  grotesque  in  its  extreme  literal- 
ness  and  credulity,  but  there  is  nothing  in  it  which 
need  scandalize  the  most  sensitive.  On  the  con- 
trary, it  is  impossible  to  come  into  close  contact 
with  the  thought  of  the  religious  teachers  of  that 
age  without  being  deeply  impressed  by  their  near- 
ness to  the  world  of  spirit  and  by  the  intense  reality 
of  their  personal  devotion  to  our  LORD  and  His 
Blessed  Mother.  The  legendary  element  no  doubt 
is  always  present  in  some  measure,  but  it  is  for 
the  most  part  devoid  of  offence.  Upon  the  true 
Catholic  attitude  towards  this  feature,  which  ap- 
pears in  so  many  of  our  most  venerated  practices 
of  piety,  I  may  refer  the  reader  to  some  remarks 
which  will  be  found  later  on  at  the  beginning  of 
Chapter  VII  (p.  136). 

From  the  historical  point  of  view  the  chief 
novelty  which  will  be  discovered  in  the  following 
pages  is  the  conclusion — the  evidence  for  which 
appears  to  me  to  be  quite  irresistible — that  the 
arrangement  of  our  actual  stations,  though  pro- 
fessedly made  in  imitation  of  a  pilgrimage  along 


vj  The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

the  Via  Doiorosa,  owes  less  to  Jerusalem  and  the 
Franciscan  custodians  of  the  Holy  Places  than  to 
the  pious  imagination  of  a  Carmelite  friar  who 
lived  all  his  life  in  Belgium.  That  our  fourteen 
stations  derive  directly  from  the  Theatrum  Terra 
Sanctce  of  Adrichomius  has  for  some  time  been 
recognized,  e.g.,  by  Bishop  von  Keppler  in  his 
excellent  work  "  Die  XIV  Stationen  des  heiligen 
Kreuzwegs."    But  when,  on    the  one  hand,  we 
find  in  Adrichomius,  himself  a  Fleming,  an  ex- 
plicit avowal   of  indebtedness   to   the  book   of 
Brother  Jan   Pascha,  and   when,  on  the  other, 
Pascha's   book  presents   us   with   the   identical 
enumeration  of  subjects  and  distances  which  ap- 
pear in  the  later  writer,  there  can  be  little  doubt 
that  Pascha  must  be  regarded  as  the  immediate 
source  of  the  subsequent  developments.  Further, 
it  is  clear  that  Pascha's  own  system  was  evolved 
in  pa.t  out  of  the  devotion  of  the  "  Seven  Falls  ' 
which,  at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century,  had 
become  widely  popular  in   Germany    and    the 
Netherlands.  This  devotion  is  now   completely 
forgotten,  but  it  has  left  behind  one    splendid 
memorial  of  itself  in  the  famous  sculptures  of 
Adam  Krafft  (c.  1490)  still  preserved  at  Nurem- 
berg. I  am  inclined  also  to  think  from  the  wide 
diffusion  of  a  fifteenth  century  booklet  attributed 
to  a  certain  "  Heer  Bethlem '    (see  Appendix  A) 
that  we  must  regard  this  little  work  as  another 
early  and  important  element  in  the  popularizing 
of  the  exercise  of  the  Way  of  the  Cross.  The  full 
knowledge  of  its  popularity,  however,  came  to  me 
somewhat  too  late  to  deal  with  it  adequately  in 
the  text  of  my  essay. 

While  giving  prominence  to  such  technical 
points  as  these,  which  may  help  in  some  measure 


The  Preface  vij 

to  throw  light  upon  the  byways  of  liturgical  his- 
tory, it  seemed  desirable  not  to  lose  sight  of  other 
devotional  influences  of  wider  range  and  more 
general  interest.  For  this  reason  the  reader  will 
find  that  the  question  of  pilgrimages  to  the  Holy 
Land  is  illustrated  rather  more  fully  than  was  per- 
haps quite  necessary  ior  its  bearing  upon  the 
immediate  subject  of  this  volume.  With  regard  to 
what  is  said  at  pp.  161-172  upon  the  question  of  the 
indulgences  of  the  Holy  Places,  which  no  doubt 
had  a  considerable  influence  in  attracting  pilgrims 
to  Jerusalem,  I  should  like  to  point  out  that  I 
have  formed  no  final  opinion  as  to  their  authen- 
ticity, and  that  I  should  be  glad  if  the  few  remarks 
I  have  thrown  out  should  lead  to  further  discus- 
sion. 

Although  part  of  the  substance  of  this  essay 
has  already  been  published  in  the  form  of  articles 
in  The  Month  (July  to  September,  1900),  I  have 
been  able  in  the  interval  which  has  elapsed 
since  the  articles  appeared  to  add  very  consi- 
derably to  my  former  materials.  Amongst  other 
minor  discoveries,  I  came  quite  lately  upon  a 
little  volume  in  the  Bodleian  library  which  is 
entitled  "A  Spiritual  Pilgrimage  to  the  Holy 
Land,"  and  which  was  obviously  printed  abroad  in 
the  seventeenth  century  for  Catholic  use.  Upon 
examination  it  proved  to  be  an  abridgement  in 
English  of  that  scarce  "Gheestelyck  Pel  grim  agie" 
of  Brother  Jan  Pascha  which  plays  so  large  a  part 
in  the  argument  of  my  little  essay.  As  this  Bod- 
leian volume  may  fairly  be  called  the  first  book 
containing  the  Stations  of  the  Cross  which  was 
published  in  the  English  language,  I  cannot,  I 
think,  better  conclude  these  few  words  of  intro- 
duction than  by  reproducing  a  portion  of  the  old 


viij         The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

translator's:  preface.  The  sentiments  expressed  are 
such  as  every  priest  in  the  twentieth  century  not 
less  than  in  the  seventeenth  may  be  glad  to  make 
his  own. 

THE  PREFACE  TO  THE  READER 

Seeing  it  is  so  (my  Catholic  brother)  that  this  present  life 
is  no  other  thing  but  a  continual  pilgrimage  which  we  are  to 
make  upon  the  earth,  and  that  all  the  time  of  our  life  is  a 
term  prefixed  of  GOD  the  Creator,  during  which  space  we 
ought  to  accomplish  this  voyage  .  .  .  were  it  not  great  folly 
and  negligence  in  us  if  we  should  forget  .  .  .  the  principal 
place  of  our  repose  ?  .  .  .  Let  us  behold  therefore  what  care 
and  pains  our  loving  LORD  hath  taken  of  our  salvation,  let 
us  learn  to  travaille  courageously  and  like  devout  and  holy 
pilgrims  to  follow  His  steps,  who  hath  left  us  an  example  of 
His  blessed  life  and  passion,  and  ruminate  in  our  hearts 
every  day  apart,  some  general  point  thereof,  and  after  well 
to  practise  the  same  in  ourselves,  for  such  ought  to  be  the 
end  of  our  spiritual  exercise,  by  which  means  we  may  attain 
to  the  happy  end  that  we  desire.  Whereof  having  found  this 
little  treatise  of  A  Spiritual  Pilgrimage,  assuring  myself 
that  it  would  be  a  thing  very  agreeable  to  all  manner  of 
devout  and  pious  persons,  I  thought  good  to  bring  the  same 
to  light.  Beseeching  the  gentle  reader  to  accept  of  this  little 
gift,  and  to  respect  more  my  hearty  affection  than  the  little- 
ness of  the  thing.  The  rest  I  remit  to  the  disposition  of 
Almighty  GOD  the  Creator  of  all  things,  whose  only  honour 
and  glory  I  desire  herein.  Amen. 

Thy  hearty  well- wilier  in  CHRIST  JESUS,  R.  H. 

The  kind  friends  who  in  many  various  ways 
have  lightened  my  task  in  preparing  this  book 
for  the  press,  will  know,  I  trust,  that  if  I  do  not 
make  more  particular  mention  of  the  help  that 
they  have  rendered,  it  is  not  for  lack  of  sincere 
gratitude. 

HERBERT  THURSTON,  S.J. 

31  Farm  Street, 

London,  W, 


IX 


The  Contents 

CHAPTER  I—  The  Veneration  of  the  Holy  Tlaces. 

Pp.  1-19. 

Imitative  tendency  in  our  popular  devotions — The  Stations  a  pil- 
grimage in  miniature — Ardour  shown  in  making  pilgrima- 
ges to  Jerusalem — The  Lady  Egeria — The  Holy  Places 
measured  to  be  copied  in  the  West — St  Petronius — Peter  and 
John  Bechetti  or  Becket — The  spiritual  Way  of  the  Cross  of 
the  Blessed  Henry  Suso — The  vow  of  the  Nun  of  Lorvao. 

CHAPTER  II—  The  Beginnings  of  the  Via  Cruets. 

Pp.  20-45. 

The  Porte  Doloreuse — Sites  of  incidents  on  the  way  to  Calvary 
— The  inverted  order  of  the  official  pilgrimage  route — The 
legend  of  our  Lady's  pilgrimage — Fabri's  description  of  the 
road  to  Calvary  and  of  our  Lady's  daily  journey — A  night 
with  the  pilgrims  in  the  Holy  Sepulchre  Church — Rules  to 
be  observed — The  reopening  of  the  doors. 

CHAPTER  III — The  earliest  Stations  and  their  Sequence. 

Pp.  45-61. 

The  word  "  Station  " — William  Wey's  use  of  it  in  connexion 
with  the  road  to  Calvary — Wey's  memorial  verses — Sir 
Richard  Guylforde's '  *  pylgrymages  within  Jerusalem" — Tor- 
kington's  copy  in  reverse  order — The  practice  of  measuring 
the  distances — Discrepancies  in  the  order  of  the  Stations. 

CHAPTER  IV—  The  "Seven  Falls."  Pp.  46-75. 

The  Stations  at  Gorlitz— The  "  Seven  Falls  "  of  Adam  Krafft  at 
Nuremberg — The  "  Cruysganch  "  of  Louvain — Romanet 
Boffin  and  the  sets  of  seven  pillars  at  Rhodes,  Fribourg  and 
Romans — The  Stations  of  the  Seven  Dolours  at  Antwerp — 
Fifteenth-century  engravings  of  the  Seven  Falls — The  book 
of  the  "Mount  of  Calvary  "—The  Seven  Falls  in  Pascha's 
"Spiritual  Pilgrimage." 


x  The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

CHAPTER  V—  The  Spiritual  Pilgrimage  of  Jan  Pascha. 

Pp.  76-95. 

Some  Dutch  books  relating  to  the  stations — Bethlem's  "Medita- 
tions on  the  Passion"  with  distances — The  Nuremberg 
"Ghostly  Way"  of  1521 — Prevalence  of  the  practice  of 
erecting  Stations — The  "  Spiritual  Pilgrimage  "  of  Jan  Pas- 
cha the  Carmelite — Description  of  the  book — Various 
editions  and  translations — The  "  proper  "  Way  of  the  Cross 
— Adrichomius  and  his  indebtedness  to  Pascha — Origin  of 
the  triple  fall  in  our  present  system  of  Stations — Impossi- 
bility in  the  sixteenth  century  of  any  public  exercise  of  the 
"Way  of  the  Cross"  at  Jerusalem — The  initiative  conse- 
quently did  not  come  from  the  East  but  from  Europe, 
especially  from  the  Netherlands — Practice  of  the  Stations 
in  an  Antwerp  convent. 

CHAPTER  VI—  The  Via  <Dolorosa  at  Jerusalem  from 
the  Seventeenth  century  to  the  Present  'Day.  Pp.  96-135 

Unique  authority  of  the  Franciscan  traditions  at  Jerusalem — 
Contradictions  with  the  map  of  Adrichomius — Testimony  of 
Bernardino  Amico  and  Quaresmius — Description  of  the  Via 
Dolorosa — The  Stations  according  to  Surius — The  Ecce 
Homo  Arch — Place  of  our  LORD'S  meeting  with  His  Blessed 
Mother — The  place  of  the  first  fall  and  of  the  coming  of  Simon 
of  Cyrene — Attempt  to  harmonize  the  Jerusalem  tradition 
with  the  system  of  Adrichomius — Sites  ofour  LORD'smeeting 
with  the  women  of  Jerusalem  and  with  Veronica — The 
Judicial  Gate — The  gradual  displacement  of  the  traditional 
Stations  in  the  eighteenth  century — The  question  of  the  site 
of  the  Prsetorium  and  of  the  true  Way  of  the  Cross — Preva- 
lence of  other  systems  of  Stations  and  notably  of  that  of 
Father  Parviller. 

CHAPTER  Vll— The  Devotional  Aspect  of  the  Stations. 

Pp.  136-158 

Survival  of  the  fittest  in  our  devotional  practices — A  legendary 
element  permissible  and  often  helpful  to  piety — Words  of 
Pere  Lagrange — Devotional  suggestiveness  of  the  legend 
of  Veronica  and  of  the  triple  fall — Illustrations  from  the 
writings  of  Cardinal  Newman  and  Henri  Perreyve — The 
spirit  of  the  medieval  pilgrims — Fabri's  description  of  Cal- 
vary and  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre — Perreyve's  meditation  on 
the  Holy  Sepulchre 


The  Contents  xj 

CHAPTER  VIII—  The  Stations  In  Modern  Times. 

Pp.  159-177 

One  uniform  system  now  prevalent — Committed  specially  to  the 
charge  of  the  Franciscan  Order — Indulgences  of  the  Via 
Dolorosa  in  Jerusalem  attached  to  the  ordinary  Stations  of 
the  Cross — Early  belief  to  this  effect — Origin  of  the  indul- 
gences of  the  Holy  Places — Impossible  to  attribute  them  to 
Pope  St  Silvester — Remarkable  Bull  of  confirmation  issued 
by  Pope  Pius  IV — Conditions  for  gaining  the  indulgences 
at  the  present  day 

APPENDIX  Ar—HeerBethlem'$ "  Ovewegingen,"  p.  1 7  9 
B — Table  of  Indulgences,  p.  182 
C — Relative  Antiquity  of  the  various  Sta- 
tions^ 182 


The  List  of  Illustrations 

Veronica  (the  fourth  of  the  set  of  seven  Stations  carved  by 

Adam  Krafft  at  Nuremberg-)  Fronth 

Jerusalem  and  Palestine  (Map  from  "Le  Pe'lerin  Veritable  * 

of  1615)  II 

Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  (from  Breydenbach,  1486)  28 

Part  of  Bernardino  Amico's  Map  of  Jerusalem  (1609-1620)  32 

Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  (c.  1835)  44 

Map  of  Jerusalem  (1616)  from  MS.  Addit.  33566  56 
The  Second  and  Fifth  Stations,  carved  by  Adam  Krafft  at 

Nuremberg  (c.  1490)  64 
The   Incident  of  Simon  of  Cyrene,  from  the  "Geystlich 

Strass"(i52i)  68 

Title  page  of  the  "Geystlich  Strass"  (1521)  80 

Page  of  Pascha's  "Ghestelyck  Pelgrimagie"  84 
Adrichomius's  Map  of  Jerusalem,  with  Stations  of  the  Cross 

(1584)  87 
A  page  of  the  French  translation  of  Pascha's  "  Gheestelyck 

Pelgrimagie"  (1666)  88 

The  Via  Dolorosa  according  to  Zuallardo  (1587)  105 
Plans  of  the  Via  Dolorosa  106-107 

The  Ecce  Homo  Arch  according  to  Amico  (1620)  1 10 

Christ  at  Pilate's  House  (from  the  "Geystlich  Strass,"  1521)  1 12 

The  Ecce  Homo  Arch  (from  a  recent  photograph)  114 

The  Site  of  the  First  Fall  (Station  III)  1 16 

The  Via  Dolorosa  near  Veronica's  House  126 

The  Via  Dolorosa  looking  down-hill  140 

The  Entombment  (from  the  "  Geystlich  Strass,"  1521)  154 
Title  page  of  French  Edition  (1566)  of  the  "  Gheestelyck 

Pelgrimagie"  162 


THE  STATIONS  OF 
THE  CROSS 

Chapter  I-The  Veneration  of  the 

Holy  Places 

IT  may  be  said  of  many,  perhaps  most,  of  our 
popular  devotions  that  they  are  not  so  much 
spontaneous  as  imitative.  They  have  been 
prized  at  first  as  the  substitute  for  something 
better,  because  they  seemed  to  bring  within  the 
reach  of  the  many  some  practice  of  piety  which 
had  been  hitherto  regarded  as  the  merit  or  the 
privilege  of  the  few.  To  recite,  for  instance,  the 
entire  Psalter  daily  was  the  ambition  of  the  early 
ascetics,  but  obviously  the  repetition  of  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  psalms  was  a  feat  beyond  the  ca- 
pacity of  men  busied  with  the  concerns  of  every- 
day life.  It  was  only  when  the  convention  was 
devised  of  representing  each  psalm  by  a  Hail 
Mary  that  the  bulk  of  the  faithful  found  that  they 
could  imitate  the  long  vigils  of  the  monks  by  re- 
citing the  fifteen  decades  of  "  Our  Lady's  Psalter." 
Again,  a  monastic  habit  was  not  a  desirable  or 
possible  attire  for  ordinary  Christians  living  in 
the  world,  but  by  an  imitation  ot  a  portion  of 
that  habit,  rapidly  diminishing  in  size  until 
hardly  a  suggestion  remained  of  its  former  signi- 
ficance, secular  persons  found  that  they  could 

i 


2  The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

wear  the  livery  of  the  Order  of  their  choice,  not 
merely  at  the  hour  of  death,  as  so  many  aspired 
to  do,  but  even  while  going  about  their  daily 
occupations.  Or  once  more,  when  the  Divine 
Office,  the  official  prayer  of  the  Church,  was 
found  to  be  too  long  and  too  difficult  for  any  but 
clerics  to  recite,  the  Hours  of  our  Lady,  which 
were  much  shorter  and  practically  invariable, 
formed  a  substitute  which  even  the  more  ignorant 
of  the  laity  need  not  despair  of  mastering. 

The  devotion  commonly  known  to  us  as  the 
Stations  of  the  Cross  has  a  very  similar  origin, 
and  in  its  singular  combination  of  old  and  new, 
of  elements  dating  from  the  beginning  of  Chris- 
tianity, with  forms  which  have  only  become  fixed 
during  the  last  four  centuries,  it  affords  an  almost 
typical  example  both  of  the  gradual  growth  of  prac- 
tices of  piety  and  of  the  working  of  the  imitative  ten- 
dency just  alluded  to.  As  the  Rosary,  then,  was 
a  miniature  Psalter,  as  the  scapular  was  a  minia- 
ture monastic  habit,  and  as  the  Hours  of  our  Lady 
were  a  miniature  Office,  so  the  Stations  of  the 
Cross  constituted  a  miniature  pilgrimage  to  the 
Holy  Land.  Despite  all  the  courage  and  fervour 
of  the  Christians  in  the  later  middle  ages,  the 
number  of  those  who  were  actually  able  to  make 
their  way  to  Palestine  was,  relatively  speaking, 
insignificant  It  was  a  boon  when  men  were 
taught  how  to  join  in  a  make-believe  pilgrimage 
which  did  not  take  up  an  hour  of  time,  and  which 
stimulated  their  devotion  to  the  bitter  sufferings 
of  CHRIST  as  much  as,  or  even  more  than,  a 
perilous  journey  over  seas.  Such,  at  any  rate, 
is  the  very  simple  idea  which  has  made  the 
Stations  dear  to  the  heart  of  the  poor  in  every 
part  of  the  world.  But  in  spite  of  its  simplicity 


Veneration  of  the  Holy  Places        3 

there  have  been  many  stages  in  the  growth  of  this 
devotion,  and  these,  so  far  as  I  am  able  to  eluci- 
date them,  will  form  the  subject  of  the  pages 
which  follow. 

It  is  commonly  said  that  the  Via  Dolorosa,  the 
route  of  our  SAVIOUR'S  painful  journey  to  Calvary, 
has  from  the  earliest  ages  been  reverently  marked, 
and  that  already  in  the  time  of  Constantine  it  was 
the  goal  of  pious  pilgrims  from  all  parts  of  the 
world.*  However  probable  this  may  seem  antece- 
dently, it  must  be  confessed  that  no  direct  evidence 
is  forthcoming  in  support  of  such  a  statement.  If 
our  Blessed  Lady  really  did  spend  her  last  days 
upon  earth  in  traversing  again  and  again  the 
scenes  of  the  Passion  of  her  Divine  Son,  no  trust- 
worthy record  of  the  fact  is  at  present  known  to 
survive.  Only  in  the  later  middle  ages  do  we  meet 
the  full  details  of  the  story  of  the  Mother's  daily 
pilgrimage,  and  indeed  it  must  be  admitted 
both  that  the  records  of  pilgrims  of  the  first  ten 
centuries  are  silent  as  to  the  existence  of  any 
traditional  Way  of  Sorrows,  and  also  that  the 
first  indications  of  it  which  we  encounter  are  not 
easily  reconcilable  with  the  sites  now  venerated. 
On  the  other  hand,  antiquity  speaks  clearly  as  to 
the  principle  of  paying  honour  to  the  holy  places. 
There  is  sufficient  reason  to  believe  that  the 
memory  of  the  more  important  spots  connected 
with  the  life  of  our  Blessed  LORD  was  accurately 
preserved  in  the  fourth  century.  The  Christians 
of  Jerusalem  were  already  a  numerous  body. 
They  seem  to  have  had  no  doubt  about  the  accu- 
racy of  their  identifications.  The  instinct  of  such 
traditions  of  locality  was  strong  amongst  them. 

This  is  stated  even  by  Thalhofer,  in  the  second  edition  of 
the  "  Kirchenlexicon,"  art.  Kreuzweg-, 


4  The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

It  would  appear,  then,  that  only  an  extreme 
scepticism  will  question  the  fact  that  the  spots 
where  Constantine  built  his  churches,  the  spots 
which  Christians,  like  the  Bordeaux  pilgrim  of 
A.D.333,  came  from  the  ends  of  the  earth  to  visit, 
were  really  the  sites  they  claimed  to  be.  On  the 
one  supremely  important  question  of  the  identifi- 
cation of  the  holy  Sepulchre  and  Calvary,  it  may 
be  said  fearlessly  that,  despite  the  attempts  of 
sundry  English  and  American  Protestants  to  find 
a  Calvary  of  their  own  in  another  quarter,  the 
evidence  of  archaeology  and  excavation  is  alto- 
gether on  the  side  of  the  old  tradition.  The  narra- 
tive of  the  Lady  Egeria's  Pilgrimage,  c.  380, 
discovered  within  the  last  few  years,*  has  also 
come  to  reinforce  what  we  already  knew  from  St 
Jerome,  the  Bordeaux  pilgrim,  Eusebius,  and 
others  concerning  the  intense  feelings  of  venera- 
tion which  the  residents  of  Jerusalem  felt  for  the 
holy  places  (a  very  limited  number)  pointed  out 
by  local  tradition. f  There  is  no  reason  to  fear, 
in  the  case  of  such  Christians  as  she  describes  for 
us,  that  their  imagination  was  stimulated  to  new 
flights  by  a  keen  anticipation  of  baksheesh. 

We  have  just  said  that  in  point  of  fact  the 
sites  which  were  pointed  out  in  Jerusalem  in  the 
time  of  the  Bordeaux  pilgrim,  of  St  Jerome  or  of 
Egeria,  seem  to  have  been  few.  This  may  be  due 
to  some  extent  to  the  fact  that  the  most  detailed 

*  This  has  hitherto  been  printed  and  is  commonly  quoted 
under  the  title  of  "  Peregrinatio  Silviae."  We  owe  to  Dom  FeVo- 
tin,  O.  S.  B. ,  the  discovery  that  the  author's  true  name  is  not  Silvia 
but  either  Egeria,  Etheria  or  perhaps  Eucheria. 

f  "Certe  si  consortia  nostra  displicuerint  adorasse  ubi  stete- 
runt  pedes  Domini,  pars  fidei  est,  et  quasi  recentia  nativitatis, 
et  crucis  ac  passionis  vidisse  vestigia  "  (St  Jerome  to  Desiderius, 
Migne,  P.  L.  xxii,  p.  493). 


Veneration  of  the  Holy  Places        5 

account  of  the  city,  that  of  Egeria,  is  imperfect. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  is  interesting  to  note  that 
this  lady  of  Galicia  was  keen  to  make  mention 
even  of  spots  of  minor  interest  when  they  were 
pointed  out  to  her.  A  short  quotation  in  her  own 
words  will  probably  illustrate  better  than  any 
verbal  description  the  spirit  in  which  Egeria,  and 
no  doubt  most  of  her  contemporaries,  approached 
such  questions.  She  had  travelled  more  than  a 
thousand  miles  to  visit  the  holy  places,  and  land- 
ing first  in  Egypt  had  skirted  the  northern  shore 
of  the  Red  Sea  taking  in  Mount  Sinai  on  her 
way.  Now  these  are  the  terms  in  which  she  speaks 
of  the  sites  shown  her  by  the  monks  on  Mount 
Sinai  in  their  own  immediate  neighbourhood. 

"Having  satisfied  every  desire  with  which  we 
had  made  haste  to  ascend,  we  began  now  to 
descend  from  the  summit  of  the  Mount  of  GOD 
to  another  mountain  which  is  joined  to  it.  The 
place  is  called  Horeb,  and  we  found  a  church 
there.  This  is  that  Horeb  to  which  the  holy  Pro- 
phet Elijah  withdrew  when  he  fled  from  the  face 
of  King  Ahab,  and  where  GOD  spake  to  him  say- 
ing, *  What  dost  thou  here,  Elijah?'  as  it  is  written 
in  the  Book  of  Kings.  For  the  cave  where  holy 
Elijah  hid  is  shown  to  this  day  before  the  door  of 
the  church  which  is  there;  the  stone  altar  is  also 
shown  which  holy  Elijah  built  that  he  might  offer 
sacrifice  to  GOD.  All  which  jthings  the  holy  men 
deigned  to  show  us.  There  we  offered  an  oblation 
and  an  earnest  prayer,  and  the  passage  from  the 
Book  of  Kings  was  read ;  for  we  always  especially 
desired  that  when  we  come  to  any  place  the  cor- 
responding passage  from  the  book  should  be  read. 
There  having  made  an  oblation,  we  went  on  to 
another  place  not  far  off,  which  the  priests  and 


6  The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

monks  pointed  out,  namely,  that  place  where 
holy  Aaron  had  stood  with  the  seventy  elders 
when  holy  Moses  received  from  the  LORD  the  law 
for  the  children  of  Israel.  There,  although  the 
place  is  not  roofed  in,  is  a  huge  rock  having  a 
circular  flat  surface,  on  which  it  is  said  these  holy 
persons  stood.  And  in  the  middle  there  is  a  sort 
of  altar  made  with  stones.  The  passage  from  the 
Book  of  Moses  was  read,  and  one  psalm  said, 
which  was  appropriate  to  the  place;  and  then, 
having  offered  a  prayer,  we  descended."* 

It  need  hardly  be  said  that  in  studying  the 
sites  and  the  ceremonial  of  Jerusalem  the  Lady 
Egeria  was  not  less  earnest.  She  speaks  of  the 
Church  of  the  Anastasis  over  the  Holy  Sepulchre, 
of  the  "Martyrium"  close  beside  it  on  Calvary  or 
Golgotha,  of  the  Church  of  the  Ascension  on 
the  Mount  of  Olives,  of  Gethsemani  and  the 
Grotto  of  the  Agony,  of  the  way  across  the  brook 
of  Cedron,  of  Mount  Sion  and  the  Column  of  the 
Flagellation  which  was  erected  there,  but  she  says 
nothing  ot  our  Via  Dolorosa,  nor  of  the  site  of  any 
episode  for  which  there  is  not  warrant  in  the 
Gospels. 

Although  the  narrative  of  Egeria  is  the  earliest 
detailed  account  which  we  possess  of  a  pilgrimage 
to  the  Holy  Land,  there  are  a  number  of  other 
records  in  succeeding  centuries  which  allow  us  to 
see  that  the  eagerness  of  the  faithful  to  visit  the 
holy  places  did  not  slacken,  and  which  leave 
a  tolerably  complete  picture  of  the  shrines 
honoured  in  Jerusalem  at  each  successive  epoch 
in  early  Christian  history.  Almost  from  the  very 
beginning  there  went  hand  in  hand  with  this 

*  "Pilgrimage  of  St  Silvia,"  pp.  15,  16,  in  the  translation  of 
the  Palestine  Pilgrims'  Text  Society^ 


Veneration  of  the  Holy  Places        7 

earnestness  in  making  pilgrimages  to  the  Holy 
Sepulchre  a  desire  to  reproduce  at  home  in  some 
imperfect  way  the  venerated  sites  that  had  been 
visited.  It  is  to  this  instinct  probably  that  we  owe 
both  the  ancient  Church  of  the  Anastasis  (the 
Resurrection)  at  Constantinople,  which  by  some 
confusion  was  later  on  associated  with  the  cultus 
of  the  virgin  martyr  St  Anastasia,  as  well  as  that 
of  Sta  Croce  in  Rome,  together  with  the  Church 
of  Sta  Maria  Maggiore,   or  Ad  Prcesepe,  which 
was  meant  in  some  sense  to  serve  as  the  counter- 
part of  Constantine's  basilica  at  Bethlehem.  To 
develop  this  subject  adequately  would  lead  us  too 
far  afield,  and  it  must  suffice  to  say  that  the 
design  of  perpetuating  the  memory  of  the  holy 
places  may  be  traced  even  in  the  representations 
of  ancient  mosaics.  One  has  of  late  years  been 
found  in  Palestine  itself,  which  may  claim  to  be 
regarded  as  nothing  less  than  a  map  of  the  pro- 
vince of  Syria,  including  a  plan  of  Jerusalem  in 
the  sixth  century,*  while  Father  Grisar  identifies 
the  background  of  the  great  mosaic  in  the  apse 
of  S.  Pudenziana,   assigned  by  de  Rossi  to  the 
year  398,  as  an  attempt  to  represent  pictorially 
the  chief  buildings  of  the  same  Holy  City.f 

This  spirit  of  imitation  seems  in  some  mea- 
sure to  have  grown  and  developed  with  the  lapse 
of  ages.  Perhaps  one  of  the  most  interesting 
monuments  which  it  has  left  behind  may  be 
recognized  in  the  curious  group  of  churches, 
communicating  with  each  other  and  forming  one 
building,  originally  erected  as  part  of  the 
Monastery  of  San  Stefano  in  Bologna.  With 

h  See  "  La  Mosaique  Ge"ographique  de  Madaba,"  by 
the  R.  P.  Lagrang-e,  O.P.,  in  the  "  Revue  Biblique,"  1897,  pp. 
165-185  and  450-458. 

t"  Civilta  Cattolica,"  p.  722,  September,  1895, 


8  The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

regard  to  the  construction  of  these  venerable 
churches  we  know  little  or  nothing  that  is  trust- 
worthy. It  seems,  however,  highly  probable  that 
the  tradition  regarding  them  is  substantially  cor- 
rect. The  buildings  were  intended  to  reproduce  in 
some  way  the  more  important  shrines  of  Jerusa- 
lem, and  may  be  regarded  as  perhaps  the  most 
ancient  existing  example  of  a  set  of  Stations  oi 
the  Holy  Land,  even  if  they  do  not  in  strictness 
deserve  to  be  called  Stations  of  the  Cross.  St 
Petronius,  Bishop  of  Bologna,  to  whom  the  con- 
struction of  S.  Stefano  is  attributed,  lived  in  the 
fifth  century.  The  chronicle  of  the  monastery  pre- 
serves a  long  life  of  him,  which  is  no  doubt 
a  medieval  fabrication,  and  which  may  or  may 
not  incorporate  some  fragments  of  genuine  tradi- 
tion. But  in  any  case  the  manuscript  itself  se'ems 
to  be  of  the  twelfth  century.  Assuming  this  to  be 
approximately  the  date  of  the  composition,  it 
bears  witness  to  the  existence,  at  least  at  that 
epoch,  of  an  attitude  of  mind  with  regard  to  the 
holy  places  which  must  have  had  much  to  do 
with  the  development  of  our  devotion  to  the 
Stations.  The  writer  tells  us  that  in  the  very 
ornamentation  of  the  monastery  which  Petronius 
constructed  he  copied  the  Church  of  the  Holy 
Sepulchre,  and  that  he  had  with  singular  fore- 
sight measured  everything  accurately  with  a 
measuring-rod  during  his  stay  in  the  Holy  Land.* 
It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  description  of  this  work 
given  in  the  life  bears  a  quite  extraordinary 
resemblance  to  certain  prominent  features  of  the 

*"Illo  plurimo  labore  typice  gessit  opus  mirifice  constru- 
cttim  instar  Dominici  sepulchri,  secundum  ordinem  quern  viderat 
et  provida  cura  cum  calamo  dimensus  fuerat  cum  esset  Hiero- 
solymae"  ("Acta  Sanctorum,"  Oct.  vol.   II,   p.  459;  Molinier 
"  Itinera  Hierosolymitana,"  n,  p.  145). 


Veneration  of  the  Holy  Places        9 

mosaic  of  the  sixth  century  found  at  Madaba,  and 
it  is  quite  conceivable  that  the  compiler  may  here 
be  incorporating  the  language  of  some  authentic 
early  document.* 

The  writer  further  tells  us  that  Petronius  also 
built  a  monastery  upon  another  more  elevated 
spot  which  down  to  the  writer's  own  day  was 
called  Mons  Oliveti.  This  was  at  the  exact  dis- 
tance from  Golgotha  which  the  saint  had  himself 
measured  when  he  was  in  the  Holy  Land.  On  the 
top  of  this  "Mount  Olivet"  the  saint  planted 
a  second  church,  reproducing  the  Church  of  the 
Ascension.  The  valley  between  was  called  Josa- 
phat,  and  there  was  a  pond  constructed  to  repre- 
sent the  natatoria  Siloe.  The  seven  connected 
churches  at  S.  Stefano  were  no  doubt  meant  to 
recall  the  many  sacred  sites  which  tradition 
grouped  about  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  though  we 
cannot  attach  any  particular  importance  to  the 
vague  language  of  Galesinius,  who  informs  us 
that  in  the  compass  of  S.  Stefano  Petronius 
reproduced  the  column  at  which  our  LORD  was 
scourged,  the  cross  upon  which  He  died,  the 
chamber  in  which  He  suffered,  the  spot  where 
Peter  wept  over  his  fall,  and  the  room  in  which 
the  angel  saluted  our  Blessed  Lady.f  It  seems 

*  I  refer  particularly  to  the  long1  porticoes  with  their  rows  of 
columns.  "  Aliud  quoque  aedificium  idque  plurima  varietate 
columnarum  a  fundamentis  sedificavit  cum  atrio  in  circuitu, 
cum  duobus  ordinibus  preciosarum  columnarum,  cum  basibus  et 
capitellis  suis,  signis  multiplicibus  decoratis,  ita  ut  super  infe- 
riorem  ordinem  columnarum  alius  pretiosior  supereminebat,  tali 
modo  extendebatur  usque  ad  locum  qui  figurate  Golgotha,  hoc 
est  Calvaria,  nuncupatur,  ubi  crux  in  qua  CHRISTUS  pro  salute 
mundi  fixus  est  posita  fuit "  (ibid.)  The  use  of  the  word  Golgotha 
is  suggestive  of  an  early  date  and  a  genuine  Palestinian 
tradition.  v 

t "  Acta  Sanctorum,"  Oct.  vol.  II,  p.  466.  .    - 


io          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

certain,  however,  that  the  monastery  was  fami- 
liarly known  as  Hierusalem,  and  it  is  stated  to 
have  been  described  by  this  term  in  the  Bulls  of 
several  popes.* 

Whether  these  ideas  belong  more  properly  to 
the  fifth  or  to  the  twelfth  century  we  are  not  here 
called  upon  to  determine.  I  may  confess  that  I 
incline  to  the  former  date,  but  in  any  case  it 
must  be  admitted  that  the  devotion  of  the  Stations 
down  to  near  the  close  of  the  middle  ages  had  not 
reached  any  further  stage  of  development.  Ex- 
amples of  imitative  buildings  like  that  of  S  Ste- 
fano  of  Bologna  were  comparatively  rare  and 
isolated,  though  the  idea  of  imitation  never  died 
out,  and  definite  instances  can  be  quoted.  Thus 
we  hear  of  a  Mount  of  Olives  and  a  chapel  of  the 
Holy  Sepulchre  erected  by  the  Augustinian  John 
von  Schaftolsheim  in  1378.!  Again  there  is  a  well- 
known  model  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  in  Bruges 
which  was  set  up  there  by  two  knightly  pilgrims 
on  their  return  from  the  Holy  Land  before  the 
year  1435.  So  also,  to  turn  to  what  is  of  more  im- 
mediate interest  to  English  readers,  it  would 
seem  that  at  Fabriano,  in  the  marches  of  Ancona, 
certain  memorials  of  the  holy  places  were  erected 
by  the  pious  care  of  two  brothers,  Peter  and  John 
Bechetti,  or  Becket,  said  to  be  members  of  the 
family  of  St  Thomas,  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury. $  They  were  beatified  in  the  early  part  of  the 

*e.g-.,  Celestine  III :  "Cum  itaque  in  templo  gloriosi  mar- 
tyris  Stephani,  quoddicitur  Hierusalem  de  Bononia  quod  servus 
DEI  Petronius,  ejusdem  civitatis  episcopus,  instar  sepulchri 
DOMINI  nostri  JESU  CHRISTI  in  Hierusalem  erexit  et  construxit," 
etc.  (Acta  SS.,  loc.  cit.  p.  434.) 

t  See  Sepp,  "  Jerusalem  und  das  heilige  Land,"  2nd  edition, 
vol.  i,  p.  504. 

J  See  Father  John  Morris,  S.J.,  "Life  of  St  Thomas  of  Can- 
terbury," 2nd  edition,  p.  508. 


^v^t^lMAMA: 


<•»  ? 


j| 


U 


MAP  OF  JERUSALEM  &  PALESTINE 

This  little  map,  copied  probably  from  some  late  mediaval  source,  ivas  en- 
graved to  serve  as  a  frontispiece  to  "Le  Pdlerin  Veritable  "  a  guide- 
book printed  at  Paris  in  1615. 

Note  the  landing  of  the  pilgrims  at  Jaffa  ;  one  of  them  kneels  to  kiss  the  ground, 
a  Franciscan  friar  conies  to  meet  them,  while  armed  Turks  on  foot  and  horseback 
scour  the  open  country.  Note  also  in  the  right  hand  lower  corner  the  conversion  of 
St  Paul  on  the  way  to  Damascus,  which  is  represented  in  quite  the  wrong  direction. 

To  face  p.   I  I 


Veneration  of  the  Holy  Places      1 1 

last  century,  and  in  the  documents  of  the  process 
special  mention  is  made  of  their  pilgrimage  to 
the  Holy  Land  and  of  the  chapels  which  they 
built  on  their  return. 

Whether  these  two  Augustinian  friars  were  in 
any  true  sense  collateral  descendants  of  the 
saint  seems  to  me  more  than  doubtful,  but  John 
da  Fabriano  was  unquestionably  lecturing  at 
Oxford  about  the  year  1388,  though  he  was  not 
himself  born  in  England.  In  1393  Peter  da  Fabri- 
ano obtained  leave  from  the  Franciscan  General 
and  from  the  pope  to  make  a  pilgrimage  to  the 
Holy  Land.  On  his  return  he  is  said  to  have  en- 
couraged his  brother,  or  cousin,  John,  to  follow 
his  example.  After  this  they  both  went  to  reside 
in  their  native  town,  and,  as  the  process  of  beati- 
fication tells  us,  "They  caused  a  church  to  be 
erected  which  they  called  the  Holy  Sepulchre, 
and  in  which  they  placed  five  altars.  One,  dedi- 
cated to  our  SAVIOUR  crucified — '  al  SSmo  Croci- 
fisso/ — stood  on  an  elevation  which  was  reached 
by  twelve  steps,  and  they  called  it  Mount  Cal- 
vary. Another  which  was  dedicated  '  alia  Ma- 
donna dello  Spasimo,'  in  memory  of  our  Lady's 
anguish  when  she  swooned  away  on  meeting  her 
divine  Son,  they  named,  strange  to  say,  'la 
Valle  di  Giosafat.'*  The  third  altar  commemo- 
rated our  Lady's  grief  when  she  received  her  Son 
into  her  arms.  There  they  placed  an  image  of  the 
*  Pieta/  and  to  reach  it  you  had  to  descend  ten 
steps.  The  fourth  altar  was  erected  in  honour  of 
our  Lady  'delle  Gratie,'  and  at  the  fifth  their 

*  The  traditional  shrine  of  the  Swoon  of  our  Lady  at  Jeru- 
salem was  certainly  not  located  in  the  Valley  of  Josaphat,  but, 
as  every  pilgrim  of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  century  tells 
us,  it  stood  near  the  Ecce  Homo  arch. 


1 2          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

bones  (so  writes  Torelli  in  1680)  are  at  the  present 
time  enshrined.  Besides  this  they  built  two 
chapels,  one  on  each  side  of  *  Mount  Calvary/  in 
one  of  which  the  Holy  Sepulchre  is  reproduced 
in  the  same  size  as  at  Jerusalem,  and  in  the  other 
chapel  is  the  tomb  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  with 
gilt  statues  beside  it  representing  the  other 
Marys."* 

Again  it  is  related  of  the  Dominican,  Blessed 
Alvaro,  who  died  in  1420,  that  he  made  a  pilgrim- 
age to  Palestine,  and  "  in  order  that  some  sort  of 
memorial  of  these  holy  places  might  remain  for 
ever  in  the  friary  which  he  erected,  he  arranged 
in  it  a  series  of  oratories  in  which  the  mysteries 
of  our  redemption  might  be  set  forth  in  separate 
stations ;  the  which  pious  institution  of  his  is  said 
to  have  been  copied  in  other  religious  houses."  t 
Similarly  the  Blessed  Eustochium,  a  Poor  Clare 
of  Messina,  is  recorded,  out  of  devotion  to  the 
Passion,  "  to  have  set  up  representations  of  the 
holy  places  as  if  it  were  at  Jerusalem.  And  so  within 
the  enclosure  she  had  constructed  the  birthplace 
of  CHRIST  and  there  too  the  house  of  His  blessed 
Mother,  there  the  Mount  of  Olives,  there  the 
Garden  in  which  our  SAVIOUR  was  seized,  there 
the  Supper  Room,  there  the  houses  of  Annas  and 
Caiphas,  there  the  Praetorium  of  Pilate,  there  the 
Mount  of  Calvary  and  the  tomb  beside  it.  To 
these  spots  she  came  daily,  and  just  as  if  she 
were  present  at  the  very  scenes  themselves  she 
contemplated  with  tears  the  meekness  ot  her 

*  I  have  translated  this  from  a  printed  copy  of  the  "  Appro- 
batio  Cultus "  in  the  process  of  beatification,  pp.  13-14.  The 
copy  is  in  the  library  of  the  Bollandist  Fathers  at  Brussels. 

t  Barbier  de  Montault,'/'  CEuvres,"  vol.  VIII,  p.  152,  from  the 
Dominican  Breviary. 


Veneration  of  the  Holy  Places      13 

heavenly  Spouse  and  all  the  acts  which  He  did, 
each  in  its  due  order/'* 

Blessed  Eustochium  died  in  1491,  and  it  is 
plain  that  neither  in  this  case  nor  in  the  others 
we  have  quoted  is  there  anything  at  all  closely 
resembling  our  modern  "Way  of  the  Cross/' 
None  the  less  we  must  allow  that  the  idea  of  the 
counterfeit  devotional  pilgrimage  is  there  in 
principle.  Moreover  this  germ  occasionally  ad- 
mitted remarkable  developments  in  the  practice 
of  the  ascetics  of  the  middle  ages,  as  is  touch- 
ingly  illustrated  by  the  example  of  Blessed  Henry 
Suso,  the  famous  Dominican  mystic.  The  pious 
exercise  described  in  the  following  passage  must 
have  been  adopted  by  him  as  early  as  the  year 
1326,  for  the  dialogue  form  into  which  he  threw 
his  "  Biichlein  der  ewigen  Weisheit,"  or  "  Horo- 
logium  Sapientiae,"  begun  in  that  year,  is  said  to 
have  been  suggested  to  him  during  one  of  these 
nightly  devotional  pilgrimages. f 

"  He  [Blessed  Henry]  now  began  every  night 
after  matins  at  his  usual  place,  which  was  the 
chapter  room,  to  force  himself  into  a  Christlike 
feeling  of  sympathy  with  all  that  CHRIST,  his  LORD 
and  GOD,  had  suffered  for  him.  He  stood  up  and 

*  Wadding1,  "  Annales  Minorum,1'  ad  annum  1491. 

t  From  the  Preface  to  the  French  edition  of  Suso  by  Verard 
(1493),  of  which  there  is  a  beautiful  copy  on  vellum  in  the 
British  Museum  library  (IB,  41151),  we  learn  that  attention  was 
early  directed  to  his  "Way  of  the  Cross."  "Assavoir  est  que 
ceste  maniere  de  parler  entre  sapience  et  le  disciple  fut  trouvee 
et  commencee  par  1'occasion  qui  ensuit.  Advint  une  fois  que  le 
disciple  dont  ce  livre  fait  memoire  faisoit  apres  matines  une 
procession  autour  le  cloistre  ou  par  1'eglise  de  son  convent  [sic^ 
en  lonneur  et  souvenance  de  cette  tres  piteuse  procession  que 
nostre  sauveur  jhu  crist  fist  quant  on  le  mena  de  Jerusalem  en 
calvaire.  Et  avoit  acoustume  le  dit  disciple  a  faire  chascune 
nuyt  apres  matines  une  telle  procession  (Prologue,  sig.  a, 
iv  recto). 


14          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

moved  from  corner  to  corner,  in  order  that  all 
sluggishness  might  leave  him,  and  that  he  might 
have  throughout  a  lively  and  keen  sensitiveness 
to  our  LORD'S  sufferings.  He  commenced  this 
exercise  with  the  Last  Supper,  and  he  accom- 
panied CHRIST  from  place  to  place,  until  he 
brought  Him  before  Pilate.  Then  he  received  Him 
after  He  had  been  sentenced  at  the  tribunal  and 
he  followed  Him  along  the  sorrowful  way  to  Cal- 
vary from  the  court-house  to  beneath  the  gallows. 
The  following  was  the  manner  in  which  he  made 
the* Way  of  the  Cross':  On  coming  to  the  thres- 
hold of  the  chapter  house,  he  kneeled  down  and 
kissed  the  print  of  the  first  step  which  the  LORD 
took,  when,  on  being  sentenced,  he  turned  Him 
round  to  go  forth  to  death.  Then  he  began  the 
psalm  which  describes  our  LORD'S  passion, 
'DEUS,  DEUS  meus,  respice  in  me'  (Ps.  xxi),  and 
he  went  out  by  the  door  into  the  cloister  repeating 
it.  Now  there  were  four  streets  through  which  he 
accompanied  Him.  He  went  with  Him  to  death 
along  the  first  street,  with  the  earnest  desire  and 
will  to  go  forth  from  his  friends  and  all  perishable 
goods,  and  to  suffer  for  CHRIST'S  glory  misery 
without  consolation  and  voluntary  poverty.  In 
the  second  street  he  proposed  to  himself  to  cast 
aside  all  perishable  honour  and  dignity  and 
voluntarily  to  despise  this  present  world,  con- 
sidering how  the  LORD  had  become  a  'worm  and 
the  outcast  of  the  people.'  At  the  beginning  of 
the  third  street  he  kneeled  down  again,  and, 
kissing  the  ground,  willingly  renounced  all  need- 
less comfort  and  all  tender  treatment  of  his  body 
in  honour  of  the  pains  of  CHRIST'S  tender  body; 
and  he  set  before  his  eyes  what  is  written  in  the 
psalm,  how  that  all  CHRIST'S  strength  was  dried 


Veneration  of  the  Holy  Places      15 

up,  and  His  natural  vigour  brought  nigh  to  death 
as  they  drove  Him  onward  thus  pitiably;  and  he 
thought  how  fitting  it  is  that  every  eye  should 
weep  and  every  heart  sigh  on  account  of  it.  When 
he  came  to  the  fourth  street,  he  kneeled  down  in 
the  middle  of  the  road,  as  if  he  were  kneeling  in 
front  of  the  road  through  which  the  LORD  must 
pass  out;  and  then  falling  on  his  face  before  Him 
he  kissed  the  ground,  and  crying  out  to  Him 
prayed  Him  not  to  go  to  death  without  his  ser- 
vant but  to  suffer  him  to  go  along  with  Him. 
Then  he  pictured  to  himself  as  vividly  as  he  could 
that  the  LORD  was  obliged  to  pass  quite  close  to 
him,  and  when  he  had  said  the  prayer,  'Ave,  rex 
noster,  Fili  David!'  (Hail,  our  King,  Son  of 
David)  he  let  Him  move  onwards.  After  this  he 
knelt  down  again,  still  turned  towards  the  gate, 
and  greeted  the  cross  with  the  verse,  '  O  crux  ave, 
spes  unica'  (Hail,  O  Cross,  our  only  hope!)  and 
then  let  it  go  past.  This  done  he  kneeled  down 
once  more  before  the  tender  Mother  Mary,  Hea- 
ven's Queen,  as  she  was  led  past  him  in  unfa- 
thomable anguish  of  heart,  and  he  observed  how 
mournfully  she  bore  herself,  and  noted  her  burn- 
ing tears  and  sighings  and  sorrowful  demeanour; 
and  he  addressed  her  in  the  words  of  the  *  Salve 
Regina '  and  kissed  her  footsteps.  Then  he  stood 
up  and  hastened  after  his  LORD  until  he  came  up 
with  Him. 

"And  the  picture  was  sometimes  so  vividly 
present  to  his  mind  that  it  seemed  to  him  as  if  he 
were  in  body  walking  at  CHRIST'S  side,  and  the 
thought  would  come  to  him  how  that,  when  King 
David  was  driven  from  his  kingdom,  his  bravest 
captains  walked  around  him  and  gave  him  loving 
vsuccour  (2  Kings,  xv).  At  this  point  he  gave  up 


1 6          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

his  will  to  GOD'S  will,  desiring  that  GOD  would 
do  with  him  according  to  His  good  pleasure.  Last 
of  all  he  called  to  mind  the  epistle  which  is  read 
in  Holy  Week  from  the  prophecy  of  Isaias,  begin- 
ning 'Quis  credidit  auditui  nostro*  (Is.  liii),  and 
which  so  exactly  describes  how  the  LORD  was  led 
forth  to  death,  and,  meditating  upon  it,  he  went 
in  by  the  door  of  the  choir,  and  so  up  the  steps 
into  the  pulpit  until  he  came  beneath  the  cross  in 
the  place  where  one  day  the  hundred  considera- 
tions upon  the  Passion  had  been  made  known  to 
him.  He  kneeled  down  and  looked  upon  JESUS 
stripped  of  His  garments  at  the  moment  when  He 
was  cruelly  nailed  to  the  cross.  Then,  taking  a 
discipline  and  in  a  passion  of  fervour,  nailing 
himself  to  the  cross  with  his  LORD,  he  prayed 
that  neither  life  nor  death,  weal  nor  woe,  might 
ever  separate  him  from  the  Crucified."  * 

A  singularly  touching  legend  regarding  a 
spiritual  pilgrimage  of  the  same  kind  may  be  read 
in  the  Cistercian  Chronicle  of  Frey  Bernardo  de 
Brito.f  He  tells  us  that  in  the  ancient  Cistercian 
convent  of  Lorvao  not  far  from  Coimbra  there  was 
a  certain  holy  lay-sister  whojbefore  dedicating  her- 
self to  GOD  as  a  nun  had  led  a  very  mortified  life 
in  the  world.  Among  her  other  good  undertakings, 
however,  she  had  made  a  vow  to  go  on  a  pil- 
grimage to  the  Holy  Land,  and  when  she  entered 
religion  she  was  continually  haunted  by  the  recol- 

'  I  have  copied  Father  Knox's  excellent  translation  of  Suso, 
pp.  50-54,  but  I  have  modified  a  phrase  here  and  there,  where 
the  original  seemed  to  require  it.  It  may  be  noted  that  the  phrase 
"Way  of  the  Cross  "  is  equally  used  by  Suso  of  a  journey  which 
he  took  in  imagination  to  accompany  our  Lady  home  after  the 
entombment. 

t "  Primeira  Parte  da  Chronica  de  Cister."  Lisbon,  1602, 
book  VI,  c,  xxxiv,  fol,  463. 


Veneration  of  the  Holy  Places      17 

lection  of  this  promise  to  GOD  which  left  her  a 
prey  to  many  harassing  scruples,  as  she  saw 
no  means  of  fulfilling  her  engagement.  Still  she 
always  hoped  that  in  some  way  she  might  yet  be 
enabled  to  keep  her  vow,  and  for  this  end  she 
prayed  very  earnestly  and  practised  the  most 
severe  mortifications.  Now  it  happened  while  she 
was  in  this  state  of  distress  that  a  solemn  jubilee  was 
proclaimed  by  the  pope,  and  that  extraordinary 
faculties  were  given  to  confessorc  to  commute 
vows  of  all  kinds,  even  those  of  pilgrimage  to  the 
Holy  Land.  There  was  of  course  no  real  need  of 
any  such  commutation  in  the  case  of  our  lay-sister, 
as  vows  of  devotion,  according  to  the  common 
teaching  of  theologians,  are  annulled  ipso  facto  by 
solemn  profession  in  a  religious  order  However, 
the  sister,  tortured  by  scruples,  presented  herself 
to  the  confessor  during  the  jubilee-tide,  and  hum- 
bly asked  him  for  some  commutation  which  might 
discharge  her  conscience.  He  decided  that  it  would 
be  best  for  her  to  make  a  spiritual  pilgrimage  for 
such  time  as  the  actual  journey  to  the  Holy  Land 
would  have  lasted  had  she  been  able  to  travel 
thither,  and  so  for  a  year  together,  with  the  leave 
of  her  superior,  the  good  lay-sister  spent  all  her 
time  in  passing  from  altar  to  altar  and  from  shrine 
to  shrine  within  the  convent  enclosure,  identify- 
ing them  with  those  sacred  spots  which  are  vene- 
rated by  pilgrims  in  the  holy  city.  Before  the  day 
appointed  for  commencing  this  exercise  she  bade 
a  solemn  farewell  to  her  sisters  in  religion,  and 
during  all  the  time  which  followed  she  spoke  no 
word  to  them  nor  they  to  her.  She  took  her  scanty 
repasts  in  the  refectory  when  the  others  had 
finished,  leaving  the  larger  share  of  her  allotted 
portion  to  be  given  to  the  poor,  and  at  night  she 


i8          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

lay  down  on  the  ground  and  slept  in  the  church 
or  in  the  cloister,  wherever  she  might  be  when 
the  hour  sounded  for  retiring  to  rest.*  For  full 
twelve  months  this  exercise  continued,  and  it 
happened  that  on  the  night  when  the  year  of 
pilgrimage  would  expire,  she  was  seen  praying  in 
the  church  before  the  Blessed  Sacrament  with 
hands  uplifted.  There  she  must  have  remained  in 
this  attitude  from  midnight  until  dawn ;  but  when 
the  sacristan  who  came  to  open  the  church  ap- 
proached to  warn  her  that  the  people  were  enter- 
ing for  Mass,  she  found  the  sister  lifeless  and 
cold,  but  still  kneeling  as  before,  while  her  face 
was  all  aglow  with  supernatural  light.  This  un- 
usual occurrence  deeply  moved  the  townspeople, 
who  cut  away  portions  of  her  habit  and  preserved 
them  as  relics,  by  which  many  miracles  were 
afterwards  said  to  have  been  wrought.  But  the 
strangest  marvel  of  all  happened  only  a  few  days 
later  when  a  pilgrim  newly  returned  from  the 
Holy  Land  knocked  at  the  gate  and  asked  for 
news  of  Sister  Maria  Minz,  this  being  the  name 
of  the  good  lay-sister  who  had  so  peacefully  de- 
parted. They  bade  him  tell  them  how  he  came  to 
know  her  and  to  make  such  inquiry,  whereupon 
he  related  that  in  all  his  pious  visits  to  the  holy 
places  of  Jerusalem  this  sister  had  been  his  com- 
panion; but  that  on  such  a  day,  naming  the  day  of 
her  death,  she  had  suddenly  quitted  him  as  they 
were  j  our  ney ing  homeward,  informing  him  that  she 
was  wanted  in  her  convent  and  bidding  him  call 
there  to  ask  for  further  tidings. 

Father  Brito  adds  that  he  could  not  ascertain 

*  Father  Quaresmius,  who  borrows  the  story  from  Brito, 
omits  these  details.  He  evidently  thought  that  such  a  flagrant 
neglect  of  all  means  of  healthful  relaxation  was  not  calculated 
to  edify. 


Veneration  of  the  Holy  Places      19 

the  year  in  which  this  event  took  place,  but  that 
the  memory  of  the  holy  lay-sister  was  still  vene- 
rated in  the  convent  of  Lorvao.  Such  historical 
foundation  as  the  story  may  have  would  seem  to 
belong  to  the  pre-Reformation  period,  while  the 
mention  of  the  jubilee,  which  was  proclaimed  for 
the  first  time  by  Boniface  VIII,  shows  that  it  must 
in  any  case  be  subsequent  to  the  year  1300. 

But  we  may  turn  back  now  from  the  devo- 
tional practices  of  Europe  in  the  fourteenth  and 
fifteenth  centuries  to  see  how  in  Jerusalem  itself  a 
definite  Via  Dolorosa  or  Way  of  Sorrows  had 
meanwhile  gradually  come  to  be  recognized, 
although  perhaps  it  was  not  as  yet  called  by  any 
specific  name.*  There  can  in  any  case  be  little 
doubt  that  when  the  two  brothers  de  Fabriano  or 
Alonso  the  Dominican  visited  Palestine,  they 
would  have  had  pointed  out  to  them  by  their 
guides  as  an  object  of  special  devotion  the  path 
followed  by  our  SAVIOUR  on  His  way  to  Calvary. 

*  Tobler,  "  Topographic  von  Jerusalem,"  considers  that  the 
name  Via  Dolorosa  did  not  come  into  common  use  before  the  end 
of  the  sixteenth  century.  This  however  must  be  a  mistake,  for 
the  Spanish  poet  Juan  de  la  Enzina,  in  his  "  Viage  de  Jerusa- 
lem" (1519),  speaks  of  the  street  (calle)  along1  which  our  LORD 
dragged  His  cross,  "which  nowadays  is  called  the  street 
of  anguish''  (qu1  oy  dia  se  dize  la  Cat  de  Amargurd).  At  this 
period  it  was  also  sometimes  called  the  Via  Sancta — Holy  Way. 


(Chapter  II-The  Beginnings  of  the 

Via  Crucis 

IN  the  usetul  essay  upon  the  Stations  of  the 
Cross  which  has  been  published  by  Dr  von 
Keppler,  Bishop  of  Rottenburg,  as  an  introduc- 
tion to  the  "Kreuzweg"  of  the  Beuron  Art  School,* 
he  states  that  before  the  eleventh  century,  although 
we  find  some  indications  of  a  Via  Sacra,  a  cer- 
tain determined  route  along  which  pilgrims  were 
conducted  in  visiting  the  holy  places  of  Jeru- 
salem, there  was  as  yet  no  Via  Crucis,  no  trace 
of  any  recognition  of  the  path  by  which  our 
SAVIOUR  bore  His  own  Cross  to  Calvary.  Bishop 
von  Keppler  considers  that  the  earliest  sugges- 
tion of  such  special  recognition  is  to  be  met  with 
in  the  French  pilgrimage  book  of  1 187,  "La  Citez 
de  Hierusalem."  Even  here,  though  there  is 
mention  of  a  Porte  Dolereuse  or  sorrowful  gate, 
by  which  our  LORD  went  forth  to  die,  the  refe- 
rence to  the  road  to  Calvary  is  slight  and  indirect. 
There  is  no  allusion  as  yet  to  particular  sites 
along  the  road,indulgenced  stopping-places  which 
the  faithful  are  taught  to  regard  with  veneration 
and  to  greet  with  prayer.  This  was  to  come  later 
on,  but  it  was  remote  in  the  twelfth  century. 
There  is  equally  little  trace  of  a  Via  Crucis  in 

*  Keppler,  "  Die  XIV  Stationen  des  hi.  Kreuzwegs.  Eine 
geschichtliche  und  kunstgeschichtlicheStudie,"p.  13.  Freiburg- : 
Herder.  This  has  been  in  large  measure  supplemented  by  an 
article  by  Dr  N.  Paulus  in  the  "  Katholik1'  for  April,  1895,  en- 
titled, "Zur  Geschichte  der  Kreuzwegandacht." 


Beginnings  of  the  Via  Grucis        21 

the  narratives  ot  a  number  of  other  pilgrims  be- 
longing to  this  period.  They  are  so  ready  to  give 
information  when  they  possess  it,  that  it  seems 
barely  credible  that  when  Fetellus  (1130),  John 
of  Wiirtzburg   (1170),   Theodore   of  Wiirtzburg 
(1172),  John  Phocas  (1185),  Wilbrand  von  Olden- 
burg (1212),  and  others,  are  all  silent,   the    Via 
Cruets  can  really  have   been  honoured  by  the 
pilgrims   of   that   age.     It  is,   perhaps,   in    the 
account  of  Philippus  Brusserius  Savonensis  (1285- 
1291),  that  we  first  meet  with  anything  like  a 
series  of  halting  places  marking  the  incidents  of 
the  journey  to  Calvary.  Riccoldo  (1294)  speaks  of 
the  "via  per  quam  ascendit   CHRISTUS  bajulans 
sibi  crucem,"  the  road  by  which  CHRIST  ascended 
carrying  His  cross.    In  Marino  Sanuto  (c.  1310), 
in  Pipino  (1320),  and  Ludolf  of  Suchem  (1350),  the 
impression  becomes  stronger,  but  even  here  the 
Via   Cruets   has    no    special    prominence.    We 
find  indeed  that  mention  is  made  of  the  places 
where  Simon  of  Cyrene  was  forced  to  help  our 
SAVIOUR,  where  the  women  of  Jerusalem  wept, 
where  Mary  swooned  at  meeting  her  Son,  none 
of  which  are  heard  of  in  earlier  centuries;  but 
these  things  are  not  associated  together  as  having 
a  particular  interest  of  their  own.  They  are,  and 
remained  for  centuries  later,  merely  items  in  a 
long  series  of  holy  places  to  be  visited  in  turn. 
The  tour  occupied  the  whole  day,  and  the  Way 
of  the  Cross  was  only  a  fraction  of  it.  Even  as  late 
as  the  seventeenth  century  so  irrelevant  an  ele- 
ment as  the  house  where  Dives  of  the  parable  is 
said  to  have  lived  was  retained  amongst  the  other 
sites  or  stations  which  were  venerated  on  the  road 
to  Calvary. 

By  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century,  largely 


22          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

owing  no  doubt  to  the  restrictions  of  the  Turkish 
rule,  a  definite  and  almost  invariable  programme 
had  established  itself  with  regard  to  the  enter- 
tainment of  each  band  of  pilgrims  that  visited  the 
Holy  City.  For  at  least  a  whole  night  they  were 
locked  into  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  and 
were  left  free  to  wander  about  its  precincts,  to  visit 
its  holy  places,  to  hear  or  say  Mass,  and  to  perform 
other  devotions,  always,  be  it  understood,  under 
the  guidance  of  some  of  the  Franciscans  of  Mount 
Sion.  Then  they  returned  to  their  hospice,  and  at 
midnight,  or  at  any  rate  two  hours  before  dawn, 
they  were  brought  back  to  the  open  space  before  the 
Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  with  a  great  flare 
of  torches;  and  starting  from  that  point,  along  with 
their  Franciscan  guides,  they  made  the  tour  of  the 
holy  places  within  the  city  and  outside  the  walls, 
crossing  to  Mount  Olivet  and  returning  to  Sion 
before  the  evening  had  drawn  in.  It  will  be  noticed 
from  this  arrangement  that  the  pilgrims  inverted 
the  order  of  the  stations  of  the  Way  of  the  Cross, 
passing  not  towards  but  away  from  Calvary,  a  fact 
which  alone  must  make  it  sufficiently  clear  that 
the  idea  of  accompanying  our  SAVIOUR  in  spirit 
on  His  last  sad  journey  was  as  yet  entirely  want- 
ing. On  the  other  hand,  as  the  scenes  of  the  carry- 
ing of  the  Cross,  in  their  reverse  order,  were  the 
first  to  be  visited  in  the  long  pilgrimage,  the  sta- 
tions in  question  must  often  have  been  seen  only 
by  torchlight  or  in  the  grey  of  the  morning.  This 
latter  fact  may  account  perhaps  for  a  certain 
amount  of  confusion  about  the  sites  in  the  narra- 
tives of  travellers.  In  any  case  we  cannot  doubt 
that  such  an  arrangement  of  time  which  left  hardly 
any  interval  for  sleep  must  have  been  intensely 
fatiguing.  It  was  no  doubt  adopted  by  the  Fran- 


Beginnings  of  the  Via  Crucis        23 

ciscans  of  Mount  Sion,  who  in  all  these  matters 
had  autocratic  powers,  in  order  to  avoid  friction 
with  the  Turks  in  the  frequented  parts  of  the  city, 
and  in  order  to  get  the  pilgrims  away  from  Jeru- 
salem again  with  all  possible  despatch.  However, 
it  was  not  very  long  before  a  more  devotional 
reason  was  forthcoming  for  this  practice,  and  in 
the  narrative  of  Felix  Fabri  (1480)  we  find  an 
elaborate  account  of  the  long  and  wearisome  pil- 
grimage to  all  the  holy  places  of  Jerusalem,  made 
each  day  by  our  Blessed  Lady  while  she  remained 
on  earth,  the  manner,  duration  and  extent  of  her 
journey  being,  strange  to  say,  the  exact  counter- 
part of  that  which  was  compulsorily  followed  by 
the  pilgrims  of  the  fifteenth  century.  As  this, 
according  to  popular  tradition,  would  have  been 
the  earliest  example  of  the  Way  of  the  Cross,  it 
seems  worth  while  to  say  a  few  words  on  the 
subject. 

The  first  traces  of  the  legend  of  our  Lady's 
pilgrimages  in  Jerusalem  are  of  early  date.  Thus 
a  Syriac  recension  of  the  apocryphal  departure  of 
my  Lady  Mary  from  the  world,  which  is  assigned 
on  high  authority  to  the  fifth  century,  records : 

"  In  the  year  345  (of  the  Seleucian  era,  i.e., 
A.D.  34),  in  the  month  of  the  latter  Teshrin,  my 
Lady  Mary  came  forth  from  her  house  and  went 
to  the  tomb  of  the  MESSIAH,  because  day  by  day 
she  used  to  go  and  weep  there.  But  the  Jews  as 
soon  as  the  MESSIAH  was  dead  closed  the  tomb 
and  heaped  up  large  stones  against  its  door,  and 
set  watchmen  over  the  tomb  and  Golgotha,  and 
gave  them  orders  that  if  any  one  should  go  to  pray 
by  the  grave  or  on  Golgotha  he  should  straight- 
way die.  .  .  And  the  watchmen  came  in  and 
said  to  the  priests,  'Mary  comes  in  the  evening- 


24          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

and  in  the  morning,  and  prays  there/  And  there 
was  a  commotion  in  Jerusalem  concerning  my 
Lady  Mary;  and  the  priests  went  to  the  judge 
and  said  to  him,  'My  Lord,  send  and  order 
Mary  not  to  go  and  pray  at  the  grave  and 
Golgotha/"* 

In  a  Latin  adaptation  of  what  is  substantially 
the  same  story,  printed  by  Tischendorf,  a  larger 
scope  is  given  to  our  Lady's  devotional  pilgrim- 
age. This  account  states  that : 

"When  the  apostles  had  separated  in  order 
to  preach  the  gospel  and  had  travelled  to  different 
parts  of  the  world,  the  blessed  Virgin  our  Mother 
is  said  to  have  remained  in  Jerusalem  in  a  house 
which  was  situated  close  to  Mount  Sion.  Thence 
as  long  as  she  lived  she  used  to  visit  every  spot 
which  her  Son's  presence  had  sanctified,  the  place 
of  His  baptism,  of  His  fast,  of  His  passion,  resur- 
rection and  ascension/'f 

The  legend  gradually  developed,  and  in  the 
thirteenth  century  we  begin  to  hear  of  a  definite 
spot  near  the  Church  of  the  Ascension  where  our 
Lady  used  to  rest,  and  where  the  archangel  Gabriel 
appeared  to  her  before  her  death,  bringing  her  the 
branch  of  a  palm  tree.  The  scene  of  this  angelic 
apparition  was  not  always  very  clearly  defined 
and  was  sometimes  distinguished  from  our  Lady's 
resting  place,  but  the  very  ancient  story  of  the 
coming  of  the  angel  with  the  palm  branch,  to  be 

*  "The  Departure  of  my  Lady  Mary  from  this  world,"  trans- 
lated from  the  Syriac  by  Dr  William  Wright,  "Journal  of  Sacred 
Literature,"  April,  1865.  This  account  is  copied  from  a  MS.  of 
the  sixth  century.  On  the  apocryphal  "  Transitus  Mariae,"  see 
O.  Sinding,  "  Mariae  Tod  und  Himmelfahrt,"  and  Mommert, 
"  Die  Dormitio  und  das  deutsche  Grundstiick  auf  dem  traditionel- 
len  Sion,"  Leipzig,  1899. 

t  Tischendorf,  "Apocalypses  Apocryphae,"  introduction. 
This  account  is  derived  from  the  Codex  Ambrosianus,  L.  58. 


Beginnings  of  the  Via  Crucis        25 

borne  before  her  bier — "a  token,"  says  Fabri,  "of 
her  complete  victory  over  death  and  over  the 
enemy  of  the  human  race  " — invariably  attached 
itself  in  later  times  to  her  supposed  pilgrimage  to 
the  holy  places.  But  Fabrics  account  of  our  Lady's 
pilgrimage,  conveying  as  it  does  a  truthful  im- 
pression of  the  devotional  spirit  of  the  age  at 
which  the  exercise  of  the  Stations  took  its  rise, 
deserves  to  be  cited  at  some  length.  I  quote  from 
the  translation  of  this  extremely  interesting  book 
published  a  few  years  since  by  the  Palestine  Pil- 
grims' Text  Society,  f 

"  Our  Blessed  Lady  was  careful  every  day  to 
visit  the  holiest  places  in  Jerusalem  and  the 
neighbourhood.  In  the  early  morning,  as  dawn 
drew  nigh,  after  having  received  holy  Communion 
from  St  John  on  the  LORD'S  Mount  of  Sion,  she 
went  forth  with  her  maidens  and  entered  that 
great  chamber  which  had  been  made  ready  for 
the  Last  Supper,  where  she  meditated  upon  the 
immense  boon  there  conferred  upon  the  human 
race,  looked  into  the  deepest  mysteries,  and  kissed 
the  place  where  her  Son  had  sat.  From  thence  she 
would  go  to  the  house  of  Annas  the  high  priest, 
and  after  praying  there  entered  the  hall  of  Caiphas, 
and  mused,  not  without  sorrow,  upon  the  suffer- 
ings undergone  by  her  Son  in  that  building. 
Thence  she  went  down  from  the  Mount  Sion  out 
of  the  city  and  came  to  the  rock  of  the  Cross, 
which  she  embraced  and  sweetly  kissed,  pitying 
that  dearest  One  who  was  crucified  thereon,  and 
rejoicing  nevertheless  in  His  precious  devotion 

*  This,  on  the  whole  excellent,  translation  is  the  work  of  Mr 
Aubrey  Stewart.  In  this  and  future  extracts  from  Fabri  I  have 
occasionally  ventured  to  modify  a  phrase  or  two  where  the  ori- 
ginal Latin  seemed  to  be  less  felicitously  rendered. 


26          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

to  those  whom  He  redeemed.  From  thence  enter- 
ing into  the  garden  of  the  LORD'S  tomb  she  would 
go  to  the  place  where  the  Body  of  her  Son  and 
LORD  was  anointed  and  preserved  in  spices,  where 
she  kneeled  and  kissed  the  stone,  and  swiftly  rising 
from  thence,  made  her  way  to  the  LORD'S  tomb, 
whose  cave  she  entered,  and  embracing  His  se- 
pulchre, was  filled  on  that  spot  with  unspeakable 
joy.  Leaving  these  places  she  went  down  the  hill 
of  Calvary  towards  the  city  gate ;  and  on  her  way, 
not  unmindful  of  her  Son,  how  He  was  led  out  of 
the  city  along  that  path,  burdened  with  the  heavy 
Cross,  and  in  the  places  where  she  had  seen  her 
Son  either  fall  beneath  the  load  of  the  Cross  or 
be  assailed  by  some  special  outrage,  she  would 
kneel  down  and  pray.  Thus  she  would  enter  the 
city  by  the  Judicial  Gate  ("  per  portam  judicia- 
riam  "},  go  up  to  Pilate's  judgement  hall,  and  kiss 
the  places  where  He  was  scourged  and  crowned 
with  thanksgiving.  Coming  out  from  thence  she 
would  go  to  the  house  of  Herod  and  kiss  her 
Son's  footprints  there.  From  thence  she  would  go 
up  to  the  temple  of  the  LORD,  and  after  praying 
there,  would  leave  the  temple  on  the  other  side, 
and  come  to  the  Golden  Gate,  where  she  reflected 
upon  her  Son's  entrance  on  Palm  Sunday."* 

It  will  be  noticed  how  closely  this  corresponds 
with  the  course  prescribed  for  the  fifteenth-cen- 
tury pilgrims  by  their  Franciscan  guides.  They 
have  to  make  their  way  first  from  Sion  to  the 
Holy  Sepulchre,  and  then  after  saluting  the  sites 
which  are  there  they  too  begin  their  pilgrimage 
"down  the  hill  of  Calvary  towards  the  city  gate." 
Our  Blessed  Lady,  while  mindful  of  her  Son  and 
of  the  sufferings  of  His  last  cruel  journey,  is  re- 

*  Fabri  (P.P.T.S.),  vol.  I,  pp.  505,  506. 


Beginnings  of  the  Via  Crucis        27 

presented  by  Fabri  as  travelling  in  the  contrary 
direction  to  that  which  He  followed.  So  too,  almost 
invariably,  did  the  pilgrims,  as  it  would  be  easy  to 
show  from  any  one  of  the  scores  of  such  narratives 
which  have  been  published  in  our  own  and  earlier 
times.  Fabri's  own  account  of  his  experience  is 
too  elaborate  to  follow  in  every  detail,  but  we 
may  quote  it  in  part.  He,  being  a  Dominican, 
seems  to  have  been  entertained  as  a  guest 
amongst  the  good  Franciscans  of  Mount  Sion, 
while  his  secular  companions,  "  the  pilgrim 
lords/*  as  he  calls  them,  were  lodged  at  the 
hospice  provided  for  that  purpose. 

"  When  the  sun,"  he  says,  "  had  set,  the  pil- 
grims went  down  to  their  hospital  to  rest,  but 
many  of  them  remained  with  us  on  Mount  Sion, 
and  kept  vigils  in  the  holy  places.  At  midnight 
we  rose  together  with  the  brethren  for  the  office 
of  Matins  and  Lauds,  after  which  we  began  to  say 
private  Masses,  each  in  whatever  place  he  chose, 
until  it  grew  light.  When  the  fifteenth  day  of  July 
began  to  dawn,  before  sunrise  we  who  were  on 
Mount  Sion  went  down  to  the  hospital  and  roused 
up  our  brethren,  the  pilgrim  lords,  for  a  pilgrimage. 
When  they  were  ready  we  came  out  of  the  hospi- 
tal with  some  of  the  brethren  of  Mount  Sion*  and 
Calinus  Elaphallo,the  Saracen,  with  his  stick,  who 
afforded  us  safe  conduct  and  kept  the  boys  from 
throwing  stones  at  us.  First  of  all  we  went  to  the 
courtyard  of  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre, 
and  there  prostrating  ourselves  at  the  place  where 
CHRIST  fell  beneath  the  Cross,  as  described  above, 
we  received  plenary  indulgences."  f 

*  According  to  the  statement  of  an  English  pilgrim  in  MS. 
Harleian  2333,  fol.  5a,  the  Franciscan  guides  used  to  explain 
everything  in  four  languages,  "that  is  to  say,  latyn,  italien, 
frensche  and  duche."  t  Felix  Fabri,  p.  440. 


28          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

It  may  be  instructive  to  quote  the  fuller  de- 
scription here  referred  to.  The  courtyard  of  the 
Holy  Sepulchre  Church,  corresponding  to  the  site 


CHURCH  of  the  HOLT  SEPULCHRE  at  JERUSALEM 
Copied  from  the  Early  Edition  of  Breydenbach,  printed  at  Mains  in  1486 

In  the  courtyard,  pilgrims  are  shown  kissing  the  stone  marked  wit    the  cross,  which 
represented  the  Site  of  the  Third  Fall. 


of  the  last  of  the  falls  in  our  modern  system  of 
Stations,  was  the  first  halting  place  in  the  reverse 
pilgrimage  undertaken  by  Fabri.  The  detailed 
account  given  by  the  Dominican  pilgrim  bears 
the  following  heading: 


Beginnings  of  the  Via  Crucis        29 

"  The  Courtyard  in  front  of  the  Church  of  the  Holy 
Sepulchre  hath  in  it  these  places  following. 

"AFTER  we  had  seen  that  we  came  down  by  the 
same  steps  which  we  had  gone  up  into  the  court- 
yard of  the  church,  and  near  the  door  we  were 
shown  a  stone  in  the  pavement  upon  which  were 
imprinted  the  marks  of  two  human  feet,  just  as  if 
a  man  had  stood  upon  a  lump  of  soft  wax,  and 
pressed  his  feet  into  it;  and  it  is  evident  that  these 
traces  of  footsteps  are  not  made  in  the  stone  by 
art,  but  by  a  miracle,  though  nothing  is  known  for 
certain  about  this.  However,  they  say  that  these 
are  the  footsteps  of  the  LORD  JESUS,  who  stood 
there  at  the  foot  of  the  rock  of  Calvary  awaiting 
His  crucifixion.  Before  this  stone  we  bowed  our- 
selves to  the  ground  and  kissed  the  sacred  foot- 
prints. From  thence  we  went  in  procession  to 
a  place  close  to  the  way  out  of  the  courtyard, 
where  our  LORD,  as  He  carried  His  heavy  cross, 
is  said  to  have  fallen  beneath  it  through  anguish 
and  horror  when  He  beheld  the  rock  of  Calvary 
before  Him.  .  .  .  This  holy  place  is  marked  with 
a  stone,  whereon  many  crosses  have  been  cut  by 
pilgrims.  We  therefore  kissed  this  place  and 
gained  a  plenary  indulgence/'* 

Next  in  order  as  Fabri  made  the  descent  from 
Calvary  towards  Pilate's  house  came : 

"The  Gate,  outside  which  our  LORD  JESUS  was  led 

to  be  crucified. 

"AFTER  this  we  came  out  of  the  courtyard  into 
a  street  which  leads  from  Mount  Sion  to  Mount 
Calvary  and  from  thence  leads  down  into  the  city 
through  all  its  length.  When  we  had  gone  down 

*  "The  Book  of  the  Wanderings  of  Brother  Felix  Fabri," 
vol.  I,  pp.  393,  394, 


3o          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

someway  into  the  town,  down  that  street  up  which 
the  LORD  JESUS  ascended  to  Mount  Calvary  carry- 
ing His  cross,  we  came  to  an  ancient  gate,  broken 
on  the  right-hand  side,  whereof  no  more  remained 
than  one  side,  reaching  from  the  ground  to  the  curve 
which  supported  the  arch,  all  the  rest  being  gone. 
.  .  .  This  gate . . .  was  called  the  Old  Gate  because 
it  stood  there  in  the  time  of  the  Jebusites.  After- 
wards it  was  called  the  Gate  of  Judgement  (Porta 
Judictaria]  because  judgement  was  given  therein 
after  the  manner  of  the  ancients,  and  those  who 
had  been  judged  and  sentenced  therein  were  sent 
out  of  it  to  be  executed.  Both  of  these  names, 
which  are  one  and  the  same,  to  wit,  the  Old  Gate 
and  the  Gate  of  Judgement,  are  mentioned  in  the 
third  chapter  of  the  Book  of  Nehemiah. 

"  Out  of  this  gate  the  LORD  was  led  to  be 
crucified,  carrying  His  cross,  wherefore  it  is  said 
of  this  gate  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  chap- 
ter xiii :  *  JESUS  that  He  might  sanctify  the  people 
with  His  own  Blood  suffered  without  the  gate/ 
Let  us  human  pilgrims  then  go  out  to  Him  with- 
out the  gate  bearing  His  reproach.  Who,  I  pray 
you,  could  behold  this  gate  save  with  devout 
compassion  r  From  hence  Abel  went  forth  to  the 
field  of  Afrem  to  be  slain.  Through  this  came 
Isaac  carrying  the  wood  that  he  might  be  sacri- 
ficed upon  the  mountain.  Here  was  seen  the  cluster 
of  grapes  borne  upon  the  staff.  At  this  gate  we 
repeated  the  prayer  appointed  in  the  processional, 
and  knelt  and  gained  indulgences." 

Fabri's  account  of  Veronica  and  the  subse- 
quent halting  places  is  rather  lengthy.  It  will  be 
well  to  substitute  for  it  a  shorter  notice  found  in 
"  Le  Voyage  de  laSaincte  Cyt6  Hierusalem,"  the 
narrative  ot  a  pilgrim  of  the  same  date  (1480). 


Beginnings  of  the  Via  Crucis        31 

"  And  first,  in  going  from  the  holy  Sepulchre 
to  Mount  Olivet,  we  passed  before  the  house  of 
Veronica,  who,  seeing  our  SAVIOUR  being  led  to 
His  Crucifixion,  lent  Him  a  fine  white  cloth  to 
cleanse  His  face,  which  was  all  disfigured  by 
wounds  and  the  filth  thrown  at  Him  by  the  false 
tyrants.  And  in  putting  the  said  cloth  against  His 
face  His  own  likeness  remained  impressed  upon 
it.  The  said  Veronica  is  now  at  Rome,  most  pre- 
ciously and  jealously  preserved. 

"At  the  right-hand  side,  at  the  end  of  the  street 
where  is  the  house  of  the  said  Veronica,  is  the 
house  of  the  wicked  rich  man,  who  would  not  give 
alms  to  the  poor,  of  whom  it  is  said  that  he  is 
buried  in  hell.  And  in  the  said  house  there  is  an 
arch  and  gallery  which  goes  across  the  street.  In 
that  street,  on  the  left  hand,  there  is  a  cross-way 
called  the  Trivium,  and  there  the  Jews  compelled 
a  good  man  named  Simon  the  Cyrenian,  whom 
they  met  there,  to  carry  our  LORD'S  cross,  be- 
cause our  LORD  could  carry  it  no  longer. 

"Also,  a  stone's  throw  beyond  the  said  cross- 
road, there  is  the  place  where  our  Lady  fell  to  the 
ground,  and  her  heart  failed  her,  when  she  saw 
our  LORD  among  so  great  a  multitude  of  Jews, 
and  that  He  was  being  led  out  to  die,  and  there 
a  chapel  was  erected.  From  hence  one  passes 
under  an  arch  on  which  are  two  beautifully  hewn 
stones,  as  large  as  the  base  of  a  cask  of  wine. 
And  our  SAVIOUR  was  seated  on  one  of  these 
stones  when  He  was  condemned  to  death  by 
Pilate,  and  Pilate  was  on  the  other  stone/'  * 

The  writer  has  apparently  overlooked  the  inci- 
dent of  the  women  of  Jerusalem.  It  is  inserted  by 

*  "Voyage  de  la  Saincte  Cyt<£  de  Hierusalem,"  ed,  C.  Sche- 
fer,  p.  75. 


32          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

Fabri  between  the  place  where  our  LORD'S  face 
was  wiped  by  Veronica  and  the  cross-way  where 
Simon  of  Gyrene,  according  to  the  then  prevalent 
tradition,  was  compelled  to  lend  his  aid.  But  it 
must  be  carefully  understood  that  these  sites, 
with  which  we  are  now  familiar,  formed  but  a 
very  small  part  of  the  whole  pilgrimage.  Our 
Blessed  Lady  was  believed  to  have  passed  right 
through  the  city  across  the  brook  Cedron  to  the 
Mount  of  Olives,  visiting  every  scene  and  every 
holy  place,  and  Fabri  describes  how — 

"  After  having  visited  Gethsemani,  she  again 
sought  the  high  ground,  and  climbed  upwards, 
slender  and  fragile  as  a  wreath  of  smoke,  being 
already  worn  away  by  her  various  penances,  and 
burned  within  by  the  flame  of  pious  love ;  thus  in 
cheerful  guise  she  would  with  unspeakable  long- 
ing seek  the  top  of  the  holy  hill  of  Olivet,  from 
whence  she  had  descended,  and  would  return  to 
the  place  of  the  LORD'S  Ascension,  whither  she 
would  go  as  though  herself  about  to  ascend 
straightway  and  meet  her  Son.  When  she  was 
there,  she  would  caress  the  aforesaid  footprints 
with  many  kisses,  lifting  at  one  time  her  eyes,  at 
another  her  hands  to  heaven,  and  on  that  spot 
she  would  feel  much  joy  at  the  thought  that 
there  the  greatest  honour  possible  was  bestowed 
upon  her  Son  and  upon  herself,  when  that  flesh 
which  had  been  born  of  her  was  taken  up  from 
hence  and  exalted  above  all  the  heavens.  Leaving 
this  place,  she  would  make  her  way  home,  and 
walk  down  the  Mount,  by  the  place  where  the 
apostles  had  put  together  the  creed  which  she 
herself  had  taught  them,  where  she  would  stand 
still  for  a  little  space  and  pray  for  those  who  pro- 
fessed the  faith.  Passing  on  from  thence  to  the 


PART  OF  BERNARDINO  AM  ICO' S  MAP  OF  JERUSALEM 

1609-1620 

The  right  hand  side  of  the  Map  is  the  North 

47— Praetorium.  48— Herod's  Palace.  1— The  Ecce  Homo  Arch.  12— St  Mary's  Swoon. 
4— Simon  of  Cyrene.  30— Daughters  of  Jerusalem.  6— Veronica's  House.  27— Church 
of  the  Holy  Sepulchre.  37— The  Temple  (the  Mosque  of  Omar). 

To  face  p.  32 


Beginnings  of  the  Via  Crucis        33 

place  where  the  LORD  had  taught  them  to  say '  Our 
Father,'  she  would  stop  and  say  that  prayer,  and 
as  she  went  on  would  give  thanks  at  the  place 
where  the  eight  beatitudes  were  preached.  From 
thence  she  would  come  down  to  the  place  where 
CHRIST  sat  with  His  disciples  and  told  them  the 
terrible  story  of  the  Last  Judgement,  where  she 
offered  a  prayer  that  He  might  be  merciful  in  His 
second  advent;  and  went  on  till  she  came  to  the 
dwelling  where  already,  at  the  outset  of  this  pil- 
grimage of  the  most  Blessed  Virgin  Mary,  I  have 
said  was  her  place  of  rest  and  recovery  of  breath. 
Now  at  the  time  when  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary 
was  alive  there  stood  there  a  dwelling,  inhabited 
by  good  peasants,  who,  observing  the  unfailing 
passing  by  of  the  Virgin,  invited  her  to  sit  and 
refresh  herself  in  the  shade ;  and  she  frequently 
would  come  out  of  the  road,  sit  down  and  rest  her 
frail  maiden  limbs." 

From  this  rough  resting-place  Brother  Fabri 
describes  her  as  rising: 

"So  having  resumed  her  strength,  which  she 
had  not  lost,  but  which  had  been  in  abeyance  at 
the  aforesaid  place,  she  came  down  the  foot  of  the 
mount  into  the  valley,  where  after  visiting  the 
sepulchres  of  some  of  the  prophets,  she  came  to 
the  sepulchre  of  her  own  most  chaste  husband, 
Joseph,  who  was  buried  there  in  a  cleft  of  a  rock, 
before  which  sepulchre  she  would  stand  and  re- 
member him  with  tender  emotion.  From  thence, 
crossing  the  bridge  over  the  brook,  she  would  go 
up  again  to  Mount  Sion,  and  when  there  would 
go  to  the  place  where  she  herself  and  the  disciples 
received  the  HOLY  GHOST  on  the  day  of  Pentecost, 
where  again  she  would  be  filled  with  fresh  joy."* 

*  Fabri,  pp.  508,  509, 

3 


34          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

It  was  in  like  manner  that  the  pilgrims  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  after  their  short  course  through 
the  city,  spent  the  greater  part  of  the  day  on  the 
Mount  of  Olives  and  the  places  outside  Jerusa- 
lem. For  nearly  two  hundred  years  (i.e.,  from 
about  1350  to  1530),  in  what  we  may  call  the 
officially  conducted  pilgrimages,  this  route  was 
invariably  followed.  It  was  only  by  degrees  that 
a  select  few  among  the  sites  so  visited,  partly 
in  consequence  of  the  more  liberal  indulgences 
attached  or  believed  to  be  attached  to  them,  seem 
to  have  acquired  a  special  prominence. 

Fabri's  account  of  our  Lady's  pilgrimage  will 
seem  to  many  very  fanciful,  and  the  most  ardent 
defender  of  local  traditions  will  probably  admit 
that  no  great  reliance  can  be  placed  upon  the 
details  of  this  description  of  our  fifteenth-century 
traveller.  None  the  less,  the  good  Dominican's 
narrative,  in  its  frankness,  simplicity  and  volu- 
minousness,  holds  a  unique  position  among  such 
records.  It  is  very  valuable  for  the  insight  which 
it  affords  into  the  devotional  spirit  of  the  pilgrims 
of  that  age,  and  before  passing  on  to  other  topics 
I  am  tempted  to  make  some  further  quotations 
illustrating  the  conditions  under  which  pilgrim- 
ages were  then  made,  and  the  patient  endurance 
with  which  humiliations  of  all  kinds  were  met.  We 
hear  so  much  of  the  decay  of  faith  and  piety  in  the 
closing  decades  of  the  period  preceding  the  Refor- 
mation that  one  is  glad  to  call  attention  to  the 
evidence  of  earnestness  involved  in  the  cheerful 
endurance  of  so  many  hardships.  No  man  can  have 
held  his  religion  lightly  who  was  willing  to  en- 
counter the  very  real  perils  entailed  by  a  journey 
to  Jerusalem,  and  that  without  any  prospect  of 
tangible  gain.  However,  we  are  not  for  the  moment 


X 


Beginnings  of  the  Via  Crucis        35 

concerned  with  the  graver  dangers  from  ship- 
wreck, pirates  or  pestilence,  but  rather  with  those 
minor  humiliations  and  discomforts  which  must, 
we  might  be  tempted  to  think,  have  been  so  great 
a  hindrance  to  devotion. 

A  word  has  already  been  said  above  of  the 
locking-up  of  the  pilgrims  in  the  Church  of  the 
Holy  Sepulchre,  where  they  were  free  to  venerate 
those  holy  shrines  now  honoured  in  the  five  last 
Stations  of  the  Cross.  This  is  the  account  which 
Fabri  gives  of  his  experiences : 

"  On  the  fourteenth  day,  beginning  the  day  from 
the  evening  of  the  day  before,  because  the  pro- 
cession to  the  holy  places  is  appointed  in  that 
fashion,  when  the  sun  was  setting,  warning  was 
given  to  all  the  pilgrims  that  they  should  straight- 
way present  themselves  at  the  court  or  yard  which 
lies  before  the  [door  of  the]  Church  of  the  Holy 
Sepulchre,  and  that  they  should  hurry  over  their 
supper,  because  the  Moorish  lords  who  keep  the 
keys  of  the  holy  church  were  waiting  for  us 
there.  So  we  made  haste,  and  having  taken  with 
us  the  things  which  we  meant  to  use,  we  came 
down  to  the  courtyard  of  the  aforesaid  church, 
wherein  we  found  a  great  disorderly  crowd  of 
eastern  Christians  and  Saracens — men,  women 
and  children.  Also  dealers  in  precious  wares  sat 
there  and  sold  them,  and  some  had  loaves  of 
bread,  eggs  and  grapes  for  sale,  whereof  we 
bought  some,  and  put  them  in  our  scrips  for  the 
repast  which  we  should  take  within  the  church. 
Now,  as  soon  as  all  the  Saracen  lords  who  had 
to  do  with  the  opening  of  the  church  were  pre- 
sent at  the  door  of  that  holy  temple,  they  took 
their  places  gravely  and  seriously.  Before  the 
door  on  either  side  thereof  great  stones  of  polished 


36          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

marble  have  been  placed  for  benches,  upon  which 
these  men  sat,  with  their  faces  turned  away.  They 
were  men  of  a  fine  presence,  well  stricken  in 
years,  handsome,  wearing  long  beards,  and  of 
solemn  manners,  dressed  in  linen  clothes,  and 
with  their  heads  wrapped  round  and  round  with 
countless  folds  of  very  fine  linen.  When  all  of  us 
were  collected  together  before  those  doors,  they 
opened  the  church  doors  with  their  keys,  and, 
standing  beside  them,  let  us  in  two  by  two, 
counting  us  even  as  they  did  when  we  came  out 
of  our  ship  on  to  the  land,  as  aforesaid,  and  they 
looked  at  us  very  keenly.  It  is  said  of  them  that 
they  are  greatly  skilled  in  the  art  of  physiogno- 
my, and  that  as  soon  as  they  look  upon  any 
man  they  perceive  his  station  in  life,  his  disposi- 
tion and  his  desires.  We  went  by  them  with  shame 
and  blushing,  because  it  is  a  great  confusion  that 
CHRIST'S  faithful  worshippers  should  be  let  into 
CHRIST'S  church  by  CHRIST'S  blasphemers;  and 
they  let  in  whom  they  please,  and  keep  out  whom 
they  please ;  for  they  drove  away  from  the  church- 
doors,  with  blotvs  from  their  staves  and  fists, 
many  Christians  of  other  rites  who  wanted  to 
come  in  together  with  us.  I  confess  that  while  I 
was  passing  between  them  into  the  church  I  was 
filled  with  confusion  and  covered  with  blushes, 
nor  could  I  look  them  straight  in  the  face  by 
reason  of  the  shame  which  I  felt:  not  because  of 
the  badge  of  the  cross  which  I  bore  on  my  clothes, 
but  because  of  their  unrighteous  and  impious 
power  over  those  who  bear  the  cross.  There  sat 
those  dogs,  as  though  they  were  our  judges,  and 
doubtless  judged  us  to  be  fools  because  of  the 
cross  of  CHRIST,  because  the  name  and  sign  of 
the  cross  is  foolishness  to  them  that  are  appointed 


Beginnings  of  the  Via  Crucis        37 

to  perish  (i  Cor.  i,  23).  Thus,  however,  is  it  ordered 
by  the  divine  wisdom,  that  the  followers  of  the 
Crucified  should  be  brought  to  the  place  where 
the  cross  stood  by  those  who  scoff  at  the  cross, 
that  by  the  foolishness  of  the  cross  they  may 
believe  and  be  saved.  Now,  as  soon  as  we  were 
all  inside,  the  Saracens  straightway  pulled  back 
the  doors  of  the  church  quickly  behind  our  backs, 
locked  them  with  bolts  and  locks,  as  men  are 
wont  to  do  after  they  have  pushed  robbers  vio- 
lently into  a  dungeon,  and  went  away  with  the 
keys,  thus  leaving  us  prisoners  in  the  most  de- 
lightful, lightsome  and  roomy  of  prisons,  in  the 
garden  of  the  most  precious  sepulchre  of  Christ, 
at  the  foot  of  the  Mount  of  Calvary,  in  the  middle 
of  the  world.  Oh,  how  joyous  an  imprisonment! 
how  desirable  a  captivity!  how  delightful  an  en- 
closure! how  sweet  a  locking-in,  whereby  the 
Christian  is  locked  in  and  imprisoned  in  the 
sepulchre  of  his  LORD  !  "  * 

It  is  easy  to  see  from  the  tone  of  Fabri's  narra- 
tive that  the  relief  of  being  free  for  a  time  from 
the  contemptuous  and  often  threatening  glances 
of  the  Saracen  conquerors  gave  free  play  to  devo- 
tional feelings  of  which  we  should  otherwise  have 
had  a  very  imperfect  idea.  The  following  incident 
affords  a  very  pleasing  insight  into  the  character 
of  the  narrator: 

"Lo,  my  brethren!  the  truth  compels  me  to  begin 
by  telling  you  of  my  own  stupid  carelessness  and 
grievous  irreverence,  for  which  I  beseech  you  to 
pray  to  GOD  on  my  behalf,  that  He  may  not  lay 
up  my  misdeeds  for  punishment  at  the  last.  This 
was  what  befell  me,  unhappy  wretch  that  I  was, 
on  my  first  pilgrimage.  When  we  had  been  locked 

*  PP-  34°»  341- 


38          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

into  the  church,  and  no  longer  feared  any  one, 
because  no  infidel  was  with  us,  we  began  in  our 
joy  to  run  to  and  fro  through  the  church,  seeking 
the  holy  places  without  any  regular  order,  and 
every  man  went  whithersoever  he  would  at  the 
bidding  of  his  own  spirit.  I  did  not  hurry,  but 
went  with  a  slow  step  towards  the  middle  of  the 
church,  walking  without  any  set  purpose,  and 
after  I  had  gone  forward  about  seventeen  paces 
I  stopped,  and  lifting  up  my  face,  looked  at  the 
vault  above  me.  I  cast  my  eyes  upon  the  upper 
windows  with  curiosity,  as  ill-bred  men  stare 
about  in  strange  places  and  houses  without  respect 
for  any  one,  and  so  I  stood  by  myself  with  wan- 
dering eyes.  As  I  stood  thus  thoughtlessly,  there 
came  to  me  two  ladies  who  were  pilgrims;  one  of 
them  was  a  German,  Hildegarde  by  name,  and 
they  fell  down  before  my  feet  and  lay  there  weep- 
ing and  sobbing,  kissing  the  stone  whereon  I  was 
standing.  I  was  surprised  and  astonished,  and 
said  in  German  to  her:  *  What  is  the  matter,  Lady 
Hildegarde,  that  you  should  do  so?'  She  an- 
swered me,  scarce  able  to  speak  for  weeping: 
*  Lo,  my  brother !  the  stone  whereon  you  stand  is 
that  whereon  Joseph  and  Nicodemus  laid  the 
most  precious  body  of  our  LORD  when  He  was 
taken  down  from  the  cross,  and  they  anointed 
Him  and  wrapped  Him  in  His  shroud  upon  this 
table  of  stone.'  When  I  heard  this  I  trembled, 
and  drawing  back  my  feet  with  horror,  I  fell  on 
the  earth  before  the  stone.  I  scarce  dared  now  to 
touch  with  my  mouth  that  which  before  I  had  not 
feared  to  tread  irreverently  upon  with  my  shod 
feet.  'O  LORD/  I  prayed,  'remember  not  the  past 
sins  of  my  youth,  and  the  present  sins  of  my 
ignorance.  O  LORD  my  GOD,  Thy  chosen  servant 


Beginnings  of  the  Via  Crucis        39 

Moses  was  bidden  by  Thee  when  in  the  desert  of 
Midian  to  put  his  shoes  from  his  feet  because  the 
ground  whereon  he  stood  was  holy;  and  the  holy 
Joshua  did  not  dare  to  stand  shod  in  the  field  of 
Jericho,  yet  I,  who  am  devoid  of  all  holiness,  full 
of  vices,  have  dared  to  trample  with  my  shod  feet 
all  irreverently  upon  the  place  which  Thou  Thy- 
self hast  sanctified  with  Thy  most  precious  body, 
naked  and  wounded ;  nor  can  I  find  any  excuse, 
for  we  read  that  Uzzah  was  stricken  dead  by 
Thee  because  he  put  forth  his  hand  to  the  wain 
which  bore  Thy  ark  when  it  was  like  to  fall.  And 
behold,  here  we  have  incomparably  more  beneath 
our  feet  than  the  land  of  Midian  or  the  field  of 
Jericho;  and  a  stone  which  is  more  worthy  of 
honour  than  the  wain  or  the  ark.  Therefore, 
LORD  GOD,  have  patience  with  me,  and  I  will 
pay  Thee  all  reverence  and  honour  at  Thy  holy 
places,  and  will  render  to  Thee  whatever  else  is 
Thy  due  with  all  the  piety  of  which  I  am  capable, 
and  which  Thou  Thyself  shalt  bestow  upon  me/ 
After  having  prayed  thus,  I  arose,  and  sought 
my  lords  and  companions  throughout  the  church, 
and  found  them  sitting  together  in  the  chapel  of 
the  Blessed  Virgin,  waiting  till  the  procession 
should  be  formed." 

I  trust  that  the  reader  will  not  take  in  bad 
part  the  prolixity  of  Brother  Fabri's  Scripture 
references.  They  bring  out  something  of  the  moral 
conditions  under  which  medieval  pilgrimages  were 
made,  just  as  the  material  conditions  are  well 
illustrated  in  the  passage  which  follows. 

"Now  the  Father  Guardian  called  together 
all  the  pilgrims,  and  set  forth  to  them  the  rules 
and  customs  of  the  Church,  which  he  reduced  to 
thirteen  heads : 


40          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

"First,  he  told  us  that  every  pilgrim  must  buy 
a  wax  taper,  which  he  must  carry  lighted  in  the 
procession.  For  many  merchants  had  come  in 
with  us  having  wax  tapers  and  other  things  for 
sale. 

"  Secondly,  he  bade  the  pilgrims  take  care  to 
walk  orderly  in  the  procession,  so  that  one  should 
not  get  in  the  way  of  another  nor  push  against 
him,  as  also  we  were  bidden  to  do  in  the  sixth 
article  given  to  us  at  Rama. 

"Thirdly,  that  we  should  consecrate  this  night 
to  God,  and  take  part  in  Matins  and  other  ser- 
vices without  any  slackness. 

"Fourthly,  that  we  should  not  make  the  house 
of  prayer  into  a  house  of  merchandise,  and  not 
sit  and  waste  our  time  trafficking  with  the  Eastern 
merchants. 

"Fifthly,  he  begged  all  such  as  were  priests 
to  go  and  celebrate  Mass  without  disputing  one 
with  another.  For  they  are  wont  to  quarrel  about 
places,  and  all  of  them  want  to  celebrate  Mass  in 
the  holy  Sepulchre  of  our  Lord,  which  is  impos- 
sible in  one  day. 

"Sixthly,  he  appointed  four  altars  for  the 
celebrants — that  is  to  say,  one  in  the  Holy  Sepul- 
chre, one  on  Mount  Calvary,  one  at  the  place  of 
the  unction  of  Christ,  whereof  I  have  already 
spoken,  and  a  fourth  in  the  chapel  of  the  Virgin 
Mary.  Besides  these  there  are  many  other  altars 
in  different  parts  of  the  church ;  but  they  belong 
to  schismatics  and  heretics,  wherefore  we  did  not 
celebrate  Mass  at  them. 

"Seventhly,  he  bade  all  pilgrims  make  ready 
to  confess  themselves,  and  every  one  of  them  re- 
ceive holy  Communion  after  the  service. 

"Eighthly,  he  gave  authority  to  all  pilgrim 


Beginnings  of  the  Via  Crucis        41 

priests,  and  to  his  own  brethren  who  had  entered 
the  church  with  us,  to  hear  confessions  both 
actively  and  passively*  and  to  absolve  from  all 
sins,  even  from  those  reserved  for  the  Holy  See, 
for  the  guardian  of  Mount  Sion  has  this  power 
delegated  to  him  by  the  pope. 

"  Ninthly,  he  forbade  any  priest  to  administer 
the  Eucharist  to  any  pilgrim  as  he  stood  at  the 
place  where  he  celebrated  Mass,  but  he  ordered 
that  all  should  receive  the  Sacrament  after  High 
Mass  on  Mount  Calvary  from  the  priest  who 
officiated  there,  unless  he  should  grant  any  special 
privilege  to  any  one. 

"Tenthly,  he  warned  the  pilgrims  not  to  lay 
down  or  leave  about  their  property  while  they 
were  making  the  round  of  the  holy  places  in  the 
church,  lest  they  should  lose  it,  because  thefts 
often  took  place  there,  when  suspicion  and  much 
disturbance  arose. 

"Eleventhly,  in  case  any  one  should  wish  to 
give  alms  at  the  holy  places,  and  in  giving  them 
should  wish  to  favour  the  Catholics  rather  than 
the  schismatics,  he  explained  to  them  which  were 
the  places  of  the  Catholics  and  which  were  those 
of  the  schismatics. 

"Twelfthly,  he  warned  us  that,  as  has  been 
already  treated  of  in  the  first  of  the  articles  deli- 
vered to  us  at  Rama,  we  must  not  break  any- 
thing off  at  the  holy  places,  neither  must  any 
man  draw  his  coat  of  arms  there,  lest  by  their 
means  holy  places  should  be  defiled. 

"  Thirteen thly,  he  besought  us  that  each  of  us 
would  rouse  himself  to  a  spirit  of  lively  devotion 

*  The  Latin  is  "dedit  auctoritatem  omnibus  sacerdotibus  .  .  . 
active  et  passive  audiendi  confessiones."  It  probably  means 
that  they  could  both  receive  the  confession  and  give  absolution. 


42          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

and  that  we  would  profit  by  these  most  holy 
places,  showing  them  that  honour  and  reverence 
which  is  due  to  them." 

Of  the  emotions  suggested  by  the  procession 
itself  as  it  passed  from  shrine  to  shrine  within 
the  enclosure — the  friars  of  Mount  Sion  arrayed 
in  their  sacred  vestments,  the  pilgrims  following 
with  lighted  candles,  the  precentor  at  the  head  of 
the  procession  intoning  the  "  Salve  Regina,"  as 
they  started,  "in  a  loud  and  cheerful  voice"  while 
all  present  took  up  the  strain — we  shall  have 
opportunity  of  speaking  in  a  later  chapter. 
Fabri  enumerates  seventeen  separate  shrines 
which  were  thus  visited,  including  of  course  the 
place  of  the  Crucifixion,  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  the 
stone  of  unction,  and  the  spot  where  our  LORD  was 
stripped  and  nailed  to  the  cross.  Appropriate 
hymns  and  prayers  were  appointed  for  each,  and 
the  ceremony  must  have  taken  some  hours.  In 
what  follows  the  narrator  again  reveals  the  spirit 
of  the  earnest  pilgrim. 

"When  the  procession  was  over,  the  pilgrims 
drew  together  according  to  their  several  com- 
panies, into  the  various  corners  of  the  church, 
each  company  sitting  in  its  own  place,  for  we 
were  wearied  and  worn  out,  and  we  made  a  sober 
meal.  After  we  had  eaten,  we  laid  our  heads 
against  the  wall  for  a  short  rest,  and  lay  asleep 
against  the  pavement.  I  myself  abode  with  the 
brethren  of  Mount  Sion  in  the  chapel  of  the 
Blessed  Virgin,  who  had  given  me  a  quiet  place 
to  sleep  in,  but  I  could  by  no  means  close  my 
eyes  to  sleep.  Wherefore  I  arose  straightway,  lit 
my  candle,  and  joined  the  watchers  at  the  holy 
places ;  for  indeed  the  greater  part  of  the  pilgrims 
were  wandering  about  all  the  aforesaid  holy 


Beginnings  of  the  Via  Crucis        43 

places  as  each  one  pleased,  passing  hither  and 
thither  as  the  spirit  of  prayer  moved  them ;  for  a 
pilgrim  may  enter  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  ascend 
the  Mount  Calvary,  or  descend  into  the  chapel  of 
the  Invention  of  the  Cross,  and  the  other  places 
as  often  as  he  pleases.  In  these  solitary  visits  to 
the  holy  places  men  feel  greater  devotion  and 
abstraction  from  the  world  than  when  they  do  so 
in  the  general  procession,  in  which  there  is  much 
pushing  and  disorder  and  disturbance  and  sing- 
ing and  weeping,  whereas  in  the  other  case  there 
is  silence  and  peace.  As  I  went  the  round  of  the 
places  for  the  second  time  I  went  down  to  the 
place  of  the  Invention  of  the  Cross,  and  there 
said  my  matins.  I  took  great  delight  in  that 
underground  place,  because  it  was  quiet  and 
suited  to  me,  for  the  Mount  Calvary  and  the 
LORD'S  Sepulchre  and  the  other  places  up  above 
were  filled  with  an  unbroken  throng  of  pilgrims, 
and  very  noisy.  Meanwhile  some  of  my  lords  and 
their  servants  were  running  to  and  fro  in  the 
church  up  above  me,  hunting  in  every  corner, 
seeking  for  me  to  hear  their  confessions,  and 
never  guessed  me  to  be  in  that  place.  At  last 
they  came  down  to  where  I  was,  and  I  heard 
them  there,  sitting  in  the  chair  of  St  Helena." 

A  quaint  and  very  frank  description  follows  of 
the  struggle  among  the  priests  to  say  Mass  at  the 
most  coveted  altars,  and  then  good  Brother  Fabri 
tells  us  briefly  how : 

"After  we  had  finished  our  services  and 
Masses,  there  came  the  pagan  Moorish  lords,  who 
threw  open  the  gates  of  the  church,  making  a 
great  noise  with  the  doors,  that  we  might  go 
forth  more  quickly.  On  hearing  this  we  were 
frightened  and  distressed  at  our  separation  from 


44          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

such  delightful  places,  and  we  ran  round  from 
one  holy  place  to  another  kissing  them ;  but  as 
the  pilgrims  delayed  their  going  by  acting  thus, 
the  Moors  became  angry,  banged  the  doors  of  the 
church  so  violently  that  the  hinges  creaked,  and 
ran  about  with  frightful  yells  among  the  holy 
places,  from  which  they  drove  the  pilgrims  by 
force,  and  turned  every  one  of  us  out  of  the 
church,  except  only  the  usual  guardians.  When 
they  had  turned  us  out  they  shut  the  church 
doors  and  went  their  way,  leaving  us  in  the  court- 
yard outside.  There  we  addressed  ourselves  to 
the  visiting  of  certain  holy  places  near  to  the 
church/' 

It  is  not  very  difficult  to  understand  in  the 
light  of  these  descriptions,  first,  that  if  men 
were  resolute  enough  to  face  the  hardships  of 
such  a  pilgrimage,  the  consolation  and  merit  of 
visiting  the  holy  places  must  have  appealed  to 
them  very  strongly;  and,  secondly,  that  among 
those  unable  to  leave  their  homes  a  very  ardent 
desire  must  often  have  been  felt  to  replace  the 
actual  pilgrimage  by  some  domestic  practice  of  de- 
votion. It  is  undoubtedly  to  this  longing  to  share 
the  privileges  oi  those  who  travelled  beyond  seas 
that  we  owe  both  the  first  suggestion  and  the 
later  developments  of  the  exercise  of  the  Way  of 
the  Cross. 


k)  .  • 

3  * 


8* 


To  face  f.  44 


45 


Earliest  Stations  and 
their  Sequence 

THE  word  statio  (station)  appears  in  Chris- 
tian literature  from  a  very  early  date,  with 
a  special  and  quasi-liturgical  signification.  It 
is  not  quite  easy  to  trace  its  primitive  develop- 
ment. There  can  be  little  doubt  that  its  Christian 
meaning  grew  out  of  the  military  use  of  the  term 
to  designate  an  outpost  or  picket,  especially  for 
night  duty.*  Early  in  the  second  century  it  is 
familiar  to  Hermas  f  in  the  sense  of  a  "  fast," 
possibly,  because  on  certain  days,  stationes 
(i.e.,  vigils)  were  kept  up  during  the  night  and 
early  morning  beside  the  tombs  of  the  martyrs, 
such  vigils  being,  perhaps,  marked  by  a  fast,  or 
at  least  a  semijejunium.  This,  however,  is  quite 
uncertain.  In  the  time  of  St  Cyprian,  the  word 
frequently  had  reference  to  the  "synaxis,"  or 
gathering  of  the  faithful  for  liturgical  purposes, 
which  took  place  on  those  fast-days.  In  the  indi- 
cations still  retained  in  the  Roman  Missal,  e.g., 
"  Statio  ad  S.  Anastasiam,  Statio  ad  S.  Lauren- 
tium,"  etc.,  statio  no  doubt  denotes  rather  the 
service  itself  than  the  meeting-place  in  which 
it  was  held.  Such  a  rubric  was  intended  to  con- 
vey that  the  statio ',  i.e.,  solemn  Mass,  with  its 
accompanying  procession,  etc.,  took  place  on  this 
day  at  the  Church  of  St  Anastasia  or  of  St  Lau- 

*  See  Professor  Funk's  article  in  the  "  Real-Encyclopadie 
der  Christlichen  Alterthiimer  "  (F.  X.  Kraus),  II,  p.  783. 
t  "Pastor";  Sim.  v,  I. 


46          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

rence.  But  the  further  use  of  the  term  in  the 
general  sense  of  halting-place  in  a  procession,  or 
site  calling  for  special  veneration,  was  obvious, 
and  became  familiar  in  the  vulgar  tongue  of  most 
European  countries  during  the  middle  ages.  The 
"  Stations  of  Rome,"  for  instance,  is  the  title  of 
a  fourteenth-century  English  guide-book,  which 
gives  in  rude  verse  an  account  of  all  the  more 
conspicuous  churches  and  of  the  holy  places  in 
the  city  where  indulgences  could  be  gained. 

In  this  sense  the  word  statio  has  been  ap- 
plied to  the  different  halting-places  along  the 
Via  Dolorosa.  Curiously  enough,  the  first  in- 
stance of  its  consistent  use,  with  this  signification, 
meets  us  in  the  narrative  of  an  English  pilgrim, 
Master  William  Wey,  one  of  the  original  fellows 
of  Eton  College.  Wey  visited  Palestine  on  two 
separate  occasions — in  1458  and  1462.  On  both 
occasions  he  went  to  Jerusalem,  and  made  the 
ordinary  round  of  the  holy  places  (through  the 
the  city,  and  to  the  Mount  of  Olives  and  back), 
under  the  guidance  of  the  Franciscans  of  Mount 
Sion.  He  obviously  took  special  interest  in  the 
minute  details  of  these  tours,  for  he  has  not  only 
written  a  twofold  account  of  most  of  them,  but 
he  has  invented  an  elaborate  memoria  technica, 
of  which  more  anon,  for  recalling  them  to  mind 
in  their  proper  order.  Now,  while  Wey  gives 
minute  descriptions,  providing  also  memorial 
verses  for  each,  of  several  other  tours,  namely, 
the  holy  places  around  Bethlehem,  the  places 
within  the  precincts  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  the 
holy  places  beside  the  Jordan,  the  holy  places  on 
Mount  Sion,  etc.,  he  reserves  the  name  Stations 
for  one  tour,  and  one  tour  only,  that  within  Jeru- 
salem, which  begins  with  the  sites  of  the  Via 


The  Earliest  Stations  47 

Cruets.  If  these  places  had  been  but  once  referred 
to  in  the  volume  which  he  has  left  us,  we  might 
easily  have  supposed  that  the  word  stationes 
appeared  there  by  accident,  but  seeing  that  it 
occurs  four  separate  times  in  the  same  connexion, 
and  nowhere  else,  it  would  hardly  be  reasonable 
to  explain  its  presence  in  these  passages  by  mere 
coincidence.  First,  we  note  that  among  the  head- 
ings of  the  memorial  verses  the  tour  beginning 
with  the  Via  Crucis  is  entitled  "Loca  Sancta  in 
Stacionibus  Jerusalem."  In  none  of  the  rest  does 
the  italicized  word  appear,  though  we  have  "Loca 
Sancta  in  Monte  Syon,"  "Loca  Sancta  in  templo 
sancto  Christianorum,"  "Loca  Sancta  in  Bethle- 
hem," etc.,  in  any  one  of  which  we  might  have 
expected  to  find  it.  Again,  in  the  general  account, 
which  is  given  apart,  when  Wey  begins  a  detailed 
description  of  the  same  tour,  starting  eastwards 
from  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  we  meet  the  rubric, 
"Hie  incipiunt  sancte  Stationes"  the  other  tours 
being  headed  like  those  just  referred  to — "Pere- 
grinaciones  Vallis  Josaphat,"  "Peregrinaciones 
Montis  Oliveti,"  "Peregrinaciones  sacri  Montis 
Syon,"  etc.  Then,  in  Wey's  narrative  of  his  first 
pilgrimage,  the  same  word  is  twice  repeated  in 
connexion  with  the  same  series  of  sites  under  the 
form  "Peregrinaciones  ad  loca  Stacionum"  and, 
finally,  in  the  account  of  the  second  journey  01 
1462,  the  term  seems  to  be  introduced  with  em- 
phasis into  the  text  itself.  It  will  be  well  to  trans- 
late this  brief  passage : 

"After  supper,"  says  the  writer,  "we  lay  down 
upon  mats,  and  at  early  dawn  the  brothers  came 
to  call  us  to  make  the  round  of  the  stations  (veniunt 
fratres  vocantes  nos  ad  peragrandum  stationes}. 
And  so,  upon  July  20,  we  traversed  those  sites 


48          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

(ivimus  per  ista  loca).  First,  the  stone  with  crosses 
upon  it  on  which  CHRIST  fell;*  second,  that  paved 
street  in  which  CHRIST  carried  the  cross ;  third,  the 
house  of  the  rich  man  that  was  damned ;  fourth, 
the  meeting  of  the  ways  where  CHRIST  fell  with 
His  cross ;  fifth,  the  place  where  the  women  wept 
over  CHRIST;  sixth,  where  Veronica  received  the 
countenance  of  CHRIST  upon  her  napkin ;  seventh, 
where  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary  swooned ;  eighth, 
the  gate  through  which  Christ  was  led  out  to 
death ;  ninth,  the  pool  where  the  sick  were  healed 
at  the  moving  of  the  waters ;  tenth,  where  are  two 
white  stones  built  into  the  wall  over  the  head  of 
the  passers-by,  upon  which  Jesus  stood  when  He 
was  sentenced  to  death  by  Pilate  j  the  eleventh 
is  the  school  of  the  Blessed  Mary,  where  she 
learnt  to  read;  and  along  that  road  on  the  other 
side  is  the  house  of  Pilate,  in  which  CHRIST  was 
scourged  and  condemned  to  death;  and  so  on  for 
the  rest  of  the  places  in  Jerusalem — Josaphat,  the 
Mount  of  Olives,  the  Valley  of  Siloe  and  Mount 
Sion,  as  I  have  described  them  in  my  preceding 
itinerary." 

It  seems  to  me  not  wholly  accidental  that 
Wey  interrupts  his  list  at  the  house  of  Pilate.  We 
may  remember  that  the  famous  stations  erected 
in  Nuremberg,  at  the  instance  of  Martin  Ketzel, 
begin  with  a  Pilatushaus,  and  were  suggested 
seemingly  by  the  pilgrimage  he  made  in  Palestine 
about  1468,  six  years  after  Wey's  last  visit  to  the 
Holy  Land.  We  may  also  remember  that  in  the 
next  century  there  is  strong  evidence  of  a  special 
cultus  paid  to  this  clearly-defined  portion  of  the 
tour  (peregrinatio,  circulus  or  Umgang}.  Hence 

*  It  will  be  noticed  that  Wey,  like  the  pilgrims  referred  to  in 
our  last  chapter,  travelled  in  the  opposite  direction  to  our 
Lord,  beginning  from  Calvary  and  going  eastwards. 


The  Earliest  Stations  49 

it  seems  likely  that  Wey  himself  regarded  the  road 
along"  which  our  Saviour  travelled  to  His  death 
as  standing  out  in  some  conspicuous  manner  from 
the  rest. 

Other  pilgrims  in  the  latter  part  of  the  fifteenth 
century  use  the  name  Stationes,  though  not 
seemingly  with  such  an  exclusive  reference  as 
this  English  traveller  to  the  sites  along  the  Holy 
Way.  The  matter  deserves  fuller  investigation, 
although,  on  account  of  the  very  large  number  of 
those  who  have  left  accounts  of  their  pilgrimages 
at  this  period,  the  undertaking  would  be  a  serious 
one.  I  may  be  content  to  notice  here  the  promi- 
nence given  to  the  word  Stations  in  the  Pilgrims' 
Guide  of  Antonio  de  Aranda,  a  Spanish  Francis- 
can, who  wrote  in  1530.  The  book  is  particularly 
important,  because  it  does  not,  like  so  many  of 
the  others,  record  merely  the  fleeting  and  neces- 
sarily inaccurate  impressions  of  a  single  hurried 
visit  to  the  holy  places,  but  the  writer,  who  was 
guardian  of  the  important  Franciscan  Friary  of 
Alcala,  seems  during  a  considerable  period  to 
have  been  the  honoured  guest  of  his  brethren  of 
Mount  Sion,  and  to  have  had  constant  opportu- 
nities of  obtaining  information  from ,  those  who 
lived  on  the  spot.*  Of  Aranda' s  volume  we  shall 
have  to  speak  further,  but  for  the  present  it  will 
be  sufficient  to  notice  that  he  uses  the  word 
estaciones  frequently,  and  that  it  seems  to  be 

*  "  Verdadera  Information  de  la  Tierra  Sancta,"  by  Ant.  de 
Aranda,  Guardian  de  Sant  Francisco  de  Alcala  de  Henares.  The 
preface  is  dated  1530  from  the  Franciscan  monastery  of  Mount 
Sion,  but  the  first  edition  of  the  book,  it  is  interesting-  to  note, 
was  printed  in  1533,  by  Miguel  de  Eguya,  the  printer  who 
harboured  St  Ignatius  at  Alcala,  and  brother  of  the  Diego  de 
Eguya  who  became  a  Jesuit,  and  who  was  the  saint's  confessor 
down  to  the  time  of  his  death,  I  have  only  had  access  to  the 
edition  of  Toledo,  1550. 

4 


50          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

particularly  applied  to  the  sites  on  the  way  to 
Calvary,  and  not  so  commonly  to  be  employed  of 
the  sites,  even  though  richly  indulgenced,  in  the 
pilgrimages  outside  Jerusalem.  Thus  Chapter  xiv 
bears  the  following  heading,  conspicuous  among 
the  few  such  headings  in  which  the  word  esta- 
ciones  is  introduced: 


"  Cap.  XIV. — Of  the  Stations  \estaciones~\  which 
there  are  from  the  House  of  Caiphas  up  to  Cal- 
vary along  the  Road  which  CHRIST  travelled!' 

IN  this  chapter,  when  referring  more  particu- 
larly to  the  way  between  Pilate's  house  and  Cal- 
vary, Aranda  makes  the  further  statement  that 
"  in  this  road  there  are  three  stations."  The  first 
station  so  specified  is  the  meeting-place  of  our 
Blessed  Lady  and  her  Son.  The  second  is  that  of 
the  meeting  with  the  women.  The  third  the  house 
of  Veronica. 

Now,  whether  we  look  to  the  sites  which, 
according  to  the  testimony  of  travellers,  were 
held  in  honour  in  Jerusalem  itself,  or  whether  we 
look  to  the  imitation  pilgrimages  which  were 
carved  in  stone  or  set  down  in  books  for  the  de- 
votion of  the  faithful  at  home,  we  must  recognize 
that  there  was  a  complete  want  of  any  sort  ot 
uniformity  in  the  enumeration  of  the  Stations. 
As  so  much  has  just  been  said  of  William  Wey's 
pilgrimage,  we  may  conveniently  take  the  first 
two  verses  of  his  memoria  technica,  which  by  a 
coincidence  happen  to  commemorate  just  four- 
teen sites.  They  run  as  follows:  In  Wey's  own 
manuscript,  and  in  the  reproduction  of  it  for  the 
Roxburghe  Club,  the  words  of  which  the  verses 
are  made  up  are  written  in  a  very  large  hand, 
while  the  explanations  of  each,  here  given  in 


The  Earliest  Stations  51 

footnotes,  are  added  in  minute  writing  over  the 
word  to  which  they  have  reference.  The  crosses, 
which  in  the  MS.  have  been  written  in  red  ink, 
indicate  the  places  where  plenary  indulgences 
may  be  gained.* 


oca  Sancta  in  Stacionibus  Jerusalem 

"Lap1  strat2  di3  trivium4  flent5  sudar6  sincopiza- 
vit7 

"  Por8  >J«  pis9  >J<  lap10 ^  que  schola11  ^  domus12  ^ 
Her13  Symonis14  Pharisey." 

Those  of  my  readers  who  do  not  understand 
the  Latin  explanations  may  be  referred  back  to 
the  passage  already  translated  from  Wey  (p.  48). 

*  Wey  also  copied  into  his  book  another  account  of  the  holy 
places  at  Jerusalem  in  English  verse.  This  is  seemingly  of 
older  date  than  his  own,  and  no  mention  is  made  of  Veronica. 
But  we  read,  e.g. : 

Ther  JHESU  mett  with  his  Modyr  Marie 
Ther  sorowyd  together  both  He  and  she ; 
And  ther  the  wymmen  of  Jerusalem 
Wept  on  CHRYST  when  that  He  cam. 

Another  copy  of  this  poem,  with  many  variations,  is  in  MS. 
Ashmole,  61. 

1  Lapis  cum  crucibus  super  quern  CHRISTUS  cecidit  cum 
cruce. 

2  Strata  per  quam  CHRISTUS  transivit  ad  suam  passionem. 
8  Domus  divitis  negantis  micas  dare  Lazaro. 

4  Ubi  CHRISTUS  cecidit  cum  cruce. 

8  Locus  ubi  muVieres  flebant  propter  CHRISTUM. 

6  Locus   ubi  vidua   sive  Veronica   posuit  sudarium   super 
faciem  CHRISTI. 

7  Locus  ubi  beatissima  Maria  slncopizavit. 

8  Port 'a  per  quam  CHRISTUS  transibat  ad  passionem. 

9  Piscina  in  qua  egroti  sanabantur  tempore  CHRISTI. 

* Lapides  super  quos  stetit  CHRISTUS  quando  judicatus  erat 
ad  mortem. 

1  Locus  ubi  beata  Maria  transivit  ad  scolas, 
*  Domus  Pilati. 

5  Domus  Herodis. 

4  Domus  Simonis  Pharisey, 


52          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

The  places  there  mentioned  are  the  same  as  those 
cited  here,  except  that  two  others,  viz.,  the  house 
of  Herod  and  the  house  of  Simon  the  Pharisee 
are  here  added.  It  should  be  observed,  too,  that 
the  memorial  verses  continue  without  any  break 
or  division  to  indicate  nearly  thirty  sites,  some 
within  Jerusalem,  some  outside  the  walls.  In  all, 
the  holy  places  about  Jerusalem  number  in  his 
reckoning  more  than  a  hundred.  It  will  be  seen 
that  the  fourteen  Stations  on  this  list  by  no  means 
correspond  to  those  with  which  we  are  familiar. 
If  we  count  the  first  mentioned  by  Wey  (Lapis 
cum  crucibus,  i.e.,  the  stone  with  crosses  shown 
n  the  courtyard  before  the  church  of  the  Holy 
'Sepulchre,)  as  the  equivalent  of  the  scene  of  His 
third  fall,  we  have  only  four  others  which  can  be 
properly  identified  with  ours.  These  are  triviumy 
the  "cross-road"  where  Simon  of  Cyrene  was 
made  to  assist  our  LORD  ;  flebant,  the  weeping 
women ;  sudar,  i.e.,  sudarmm,  the  napkin  of 
Veronica;  and  sincopizavit — "she  swooned/'  the 
meeting  with  Mary.  Strat^  the  paved  way  leading 
to  the  hill  of  Calvary ;  diy  the  house  of  the  rich 
glutton  of  the  parable;  por,  the  judicial  gate  of 
the  old  city:  pts,  the  probatic  pool ;  lap,  the  two 
stones  in  the  Ecce  Homo  arch  ;  schola,  our  Lady's 
school ;  and  the  houses  of  Pilate,  Herod  and 
Simon  the  Pharisee,  expressed  by  the  words  dom, 
Her,  Symonis  Pharisey,  are  only  remotely  related 
to  the  Way  of  the  Cross  as  we  know  it.  For  pur- 
poses of  comparison  it  may  be  interesting  to 
quote  the  narrative  of  another  English  pilgrim,  a 
layman  of  distinction,  who  made  the  same  round 
of  stations  about  fifty  years  later,  in  1506,  and 
who  has  left  an  account  in  the  vernacular.  He 
also,  like  Wey,  travelled  eastwards  from  Calvary, 


The  Earliest  Stations  53 

but  the  pilgrimage,  which  in  Wey's  time  was  per- 
formed in  one  day,  seems  in  1506  to  have  been 
spread  over  several.  The  site  which  Wey  mentions 
first  as  lapis  cum  crucibus  (the  stone  with  crosses) 
is  included  by  Sir  Richard  Guylforde*  in  the 
series  of  "  stations  "  at  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  being 
referred  to  in  the  following  words : 

"And  withoute,  forthe  before  the  entre  into 
this  Temple  (of  the  Holy  Sepulchre),  X  paces  in 
distaunce,  is  put  a  stone  in  memorye  and  token 
that  our  SAVYOUR  CRISTE,  berynge  His  Crosse, 
for  very  feblenesse,  fell  there  to  the  grounde 
undernethe  the  crosse." 

Then  under  the  heading,  "Pylgrymages 
within  Iherusalem,"  Guylforde  continues  : 

"  [7]  And  so  this  day  aforesayde  we  vysited  all 
ye  longe  wey  by  the  whiche  our  SAVYOUR  CRISTE 
was  led  frome  the  hous  of  Pylate  unto  the  place 
of  His  crucyfyinge. 

"  [6]  And  firste,  as  our  way  laye,  we  came  to 
the  house  of  Veronica,  whiche  is  from  Pylate's 
house  550  paces,  where  as  our  blessed  SAVYOUR 
impressyd  ye  ymage  of  His  face  in  her  wympell 
whiche  is  at  Rome,  and  is  there  called  the  var- 
nacle. 

"  [5]  And  fr°m  thens  we  went  to  the  house  of 
Diues  Epulonis,  qui  sepultus  est  in  inferno,  etc. 

"  [4]  And  from  thens  we  went  to  a  place 
called  Bivium,  that  is  as  moche  to  say  as  a 
crosse  strete,  or  a  crosse  wey,  where  ye  women 
of  Jherusalem  stode  and  sorowfully  wepte  whan 
oure  SAVYOUR  was  led  to  His  deth,  to  whom 
He  sayde,  '  Wepe  ye  not  vpon  me,  ye  daughters 

*Sir  Richard  Guylforde  was  Master  of  the  Ordnance, 
Knight  of  the  Garter  and  a  privy  councillor.  He  died  at  Jeru- 
salem in  the  course  of  his  pilgrimage,  and  the  account  of  his 
travels  was  written  by  his  chaplain. 


54          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

of  Jherusalem,  but  wepe  ye  vpon  yourself  and 
vpon  your  children/  etc. 

"  [3]  Item  nexte  is  the  place  where  ye  Jewes 
constreyned  Symeon  Cirenen,  comynge  from  the 
towne,  to  take  the  crosse  after  our  SAVYOUR,  etc. 

"  [2]  The  next  place  yl  we  come  to  is  wher  our 
blessyd  Lady  stode  when  she  met  with  her  dere 
Sone  berynge  His  crosse,  where,  for  ouer  moche 
sorowe  and  dolour  of  herte,  she  sodenly  fell  into 
a  sowne  and  forgetfulness  of  her  mynde;  and  this 
place  is  called  Seta  Maria  de  Spasmo.  Saynt  Elyn 
buylded  a  churche  there,  but  it  is  downe,  and  ye 
Sarrasyns  haue  often  attempted  to  buylde  there, 
but  their  edifying  wold  not  stande  in  no  wyse. 

"[i]  Item,  as  we  passyd  by  ye  strete,  there 
standeth  an  arche  ouer  ye  way,  vpon  ye  whiche 
stoude  ii  large  whyte  stones;  vpon  the  one  of 
them  our  SAVYOR  stode  whan  he  was  juged  to 
deth,  and  upon  ye  other  stode  Pylate  whan  he 
yaue  sentence  yt  he  shuld  be  crucyfied." 

I  have  prefixed  numerals  in  square  brackets 
to  these  paragraphs  to  call  attention  to  an  in- 
teresting change  in  the  practice  of  the  pilgrim 
guides  at  Jerusalem.  Eleven  years  after  the  voyage 
of  Sir  Richard  Guylforde  to  the  East,  another 
English  pilgrim,  Sir  Richard  Torkington,  a  priest, 
set  out  to  visit  the  holy  places,  and  he  also  com- 
piled an  account  of  his  adventures.  In  accordance 
with  a  custom  very  prevalent  in  the  days  when 
literary  copyright  was  yet  unknown,  Torkington 
freely  availed  himself  of  the  descriptions  left  by 
previous  travellers.  Guylforde' s  pilgrimage  had 
been  printed  by  Pynson  in  1511,  and  from  this 
source  Torkington  has  copied  almost  verbatim 
the  account  there  given  of  the  various  shrines 
and  stations  in  Jerusalem.  But  there  is  one  note- 


The  Earliest  Stations  55 

worthy  modification.  In  his  description  of  "the 
longe  way  by  whiche  our  SAVYOUR  CHRISTE  was 
led  unto  the  place  of  His  crucyfyinge,"  Torking- 
ton,  while  borrowing  sentence  by  sentence  the 
exact  words  of  his  predecessor,  has  carefully 
arranged  the  sites  in  the  reverse  order.  From 
this  it  seems  clear  that  in  1517  the  good  Fran- 
ciscans at  Jerusalem  had  for  some  reason  changed 
their  practice  and  now  conducted  the  pilgrims 
along  the  way  of  the  Cross  towards  Calvary,  as 
our  LORD  Himself  had  travelled  on  His  last 
sorrowful  journey.  At  any  rate,  so  far  as  I  am 
aware,  we  do  not  after  this  date  find  in  the 
descriptions  of  the  Via  Dolorosa  that  the  sites 
are  any  longer  enumerated  in  the  reverse  order 
from  Calvary  eastward. 

But  to  return  to  Sir  Richard  Guylforde's  de- 
scription. It  may  be  noted  from  what  follows 
that  he  passes  without  perceptible  break  from  the 
Stations  of  the  Way  of  the  Cross  to  other  sanctu- 
aries. We  may  fairly  infer  that  in  1507  the  Way 
of  the  Cross  was  not  yet  generally  recognized  as 
a  separate  object  of  devotion  : 

"  From  thens  we  went  vnto  ye  hous  of  Pylate, 
in  ye  whiche  our  SAVYOURE  was  scorged,  betyn, 
crowned  with  thornes,  and  put  to  all  iniuryes  y* 
myght  be  deuysed,  and  fynally  condempned  to 
deth;  there  is  also  clene  remyssyon. 

"  And  there  is  also  the  way  that  gothe  to  the 
Temple,  by  the  whiche,  when  the  Jewes  came 
from  the  Temple,  they  cryed,  *  Crucifige,'  etc. 

"From  thens  we  went  vnto  the  hous  of  Herode, 
that  is  on  the  lefte  hand  of  Pylates  hous,  and 
standethhyghervpon  thefronte  of  the  hyll,  into  the 
whiche  hous  our  SAVYOUR  was  presented  unto 
Herode  by  Pylates  sendynge,  accusyed  by  ye 


56          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

Jewes ;  neverthelesse,  the  sayde  Herode  clothed 
hym  in  a  whyte  garment,  and  sent  hym  agen  to 
Pylate,  et  facti  sunt  amid  Her  odes  et  Pilatus  in  illo 
duy  etc.,  and  thyse  ii  houses  of  Pylate  and  Herode 
be  yet  now  moch  what  the  fayrest  houses  in 
Jherusalem,  and  specyally  the  house  of  Herode. 

"  Therby  is  an  other  fayre  hous  y*  was  some- 
time a  fayre  churche  of  Saynt  Anne,  but  now  ye 
Sarrasyns  have  made  thereof  a  muskey  [mosque], 
that  is  to  say,  theyr  temple,  and  that  is  the  selfe 
place  y*  was  Saynt  Anne's  house,  and  there  she 
died;  and  in  a  vaught  vnderneath  is  the  very 
selfe  place  where  our  blessyd  Lady  was  borne ; 
and  there  is  plenarye  remyssyon.  The  Sarrasyns 
wyll  suffre  no  man  to  come  into  this  place,  but 
pryuely  or  for  brybes,  because  it  is  theyr  muskey. 

"  Nota  that  relyques  of  the  stones  of  the  place 
there  our  Lady  was  borne  is  remedy  and  consola- 
cion  to  women  that  travayll  of  childe,  etc. 

"Item,  a  lytell  therby  is  Probatica  Piscina, 
where  our  SAVYOUR  healyd  many  men  that  were 
seke,  as  the  Gospell  sheweth,  etc. 

"  From  thens  we  went  to  the  hous  where  the 
the  synnes  of  Mary  Magdalene  were  foryeuen."* 

However,  despite  a  good  deal  of  variation  in 
the  selection,  arrangement,  number  and  distances 
of  the  Stations,  it  is  clear  that  at  Jerusalem  in  the 
early  part  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  traversing 
of  the  route  of  our  SAVIOUR  from  Pilate's  house 
to  Calvary  had  already  begun  to  be  regarded  as 
a  special  exercise  of  devotion  which  was  in  some 
sense  complete  in  itself.  Aranda,  who,  by  the  by, 
sets  down  the  distance  at  1,862  fassosyi  tells  us 

*  "  The  Pylgfrymag-e  of  Sir  Richard  Guylforde  to  the  Holy 
Land,  A.D.  1506,"  pp.  28-30. 

fHe  evidently  means  to  be  particularly  accurate,  for  he  re- 
marks that  the  said  paces  are  "those  which  we  friars  commonly 


mm      \*J1W>-* 


SK 
R 


% 
CO 


CO 

? 


13 
4) 


•a 
o 


VD  rj5  a  u, 

*2  §  1 

v,     s; 

§  *  £g 

~S  -5  'I 

*  «s  v" 


O  <-• 

o>  a 

JC'** 


~^ 
o  £• 

2*3 
o  a 


2- 

i>  ° 
ll 

co  <" 

•u   O 

c  a 


a  D) 


o 

*-• 

?3 

S 
2 

cu 


o 

TJ 


>•? 


tl 

"t  S 


i     C 

P     *•> 

*  '42 

5     w 
"I     ^ 

5-S 

Q.^ 


P 

<U  «) 

!» 

C  <n 
«  O 


«8 

S« 


j=  a 
.H  5 

.|5 

1M  >   <fi 


C  ,g 


o  a--  a  t« 


«^  o 


c  o 
o  « 

.J§   . 

Ot/)  CT: 


V 

X! 


*lfl° 


O   0>  O   o  w 
&   «1  4)J   3 

WJ5  C 


«      o 


j>> 

"o 

K 


fc«i^ 
>  «*• 


<u 

J3 

4-1 
t) 

rt 
a 


£     - 

X        CD 

H  w  B 


g%?4:-ie§o 


i.^-gfia  . 

o  Z  o-  °js^i  cu 


—  So.1 


3    R  ^,  2 
To  face  p.  56 


The  Earliest  Stations  57 

that  this  is  the  Holy  Way,  par  excellence,  "  Esta 
es  la  via  sancta  particularmente  ansi  llamada  de 
los  Cristianos" ;  and  he  remarks  further,  "Also 
it  is  to  be  observed  that  this  road  from  Pilate's 
house  to  Calvary  is  that  which  we  friars  (nosotros 
los  frayles)  are  wont  to  follow  when  for  our  devo- 
tion, and  out  of  reverence  for  our  SAVIOUR,  we 
set  out  to  traverse  the  very  road  which,  as  we  be- 
lieve, His  most  compassionate  Majesty  Himself 
trod/' 

Undoubtedly  one  of  the  earliest  indications  of 
special  veneration  attaching  to  the  holy  "  Cruys- 
ganck,"  i.e.,  the  carrying  of  the  Cross,  is  the  prac- 
tice of  measuring  the  distance  from  the  Preetorium 
to  the  place  of  Crucifixion.  The  first  traveller  who 
seems  to  attach  importance  to  the  exact  distance 
from  Pilate's  house  to  Calvary,  and  who  pro- 
fesses to  have  carefully  measured  it,  is  Martinus 
Polonus,  in  1422.*  Polonus  estimates  the  length 
of  our  LORD'S  last  journey  at  450  paces.  Martin 
Ketzel,  who  had  the  famous  Stations  erected  at 
Nuremberg,  lost  the  measurements  he  made  during 
his  first  pilgrimage  (c.  1468),  and  actually  under- 
took a  second  pilgrimage  some  few  years  later  in 
order  to  take  the  measurements  again.  In  spite 
of  all  the  care  supposed  to  have  been  used  by 
Polonus  and  others  the  most  extraordinary  diver- 
sity prevails  in  the  measurements  given,  which, 
for  fear  of  the  Turks,  could  only  be  made  in  paces. 
Thus,  while  Polonus,  in  1422,  gives  the  distance 
from  Pilate's  house  to  Calvary  at  450  paces,  it  is 

use  when  we  are  stepping1  out  freely";  "que  comunmente  haze- 
mos  los  frayles  quando  caminamos  a  passo  largo." 

*  "  Et  est  notandum  quod  a  loco  Calvarie  usque  ad  idem 
praetorium  sunt  450  passus,  quos  omni  diligentia,  qua  potui, 
numeravi"  (Tobler,  "  Descriptiones,"  p.  229). 


58          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

set  down  by  sundry  different  travellers — as  Tobler* 
points  out — in  1479,  at  l>°5°  paces;  in  1491,  1000; 
in  1507,  1,067:  in  1508,  500;  in  1519,  846;  in 
J586,  750;  in  1593,  1,321  (this  last  measurement 
is  that  of  Adrichomius) ;  in  1611,  850.  It  is  to  be 
noted  that  by  passus  some  travellers  must  have 
meant  a  double  step,  others  a  single  stride,  but  even 
so  the  divergence  is  difficult  to  explain.  Probably 
the  main  cause  of  the  discrepancy  was  the  fact, 
as  we  shall  have  occasion  to  note  further  on,  that 
the  ground  between  the  old  Judicial  Gate  and 
Calvary  was  all  built  over.  Hence  pilgrims  could 
only  guess  at  the  path  actually  followed  by  our 
LORD. 

The  only  satisfactory  way  of  bringing  home 
to  the  reader  the  wide  divergence  between  the 
Stations  in  Jerusalem  itself,  as  known  to  travel- 
lers between  1300  and  1720,  and  those  of  our 
modern  Way  of  the  Cross  would  be  to  draw  up 
an  elaborate  table  recording  the  dates  of  the 
principal  narratives  and  all  the  sites  mentioned 
in  them.  This  can  hardly  be  attempted  here  save 
on  a  very  small  scale,  which  does  not  in  any 
way  make  apparent  to  the  eye  the  complete 
absence  of  any  record  regarding  the  first  two 
falls,  the  sentence  by  Pilate  or  the  stripping  of 
the  garments.  On  the  other  hand,  if  we  accept 
the  mention  of  the  Ecce  Homo  Arch — i.e.,  the 
two  stones,  as  Wey  calls  them — as  the  equivalent 
of  the  reception  of  the  cross,  and  the  stone 
marked  with  crosses  before  the  Holy  Sepulchre  as 
the  site  of  the  the  third  fall,  it  may  be  said  that 
these  two  stations — the  second  and  the  ninth — ap- 
pear in  the  narrative  of  almost  every  early 

*  "Topographic  von  Jerusalem,"  I,  p.  236. 


The  Earliest  Stations  59 

traveller.*  This  disposes  of  six  stations,  and  the 
four  last — the  nailing  to  the  cross,  the  cruci- 
fixion, the  taking  down  and  the  entombment  of 
our  SAVIOUR — call  for  no  comment.  We  are  left, 
therefore,  with  four  variable  stations,  which  may 
be  thus  indicated :  the  meeting  with  our  Blessed 
Lady  by  M,  that  with  Simon  of  Cyrene  by  S, 
that  with  the  women  of  Jerusalem  by  W,  and  that 
with  Veronica  by  V.  With  regard  to  these,  the 
data  of  our  selection  of  travellers  may  be  tabulated 
as  follows.  The  order  of  these  meetings  is  that  in 
which  they  would  have  occurred  as  our  SAVIOUR 
made  His  painful  way  from  the  Prsetorium  to- 
wards Calvary.f 


1294  Ricoldo  

W 

M  ... 

s 

1320  Pipinus  ,.     ... 

M 

S    ... 

W 

1350  Dublin  MS  

W 

M  ... 

s 

i  ^SdJGucci 

M± 

M§... 

s 

1391  Swinburn  and  Brigg  ... 

A  T*4- 

M 

S 

1395  Ogier  d'Anglure  

MJ 

M§... 

W 

1419  Nompar  de  Caumont  ... 

M 

rw 

'  s 

1422  Johannes  Polonus 

M 

W 
"  S 

1411;  Lochner  . 

M  , 

.  v±.. 

W 

s  ...  v§ 

*  Curiously  enough  this  stone  with  crosses — "lapis  cum 
crucibus"  as  Wey  called  it — in  the  courtyard  of  the  Church  of 
the  Holy  Sepulchre,  seems  to  drop  out  of  sight  in  the  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  centuries.  It  is  clearly  shown  in  Breydenbach's 
woodcut  (c.  1487),  copied  on  p.  28,  where  the  pilgrims  are  seen 
kissing  it.  Not  only  Wey  but  Fabri  asserts  that  there  were 
many  crosses  on  the  stone  (see  p.  29  above).  Yet  many  other 
pilgrims  state  that  it  was  a  small  stone  marked  with  only  one 
cross.  See  e.g.  M.  Tschudi,  1519,  "  Reyss,"  p.  191. 

f  In  the  narratives  of  the  pilgrims,  as  explained  above,  the 
Stations  are  nearly  always  described  in  the  reverse  order,  as 
seen  by  one  travelling  eastwards  away  from  Calvary. 

i  Where  two  M's  or  two  V's  are  given  there  are  two  men- 
tions of  Mary  or  Veronica,  as  the  case  may  be. 

§  Dietrich  expressly  states  that  CHRIST  spoke  to  the  Holy 
Women  in  the  very  act  of  being  relieved  of  His  Cross  by  Simon 


6o 


The  Stations  of  the  Cross 


1436  Georg  Pfintzing M  W  ...  S  V 

1458  Wey M  V   ...  W  S 

1480  Fabri       M  W  ...  S  V 

1483  Breydenbach M  S    ...  W  V 

1484  Francisco  Suriano       ...  M  W  ...  S  V 

1491  Dietrich  von  Schachtent    M     •<  ^     •  ••  V 

1496  Harff      M  W  ...  V 

1506  Guylforde       M  S    ...  W  ...  V 

1530  Aranda M  S    ...  W  ...  V 

1586  Zuallardo       M  S    ...  W  ...  V 

1620  Bernardino  Amico       ...  M  S    ...  W  ...  V 

1639  Quaresmius M      j  ^  ...  V 

1646  Surius     M  S  ...  W  V 

1656  Parviller M  S  ...  W  V 

1674  Nau M  S  ...  W  V 

1694  Caccia    M  S  ...  W  V 

1713  Hietling M  S  ...  V  W 

1716  Turpetin M  S  ...  W  V 

1724  Francisco  Jesus  Maria...  M  S  ...  W  V 

1735  Myller     M  S  ...  V  W 

1736  Antonio  do  Sacramento  M  S  ...  V  W 
1744  Horn       M  S  ...  V  W 

It  will  be  remarked  that  no  mention  of  Vero- 
nica occurs  before  the  account  of  Lochner  in  1435. 
In  his  narrative,  her  name  appears  twice,  though 
that  marked  V  (i)  is  but  a  casual  allusion.  In  all 
the  later  descriptions  down  to  1713,  with  the  single 
exception  of  Wey  in  145  8,  the  meeting  with  Vero- 
nica comes  nearest  to  Calvary.  Wey  is  so  pains- 
taking in  his  descriptions  that  when  we  couple  his 
divergence  from  the  commoner  arrangement  with 
the  double  mention  of  Veronica  in  Lochner  we  are 
led  to  the  conclusion  that  the  tradition  about  the 
site  of  Veronica's  house  remained  rather  vague 
and  uncertain  until  some  years  after  we  first  hear 
of  it.  During  the  same  period  the  meeting  of  our 
LORD  with  Simon  of  Cyrene  and  that  with  the 

of  Cyrene.  Aranda  suggests  the  same.  Others,  e.g.,  Brasca, 
remark  that  He  spoke  to  them  as  soon  as  the  taking  of  the 
cross  by  Simon  enabled  Him  for  the  first  time  to  turn  His  head. 


The  Earliest  Stations  61 

holy  women  were  uniformly  regarded  as  having 
taken  place  close  together.  It  is  noteworthy,  then, 
how  completely  our  present  arrangement  of  sta- 
tions, which  separates  the  holy  women  and 
Simon  of  Cyrene  by  Veronica  and  by  the  second 
fall,  contradicts  all  local  tradition.  But  upon  this 
point  there  will  be  occasion  to  speak  further  in  a 
later  chapter. 


62 


Chapter  IV-The  "  Seven  Falls " 

A  LTHOUGH  we  have  already  taken  note  of 
.iVsome  isolated  attempts  to  imitate  in  western 
lands  the  construction  or  relative  position  of  the 
sanctuaries  of  Jerusalem,  there  seems  to  be  no 
evidence  of  the  erection  of  any  thing  like  a  definite 
"  Way  of  the  Cross  "  before  the  closing  years  of 
the  fifteenth  century.  It  is  not  quite  easy  to  deter- 
mine what  is  the  earliest  example  of  any  system 
of  devotional  Stations  in  stone  or  wood  intended 
to  recall  the  road  to  Calvary.  Perhaps  from  their 
nearness  to  the  source  of  inspiration  a  set  of  seven 
columns  at  Rhodes,  of  which  we  hear  something 
at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  may 
have  the  best  claim  to  take  precedence,  but  I  must 
confess  that  .my  efforts  to  gain  any  authentic  in- 
formation about  these  interesting  pillars  have 
been  unsuccessful.  An  almost  equal  degree  of  ob- 
scurity attends  the  erection  at  Gorlitz  of  a  series  of 
Stations  which  are  known  to  have  begun  with  some 
sort  of  representation  of  "  Pilate's  house."  A  cer- 
tain George  Emmerich,  we  are  told,  who  visited 
the  Holy  Land  in  1465,  erected  a  model  of  the 
Holy  Sepulchre  on  his  return.  Besides  this  he 
attempted  to  reproduce  the  scenes  around,  build- 
ing his  chapel  at  the  exact  distance  from  the 
Church  of  St  Peter  that  Calvary  was  separated 
from  the  Praetorium.  A  set  of  Stations  was  added, 
two  of  which,  though  the  subjects  can  hardly  be 
recognized,  are  still  preserved.* 

*See  Lutsch,  "Die  Kunstdenkmaler  des  Reg-.  Bezirks  Lieg- 
nitz,"  part  iv,  pp.  676-677.  This  erection  was  commemorated  in 


i'iiio  §nmyii|ni  tewi  ifiii  Mni\  jjtii 
if  IROT  5if  ir  mill  pitonia  fttus 


SECOND  AND  FIFTH  STATIONS 
Carved  by  Adam  Kraft  at  Nuremberg.  See  pp.  64  and  63  wofc. 

To  face  p.  63 


The  "Seven  Falls"  63 

But  by  far  the  best  known  work  of  this  kind 
of  early  date  *  is  the  famous  series  of  carvings 
executed  by  Adam  Krafft  of  Nuremberg  at  the 
instance  of  Martin  Ketzel,  to  whose  pilgrimage 
reference  has  already  been  made.  These  Stations 
were  probably  completed  before  1490,  and  are 
still  to  be  seen,  though  they  have  undergone 
several  restorations,  and  some  of  them,  which  were 
more  exposed  to  the  weather,  have  of  late  years 
been  removed  to  the  museum. f  They  are  seven, 
or  more  accurately  eight,  in  number,  and  have 
inscriptions  carved  under  them,  naming  the  sub- 
ject of  the  group,  and  giving  the  distance  from 
Pilate's  house.  Thus  the  inscription  under  the  first 
Station  runs  :  "  Here  JESUS  meets  His  dear  and 
Blessed  Mother,  who  swooned  away  for  anguish 
of  heart.  Two  hundred  paces  from  Pilate's  house."  J 

verse  a  century  later  by  Bartholomew  Andreade,  who  writes,  for 
instance : 

Quosque  per  anfractus  DOMINUS  salebrasque  viarura 

Robora  sustinuit  bajulus  alta  crucis, 
Hos  certo  referet  quern  ping-imus  ordine  tractus, 

Unum  ut  qui  novit,  norit  utrumque  locum. 

See  C.  G.  Hoffmann,  "  Scriptores  Rerum  Lusaticarum,"  vol.  I, 
part  it,  pp.  129-120. 

*  Mgr  von  Keppler  quotes  Wadding's  "  Annales"  for  the 
statement  that  Philip  of  Aquila  in  1456  erected  a  set  of  Stations 
in  the  Franciscan  friary  to  which  he  belonged.  I  can  find  no 
justification  for  this  assertion  in  Wadding  or  in  the  "  Acta  San- 
ctorum." Wadding  states  only  that  B.  Philip  built  little  oratories, 
but  no  mention  is  made  of  the  Passion  or  the  Way  of  the  Cross. 

t  Daun,  "  Adam  Krafft  und  die  Kunstler  seiner  Zeit,"  1897, 
p.  65;  and  cf.  "  Mittheilungen  des  Vereins  fur  Geschichte  der 
Stadt  Number^,"  n,  1880,  p.  83. 

£  "  Hir  begegnet  JESUS  seiner  wirdigen  lieben  Mutter,  die  vor 
grossem  herzenleit  anmechtig  ward  ;  lie.  schrytt  von  Pilatus 
haus."  The  two  Stations  represented  opposite  have  only  been 
superimposed  for  convenience  sake.  Originally  of  course  they 
stood  many  hundred  yards  apart,  as  the  inscriptions  indicate. 
The  fourth  of  the  series  is  reproduced  in  the  frontispiece. 


64          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

The  other  six  subjects,  with  their  distances,  may 
be  more  summarily  named.  The  second  is  Simon 
of  Cyrene,  295  paces;  the  third,  the  women  of 
Jerusalem,  380  paces  ;*  the  fourth,  Veronica,  500 
paces;  the  fifth,  JESUS  sinking  under  the  cross  and 
belaboured  by  the  Jews,  780  paces;  the  sixth, 
JESUS  prostrate  under  the  cross,  i  ,000  paces;  the 
last,  JESUS  laid  in  the  arms  of  His  Blessed  Mo- 
ther, f  The  distances  are  in  each  case  supposed  to 
be  measured  from  Pilate's  house,  but  no  figures 
are  given  in  the  last  case.  It  seems  certain  that 
this  and  similar  arrangements  of  seven  Stations, 
resembling  but  not  necessarily  identical  with 
KraffVs,  were  popularly  known  as  the  "  Seven 
Falls,"  :£  for  in  all  of  them  our  SAVIOUR,  if  not 
actually  prostrate,  was  conceived  as  either  sink- 
ing under  His  burden,  or  staggering  again  to 
His  feet.  In  the  case  of  the  Nuremberg  Stations 
the  evidence  for  the  use  of  this  name  is  quite  un- 
equivocal. A  chronicler  of  the  city  records  that  in 
the  year  1508  he  (Adam  Krafft)  had  carved  in  stone 
and  erected  before  the  gate  of  the  Garden  of  Beasts 
the  Seven  Falls  of  Christ,  as  they  were  commonly 
called,  with  seven  crosses  extending  to  Mount 

*  How  untrustworthy  all  these  data  are,  may  be  seen  from 
the  fact  that  by  several  of  the  earlier  fifteenth-century  pilgrims 
the  meeting  with  Simon  of  Cyrene  and  the  women  of  Jerusalem 
is  represented  as  taking  place  at  the  same  point  of  the  cross- 
roads, and  yet  according  to  these  measurements  these  two  spots 
are  nearly  one  hundred  yards  distant  from  each  other. 

t  Although  another  carving,  now  very  much  mutilated,  repre- 
sents the  Crucifixion,  it  would  almost  seem  that  this  and  the 
last  are  intended  to  form  but  one  Station. 

J  "  Anno  1508  hat  er  (Adam  Krafft)  vor  dem  Thiergartnerthor 
in  Stein  gehauen  und  aufgerichtet  die  Siebenfall  CHRISTI,  welche 
man  gemeiniglich  nent  bei  den  7  Kreutzen  bis  hinaus  ad  montem 
Calvarice,  zu  dem  Capellein  bey  S.  Johannes,  zu  dem  Heiligen 
Grab  genandt,  dasselbig  grosse  Creuz,  mit  samt  der  zween 
Schager  "  (J.  Neudorffer,  apud  Daun,  "  Adam  Krafft, "  p.  140). 


The  "Seven  Falls"  65 

Calvary,  that  is  to  say,  to  the  chapel  besides  St 
John's  Church,  called  the  Sepulchre  Chapel;  and 
there  there  was  a  great  cross  with  the  two  thieves. 
The  Stations  supposed  to  be  imitated  from 
Krafft  at  St  Getreu,  in  Bamberg,  dating  from 
1507,  were  also  seven  in  number,  and  Tilmann 
Riemenschneider  seems  to  have  carried  out  other 
sets  of  a  similar  character.*  We  may  very  pro- 
bably regard  an  early  set  of  Stations  erected  by 
one  Peter  Sterckx  (or  Peter  Potens)  at  Louvain 
after  his  return  from  Jerusalem  about  1505  as 
another  example  of  the  Seven  Falls.  There  are 
said  to  be  eight  subjects,  but  it  does  not  seem 
very  clear  whether  there  were  eight  different 
halting-places.  They  ended  in  a  chapel,  known 
as  the  Capelle  van  Calvarien,  and  they  began 
with  the  House  of  Pilate,  which  stood  at  the 
corner  of  St  James's  Churchyard.  Peter  Calentyn, 
whose  devotional  work  on  the  Stations  will 
shortly  be  mentioned,  wrote  a  separate  tract 
on  the  Cruysganck  of  Louvain,  in  which  he 
assigns  the  exact  locality  where  each  sculpture 
had  been  erected.  After  the  House  of  Pilate, 
which  no  doubt  represented  our  modern  Station, 
"  JESUS  is  condemned  to  death,"  there  follows 
(2)  the  first  fall,  (3)  Simon  of  Cyrene  (this  stood 
near  the  house  of  the  Irish  Dominicans),  (4) 
Veronica,  (5)  the  second  fall,  (6)  the  women  oi 
Jerusalem,  (7)  the  third  fall,  (8)  the  stripping 
of  the  garments.  It  will  be  noticed  that  these 
Stations  correspond  with  those  of  Adam  Krafft 
neither  in  subject  nor  in  order;  but  in  spite  of  this 
there  was  great  pretence  of  accurate  measure- 
ment. From  the  Louvain  Pilatushuys  to  the 

*  Bishop  von  Keppler,  "Kreuzweg,"  p.  33;  Weber,  Riemen- 
schneider, p.  24 

5 


66          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

Capelle  van  Calvarien  were  counted  662  double 
paces  or  1,324  single  steps.  Each  step,  Calentyn 
is  careful  to  note,  measured  two-and-a-half  feet, 
and  each  pace  consequently  five  feet.  These 
Stations  long  continued  to  excite  the  devotion  of 
the  faithful.  A  writer  who  gave  a  description  of 
them  in  1666  tells  us :  "On y  va en  pelerinage  fort 
denotement  principalement  en  la  semaine  sainte." 
We  shall  see  further  on  that  this  set  of  Stations 
at  Louvain  has  exercised  a  preponderating 
influence  upon  the  selection  and  arrangement  of 
the  fourteen  now  universally  adopted  in  our 
churches.* 

The  little  work  of  Peter  Calentyn  on  the 
Stations  of  Louvain  seems  to  be  much  more  rarely 
found  than  his  translation  of  the  devotional  work 
of  Jan  Pascha.f  I  have  not  been  able  to  meet 
with  a  copy  of  the  former,  and  I  know  it  only 
from  the  extracts  given  by  Van  Even. 

Another  set  of  Stations  which  has  given  rise 
to  a  whole  literature  of  its  own,  mostly  consisting 
of  volumes  absolutely  inaccessible  outside  of 
France,  are  those  connected  with  the  famous 
Calvary  of  Romans  in  Dauphine.J  If  we  were  to 

*  We  learn  from  Adrichomius  that  other  sets  of  the  Seven 
Falls,  apparently  copied  from  that  at  Louvain,  existed  at 
Mechlin  (for  many  years  the  residence  of  Jan  Pascha),  Vilvorde 
and  other  towns  of  Brabant. 

f "  Een  devote  maniere  om  gheestelyck  pelgrimagie  te 
trecken  tot  den  heyligen  lande,"  Louvain,  1563.  Three  editions 
of  this — two  in  Flemish  and  one  in  French — are  in  the  British 
Museum.  The  Museum  does  not,  however,  possess  a  copy  of  the 
first  edition.  There  was  a  second  edition  of  the  French  transla- 
tion, which  Rohricht  in  his  "  Bibliotheca  "  seems  to  have  mis- 
taken for  an  original  work.  Another  Flemish  edition  was  printed 
at  Ghent  in  1612. 

t  A  full  bibliography  is  given  by  U.  Chevalier,  "Bulletin 
d'HistoireEccleViastiquedes  dioceses  de  Valence,"  etc.,  vol.  iv, 
p.  68. 


The  " Seven  Falls"  67 

attempt  any  account  of  the  Calvaries  which 
existed  in  Brittany,  Southern  France,  Italy  and 
Germany,  it  would  be  impossible  to  keep  this 
little  book  within  reasonable  limits.*  But  in  the 
story  of  the  foundation  of  the  Calvary  of  Romans 
we  hear  incidentally  of  two  other  sets  of  Seven 
Stations.  One  Romanet  Boffin,  a  merchant  of 
Romans,  having  had  occasion  for  matters  of 
business  to  travel  to  Fribourg  in  1515,  was 
greatly  impressed  by  certain  memorials  of  the 
Passion  of  our  SAVIOUR  which  had  been  erected  in 
that  city.  These  consisted  of  a  Calvary  with  seven 
"pillars,"  which  a  Knight  of  Rhodes,  Peter  ol 
Englisberg,  who  had  been  made  commander  ot 
the  commandery  of  St  John  Baptist  of  Fribourg, 
forthwith  set  up  as  an  exact  reproduction  of 
seven  other  pillars  existing  in  the  Isle  of  Rhodes, 
which  commemorated  in  their  turn  the  holy 
places  of  Jerusalem.  Romanet  Boffin  was  so  edi- 
fied that  he  asked  the  permission  of  the  magis- 
trates of  Fribourg  to  erect  a  similar  set  of  Stations 
in  his  native  city,  and  was  presented  with  a  docu- 
ment, still  extant,  which  attests  that  he  had 
accurately  measured  the  distances. f 

Boffin  had  previously  sought  and  obtained  the 

*  The  famous  Sacro  Monte  of  Varallo  was  first  instituted  by 
Blessed  Bernardino  Caimi,  Guardian  of  the  Franciscan  Obser- 
vants in  1491.  He  had  twice  resided  in  the  Holy  Land,  and 
had  been  custode  of  the  holy  places  in  1477  and  1487.  See 
'Miscellanea  di  Storia  Franciscana,"  I  (1886),  p.  61,  and 
Galloni,  "Uomini  e  Fatti  Celebri  in  Valle  Sessia,"  p.  84.  Cf. 
also  Motta,  "  II  beato  Bernardino  Caimi"  (1891),  p.  16,  and  S. 
Butler,  "  Ex  Voto,"  pp.  46-56. 

t  " Socle" te"  Departementale d"  Arche*ologie,  etc.,  de la  Drdme, 
Bulletin,"  vol.  xv,  p.  228;  "  Archives  de  la  Socie'te'  d'Histoire 
du  Canton  de  Fribourg-,"  vol.  V,  p.  274(1891).  We  learn  that 
this  set  of  Stations  began  with  "la  maison  dudit  Ponce  Pilate, 
en  laquelle  la  croix  feust  mise  sur  son  pouvre  doz."  The  sites  of 
these  Stations  at  Fribourg  can  still  be  traced, 


68          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

approval  of  the  magistrates  of  his  native  town, 
who  gave  him  leave  to  appropriate  the  sites 
which  were  necessary  for  his  purpose.*  His  plans 
seem  to  have  developed  and  to  have  grown  more 
ambitious  as  he  found  that  the  scheme  gained  in 
popularity.  He  accordingly  obtained  a  Bull  from 
Leo  X  giving  him  permission  to  visit  the  Holy 
Land,  and  there  is  also  extant  an  indulgence 
granted  to  this  Calvary  a  few  years  later. 

The  story  is  rather  obscure,  but  the  Calvary 
at  Romans  seems  to  have  consisted  of  a  multi- 
tude of  Stations,  which  varied  greatly  in  number 
at  different  epochs.  Two  friars  of  Jerusalem  told 
Boffin  that  there  ought  to  be  thirty-one  in  all.  In 
certain  books  of  piety  published  about  the  Ro- 
mans Calvary  as  early  as  1515  twenty-five  are 
named.  In  the  "  Voyage  et  Oraisons  du  Mont 
Calvaire  de  Romans,"  printed  by  Jacques  Kerver 
in  1556,  the  number  is  nineteen.  In  the  "  Direc- 
toire  du  Voyage"  of  Friar  Archange  de  Clermont 
in  1638  there  areas  many  as  thirty-seven. 

Although  it  is  extremely  interesting  to  hear 
of  these  seven  Stations  at  Rhodes,  from  which 
the  Stations  of  Fribourg  were  copied,  it  may  per- 
haps seem  rash  to  infer  that  all  such  sets  of 

*"Le  i  Octobre,  1516,  a  est£  expose^,  par  honneste  homme 
Romanet  Richard  (he  is  described  elsewhere  as  Boffin,  dit 
Richard)  marchand  de  ceste  ville  qu'il  a  faict  faire  sept  piliers 
de  pierre  qui  sont  demonstratifs  des  saincts  Lieux  de  Jerusalem, 
les  quels  il  voudroit  mettre  et  asseoir  en  certaines  places  et  lieux 
de  ceste  ville,  comme  il  a  £te*  compass^  par  le  prestre  de  mon- 
sieur de  Sainct-Pol  et  autres  religieux  de  Jerusalem:  ce  qu'il 
n'oseroit  faire  sans  le  bon  vouloir  et  consentement  de  mes  diets 
seigneurs  les  consuls  et  de  la  ville.  A  la  quelle  chose  sont  accor- 
ded les  diets  messieurs  les  consuls  et  1'assemble'e  et  que  iceluy 
Romanet  puisse  prendre  les  lieux  a  luy  ne"cessaires  sans  contra- 
diction quelconque  "  (Extract  from  the  Consular  Reg-isters  of 
Romans,  "Bulletin  de  la  Socie"t£  d'  Arche"olog-ie  de  la  Drdme," 
vol.  xv,  p.  229), 


THE  INCIDENT  OF  SIMON  OF  CTRENE 

An  illustration  of  the  "  Gey  stitch  S  trass,"  Nuremberg,  152  i. 

See  pp.  79-80. 

The  pillar  form  affected  in  these  illustrations  undoubtedly 
bears  witness  to  the  familiar  occurrence  of  such  stations 
erected  at  carefully  measured  distances  in  churchyards,  or 
by  the  wayside.  The  artist  who  designed  these  illustrations 
has  clearly  been  inspired  by  Adam  Krafffs  carving. 

To  face  p.  68 


The  "Seven  Falls "  69 

seven,  like  Krafft's,  represented  the  seven  falls.* 
Curiously  enough,  however,  a  piece  of  evidence 
which  at  first  sight  appears  to  create  a  serious 
difficulty  proves  on  examination  to  tell  the  other 
way. 

We  may  find  in  Sanderus'  "  Chorographia  "  f 
a  mention  of  the  cemetery  of  the  Franciscans  at 
Antwerp,  which  had  seven  sculptures,  depicting 
the  seven  dolours  of  our  Blessed  Lady.  "  So 
great,"  he  says,  "  is  the  devotion  of  the  populace 
to  these  Stations,  that  people  are  to  be  found 
making  them  at  all  hours  of  the  day.  Especially 
on  Fridays,  after  Compline,  the  friars  all  go  two 
and  two  to  the  altar  of  our  Lady  of  Sorrows,  and 
there  two  cantors  intone  aloud  the  '  Stabat 
Mater/  to  which  the  community  respond  very 
beautifully  in  harmony.  Then  they  all  go  out  to 
the  Stations,  a  great  crowd  of  people  following 
behind.  The  whole  assembly  kneels  down  before 
each  Station  in  turn,  and  three  'Our  Fathers' 
and  'Hail  Marys'  are  said  by  each  person  in 
silence.  At  the  end  is  sung  the  antiphon,  'Sancta 
Maria,'  etc.,  by  way  of  conclusion.  This  is  not," 
says  Sanderus,  "a  modern  devotion.  It  was  famous 
in  this  place  as  far  back  as  the  year  1520,  when 

*  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  these  seven  pillars  really  cor- 
responded to  the  Stations  we  have  been  describing".  Speaking1  of 
the  house  of  Pilate  at  Romans,  Chevalier  says:  "C'est  la  pre- 
miere station  qu'  e"rigea  Romanet  Boffin,  suivant  le  dessein  qu'il 
avait  d'abord  concu  de  faire  sept  piliers,  dont  le  premier  etait 
plac^  dans  le  cimetiere  de  Saint  Bernard.  Sur  ce  pilier  on  voyait 
un  Ecce  Homo.  "Further  he  remarks  of  the  Station  representing" 
the  third  fall,  now  the  twenty-first  in  the  series  of  Romans : 
"C'est  la  derniere  station  avant  d'arriver  au  Calvaire.  .  .  Elle 
a  remplace*  le  sixieme  pilier  du  voyage  primitif"  ("Bulletin 
d'Histoire  Eccle"siasttque,"  vol.  in,  pp.  226-229). 

t  Sanderus,  "  Chorographia  Brabantica,"  vol.  II,  Antwerp, 
FF.  Min.,  pp.  7,  8. 


7o          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

Leo  X  granted  an  indulgence  of  100  days  for 
each  Station/'  * 

Now  it  would  of  course  seem  at  first  sight  that 
a  series  of  seven  sculptures  consecrated  to  the 
dolours  of  our  Lady  almost  necessarily  excluded 
the  idea  of  any  other  object  of  devotion,  and 
notably  the  seven  falls  of  our  Blessed  LORD.  But 
this,  as  appears  on  further  examination,  would 
be  a  rash  inference. 

In  the  National  Museum  at  Stockholm  are 
to  be  found  an  extremely  interesting  series  of 
fifteenth-century  engravings  representing  simul- 
taneously the  seven  falls  of  our  LORD  and  the 
Seven  Sorrows  of  His  Blessed  Mother.  They  bear 
inscriptions  as  follows: 

"  i.  This  picture  shows  the  first  painful  fall, 
when  the  LORD  JESUS,  tied  as  He  was  with 
bonds,  was  thrown  down  off  the  bridge  into  the 
brook  Cedron. 

"2.  This  picture  shows  the  second  painful  fall 
when  the  LORD  JESUS  in  the  open  street  fell, 
heavily  to  the  ground  on  His  way  from  Herod  to 
Pilate. 

"3.  This  picture  shows  the  third  murderous 
fall,  when  the  LORD  JESUS  fell  heavily  swooning 
upon  the  steps  [apparently  before  Pilate's  judge- 
ment seat]. 

"  4.  This  picture  shows  the  fourth  pitiful  fall, 
when  the  LORD  JESUS,  after  the  scourging,  fell 
fainting  beside  the  pillar. 

"  5.  This  representation  shows  the  fifth  lamen- 
table fall,  when  the  LORD  JESUS  fell  to  the  ground 
under  the  cross  upon  which  he  had  been  con- 

*  Leo  X  apparently  granted  a  good  many  such  indulgences. 
In  some  cases  there  can  have  been  no  question  of  seven  sculp- 
tures (See  the  "  Regesta  Leonis  PP.  X,"  ed.  Hergenrother, 
nn.  14237-8,  and  14627). 


The  "Seven  Falls0  71 

demned  to  die.  [Simon  of  Cyrene  is  shown  trying 
to  help  to  lift  our  LORD.] 

"  6.  This  picture  shows  the  sixth  painful  fall, 
when  the  LORD  JESUS  was  cruelly  thrown  down 
naked  upon  the  cross  ['  miitternackt,'  as  naked 
as  when  He  was  born]. 

"7.  This  design  [*hochentworff']  shows  the 
seventh  heart-breaking  fall,  when  the  LORD  JESUS, 
already  nailed  to  the  cross,  was  again  cast  down 
to  earth.  'O  Mary  help  us,  Amen."  (The  cross  is 
supposed  to  have  fallen  forward  out  of  its  socket.) 

In  each  of  the  seven  pictures  our  Lady  is 
shown  with  the  sword  in  her  heart.  No  exact 
date,  or  even  approximate  estimate,  is  assigned 
by  Schreiber  for  this  series.* 

Another  similar  set  of  woodcut  pictures  is  de- 
scribed by  the  same  authority  in  nos.  645,  647, 
653,  655  and  683.  (To  these  we  may  add  perhaps 
643,  the  fall  into  the  Cedron,  where  our  Lady  is 
represented  with  a  sword  in  her  breast,  an  en- 
graving dated  by  Schreiber,  c.  1490.)  This  second 
series  seems  once  to  have  had  an  inscription 
repeated  in  each  picture:  "O  mensch  betracht  dy 
siben  veil  CHRISTI  und  di  siben  hertzenlayd  Marie. 
— O  man,  contemplate  the  seven  falls  of  CHRIST 
and  the  seven  heart-breaking  sorrows  of  Mary/' 

645  represents  a  fall  in  the  street.  There  is  no 
cross,  but  Mary  and  John  are  there  looking  on. 
No  sword  is  represented. 

647.  JESUS  falls  on  being  dragged  up  the  steps 
to  the  Governor  Pilate.  Mary,  with  sword  in  her 
breast,  and  John  are  present. 

653.  JESUS,  in  a  swoon,  falls  to  the  ground 

*  Schreiber,  nos.  642,  644,  646,  652,  654,  659  and  685.  He 
seems,  however,  to  be  quite  satisfied  that  the  engravings  are 
fifteenth  century, 


72          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

beside  a  pillar.  Judas  is  looking  in  through  one 
window;  Mary  and  John  through  another. 

655.  JESUS  falls  under  the  cross.  Simon  of 
Cyrene  tries  to  help  Him.  Mary  looks  on  with  a 
sword  piercing  her  heart ;  John  stands  besides  her. 

683.  Erection  of  the  cross.  Mary,  with  the 
sword  in  her  heart,  is  standing  by. 

The  series  is  incomplete. 

The  subjects  represented  in  these  two  sets  of 
the  "  Seven  Falls"  are  apparently  identical,  and 
they  must  be  compared  with  the  pious  contempla- 
tions contained  in  a  little  devotional  booklet 
called  the  "Mount  of  Calvary'  ("Dit  is  den 
berch  van  Calvarien "),  printed  at  Leyden  in 
Holland  about  1520.*  Here  we  find  suggested 
a  pious  method  of  following  with  prayers  and 
aspirations  the  Passion  and  seven  falls  of  our 
SAVIOUR,  though  these  are  not  in  any  way  iden- 
tical with  Krafft's,  but  begin,  like  the  series 
just  mentioned,  with  the  legendary  fall  of  our 
Blessed  LORD  in  crossing  the  brook  of  Cedron 
(de  torrente  in  ma  bibet).  The  booklet  is  illus- 
trated with  woodcuts  of  the  roughest  description, 
but  it  is  noteworthy  that  these  include  both  the 
sentencing  of  CHRIST  to  death  by  Pilate  and  the 
stripping  of  the  garments.  As  for  the  falls,  the 
seven  enumerated  are  (i)  at  the  brook  of  Cedron, 
(2)  on  the  way  to  Herod,  (3)  on  the  steps  of 
Pilate's  house  when  sentence  was  passed,  (4)  at 

*  "  Dit  is  den  berch  van  Calvarien."  "  Een  seer  dovoet 
hantboecxken  voor  een  jegelic  kersten  mensce  hoe  men  den 
Berch  van  Calvarien  opclimmen  sal,  ende  helpen  onsen  heere 
zijn  swaer  cruyce  draegen,  want  hi  seer  moede  is  geworden  van 
swaren  ancxte  des  doots.  Ghedruct  tot  Leyden  by  my,  Jan 
Mathijszoon,  wonende  of  die  Hoy-graft."  Another  edition,  of 
which  there  is  a  copy  in  the  Bodleian,  appeared  at  Amsterdam 
some  years  later. 


The  "Seven  Falls"  73 

the  scourging,  (5)  during  the  carrying  of  the 
cross,  (6)  when  thrown  down  for  the  nailing, 
(7)  when  the  cross,  with  our  LORD  upon  it,  was 
allowed  to  slip  back  just  after  it  had  been  raised, 
so  that  His  sacred  face  was  once  more  dashed 
against  the  ground. 

This  is  not  supposed  to  be  an  exhaustive  list 
of  the  falls  of  our  SAVIOUR;  for  the  text  of  the 
book  expressly  states  that  our  LORD  revealed  to 
a  holy  virgin  that  He  fell  thirty- two  times  "  be- 
tween Jerusalem  and  Calvary/'  As  the  reader 
who  may  compare  this  list  with  that  given  above 
will  see  at  a  glance,  the  series  of  falls  comtempla- 
ted  here  is  identical  with  that  delineated  in  the 
Stockholm  woodcuts.  On  the  other  hand,  they  are 
quite  different,  as  already  noticed,  from  the  Seven 
Falls  of  Adam  Krafft,  though  the  purpose  of  both 
exercises  is  identical.  This  purpose  is  plainly 
declared  upon  the  first  page  of  the  "  Berch  van 
Calvarien,"  where  the  title  runs:  "This  is  the 
Mount  of  Calvary:  a  very  devout  handbook  for 
a  Christian  man,  to  teach  him  how  men  ought  to 
climb  the  Mount  of  Calvary  and  help  our  LORD 
to  carry  His  heavy  cross,  when  He  has  become 
very  weary  through  the  grievous  dread  of  death." 

We  may  conjecture  perhaps  that  the  exercises 
of  the  booklet  are  really  older  than  the  time  of 
Martin  Ketzel,  Krafft  and  Sterckx,  and  that  these 
latter  considered  that  they  would  accomplish  their 
devout  purpose  better  if,  to  make  the  exercise 
still  more  realistic,  they  confined  the  set  of  Seven 
Falls  to  the  incidents  of  the  journey  from  Pilate's 
house  to  Calvary.  The  inclusion  by  Sterckx  of 
the  stripping  of  the  garments  as  one  of  the 
"falls'  (see  above,  p.  65),  must,  one  would 
think,  be  more  than  a  coincidence. 


74          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

Before  quitting  this  subject  I  may  call  atten- 
tion to  a  paragraph  about  the  Seven  Falls,  occur- 
ring in  an  English  Catholic  book  of  devotion  of 
the  early  seventeenth  century.  It  is  abridged 
from  a  Flemish  volume  of  much  older  date,  about 
which  we  shall  have  much  to  say  in  the  next 
chapter.  The  passage  runs  as  follows : 

"  Considering  it  is  almost  impossible,  for  a 
Pilgrim  to  goe  a  longe  way  without  fallinge,  thou 
shalt  recollect  the  seaven  fallings  of  CHRISTE  our 
LORD,  takinge  one  of  them  for  every  day  in  the 
weeke. 

"  The  first,  the  falling  our  LORD  being  taken, 
when  they  hastened  Him  to  passe  over  the  water 
of  Cedron. 

"  The  second,  the  falling  of  our  LORD  in  the 
streete,  being  sent  from  Pilate  to  Herod  and  back 
againe,  thrust  and  thronged  by  the  Jewes. 

"The  third,  the  fallinge  of  our  sweete  RE- 
DEEMER with  His  face  upon  the  steppes  of  Pilate's 
House. 

"  The  fourth,  His  fallinge  after  His  scourging 
through  His  extreme  debilitie  and  weakness. 

"  The  fifth,  in  His  voiage  to  the  Mount  of  Cal- 
varie,  falling  seaven  sundry  times  to  the  earth  by 
the  way  under  the  heavie  burden  of  His  crosse. 

"  The  sixth  falling  was  when  so  inhumainly 
He  was  thrown  downe  upon  the  crosse,  and  most 
lamentably  nayled  and  stretched  thereon. 

"  The  seventh  fallinge,  when  He  was  nayled, 
lifted  up  and  let  fall  into  the  mortice  of  the  crosse, 
with  a  most  stronge  torture  and  rueful  paine  to  al 
His  holy  members."* 

*  "  The  Spiritual  Pilgrimage  of  Hierusalem,  contayninge 
three  hundred  and  sixtie  five  days,"  etc.  The  Preface  is  signed 
R.  H.  The  book  is  abridged  from  Jan  Pascha's  "  Gheestelyck 
Pelgrimagie,"  and  must  have  been  printed  abroad  about  the 
year  1630. 


The  "Seven  Falls "  75 

Two  points  are  noteworthy  in  this  extract. 
First  it  will  be  observed  how  the  writer,  or  rather 
the  sixteenth-century  Flemish  original  which  he 
is  summarizing,  shows  his  consciousness,  under 
heading  five,  of  the  prevalence  of  a  twofold  system 
of  falls,  one  embracing  the  whole  of  the  Passion, 
the  other  confined,  like  Adam  Kraift's  sculptures, 
to  the  carrying  of  the  cross  to  Calvary.  Secondly 
the  change  in  the  character  of  the  seventh  fall 
should  not  be  overlooked.  In  the  examples  hitherto 
cited  we  have  heard  of  the  cross  falling  again  to 
earth  after  it  had  been  fixed  in  its  place.  Here  it 
is  assumed  that  by  the  seventh  fall  of  our 
SAVIOUR  we  are  only  to  understand  the  terrible 
shock  with  which  the  cross  settled  down  into  the 
hole  prepared  for  it.  This  last,  of  course,  is  a  much 
less  extravagant  supposition,  but  there  can  be 
no  question  that  the  former  legend  was  current 
among  many  writers  at  the  beginning  of  the  six- 
teenth century.  A  prayer  in  the  little  Flemish 
book,  "  Den  Berch  van  Calvarien,"  already  men- 
tioned, leaves  no  room  for  ambiguity;  this  is  how 
it  is  worded : 

"  O  sweet  LORD  JESUS,  I  thank  You  from  the 
bottom  of  my  heart,  and  remind  You  of  that  most 
painful  fall  when  You  were  lifted  up  upon  the 
cross,  and  those  ferocious  Jews  made  You  fall  down 
again  so  cruelly  with  the  cross,  that  Your  holy 
Face  was  imprinted  on  the  earth,  and  all  Your 
veins  rent  and  all  Your  sinews  torn.  And  this 
was  the  greatest  pain  that  You  suffered  on  this 
earth.  O  holy,  strong  and  sweet  GOD,  I  pray  You 
by  this  most  heavy  fall  imprint  again  on  me 
Your  divine  image  and  forgive  me  the  seven 
deadly  sins  in  so  far  as  I  may  have  been  guilty  of 
them.  Have  mercy  on  me,  dear  LORD,  and  receive 
me  again  into  Your  divine  grace.  Amen." 


Chapter  V— The  Spiritual  Pilgrimage 

of  Jan  Pascha 

THE  booklet  just  mentioned,  "  Den  Berch  van 
Calvarien,"  is  only  one  of  a  group  of  similar 
devotional  works  which  seem  to  have  had  great 
vogue  in  Germany  and  the  Netherlands  at  the 
beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century.  If  I  am  not 
mistaken  in  my  conclusions,  it  is  to  one  particular 
ideal  pilgrimage  of  this  type,  of  which  more  anon, 
that  we  are  primarily  indebted  for  the  form  in 
which  the  exercise  of  the  Way  of  the  Cross  is 
practised  at  the  present  day.  But  before  we  turn 
our  attention  to  the  volume  in  question,  it  will  be 
well  to  say  a  few  words  regarding  some  other 
similar  booklets  which  must  have  influenced  many 
pious  minds  and  have  familiarized  them  with  the 
idea  of  a  spiritual  accompanying  of  our  SAVIOUR 
on  His  journey  to  the  summit  of  Calvary. 

The  earliest  work*  of  this  sort  of  which  I  have 
found  mention  has  unfortunately  proved  inacces- 
sible. This  is  the  more  to  be  regretted  as  its  title 
seems  to  promise  much  that  would  be  of  interest 
to  our  present  inquiry.  The  book  is  briefly  de- 
scribed in  Campbell's  Bibliography  of  Dutch 
Incunabula,  and  I  must  content  myself  here  with 
translating  the  title  which  he  has  copied.  The 
drift  of  the  little  volume  is  sufficiently  indicated 
in  this  summary  description : 

*  The  facts  now  stated  in  Appendix  A  go  to  show  that  the 
little  book  of  Herr  Bethlem  was  written  earlier  than  this, 
though  it  may  not  have  been  printed  so  soon. 


Pilgrimage  of  Jan  Pascha          77 

"  The  Journey  which  our  LORD  JESUS  made  from 
Pilate's  House  up  to  the  Mount  of  Calvary. 

"  This  is  the  journey  which  our  LORD  JESUS 
made  from  Pilate's  house,  loaded  with  His  heavy 
cross,  up  to  the  Mount  of  Calvary,  and  it  is 
arranged  in  thirteen  points  which  are  very  devout 
to  read/'  * 

The  thirteen  points  probably  correspond  to  as 
many  stations.  As  regards  date  the  little  volume 
is  certainly  older  than  1501,  and  was  probably 
printed  in  1499. 

Another  early  "  Stations ';  book  which  de- 
serves special  mention  is  a  tiny  brochure  of  six- 
teen leaves,  with  many  rough  illustrations,  of 
which  I  have  seen  two  editions  both  printed  at 
Antwerp,  one  of  1536,  the  other  of  1561.  It  is 
possible  that  this  little  treatise  had  been  in  use 
for  many  years,  as  it  is  difficult  to  trace  and  has 
no  proper  title,  f  The  heading  states  that  it  is  a 
collection  of  meditations  on  the  Passion  of  our 
LORD  with  the  measurements  from  one  to  another 
of  the  places  at  which  He  suffered  for  us.  The 
book  is  also  arranged  according  to  days  of  the 
week.  The  considerations  begin  with  Monday, 
and  for  that  day  is  arranged  the  journey  from  the 
room  of  the  Last  Supper  to  the  Garden  of  Olives, 
of  which  the  distance  is  said  to  be  "  xxxc  ellen  " 

*  "  Die  ganck  die  ons  here  JESUS  ghinck  wt  Pilatus  huse  tot 
opten  berch  van  Calvarien."  Printed  by  Henrick  Lettersnider  at 
Antwerp.  It  contains  only  six  leaves.  See  Campbell,  "Annales 
de  la  Typographic,"  nn.  771-772. 

t  A  manuscript  copy  of  what  is  to  all  intents  and  purposes 
the  same  book  is  to  be  found  among  the  Additional  Manuscripts 
of  the  British  Museum,  no.  24937.  See  further  in  Appendix  A, 
where  the  conjecture  here  made  concerning  the  antiquity  of  the 
book  will  be  found  fully  justified. 


78          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

(3,000  ells,  say  4,000  yards).  Then  from  the  place 
where  He  left  the  apostles  to  where  He  left  Peter, 
James  and  John  (34  ells),  from  thence  to  the 
grotto  of  the  Agony  (12  ells),  and  further  to  the 
place  of  the  meeting  with  Judas  (34  ells).  A 
"Pater"  and  "Ave'  are  to  be  said  at  each  of 
these  stopping-places.  On  Tuesday  we  are  con- 
ducted to  Annas,  Caiphas,  Pilate  and  Herod,  all 
the  distances  as  estimated  by  the  writer  being 
given  as  before.  The  Wednesday  is  taken  up  with 
the  journey  back  to  Pilate's  house  where  sentence 
is  pronounced;  and  to  this  are  added  two  other 
Stations,  one  the  place  where  the  cross  was  laid 
on  our  LORD'S  shoulders  (n  ells  from  the  place 
of  judgement),  and  the  other,  the  site  of  the 
Scala  Santa  (25  ells  further  on)  upon  which 
stairs  JESUS,  crushed  under  the  weight  of  the 
cross,  met  with  a  terrible  fall.  On  the  Thursday 
we  are  bidden  to  contemplate  the  journey  from 
"the  place  of  the  fall"  to  iheJScce  Homo  Arch  (23 
ells),  from  the  arch  to  the  place  of  our  Lady's 
swoon  (100  ells),  thence  again  to  the  place  of 
meeting  with  Simon  of  Cyrene  (72  ells),  thence 
again  to  the  house  of  St  Veronica  (282  ells),  and 
finally  to  the  Judicial  Gate  (recht  poorte)  300 
ells  further  on,  where  He  again  fell  prostrate  and 
could  not  rise.  The  journey  of  230  ells  from  thence 
to  Calvary  is  meditated  on  Friday,  and  with  it 
the  stripping  of  the  garments  and  the  crucifixion. 
Finally,  the  Saturday  is  given  to  devotions  at  the 
Sepulchre.  Much  care  has  been  spent  upon  the 
printing  of  the  1536  edition  of  this  little  book, 
copies  of  which  exist  both  in  the  Bodleian  and  at 
the  British  Museum.  The  earlier  copies  inform  us 
that  the  meditations  were  written  by  a  devout 


Pilgrimage  of  Jan  Pascha  79 

priest  named  Heer  Bethlem,*  who  had  sojourned 
for  a  long  time  at  Jerusalem  and  had  measured 
all  the  holy  places  over  again.  For  some  reason 
or  other  the  author's  name  is  omitted  in  the 
edition  of  1561.  There  is  much  earnest  and  simple 
piety  conspicuous  in  the  prayers  with  which  the 
exercises  are  diversified. f 

Another  book  published  in  1521  at  Nurem- 
berg is  typographically  a  much  more  important 
work.  The  printing  is  good,  and  the  woodcuts, 
several  of  which  have  been  reproduced  here,  J  are 
said  by  modern  authorities  to  show  distinct  traces 
of  the  influence  of  the  seven  sculptures  of  Adam 
Krafft.§  There  are  fifteen,  or  more  strictly  six- 
teen stations,  and  a  picture  corresponding  to 
each.  This  represents  a  group  or  groups  of  sculp- 
ture raised  upon  a  pillar.  The  subjects  begin 
much  further  back  than  ours,  the  first  represent- 
ing our  SAVIOUR  taking  leave  of  His  blessed 
Mother  at  Bethany;  the  second,  the  Last 
Supper;  and  the  third,  Gethsemani.  With  each 
Station  certain  psalms  and  prayers  are  printed 
for  recitation.  The  purpose  of  the  whole  book  is 
clearly  indicated  in  the  verses  which  form  its 

*  His  real  name  was  perhaps  Bartholomew.  See  Appendix  A. 

t  "  Dit  is  een  devote  meditacie  op  die  passie  ons  liefs  heeren 
ende  van  plaetse  tot  plaetsen  die  mate geset  deter onse  Heve  heere 
voor  ons  gheleden  heeft  met  die  figueren,  ende  met  schone  oratien 
daer  op  dienende.  Ende  so  dicke  alsmen  dit  devotelick  leest  so 
verdienentmen  alle  die  aflaten  so  volcomelic  als  oftmen  alle  die 
heilige  plaetsen  binnen  Jerusalem  lichamelick  versochte.  Ende 
een  devote  priester  die  langhe  tyt  te  Jemsalem  heeft  ghewoont, 
die  heeft  dit  ghemeten  ende  beschreven."  By  mi  Willem  Voor- 
sterman,  Antwerp,  1538.  The  title  page  is  printed  in  short  lines 
red  and  black  in  alternate  pairs.  I  have  underlined  the  red. 
There  is  a  fine  eagle  for  printer's  device  on  the  back  of  the 
last  leaf. 

£  See  illustrations  facing  pp.  68,  112. 

§  Daun,  "  Adam  Krafft  und  die  Kunstler  seiner  Zeit,"  p.  72. 


8o          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

only    title    page,    and    which    are    reproduced 
opposite. 

Die  geystlich  strass  bin  ich  genant 
Im  leyden  CHRISTI  wol  bekant. 

Wiltu  die  geng  gantz  gnaw  ausrechen 
So  hastu  psalmen  die  magstu  sprechen  -, 
Hastu  lust  zum  heyligen  lande, 
Was  da  sey,  findst  auch  zuhande.* 

In  close  accord  with  these  verses  are  the  fol- 
lowing remarks  freely  summarized  from  the 
preface : 

"  Our  LORD  said  that  the  love  of  many  should 
wax  cold,  and  St  Paul,  in  his  Epistle  to  Timothy, 
said  that  men  would  be  lovers  of  themselves 
rather  than  lovers  of  GOD.  We  see  that  these 
sayings  are  verified,  and  especially  that  of  St 
Paul  to  the  Philippians:  '  All  seek  their  own  and 
not  the  things  of  JESUS  CHRIST/  Thus  from  the 
exceeding  wickedness  of  mankind  the  love  of 
CHRIST  is  forgotten,  and  although  the  image  of 
CHRIST  is  placed  in  the  churches  and  streets, 
men  have  so  little  compassion  for  His  sufferings 
that  they  scarce  pause  to  say  an  *  Ave  Maria* 
before  the  picture,  or  consider  what  it  means. 
Such  pictures  are  called  the  lay-folk's  books, 
because  men  may  read  therein  and  lay  to  heart 
the  words  of  our  LORD  in  the  Book  of  Lamenta- 
tions :  '  O  all  ye  that  pass  by,  behold  and  see  if 
there  be  any  sorrow  like  unto  My  sorrow/ 

"  Amongst  the  common  simple  people  one  finds 
much  love  for  the  Passion  of  CHRIST.  Some  men 

*  "I  am  called  the  ghostly  way  [i.e.,  the  way  of  the  soul],  well 
known  in  the  Passion  of  CHRIST.  .  .  Wouldst  thou  exactly 
perform  this  pilgrimage,  thou  hast  psalms  set  down  for  thee  to 
say;  hast  thou  a  desire  to  visit  the  Holy  Land,  all  that  is  there 
thou  mayst  find  here  at  hand." 


15) 


3BBaBMMMMtfBB«  vPiZ*!^^^T**mi4Kl^ 

fDftniiijmiitto 

o^bft'cbletns. 


ttlf  cfc  gegtttibert  l^e  C»er  fiord? e  ^etbt 

fcett  mcttfc^M  f^m/wm  »«tir  crweU 

Vdrt  eteft^e  Ocr  drttioi  tmtt'fdi  ffectt  ^«e  t'0  4»ff 

Creaitd>  '>mt?iw  t>«s  ^eyl/wol&ring  {(^[meirnn  Uuf  f 

£K|  fpioc^  ber  fort  fo  er  eri£fm  nrolc 

Oen  tmnfc^eji/^4d  er  im  l?f  ro«ti  trdgen  foil 

£>«a  leyben  feitt/m't  witertvegen  toffcti 

2top  tneffm  bfe  ^ng  »i0  few  (?ert<  ffraffcti 

Ou  wer  ic  {V4ftQtlt(fcn  $Aygett  wr  <itt 

Xvie  vii  vie  (tr4(|trt  |vUe|f  g^rt 

Wilto  bfe  geitg  gang  grww  4»pr<4>e>l 


£)ie  vdircb  lt|  9*1  alien  Wngm 


Qetit  rto^ce  ttitti  /m  ta»>£  &<?s  Pefl 


TITLE-PAGE  (reduced]  OF  THE  "  GETSTLICH  STRASS 

Nuremberg,  1521 


To  face  p.  80 


Pilgrimage  of  Jan  Pascha          81 

also  show  their  devotion  by  setting  up  various 
memorials  to  awaken  the  piety  of  others,  as  for 
instance  the  cross,  or  a  representation  of  the  Last 
Supper  or  the  Mount  of  Olives.  Some  choose  the 
Seven  Falls  or  the  seven  bloodsheddings,  and  some 
again  the  carrying  of  the  cross,  with  all  the 
episodes  which  happened  until  He  came  to  Cal- 
vary, such  as  the  meeting  with  Mary,  the  compel- 
ling Simon  to  bear  the  cross,  the  meeting  with 
Veronica,  and  the  like.  These  are  often  set  up 
nowadays  with  their  descriptions,  measures  and 
distances,  according  as  noble  pilgrims  have 
brought  back  the  measurements  from  the  Holy 
Land,  or  themselves  have  set  them  up.  In  order, 
therefore,  to  keep  in  remembrance  the  sufferings  of 
CHRIST,  I  have  not  only  considered  our  LORD 
while  on  His  cross,  but  from  the  beginning  to  the 
end  of  His  Passion,  that  is,  from  Bethany  to  the 
crucifixion.  And  what  happened  at  one  time  or  in 
one  place  I  have  put  together,  as,  for  example, 
the  three  incidents  on  Mount  Sion,  i.e.,  the  pass- 
over,  the  washing  of  feet  and  the  institution  of  the 
Blessed  Sacrament.  So,  again,  three  events  took 
place  on  Olivet,  where  the  LORD  went  with  His 
three  disciples  alone,  and  where  He  prayed  three 
times,  and  where  the  Jews  came  and  took  Him. 
Then  at  Mount  Calvary,  whither  He  is  brought;  in 
one  place  the  cross  is  made  ready,  in  another  spot 
our  LORD  is  left  until  the  cross  is  ready;  after- 
wards He  is  led  to  the  cross,  stripped  and  cruci- 
fied. All  these  I  have  set  forth  in  order,  each  in  its 
proper  place,  and  each  stage  has  a  picture  be- 
longing to  it.  But  in  these  four  incidents,  viz.,  Sion, 
the  Mount  of  Olives,  Pilate  and  the  Judgement- 
place,*  the  same  picture  contains  several  episodes. 

F  The  triple  group  of  the  Judgement  of  our  LORD  will  be 
found  reproduced  further  on  at  p.  112, 

6 


82          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

Also  in  each  stage  we  ought  to  contemplate,  not 
only  what  CHRIST  suffered  by  the  way,  but  also 
what  happened  at  each  place  from  which  or  to 
which  He  is  led.  And  it  is  particularly  to  be  ob- 
served that  a  passage  of  the  holy  Gospels  is 
always  set  down  along  with  the  picture  so  as  to 
explain  it,  as  well  as  a  passage  from  the  prophets 
or  psalms.  I  have  also  added  the  distances  of  the 
holy  places,  etc.  Lastly,  as  my  desire  has  been  to 
bring  to  men's  contemplation  the  sufferings  of 
CHRIST,  therefore  I  have  adopted  this  method  of 
portraying  them  to  the  eyes,  to  the  heart  and 
to  the  lips,  by  picture,  by  meditation  and  by 
prayer.  Rich  and  poor,  religious  and  seculars  may 
use  this  book  in  private  or  in  public.  The  rich 
may  have  similar  sculptures  set  up,  the  poor,  in 
looking  upon  them,  can  say  their  psalm-prayer 
or  *  Pater  noster,'  or  what  they  will.  Nay,  every 
man  can  erect  these  stations  in  his  own  house. 
A  simple  cross  will  serve  to  mark  them.  There  is 
no  need  to  reproduce  the  exact  distances  from  one 
to  another,  or  to  take  as  many  paces  as  are 
measured  here.  It  is  much  better  to  make  pil- 
grimage with  one's  heart  than  with  one's  feet." 

The  book  does  not  seem  to  be  particularly 
rare,  though  it  is  not  known  that  there  was  more 
than  one  edition  of  it. 

A  third  devotional  work  of  still  greater  impor- 
tance is  the  volume  already  alluded  to,  written  by 
John  Pascha,*  and  edited  by  Peter  Calentyn,  at 
Louvain,  in  1563.  Its  title  in  French  is  "La 

*  Jan  Pascha  is  the  form  of  the  name  which  appears  on  the 
title  page.  But  in  the  "  Biographic  Nationale  de  Belg-ique"  he 
is  called  Jan  van  Paesschen,  He  was  Prior  of  the  Carmelites  at 
Mechlin  and  renowned  as  a  preacher.  It  is  not  true,  as  has 
sometimes  been  stated,  that  he  was  appointed  Inquisitor  by 
Charles  V. 


Pilgrimage  of  Jan  Pascha  83 

Peregrination  Spirituelle."  The  pilgrimage  is  to 
occupy  365  days,  and  it  is  made  very  realistic  by 
the  assigning  for  each  day  a  definite  section  of 
the  journey  to  the  Holy  Land,  along  with  a  sub- 
ject for  meditation,  and  certain  general  devotions 
as  explained  in  the  introductory  chapter.  On  the 
first  day,  for  instance,  the  pilgrim  imagines  him- 
self to  travel  from  Louvain  to  Tirlemont,  and  is 
directed  to  meditate  upon  the  truth  that  God  is  the 
final  end  of  all  creation  ;  on  the  second,  he  travels 
from  Tirlemont  to  Tongres,  and  meditates  upon 
the  creation  of  the  angels,  and  so  on.  But  when  we 
get  to  the  Holy  Land  and,  on  the  i88th  day,  are 
visiting  the  scene  of  the  agony  in  the  garden,  we 
have  a  new  exercise  interpolated  with  this  con- 
spicuous heading : 

"  Here  begins  the  first  prayer  of  the  long  jour- 
ney of  the  Cross.  »J« 

"  And  the  prayers  of  this  Way  of  the  Cross  are 
fifteen  in  number,  and  they  are  good  to  say  also 
outside  the  time  of  pilgrimage,  for  instance,  on 
Fridays,  or  on  other  days,  for  affairs  of  great  im- 
portance."* 

The  second  station  is  given  under  the  I93rd 
day  at  the  house  of  Annas  ;  the  third,  under  the 
1 9  6th  day,  at  the  spot  where  CHRIST  is  kept  a  pri- 
soner and  mocked.  Then,  under  the  2o6th  day,  when 
the  pilgrim  has  meditated  upon  our  SAVIOUR'S 
trial  before  Pilate,  we  have  another  noteworthy 
interruption  of  the  text,  with  the  heading:  "Hier 

"  Hier  beghint  dat  eerste  ghebet  vanden  langhen  Cruys- 
ganck.  »J« 

"  Ende  deser  cruys  ghebeden  zynder  alles  tot  vyfthien,  die 
welcke  goet  ghelesen  zijn  ooc  buyten  tijts  op  sommighe  vrij- 
dagen,  oft  op  andere  daghen  voorgroote  saken"  (P.  Calentijn  and 
Jan  Pascha,  "  Een  devote  Maniere  om  gheestelyck  Pelgriinagie 
te  trecken,"  Louvain,  1568,  p.  93,  2). 


84          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

beghint  den  rechten  Cruysganck  na  den  berch  'van 
Calvarien — Here  begins  the  proper  Way  of  the 
Cross  to  Mount  Calvary." 

The  prayer  for  the  fourth  station,  which  fol- 
lows, has  reference  to  the  condemnation  of  CHRIST 
by  Pilate.* 

Then  follow  the  succeeding  stations  in  order, 
still  mixed  up  with  the  days  of  the  pilgrim- 
age, but  frequently  supplemented  from  this  time 
onwards  with  measurements  in  feet  or  double 
paces  ( =  five  feet)  of  the  distances  from  one  station 
to  another.  The  fifth  station  is  the  place  where 
CHRIST  receives  the  cross ;  it  is  thirteen  paces 
from  the  place  where  He  was  sentened.  The  sixth 
station  is  at  the  spot  where  CHRIST  met  His 
Blessed  Mother,  and  where  also  He  fell  for  the 
second  time;  and  here  the  author  is  careful  to  tell 
us  that  between  this  spot  and  the  place  where  our 
LORD  received  the  cross  there  had  already  been 
a  first  fall  when  He  had  advanced  forty  paces.  The 
meeting  with  His  Blessed  Mother  was  4 1 8  feet  (in 
Louvain  measurement)  from  the  place  of  His  sen- 
tence. The  seventh  station,  179  feet  further  on,  is 
where  Simon  of  Cyrene  took  the  cross,  and  JESUS 
fell  a  third  time.  The  eighth  station,  478  feet  from 
the  last,  is  the  scene  of  the  meeting  with  Veronica, 
and  also  of  the  fourth  fall;  and  after  another  842. 
feet  we  reach  the  foot  of  the  ascent  to  Calvary, 
where  CHRIST  fell  a  fifth  time,  but  this  is  not 
counted  as  a  station.  The  ninth  station  is  872  feet 
further  on  up  the  ascent.  Here  CHRIST  turned  to 
the  women  of  Jerusalem,  and  here  also  He  fell 
a  sixth  time.  After  another  404^  feet  Calvary 

*  The  terms  used  in  the  French  translation,  which  appeared 
in  I566,are  noteworthy:  "S'ensuyt  la  premiere  oraison  du  chemin 
ou  voyage  de  la  Croix,  et  ce  pour  la  premiere  Station," 


ghccftclijckc  Pelgrimagic  te  treckcn.  8  5 


plaetfe  dace  Dtcfuctr  bc6mctcmoetier<6oaa 
faDt/Doc  fp  fjarcn  DooDc  fone  op  tjacrn  fcfyoot 
ijid'tuaut  DC  fe  left  c  plactfe  mac^mcn  tod  Dan 
t  upten  Sen  Oooi  Ote  gatcn  tiif  tuDcc  tote  oan« 


OF  T//£  1568  EDITION  OF  PASCHA'S 
"GHEESTELTCK  PELGRIMAGIE" 

If  this  woodcut  of  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  be  compared 

ith  that  of  Breydenbach  on  p.  28,  it  will  be  noticed  that  this  illustra- 

s  been  clumsily  imitated  from  Breydenbach,  but  reversed  in 

the  block.    The  tower  should  of  course  stand  on  the  left  hand 

side  of  the  entrance  porch. 


To  face  p.  84 


Pilgrimage  of  Jan  Pascha  85 

itself  is  reached.  Here  is  the  stone  engraved  with 
crosses,  just  outside  the  church  of  the  Holy  Sepul- 
chre. This  marks  the  place  of  the  seventh  and 
last  fall,  and  is  the  tenth  of  Jan  Pascha' s  stations. 
The  prayer  for  the  eleventh  station,  nine  paces 
further  on,  is  taken  up  entirely  with  the  theme  of 
our  SAVIOUR'S  being  stripped  of  His  garments, 
but  no  special  name  is  given  to  this  station.  The 
twelfth  station  is  still  six  paces  further,  and  com- 
memorates the  nailing  to  the  cross.  We  are  also 
told  that  the  total  distance  from  the  place  where 
our  LORD  was  sentenced  by  Pilate  to  this  spot  is 
3,306  feet  (of  Louvain).  The  thirteenth  station 
commemorates  the  death  of  CHRIST  upon  the 
cross,  and  the  fourteenth  station  the  taking  down 
from  the  cross.  Finally  is  given  a  prayer  for  the 
fifteenth  station,  which  is  concerned  with  the  burial 
of  CHRIST. 

Let  me  furthermore  point  out  that  precise 
details  are  everywhere  given  with  such  confidence 
and  with  such  minuteness  that  it  is  not  wonder- 
ful that  the  book  should  have  produced  the  impres- 
sion of  having  been  written  out  of  abundant  and 
scientific  knowledge.  A  single  specimen  will 
suffice. 

"  Now  you  must  know,"  says  Pascha,  "  that 
the  cross  was  fifteen  feet  long  and  the  arms 
together  eight  feet,  and  the  said  cross  weighed  100 
pounds.  From  the  place  where  CHRIST  was  sen- 
tenced to  the  place  where  the  cross  was  laid  upon 
His  shoulders  there  were  thirteen  strides,  and 
from  the  same  spot  where  the  cross  was  laid  upon 
Him  to  the  place  where  He  fell  for  the  first  time 
under  the  cross  there  are  forty  strides.  And  also 
from  this  same  spot  where  He  fell  for  the  first 
time  to  the  place  where  His  Mother  stood  upright 


86          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

in  front  of  Him  there  are  thirty  strides  and  three 
feet.  The  number  of  persons  who  accompanied 
our  SAVIOUR  was  15,000." 

And  here  in  the  French  version  the  translator 
interpolates  a  note  of  his  own. 

"  It  will  be  well,"  he  says,  "  to  explain  here  in 
order  to  the  understanding  of  what  has  just  been 
said  above  and  also  of  other  passages  which 
follow,  that  a  stride  [enjambee]  is  the  space  you 
leave  between  one  leg  and  the  other  [Tespace 
qu'on  faict  d'une  jambe  a  1'autre' — he  really  seems 
to  mean  the  space  between  the  print  of  one 
foot  and  the  next  imprint  of  the  same  foot],  and  it 
contains  two  paces,  in  other  words  five  feet.  For 
by  one  pace  (avant  pas)  we  mean  the  distance 
ordinarily  covered  in  going  or  walking  at  an 
ordinary  rate,  and  a  footstep  (un  pas)  is  nothing 
but  the  sign  or  mark  of  a  foot.  We  are  compelled 
to  render  it  thus  and  to  give  you  notice  in  our 
translation,  on  account  of  what  we  find  in  the 
Dutch  original  which  cannot  be  otherwise  ex- 
pressed/'* 

Now,  any  reader  who  will  have  the  patience  to 
study  these  details  in  Pascha's  book,  and  to  com- 
pare them  with  the  subjects  of  the  fourteen  sta- 
tions now  universally  adopted,  will  perceive  at 
once  that  this  old  Flemish  pilgrimage  supplies 
the  key  of  the  whole  problem.  The  order  of 
Pascha's  Stations  is  exactly  the  order  of  our 
modern  Stations.  Though  the  number  is  greater, 
and  the  starting-point  seems  different,  Pascha 
himself,  or  his  editor,  Calefntyn,  by  remarking 
that  "the  proper  way  of  the  cross "  begins  with 
Pilate's  house,  has  suggested  the  very  modifica- 

*  Pascha,  "  Peregrination  Spirituelle,"  Louvain,  1566,  fol.  143, 
r«cto  and  verso. 


^PRODUCTION,  cMUCH  DEDUCED,  OF  PAT^T  OF  THE  <-MAP  OF 
JERUSALEM,  BY  ^AD^EJCHO^MIUS  (1584),  SHOWING  THE  STA- 
TIONS OF  THE  CTIOSS. 

The  Stations  begin  in  the  upper  right  hand  corner  with  the  condemnation  of  Christ. 
121  marks  the  receiving  of  the  cross ;  122,  first  Fall :  123,  Mary ;  124.  Simon  of  Gyrene  ;  44,  Ve- 
ronica ;  247,  second  Fall ;  248,  Women  of  Jerusalem  ;  249,  third  Fall ;  250,  stripping  ;  251,  nailing  ; 
252,  raising  on  cross.  The  left  is  the  North  side,  but,  as  explained  elsewhere,  the  details  of 
the  map  are  quite  inaccurate. 

To  face  p.  87 


Pilgrimage  of  Jan  Pascha  87 

tion  which,  in  fact,  has  come  to  prevail.  It  has 
been  commonly  asserted,  e.g.,  by  Bishop  von 
Keppler  and  by  Doctor  N.  Paulus,  that  our  pre- 
sent Stations  are  to  be  traced  back  to  the  book  of 
Adrichomius,  "  Jerusalem  sicut  CHRISTI  tempore 
floruit/'  published  in  1584.  This,  in  a  sense,  may 
be  true,  for  Adrichomius  enjoyed  a  very  wide 
popularity,  and  was  early  translated  into  most 
European  languages,  even  into  English,  Polish  and 
Czech.  His  delineation  of  the  stations  along  the 
Via  Crucis,  in  his  map  of  Jerusalem,  has  been 
reproduced  on  a  reduced  scale  opposite,  and  the 
attentive  student  will  perceive  that,  while  Adri- 
chomius makes  no  mention  of  the  last  two  Sta- 
tions, the  first  twelve  are  exactly  those  of  our 
modern  Way  of  the  Cross.  But  Adrichomius,  who 
cites  Pascha  amongst  his  authorities,  has  un- 
doubtedly borrowed  both  the  arrangement  and 
all  the  measurements  of  the  much  older  Flemish 
pilgrim.  Dr  N.  Paulus,  in  his  extremely  valuable 
article  in  the  "Katholik"  (April,  1895),  had  al- 
ready suggested  this  as  a  possibility,  but  as  no 
copy  of  the  "Gheestelyck  Pelgrimagie"  was  ac- 
cessible to  him  at  Munich,  he  was  unable  to  con- 
firm his  conjecture.* 

Perhaps  the  most  interesting  result  of  a  com- 
parison between  the  books  of  Pascha  and  Adri- 
chomius is  the  light  which  we  are  enabled  to 
throw  upon  the  origin  of  that  most  puzzling  fea- 
ture in  the  Stations,  the  triple  fall  of  our  SAVIOUR 
beneath  His  cross.  It  arises  clearly  from  a  curious 
blending  of  the  old  stational  system  of  seven  falls 
(as  depicted  by  Adam  Krafft  at  Nuremberg,  and 

*  Jan  Pascha  died  about  1532.  It  is  doubtful  how  far  his 
editor,  Peter  Calentyn,  may  have  modified  his  work  in  preparing 
it  for  the  press  in  1563. 


88          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

by  his  imitators)  with  certain  traditional  sites 
pointed  out  to  pilgrims  in  Jerusalem.  Four  of 
these  falls  are  supposed  by  Pascha  to  have  syn- 
chronized with  other  episodes,  i.e.,  the  meetings 
of  CHRIST  with  His  Mother,  Simon  of  Cyrene, 
Veronica  and  the  women  of  Jerusalem.  In  these 
four  cases  the  mention  of  a  fall  is  suppressed,  but 
it  survives  in  the  remaining  three,  which  have 
nothing  otherwise  to  distinguish  them.*  The  first 
fall,  which  precedes  the  meeting  with  Mary,  and 
the  fifth  fall,  which  follows  that  with  Veronica,  are 
not  counted  by  Pascha  as  stations.  Adrichomius, 
however,  seeing  that  he  begins  only  with  the  con- 
demnation at  Pilate's  house,  finds  room  for  them 
as  separate  stations  in  his  system.  The  seventh 
and  last  fall  at  the  summit  of  Calvary  was  com- 
memorated by  a  stone  marked  with  crosses,  and 
is  mentioned  by  almost  every  pilgrim  in  the  four- 
teenth and  fifteenth  centuries,  though  they  speak 
of  no  other  falls.  This  stone  is  the  first  item,  lap(is), 
in  Wey's  memoria  technica  (reverse  order),  and 
Breydenbach  in  his  pilgrimage  (1486)  gives  an 
excellent  illustration,  reproduced  on  page  28,  of 
the  pilgrims  kissing  it. 

Allusion  has  been  made  above  to  an  English 
abridgement  of  Pascha' s  book,  which,  under  the 
title  of"  The  Spiritual  Pilgrimage  of  Hierusalem,"  t 
was  printed  abroad  about  the  year  1630.  Jan 
Pascha' s  name  is  not  mentioned,  but  there  can 
be  no  question  that  it  is  his  work,  which  has 
been  partly  translated,  partly  adapted  by  "R.  H.," 

*  The  same  thing  seems  already  to  have  happened  in  the 
Louvain  Stations  erected  by  Peter  Sterckx  in  1505. 

t  "  The  Spiritual  Pilgrimage  of  Hierusalem,  contayning 
three  hundred  sixtie  five  dayes  Jorney,  wherein  the  devoute 
Person  may  meditate  on  sondrie  points  of  his  Redemption." 
i6mo,  without  date  or  place. 


JL 


4    PEREGRINATION 
j  |o  mediateur  fidele,que  par  amour  ie  te  puis 
i  toufiours  enfuyure ,  auec  continuelle  gra- 
tintde,a  fin  que  ie  puis  eftre  participant  du 
ft-mcl:  de  ta  fainclje  pafsion. 

Or  tu  diras  icyiStlug  Regina,  ou  trois  Atte 
Mrfru,a  rhoneur  de  la  glorieufe  vierge  Ma 
rie,8c  confblation  d'icelle. 

«B  Aulsi  depuis  la  place  ou  la  douke  mere 
de  Dieueftoit,  iuiques  aulieu  ou  ies  luilz 
cotretgniret  vn  home  Cyrene'en  nome  Si- 
mon,a  porter  la  croix  de  Ieftis,il  y  a  cent  8c 
Ixxix.piedz,  &  c'eft  en  vn  coin^  deja  rue: 
ou  U  y  a  feptzans ,  6c  feptCarlnes  de  par- 
dons. Vendrfdi* 

LA  cc.tt  tx  iattrneeeft  en  lapface  enBmonfut 

comreinR  a  porter  U  croix,&  icjtft,L$  troi- 

fiefme  Tombement^a  cbetrte. 
T  'Exercice  ou  meditation  de  cefte/piri- 

ruelle  iournee  ftra  de  pen(cr ,  comment 
Ie  Seigneur  lefus  moult  trifte  Sc  lafle ,  toba 
auec  la  croix.Et  ne  pouoit  alors  aller  auant 
fans  aidc,8c  pourtant  fut  Simon  Cyreneen 
contraindt  des  luife,  pour  aider  lefus ,  ce 
qu'ii  feit  contre  (a  volunte. 


Oraifbn   1 


A  PAGE  OF  THE  FRENCH  TRANSLATION  (1566)  OF 
PASCHA'S  "GHEESTELTCK  PELGRfMAGIE" 

Note  the  indication  of  distance  and  the  indulgence,  and  also  how  "  Ie  troisieme 
tombement  ou  cheute"  (i.e.,  the  Third  Fall  of  the  old  system  of  Seven  Falls)  is 
identified  with  the  coming  of  Simon  of  Cyrene.  See  p.  88. 


To  face  p. 


Pilgrimage  of  Jan  Pascha  89 

a  writer  whom  it  is  not  easy  to  identify.  Two 
copies  of  this  little  volume  are  in  the  Bodleian 
Library.  Even  in  its  condensed  form  the  allego- 
rical setting  of  the  original  has  been  retained,  as 
for  instance  where  we  are  told  on  the  43rd  day, 
as  the  pilgrim  is  supposed  to  be  setting  sail  for 
Venice,  "  pray  for  a  good  wind  and  say  Veni 
Creator  Spiritus"  The  English  version  has  been 
slightly  adapted  to  suit  the  circumstances  of  its 
new  readers,  and  thus  it  ends  on  the  365th  day 
not  at  Louvain  but  with  "thy  lodgings  in  London 
or  from  where  thou  departedest."  It  is  particu- 
larly interesting  that  in  "  the  Way  of  the  Cross  ' 
the  curious  amalgamation  of  the  old  Seven  Falls 
with  the  new  system  of  stations  has  been  retained 
by  the  translator.  Hence  we  have  such  headings 
as,  "The  mth  day,  to  the  place  where  JESUS 
turned  to  the  women  that  bewailed  Him.  Here 
was  the  sixth  falling." 

On  the  whole  it  seems  true  to  say  that  the 
selection  of  the  Stations  owes  much  more  to  the 
pious  ingenuity  of  devotional  writers  in  Europe 
than  to  the  actual  practice  of  Jerusalem  itself.  At 
Jerusalem  the  merit  of  this  exercise  seems  to  have 
consisted  rather  in  the  good-will  of  wishing  to 
trace  our  LORD'S  footsteps  and  in  the  fatigue  and 
and  unpleasantness  encountered  on  the  way,  than 
in  any  set  devotions  at  assigned  halting-places. 
Aranda  tells  us  how  Mary  fell  to  the  ground  on 
meeting  her  Son.  The  stone  she  fell  on  was  sub- 
sequently built  into  the  wall.  The  Christian 
pilgrims  used  to  try  to  kiss  it,  but  the  Turks, 
regarding  it  as  idolatry,  would  not  allow  it,  and 
constantly  profaned  the  stone.* 

*  '  Y  con  despecho  rauchas  vezes  la  hallamos  untada,  y  no  de 
balsamo,  asi  acaece  en  todas  las  que  basamos  que  estan  en  el 


90          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

That  no  proper  exercise  of  the  Stations  could 
have  been  performed  publicly  in  Jerusalem  at  the 
close  of  the  sixteenth  century  appears  very  clearly 
from  the  extremely  interesting  book  of  Zuallardo,* 
published  a  year  or  two  after  that  of  Adrichomius. 
He  prints  at  the  end  of  this  work  a  copy  of  the 
prayers  and  hymns  used  by  the  pilgrims  in  visit- 
ing the  different  sites,  the  which  prayers  agree 
closely  with  those  contained  in  a  little  treatise 
widely  circulated  in  the  middle  ages  and  printed 
in  Venice  in  i49i.f 

Thus  we  have  the  hymn  proper  to  the  spot 
"where  St  James  the  Less  hid  himself  during  the 
time  of  the  Passion,"  the  spot  "  where  St  Peter 
wept  bitterly" — a  site  which  of  late  years  has 
given  rise  to  some  rather  lively  controversy  be- 
tween the  representatives  of  different  religious 
orders  in  Jerusalem  J — the  spot  "  where  the  Jews 
attempted  to  carry  off  the  holy  body  of  our  Blessed 
Lady  after  her  death,"  "where  the  angels  brought 
the  palm  to  our  Blessed  Lady,"  "the  grave  of  Laza- 
rus," "the  spot  were  CHRIST  stood  when  Martha 
said,  'LORD,  if  Thou  hadst  been  here,' "  etc.,  "  the 
spot  where  the  Virgin  Mother  used  to  rest  when 
she  revisited  the  holy  sites,"  "the  spot  before 
the  Golden  Gate  where  CHRIST  foretold  the  last 
Judgement,"  "the  place  where  Isaias  was  sawn 
in  two,"  "the  pool  of  Siloe,"  and  many  others, 
all  of  them  being  places  outside  the  city,  upon 

campo  o  en  la  ciudad  sin  estar  cubiertas,  conviene  a  saber,  sin 
edificio  cerrado"  (Aranda,  fol.  xxxiii,  r°). 

*  ''II  devotissimo  Viaggio  di  Gerusalemme,"  Rome,  1587. 

t  " Peregrinaciones  Terras  Sanctse."  See  Rohricht,  "Biblio- 
theca,"  p.  100;  a  copy  of  the  Venice  edition,  "Infrascripte  sunt 
peregrinaciones,1'  is  in  the  British  Museum.  Rohricht  considers 
that  this  collection  must  date  from  the  end  of  the  fourteenth 
century. 

$  See  Coppens,  "The  Palace  of  Caiphas,"  1904. 


Pilgrimage  of  Jan  Pascha  91 

the  Mount  of  Olives,  or  in  Bethlehem,  or  at  any 
rate  in  parts  where  no  great  concourse  of  people 
was  likely  to  be  found.  Now,  for  each  of  these, 
even  the  most  unimportant,  there  is  assigned  in 
Zuallardo  a  special  versicle  and  prayer;  but  for 
the  scene  of  Ecce  Homoy  of  the  Scourging,  of  the 
mocking  before  Herod  or  of  the  various  incidents 
of  the  journey  to  Calvary,  though  these  are  all 
sites  of  the  very  deepest  devotional  interest,  no 
provision  of  hymns  and  prayers  is  made.  Noting 
the  absence  of  any  recognition  of  those  sites  now 
so  honoured,  I  was  at  first  inclined  to  conjecture 
that  the  printed  edition  of  1491  was  incomplete, 
and  that  some  sheets  had  fallen  out,  but  an  exami- 
nation of  Harleian  MSS.  2333  and  3810  showed 
me  that  the  omissions  were  not  peculiar  to  the 
printed  text.  Zuallardo's  fuller  account  explains 
the  reason : 

"In  Pilate's  house,"  he  remarks,  "where  our 
REDEEMER  was  scourged  and  crowned  with  thorns 
and  sentenced  to  death,  at  the  Ecce  Homo  Arch, 
and  in  other  spots  where  it  is  impossible  to  enter, 
an  *  Our  Father'  and  'Hail  Mary'  are  said  as  the 
pilgrims  pass  along."* 

Similarly  in  the  descriptive  part  of  his  work 
Zuallardo  remarks  of  the  different  sites  along  the 
Via  Doloro$ay  which  he  is  one  of  the  first  to  call 
by  that  name : 

"Of  all  these  holy  places  we  had  no  more  con- 
solation than  just  to  see  them  as  we  passed  on 
our  way,  since  it  is  not  permitted  to  make  any 
halt  nor  to  pay  veneration  to  them  with  uncovered 
head,  nor  to  make  any  other  demonstration,  nor  to 
look  at  them  fixedly,  nor  to  write  nor  take  any 
notes  in  public." 

*  Zuallardo,  p.  381. 


92          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

As  long  as  this  state  of  things  prevailed  it  is 
obvious  that  the  pious  exercises  of  the  Way  of 
the  Cross  could  be  performed  far  more  devoutly 
beside  the  artificial  Stations  of  Nuremberg,  or 
Louvain,  or  Rhodes,  than  in  Jerusalem  itself.  If 
any  one  individual  can  lay  claim  to  the  honour  of 
formulating  our  present  devotion,  that  distinction 
seems  to  belong  more  justly  to  the  pious  Flemish 
Carmelite,  Jan  Pascha,  than  to  any  other  person. 

None  the  less,  even  Pascha  seems  to  be  de- 
pendent for  his  measurements  upon  the  data 
supplied  him  by  Peter  Sterckx  (Petrus  Potens) 
and  carved  in  stone  at  the  base  of  the  seven  Sta- 
tions which,  as  mentioned  above,  were  erected  in 
Louvain  in  the  first  years  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
How  far  it  was  Sterckx  and  how  far  it  was  Pascha 
who  elaborated  the  whole  series  of  incidents  re- 
peated by  Calentyn  and  Adrichomius,  it  is  impos- 
sible to  determine.  The  one  thing  which  may  be 
affirmed  with  certainty  is  that  our  present  series 
of  Stations  of  the  Cross  comes  to  us,  not  from 
Jerusalem,  but  from  Louvain. 

Perhaps  the  most  extraordinary  feature  in  this 
rather  remarkable  history  is  the  way  in  which 
those  who  possessed  an  intimate  knowledge  of 
the  Holy  Land  and  of  the  practice  of  the  pilgrims 
allowed  the  inventions  of  the  Louvain  Religious 
to  spread  uncontradicted.  No  doubt  they  felt  that 
such  imaginary  pilgrimages  could  only  promote 
devotion  to  the  Passion  of  our  LORD  and  serve 
the  cause  of  piety.  It  was  no  business  of  theirs  to 
contradict  what  had  been  asserted  by  pious  men 
who  lived  before  their  time.  The  facts  did  not  accord 
with  the  tradition  of  Jerusalem  in  their  own  day, 
but  they  might  conceivably  be  true  and,  at  any 
rate,  they  had  no  positive  evidence  to  the  contrary. 


Pilgrimage  of  Jan  Pascha  93 

Aranda,  Bonifacius  (represented  by  Zuallardo), 
Quaresmius,  Surius,  Caccia  and  a  host  of  others 
were  intimately  acquainted  with  Jerusalem.  Seve- 
ral of  them  had  been  for  many  years  the  official 
custodians  of  the  holy  places.  They  were  not  con- 
temporaries, but  they  cover  nearly  the  whole  period 
from  1520  to  1680.  They  agree  closely  with  each 
other,  but  are  all  ignorant  of — and  for  some  points 
in  absolute  contradiction  with — the  statements  of 
Pascha  and  Adrichomius.  None  the  less,  the  fic- 
tions of  Adrichomius,  who  it  appears  never  visited 
the  Holy  Land,  but  compiled  his  map  from  pre- 
existing accounts,  have  won  the  day  simply  by 
reason  of  the  wide  diffusion  of  the  volume  which 
he  published;  and  now,  even  in  the  Holy  City 
itself,  the  attempt  has  been  made  to  bring  local 
traditions  into  accord  with  the  practice  of  our 
modern  Stations.  But  on  this  point  it  will  be  ne- 
cessary to  speak  more  fully  in  the  next  chapter. 

For  the  present,  before  passing  further,  it  may 
be  interesting  to  give  some  illustration  of  the 
manner  in  which  the  Stations  must  often  have  been 
made  in  early  times  even  without  the  aid  of 
sculptures  or  pillars.  The  document  from  which 
I  am  about  to  quote  seems  to  have  been  copied  by 
a  certain  Sister  Barbara  de  Langhe,  in  a  convent 
in  Antwerp  in  the  year  1664.  It  was  probably 
transcribed  from  an  original  of  much  earlier  date 
and  it  is  obvious  that  the  idea  of  travelling  the 
exact  distance  traversed  by  our  Blessed  LORD 
must  have  been  very  prominently  before  the  mind 
of  the  framer.  The  distinction  made  between  "  the 
long  way  of  the  cross"*  and  "the  way  of  the 
cross  proper,"  or  "  the  short  way,"  as  it  is  here 

*  This  is  what  is  called  in  Quaresmius  the  Via  Captivifatis 
as  distinguished  from  the  Via  Cfucis* 


94          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

called,  is  also  particularly  interesting  in  the  light 
of  the  similar  distinction  which  we  have  just 
noticed  in  Pascha.  Hardly  less  noteworthy  for 
our  present  purpose  is  the  retention  of  the  system 
of  Seven  Falls  at  so  late  a  date  as  1664.  Not  to  be 
tedious  I  omit  the  prayers  and  quote  only  the 
directions  or  rubrics  which  accompany  them. 
The  document  begins  thus  :* 

"  Item.  For  those  who  wish  to  make  the  long 
way  of  the  cross  (den  grooten  Kruyswech}. 

"They  must  begin  in  the  Church,  which  shall 
represent  the  place  where  CHRIST  took  His  last 
supper  with  His  Apostles;  then  they  must  go 
round  the  garden  six  times  and  the  seventh  time 
must  kneel  at  the  last  door  outside  the  cloister  by 
the  school,  and  there  is  the  Garden  of  Olives.  The 
first  prayer,  « O  LORD  JESUS  CHRIST/  etc. 

"  Go  now  as  far  as  the  churchyard  door  to  the 
Poor  Clares'  wall,  there  JESUS  CHRIST  is  kissed  by 
Judas.  The  second  prayer,  '  O  LORD,'  etc. 

"Now  make  the  round  of  the  garden  six  times, 
and  the  seventh  time  kneel  down  at  the  third  door 
into  the  cloister  (pant),  and  this  will  be  the  house 
of  Annas.  The  third  prayer." 

Omitting  for  brevity's  sake,  the  journey  to 
Caiphas,  Pilate  and  Herod,  we  take  the  next  entry. 

"  Go  now  three  times  round  [the  garden],  and 
in  the  fourth  round  you  must  kneel  at  the  first 
door  of  the  cloister,  and  this  may  count  as  Pilate's 
house  [dot  ts  tot  Pilatus,  i.e.,  that  is  as  far  as 
Pilate]. 

"Here  we  begin  the  short  way  of  the  cross.  The 
seventh  prayer. 

*I  am  indebted  to  M.  1'Abbe"  Van  de  Velde,  Aum&nier  to  the 
nuns  of  the  English  Convent  at  Bruges,  for  kindly  bringing  this 
document  to  my  notice.  The  original  belongs  to  Mgr  Rembry, 
Vicar  Qtneral  of  Bruges, 


Pilgrimage  of  Jan  Pascha  95 

"Go  now  as  far  as  the  last  door  in  the  cloister, 
and  this  is  the  first  fall  with  the  cross.  The  eighth 
prayer. 

"Next  go  on  as  far  as  the  churchyard  door  to 
the  wall  of  the  Poor  Clares  and  this  is  the  second 
fall.  The  ninth  prayer." 

No  other  incidents  are  specified  except  the 
Seven  Falls,  which  are  duly  measured  out  in  order, 
but  the  corresponding  prayers  would  probably 
show  that,  as  in  Pascha' s  book,  four  of  these  falls 
were  identified  with  the  incidents  of  Mary,  Simon, 
the  Women  and  Veronica.  Finally  we  have : 

"  Now  go  on  to  the  last  window  of  the  work- 
room; this  is  the  seventh  fall.  The  fourteenth 
prayer. 

"  Go  on  now  to  the  last  door  in  the  cloister,  and 
there  CHRIST  is  crucified.  The  fifteenth  prayer. 

"Then  go  on  as  far  as  the  churchyard,  and  there 
say  Miserere  and  De  profundis  for  the  dear  souls 
\Sielkensy  a  diminutive  of  endearment  or  compas- 
sion], and  then  go  to  the  door  by  the  pump;  there 
CHRIST  is  buried,  being  laid  in  the  sepulchre.  The 
sixteenth  prayer. 

"  Go  now  to  the  church,  and  offer  your  prayers 
Then  it  is  finished/' 


96 


Chapter  VI-The  "  Via  Dolorosa  "  at 
Jerusalem  from  the  Seventeenth 
Century  to  the  Present  Day 

STRANGE  as  it  may  appear  that  the  pious 
musings  of  Brother  Jan  Pascha,  the  Carmelite 
of  Louvain,  should  have  so  entirely  fashioned 
the  devotional  practice  of  his  fellow-Christians 
in  the  West,  there  is  one  feature  in  the  history 
of  the  Way  of  the  Cross  which  must  strike  the 
intelligent  student  as  more  remarkable  still.  The 
extraordinary  popularity  of  the  work  of  Adricho- 
mius,  which  embodies  Pascha' s  ideas  and  data, 
suffices  perhaps  to  explain  the  acceptance  of  his 
scheme  of  Stations  by  those  who  were  not  fami- 
liar with  the  actual  sites.  But  it  is  more  difficult 
to  understand  how  the  same  arrangement  came 
in  the  course  of  a  century  or  so  to  be  adopted  by 
the  Franciscans  of  Jerusalem  itself,  in  spite  of  the 
flat  contradiction  offered  to  it  upon  so  many  points 
of  fact  by  a  long  succession  of  writers  of  the  Order. 
These  men  had  penned  their  descriptions  after  years 
of  residence  in  the  Holy  City  and  after  daily  inter- 
course with  their  brethren  there,  who  were  the  de- 
positories of  traditions  handed  down  from  the  time 
of  St  Louis.  They  were  either  themselves  the  offi- 
cial custodians  of  the  holy  places,  or  at  least  the 
duly  authorized  spokesmen  of  such  custodians,  and 
down  to  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  ac- 
counts which  they  gave  did  not  vary  in  any  im- 
portant particular.  I  am  not  contending",  of  course, 


"Via  Dolorosa"  at  Jerusalem        97 

that  this  unanimity  establishes  in  any  way  the 
authenticity  of  the  sites  which  the  good  Francis- 
cans venerated.  Such  traditions  cannot  be  traced 
back  beyond  the  Crusades,  and  in  some  cases  were 
demonstrably  erroneous,  but  in  the  fifteenth  and 
sixteenth  centuries  the  system  was  as  confidently 
believed  in  as  if  it  had  descended  from  the  first 
ages  of  Christianity.  Consequently,  as  against  this 
uniform  Franciscan  tradition,  no  other  description 
by  casual  pilgrims,  no  other  ideal  arrangement  of 
Stations  had  a  moment's  claim  to  be  considered. 
The  pious  pilgrims  who  travelled  so  far  to  visit 
Jerusalem  were  hardly  ever  permitted  to  spend 
more  than  a  few  days  within  the  sacred  precincts.* 
A  hundred  possibilities  of  error  beset  their  hurried 
impressions.  At  the  best  they  could  only  faithfully 
repeat  for  the  benefit  of  friends  in  Europe  what 
was  told  them  by  their  Franciscan  guides  of 
Mount  Sion,  while  it  must  often  have  happened 
that  faulty  or  confused  recollections  of  what  they 
had  seen  and  heard  introduced  strange  variations 
into  their  narratives.  Hence  no  testimony  of  irre- 
sponsible wayfarers  like  Martin  Ketzel  or  Peter 
Sterckx,  however  well-intentioned,  can  stand 
against  the  first-hand  witness  of  the  friars  who 
lived  upon  the  spot ;  the  more  so  that  these  latter 
persisted  for  200  years  together  in  the  same  uni- 
form tale,  and  the  books  that  they  published  were 
carefully  revised  by  their  brethren  at  Jerusalem, 
and  given  to  the  world  with  all  kinds  of  official 
sanctions. 

The  list  of  the  Franciscan  descriptions  of  the 
holy  places  printed  during  the  sixteenth  and 

'Readers  familiar  with  the  life  of  St  Ignatius  Loyola  will 
readily  recall  the  summary  way  in  which  he  was  shipped  back 
to  Europe  when  he  visited  the  Holy  Land  in  1523,  and  would 
fain  have  lingered  in  Jerusalem. 


98          The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

seventeenth  centuries  is  a  fairly  long  one,  and 
many  of  the  volumes  are  not  easily  met  with.  Of 
one  of  the  earliest,  Aranda's  "  Verdadera  Infor- 
macion"  (1530),  something  has  already  been  said; 
and  I  propose  to  turn  now  to  the  traditions  per- 
petuated in  a  group  of  later  works  beginning  with 
such  official  accounts  as  those  of  Zuallardo  (1587),* 
Bernardino  Amico  (1610)  and  Quaresmius  (1639), 
continued  in  Surius  (1646),  Antonio  de  Castillo 
(1656)  and  Caccia  (1694),  and  in  some  details 
surviving  even  as  late  as  the  "  Peregrinus '  of 
Hietling  (1712)  and  the  uPatrimonio  Seraphico' 
of  Francisco  Jesus  Maria  (1724).  The  attitude 
taken  up  by  some  of  these  Franciscan  writers 
towards  the  work  of  Adrichomius  is  a  very  curi- 
ous one.  Bernardino  Amico,  for  example,  whose 
book,  owing  to  its  careful  drawings,  is  one  of 
great  value,f  does  not  hesitate  to  speak  his  mind 
freely.  In  his  first  edition  (1610)  Adrichomius,  if 
I  mistake  not,  is  not  named,  but  Amico  comments 
severely  upon  the  gross  blunders  contained  in  va- 
rious maps  and  plans  of  Jerusalem  he  had  met 
with,  and  proceeds  to  express  his  surprise  at  the 
audacity  of  certain  writers  on  the  Holy  Land  who 
scrupled  not  to  draw  plans  in  minute  detail  of 
places  they  had  never  visited  and  of  which  they 
understood  nothing.  If  we  had  any  doubt  as  to 
the  particular  book  which  was  most  prominently 

*  Zuallardo  was  not  himself  a  Franciscan,  but  his  book  is 
largely  founded  upon  the  work  of  Brother  Bonifacius  of  Ragusa, 
O.F.M.,  who  was  custodian  of  the  holy  places  and  a  high  authority 
on  the  subject. 

f  The  title  of  Amico's  work  is  "  Trattato  delle  Piante  et  Im- 
magini  de'  sacri  Edifizi  di  Terra  Santa."  The  numerous  plans 
and  sketches  which  it  contains  seem  to  have  been  executed  by 
Fra  Antonio  d'  Angioli,  who  lived  eight  years  in  the  Holy  Land. 
See  the  first  edition,  1610,  p.  20.  In  the  second  edition,  1620,  an 
account  of  the  Via  Dolorosa  was  added  to  the  original  text. 


"Via  Dolorosa"  at  Jerusalem        99 

in  Amico's  mind  when  he  used  this  language,  the 
doubt  would  be  removed  by  the  explicit  references 
contained  in  his  second  edition  which  appeared 
ten  years  later.  There  he  tells  us  roundly  that  the 
description  given  by  Adrichomius  of  the  Ecce 
Homo  arch,  for  example,  is  altogether  mislead- 
ing and  impossible.  Adrichomius,  both  in  his 
verbal  description  and  in  his  map,  represents  it 
as  a  sort  of  portico  or  colonnade,  made  like  a 
stone  bridge  with  narrow  arches,  looking  out 
upon  an  open  square  and  forming  the  ordinary 
passage  of  communication  between  Pilate's 
palace  and  the  fortress  of  Antonia.  Now  the 
buildings  at  that  time  identified  as  occupying  the 
sites  of  Pilate's  palace  and  the  fortress  of  Antonia 
were  well  known.  The  first  lay  eighty  and  the 
other  150  yards  to  the  east  of  the  Ecce  Homo 
arch,  which  could  not,  therefore,  have  formed 
the  ordinary  passage  between  the  two.  Hence 
Amico  has  no  difficulty  in  showing  that  Adri- 
chomius's  account  is  based  upon  a  wholly  erro- 
neous impression  of  the  relative  position  of  the 
buildings,  and  that  as  regards  the  arch  itself 
Adrichomius  most  surely  could  never  have  set 
eyes  upon  it.  It  seems  indeed  to  be  certain  that 
this  last-named  writer,  though  accepted  in  Europe 
as  the  most  learned  authority  on  the  topography 
of  Jerusalem,  had  never  visited  the  Holy  Land. 
The  clearness  and  precision  of  the  information 
he  imparted  were  very  welcome  to  his  readers, 
but  they  were  simply  due  to  the  fact  that  he 
worked  largely  a  priori  and  was  not  hampered 
by  any  inconvenient  knowledge  of  the  difficulties 
presented  by  the  actual  sites.  The  most  authorita- 
tive of  all  the  Franciscan  writers,  Quaresmius, 
Guardian  of  Mount  Sion,  whose  book  appeared 


ioo        The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

in  1639,*  also  makes  explicit  reference  to  Adri- 
chomius.  His  criticism,  whether  tempered  by 
religious  charity  or  overawed  by  the  elaborate 
parade  of  research  which  had  been  affected  by 
the  earlier  writer,  is  in  any  case  singularly 
gentle.  The  following  passage,  which  is  one 
among  several,  may  serve  as  a  specimen : 

"Very  diligently  to  be  sure  has  Adrichomius 
set  down  the  noteworthy  sites  of  the  Way  of  the 
Cross  with  their  distances,  and  also  its  entire 
length.  I  do  not  venture  to  contradict  him,  since 
he  wrote  upon  the  report  of  men  who  were  emi- 
nent for  piety  and  learning,  who  saw  this  Way 
with  their  own  eyes  and  paced  it  both  in  body 
and  spirit.  Nevertheless,  I  think  that  it  will  not 
be  foreign  to  my  purpose  nor  unwelcome  to  the 
reader  if  I  append  here  some  of  the  points  ob- 
served by  myself  and  others,  even  if  not  perhaps 
with  such  extreme  minuteness,  although  they  are 
different,  yet  not  less  true,  especially  since  I  re- 
peatedly, if  I  mistake  not,  when  I  was  at  Jerusa- 
lem paced  the  same  road  as  those  pilgrims  did. 
Hence  I  can  pronounce  a  not  incompetent  judge- 
ment as  to  its  length  from  the  evidence  of  my 
own  senses  and  experience."  f 

*  "Historica,  Theolog-ica  et  Moralis  Terrse  Sanctae  Eluci- 
datio";  auctore  Francisco  Quaresmio,  Ordinis  Minorum  Theo- 
logo,  olim  Terras  Sanctse  Prseside,  et  Commissario  Apostolico, 
2  vols,  folio  (1639).  In  a  printed  notice  at  the  end  the  author 
states  that  the  work  was  begun  in  1616,  completed  in  1625,  that 
the  printing1  commenced  in  1634,  and  was  completed  in  1639. 
After  his  manuscript  had  been  finished  and  censored,  the  author 
again  returned  to  reside  in  the  Holy  Land,  and  was  there  able 
to  compare  the  descriptions  in  his  book  with  the  actual  sites, 
subjecting  the  whole  to  a  thorough  revision. 

T  Quaresmius,  "  Elucidatio,"  vol.  n,  pp.  179  seq.  The  good 
Franciscan  criticizes  rather  more  severely  Adrichomius's  identi- 
fication of  the  Ecce  Homo  arch  with  the  Xystus  described  in 
Josephus.  The  Xystus,  as  Quaresmius  shows,  lay  to  the  south- 
west of  the  Temple,  while  the  arch  is  on  the  north  side.  See  ib. 
pp.  206-208. 


"  Via  Dolorosa"  at  Jerusalem      101 

In  spite  ot  Adrichomius's  elaborate  parade  of 
references,  it  will  be  obvious  to  any  one  who  com- 
pares the  two  books  that  he  has  taken  his  details 
about  the  Via  Dolorosa  almost  entirely  from  Pas- 
cha.  We  have  dozens  of  reports  of  travellers  of 
the  same  epoch  (e.g.,  Aranda's),  and  amongst 
these  Pascha  stands  alone,  contradicting  all  of 
them.  Quaresmius,  in  his  charity,  seems  to  have 
taken  Adrichomius's  statement  about  his  authori- 
ties entirely  at  the  writer's  own  valuation. 

With  regard  in  particular  to  the  question  of 
measurements  Quaresmius  estimates  the  distance 
from  Pilate's  house  to  the  Judicial  Gate  at  570 
paces;  while  that  other  portion  of  the  Way 
which  lay  beyond  the  Judicial  Gate,  and  conse- 
quently outside  the  old  city,  could  not,  he  de- 
clared, be  followed  in  his  day,  since  the  gate 
was  blocked  up,  but  he  calculates  that  it  was 
about  250  paces.  The  whole  distance  from  Pi- 
late's house  to  Calvary  was,  therefore,  820  paces. 

This,  it  will  be  noticed,  does  not  agree 
particularly  well  with  Adrichomius's,  or  rather 
Pascha's,  estimate,  which  makes  the  total  dis- 
tance from  Pilate's  house  to  Calvary  3,050  feet, 
and  the  distance  from  Pilate's  house  to  the  Judi- 
cial Gate  1,741  feet. 

To  say  the  truth,  if  any  one  will  take  the  trouble 
to  compare  the  separate  items  of  Pascha's  mea- 
surement (given  on  pp.  84-85)  with  any  accurate 
map  of  the  Via  Dolorosa  (the  plans  on  pp.  106-107 
will  serve  quite  well  for  the  purpose),  he  will  proba- 
bly come  to  the  conclusion  that  these  distances,  like 
other  details  of  the  pilgrimage,  are  purely  fanci- 
ful. How  far  the  responsibility  for  them  may  rest 
with  Jan  Pascha  and  how  far  with  Peter  Sterckx 
or  the  other  travellers  who  set  up  the  Louvain 


102         The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

Stations  it  does  not  seem  easy  to  determine.  But 
to  take  one  example,  it  follows  from  Pascha's 
measurements  that  the  distance  from  Veronica's 
house  to  the  Judicial  Gate  was  as  great  as  the 
distance  from  Veronica's  house  to  the  Ecce  Homo 
Arch.  Even  allowing  a  certain  latitude  for  varia- 
tions in  the  location  of  Veronica's  house  this  is 
ludicrously  impossible.  The  site  now  pointed  out 
as  that  of  Veronica's  house  is  about  sixty-three 
yards  from  the  Judicial  Gate,  but  it  is  nearly  350 
yards  distant  from  the  Ecce  Homo  Arch.  Even 
more  unfavourable  to  Pascha's  credit  as  an  eye- 
witness of  what  he  describes  is  his  impression, 
more  than  once  recorded,  that  "Calvary'    was  a 
"high  mountain."  Thus  he  makes  our  LORD  after 
His  third  fall,  when  close  to  the  place  of  cruci- 
fixion, rest  a  while  and  contemplate  the  "  high 
mountain"  in  front  of  Him.*  From  the  spot  nowa- 
days pointed  out  as  the  scene  of  the  third  fall  (the 
ninth  station)  there  is  only  an  ascent  of  some 
fifteen  feet  to  the  summit  of  the  Rock  of  Calvary. 
Nevertheless  it  was  upon   Pascha's  statements 
that  Adrichomius  beyond  all  doubt  based  all  his 
calculations, f  adding  to  these  unreliable  materials 
new  blunders  of  his  own,  as,  for  example,  when  he 

*  "  CHRIST  aussi  se  reposa  un  peu  icy  regardant  la  haulte 

montagne  pargrandeanxiete  et  douleur"  ( Peregrination,  p.  148). 

"  Ende  hier  was  CHRISTUS  wat  rustende,  aensiende  den  hooghen 

berch  metgrooter  benautheden"  (Keen  devote  maniere),  etc.,fol. 

112  verso. 

fThe  little  work  of  the  pilgrim  priest,  Heer  Bethlem,  men- 
tioned above,  pp.  77-79,  is  also  cited  by  Adrichomius  amongst 
his  authorities.  Bethlem  agrees  with  Pascha  in  the  extraordinary 
exaggeration  of  the  distance  from  Simon  to  Veronica  and  from 
Veronica  to  the  Judicial  Gate,  but  while  in  Pascha  the  distance 
from  Veronica  to  the  Judicial  Gate  is  almost  double  that  from 
Simon  to  Veronica  (336  paces  to  191  paces)  Bethlem  makes  them 
almost  identical  (300  ells  to  282  ells).  Adrichomius  makes  no 
comment,  but  follows  Pascha  implicitly. 


"Via  Dolorosa"  at  Jerusalem      103 

makes  Golgotha  and  the  Holy  Sepulchre  lie  on 
the  north  side  of  the  Judicial  Gate  instead  of  on 
the  south.*  Pascha's  distances  are  borrowed  by 
the  later  writer  without  any  modification,  and 
to  emphasize  his  sense  of  their  accuracy  Adricho- 
mius  gives  a  measure  in  his  text  to  show  the 
exact  length  of  the  foot  used  in  these  data. 

But  to  come  back  to  what  more  immediately 
concerns  our  present  purpose,  it  is  particularly 
noteworthy  that  of  Adrichomius's  three  falls 
Quaresmius  says  nothing  and  apparently  knows 
nothing ;  that  he  assigns  the  meeting  with  Simon 
of  Cyrene  and  with  the  women  of  Jerusalem  to 
what  is  approximately  one  and  the  same  spot  in 
the  cross-road  leading  to  the  Damascus  Gate; 
that  he  regards  both  these  meetings  as  having 
taken  pi  ace  before  our  SAVIOUR  came  to  Veronica's 
house  and  impressed  His  countenance  upon  her 
veil ;  and  that  he  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that 
Veronica's  house  was  not  a  corner  house  as 
depicted  in  the  map  of  Adrichomius.  As  the 
arrangement  and  wording  of  Quaresmius  is  a 
little  instructive,  I  may  translate  here  the  summary 
which  he  prefixes  to  his  chapter  on  the  Via 
Dolorosa : 

"The  sixth  pilgrimage  is  that  of  the  WAY  OF 
THE  CROSS,  or  the  WAY  OF  SORROWS,  in  which 
are  set  forth  and  described  eight  sites  in  particu- 
lar, the  which  are  piously  venerated  by  those  who 
traverse  this  same  road.  The  first  site  is  the  palace 
of  Pilate  the  Governor  ;  the  second  is  that  of  the 
Scourging  of  CHRIST  ;  the  third  is  the  Palace  of 
Herod;  the  fourth  is  Pilate's  Arch,  whereon 
CHRIST  was  shown  to  the  people  while  Pilate 

*  Compare  Adrichomius's  map,  p.  87,  with  the  sketches  on 
pp.  106-107. 


104        The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

said:  'Behold  the  man';  the  fifth  is  the  church, 
called  the  Swoon  of  our  Lady;  the  sixth  is  the 
cross-way  where  Simon  of  Cyrene  was  constrained 
to  carry  our  SAVIOUR'S  cross  and  where  JESUS 
was  met  by  the  weeping  women ;  the  seventh  is 
the  house  of  Veronica,  where  this  holy  woman 
wiped  the  face  of  CHRIST  with  her  napkin;  the 
eighth  is  the  Judicial  Gate." 

This,  we  must  remember,  is  the  official  descrip- 
tion given  to  the  world  from  Jerusalem  itself 
between  1625  and  1639,  Just  fifty  years  after 
Adrichomius  had  published  his  map  of  the 
Stations,  reproduced  above. 

What  then  was  this  Via  Dolorosa  along  which 
the  pilgrims  were  conducted  by  their  Franciscan 
guides  in  the  seventeenth  century?  So  far  as  re- 
gards the  narrow  roadway  itself,  it  seems  for 
that  part  of  its  course  which  stretches  from  the 
Ecce  Homo  Arch  to  the  so-called  Judicial  Gate 
to  have  consisted  of  exactly  the  same  street  or 
streets  in  which  the  stations  are  pointed  out  to 
pilgrims  at  the  present  day.  Beyond  the  Judi- 
cial Gate,  and  up  to  the  Church  of  the  Holy 
Sepulchre,  it  was  admitted  then  as  now  that  the 
path  followed  by  our  SAVIOUR  had  been  built 
over,  and  that  owing  to  the  intervening  enclosures 
and  houses,  detours  have  now  to  be  made  where 
JESUS  CHRIST  on  His  painful  journey  to  Calvary 
in  all  probability  followed  a  straight  course.  But 
with  regard  to  the  earlier  portion  of  the  Way  of 
the  Cross  Quaresmius  and  his  contemporaries 
believed  that  it  was  possible  to  trace  our 
SAVIOUR'S  very  footsteps,  and  that  though  the 
houses  which  bordered  the  roadway  might  have 
been  destroyed  and  built  up  again,  the  direction 
and  position  of  the  streets  along  which  He  passed 


THE  VIA  DOLOROSA,  ^ACCO^DI^G  TO 


,  1587 


Zuallardo  has  arranged  his  drawing  in  two  sections,  as  it  is  reproduced  here,  but  the  lower  section 
is  intended  to  be  continuous  with  the  upper  section,  and  in  order  to  indicate  this,  the  Church  of  our 
Lady's  Swoon  (K),  which  stands  at  the  extremity  of  the  upper  section,  is  repeated  by  him  in  the  lower. 


A— Gate  of  St  Stephen. 

B— Gate  of  the  Court  of  the  Temple. 

C — The  Temple,  now  the  Mosque 

of  Omar. 

D— Church  of  St  Anne. 
E— Pilate's  House. 


F— Scala  Santa. 

G — Herod's  House. 

H— Pilate's  Arch  (Ecce  Homo). 

K — Church  of  our  Lady's  Swoon. 

L — Simon  of  Cyrene. 

M — Daughters  of  Jerusalem. 


N — House  of  Dives. 

O — House  of  the  Pharisee . 

P — House  of  Veronica. 

Q — Judicial  Gate. 

R — Mount  Calvary. 


To  face  p.  105 


"Via  Dolorosa"  at  Jerusalem      105 

had  not  been  altered.  Of  the  improbability  of  this 
assumption  a  word  may  be  said  further  on.  For 
the  present  it  is  sufficient  to  note  that  the  view 
was  universally  held  by  pilgrims  in  past  ages,  and 
that  it  is  still  accepted  without  discussion  by  the 
majority  of  those  who  follow  the  Stations  of  the 
Cross  as  they  are  now  publicly  made  by  the  good 
Franciscans  in  Jerusalem  on  every  Friday  after- 
noon. There  can  in  any  case  be  little  doubt  that 
the  Via  Dolorosa  venerated  at  the  present  time  is 
identical  with  that  known  to  Zuallardo  and 
Quaresmius.  Its  general  direction  and  also  its 
change  of  level  can  be  sufficiently  gathered  from 
the  rough  map  on  p.  106.  Zuallardo's  plan,  given 
opposite,  while  extremely  interesting  for  its  wit- 
ness to  the  Franciscan  tradition,  is  unfortunately 
not  very  clear,  though  intelligible  after  a  little 
study. 

Tasting  the  £cceff0moA.rch  and  the  Judicial  Gate 
as  two  fixed  points,  which  are  easily  identifiable, 
the  important  fact  to  notice  is  that  the  Via  Dolorosa 
does  not,  as  Adrichomius  incorrectly  draws  it,  run 
straight  from  one  to  the  other,  but  that  there  is 
on  the  contrary  a  sharp  zigzag  in  the  middle.  For 
the  first  part  of  the  course  the  Via  Dolorosa  is  an 
ill-paved  lane  passing  under  the  Ecce  Homo  Arch 
westwards  and  downhill  for  two  hundred  yards 
to  the  head  of  the  Tyropcean  valley.  Here  the 
narrow  lane  debouches  into  a  somewhat  broader 
street,  one  of  the  main  thoroughfares  of  Jerusa- 
lem, which  stretches,  roughly  speaking,  north  and 
south  and  connects  the  Damascus  Gate  on  the 
north  side  with  the  centre  of  the  city.  The  Via 
Dolorosa  then,  on  encountering  this  more  impor- 
tant thoroughfare,  turns  to  the  left  and  follows  its 
course  southwards  for  about  fifty  yards,  nearly  as 


io6        The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

far  as  the  parti-coloured  building  raised  upon  an 
arch  and  astride  of  the  road,  which  tradition  pro- 
fesses to  identify  as  the  house  of  the  rich  glutton. 
Then  the  Way  of  Sorrows  leaves  the  larger  road- 
way once  more  and  resumes  its  former  direction, 
almost  due  west,  as  a  narrow  lane  up  a  steep  hill, 


of  (tie  HoltjS'efiu  fc/tre- 


ROUGH  TLAN  OF  THE  VIA  DOLOROSA  IN  THE 
SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY 

The  crosses  with  Roman  numerals  in  this  and  the  two  following  plans  refer  to  the  incidents 
commemorated  by  our  modern  Stations. 

I— Condemnation.  V— Simon  of  Cyrene. 

II— Receiving  the  Cross.  VI— Veronica. 

Ill— First  Fall.  VII— Second  Fall. 

IV— The  Blessed  Virgin  Mary.  VIII— Women  of  Jerusalem. 

In  the  seventeenth  century  these  incidents  were  located  as  indicated  in  the  plan  above. 
The  Arabic  numerals  give  the  level  above  the  sea  in  feet. 


coming  out  in  front  of  the  ruined  archway  known 
as  the  Judicial  Gate.  Thus  we  have  three  sections: 
the  first  running  west  and  downhill ;  the  second 
of  about  fifty  yards  running  south  and  also  slightly 
downhill;  and  the  third  turning  due  west  again 
uphill.  It  is  in  the  elbow  formed  by  this  middle 
section  where  there  is  a  meeting  of  ways  (bt- 
mum  or  trimum]  that  our  SAVIOUR  is  believed 
to  have  encountered  Simon  of  Cyrene,  who  had 


"Via  Dolorosa"  at  Jerusalem      107 

just  entered  Jerusalem  from  his  farm  by  the 
northern  or  Damascus  Gate.  Upon  this  identifica- 
tion accounts,  otherwise  at  variance,  are  agreed. 


ROUGH  PLAN  OF  THE  VIA  DOLOROSA  AT  THE  BEGINNING 
OF  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURT 

The  III  Station  (the  First  Fall)  is  close  to  the  Ecce  Homo  Arch.   The  VIII  Station  (Women  of 

Jerusalem)  is  beyond  the  Judicial  Gate. 


ROUGH  PLAN  OF  THE  VIA  DOLOROSA  IN  THE  NINETEENTH 
CENTURTAND  AT  THE  PRESENT  DAY 

The  III  Station  is  now  at  the  corner,  and  the  IV  and  V  have  been  moved  a  corresponding  dis- 
tance nearer  to  Calvary. 


io8         The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

The  brief  description  I  have  attempted  will,  no 
doubt,  be  made  intelligible  enough  by  a  reference 
to  the  plans  on  pp.  106-107. 1  will  only  delay  now  to 
call  attention  to  two  points.  First,  the  scene  of  our 
Lady's  swoon  upon  meeting  her  divine  Son  was 
invariably  assigned  by  the  Franciscan  writers  of 
the  seventeenth  century  to  what  I  have  called  the 
first  section,  i.e.,  it  was  located  in  the  lane  run- 
ning westward,  from  the  Ecce  Homo  Arch,  about 
midway  between  this  and  the  point  where  the 
lane  strikes  the  main  street.  Secondly,  the  place 
of  the  colloquy  with  the  women  of  Jerusalem 
was  not  less  invariably  pointed  out  in  the  second 
section,  viz.,  the  broader  piece  of  roadway  just 
referred  to,  which  runs  south  from  the  Damascus 
Gate.  In  view  of  the  tradition  which  now  prevails 
in  Jerusalem  as  to  the  sites  of  the  fourth  and 
eighth  stations  of  the  Cross,  the  two  particulars 
I  have  noticed  seem  of  some  little  interest. 

It  would  be  tedious  to  attempt  to  discuss  in 
detail  the  evidence  of  the  various  witnesses 
to  the  Franciscan  tradition.  For  the  most  part 
each  of  them  only  re-echoes  in  substance  what  is 
said  by  his  predecessors,  though  in  style  and 
manner  of  treatment  they  are  not  wanting  in  indi- 
viduality. Perhaps  as  a  sample  of  the  rest  we 
cannot  do  better  than  turn  to  the  description  of 
Brother  Bernardine  Surius,  who  wrote  originally 
in  Flemish  about  the  year  1646,  and  afterwards 
had  his  book  translated  into  French.  He  had 
spent  several  years  in  Palestine,  and  had  been 
President  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  there,  and  his 
volume  bristles  with  every  kind  of  authentication. 
Surius's  eight  stations  are  not  identical  with 
those  of  Quaresmius.  He  says  nothing  which  is 
at  variance  with  the  data  of  the  earlier  writer,  but 


"Via  Dolorosa"  at  Jerusalem      109 

makes  a  slightly  different  selection  in  the  follow- 
ing order :  (i)  Pilate's  House,  (2)  Ecce  Homo  Arch, 
(3)  Our  Lady's  Swoon,  (4)  Simon  of  Cyrene, 
(5)  Daughters  of  Jerusalem,  (6)  House  of  the 
Pharisee,  (7)  Veronica,  (8)  Judicial  Gate.* 

The  reader  will  not  fail  to  note  in  this  arrange- 
ment of  the  Stations  that  Surius,  like  Quaresmius, 
is  silent  about  the  three  falls,  and  that  he  repre- 
sents the  meeting  with  the  women  of  Jerusalem  as 
preceding  that  with  Veronica.  With  regard  to  the 
contents  of  these  eight  chapters  the  writer's 
treatment  is  devotional  as  well  as  descriptive.  He 
interpolates  pious  reflections  and  points  of  medi- 
tation, but  he  gives  at  the  same  time  a  precise 
account  of  the  position  of  the  different  sites  and 
of  all  points  of  interest  connected  with  them.  The 
House  of  Pilate,  Surius's  first  station,  was  then 
as  now  in  the  occupation  of  Turkish  officials. 
There  is  probably  no  shadow  of  reason  for  con- 
necting this  spacious  medieval  structure  with  the 
residence  of  the  Roman  governor,  but  ever  since 
the  Crusades  tradition  has  located  the  Praetorium 
in  this  place. 

We  come  next  to  the  Ecce  Homo  Arch.  By 
special  favour  Surius  had  been  permitted  to  climb 
the  twenty-six  stone  steps  which  led  up  to  the 
roofless  and  almost  ruined  chamber  above  the  arch, 
and  he  had  then  been  able  to  examine  the  two 
oval  windows,  divided  by  a  pillar  about  five  feet 
high,  looking  out  upon  the  street  (the  Via  Dolo- 
rosa] towards  the  east.  He  avows  his  belief,  and 
he  adds  that  all  the  Christians  of  the  East  believe 
likewise,  that  at  one  of  these  windows  stood  JESUS 

*  Surius,  Bernardin,  O.F.M.  (Recollect,  President  du  Saint 
Sepulcre  et  Commissaire  de  la  Terre  Saincte,  6s  annexes  1644, 
1645,  ^46,  1647);  "Le  Fieux  P&erin,"  Brussels,  1666,  p.  440. 


no        The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

CHRIST  and  at  the  other  Pilate,  not  only  at  the 
solemn  moment  of  the  Ecce  Homo  ("  Behold  the 
Man"),  but  also  when  the  populace  were  bidden  to 
choose  between  JESUS  CHRIST  and  Barabbas.  On 
the  western  side,  and  above  the  crown  of  the  arch, 
two  white  flag-stones  have  been  built  into  the 
wall.  Medieval  tradition  declares  that  Pilate  had 
stood  on  one  of  these  stones  and  our  LORD  on  the 
other.  Critical  modern  archaeologists  seem  inclined 
to  recognize  in  these  slabs  two  flag-stones  of  the 
paved  courtyard  (lithostrotos]  of  Pilate's  Prsetorium. 
Strange  to  say,  Amico,  Surius  and  a  number  of 
other  travellers  of  that  epoch  who  had  had  excep- 
tional opportunities  of  observing  them,  averred 
very  positively  that  one  of  the  stones,  but  not  the 
other,  bore  traces  of  an  inscription  in  great  Latin 
letters.  Surius  maintained  that  the  words  had 
been  ECCE  HOMO,  but  that  "of  the  eight  letters 
contained  in  these  two  words  only  five  remain, 
EC.E  .OM.,  the  Turks  having  obliterated  the 
remainder.*  Earlier  observers,  however,  seem  to 
have  dissented  from  this  view,  and  the  majority 
assert  that  the  words  were  Tol.  To.  (i.e.,  Tolle, 
Tolle).^  Fra  Niccolo  da  Poggibonsi,  who  noticed 
the  inscription  in  1345,  declared  that  it  was  writ- 
ten in  Greek,  Hebrew  and  Latin  letters,  and  that 
it  would  remain  for  ever.* 

Be  it  said  in  passing  that  modern  archaeologists 
fully  admit  the  Ecce  Homo  Arch  to  be  a  genuine 
relic  of  the  Roman  period,  though  it  was  not 
necessarily  standing  in  the  time  of  our  LORD.  The 
more  generally  accepted  opinion  seems  to  be  that 
it  was  a  triumphal  arch  erected  in  the  second  cen- 

*  Surius,  "  Le  Pieux  Pe"lerin,"  p.  441,  ed.  1666. 
f  So  says  Aramon  in  1549.     See  Schefer  and  Cordier,  "  Re- 
cueil  de  Voyages,"  vol.  vin,  p.  120. 
l.  i,  p.  205,  ed.  Bacchi. 


?»t* 

A>Arto    4i  Pttafo  done  ju  motivate  $  I 
Inuamff 


JB-  CayeHa   futr  Jittrada  per  $t6no 
Via  nfffite  Sinere  Smatntre  <cn 


THE  ECCE  HOeMO 

From  the  second  edition  of  Bernardino  tAm!co's  "  Pi  ante  et  Immagini"  1620 


To  face  p.  1 10 


"Via  Dolorosa"  at  Jerusalem      1 1 1 

tury  about  the  time  of  Hadrian,  but  it  may,  as  the 
Franciscans  contend,  have  served  as  the  entrance 
gate  of  the  old  fortress  of  the  Antonia.  In  any  case 
there  is  no  probability  that  it  was  ever  used  for 
such  a  purpose  as  that  of  exhibiting  a  reputed 
criminal  before  the  eyes  of  the  multitude. 

To  say  the  truth,  this  latter  part  of  the  story 
must  prove  rather  a  shock  to  out-and-out  be- 
lievers in  Palestinian  traditions,  for  by  the 
admission  of  the  Franciscan  custodians  them- 
selves the  tale  of  our  SAVIOUR'S  having  been 
shown  to  the  people  from  the  top  of  the  Ecce  Homo 
Arch  is  entirely  of  modern  growth.*  As  early  as 
1287  Philippus  Brusserius  of  Savona  saw  the  two 
stones  already  built  into  the  arch,f  and  in  the 
next  century  a  legend  grew  up  that  upon  these 
two  stones  Pilate  and  our  SAVIOUR  had  respec- 
tively stood  or  sat  when  the  former  delivered 
judgement. £  By  a  slight  modification  it  was  next 
believed  that  those  were  the  stones  upon  which 
they  stood  at  the  moment  of  the  Ecce  Homo 
("Behold  the  Man!  ").  Rochechouart,  a  traveller 
of  1461,  declared  that  the  Empress  St  Helena  had 
caused  the  stones  to  be  honourably  set  up  in  the 
arch;  but  the  Franciscan,  Anselm  of  Cracow, 
1509,  maintained  that  it  was  a  Father  Guardian 
of  his  own  Order  who  had  had  this  done  by  per- 
mission of  the  Sultan.  So  far,  however,  it  was 
clearly  understood  that  the  stones  had  been 
transferred  to  the  arch  from  the  pavement  of  the 

*  See  Pere  Barnabe"  d' Alsace,  "  Le  Pre"toire,"  p.  53. 

t  Philippus  says  they  were  the  stones  our  LORD  rested  upon 
when  He  was  carrying  the  cross.— See  "  Oest.  Vierteljahres- 
schrift  f.  kat.  Theologie,"  1872,  p.  53. 

£  See  C.  G.  Conrady,  "  Rheinische  Pilg-erschriften,"  p.  121; 
and  compare  Wey's  account  (1462)  quoted  above,  p.  48. 


ii2        The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

Praetorium.*  But  in  the  sixteenth  century  a 
further  development  of  the  legend  took  place.  It 
came  to  be  believed  that  the  stones  had  always 
belonged  to  the  arch,  and  that  it  was  from  the 
central  window  of  the  chamber  above  the  vault- 
ing that  our  LORD  was  shown  to  the  people.  This 
idea  is  clearly  suggested  in  the  engraving  from 
the  "Geystlich  Strass"  of  1521,  reproduced  oppo- 
site, and  it  was  from  about  this  date  that  the 
arch  began  to  be  generally  known  as  the  arch  of 
the  Ecce  Homo.  For  more  than  two  hundred  years 
not  the  slightest  doubt  seems  to  have  been  felt 
that  our  LORD  was  really  exhibited  to  the  people 
from  this  elevated  spot.  The  upper  portion  of 
the  arch  gradually  fell  into  ruin.  The  chamber 
above  the  vault  is  already  shown  roofless  in 
Amico's  drawing,  p.  no,  probably  made  about 
1590,  but  this  may  possibly  have  been  its  original 
state.  The  arched  double  window  on  the  east  side 
with  its  dividing  column  still  remained,  but  in 
1630,  if  we  may  trust  Elzearius  Horn,  a  treasurer 
of  the  Sultan  coming  from  Damascus  thought 
that  this  graceful  column  might  serve  to  adorn  a 
mosque  which  he  was  building.  He  sent  men  to 
take  it  down,  but  in  the  operation  the  pillar  fell 
upon  the  two  workmen,  breaking  the  arm  of  one 
and  the  leg  of  the  other. f  One  may  legitimately 
have  doubts  about  the  historical  accuracy  of  this 
story,  for  when  Father  Horn  goes  on  to  say  that 
at  the  same  time  two  flag-stones  forming  part  of 
the  flooring  of  this  upper  chamber,  the  two  stones 

*  This  is  quite  explicitly  stated  by  M.  Tschudi  (1519)  in  his 
"  Reyss  und  Bilgerfahrt  zum  heyligen  Grab,"  p.  222.  He  also, 
like  Poggibonsi,  saw  an  inscription  on  the  arch  "  in  Latin, 
Greek  and  Hebrew  characters,"  but  he  does  not  say  that  it  was 
engraved  on  the  two  stones. 

t  Horn,  "  Ichnographia,"  p.  125. 


CHRIST  AT  PILATE'S  HOUSE 
I/lustration  from  the  "  Gey  stitch  StrauJ'  Nuremberg,  1521 

Upon  this  threefold  subject  see  p.  81.  The  first  scene  is  the  condemnation 
of  our  Saviour  by  Pilate,  represented  as  taking  place  on  the  top  of  an  arch. 
The  second  is  the  stripping  off  of  His  garments  before  putting  on  the  purple 
robe.  This  may  possibly  have  been  suggested  by  the  curious  statement  in  Heer 
Bethlem's  book  that  of  the  two  stones  in  the  arch  one  was  that  on  which  Christ 
stood  to  hear  His  Sentence,  the  other  that  on  which  He  stood  when  His 
garments  were  torn  from  Him.  The  third  scene  represents  the  going  forth 
with  the  cross. 


To  face  p.  1 1  z 


"Via  Dolorosa"  at  Jerusalem      113 

upon  which  our  SAVIOUR  and  Pilate  had  stood, 
were  built  into  the  western  external  wall  of  the 
arch,  he  certainly  cannot  be  correct.  We  have 
already  noticed  that  they  were  seen  in  this  posi- 
tion at  a  very  much  earlier  date.  Horn  also  states 
that  the  upper  portion  of  the  arch  was  repaired 
by  the  Franciscan  Guardian,  Father  James  de 
Luca,  in  1725,  though  the  drawing  which  he  gives 
of  it  shows  the  monument  in  a  very  dilapidated 
state,  and  was  probably  made  before  the  restora- 
tion. Other  restorations  have  been  necessary 
since,  and  at  present  (see  next  page),  the  upper 
portion  of  the  structure  seemingly  preserves  no- 
thing of  the  original,  either  as  to  form  or  material. 
The  third  station  in  Surius's  enumeration  is 
the  meeting  of  our  LORD  with  His  blessed 
Mother.  This  spot  he  is  careful  to  explain  "is  120 
paces  from  the  arch  westwards  down  the  Via 
Dolorosa  at  a  point  where  there  is  an  old  wall  of 
big  square  stones  facing  the  north."  It  is,  conse- 
quently, on  the  left  hand  side  of  the  road  as  one 
goes  towards  Calvary,  and  some  seventy  or  eighty 
yards  short  of  the  corner  where  the  lane  turns 
into  the  main  street.  This,  be  it  noticed,  entirely 
agrees  with  the  descriptions  of  Amico,  Zuallardo 
and  Quaresmius.  The  old  wall  of  big  square  stones 
is  stated  by  Surius  to  have  been  part  of  the  ancient 
chapel  erected  to  commemorate  our  Lady's  Swoon 
at  the  meeting  with  her  divine  Son.  He  adds  that 
when  the  building  was  destroyed  by  the  Turks, 
the  Franciscans  managed  to  obtain  possession  of 
the  block  of  stone  on  which  she  was  supposed  to 
have  stood  and  which  was  venerated  in  that  chapel. 
The  relic  was  conveyed  by  them  to  Mount  Sion.* 

*  If  this  is  true,  then  the  mosaic  representing  the  print  of 
two  feet  discovered  of  late  years  in  the  Armenian  convent  is 

8 


ii4        The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

With  regard  to  the  exact  spot  of  the  meeting 
with  our  Lady,  Aranda,  in  1533,  supplies  other 
details  which  must  convince  all  readers  that  in 
his  time  it  was  pointed  out  in  the  first  section  of 
the  Via  Dolorosa.  He  calls  attention  to  the  fact 
that  the  road  sloped  downwards  to  the  place 
where  our  Lady  stood.  Hence,  although  there 
was  a  great  crowd  about  our  SAVIOUR,  she  could 
see  Him  quite  well  as  He  descended  the  incline. 
Again,  Aranda  points  out  that  it  is  but  a  short 
distance  from  the  place  of  the  swoon  to  the  corner 
of  the  main  street,  and  he  infers  that  the  anguish 
of  seeing  His  Mother's  grief  so  worked  upon  our 
LORD  that  He  Himself  fell  fainting  to  the  ground 
almost  immediately  afterwards.  He  could  only 
bear  up  until  He  had  turned  the  corner  and  was 
presumably  out  of  her  view.  Here  it  was,  conse- 
quently, at  the  same  corner  that  the  executioners 
seized  upon  Simon  of  Cyrene  and  compelled  him 
to  help  our  LORD  to  proceed. 

In -his  next  chapter  Surius,  supposing  the 
pilgrim  to  be  still  progressing  westwards  towards 
Calvary,  deals  with  the  incident  of  Simon  of 
Cyrene,  which  he  counts  as  the  fourth  station. 
To  quote  his  own  words :  "  Ninety-five  paces 
further  on  [from  the  chapel  of  the  Swoon]  one 
turns  into  the  main  street,  which  begins  at  the 
Damascus  Gate  on  the  north  and  leads  to  the 
market  place  and  to  the  gate  of  the  temple  known 
as  '  Beautiful.'  This  is  the  spot,  according  to 
Eastern  tradition,  where  CHRIST  our  LORD  fell 
under  the  weight  of  the  cross,  and  where  the 
Jews,  fearing  that  He  would  not  have  the  strength 
to  reach  Calvary,  compelled  an  old  man  coming 

not  likely  to  have  had  anything  to  do  with  our  Blessed  Lady's 
Swoon, 


THE  ECCE  HOtMO  A*f(CH,  F^Oc^f  THE  WEST 

From  a  recent  Photograph.     See  pp.  112,  113 
To  face  p.  114 


"Via  Dolorosa"  at  Jerusalem      115 

in  from  his  farm  to  help  our  SAVIOUR  to  carry 
His  heavy  burden."  It  is  to  be  observed  that  the 
Jesuit,  Pere  Nau,  who  made  his  pilgrimage  in 
1674  in  the  train  of  the  French  ambassador,  gives 
a  precisely  similar  account,  and  he  adds  that  the 
place  of  our  LORD'S  fall  here  at  the  corner  of  the 
main  street  is  marked  by  a  stone  of  considerable 
size  (itne  assez  grosse  pierre)  which  the  pilgrims 
kiss  and  venerate  with  much  devotion,  although 
it  lies  in  the  middle  of  the  road  *  and  in  full  view 
of  the  infidels,  who  often  reward  their  piety  with 
a  volley  of  imprecations  and  abuse.  Things  must 
already  have  begun  to  improve  a  little  in  Jerusa- 
lem when  the  Christian  pilgrims  ventured  to  be- 
stow marks  of  veneration  upon  such  an  object.  It 
may  perhaps  be  that  the  presence  of  the  French 
ambassador  and  his  suite  made  them  rather 
bolder  than  usual. 

And  now,  if  I  may  venture  to  anticipate  a  little 
what  would  otherwise  have  to  be  said  later,  it  is 
worth  while  to  point  out  that  we  have  here  an 
important  clue  to  the  genesis  of  the  system  of 
Stations  which  are  venerated  along  the  Via 
Dolorosa  at  the  present  day.  For  the  last  two 
centuries  the  custodians  of  the  holy  places  have 
adopted  the  arrangement  of  Adrichomius  with  its 
three  falls  and  other  peculiarities,  finding  pro- 
bably that  among  their  Franciscan  brethren  in 
Europe  this  form  of  the  exercise  of  the  Way  of  the 
Cross  had  now  won  almost  universal  acceptance. 
But  to  harmonize  this  new  enumeration  of  the 
Stations  with  the  old  traditions  was  not  easy.  It 
seems  plain  that  a  point  of  departure  presented 
itself  at  the  corner  of  the  main  street  where  Surius 

*  Nau  probably  only  means  that  the  stone  was  conspicuous, 
not  that  it  actually  lay  in  the  centre  of  the  roadway. 


1 1 6        The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

located  his  fourth  station.  Here  was  certainly 
the  scene  of  a  fall  of  our  SAVIOUR  attested  by 
ancient  tradition.  A  large  fragment  of  rock  marked 
the  spot.  This,  therefore,  must  be  the  first  in  Ad- 
richomius's  series  of  three  falls.  And  so  at  this 
spot,  at  the  corner  of  the  street  leading  from  the 
Damascus  Gate,  the  third  of  our  received  series 
of  Stations,  "Our  SAVIOUR  falls  the  first  time,"  is 
at  present  venerated.  The  site  is  still  marked  by 
a  fragment  of  rock,  though  it  is  now  described  as 
a  broken  column  of  red  marble  half  imbedded  in 
the  ground,  and  it  no  longer  lies — if  any  one  ever 
meant  to  convey  that  it  lay — in  the  centre  of  the 
roadway.  Thus  Dom  Geramb  in  his  extremely 
interesting  letter,  giving  an  account  of  the  Via 
Dolorosa,  written  in  1832,  states  that  "at  the  end 
of  the  street,  turning  to  the  left  near  the  Turkish 
bath,*  you  come  to  a  column  of  red  marble  pro- 
strate and  broken,  which,  according  to  tradition, 
marks  the  spot  where  our  SAVIOUR  sank  to  earth 
for  the  first  time  under  the  weight  of  the  cross." 
Earlier  still  this  column  is  spoken  of  by  the  Por- 
tuguese friar,  Joao  de  Jesus  Christo,  who  visited 
Jerusalem  before  i8i8.f  The  broken  shaft  is  ap- 
parently still  there,  and  is  shown  in  recent  photo- 
graphs. Indeed,  it  is  quite  possible  that  this  is 
the  very  stone  of  which  Ludolf  von  Suchem  (i  350) 
speaks  in  a  rather  confused  passage  in  which  he 
alludes  to  "the  stone  whereon  JESUS  rested 
awhile  when  His  strength  failed  Him  on  account 
of  His  tortures  and  the  weight  of  His  cross,  and 

*  This  property  was  subsequently  bought  by  the  Catholic 
Armenians,  and  is  now  the  Armenian  convent.  When  Geramb 
wrote,  the  bath  was  still  standing. 

t "  Se  encontra  huma  columna  de  marmore  que  mostra  o 
lugar  onde  o  Salvador  cahio  a  primera  vez." — Joao  de  Jesus 
Christo,  "  Viage  de  hum  Peregrine  a  Jerusalem,"  3rd  ed.  Lis- 
boa,  p.  187. 


77/£  5/7£  OF 


(From  a  photograph) 


This  spot  at  the  corner  of  the  lane  was  formerly  regarded  as  the  place  where 
Simon  of  Cyrene  came  to  aid  cur  Lord.  The  broken  column  will  easily  be  recognised  . 


To  face  />.  1 1 6 


"Via  Dolorosa"  at  Jerusalem      117 

there  the  Jews  compelled  Simon  of  Cyrene  to 
bear  the  cross  after  Him."* 

It  will  be  noticed  that  earlier  authorities  like 
Ludolf  all  associate  this  physical  collapse  of  our 
Blessed  LORD  with  the  incident  of  Simon  of  Cyrene. 
The  real  difficulty  was  created  by  Adrichomius's 
arrangement,  which  introduces  the  meeting  with 
our  Blessed  Lady  between  the  first  fall  and  the 
compulsory  impressment  of  Simon.  Once,  how- 
ever, that  the  first  fall  was  fixed  at  the  corner  of 
the  main  street,  the  other  stations  had  to  be  deter- 
mined in  their  due  order.  The  meeting  with  our 
Lady  was  accordingly  transferred  from  the  old 
position  in  the  lane  to  a  point  further  along  the 
main  street,  while  Simon  of  Gyrene's  advent  had 
to  be  assigned  to  a  spot  still  lower  down.  These 
changes  were  rendered  somewhat  easier  by  the 
fact  that  Adrichomius  supposed  the  meeting  with 
the  women  of  Jerusalem  to  have  taken  place  out- 
side the  city  beyond  the  Judicial  Gate.  This,  at 
any  rate,  as  the  sketch  map  on  p.  107  will  make 
sufficiently  clear,  is  the  order  in  which  the  stations 
are  now  venerated  by  those  who  piously  follow 
their  Franciscan  guides  along  the  Via  Dolorosa. 
Station  III  (the  First  Fall)  is  at  the  corner  as  we 
turn  to  the  left  into  the  main  street  which  runs 
south  from  the  Damascus  Gate.  Station  IV  (the 
meeting  with  Mary)  is  on  the  right  hand  forty 
yards  lower  down.  Station  V  (Simon  of  Cyrene)  is 
twenty-five  yards  still  further  on.  It  is  located  at 
the  next  corner,  where  the  pilgrim  turns  westward 
once  more  to  climb  up  a  narrow  lane  spanned  by 
many  arches  and  leading  to  the  Judicial  Gate  and 

*"A  great  stone  built  into  the  wall  at  the  corner  where 
JESUS  fell "  is  also  mentioned  at  this  spot,  in  connexion  with 
Simon  of  Cyrene,  by  Duke  Frederick  II  of  Liegnitz  in  1507. 
See  "  Zeitschrift  d.  deutsch.  Palastina  Verein,"  1878,  p,  187. 


n8        The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre.  In  this  narrow  lane 
half  way  up  on  the  left  hand  is  Station  VI  (Vero- 
nica). At  the  Judicial  Gate  we  have  Station  VII 
(the  second  Fall).  Beyond  this  we  have  to  make 
detours,  as  has  already  been  explained,  in  order 
to  reach  the  eminence  of  Calvary,  now  covered 
by  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre.  The  eighth 
station  (Women  of  Jerusalem)  and  the  ninth  (third 
Fall)  are  venerated  on  our  way,  but  it  is  admitted 
that  we  cannot  now  draw  near  to  the  site  which 
tradition  seeks  to  identify  with  the  second  of 
these  incidents. 

But  let  us  return  after  this  interruption  to  Su- 
rius,  whom  we  left  at  his  fourth  station,  medita- 
ting on  the  incident  of  Simon  of  Cyrene.  If  I  may 
summarize  his  rather  diffuse  remarks, he  continues 
in  some  such  terms  as  these: 

Station  the  fifth.  After  this  painful  fall  our  LORD, 
goaded  on  by  His  cruel  tormentors,  struggled  to 
His  feet,  leaving  the  ground  purpled  with  His 
precious  Blood.  Then,  after  staggering  forward 
another  twenty-four  paces,  seeing  that  some  pious 
women  were  following  Him  wailing  and  lament- 
ing, our  SAVIOUR  turned  to  them  and  said  : 
"  Daughters  of  Jerusalem,"  etc. 

The  sixth  station,  according  to  Surius,  is  125 
paces  from  where  JESUS  CHRIST  spoke  to  the 
women.  It  is  up  a  steep  lane  (une  rue  lie  monta- 
g;ieuse]  running  westward,  and  is  the  house  of  the 
Pharisee,  where  St  Mary  Magdalene  washed  our 
SAVIOUR'S  feet. 

One  hundred  and  five  paces  further  on  towards 
the  Judicial  Gate  we  come  to  the  house  of  Vero- 
nica, Surius' s  seventh  station.  The  original 
building,  he  tells  us,  had  fallen  into  ruin,  but 
another  had  been  built  in  its  place,  the  entrance 


''Via  Dolorosa"  at  Jerusalem      1 19 

to  which  is  up  a  flight  of  four  steps.  It  may  be 
noted  that  recent  exploration  has  shown  the  exis- 
tence of  very  ancient  remains  in  this  spot.  Herr 
von  Schick  believed  them  to  be  Jewish  and  older 
than  the  time  of  our  LORD.* 

Finally,  after  travelling  straighten  for  1 28  paces 
more,  we  come  to  the  Judicial  Gate,  which  is 
Surius's  eighth  and  last  station.  He  does  not 
speak  of  any  fall  of  our  SAVIOUR  at  this  point,  but 
he  and  the  Franciscan  writers  of  the  same  epoch 
imply  that  there  may  have  been  a  halt  there,  a 
moment's  breathing  space,  while  the  formal  sen- 
tence passed  upon  JESUS  of  Nazareth  was  read 
aloud  and  posted  upon  the  column  standing  hard 
by.  Father  Parviller  (c.  1650)  is  responsible  for 
the  further  curious  suggestion  that  our  SAVIOUR 
prostrated  Himself  upon  the  earth  when  the  sen- 
tence was  read,  in  testimony  of  His  entire  obedience 
to  the  will  of  His  heavenly  Father.  There  can  be 
little  doubt  that  the  good  friars  who  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  eighteenth  century  sought  to  conciliate 
their  traditions  with  the  system  of  Adrichomius 
would  have  welcomed  the  idea  that  the  fall  at  the 
gate  of  the  city  (the  seventh  station,  "  JESUS  falls 
a  second  time")  might  be  identified  with  the  halt 
caused  by  the  reading  and  posting  of  the  sen- 
tence. I  must  not,  however,  omit  to  note  that 
Burchard  of  Mount  Si  on,  a  very  early  traveller 
(c.  1280),  describes  our  LORD  as  sinking  to  earth 
at  the  city  gate  under  the  weight  of  His  cross.  But 
if  there  was  any  tradition  to  that  effect,  it  seems 
to  have  been  forgotten  for  centuries.f  Pere  Nau, 
the  Jesuit,  who  so  closely  agrees  with  Surius  in 

*  See   Palestine   Exploration   Fund    Quarterly    Statement, 
1896,  p.  214. 

f  Laurent,  "  Peregrinationcs  Quatuor,"  p.  20;  cf.  ibid.  p.  74. 


120        The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

his  descriptions,  takes  particular  notice  of  the 
pillar  which  stood  by  the  Judicial  Gate  and  which 
may  still  be  seen  there  at  the  present  day.  It  is 
now  enclosed  in  a  tiny  chapel  built  on  the  spot 
and  owned  by  the  Franciscans.  "When  we  reach 
the  top  of  the  street,"  says  Nau,  "a  pillar  may  be 
observed  under  the  archway  of  an  old  ruined 
house.  It  is  stated  that  upon  this  pillar  was  posted 
the  sentence  of  death  which  had  been  judicially 
passed  upon  our  SAVIOUR.  Tradition  will  have  it 
that  by  a  special  providence  of  God  the  column 
has  remained  there  undisturbed  until  modern 
times.  I  confess  I  have  some  difficulty  in  credit- 
ing the  fact."  It  may  be  added  that  the  existence 
of  some  city  gate — probably  that  known  to  Nehe- 
mias  as  the  "  Old  Gate " — in  the  immediate 
neighbourhood  of  the  present  "  Judicial  Gate  "  is 
highly  probable.  In  spite  of  the  reluctance  of 
English  experts  to  admit  that  the  Church  of  the 
Holy  Sepulchre  occupies  the  site  of  Calvary — a 
reluctance  largely  prompted,  I  venture  to  think, 
by  an  antipathy  to  relics  and  Romanism — the 
evidence  collected  by  Herr  von  Schick  and  others 
affords  reliable  proof  that  the  city  wall  in  the 
time  of  our  SAVIOUR  ran  east  and  north  of  the 
traditional  site  of  the  crucifixion.  Given  the  wall, 
the  configuration  of  the  ground  shows  that  there 
must  almost  necessarily  have  been  a  gate  at  this 
point,  and  the  remains  still  standing  may  very 
possibly  have  belonged  to  it. 

With  the  Judicial  Gate  Surius,  like  Quaresmius, 
ended  his  Way  of  the  Cross ;  and  the  Franciscans, 
who  as  an  exercise  of  devotion  used  to  follow  our 
SAVIOUR  barefoot  from  Pilate's  Praetorium  to  this 
point,  here  resumed  their  sandals.  It  is  particu- 
larly curious  that  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 


"Via  Dolorosa"  at  Jerusalem      121 

centuries  we  almost  entirely  lose  sight  of  that "  stone 
with  crosses '  in  the  courtyard  of  the  Church  of 
the  Holy  Sepulchre,*  which  was  supposed  to 
mark  the  place  of  our  LORD'S  falling  or  resting 
for  the  last  time  before  He  reached  the  actual 
site  of  the  crucifixion.  Although  it  is  shown  most 
conspicuously  in  early  engravings  of  the  Church 
of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  where  pilgrims  are  repre- 
sented as  kneeling  to  kiss  it  and  to  gain  the 
indulgence  attached  to  it,  neither  Quaresmius  nor 
Surius  include  it  in  their  Way  of  Sorrows.  What 
is  more,  the  site  now  indicated  for  the  third 
fall  (the  ninth  station)  is  not  in  the  courtyard  of 
the  Holy  Sepulchre  Church  but  at  an  inaccessible 
spot  within  the  Coptic  monastery.  Hence  it  would 
seem  that  the  stone  which  stirred  such  deep  emo- 
tions in  the  hearts  of  Wey,  Fabri,  Breydenbach 
and  innumerable  others  is  now  entirely  un- 
honoured. 

We  have  thus  come  to  the  end  of  our  pilgrim- 
age along  the  Via  Dolorosa  as  that  pilgrimage 
was  made  by  the  authorized  Franciscan  guides  of 
the  seventeenth  century.  Beyond  the  Judicial 
Gate,  as  has  been  said,  Surius  does  not  take  us, 
though  he  tells  us  that  he  estimated  the  distance 
that  our  SAVIOUR  travelled  to  Calvary  at  410 
paces  more.  But  the  ground,  he  says,  has  been 
so  built  over  that  it  is  useless  to  attempt  to  trace 
His  actual  footsteps.  So  far  as  I  have  been  able 
to  investigate  the  matter,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  in  Jerusalem  itself  the  tradition  represented 
by  Quaresmius  and  Surius  entirely  held  the  field 
down  to  the  closing  years  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 

*  From  Tschudi's  careful  description,  who  saw  the  stone  in 
1519,  it  seems  to  have  been  very  small — less  than  a  foot  square. 
According  to  him  it  was  marked  with  only  one  cross,  and  was 
ten  paces  distant  from  the  church  ("  Reyss,"  p.  191). 


122         The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

tury.  Almost  the  only  trace  of  our  modern  system 
of  Stations  that  I  have  encountered  on  Eastern  soil 
before  this  date  occurs,  strange  to  say,  in  the  nar- 
rative of  a  Protestant  traveller,  George  Sandys.* 
In  his  "  Relation  of  a  Journey  begun  in  1610  "  he 
gives  an  account  of  Jerusalem,  and  tells  us  the  way 
between  Pilate's  palace  and  Mount  Calvary  "  is 
called  the  Dolorous  Way,  along  which  our 
SAVIOUR  was  led  to  His  Passion  ;  in  which  they 
say,  and  show  where,  that  He  thrice  fell  under  the 
weight  of  His  cross."  This  may  be  simply  an 
echo  of  Adrichomius,  whose  book  before  this  date 
had  been  translated  into  English,  or  the  traveller 
may  identify  these  falls  with  other  incidents  such 
as  those  of  Simon  of  Cyrene  and  Veronica.  What 
is  certain  is  that  Sandys  reproduces  in  his  own 
book  Zuallardo's  woodcut  of  the  Via  Dolorosa 
(given  above  p.  105),  and  then  adds  a  description 
which  agrees  in  every  respect  with  the  old  Fran- 
ciscan tradition. 

Other  later  descriptions  by  visitors,  who  like 
Sandys  could  hardly  be  called  pilgrims,  might 
be  quoted  in  the  same  sense.  However,  towards 
the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century  it  is  plain 
that  the  influence  of  Adrichomius  began  to  make 
itself  felt  even  in  the  East.  An  attempt  seems 
gradually  to  have  been  made  to  combine  the 
devotional  system  now  in  the  ascendant  with  the 
old  Franciscan  traditions,  and  it  is  curious  to 
watch  the  successive  stages  by  which  this  was 
brought  about.  Perhaps  the  first  sign  may  be 
detected  in  the  vogue  of  Adrichomius's  map  with 
its  figured  stations.  Fray  Antonio  de  Castillo, 

*  N.  C.  Radzivil,  in  his  "  Hierosol.  Peregrinatio,"  also 
speaks  of  the  falls.  But  he,  like  Quaresmius  (11,  p.  209),  may 
only  be  quoting  Adrichomius. 


"Via  Dolorosa"  at  Jerusalem      123 

O.F.M.,  who  had  spent  seven  years  continuously 
in  an  official  position  in  the  Holy  Land,  return- 
ing to  Spain,  published  a  handsome  volume  at 
Madrid  in  1656  called  UE1  Devoto  Peregrino."*  In 
this,  while  he  is  entirely  faithful  to  the  older 
traditions,  and  reproduces  Zuallardo's  plan  of  the 
Via  Dolorosa  in  a  better  form  than  the  original, 
nevertheless  he  has  also  incorporated  in  his  vo- 
lume two  large  folding  sheets,  one  a  copy  of  the 
map  of  Jerusalem  by  Fra  Bernardino  Amico,  the 
other  a  copy  of  that  of  Adrichomius.  The  fact 
that  the  two  plans  in  many  important  particulars 
contradict  one  another  does  not  seem  to  have 
troubled  him.  The  same  map  of  Adrichomius  is 
again  reproduced  with  its  stations  in  the  highly 
official  ^Franciscan  history,  "Chronica  de  la  Pro- 
vinciade  Syria,"  by  Juan  de  Calahorra,  in  1684. 
It  is,  however,  in  such  a  book  as  that  of  the 
German  friar  Hietling,  who  had  been  guardian 
of  Bethlehem  and  who  on  his  return  to  Austria 
in  1713  published  a  folio  on  the  Holy  Land,fthat 
we  find  the  first  clear  indications  of  the  coming 
change.  His  book  contains  a  very  rude  and  curious 
plan  of  the  Via  Dolorosa,  evidently  drafted  by 
himself,  but  leaving  no  room  for  ambiguity  as  to 
its  divergence  from  the  older  delineations.^  Of 

*  Antonio  de  Castillo,  O.F.M.,  "El  Devoto  Peregrino, 
Viage  de  Tierra  Santa."  The  book  contains  the  usual  crowd  of 
official  approbations.  A  similar  inconsistency  is  even  more  con- 
spicuous in  Father  Gonzalez's  "  Hierusalemse  Reijse,"  a  work 
written  in  Flemish  and  published  at  Antwerp  in  1673. 

t  "Peregrinus  affectuose  per  Terram  Sanctam  et  Jerusalem 
conductus,"  auctore  C.  Hietling,  Ord.  Min.  Strict.  Observ.  Re- 
form., 1713. 

J  His  plan  in  many  details  bears  a  curious  resemblance  to 
that  of  Father  Elzearius  Horn,  O.F.M.,  recently  published  from 
a  Vatican  MS.  by  Father  Golubovich.  Hietling  and  Horn  must 
probably  have  copied  from  some  common  source. 


1 24        The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

the  three  separate  falls  of  Adrichomius's  system 
there  is  as  yet  no  formal  mention,  but  there  are 
other  features  which  unmistakably  show  the  in- 
fluence which  Adrichomius  exercised.  First,  the 
the  meeting  with  the  women  of  Jerusalem  has 
been  placed  after  that  with  Veronica,  and  the 
place  of  the  encounter  has  been  indicated  as  in 
Adrichomius's  map  at  the  point  beyond  the 
Judicial  Gate.  Secondly,  the  episode  of  our  Lady 
now  appears  in  a  double  form.  The  meeting  with 
her  Son  (occur sus  Virginis]  is  still  assigned  to  the 
old  site  in  the  lane,  midway  between  the  Ecce 
Homo  Arch  and  the  end.  But  the  Swoon  of  our 
Lady  (deliquium  beatce  Virginis]  is  now  treated  as  a 
separate  incident,  and  located  in  the  main  street 
well  round  the  corner.  As  we  have  already  seen, 
this  last  site  has  been  eventually  retained,  and  is 
now  honoured  as  that  of  the  fourth  station,  pre- 
sumably because  it  allows  the  first  fall  of  our 
LORD  to  be  identified  with  the  corner  of  the  lane 
and  yet  to  precede,  as  in  Adrichomius's  order,  the 
meeting  with  the  Blessed  Virgin.  It  would  appear 
that  at  this  period,  i.e.,  during  the  first  fifty  years 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  great  confusion  pre- 
vailed in  determining  the  stations  of  the  Via 
Dolorosa.  No  two  writers,  however  ample  their 
opportunities  of  acquainting  themselves  with  the 
Franciscan  traditions  of  Jerusalem,  will  be  found 
to  agree  exactly.  In  the  "  Guida  Fedele  "  of  Brother 
Pietr' Antonio  di  Venetia,  O.F.M.,  we  have  the 
complete  system  of  Adrichomius  with  all  its  de- 
tails.* Brother  Antonio  do  Sacramento,  a  Portu- 
guese friar  who  spent  a  year  or  more  in  the  Holy 
Land  in  1739-40,  mentions  four  falls  of  which  the 

*  " Guida  Fedele  alia  Santa  Citta  di  Gerusalemme,"  Venice, 
1703. 


"Via  Dolorosa"  at  Jerusalem      125 

second  coincides  with  the  episode  of  Simon  of 
Cyrene,  but  he  seems  nevertheless  to  assign  the 
meeting  with  our  Blessed  Lady  to  the  original 
position  in  the  lane.  This  is  also  the  case  in  the 
elaborate  and  careful  drawings  of  Father  Elzea- 
rius  Horn  (c.  1740).*  On  the  other  hand  Father 
Myller,  a  Bohemian  Servite,  in  1735  says  no- 
thing of  the  falls,  though  he,  like  several  others, 
places  the  meeting  with  the  women  outside  the 
Judicial  Gate.f  Eventually  the  system  of  Adricho- 
mius  was  somehow  made  to  fit  in  with  the  local 
traditions,  and  in  the  Viage  of  Brother  Joao  de 
Jesus  Christoof  1818,  already  mentioned,  we  find 
the  Stations  of  the  Via  Dolorosa  given  in  the  same 
order  and  at  precisely  the  same  points  along  the 
road  as  are  observed  in  the  exercise  of  the  Way 
of  the  Cross  officially  conducted  by  the  Francis- 
cans of  Jerusalem  on  Friday  afternoons  at  the 
present  day.  For  some  hundreds  of  years  it  has 
been  the  custom  of  the  friars  to  traverse  the  Via 
Dolorosa  for  their  private  devotion,  walking  bare- 
foot, i.e.  without  their  sandals.  But  it  is  only 
within  the  last  half  century  that  it  has  been  pos- 
sible for  a  group  of  pilgrims  to  make  the  Way  of 
the  Cross  together  in  public  under  the  guidance 
of  one  of  the  religious.  Father  Horn,  it  is  true, 
declared  that  in  ancient  times  the  friars  of  Mount 
Sion  used  to  make  the  Stations  on  Fridays  "in 
procession,  though  without  the  cross  at  their 
head — processionaliter  absque  tamen  pr&via  crtice' 
-and  that  this  practice  continued  until  1621, 
when  the  Turkish  authorities  stopped  it;  but  I  have 
found  no  satisfactory  confirmation  of  this  asser- 

*  "Viagem  Santa  e  Peregrinacao  Devota,"  Lisbon,  1748; 
Horn,  '"Ichnographiae  Locorum  et  Monumentorum  Veterum 
Terrae  Sanctae,"  Rome,  1902. 

t  "  Peregrinus  in  Jerusalem,"  Vienna,  1735. 


126        The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

tion.  Even  as  late  as  1832  Christian  devotees 
were  exposed  to  every  kind  of  annoyance,  as  the 
following  passage  from  a  letter  of  Dom  Geramb 
will  show: 

"  Nine  of  these  stations  are  in  the  streets  form- 
ing the  Via  Dolorosa,  so  that  the  pilgrim  is  obliged 
to  refrain  from  all  external  signs  of  piety,  if  he 
would  avoid  the  insults  and  outrages  of  which 
Turkish  fanaticism  is  not  sparing.  I  have  some- 
times ventured  to  disregard  Mussulman  prejudice, 
but  I  would  not  advise  any  one  to  imitate  my 
temerity.  Along  a  road  bordered  exclusively  by 
Turkish  dwellings  and  frequented  by  all  classes 
of  the  population  it  is  better  to  confine  oneself 
to  inward  prayer  than  to  provoke  outrage  and 
blasphemy.  One  day,  before  the  house  of  St 
Veronica,  I  allowed  some  external  mark  of  re- 
spect to  escape  me,  and  instantly  a  vessel  of 
water  was  flung  over  me  from  a  window.  The 
wisest  thing  was  to  say  nothing,  and  I  passed  on 
in  silence/'* 

The  same  writer  also  tells  us  in  another  place 
of  a  broken  column  in  the  roadway,  which  was 
believed  to  mark  the  position  of  the  ninth  station, 
i.e.,  the  third  fall,  not  far  from  Calvary;  but  the 
Turks,  when  they  discovered  this,  took  to  heap- 
ing up  filth  against  it,  with  the  express  object  of 
keeping  the  Christians  at  a  distance. 

At  the  present  day,  however,  the  spectacle  of 
a  group  of  Christians  praying  at  a  street  corner 
has  become  too  familiar  in  Jerusalem  to  evoke  as 
a  rule  any  demonstration  ol  Moslem  fanaticism. 
On  Good  Friday  a  great  procession  of  pilgrims, 
a  score  of  whom  support  between  them  on  their 
shoulders  a  gigantic  wooden  cross,  traverse  un- 
*  Letter  of  Dom  Geramb,  written  in  1832. 


THE  VIA  DOLO^OSA,  ^EA^^E^p^JCA'S  HOUSE 
From  a  drawing  by  //'.  Bartlett,  c.   1840 


To  face  />.  126 


"Via  Dolorosa"  at  Jerusalem      127 

molested  the  whole  course  of  the  Via  Dolorosa^ 
pausing  for  a  while  at  each  station  to  recite 
devotions  in  public,  while,  as  already  mentioned, 
the  exercise  of  the  Stations  takes  place  on  a 
smaller  scale  on  every  Friday  afternoon  through- 
out the  year.  Travellers  have  also  noticed  that  by 
a  sort  of  irony  of  fate  there  may  be  witnessed 
within  a  few  hours  on  these  same  Friday  even- 
ings the  weird  spectacle  of  the  lamentations  of 
the  Jews  in  "the  place  of  wailing."  There, 
against  the  wall  of  what  was  once  the  glorious 
temple  of  Jerusalem,  they  mourn  over  the  dis- 
persion of  their  race  almost  within  earshot  of  the 
Christian  Way  of  Sorrows. 

The  question  can  hardly  fail  to  suggest  itself: 
What  probability  is  there  that  the  Via  Dolorosa 
now  venerated  in  Jerusalem  really  represents  the 
path  trodden  by  our  LORD'S  sacred  feet  on  His 
last  painful  journey  to  Calvary?  It  is  not  quite 
easy  to  answer  such  a  question  satisfactorily 
within  moderate  limits.  What  we  have  already 
seen  in  the  foregoing  pages  of  the  growth  and 
fluctuation  of  tradition,  as  well  as  the  adaptability 
of  these  same  traditions  to  new  ideas  when  any 
strong  pressure  from  without  renders  compromise 
desirable,  will  have  prepared  us  to  find  that  the 
popular  and  general  acceptance  of  a  belief  even 
for  a  long  period  together  can  afford  no  satis- 
factory guarantee  that  the  belief  has  solid  founda- 
tion in  fact.  It  is  to  archaeological  considerations 
and  the  evidence  of  the  earliest  centuries  that  we 
must  turn  for  a  solution  rather  than  to  any  living 
voice,  even  though  it  represent  an  uninterrupted 
succession  of  teachers  stretching  back  to  the 
middle  ages.  It  must  be  obvious  that  the  first 
question  to  be  decided  is  the  position  of  the  Prae- 


128         The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

torium  of  the  Roman  governor  and  of  the  Lithos- 
trotos  or  paved  courtyard  of  which  the  gospel 
tells  us.  No  reasonable  doubt  can  be  felt  that  our 
SAVIOUR  will  have  been  led  from  the  place  of 
sentence  to  the  place  of  execution  by  the  shortest 
available  route.  The  terminus  ad  quern  we  may 
assume  to  be  determined  by  the  position  of  Con- 
stantine's  basilica  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre.  Recent 
scientific  research  has  made  clear  the  futility  of 
the  reasons  for  seeking  Golgotha  in  any  other 
quarter  than  that  assigned  by  tradition.  The  one 
serious  objection  to  the  identification  of  the  pre- 
sent Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  with  the  scene 
of  the  crucifixion  was  the  doubt — which  formerly 
seemed  well  founded — whether  this   site   could 
possibly  have  stood  outside  the  wall  of  the  city 
in  the  time  of  our  LORD.  Thanks  to  the  researches 
of  the  German   archaeological   expert,  the  late 
Herr  Conrad  von   Schick,  we   may  take  it   as 
satisfactorily  proved  that  the  course  of  the  city 
wall  did  not  originally  take  in  the  ground  now 
covered  by  Constantine's  basilica,  but  neverthe- 
less ran  close  up  to  it.*  Hence  if  our  SAVIOUR 
was  crucified  upon  the  spot  which  Christians  ever 
since  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century  have 
venerated  as  the  rock  of  Calvary,  He  truly  "  suf- 
fered outside  the  gate,"  as   the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews  says  with  emphasis,!  while  on  the  other 
hand  the  place  was  so  near  one   of  the   main 
entrances  into  the  city  that  St  John  might  well 
insist  that  the  title  affixed  to  the  cross  could  be 
read  by  multitudes  of  wayfarer s.J 

*  An  excellent  summary  of  the  question  may  be  found  in 
Herr  von  Schick's  paper  in  the  "Quarterly  Statement  of  the 
Palestine  Exploration  Fund"  for  April,  1893. 

t  Heb.  xiii,  12. 

%  John  xix,  20. 


"Via  Dolorosa"  at  Jerusalem      129 

But  with  regard  to  the  terminus  a  quo  of  the 
Way  of  Sorrows  things  are  by  no  means  so  clear. 
A  Catholic  professor  has  recently  published  a 
long  article  in  a  leading  theological  review  to 
prove  that  from  the  testimony  of  Josephus  it 
necessarily  follows  that  the  Praetorium  of  Pilate 
was  situated  on  Mount  Sion.*  If  that  be  so,  our 
LORD  must  have  approached  Calvary  from  an 
entirely  different  quarter  than  that  indicated  by 
the  traditional  Via  Dolorosa.  He  must  have  de- 
scended to  the  place  of  crucifixion  from  the  south 
side,  instead  of  toiling  upwards  from  the  east. 
On  the  other  hand,  a  distinguished  Dominican, 
Father  Zanecchia,  has  been  led  by  the  descrip- 
tion of  early  pilgrims  to  locate  the  Praetorium 
deep  in  the  Tyropcean  Valley,  which  separates 
the  east  and  west  hills,  upon  which  Jerusalem  is 
built.  In  this  view  he  has  been  followed  by  the 
Assumptionist  professors  of  Notre  Dame  de 
France  in  their  recently  published  guide-book, 
"  La  Palestine,  Guide  Historique."  If  this  theory 
were  correct,  it  would  be  equally  impossible  to 
regard  the  traditional  Via  Dolorosa  as  the  true 
path  of  our  SAVIOUR  to  Calvary.  Let  me  hasten 
to  explain  that  neither  of  these  two  hypotheses 
regarding  the  location  of  the  Prsetorium  appears 
to  me  satisfactory.  The  first  proceeds  upon  the  as- 
sumption that  the  Christians  of  ancient  Jerusalem 
retained  no  memory  of  the  sites  of  our  LORD'S 
Passion,  and  that  the  descriptions  of  early  pil- 
grims are  consequently  worthless ;  surely  a  need- 
lessly violent  and  extreme  position.  The  second 
view,  on  the  other  hand,  seems  to  exaggerate  the 

*  The  "Theologische  Quartalschrift"  of  Tubingen,  for  April, 
1905;  article  by  Dr  van  Bebber  on  "  Das  Praetorium  des  Pila- 
tus." 


130        The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

inferences  to  be  deduced  from  the  accounts  of 
Antonius  and  the  Bordeaux  pilgrim,  and  to 
ignore  the  equally  valuable  evidence  obtainable 
from  other  quarters.  I  am  inclined  therefore  to 
associate  myself  with  the  criticisms  which  have 
been  directed  against  Padre  Zanecchia's  theory 
by  Frere  Barnabe  d'  Alsace  and  Dr  Karl  Mom- 
mert,*  and  to  accept  the  solution  of  the  last-named 
that  the  Prsetorium  of  Pilate  stood  near  the  head 
of  the  Tyropcean  Valley,  on  the  ground  at  present 
occupied  by  the  Armenian  convent,  where  pil- 
grims now  venerate  the  fourth  station  of  the 
cross.  In  a  recent  article  in  the  "  Dublin  Re- 
view" I  have  touched  upon  the  reasons  which 
have  led  me  to  this  conclusion,  though  for  a  fuller 
exposition  I  must  refer  to  the  important  work  of 
Dr  Karl  Mommert,  who  discusses  the  subject  in 
great  detail.  It  may  be  sufficient  to  say  here  that 
while  the  account  of  the  Bordeaux  pilgrim  (A.D. 
333)  is  precise  in  locating  the  ruins  of  the  Pree- 
torium  in  the  valley  below  Mount  Sion,  and  on 
the  right  hand  of  a  man  who  is  travelling  north- 
ward trom  Mount  Sion  to  the  Damascus  Gate, 
the  archaeological  evidence  testifies  strongly  to 
the  existence  of  a  paved  courtyard  of  the  Roman 
period,  which  seems  to  have  extended  from  the 
Ecce  Homo  Arch  to  the  present  Armenian  convent 
at  the  head  of  the  Tyropcean  Valley.  This  has 
long  been  identified  with  the  Lithostrotos  spoken 
of  by  St  John,  called  in  Hebrew  "Gabbatha."  Now 
we  know  that  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  century  a 
considerable  basilica  dedicated  to  the  Holy  Wis- 

*"Das  Pratorium  des  Pilatus."  By  Dr  Karl  Mommert. 
Haberland,  Leipzig-,  1903. 

f  "  Le  Pretoire  de  Pilate  et  la  Forteresse  Antonia."  By  P&re 
Barnab£  d'  Alsace,  O.F.M.  Paris:  Picard,  1902. 

%  January,  1906, 


"Via  Dolorosa"  at  Jerusalem      131 

dom  (Sancta  Sophia?)  was  erected  on  the  site  of  the 
Praetorium,  and  that  a  stone,  believed  to  be  that 
on  which  our  Blessed  LORD  stood  to  be  judged, 
was  specially  venerated  there.  I  will  content  my- 
self with  quoting  the  account  which  passes  under 
the  name  of  St  Antoninus  of  Piacenza,  c.  570. 

"  We  pray,"  he  says,  "  in  the  Praetorium  where 
the  LORD  was  tried,  which  is  now  the  basilica  of 
Holy  Wisdom.  In  the  church  itself  is  the  seat 
upon  which  Pilate  sat  when  he  tried  our  LORD. 
There  is  also  a  square  stone  which  used  to  stand 
in  the  midst  of  the  Praetorium,  upon  which  the 
accused  was  placed  during  his  trial,  that  he  might 
be  heard  and  seen  by  all  the  people.  Upon  it  our 
LORD  was  placed  when  He  was  tried  by  Pilate, 
and  there  the  marks  of  His  feet  still  remain.  The 
portrait  which  during  His  lifetime  was  painted 
and  placed  in  the  Praetorium  shows  a  beautiful 
small  delicate  foot,  a  person  of  ordinary  height, 
a  handsome  face,  hair  inclined  to  curl,  a  beautiful 
hand  with  long  fingers.  And  many  are  the 
virtues  of  the  stone  on  which  He  stood,  for  men 
take  the  measure  of  His  footprints,  and  bind  them 
upon  their  bodies  for  various  diseases,  and  are 
healed.  The  stone  itself  is  adorned  with  gold  and 
silver."* 

Further,  this  veneration  paid  to  the  marks  of 
our  SAVIOUR'S  footprints  in  the  Church  of  Holy 
Wisdom  as  the  place  where  He  stood  to  be 
judged  is  attested  to  the  beginning  of  the  seventh 
century  by  St  Sophronius,  Patriarch  of  Jeru- 
salem.f 

This  basilica  of  the  Holy  Wisdom  probably 
fell  into  ruin  during  the  early  years  of  the  Moham- 

*  Antoninus,  ed.  Geyer,  p.  206. 

t  See  Migne,  P.G.  vol.  LXVII,  p.  3822. 


132         The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

medan  occupation.  No  one  has  pretended  to  iden- 
tify it  with  any  existing  building.  But  in  certain 
recent  explorations  undertaken  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  the  Armenian  convent  traces  of  a  Byzan- 
tine building  have  been  found,  and  in  particular 
a  mosaic  representing  the  imprint  of  two  small 
feet  or  rather  shoes.  Without  supposing  that  this 
was  the  actual  stone,  "  ornamented  with  gold  and 
silver,"  which  was  once  honoured  there,  it  seems 
extremely  probable  that  such  a  pattern  as  that  of 
two  footprints  might  have  been  largely  used  in 
the  decoration  of  the  basilica  of  the  Holy  Wisdom, 
and  that  we  have  struck  here  upon  the  traces  of 
the  church  erected  upon  the  site  of  the  ruined 
Preetorium.  For  the  fuller  exposition  of  the  argu- 
ment I  must  refer  the  reader  to  the  work  of 
Dr  Mommert,  but  I  may  note  that  this  result  is 
in  very  fair  agreement  with  the  conclusions  arrived 
at  from  their  different  standpoints  by  such  devoted 
students  of  Jerusalem  topography  as  M.  Clermont 
Ganneau,  Comte  de  Vogue,  Herr  von  Schick, 
Professor  Zaccaria  and  Pere  Lagrange.  Finally, 
let  me  note  that  if  Dr  Mommert's  hypothesis  be 
accepted  as,  on  the  whole,  the  most  probable 
theory  which  has  yet  been  advanced,  the  received 
traditions  as  to  the  course  of  our  SAVIOUR'S  sad 
journey  to  Calvary  have  not  been  so  very  far 
wrong.  We  may  perhaps  have  to  surrender  the 
belief  that  He  passed  under  the  Ecce  Homo  Arch 
and  down  the  lane  in  which  the  first  three  stations 
are  now  shown,  but  His  way  must  roughly  have 
coincided  with  the  rest  of  the  Via  Dolorosa,  and 
the  general  direction  of  the  painful  ascent  must 
have  been  that  which  we  have  always  supposed. 

That  we  can  never  hope  to  recover  the  actual 
path  sanctified  by  contact  with  His  sacred  feet 


"Via  Dolorosa"  at  Jerusalem       133 

must  be  plain  from  one  very  simple  consideration. 
The  level  of  the  soil  in  such  a  city  as  Jerusalem  is 
constantly  changing ;  the  hollows  are  continually 
being  filled  up,  the  elevations  are  in  some  measure 
denuded.  Near  the  Armenian  convent,  where 
we  may  believe  the  true  Via  Dolorosa  to  have 
begun,  the  rock  is  now  fifty  feet  below  the  sur- 
face. In  our  LORD'S  time,  as  the  evidence  of  exca- 
vations prove,  there  was  a  far  less  depth  of  soil, 
and  the  little  slope  of  Calvary  must  have  been  by 
so  many  feet  the  steeper. 

Before  ending  this  chapter  a  word  may  be 
added  on  the  imitations^ of  the  Via  Dolorosa  in  the 
West. 

It  must  not  be  assumed  that  the  arrangement 
of  Stations  which  meets  us  in  Adrichomius's  book 
and  which  was  later  popularized  by  St  Leonard 
of  Port  Maurice  and  other  great  Franciscan  mis- 
sionaries, was  the  only  system  to  win  any  measure 
of  popular  favour.  On  the  contrary,  the  Way  of  the 
Cross  compiled  by  Father  Adrian  Parviller,  S.J., 
seems  in  the  last  half  of  the  seventeenth,  and  in 
the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  to  have  had 
a  very  great  vogue.  A  large  number  of  editions 
of  the  little  book  were  called  for,  and  it  was  trans- 
lated into  almost  every  language.  For  example, 
four  different  editions  in  Breton  are  to  be  found 
in  the  library  of  the  British  Museum ;  while  the 
English  translation  of  Father  Parviller's  method 
was  apparently  printed  and  reprinted  some  time 
before  any  other  arrangement  of  the  Stations  of 
the  Cross  was  known  in  this  country. 

According  to  Father  Parviller's  method  the 
first  station  was  the  supper  chamber,  the  second 
the  grotto  of  the  garden  of  Olives,  the  third  the 
gate  of  the  garden  of  Olives  where  JESUS  was4 


134        The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

arrested,  the  fourth  the  brook  Cedron,  into  which, 
as  they  crossed  it,  our  SAVIOUR  was  thrown 
through  the  brutal  violence  of  His  captors. 
Then  we  have  in  due  order  the  houses  of  Annas, 
Caiphas  and  Herod,  followed  by  the  chamber  of 
the  scourging  and  the  Praetorium  of  Pilate.  This 
brings  us  to  the  tenth  station,  the  titles  of  which 
and  of  those  which  follow,  we  may  give  more 
exactly. 

Station  X.  The  Ecce  Homo  Arch  where  our 
LORD  was  put  into  comparison  with  Barabbas, 
and  Barabbas  preferred  before  Him. 

Station  XI.  The  spot  where  our  Blessed  Lady 
swooned  away  with  sorrow  at  the  sight  of  her 
Son  carrying  His  cross  to  Calvary. 

Station  XII .The  cross-roads  where  our  SAVIOUR 
fell  under  the  weight  of  His  cross  and  was  raised 
up  and  aided  to  carry  it  by  Simon  of  Cyrene. 

Station  XIII.  The  place  where  the  women  and 
devout  maidens  of  Jerusalem  lamented  at  the  sight 
of  our  LORD. 

Station  XIV.  The  house  of  holy  Veronica,  who 
wiped  with  her  kerchief  the  face  of  our  LORD, 
covered  as  it  was  with  sweat,  with  blood  and  with 
spittle. 

Station  XV.  The  Judicial  Gate,  where  our 
SAVIOUR  heard  His  sentence  read  aloud. 

Station  XVI.  Calvary,  where  our  LORD  was 
crucified  between  two  thieves. 

Station  XVII.  The  Holy  Sepulchre  in  which 
the  dead  Body  of  our  SAVIOUR  was  laid. 

Station  XVIII  (the  last).  The  Mount  of  Olives, 
whence  our  LORD,  after  the  Resurrection,  ascended 
into  heaven. 

So  far  as  I  can  ascertain,  no  general  rule 
prevailed  in  the  sixteenth  or  even  in  the 


"Via  Dolorosa"  at  Jerusalem      135 

seventeenth  century,  as  to  the  number,  order  or 
character  of  the  devotional  Stations  of  the  Way 
of  the  Cross,  which  were  set  up  in  many  religious 
houses,  churchyards  and  other  sacred  enclosures. 
In  the  English  Augustinian  convent  at  Bruges, 
which  has  occupied  the  site  which  it  occupies  now 
ever  since  the  early  part  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, traces  are  preserved  of  two  interesting  sets 
of  Stations.*  In  both  cases  the  selection  of  subjects 
coincides  as  little  with  the  arrangements  of  Par- 
viller  or  Quaresmius  as  it  does  with  the  set  of 
fourteen  Stations  which  is  alone  familiar  at  the 
present  day.  Again  there  are  many  examples  of 
old  sets  of  Stations  in  the  public  churches  oi  Ger- 
many, France  and  the  Netherlands,  sometimes  - 
within  the  building,  as  at  St  Roch  in  Paris,  but 
more  frequently  out  of  doors,  the  subjects  of  which 
by  no  means  agree  with  those  now  in  vogue. 

*  One  consists  of  diamond-shaped  stones — the  series  unfor- 
tunately is  incomplete — erected  originally  in  the  garden.  The 
tablets  which  survive  bear  the  following1  numbers  and  inscrip- 
tions: (3)  Our  LORD  before  Caiphas  ;  (5)  Our  LORD  going- to 
Herod  ;  (7)  Our  LORD  carrying-  His  cross  ;  (8)  Our  LORD'S  first 
fall ;  (9)  Our  LORD  meeting  with  His  Blessed  Mother ;  (10)  Simon 
helps  to  carry  our  LORD'S  cross;  (n)  Fall  of  our  LORD  ;  (15)  Our 
LORD'S  nailing  to  the  cross ;  ( 16)  Our  LORD  hanging  on  the  cross. 
The  other  set  are  a  series  of  pictures.  They  seem  to  have  been 
painted  in  Rome  for  Lady  Carrington  and  to  have  been  sent  by 
her  to  Lady  Lucy  Herbert,  who  was  the  Reverend  Mother  Prioress 
at  Bruges  in  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  sub- 
jects are  the  following:  (i)  The  Last  Supper;  (2)  The  Agony  in 
the  Garden;  (3)  The  Apprehension;  (4)  CHRIST  before  Caiphas ; 
(5)  CHRIST  before  Pilate  ;  (6)  The  Ecce  Homo  ;  (7)  The  Scourg- 
ing ;  (8)  The  Crowning  with  Thorns;  (9)  Veronica;  (io)The 
Taking  Down  from  the  Cross  ;  (n)  The  Burial ;  (12)  The  Re- 
surrection. 


Chapter  VII-The  Devotional  Aspect 

of  the  Stations 

IT  must  be  evident  from  the  contents  of  the  pre- 
ceding chapters  that,  so  far  as  concerns  many 
details  of  the  exercise  of  the  Way  of  the  Cross 
the  historical  foundation  of  our  present  system  of 
Stations  is  quite  of  the  slenderest.  We  have  no 
sufficient  warrant  for  the  episode  of  Veronica, 
none  for  the  meeting  with  our  Blessed  Lady,  none 
for  the  three  falls,  while  the  order  adopted  for 
these  various  incidents  does  not  depend  even  upon 
the  medieval  traditions  current  in  Jerusalem,  but 
upon  a  work  of  the  imagination  belonging  to 
relatively  modern  times  which  first  saw  the  light 
in  Flanders.  To  some  readers  this  uncertainty 
may  seem  to  involve  the  unwelcome  conclusion 
that  the  whole  practice  is  tainted  with  supersti- 
tion, and  that  amid  such  turbid  waters  all  refe- 
rence to  the  Passion  of  CHRIST  as  a  pure  fountain 
of  devotion  becomes  singularly  out  of  place.  This, 
however,  will  not,  I  think,  be  the  inference  drawn 
by  any  one  who  takes  a  large  and  generous  view 
of  the  subject.  On  the  contrary,  the  curiously 
complicated  development  of  the  Stations  of  the 
Cross  seems  to  the  present  writer  to  illustrate,  in 
a  conspicuous  way,  the  working  of  a  law  akin  to 
that  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  a  law  which 
meets  us,  more  often  than  might  be  expected,  in 
this  and  many  similar  matters  of  popular  piety. 
If  one  particular  set  of  Stations  has  prevailed  in 
preference  to  another,  this,  I  conceive,  is  ultimately 


The  Devotional  Aspect  137 

to  be  attributed  to  the  fact  that  the  one  appeals 
more  strongly  than  the  other  to  the  pious  imagi- 
nation or  to  the  devotional  needs  and  feelings  of 
the  faithful  at  large.  While  we  may  recognize,  in 
the  most  emphatic  way,  the  desirability  of  more 
rigorous  scrutiny  into  the  authenticity  of  relics,  in- 
dulgences, legends,  patristic  apocrypha  and  other 
such  matters  of  pious  credulity,  we  have  after  all 
to  remember  that  these  things  are  the  aids  and 
means  of  devotion,  but  not  its  final  cause.  His- 
torical research  concerns  itself  with  such  matters, 
and  the  verdict  of  science  most  certainly  should 
be  respected.  But  historical  research  is  not  pos- 
sible for  the  rank  and  file  of  Christian  believers, 
nor  even  exprofesso  for  the  pastors  of  the  Church. 
Provided  that  the  large  element  of  uncertainty 
which  enters  into  such  matters  be  admitted,  no 
great  harm  can  arise  from  the  prevalence  of  any 
particular  legend  which,  though  historically 
doubtful,  is  not  in  itself  extravagant  or  disedify- 
ing.  As  the  celebrated  Dominican,  Pere  Lagrange, 
has  admirably  said  when  speaking  of  the  authen- 
ticity of  certain  of  the  holy  places,  venerated  by 
the  faithful  and  enriched  with  indulgences : 

"If  Origen,  Eusebius,  St  Jerome,  Sozomen,  are 
all  mistaken,  not  merely  as  to  the  precise  situa- 
tion of  the  house  of  Cleophas,  but  about  the  iden- 
tity of  Emmaus  Nicopolis  with  the  Emmaus  of 
the  Gospels,  how  can  we  expect  a  pilgrim  pros- 
trate in  the  dust  at  a  street  corner  to  hold  for 
certain  that  at  this  identical  spot  our  SAVIOUR 
fell  for  the  second  or  the  third  time  ?  We  are  told 
the  pilgrims  come  to  make  the  Stations  of  the 
Cross,  and  that  if  they  have  not  a  blind  confidence 
in  the  hie  (here)  of  the  lay-brother  who  is  taking 
them  round,  they  lose  all  devotion.  Surely  this  is 


138         The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

a  poor  compliment  to  pay  them.  The  faithful 
know  very  well  that  when  the  Church  proposes 
some  special  mystery  of  our  LORD'S  life  for  their 
veneration,  the  word  hodie  (to-day)  which  is  used 
in  the  liturgy  has  only  an  approximate  value. 
The  pilgrims  are  no  more  the  slaves  of  the  hie 
than  they  are  of  the  hodie.  They  are  happy  to 
follow  the  footsteps  of  CHRIST,  to  make  protesta- 
tion of  their  gratitude  to  the  GOD  made  Man  ;  to 
kiss  the  stone  in  token  of  their  humility  and 
adoration ;  but  their  devotion  will  only  be  the 
more  free  and  spontaneous  if  it  is  not  necessarily 
taken  for  a  stolid  act  of  faith  in  the  assertion  of  a 
topographical  fact.  If  it  were  otherwise,  we  should 
have  to  remind  them  that  our  SAVIOUR  has  taught 
us  to  adore  the  Father  in  spirit  and  in  truth."* 

Once  the  symbolical  character  of  so  many  of 
our  aids  to  devotion  is  understood  and  allowed 
for,  we  can  use  them  without  danger  as  stepping 
stones  to  a  higher  knowledge  and  a  deeper  love 
of  the  Source  of  all  grace.  We  venerate  them  for 
what  they  symbolize  and  for  that  which  they  help 
to  bring  nearer  to  us,  but  we  are  comparatively 
indifferent  at  such  moments  to  questions  of 
history  or  fact.  It  is  sufficient  for  us  that  they 
possess  a  certain  relative  truth.  Dives  and  Laza- 
rus may  or  may  not  have  been  actual  living 
persons,  but  when  we  are  meditating  upon  the 
lessons  of  our  LORD'S  parable,  it  does  not  occur 
to  us  to  press  the  inquiry  whether  it  was  founded 
upon  an  incident  that  had  actually  occurred. 

It  has  just  been  said  that  we  have  probably 
arrived  at  our  present  series  of  fourteen  Stations 
by  a  sort  of  process  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest. 
Without  attempting  any  rigorous  proof  of  such  a 

*  P&re  Lagrange,  O.P.,  in  the  "  Revue  Biblique,"  1903,9.461. 


The  Devotional  Aspect          139 

proposition,  it  is  at  least  easy  to  see  that  some  of 
the  incidents  which  are  from  an  historical  point 
of  view  most  open  to  question,  are  also,  devo- 
tionally  speaking,  among  the  most  helpful  to 
piety.  Take,  for  example,  the  sixth  station,  the 
episode  of  St  Veronica.  Few  of  our  LORD'S  suf- 
ferings on  His  toilsome  journey  to  Calvary  have 
suggested  more  beautiful  thoughts  to  those  who 
have  commented  on  the  Stations  than  this  parable 
of  loving  charity.  This  is  how  the  episode  has 
moved  the  devout  fancy  of  Cardinal  Newman.  It 
will  be  remembered  that  the  meeting  with  our 
Blessed  Lady  and  the  call  of  Simon  of  Cyrene  are 
the  Stations  which  immediately  precede.  Of  Vero- 
nica Cardinal  Newman  writes  thus  : 

"  The  relief  which  a  Mother's  tenderness 
secured  is  not  yet  all  she  did.  Her  prayers  sent 
Veronica  as  well  as  Simon — Simon  to  do  a  man's 
work,  Veronica  to  do  the  part  of  a  woman.  The 
devout  servant  of  JESUS  did  what  she  could.  As 
Magdalen  had  poured  the  ointment  at  the  feast, 
so  Veronica  now  offered  Him  this  napkin  in  His 
passion.  *  Ah,'  she  said,  *  would  I  could  do  more! 
Why  have  I  not  the  strength  of  Simon,  to  take 
part  in  the  burden  of  the  cross  ?'  But  only  men  can 
serve  the  great  High  Priest,  now  that  he  is  cele- 
brating the  solemn  act  of  sacrifice.  O  JESUS,  let 
us  one  and  all  minister  to  Thee  according  to  our 
places  and  powers.  And  as  Thou  didst  accept 
from  Thy  followers  refreshment  in  Thy  hour  of 
trial,  so  give  to  us  the  support  of  Thy  grace  when 
we  are  hard  pressed  by  our  foe."* 

To  that  great  sufferer  and  lover  of  the  poor, 
Henri  Perreyve,  the  same  Station  suggests  a  quite 
different  train  of  thought,  but  one  not  less  beau- 

*  Newman,  "  Meditations  and  Devotions,"  p.  198. 


140        The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

tiful.  I  take  the  following  passage  from  a  recently 
published  Anglican  translation: 

"I  adore  Thee,  LORD,  as  I  behold  the  holy 
Veronica  wiping  with  a  linen  cloth  Thy  sacred 
face  bathed  in  sweat,  in  tears  and  in  blood.  She 
is  not  deceived  by  Thy  wan  bruised  face,  Thy 
weary  step,  Thy  soiled  garments.  It  does  not 
astonish  her  that  Thou  now  dost  realize  the  vision 
of  the  completed  sorrow  which  afflicted  the  eyes 
of  Isaiah,  that  Thou  art  the  man  of  sorrows  ac- 
quainted with  grief,  wounded  and  bruised,  whom 
the  prophet  confessed  that  he  did  not  recognize. 
The  love  of  Veronica  is  not  mistaken  in  Thee,  to 
her  Thou  art  always  JESUS.  Nothing  stops  her, 
neither  the  dense  crowd  through  which  she  must 
break,  nor  the  noise  of  the  people,  nor  the  presence 
of  the  guard,  nor  the  disdainful  glances  of  the 
Pharisees,  nor  the  stately  progress  of  the  public 
procession,  nor  the  prancing  of  the  horses,  neither 
false  shame  nor  the  fear  of  death.  She  does  not 
hesitate,  she  runs  and  touches  Thee,  and  tenderly 
wipes  Thy  face,  her  hands  trembling  the  while 
with  holy  fear ;  all  was  impossible,  but  she  has 
dared  all,  she  has  accomplished  all. 

"O  Master,  in  this  scene  Thou  art  the  perfect 
type  of  all  humanity,  poor  and  suffering ;  and 
Veronica  is  the  type  of  charity.  While  Thou  art 
dragging  after  Thee  Thy  cross,  little  resembling 
the  perfect  Man,  but  rather,  as  the  psalmist  dares 
to  say,  '  a  worm  and  no  man,'  Thou  bearest  in 
Thy  person  all  the  poor  ;  but  on  the  other  hand, 
the  least  of  the  poor  who  suffer  hunger  and  cold  in 
our  great  cities  bears  Thy  image,  O  JESUS,  and 
recalls  the  practical  teaching  of  thy  gospel.  As 
there  is  in  the  Holy  Eucharist  Thy  real  presence, 
so  also  there  is  another  real  presence  of  Thee  in 


THE  Vl,A  DOLO?(pS<A, 

LOOKING 

From  a  recent  Photograph 
To  face  p.  140 


'S  HOUSE, 


The  Devotional  Aspect  141 

the  persons  of  the  poor,  and  therefore  Thou  hast 
said  plainly  that  what  is  done  to  the  meanest  of 
them  is  done  unto  Thyself. 

"  More  happy  than  Veronica,  whose  trembling 
hand  touched  Thee  but  once,  Christian  charity  is 
able,  every  day  and  every  moment  to  dry  Thy 
tears,  to  wipe  the  sweat  from  Thy  brow,  the  brow 
of  Thy  poor.  Who  will  teach  us  to  love  Thy  poor 
sufficiently,  who  will  teach  us  to  regard  their 
sorrows,  to  worship  them  as  the  sacrament  of  Thy 
passion  ?  Who  will  teach  us  always  to  see  beneath 
their  features,  disfigured  though  they  may  be  by 
physical  and  moral  misery,  the  features  of  JESUS  ? 
Who  will  give  us  the  spirit  of  Veronica,  her  un- 
quenchable hope,  her  irresistible  courage,  her 
conviction  that  she  will  succeed,  and  the  degree 
of  love  which  we  need  to  accomplish  all  that  we 
have  undertaken  ?  Thou  only,  O  divine  Master, 
canst  kindle  in  our  souls  those  flames  of  love, 
which  would  fain  devour  all  the  evils  of  the  earth, 
and  will  not  die  down  in  Thy  Church  while  there 
yet  remains  one  sorrow  in  the  world."* 

Veronica  as  a  personage — she  must  be  distin- 
guished from  her  napkin,  often  also  called  by  the 
name  Veronica  (in  English  Vernicle] — was  not 
a  very  familiar  character  in  the  devotional  litera- 
ture of  the  middle  ages.  Her  house  was  not  shown 
in  Jerusalem  before  the  fourteenth  century  at 
earliest,  f  and  it  is  not  generally  spoken  of  by 
pilgrims  before  1435.  Hence,  in  the  York  mystery 
plays,  though  we  find  the  incident  of  the  napkin 

*  Perreyve,  "Stations  of  the  Cross,"  translated  by  the  Rev. 
E.  Day. 

f  The  Procemium  to  the  pilgrimage  of  James  of  Verona  (1335) 
contains  a  mention  of  "locus  ubi  CHRISTUS  dedit  Veronicam, 
id  est  faciem."  The  Procemium  may  be  a  later  interpolation,  but 
it  is  older  than  1420.  See  "  Revue  de  1'Orient  Latin,"  HI,  p.  163. 


142         The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

and  the  miraculous  portrait,  it  is  not  Veronica, 
but  one  of  the  three  Marys  who  presents  the 
napkin  to  our  LORD. 

But  the  beautiful  symbolism  of  the  episode 
itself  did  not  fail  to  impress  the  imaginations  of 
our  pre-Reformation  forefathers.  The  Salve  sancta 
fades  nostri  Redemptoris  was  one  of  the  most 
popular  of  medieval  hymns,  and  when  Veronica 
does  appear  in  medieval  drama,  we  may  detect, 
if  I  mistake  not,  a  very  tender  note  in  the  few  briet 
words  assigned  to  her.  Thus  in  the  Coventry 
mysteries  dating  from  the  early  fifteenth  century, 
we  read  : 

Veronica.  "Ah!  ye  synful  pepyl!  Why  fare  thus? 

For  sweat  and  blod  He  may  not  see ! 
Alas!  Holy  prophete,  CHRYST  JHESUS! 

Careful  (i.e.,  full  of  care)  is  myn  heart  for  Thee." 

And  she  wipeth  His  face  with  her  kerchy. 

JHESUS.  "Veronica,  thy  wiping1  doth  me  ease; 

My  face  is  clene,  that  was  black  to  see. 
I  shall  them  kepe  from  alle  mysese 

That  lokyn  on  thy  kerchy  and  remember  me." 

Again  there  is  undoubtedly  something  which 
makes  a  special  appeal  to  man's  weak  and  sin- 
laden  heart,  both  in  the  conception  of  the  fall  of 
JESUS  under  His  cross  and  in  the  circumstance  of  its 
triple  repetition.  "  Who  is  it,"  asks  St  Leonard  of 
Port  Maurice,  "  that  has  thus  again  stricken  down 
the  LORD  of  heaven  and  earth  \  It  is  I,  I  who  have 
heaped  sin  upon  sin,  who  have  added  torment  to 
torment."  Or,  if  I  may  again  quote  the  beautiful 
language  of  Cardinal  Newman: 

"Yes,  it  is  as  I  feared;  JESUS,  the  strong  and 
mighty  LORD,  has  found  for  the  moment  our  sins 
stronger  than  Himself.  He  falls — yet  He  bore  the 


The  Devotional  Aspect  143 

load  for  a  while;  He  tottered,  but  He  bore  up 
and  walked  onwards.  What,  then,  made  Him 
give  way?  I  say,  I  repeat,  it  is  an  intimation  and 
a  memory  to  thee,  O  my  soul,  of  thy  falling  back 
into  mortal  sin.  I  repented  of  the  sins  of  my  youth 
and  went  on  well  for  a  time,  but  at  length  a  new 
temptation  came  when  I  was  off  my  guard,  and 
I  suddenly  fell  away.  Then  all  my  good  habits 
seemed  to  go  at  once;  they  were  like  a  garment 
which  is  stripped  off,  so  quickly  and  utterly  did 
grace  depart  from  me.  And  at  that  moment 
I  looked  at  my  LORD,  and,  lo!  He  had  fallen 
down,  and  I  covered  my  face  with  my  hands  and 
remained  in  a  state  of  great  confusion." 

It  is  difficult  to  quote  translations  after  such 
perfect  English  as  this,  but  in  turning  again  to 
the  Stations  of  the  saintly  Henri  Perrey  ve  I  will 
venture  this  time  to  cite  with  modifications  the 
text  of  an  older  English  version  of  Catholic  origin : 

Jesus  falls  beneath  the  weight  of  the  Cross. 

"I  adore  Thee,  LORD  JESUS,  falling  beneath  the 
weight  of  the  cross.  Thou  didst  erewhile  receive 
it  with  the  steadfast  courage  of  love  for  Thy  crea- 
ture man.  In  that  courage  the  sad  procession  set 
out.  But  as  the  Victim  advances  the  anguish  of 
the  sacrifice  increases.  That  cross  which  at  first 
seemed  supportable  has  become  an  overwhelming 
burden.  O  Master!  Thy  strength  hath  failed 
Thee,  Thou  hast  fallen  prostrate  by  the  wayside. 

"  And  so  also  is  it  with  human  sorrows  in  this 
world,  when  they  follow  one  upon  the  other, 
accumulating  force  with  time.  Such  stricken 
souls  may  often  be  seen  strong  and  courageous 
at  first,  yet  they  are  at  last  crushed  to  earth  by 
the  ever-growing  weight  of  their  desolations  It 
is  a  beloved  child  that  has  been  taken,  but  two 


144         The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

remained;  death  comes  again  and  takes  a  second, 
and  then  the  other.  It  is  too  much,  all  strength 
fails,  the  cross  is  too  heavy;  it  is  no  longer  that 
cross  of  yesterday,  which  was  still  endurable.  No, 
it  seems  a  mountain,  a  very  world  of  woe.  The 
soul  gives  up  the  struggle  and  itself  sinks  to 
earth  amid  the  ruin  of  all  that  it  has  loved.  Poor 
tortured  soul !  when  thou  hast  rallied  from  that 
swoon  of  pain,  there  is  nothing  of  which  I  would 
talk  to  thee  save  of  the  fall  of  JESUS — JESUS 
sinking  beneath  His  cross.  Look  upon  Him,  I  pray 
thee,  look  upon  Him  while  I  hold  my  peace.  He 
alone  can  speak  life-giving  words  capable  of 
raising  thy  soul  from  that  worst  of  all  agonies, 
despair. 

"O  eternal  Word!  O  Son  of  GOD!  consubstan- 
tial  with  Him  in  the  plenitude  of  Thy  eternal 
generation,  inseparable  from  that  divine  nature, 
one  with  the  FATHER  and  the  HOLY  GHOST,  distinct 
only  in  Person,  I  thank  Thee  that,  assuming  our 
humanity,  Thou  wert  willing  also  to  fathom  the 
uttermost  depths  of  our  weakness.  Thou  couldst 
have  saved  the  world  without  that  excess  of  humi- 
liation, but  Thou  couldst  not  without  it  have  con- 
soled us  by  Thy  example  in  the  hour  of  crushing 
agony  and  desolation.  For  that  we  needed  a 
SAVIOUR  who  had  known  like  ourselves  the 
weight  of  a  cross  beyond  His  strength,  who  could 
teach  us  through  his  own  infirmity  not  to  fall 
into  utter  contempt  of  ourselves  in  those  moments 
of  supreme  discouragement.  My  REDEEMER,  Thy 
mysterious  fall  reconciles  me  to  my  own  weak- 
ness. That  fall  did  not  hinder  Thy  sacrifice;  it  did 
not  prevent  Thee  from  reaching  the  summit  of 
Calvary.  Thou  didst  stagger  to  Thy  feet  and  con- 
tinue to  go  forward. 


The  Devotional  Aspect          145 

"O  JESUS,  when  my  strength  fails,  when  the 
cross  becomes  too  heavy,  when  I  fall,  do  Thou 
raise  me  up,  and  with  the  support  of  Thy  divine 
hand  enable  me  to  follow  Thee  along  that  road  of 
daily  difficulties  and  sorrow  in  which  Christian 
virtue  is  put  to  its  hardest  test." 

The  reader,  I  trust,  will  not  be  wearied  by  this 
series  of  quotations.  It  seems  to  me  that  they 
illustrate  well  the  rich  vein  of  spontaneous  and 
devout  reflection  which  the  subjects  of  the  Stations 
open  up  to  reverent  minds.  Neither  need  we 
suppose  that  it  is  only  men  of  the  intellectual 
standing  of  Newman  and  Perreyve  who  can  find 
food  for  thought  in  such  meditations.  Here,  for 
instance,  is  a  little  prayer  which  appears  origi- 
nally in  Pascha's  "Spiritual  Pilgrimage,"  and 
which  has  been  summarized  by  the  seventeenth- 
century  English  translator  "R.  H."  in  the  fol- 
lowing form.  It  deals  with  the  incident  which 
Pascha  called  the  fifth  station,  but  which  is  now 
the  second  of  our  series — "  JESUS  is  made  to  carry 
the  cross:" 

"O  most  noble  KlNGE  and  valiant  Standard 
Bearer,  who  for  the  love  of  me  didst  permit  the 
heavier  burthen  of  the  crosse  to  be  laid  upon  Thy 
shoulders,  which  were  full  sore  with  stripes,  and 
therewithal  all  the  sins  of  the  world,  offering  the 
same  by  Thy  death  upon  the  aultar  ot  the  crosse 
to  Thy  heavenly  FATHER,  I  beseech  Thee  to  help 
me  to  carrie  my  crosse  that  I  may  willingly  sus- 
taine  the  same  and  to  serve  Thee  according  to 
my  vocation.  Amen." 

"O  noble  King  and  valiant  Standard  Bearer" 
is  surely  a  memorable  phrase,  rich  with  subtle 
memories  of  the  Vexilla  Regis  and  yet  within  the 
comprehension  of  the  simplest  and  the  rudest.  So 

10 


146        The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

is  the  same  writer's  description  of  our  LORD 
"  walking  between  two  thieves  as  the  Captain  of 
them"  when  He  presents  Himself  to  the  view  of 
His  Blessed  Mother,  or  again  the  suggestion  that 
His  sacred  Body  was  "  stretched  like  a  string  upon 
the  cross,  Thy  veins  and  sinews  being  so  broken 
therewithal  that  Thy  precious  Blood  issued  forth 
like  fountains  of  water." 

Of  course  the  ideal  attitude  of  the  faithful  soul 
when  engaged  upon  the  exercise  of  the  Way  of  the 
Cross  is  that  of  the  actual  pilgrim  who  has 
journeyed  over  land  and  sea  to  pay  homage  to 
the  scenes  of  our  SAVIOUR'S  passion  and  bitter 
death.  What  deep  feelings  were  aroused  in  the 
pilgrims  of  old,  upon  their  coming  within  the  pre- 
cincts of  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  has 
already  been  illustrated  incidentally  by  our  quo- 
tations from  Fabri  and  other  early  writers.  But 
there  is  no  lack  of  such  testimonies.  Neither  can 
we  have  the  least  doubt  that  these  pilgrims  were 
just  as  simple  and  sincere  in  the  account  which 
they  gave  of  their  emotions  of  piety  as  they  were 
in  their  frank  comments  about  matters  which 
were  more  mundane.  It  is  precisely  this  quality 
of  unmistakable  candour  in  Fabri  which  makes 
his  narrative  so  extraordinarily  attractive.  More- 
over, his  diffuseness  shows  that  he  has  written 
entirely  at  his  ease.  He  talks  to  us  with  exactly 
the  same  freedom  with  which  he  would  have 
gossiped  with  some  old  schoolfellow  and  fellow 
religious  in  his  convent  at  Ulm,  thoroughly  en- 
joying both  his  own  story  and  the  perfect  com- 
prehension of  his  listeners.  Perhaps  nothing  in 
all  Fabri's  wanderings  tells  us  more  of  the  ardent 
spirit  of  the  old  pilgrims  than  the  passage  in 
which  he  describes  himself  as  unable,  when  near- 


The  Devotional  Aspect          147 

ing  the  coast  of  Palestine,  to  eat  or  rest  or  con- 
verse, but  as  seated  all  day  long  in  the  bows  of 
the  vessel  straining  his  eyes  to  catch  the  first 
glimpse  of  that  blessed  shore.  However,  it  will  be 
more  to  our  purpose  if  I  quote  the  account  which 
he  gives,  first  of  all  of  the  rock  of  Calvary  and  then 
of  the  Holy  Sepulchre.  And  before  we  come  to 
these  longer  extracts  it  will  be  well  to  preface  his 
remarks  by  two  shorter  passages,  one  descriptive 
of  the  feelings  of  another  pilgrim,  a  good  Augus- 
tinian  friar,  who  came  to  the  Holy  Sepulchre  1 50 
years  before  Fabri,  the  other  taken  from  Fabri's 
own  account  of  the  starting  of  the  procession 
within  the  sacred  edifice.  And,  first,  this  is  how 
Brother  James  of  Verona  describes  his  sensations 
of  awe  when  after  many  months  of  weary  pil- 
grimage he  was  at  last  permitted  to  cross  the 
threshold  of  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre : 

"  Upon  Monday,  August  7,  in  the  year  of  our 
LORD,  1335,  the  Sepulchre  of  our  SAVIOUR  was 
thrown  open  to  me  and  my  companion  and  to 
two  strangers  ;  there  were  but  four  of  us  in  all.  It 
was  the  third  hour,  and  the  door  was  immediately 
shut  again.  And  as  I  entered,  sinner  though  I  be, 
the  LORD  JESUS  CHRIST  wounded  my  heart,  and 
the  ardour  of  a  most  burning  love  possessed  me, 
so  that  while  sober,  as  regards  food  and  drink, 
I  was  intoxicated  with  a  certain  heavenly  sweet- 
ness. I  fell  prostrate  upon  the  earth,  reminding 
myself  that  I  was  unworthy  in  the  presence  of  so 
priceless  a  sanctuary  to  look  upon  it  with  my  eyes, 
to  draw  near  with  my  feet,  to  touch  it  with  my 
hands,  or  to  traverse  it  with  my  body.  Neverthe- 
less, trusting  in  the  divine  Goodness,  seeing  that 
it  was  said  by  the  prophet  David:  Accedite  ad 
turn,  et  illuminamini  (approach  Him,  and  be  en- 


148         The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

lightened),  I  did  draw  near,  I  looked,  I  touched 
and  I  wrote  down  what  I  had  seen."  * 

Fabri,  when  he  visited  the  Holy  Sepulchre, 
was  one  of  a  much  larger  party.  We  have  already 
learned  the  substance  of  the  instructions  delivered 
to  the  pilgrims  by  the  Father  Guardian  of  Mount 
Sion.  After  the  summary  which  he  gives  of  that 
discourse,  Fabri  proceeds  as  follows  : 

"  Having  thus  received  the  rules  by  which  we 
were  to  be  guided  while  in  the  holy  temple,  we 
each  of  us  went  to  the  merchants,  and  every  one 
bought  candles  of  the  whitest  of  wax,  great  or 
small,  ornamented  or  plain,  as  he  pleased.  There 
was  no  lack  of  vainglory  even  in  this,  for  some 
had  candles  curiously  twisted  and  decorated  with 
gilding  and  painting,  which  they  carried  with 
ostentation,  and  looked  with  scorn  upon  those  who 
carried  plain  candles,  blaming  them  for  close- 
fistedness.  Some  bought  many  candles,  which  they 
lighted  in  the  Chapel  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  and 
then  extinguished,  and  afterwards  took  them 
home  with  them  to  their  own  country,  where  they 
made  their  wives  hold  them  lighted  when  they 
were  in  childbed,  that  they  might  be  delivered 
without  danger,  for  they  say  that  these  candles 
are  useful  for  that  purpose. 

"  Now,  while  we  were  busied  about  buying  our 
candles,  the  brethren  with  the  Father  Guardian 
were  arraying  themselves,  putting  on  their  sacred 
vestments,  which  they  had  brought  with  them  from 
Mount  Sion,  to  make  a  solemn  procession  round 
all  the  holy  places  in  the  same  order,  wherein 
they  had  made  that  on  Mount  Sion,  as  has  been 
told  before. 

*  James  de  Verona,  "  Liber  Peregrinationis,"  in  the  "  Rev. 
de  rOrient  Latin,"  in,  p.  183. 


The  Devotional  Aspect          149 

"  So  when  we  were  all  standing  in  order  with 
our  lights  burning,  the  precentor  at  the  head  of 
the  procession  began  in  a  loud  and  cheerful  voice 
to  sing  the  Salve  Regina,  which  we  all  took  up, 
and  chanting  this  hymn  we  came  in  procession  to 
the  chapel  of  the  glorious  Virgin  Mary,  to  the  altar 
in  front  of  the  chapel." 

The  details  of  the  passing  of  the  pilgrims  from 
shrine  to  shrine  are  a  great  deal  too  diffusely 
narrated  to  be  quoted  here.  Let  us  come,  however, 
to  what  our  pilgrim  tells  us  of  their  visit  to  what 
he  calls :  "  The  most  Holy  Mount  of  Calvary, 
whereon  the  LORD  JESUS  hung  upon  the  cross." 

"  After  we  had  finished  all  that  was  to  be 
done  in  the  holy  cave,  we  presently  came  up  again 
and  re-entered  the  church  through  the  door.  As 
we  resumed  our  procession  the  precentor  began 
in  a  loud  voice  to  sing  the  hymn,  Vexilla  regis 
prodeunt,  etc.  Singing  this  we  came  to  the  way  up 
to  the  most  holy  Mount  of  Calvary,  up  which  we 
went  by  eighteen  stone  steps  from  the  church 
below  it.  Above  we  entered  a  light,  beauteous 
chapel,  adorned  with  polished,  variegated  marble, 
and  wherein  there  hung  many  lighted  lamps.  In  it 
stood  three  altars,  adorned  with  paintings  done  in 
mosaic  work.  This  chapel  is  built  of  vaulted  work, 
supported  by  a  marble  column  in  the  midst  of  the 
building.  On  the  other  side  of  the  vault  are  paint- 
ings of  David  and  Solomon,  David  with  the  text, 
Qui  edebat  panes  mcos,  magnificavit  super  me*  etc., 
and  Solomon  with  the  text,  Sapientia  cedificamt  sibi 
domum^  and  a  picture  of  the  sacrifice  of  Isaac. 
This  chapel  is  built  above  the  Mount  of  Calvary. 
When  we  were  all  come  into  it,  and  now  before 
our  eyes  was  displayed  that  wondrous  stone,  that 

*  Ps.  xli,  9.  f  Prov.  ix,  I 


, 

150        The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

desirable  rock,  with  its  admirable  socket-hole, 
wherein  the  most  holy  cross  bearing  the  crucified 
One  was  inserted — when  we  beheld  these  things, 
scared  and  bewildered  at  their  exceeding  great 
holiness,  we  fell  down  upon  our  faces  on  the 
earth,  and  one  heard  no  longer  psalmody,  but 
lamentation ;  no  longer  the  singing  of  hymns, 
but  wailings  and  groans.  No  one  was  there  who 
could  withhold  himself  from  tears  and  cries ;  for 
who  could  have  so  hard  a  heart  that  it  would  not 
be  rent  in  that  place,  where  he  beheld  before  his 
eyes  thehardest  rock  to  have  been  rent  ?  Who  would 
not  even  weep  aloud  in  the  place  where  CHRIST 
our  GOD  cried  with  a  loud  voice  as  He  hung  upon 
the  cross ;  where  likewise  He  prayed  for  those  who 
had  crucified  Him,  promised  paradise  to  the  thief, 
commended  His  deeply  sorrowing  Mother  to  the 
care  of  John,  and  drank  the  vinegar  mingled  with 
gall ;  where  He  said  that  all  was  finished,  yielded 
up  His  spirit  into  the  hands  of  His  Father,  and 
breathed  His  last ;  where  the  soldier  pierced  His 
side  with  his  lance,  and  there  came  forth  blood 
and  water?  Lo,  devout  pilgrim,  it  was  here  that 
Abel  was  slain  by  his  brother,*  and  Isaac  was 
bound  for  sacrifice  by  his  father,  the  brazen  ser- 
pent was  set  up  by  Moses,  the  paschal  lamb  was 
slain  according  to  the  law,  GOD  was  slain  by 
man,  JESUS  was  crucified  in  the  flesh,  thy  King 
was  hung  upon  the  cross,  thy  LORD  was  con- 
demned to  death,  the  meek  and  holy  and  innocent 
was  drenched  with  blood,  offering  Himself  both 
as  priest  and  as  victim.  These  thoughts  and  others 
of  a  like  nature  occurred  to  our  minds  at  this 

*  It  might  seem  that  Fabri  was  speaking1  metaphorically,  and 
that  he  only  meant  that  here  was  the  accomplishment  of  all  these 
types ;  but  from  another  passage  it  is  clear  that  he  believed  that 
Abel  was  slain,  Isaac  offered,  etd,  in  this  very  spot. 


The  Devotional  Aspect  151 

most  solemn  place,  and  we  remained  for  a  long 
time  bowed  to  the  earth  in  prayer.  When  we  had 
finished  our  prayer,  we  went  one  after  another  to 
the  holy  rock,  which  projects  above  the  floor,  and 
each  one  as  best  he  could,  crawled  to  the  socket- 
hole  of  the  cross,  kissed  the  place  with  exceeding 
devotion,  and  placed  his  face,  eyes  and  mouth 
over  the  socket-hole,  from  whence  in  very  truth 
there  breathes  forth  an  exceeding  sweet  scent, 
whereby  men  are  visibly  refreshed.  We  put  our 
arms  and  our  hands  into  the  hole  down  to  the 
very  bottom;  and  by  these  acts  we  gained  plenary 
indulgences. 

"  On  the  left  hand  side  of  the  socket-hole  is 
a  great  rent  in  the  rock,  from  the  top  to  the 
bottom,  which  is  believed  to  have  been  made  at 
CHRIST'S  death.  We  went  up  to  this  rent  one  after 
another,  and  kissed  it,  putting  our  heads  into  it 
and  as  much  of  our  bodies  as  we  could.  Moreover, 
on  either  side  of  the  holy  socket  there  are  two 
other  sockets,  in  which  the  crosses  of  the  two 
thieves,  Dysmas  and  Gesmas,  who  were  crucified 
together  with  JESUS,  were  placed ;  but  these 
sockets  cannot  be  seen,  because  upon  them  stand 
low  pillars,  upon  whose  heads  there  are  iron 
spikes,  upon  which  wax  candles  and  lights  are 
stuck,  so  that  these  pillars  are,  as  it  were,  candle- 
sticks. Howbeit,  we  kissed  the  pillar  which  stood 
at  the  right  hand  of  the  cross." 

Fabri  tells  us  that  the  whole  body  of  pilgrims 
remained  on  Calvary  "giving  themselves  up  to 
prayer  and  devotion,"  for  more  than  an  hour. 
Afterwards,  following  the  course  of  the  passion, 
they  visited  the  stone  of  unction  and  some  other 
shrines.  But  the  climax  of  this  solemn  procession 
was  the  coming  to  the  Holy  Sepulchre.  Obviously 


152         The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

the  joy  of  that  supreme  moment  was  still  vividly 
present  to  his  mind  when  he  wrote  his  account : 
He  heads  this  section  :  How  the  pilgrims  came  into 
the  most  Holy  Sepulchre  of  the  LORD  JESUS. 

"Rouse  up  yourselves  now,  my  lords  and 
brother  pilgrims,  arise  and  hurry  onward  with 
a  swifter  pace,  but  come  not  save  in  a  cheerful 
mood.  Lay  aside  all  sorrow,  wipe  away  the  tears 
from  your  eyes,  refrain  from  lamentations,  and  all 
together  sing  that  sweet  Easter  song,  Alleluia; 
for  after  the  gloomy  Jewish  Sabbaths  a  genial 
light  has  shined  forth  upon  the  world  from  the 
squalid  and  darksome  sepulchre  which  we  are 
about  to  enter;  for  the  world  has  received  far 
brighter  light  from  thence  than  from  the  glim- 
mering bodies  in  the  firmament.  Come  then  with 
joy  and  praise,  look  upon  the  place  where  the 
LORD  was  laid,  and  behold  the  end  of  your  pil- 
grimage. So  hereupon  the  precentor  in  a  pleasant 
and  cheerful  voice  began  the  paschal  hymn,  Ad 
c&nam  agni  providi,  etc.,  and  we  walked  on  in 
procession  chanting  it,  and  came  to  the  most 
precious  sepulchre  of  the  LORD  JESUS,  before 
which  we  rang  out  our  Easter  hymns  with  many 
an  Alleluia,  with  as  great,  or  it  may  be  with  even 
greater  joy  than  if  we  had  reached  happy  Easter 
day  after  a  sad  and  toilsome  Lent.  For  as  on 
Mount  Calvary  we  pitied  our  LORD  CHRIST,  and 
shed  tears,  so  here  we  rejoiced  with  our  RE- 
DEEMER, and  offered  to  Him  sweet  tears  of  joy 
and  lively  songs,  and  rightly  so ;  for  JESUS,  our 
SAVIOUR,  after  His  tears  and  sorrow,  after  His 
mockings  and  scourgings,  after  His  cups  of  vine- 
gar and  gall,  after  His  torture  and  wounds  upon 
the  cross,  after  His  terrible  death  itself,  after  His 
piteous  burial,  after  He  had  descended  into  the 


The  Devotional  Aspect  153 

everlasting  shades  of  hell,  after  He  had  broken 
the  iron  bars,  after  He  had  bound  the  prince  of 
darkness,  and  set  free  all  the  chosen  patriarchs, 
rose  glorious  and  triumphant  from  this  tomb  we 
now  behold.  From  this  darksome  cave  there  shone 
forth  so  bright  a  light,  there  darted  forth  so  bril- 
liant a  ray,  there  gleamed  such  snowy  whiteness, 
there  appeared  such  blessed  peace,  there  came  forth 
such  happiness,  there  breathed  forth  such  salva- 
tion as  made  the  earth,  sea  and  sky  to  rejoice  to- 
gether. In  this  sepulchre,  in  this  tiny  hut  did  the 
eagle  renew  its  youth,  the  lion  roused  up  its  cub, 
the  phcenix  renewed  its  life,  Jonah  came  forth 
unharmed  from  the  whale's  belly,  the  candlestick 
was  clad  with  gold,  the  tabernacle  of  David  which 
had  fallen  down  was  set  up  again,  the  sun  shone 
forth  after  being  behind  a  cloud,  the  grain  of 
wheat  which  had  fallen  into  the  earth  and  died 
had  quickened,  the  stag  again  put  forth  his  horns, 
Samson  bore  away  the  gates  and  broke  through 
his  guards,  Joseph  was  brought  forth  from  prison, 
shaved,  gaily  dressed,  and  made  Lord  of  Egypt. 
The  sackcloth  of  CHRIST  JESUS  was  cut  away ;  He 
was  clothed  with  gladness,  and  besides  all  this, 
our  toilsome  pilgrimage,  our  weary  wanderings 
are  here  ended  and  brought  to  rest.  Here,  then, 
I  pray  you,  let  us  lay  aside  our  pious  plaints  of 
sorrow,  our  clouds  of  grief,  and  let  us  draw  a 
quiet  breath  in  happiness :  let  us  who  have  fol- 
lowed our  REDEEMER  to  His  tomb  with  sorrow 
now  take  part  in  the  joy  of  His  glorious  resur- 
rection. Come,  then,  gather  yourselves  together, 
knights  and  kindly  pilgrims,  enter  the  most  holy 
sepulchre  and  see  with  your  eyes,  feel  with  your 
hands,  touch  with  your  mouth  the  place  where 
the  LORD  lay.  So  we  joyously  went  in,  one  after 


154         The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

another,  into  the  most  precious  sepulchre  of  the 
LORD  JESUS,  kissed  the  most  holy  bier,  and  re- 
ceived entire  and  most  plenary  indulgences  for 
all  sins.  We  were  indeed  filled  with  an  especial 
joy  here,  greater  than  what  we  felt  at  the  other 
holy  places.  Thus  St  Bernard,  in  the  second 
chapter  of  his  sermon  to  the  Knights  Templars, 
says  that  the  sepulchre  hath  as  it  were  the  pre- 
eminence among  the  holy  and  desirable  places, 
and  that  something  more  of  devotion  is  felt  at  the 
place  where  He  lay  at  rest  than  at  those  where 
He  moved  about  in  life.  Thus,  too,  the  remem- 
brance of  His  death  excites  our  piety  more  than 
that  of  His  life:  I  suppose  because  His  death  was 
cruel,  while  His  life  was  pleasant  by  comparison, 
and  because  our  human  weakness  is  more  attracted 
by  the  repose  of  sleeping  than  the  toil  of  living 
among  men,  more  by  the  safety  of  death  than  by 
righteousness  of  life.  The  life  of  CHRIST  is  to  me 
a  rule  by  which  to  live,  His  death  is  my  redemp- 
tion from  death.  Here  we  received  spiritual  re- 
freshment and  indulgences,  and  passed  out  with 
joyous  thanksgiving,  and  thus  our  procession 
came  to  an  end  one  hour  before  midnight." 

As  a  counterpart  to  this  vivid  description  of 
an  actual  visit  to  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  I  venture 
to  turn  to  the  meditation  which  Perreyve  sug- 
gests for  those  who,  in  making  the  Stations  of 
the  Cross,  would  contemplate  the  Sepulchre  in 
spirit.  He  takes  up  and  develops  an  idea  which 
is  already  suggested  by  Fabri,  that  of  the  grain 
of  wheat  falling  to  the  ground.  No  one  of  Per- 
reyve's  reflections  on  the  Stations  is  more  beauti- 
ful than  this. 


THE 

From  the  "  Geystlich  Strass"  Nuremberg,  1521 

Even  at  this  early  date  the  Pieta  and  the  Sepulchre  were 
included  in  the  exercise  of  the  Stations  of  the  Cross.  See  p.  186 
below. 

To  face  p.  154 


The  Devotional  Aspect          155 

The  Sepulchre. 

"  I  ADORE  Thee,  Lord  Jesus,  whilst  faithful,  loving 
hands  bear  away  Thy  sacred  body  and  lay  it  in  the 
Sepulchre,  of  which  they  close  the  entrance  with 
a  great  stone.  I  adore  Thee  during  the  silence  of 
that  stupendous  night,  in  which  the  author  of  all 
life  seemed  bound  in  the  chains  of  death.  The 
Pharisees,  alarmed  by  the  memory  of  Thy  pro- 
phecies, cause  the  stone-closed  entrance  of  Thy 
tomb  to  be  sealed;  guards  watch  before  it;  Thy 
disciples  are  dispersed;  all  around  is  wrapped  in 
silence.  It  seems  as  if  death  had  gained  the  vic- 
tory, and  finally  asserted  its  empire. 

"  Yet  speak,  O  Master,  and  tell  me  what  les- 
son I  ought  to  learn  from  that  last  act  of  Thy 
Passion." 

JESUS  CHRIST:  "  My  child,  you  must  not  see 
in  My  tomb  a  mystery  of  death,  but  a  mystery  of 
life.  Let  not  My  lips  now  so  silent,  My  body  so 
motionless,  My  heart  so  chill  and  pulseless  de- 
ceive you ;  it  is  not  death  which  triumphs,  it  is 
life  which  withdraws  itself  for  a  moment  but 
which  will  soon  rise  again  to  roll  away  the  stone 
for  ever. 

"  Remember,  My  child,  the  parable  I  one  day 
spoke  to  My  disciples:  *  Unless  the  grain  of  wheat 
fall  into  the  ground  and  die, itself  remaineth  alone; 
but  if  it  die,  it  bringeth  forth  much  fruit/*  Think 
of  what  a  grain  of  wheat  is  in  the  hands  of  him 
who  sows.  The  grain  at  first  is  hard,  shut  up  in 
itself,  unproductive.  Then  if  the  hand  of  the  sower 
cast  it  into  the  furrow,  it  disappears  into  the  earth, 
and  it  remains  hidden,  covered  as  with  a  shroud. 
Next  follows  death.  The  seed  is  dissolved  by  rain, 

*  John  xii,  24. 


156        The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

by  the  ardent  rays  of  the  sun,  by  the  very  action 
of  its  tomb ;  it  dies,  but  immediately  all-conquering 
life  springs  from  the  confines  of  its  utter  annihi- 
lation. Nothing  can  resist  it  now,  neither  stones, 
nor  darkness,  nor  the  winding-sheet  that  wraps  it 
round,  nor  the  tomb  within  which  it  lies ;  it  grows, 
it  climbs,  it  pierces  the  earth,  and  looking  fear- 
lessly out  upon  the  sun,  it  pushes  its  way  up- 
wards, bearing  in  its  bosom  an  entire  harvest. 
Now  this  triumphant  death  of  the  grain  of  wheat 
is  the  symbol  of  My  death,  and  of  the  spiritual 
death  of  all  My  children.  It  faithfully  portrays 
the  transformation  of  souls,  who  once  for  all  learn 
to  die  with  Me,  and  to  await  in  My  sepulchre 
their  hour  of  resurrection.  Happy  the  soul  which 
realizes  that  it  is  only  awaiting  the  moment  of 
release.  For  you,  My  child,  to  whom  I  have  con- 
fided My  secrets,  surely  you  understand  now  what 
it  all  means. 

"  'My  sepulchre/  I  have  said.  Shall  I  tell  you 
what  it  is  ?  It  is  all  that  hides  the  Christian  from 
the  world  and  from  himself.  It  is  all  that  humbles 
you,  my  child,  all  that  opposes  your  wishes,  de- 
feats your  best  efforts,  checks  every  generous  im- 
pulse, reduces  your  will  to  impotence,  seems  to 
drag  you  down  to  nothingness,  and  to  render  you 
unheeded  and  useless  in  this  world.  It  may  be 
bodily  infirmity,  that  great  contradiction  of  nature, 
which  twenty  times  a  day  breaks  down  your  will ; 
it  may  be  the  unintelligent  malice  of  men  who  do 
not  understand  your  generous  projects,  and  take 
pleasure  in  putting  a  thousand  ^obstacles  in  the 
way  of  their  fulfilment.  It  must  be  in  any  case  the 
cumulative  effect  of  the  weakness,  the  difficulties, 
the  misunderstandings,  the  misery  in  yourself  and 
in  others,  which  so  often  cast  a  dull  and  heavy  pall 


The  Devotional  Aspect  157 

over  your  life  and  leave  you  without  heart  for  the 
struggle.  This  is  your  sepulchre.  Enter  it,  My  child, 
enter  it  as  I  entered  the  tomb,  in  the  spirit  of  obedi- 
ence to  the  will  of  My  Father,  in  the  spirit  of  faith, 
and,  above  all,  of  indomitable  hope.  Accept  sick- 
ness, contradiction — that  obstacle  which  all  that 
is  worth  anything  is  sure  to  encounter — accept  at 
My  feet  the  full  bitterness  of  that  hour  in  which 
everything  seems  to  prove  that  life  is  over  for  you, 
that  you  will  never  again  achieve  anything  among 
men.  Enter,  then,  as  the  grain  of  wheat,  into  the 
bosom  of  the  earth,  enter  into  the  depths  of  humi- 
liation, of  abandonment,  of  self-renunciation.  Enter 
fearlessly,  for,  again  I  say,  this  is  your  sepulchre. 

"  But  in  what  do  you  suppose  that  all  these 
trapping's  of  death  are  after  all  to  end?  What  was 
it  that  I  was  meditating  in  my  tomb — the  triumph 
of  death  or  its  defeat?  Was  not  that  tomb  the 
cradle  of  all  life  ?  Look  well  into  the  depths  of  My 
sepulchre,  My  child,  and  faith  will  teach  you  to 
see  therein  the  germ  of  all  that  lives  and  endures. 
I  tell  you,  in  all  truth,  that  everything  is  there 
which  was  afterwards  to  come — My  resurrection, 
the  inspiration  of  My  Apostles,  their  courage, 
which  from  that  day  never  faltered;  the  fortitude 
of  My  martyrs,  the  purity  of  My  virgins,  the 
daring  of  My  apologists,  the  learning  of  My 
doctors,  the  authority  of  My  pontiffs,  the  strength 
of  My  confessors,  the  light  of  all  Christian  ages,  all 
the  progress  of  humanity  even  to  your  own  days. 
All  these  things  lie  in  germ  beneath  the  shroud 
which  covers  Me.  That  great  river  of  life,  of 
strength,  of  virtue,  of  immortality  wells  up  from 
that  tiny  spring.  Do  you  not  see,  then,  My  child 
that  there  is  nothing  in  all  the  world  so  full  of 
living  promise  as  My  sepulchre  r" 


158         The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

And  here  we  may  leave  this  fruitful  theme  of 
the  devotional  suggestiveness  of  the  Stations  of 
the  Cross.  No  exercise  by  which  our  LORD'S 
Passion  is  honoured  is  likely  to  be  more  practi 
cally  helpful  than  this,  precisely  because  of  the 
wide  range  of  thought  which  it  admits  and  of  its 
contact  upon  so  many  sides  with  the  needs  and 
interests  of  our  daily  life. 


159 


Chapter  VIII-The  Stations  in 
Modern  Times 

IT  is  not  the  purpose  of  this  little  volume  to 
provide  devotional  aids  for  performing  the 
exercise  of  the  Way  of  the  Cross,  neither  is  it 
meant  to  be  a  manual  of  information  for  those 
who  are  interested  in  the  minutiae  of  ecclesiastical 
legislation  on  the  subject.  Of  such  books  there  is 
already  an  abundant  supply,*  and  the  aim  of  this 
essay  is  to  throw  light  upon  certain  historical 
questions  which  have  hitherto  failed  to  attract 
particular  attention.  But  before  taking  leave  of 
the  whole  subject  it  seems  desirable  to  say  a  few 
words  about  the  developments  of  the  devotion 
during  the  last  two  centuries,  and  it  is  impossible 
to  do  this  without  touching  at  least  briefly  upon 
the  obscure  and  delicate  question  of  the  indul- 
gences of  the  holy  places. 

If  in  making  the  Way  of  the  Cross  Catholics 
have  come  in  modern  times  to  follow  one  almost 
uniform  system  throughout  the  world,  the  cause 
of  the  uniformity  is  not  far  to  seek.  Even  apart 
from  the  strong  appeal  which  ourpresent  arrange- 
ment of  fourteen  Stations  seems  to  have  made  to 
the  devotional  sense  of  the  faithful,  the  question 
of  indulgences  must  undoubtedly  have  had  much 
to  say  to  the  rapid  disappearance  of  all  rival 

*  I  may  refer  in  particular  to  the  long1  essay  or  series  of 
essays  upon  the  Way  of  the  Cross  to  be  found  in  the'  eighth 
volume  of  the  collected  works  of  Mgr  Barbier  de  Montault, 
pp.  14-271. 


i6o        The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

methods.  According  to  the  terms  of  the  conces- 
sions made  by  various  popes  at  the  instance  of 
Friars  Minor  of  the  Observance  during  the  last 
two  hundred  years  the  grant  of  indulgences  is, 
practically  speaking,  limited  to  that  form  of  the 
exercise  which  we  use  to-day,  the  form  which  was 
gradually  adopted  in  the  West  by  the  sons  of  St 
Francis,  and  which  has  been  placed  by  the  Holy 
See  under  their  special  charge  and  direction. 
That  the  Franciscan  Order  may  justly  claim  to 
hold  a  quite  exceptional  position  with  regard  to 
this  devotion  no  one  will  be  tempted  to  dispute. 
Ever  since  the  thirteenth  century  these  devoted  reli- 
gious have  been  the  official  custodians  of  the  ho'ly 
places.  They  have  borne  the  heat  and  burden  of 
the  day  during  periods  of  great  hardship,  danger 
and  humiliation.  They  have  remained  faithful  at 
their  posts,  never  faltering  in  their  work  of  love, 
and  no  tongue  can  tell  the  countless  services  they 
have  rendered  to  successive  generations  of  pil- 
grims who,  thronging  from  all  parts  of  the  world 
to  this  barbarous  and  hostile  land,  have  found 
themselves  almost  entirely  dependent  upon  their 
good  offices.  » 

But  while  in  this  way  the  great  work  of  the 
veneration  and  maintenance  of  the  holy  places 
owes  almost  everything  to  the  sons  of  St  Francis, 
it  would  not  seem  that  down  to  the  close  of  the 
seventeenth  century  we  can  connect  them  with 
any  definite  system  of  honouring  the  Way  of  the 
Cross  in  western  lands.  In  Antwerp,  as  we  have 
already  seen  (p.  69),  they  favoured  an  arrange- 
ment of  seven  stations ;  at  Jerusalem  itself  they 
counted  eight;  on  the  Sacro  Monte  di  Varallo 
Blessed  Bernardino  Caimi,  O.F.M.,  arranged  for 
the  erection  of  more  than  a  score  of  chapels  lead- 


In  Modern  Times  161 

ing  up  to  Calvary.*  Hence,  although  before  the 
days  of  that  great  apostolic  preacher  St  Leonard 
of  Port  Maurice,  the  Way  of  the  Cross  had  be- 
come a  practice  of  devotion  which  was  almost 
distinctive  of  the  Franciscan  missionaries  in  Italy 
and  was  much  relied  upon  by  them,  the  scheme 
of  Stations  was  not  of  their  own  creation.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that,  consciously  or  uncon- 
sciously, they  had  merely  borrowed  the  arrange- 
ment set  out  by  Adrichomius  and  invented  by 
Pascha,  adapting  the  exercise  for  popular  use  by  the 
recitation  of  a  few  simple  prayers  at  each  halting 
place  and  by  the  singing  of  hymns  as  the  congre- 
gation moved  from  one  to  another.  It  is  only 
with  the  closing  years  of  the  seventeenth  century 
that  we  begin  to  meet  with  a  certain  number  of 
papal  briefs  directly  connecting  the  Franciscans 
of  the  Observance  with  the  exercise  of  the  Way  of 
the  Cross.  These  were  granted  at  the  instance  of 
the  General  of  the  Order,  and  they  were  the  pre- 
lude of  an  important  movement  which  was  soon 
to  follow.  It  would  take  us  a  great  deal  too  far  to 
attempt  to  enter  into  the  exact  provisions  of  these 
early  papal  documents.  The  question  all  turned 
upon  the  possibility  of  communicating  to  those 
who  took  part  in  the  exercise  of  the  Stations  in 
Europe  or  elsewhere  the  extraordinarily  rich 
indulgences  which  were  believed  to  attach  to  the 
veneration  of  the  actual  halting  places  in  the  Via 
Dolor osa  in  Jerusalem.  It  is  sufficient  to  say  that 
this  communication  of  privileges  was  first  accepted 
in  principle  by  Popes  Innocent  XI  and  XII,  and 
that  after  being  limited  at  first  to  those  who  were 
under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Franciscan  General, 
either  as  members  of  the  Order  or  as  tertiaries, 
•At  present  there  seem  to  be  some  forty-four  chapels  in  all. 

II 


1 62         The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

etc.,  it  was  gradually  extended  to  those  who 
visited  the  sets  of  Stations  erected  in  Franciscan 
churches,  and  finally  was  placed  within  the 
reach  of  all  the  faithful  who  complied  with  cer- 
tain conditions  in  any  church,  providing  that  the 
fourteen  Stations  had  been  canonically  erected 
there  by  some  priest  duly  empowered,  either  as 
himself  a  member  of  the  Order  of  Friars  Minor* 
or  as  the  appointed  delegate  of  their  Father 
General. 

Curiously  enough  it  had  been  boldly  asserted, 
as  far  back  as  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
that  those  who  travelled  to  Jerusalem  in  spirit 
only,  might  gain  all  the  indulgences  offered  to  the 
pilgrims  who  venerated  the  holy  places  by  their 
bodily  presence.  There  was  certainly  at  that  time 
no  papal  authority  for  any  such  belief,  but  the 
statement  is  clearly  made  upon  the  title  page  of 
the  little  book  of  Heer  Bethlem  mentioned  above 
(see  p.  79,  note),t  and  is  developed  in  the  follow- 
ing passage  of  Bethlem's  Introduction : 

"This  is  the  indulgence  of  the  holy  city  of 
Calvary,  which  indulgence  everyone  can  gain 
who  follows  the  painful  and  heavy  way  of  the 
cross-bearing  of  the  naked,  bleeding  JESUS,  and 
thinks  with  pity  on  the  bitter  Passion  in  his  in- 
most heart.  This  is  not  so  to  be  understood  as  if 
those  only  gained  it  who  are  in  Jerusalem  or  who 
travel  there,  but  all  persons  in  what  place  soever 

*  These  powers  were  originally  committed  to  the  Franciscan 
Observantines  alone.  They  have  been  subsequently  extended  to 
the  Recollect  and  Capuchin  branches  of  the  Order. 

t  As  to  Bethlem's  book,  see  further  in  Appendix  A.  The 
great  popularity  of  this  little  treatise  both  in  France  and  the 
Netherlands  must  have  made  the  idea  of  the  communication  of 
indulgences  very  familiar.  It  is  for  this  reason  perhaps  that 
the  indulgences  are  also  inserted  in  Pascha's  '*  Spiritual  Pil- 
grimage." See  facsimile  at  page  88  above. 


LA 
PEREGRINATION 

SP1RITFELIE:    VERS 
Terufa- 

lem.BethIehem,au  Ionian  etc. 

Compofe'ecn  JangueTbyoife, 

par  feu  f>  lean  l*afcha  ,D.en 

Theolbgte:Et  noaeilemet  ttan- 

flate'e,  par  Venerable  Seigneur, 

Nicolas  de  Leuze,difl 

ni$,Char,oine  de  fainft  Pierre  a 

Lo«ain ,  &  Licenrie  en  la 

,  facre'e  Theologi* 

^i^-i  Af'.Jr" 
wl  I*tf4m  <&  rimrimtr'u  dt 


T/r££  P^G£  (reduced)  OF  THE  FRENCH  EDITION  OF 
P*ASCH<A'S  "  GHEESTELTCK 


This  book  includes  the  mention  of  the  usual  indulgences  to  be  gained  at  the 
Holy  Places  (see  the  facsimile,  p.  78)  though  it  does  not,  like  Bethlem's  little 
manual,  proclaim  them  on  its  title-page. 


To  face  p.  162 


In  Modern  Times  163 

they  are,  if  in  their  inmost  heart  they  turn  to 
GOD  and  meditate  with  attention  and  compassion 
on  those  holy  places  where  this  took  place — as 
much  as  humanly  they  can — may  gain  this  indul- 
gence from  the  mercy  of  GOD  as  often  as  they 
themselves  wish,  and  also  as  entirely  as  if  they 
were  in  the  city  of  Jerusalem  and  visited  bodily 
all  these  holy  places.  Still  those  who  travel 
thither  with  great  labour  and  expense  will,  with- 
out doubt,  be  heard  by  our  dear  LORD  according 
to  the  greatness  of  their  labours  and  their  devo- 
tions. But  those  who  cannot  come  there  bodily, 
and  who  with  the  powers  of  their  soul  meditate 
on  those  holy  places  and  salute  them  with  com- 
passion, after  the  manner  hereafter  described,  to 
such  as  these  the  indulgence  of  the  holy  city  of 
Jerusalem  and  of  Calvary  shall  be  as  fully  granted 
as  if  they  had  been  present  there  in  person ;  be- 
cause the  holy  popes  have  given  us  this  out  of 
the  worthy  merits  of  the  bleeding,  crucified  JESUS 
CHRIST,  our  dear  LORD,  by  His  holy  Wounds  and 
precious  Blood  poured  out,  in  the  same  way  as 
the  indulgence  of  Rome  is  given  us  to  be  gained 
in  all  churches.  Thus  those  pastors  give  us  power 
to  lessen  penalties  and  remit  guilt.  This  [indul- 
gence] is  found  true  and  has  been  proved,  and  all 
Christian  men  should  constantly  gain  it,  that 
their  cold  hearts  may  be  inflamed  by  the  hot 
Blood  of  JESUS  CHRIST  as  He  suffered  His  bitter 
Passion  so  willingly  for  us/'* 

Of  the  fact  that  the  indulgences  of  the  holy 
places  have  now  been  validly  communicated,  and 
are  available  for  those  who  piously  make  the  Way 

'  The  indulgences  specified  by  Bethlem  are  more  ample  than 
those  found  in  the  ordinary  lists,  and  include,  for  instance,  one 
of  thirty-three  thousand  years  attached  to  the  House  of 
Veronica, 


1 64        The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

of  the  Cross  in  any  church  in  which  it  has  been 
properly  erected,  there  can  be  no  doubt  whatever. 
What  is  not  quite  so  clear  is  the  precise  nature 
of  the  spiritual  treasures  which  have  been  thus 
placed  within  the  reach  of  all  the  faithful.  From 
the  fourteenth  century  onwards  the  numberless 
accounts  which  have  been  preserved  to  us  of  the 
pilgrimage  to  the  Holy  Land  make  particular 
mention  of  the  large  indulgences  which  were 
there  to  be  gained  upon  the  simple  condition  of 
praying  at  each  of  the  various  shrines  to  which 
they  were  attached.  It  would  even  seem  that  at 
an  early  date  compendious  lists  of  these  holy 
places,  both  in  Jerusalem  and  throughout  Pales- 
tine, naming  each  shrine  and  the  indulgence 
attached  to  it,  were  in  regular  use  and  passed 
from  hand  to  hand.  We  have,  moreover,  much 
evidence  to  show  that  the  pilgrims  made  a 
practice  of  copying  out  these  lists  and  bringing 
them  back  with  them  to  Europe,  where  they  too 
often  served  the  writer,  instead  of  notes  of  a  more 
personal  and  trustworthy  character,  to  draw  up 
an  account  of  his  visit  to  the  holy  places  after  his 
return.  The  items  mentioned  in  this  list  and  the 
character  of  the  indulgences  attached  to  them 
often  vary  considerably;  though  in  saying  that 
the  indulgences  vary,  I  do  not  mean  that,  as  so 
often  happened  with  devotional  shrines  in  the 
West,  fantastic  figures  and  terms  of  years  were 
quoted  at  haphazard.  Only  two  types  of  indul- 
gence commonly  appear — the  plenary,  which  was 
usually  called  an  indulgence  a  posna  et  culpa  (re- 
mission of  penalty  and  guilt),*  and  the  partial, 

*  I  may  perhaps  be  allowed  to  refer  the  reader  to  what  1 
have  written  on  this  subject  in  the  "  Dublin  Review,"  January, 
1900,  and  in  "The  Holy  Year  of  Jubilee"  (Sands  and  Co,), 
PP- 


In  Modern  Times  165 

which  was  always  in  these  cases  an  indulgence  of 
seven  years  and  seven  quarantines  (or  lents,  The 
reader  is  informed  in  many  of  these  relations  that 
where  a  cross  is  marked  (ijt)  a  plenary  indulgence 
is  to  be  understood;  where  some  other  symbol  is 
used  or  nothing  is  said,  an  indulgence  of  seven 
years  should  be  assumed.  At  the  same  time,  if  we 
compare  the  narratives  of  different  pilgrims,  we 
find  a  great  many  discrepancies.  The  shrine  which 
according  to  one  witness  enjoys  a  plenary  indul- 
gence, according  to  another  is  only  to  be  credited 
with  an  indulgence  of  seven  years,  and  in  the 
opinion  of  yet  a  third  is  not  indulgenced  at  all.* 
The  general  impression  derived  from  these  vary- 
ing statements  is  not  very  favourable  either  to 
the  authenticity  of  the  grants  or  to  the  seriousness 
of  the  effort  to  keep  an  accurate  record  of  them. 
There  is,  however,  one  point  upon  which  we 
find  that  the  writers  who  mention  the  matter  at 
all,  were,  practically  speaking,  unanimous.  They 
maintained  that  the  indulgences  attached  to  the 
holy  places  were  of  the  most  venerable  antiquity. 
It  was  Pope  St  Silvester,  they  asserted,  '"who 
granted  them  at  the  prayer  of  the  Emperor  Con- 
stantine  and  his  mother  St  Helen.  Thus,  to  take 
an  example  almost  at  random,  Ogier  d'Anglure, 
in  1395,  distinctly  assertsf  that  the  said  indul- 
gences were  granted  at  the  prayer  of  St  Helen 

*  For  example,  the  place  where  our  LORD  met  His  blessed 
Mother  is  stated  by  Fabri  (1483)  and  Suriano  (1495)  to  possess 
a  plenary  indulgence.  By  N.  de  Martoni  (1394),  by  Wey  (1465), 
and  by  Quaresmius  (1625)  only  a  partial  indulgence  of  seven 
years  is  mentioned.  Others  like  Sigoli  (1384)  omit  it  altogether. 
Again,  Suriano,  Martoni  and  Wey  assign  a  seven  years'  indul- 
gence to  the  stone  which  marked  the  last  Fall.  Sigoli  and  Fabri 
speak  of  a  plenary ;  Quaresmius  omits  it.  See  the  tabular  state- 
ment in  the  Appendix. 

t  Ogier  d'Anglure,  ed.  Bonaardot,  p.  13. 


1 66        The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

and  of  "  Saint "  Constantine  her  son.  Or  to  quote 
the  still  more  formal  assertion  of  Nompar  de  Cau- 
mont  in  1419: 

"Ci  ENSUiVENTles  peregrinations,  endulgences 
et  pardonances  de  peine  et  de  coulpe  de  toute  la 
terre  sainte,  que  je,  NOPER,  SEIGNEUR  DE  CAU- 
MONT,  DE  CHASTEAU  NUEF,  DE  CHASTEAU  CUL- 
LIER  ET  DE  BERBEGUIERES,  ay  ensuites  par  la 
grace  Nostre  Seigneur;  lesquelles  endulgences 
furent  concedees  de  saint  Silvestre,  papa,  a  la 
requeste  de  1'empereur  Constantin  et  de  sainte 
Hellene,  sa  mere,  et  furent  escriptes  en  la  cipt6 
de  Jherusalem  le  xiiie  jour  du  mois  de  juillet,  1'an 
mil  ccccxix."  Which  is  to  say,  in  modern  English : 

"  Here  follow  the  pilgrimages,  indulgences  and 
pardons  from  penalty  and  guilt,  of  all  the  Holy 
Land,  the  which  I,  Noper,  Lord  of  Caumont  of 
Chasteau  Nuef,  of  Chasteau  Cullier  and  of  Ber- 
beguieres,  have  duly  accomplished  by  the  grace 
of  our  LORD.  And  the  said  indulgences  were 
granted  by  St  Silvester,  Pope,  at  the  request  of  the 
Emperor  Constantine  and  of  St  Helen  his  mother, 
and  they  were  written  down  [by  me]  in  the  City 
of  Jerusalem  the  thirteenth  day  of  the  month  of 
July  in  the  year  one  thousand  four  hundred  and 
nineteen."  * 

No  doubt  it  may  very  reasonably  be  objected 
that  these  are  statements  made  by  irresponsible 
private  pilgrims,  laymen  who  would  naturally  in 
those  days  have  accepted  without  questioning 
any  pious  legend  that  was  current  among  their 
contemporaries.  But,  if  this  be  so,  we  can  only 
attach  the  more  importance  to  the  deliberate 
utterances  of  the  official  custodians  of  the  holy 

*  "Voyage  d'Oultremer  de  Nompar  de  Caumont,"  ed.  La 
Grange,  p.  59;  Cf.  Rohricht,  "  Bibliotheca,"  p.  101, 


In  Modern  Times  167 

places.  Now  among  these  a  certain  Brother 
Francesco  Suriano  holds  an  exceptional  position. 
He  was  twice  over  guardian  of  Mount  Sion  (i.e., 
Superior  of  all  the  Franciscan  communities  in 
Palestine)  and  Commissary  Apostolic,  and  he  was 
evidently  a  man  of  scholarly  tastes,  who  gave  him- 
self to  research,  as  research  was  understood  in  those 
days.  Now,  in  his  book,  which  he  calls  distinctly 
"  Indulgentie  de  Terra  Sancta,"  he  says,  with  all 
the  deliberation  of  aman  who  has  taken  some  pains 
to  investigate  the  point,  that  all  the  indulgences 
of  the  Holy  Land,  with  the  exception  of  three, 
were  granted  by  St  Silvester.  The  other  three 
indulgences,  which  he  specifies,  had  been  granted 
only  a  few  years  before  by  Pope  Sixtus  IV,*  and 
the  document  containing  them  was  still  pre- 
served in  their  archives  at  Jerusalem.  But  the  Bull 
of  Pope  Silvester,  adds  Fra  Suriano  with  much 
naivete — he  had  evidently  hunted  for  it — is  not 
any  longer  to  be  found  there.  Moreover,  in  another 
revision  of  his  work,  Suriano  himself  propounds 
the  objection  that  the  institution  of  plenary  indul- 
gences was  more  recent  than  the  time  of  St  Sil- 
vester, for  the  Portiuncula  indulgence  of  St  Francis 
had  been,  he  declares,  the  earliest  example  of 
such  a  concession.  To  this  difficulty  he  finds 
nothing  better  to  say  than  that  Pope  Silvester  no 
doubt  granted  the  indulgences  in  the  form  which 
was  customary  in  his  own  day.  The  matter,  I  may 
add,  is  discussed  with  the  same  seriousness  by 
Quaresmius,  in  the  most  careful  and  authori- 
tative of  all  the  books  ever  produced  by  the  Fran- 
ciscan custodians  of  the  holy  places.  Quaresmius 

*  This  was  a  grant  of  a  plenary  indulgence  for  the  chapel  of 
St  Helen  in  the  church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  for  that  of  St 
Thomas  on  Mount  Sion,  and  that  of  St  Mary  Magdalen  at 
Bethany. 


1 68         The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

unhesitatingly  accepts  the  tradition  referred  to, 
and  is  at  pains  to  refute  the  objections  which  had 
been  made  against  the  possibility  of  St  Silvester 
having  granted  such  indulgences  as  early  as  A.D. 

335- 
Now,  the  modern  reader  will  not  require  to  be 

told  that  the  supposition  of  St  Silvester  having 
granted  indulgences  in  the  time  of  Constantine 
is  absolutely  inadmissible  and  impossible.  If  no 
better  authority  than  that  of  St  Silvester  can  be 
found  for  these  indulgences,  they  are  unquestion- 
ably spurious.  Moreover,  so  far  as  regards  the 
middle  ages,  it  is  hard  to  understand  why  no 
record  should  be  found  at  Mount  Sion  if  the  grants 
had  really  been  made  by  any  later  pope.  By  the 
end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  for  example,  it  was 
generally  stated  that  there  was  an  indulgence 
at  the  house  of  Veronica.  But  the  numerous  early 
pilgrims,  while  mentioning  other  sites,  say  nothing 
of  this  one.  Veronica's  house  had  only  been  known 
for  one  hundred  years  at  most,  and  if  any  indul- 
gence had  been  attached  to  it,  the  grant  must  have 
been  made  in  quite  recent  times.  Yet,  when  Su- 
riano  wrote  in  1485,  no  documents  were  preserved 
and  no  memory  existed  of  any  such  separate  con- 
cession for  Veronica's  house.  What  is  more,  \ve 
find  that  in  the  numerous  extant  narratives  of 
pilgrimages  earlier  than  about  1345  there  is  not 
the  least  mention  of  any  indulgence  attaching  to 
the  holy  places.*  Such  detailed  accounts  as  those 
of  Wilbrand  de  Oldenburg (i 2 1 2),  Burchard  (1283), 
Ricoldus  (1294),  Philippus  Brusserius  (c.  1287), 
Simon  FitzSimon  (1322),  Marino  Sanuto  (1321), 
or  Lodulf  Sudheim  (1348)  may  be  searched  in  vain 

*  Niccol6  da  Poggibonsi  (1346)  is  the  earliest  pilgrim  I  know 
who  gives  a  detailed  account  of  the  indulgences  of  the  holy 
places. 


In  Modern  Times  169 

for  the  slightest  trace  of  any  belief  to  that  effect.* 
It  is  hard  to  resist  the  conviction  that  the  whole 
complexus  of  these  vague,  fluctuating  and  indefi- 
nite indulgences  was  apocryphal. 

Now  this,  of  course,  is  rather  a  startling  conclu- 
sion, for  it  would  follow  from  it  that  the  pilgrims 
who  at  the  cost  of  infinite  hardship,  danger  and 
expense  made  their  way  over  sea  and  land  to  pay- 
honour  to  the  scenes  of  our  LORD'S  earthly  life 
were  deceived  and  disappointed  in  their  hope  of 
generous  recompense  from  the  spiritual  treasury 
of  the  Church.  Perhaps  we  may  reasonably  hold 
that  in  the  case  of  an  error  so  widespread  and  so 
inculpable  "the  Church  supplied,"  and  that  the 
well  meaning  pilgrims  were  not  defrauded  of  their 
expectations.  But  the  element  of  doubt  must  in 
any  case  remain. 

With  regard  to  the  indulgences  of  the  holy 
places  at  a  later  period,  and  with  regard  conse- 
quently to  the  indulgences  now  communicated  to 
those  who  make  the  Stations,  matters  stand  upon 
a  somewhat  different  footing.  It  seems  to  have 
occurred  to  Brother  Boniface  of  Ragusa,  who  was 
the  guardian  of  Mount  Sion  in  the  middle  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  that  a  grant  of  indulgences 
attributed  to  Pope  Silvester  was  not  perhaps  the 
safest  form  of  title-deed  upon  which  these  privi- 
leges of  the  Church  could  be  based,  and  he  accord- 
ingly applied  to  Pope  Pius  IV  for  a  confirmation. 
This  was  granted  in  a  Bull  dated  July  17,  1561, 
a  copy  of  which  in  Quaresmius's  time  was  pre- 
served at  Jerusalem  among  the  archives  of  the 
Franciscan  Custodians  of  the  Holy  Places.  The 

*  This  is  the  more  noteworthy  when  we  find  pilgrims  to  Rome 
at  a  much  earlier  date  than  this  making1  the  most  elaborate  cal- 
culations of  the  indulgences  they  gained.  See,  e.g.,  Giraldus 
Cambrensis  in  his  "  Speculum  Ecclesiae"  (c.  1200). 


1 70        The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

Bull  of  confirmation  is  in  many  respects  a  most 
remarkable  document.  It  does  not  specify  the 
indulgences  which  were  to  be  confirmed,  but  it 
states  that  they  were  said  to  have  first  been  con- 
ceded by  Pope  St  Silvester  and  that  they  were 
enumerated  upon  a  certain  "tabella"  in  the 
Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  at  Jerusalem. 
When  Quaresmius  wrote,  not  much  more  than 
fifty  years  later,  he,  though  himself  the  successor 
of  Brother  Boniface  in  the  office  of  guardian  of 
Mount  Sion,  was  quite  in  the  dark  as  to  what  this 
"tabella"  might  be.  He  knew  of  nothing  of  the 
sort  preserved  in  the  Holy  Sepulchre  Church, 
but  he  conjectures  that  the  Bull  must  refer  toacopy 
of  that  widely  circulated  list  of  the  shrines  and 
their  indulgences  to  which  we  have  made  refe- 
rence above.  That  Pius  IV  should  have  confirmed 
a  list  of  indulgences  which  professed  to  emanate 
from  St  Silvester  but  were  quite  indeterminate  in 
their  nature  does  not  seem  a  very  satisfactory 
proceeding.  Neither  is  the  case  improved  by  the 
clause  in  the  Bull  to  the  effect  that  the  indul- 
gences "are  conceded  anew  in  the  same  manner 
and  form  in  which  they  were  originally  granted." 
At  the  same  time  the  terms  of  the  document  leave 
no  doubt  that  Pius  IV  intended  to  remedy  all 
defects  and  to  make  a  new  grant  in  case  the 
former  concession  was  invalid.  How  far  this  Bull 
of  confirmation  can  be  treated  as  of  undoubted 
force  and  authority  I  must  leave  to  more  learned 
theologians  to  determine.  Without  in  the  least 
questioning  the  genuineness  of  the  instrument 
itself,  it  seems  to  me  to  offer  certain  weak  points 
to  an  opponent  who  might  be  disposed  to  argue 
that  the  Bull  was  void,  owing  to  the  irregular 
form  in  which  it  had  been  drafted. 

Perhaps  the  most  remarkable  feature  of  the 


In  Modern  Times  171 

document  is  the  manifest  intention  of  the  framer 
to  tie  the  hands  of  succeeding  pontiffs.  Apart  from 
the  ordinary  non  obstantibus  clauses  familiar  in 
such  concessions  and  the  equally  familiar  formula 
that  the   privilege  conceded   is  to   "endure  for 
ever/'  the  Pope  seems  distinctly  to  contemplate 
the  case   of  some  subsequent   enactment  which 
might  revoke  his  grant.  "We  declare  these  pre- 
sent letters,"  he  says,  "to  be  in  no  wise  included 
under  any  dispositions  to  a  contrary  effect  which 
may   emanate   on   occasion    from   us   and  from 
the  Roman  Pontiffs  our  successors,  but  seeing 
the  remoteness  of  these   holy  places  and  their 
sanctity,  we  declare  these  present  letters  to  be 
always  excepted  from  any  such  dispositions,  and 
as  often  as  they  shall  be  issued  so  often  shall 
these  letters  of  ours  be  restored  to  their  primitive 
and  most  vigorous  state  .  .  .  and  shall  be  granted 
and  be  held  to  be  granted  anew."  Let  us  hasten  to 
admit  that  the  text  of  the  Bull  by  no  means  reads 
so  simply  and  straightforwardly  as  I  have  ren- 
dered it.  There  are  several  intervening  clauses 
which  I  have  omitted,  and  of  one  of  these  I  can 
make   no   sense  whatever.   The  tenses   also   as 
printed  by  Quaresmius  are  quite  untranslatable. 
But,  in  spite  of  this  the  general  meaning  seems 
plainly  to  be  what  I  have  stated.  All  things  con- 
sidered, it  is  probable  that  we  ought  to  lay  stress 
upon  the  words  attenta  locorum  distantia  etreligione, 
and  to  conclude  that  this  portion  of  the  document 
is  intended  to  protect  the  holy  places  from  any 
ill-considered  general  clause  in  some  future  papal 
constitution  revoking  such  concessions.  It  was  no 
doubt  meant  that  the  indulgences  attached  to  the 
holy  places  should  remain  in  force  until  there  had 
been  time  to  represent  the  matter,  and  to  obtain 
a  final  decision  upon  this  special  point  direct  from 


172         The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

the  Holy  See.  Whether  such  provision  for  the  auto- 
matic reviviscence  of  privileges,  in  case  a  subse- 
quent pontiff  should  attempt  to  abrogate  them,  was 
ultra  vires  concedentis,  and  whether  a  concession 
ultra  vires  invalidates  the  whole  document  in 
which  it  is  contained,  I  leave  for  canonists  to 
determine. 

It  should  also  perhaps  be  noticed  here  that 
when  Clement  XII,  in  1731,  issued  his  instructions 
for  making  the  Way  of  the  Cross  in  public,  the 
following  regulation  was  included  among  the  rest: 

"No  announcement  should  be  made  either 
from  the  pulpit  or  otherwise,  and  still  less  by  any 
written  placard  set  up  in  the  chapels  or  attached 
to  the  Stations,  to  publish  in  definite  numbers 
the  amount  of  the  indulgences  which  may  be 
gained  by  performing  the  Stations.  It  has  often 
been  discovered  that  either  by  inadvertence  or  by 
error,  or  by  confusion  between  one  'devotion  and 
another,  the  true  character  of  the  indulgences  has 
been  wrongly  represented.  Consequently  it  will  be 
sufficient  to  say  that  whoever  meditates  on  the 
Passion  of  our  LORD  during  these  holy  exercises, 
by  the  concession  of  the  sovereign  Pontiifs,  will 
gain  the  same  indulgences  as  if  he  had  person- 
ally visited  the  Stations  ot  the  Cross  in  Jeru- 
salem/' 

In  his  treatise  on  the  Way  of  the  Cross,  St  Leo- 
nard of  Port  Maurice,  at  whose  instance  this  in- 
struction of  ClementXIIhadbeenissued,  declares 
that  the  regulation  just  quoted  had  been  made  for 
very  wise  reasons;  for  the  catalogues  which  con- 
tained authentic  details  of  these  indulgences  of 
Jerusalem  had  been  destroyed  by  fire  in  the  Church 
of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  in  the  time  of  St  Pius  V 
(1566-1572).  Be  it  said  in  passing  that  there  seems 
to  be  no  record  of  any  such  fire.  Quaresmius,  who 


In  Modern  Times  173 

was  the  superior  of  the  Franciscans  in  Jerusalem  a 
little  more  than  fifty  years  afterwards  and  who 
was  anxious  to  explain  the  disappearance  of  the 
tabulce^  makes  no  mention  of  a  conflagration  in  the 
Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre.  On  the  contrary  we 
know  that  the  building  remained  i intact  from  the 
middle  ages  to  the  great  fire  of  1808.  Again  it 
is  remarkable  that  Suriano  (c.  1495),  who  was 
equally  guardian  of  Mount  Sion,  makes  no  men- 
tion of  any  "  authentic"  catalogue  of  indulgences, 
although  he  has  every  reason  to  touch  upon  the 
subject  in  the  various  redactions  of  his  "Indul- 
gentie  de  Terra  Santa."  Supposing,  with  Quares- 
mius  and  Ferraris,  that  the  lost  tabula  were  simply 
a  copy  of  one  of  the  old  medieval  lists  of  which  we 
have  spoken,  we  may  note  that  for  Quaresmius, 
who  had  such  a  list  before  him,  the  Stations  of 
the  Cross  from  the  Praetorium  to  the  Holy  Sepul- 
chre apparently  included  six  plenary  and  five 
partial  indulgences.  The  guide  books  at  the 
present  day  indicate  six  plenary  and  eight 
partial  indulgences.  But  the  variations  in  the 
estimates  of  the  indulgences  attaching  to  the  Via 
Cruets  had  best  be  studied  in  the  tabular  state- 
ment of  the  data  given  by  various  authorities  both 
before  and  after  the  Bull  of  Pius  IV,  which  will  be 
found  in  the  Appendix.  In  any  case  these  indul- 
gences are  extremely  moderate  when  compared 
with  those  alleged  to  belong  to  the  Stations  at 
Rome. 

We  have  already  said  that  the  greatest  deve- 
lopment of  the  Way  of  the  Cross  as  a  popular 
devotion  dates  back  to  the  time  of  St  Leonard  of 
Port  Maurice,  O.F.M.  (he  died  in  1751),  being  due 
partly  to  the  immense  zeal  with  which  he  propa- 
gated this  practice  of  piety,  partly  to  the  favour 
which  he  enjoyed  with  Popes  Clement  XII  and 


1 74        The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

Benedict  XIV.  It  was  the  latter  Pontiff  who,  in 
1750,  erected  the  Stations  of  the  Cross  in  the  Coli- 
seum, the  great  ruined  amphitheatre  of  ancient 
Rome,  and  there  the  exercise  used  to  be  conducted 
processionally  every  Friday  afternoon  down  to 
the  time  of  the  Italian  occupation.  Under  the  in- 
fluence mainly  of  the  Franciscan  Fathers  of  the 
Observance,  the  devotion  of  the  Stations  spread 
rapidly  from  Italy  throughout  Europe,  in  the  same 
form,  practically  speaking,  in  which  it  is  familiar 
to  us  at  the  present  day.  In  England  it  does  not 
appear  to  have  become  at  all  generally  known 
before  about  1845,  and  we  may  probably  attribute 
its  introduction  to  the  devotional  revival  which 
took  place  among  English  Catholics  about  that 
date,  under  the  influence  of  such  men  as  Dr  Gen- 
tili,  Father  Ignatius  Spencer  and  other  represen- 
tatives of  a  more  ultramontane  tradition.  None 
the  less  a  booklet  upon  the  Way  of  the  Cross, 
which  was  published  in  Rome  in  1834  and  was 
indulgenced  by  Pope  Gregory  XVI  for  private 
recitation  with  the  same  indulgences  as  if  the 
exercise  were  performed  in  a  church,  was  trans- 
lated into  English  and  issued  about  1835  from  the 
Propaganda  Press.  It  seems  to  have  been  intended 
for  use  in  all  English-speaking  countries,  and  I 
have  seen  a  copy  printed  at  Sydney,  Australia, 
in  1840. 

Of  the  conditions  regulating  the  practice  of  the 
Stations  of  the  Cross  at  the  present  day  I  may  be 
content  to  say  only  a  very  few  words.  All  the  larger 
modern  treatises  on  indulgences,  for  example 
those  of  Beringer  and  Mocchegiani,  afford  the 
fullest  information  upon  every  question  that  is 
likely  to  arise.  For  the  proper  performance  of  the 
exercise  and  the  gaining  of  the  indulgences  it  is 
in  the  first  place  necessary  that  the  Stations 


In  Modern  Times  175 

should  be  properly  erected.  This  involves  the 
obtaining  of  the  permission  of  the  bishop  and  the 
parish  priest,  and  the  blessing  of  the  Stations  on 
the  spot,  according  to  a  specially  appointed  form, 
by  a  Franciscan  or  some  other  priest  duly  em- 
powered for  the  purpose.  The  sculptures  or 
pictures  need  not  be  blessed,  but  the  crosses 
which  are  fastened  to  them  must.  These  crosses 
are  bound  to  be  of  wood,  and  it  is  to  them  that 
the  blessing  attaches.  In  other  words,  the  pictures 
or  sculptures  may  be  replaced  as  long  as  the 
crosses  remain.  The  Stations  must  be  fourteen  in 
number,  and  should  be  separated  the  one  from 
the  other  by  some  little  interval,  while  the  sub- 
jects depicted  upon  them  are  not  optional,  but 
must  be  those  mentioned  in  the  papal  constitu- 
tions. Lest  any  scruple  or  popular  deception 
should  arise  from  some  flaw  in  the  observance  of 
these  conditions  in  the  past,  the  Holy  See  has 
several  times  issued  decrees  declaring  all  the  sets 
of  Stations,  which  up  to  a  certain  date  had  been 
exposed  in  churches  for  the  veneration  of  the 
faithful,  validly  erected  and  duly  indulgenced, 
thus  supplying  for  any  accidental  defect.* 

With  regard  to  the  exercise  itself  three  things 
only  are  requited:  first  meditation  on  the  Passion 
of  CHRIST;  secondly,  the  moving  from  station  to 
station ;  thirdly,  that  the  whole  fourteen  stations 
should  be  visited  continuously,  that  is  to  say, 
without  any  notable  interruption. 

Supposing  the  state  of  grace  on  the  part  of 
the  person  performing  the  exercise,  the  indul- 
gences may  be  fully  gained  by  the  devout  obser- 
vance of  these  three  conditions.  Moreover,  accor- 
ding to  the  more  probable  opinion  they  may  be 

'  The  last  decree  of  this  kind  seems  to  have  been  issued  in 
1896. 


i  ;6        The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

gained  toties  quohes,  i.e.,  as  many  times  in  the 
day  as  the  exercise  is  repeated.  No  recitation  of 
a  specified  number  of  "  Our  Fathers  "  or  "  Hail 
Marys"  is  prescribed  as  of  obligation;  neither  is 
it  necessary  to  meditate  upon  the  subject  of  each 
successive  station  as  it  is  visited  in  order. 
Meditation  on  the  Passion  in  general  is  sufficient. 
With  regard  to  the  moving  from  place  to  place 
recent  decrees  have  approved  the  practice  of  the 
congregation  remaining  in  their  seats  when  the 
exercise  is  being  publicly  made  in  a  crowded 
church.  Some  little  external  indication  that  the 
procession  is  being  mentally  followed,  as  the 
priest  and  acolytes  pass  from  one  station  to  an- 
other, is  all  that  is  recommended. 

In  practice  it  is  customary  when  the  exercise 
is  performed  in  public  to  follow  the  prayers  now 
to  be  found  in  almost  every  prayerbook.  The 
officially  approved  "  Manual  of  Prayers  for  Con- 
gregational Use"  embodies  a  concise  form  of  the 
devotion  translated  from  the  Italian  of  St  Al- 
phonsus  Liguori.  In  passing  from  station  to 
station  a  strophe  of  the  Stabat  Mater  is  usually 
sung. 

finally,  it  should  be  noticed  that  for  the  bene- 
fit of  invalids,  prisoners  and  others  who  are  un- 
able to  obtain  access  to  the  stations  in  a  public 
church,  Fathers  of  the  Franciscan  Order  have 
power  to  communicate  the  stational  indulgence 
to  crucifixes  for  private  use.  To  gain  the  indul- 
gence it  is  only  necessary  to  hold  the  crucifix  in 
the  hand  and  to  say  twenty  Our  Fathers,  Hail 
Marys  and  Glorias  with  contrition  and  devotion. 
For  those  who  are  too  ill  to  make  this  physical 
effort  the  conditions  may  be  rendered  less 
onerous. 


177 


Appendix  ^-Heer  Bethlem's 
"  Overwegingen  " 

A  CLUE  which  I  have  only  been  able  to  follow  up 
since  the  foregoing-  pages  were  in  type  leads  to 
the  conclusion  that  in  some  of  its  aspects  the  practice 
of  making  spiritual  pilgrimages  to  the  Holy  Land  is 
rather  older  than  I  had  supposed.  The  substance  of 
the  little  book  of  Heer  Bethlem  referred  to  on  pp.  77-79. 
must  undoubtedly  have  been  compiled  in  the  fifteenth 
century.  Besides  the  British  Museum  Manuscript 
(Ad.  24937)  another  MS.  copy  of  the  same  trac- 
tate exists  at  Gottingen  (MS.  Theol.  295,  i)*  and  a 
fragment  of  the  same  is  contained  in  MS.  406  of  the 
Pauline  Library  at  Munster.f  Now  as  in  each  case  the 
manuscripts  are  described  by  competent  authority  as 
belonging  to  the  fifteenth  century,  it  would  be  unrea- 
sonable to  doubt  that  Heer  Bethlem's  little  work  must 
be  somewhat  older  than  say  the  year  1490.  On  the 
other  hand,  as  Pope  Sixtus  IV  is  mentioned,  it  must  be 
more  recent  than  the  year  1471.  The  proper  title  seems 
to  be  "Overwegingen  op  het  Lijden  des  Heeren  voor 
degenen,  die  in  den  Geest  de  heilige  Plaatsen  willen 
bezoeken  "  (Considerations  upon  the  Passion  of  our 
Lord  for  those  who  wish  to  visit  the  Holy  Places  in 
spirit).  Although  the  considerations  began  as  far  back 
as  the  Last  Supper,  it  is  strictly  a  book  of  the  Stations 
of  the  Cross;  the  distances  from  place  to  place  are 
given,  the  indulgences  announced  and  special  prayers 
assigned.  Here  we  find  for  the  first  time  the  recep- 
tion of  the  cross  mentioned  as  a  separate  station, 

*  See   "  Verzeichniss    der   Handschriften   im  Preussischen 
Staate,"  Gottingen,  vol.  II,  p.  477. 

t  See  J.  Stander,  "  Chirograuhorum  Catalogs,"  p.  92. 

12 


178         The  Stations  of  the  Cross 

and  here  also  a  fall  is  distinctly  alluded  to  in 
connexion  with  the  Judicial  Gate.  These  points  at 
least  have  seemingly  been  borrowed  by  Pascha  from 
Bethlem's  little  book.  The  book  was  printed  in  1518, 
1520,  1536  and  1561.  It  has  also  been  transcribed  and 
reprinted  in  modern  times  in  the  "  Bijdragen  voor  de 
Geschiedendis  van  het  Bisdom  van  Haarlem,"  by 
C.  J.  Gonnet,  vol.  xi,  p.  324. 

This  Appendix  was  itself  in  type  when  at  the  very 
last  moment  I  have  found  it  possible  to  push  the 
enquiry  a  stage  further.  The  little  tract  ascribed  to 
Heer  Bethlem  must  undoubtedly  have  had  a  wide 
circulation.  Tiny  as  it  is,  and  in  consequence  excep- 
tionally liable  to  be  thrown  aside  and  destroyed,  we 
have  already  accounted  for  four  Dutch  editions.  And 
now  it  appears  that  it  must  have  been  popular  in 
France  as  well,  for  I  have  discovered  two  printed 
French  translations  in  the  library  of  the  British 
Museum.*  The  first  may  be  dated  conjecturally 
1550,  and  was  published  by  Jacques  Kerver  at  Paris 
with  this  title:  "  Devote  Meditation  sur  la  Mort  et 
Passion  de  nostre  Seigneur  Jesus  Christ  et  de  place 
en  place  ou  nostre  Sauveur  a  souffert  pour  nous,  avec 
les  oraisons  a  ce  proprices.  Et  disent  quelques  uns 
qu'autant  de  fois  qu'on  les  diet  devotement,  on  gaigne 
tous  les  pardons  aussi  pleinement  comme  si  on  visi- 
toit  corporellement  toutes  les  sainctes  places  en  Hie- 
rusalem."  In  this  version  a  good  deal  of  matter- 
mostly  French  verse — has  been  interpolated.  The 
second  translation  keeps  closer  to  the  original.  It 
seems  to  have  been  printed  about  1570  by  Guillaume 
Merlin  at  Paris.  The  title  runs  thus:  "  Sensuyt  une 
devote  meditation  sur  la  Mort  et  Passion  de  nostre 
Sauveur  et  Redempteur  Jesus  Christ,  avec  les  me- 
sures  mises  de  place  en  place  ou  nostre  Seigneur  a 
souffert  pour  nous." 

*  I  do  not  think  it  would  be  extravagant  to  suppose  that  for 
one  edition  which  has  survived  of  such  a  book,  five  or  six  have 
left  no  trace  of  their  existence. 


Appendix  179 

Among  the  introductory  remarks  we  read:  "Item 
un  honorable  homme  d'eglise,  nomme  Sire  Barthe- 
lemy,  qui  a  demoure"  long  temps  en  la  terre  de  pro- 
mission  en  la  cite  de  Hierusalem  a  descript  ce  livre 
devot.  Et  il  a  mesure"  bien  etroictement  et  descript 
toutes  les  places  sainctes  ou  nostre  benoist  sauveur 
et  redempteur  a  souffert  pour  nous."  The  author, 
therefore,  according  to  this  translator,  was  called 
Bartholomew.  Whether  "  Bethlem  "  was  a  legitimate 
form  of  this  name,  or  whether  it  was  due  to  some 
error,  I  am  not  sufficiently  acquainted  with  Flemish 
to  determine.  But  there  seems  in  any  case  reason 
to  suppose  that  Bethlem  was  not  the  original  form. 
About  the  year  1475  a  tiny  volume  was  printed  at 
"  Aesii"  (i.e.,  Jesi  in  the  Marches  of  Ancona),  which 
professed  to  give  the  indulgences  of  the  Holy  Land 
and  which  were  written  by  a  certain  BARTHOLOMEW, 
Canon  of  Pola  in  Istria.  Now  I  believe,  from  various 
minor  indications  too  long  to  detail,  that  this  Bartho- 
lomew is  no  other  than  our  Bethlem.  From  a  copy  of 
this  rare  little  treatise  preserved  in  the  Bibliotheque 
Nationale  at  Paris  we  learn  that  the  title  begins: 
"  Queste  sono  le  perdonanzze  de  terra  sancta  in 
ierusalem,  lequelle  scrise  prete  bartolome,  chanonicho 
de  puole,  el  quale  ando  a  vixitare  lo  sancto  sepul- 
chro,"  etc.  The  printer  was  Frederick  de  Comitibus. 
See  Pellechet,  "  Catalogue  des  Incunables,"  vol.  i. 


CO 

W 
O 


w 

o 


Q 

z 


M 

CQ 

H 


•o-i 

1        1         1    *~ 

1         1         1     4-     1 

*         1         1         1        1 

*      *          1        1 

•S3  UQ 

1*11 

1*111 

I     *      *      *      * 

III! 

•™\d 

*      *      *          1 

11*11 

|     *      .}__*      * 

*      1   -t-    ! 

'H'H 


ATX 


IIIX 


IIX 


IX 


XI 


IIIA 


IIA 


IA 


AI 


III 


II 


*     * 


*•§ 


'jS  in 


H  --  1—     |    H  --  !  --  1—  -1  --  1  --  1  --  1—  -1—  H 


1 


-1—  H—  -!—  -i~  •*—  -! 


**-  •*—  H—  -1—  -1  --  1—  -J—  H—  -J—  -1—  -t- 


*      1**      I*****      1** 


*  * 


lllllil** 


** 


**    •*—  *    *    *    *    * 


*      I     1*****    5   -l-  ******* 


|*****-!—*-»-  -}-  ****** 


1       1       1       1       1       I       1       1 


1       1       1    -I-     1       1    *     * 


|* 


.  O  K 

grsl> 
111 


co 


1  5 


^f 

"u 

tj  ' 


IW* 

M 

>  .      i 

e 


o  — 
E2 


3  .S 
Sa  = 

1.2" 


•s     -s 


.     s 


* 

B* 

sl 


Notes  to  Appendix  181 

Notes  to  ^Appendix  B — Table  of  Indulgences 

1.  Poggibonsi  supposes  the  meetings  with   Mary,  the 
women  of  Jerusalem  and  Simon  to  have  all  taken  place  at 
same  spot. 

2.  I  take  the  indulgences  attached  to  the  Stone  of  Unc- 
tion as  the  equivalent  of  an  indulgence  for  the  thirteenth 
station. 

3.  These  indulgences  are  marked  in  the  Procemium  to 
James  of  Verona's  journey.  This  is  almost  certainly  a  later 
interpolation.  The  journey  itself  took  place  in  1335. 

4.  "Where  Simon  came  to  help  Him,"  says  Sigoli.  He 
means  where  Simon  ceased  to  help  Him. 

5.  I  take  the  place  of  the  casting  of  lots  as  the  equiva- 
lent of  the  stripping. 

6.  He  says  "  the  three  Marys,"  but  he  means  the  women. 

7.  This  might  perhaps  be  counted  as  an  indulgence  for 
the  seventh  station. 

8.  Here  CHRIST  took  the  cross  from  Simon  again. 

9.  Nompar  and  others  suppose  that  CHRIST  met  Simon 
and  the  women  at  the  same  spot. 

10.  The  two  stones  on  which  CHRIST  rested. 

1 1 .  Wey  mentions,  "  porta  civitatis  per  quam  JESUS  fuit 
ductus  ad  mortem";  it  is  not  clear  whether  he  refers  to  the 
Judicial  Gate  or  the  Ecce  Homo  Arch. 

12.  This  assigning  a  plenary  indulgence  to  the  stone  in 
the  courtyard  is  no  accidental  oversight,  but  the  statement 
is  twice  repeated  at  length. 

13.  Claes  van  Dusen  made  eleven  successive  pilgrimages 
to  Jerusalem  in  eleven  successive  years. 


182 


Appendix  C-Relative  Antiquity  of 
the  Various  Stations 

IN  "  La  Palestine,  Guide  Historique,"  by  the  As- 
sumptionist  Professors  of  Notre  Dame  de  Sion  a 
list  is  given  of  the  Stations  with  the  dates  of  their 
earliest  appearance  in  the  narratives  of  pilgrims  to 
the  Holy  Land.  As  my  conclusions  differ  in  many 
respects  from  those  there  enunciated,  a  few  notes  may 
be  added  upon  this  subject. 

I.  The  Praetorium  seems  perhaps  to  be  first  quite 
unmistakably  assigned  to  the  site  which   has   now 
become  traditional  by  Riccoldo  (1296),  and  this,  as  I 
judge,  for  the  thoroughly  sound  and  scientific  reason 
that  the  Praetorium  must  have  lain  within  the  city 
wall,  and  consequently  could  not  have  been  situated 
on  Mount  Sion.  They  accordingly  located  it  where 
there  were  signs  of  the  existence  of  a  paved  court- 
yard (lithostrotos)  near  the  Ecce  Homo  Arch. 

II.  The  receiving  of  the  cross  is  first  indicated  as 
a  special  object  of  devotion  by  Bethlem,  c.  1475.  See 
above,  p.  78. 

III.  The  idea  of  the  first  of  a  series  of  falls,  as 
distinct  from  the  fall  at  the  corner  where  the  station 
of  Simon  of  Cyrene  used  to  be  indicated,  is  also  clearly 
traceable  to  Bethlem.   He  and  other  contemporaries 
suppose  that  this  first  fall  took  place  upon  the  steps 
of  the  Scala  Santa  outside  Pilate's  Praetorium. 

IV  and  V.  The  meetings  with  our  Lady  and  with 
Simon  of  Cyrene  seem  first  to  be  plainly  commemo- 
rated in  Riccoldo  1296. 

VI.  Veronica's  house  first  appears  amongst  the 
holy  places  of  Jerusalem  in  the  Procemium  of  James 
of  Verona.  This  pilgrimage  was  made  in  1335,  but 


Appendix         "~          183 

the  Procemium  must  be  a  later  addition.  It  is,  how- 
ever, in  any  case  older  than  1420. 

VII.  A  fall  at  the  gate  of  the  city  is  very  clearly 
indicated  in  the  preface  to  Burchard,  1283.  Possibly 
it  was  from  this  source  that  Bethlem  (?  1475)  came  to 
speak  of  "  a  heavy  fall  "  at  the  Judicial  Gate. 

VIII.  The  meeting  with  the  women  of  Jerusalem 
is  mentioned  by  most  pilgrims  of  the  thirteenth  and 
fourteenth  centuries,  though  they  consider  that  it  is 
closely  associated  with  the  coming  of  Simon  of  Cy- 
rene.  Our  LORD  spoke  to  the  women  as  soon  as  He 
was  relieved  of  the  weight  of  the  cross  and  was  in 
consequence  able  to  raise  His  head. 

IX.  Verona  (1335)  and  Poggibonsi  (1346)  speak 
of  the  stone  in  the  courtyard  of  the  Church  of  the 
Holy  Sepulchre,  upon  which  our  SAVIOUR  fell,  or,  as 
other  accounts  say,  rested  for  a  while  when  climbing 
the  steep  of  Calvary. 

X.  XI,  XII.  These  stations  are  made  prominent 
as  separate  incidents  by  Pascha  (?c.  1539).  The  strip- 
ping appears  among  the  seven  Falls  before  1500.  See 
pp.  65,  72  and  73. 

XIII  and  XIV.  It  can  by  no  means  be  said,  as  in 
"  La  Palestine,  Guide  Historique,"  that  the  thirteenth 
and  fourteenth  stations  were  only  added  to  the  Way 
of  the  Cross  in  the  eighteenth  century  at  the  earliest. 
Both  these  episodes  are  separately  commemorated  and 
illustrated  by  pictures  in  the  "Geystlich  Strass,"  1521 
See  illustration  above  at  p.  154. 


THUFSTON,  Herbert. 

The  Stations  of  the  Cross 


BQT 

4439 
•T5