JERUSALEM.*
• Jerusalem: Me City of Herod and .Paladin. By Walter Besant, 31A., and E. H. Palmer, M.A. London: Bentley. 1871.
scale of the greatest magnificence. He was accused of having broken the agreement by which his faith was tolerated by raising the Chris- tian temple higher than any of the Mohammedan holy places. The charge was manifestly true, and in his perplexity the Patriarch sought advice from a skilful lawyer of the opposite faith. He was instructed flatly to deny the fact, and to challenge his accusers to prove it. This they were not sufficiently advanced in mathema- tical knowledge to do, and their sense of justice compelled them, against the evidence of their senses, to allow the innocence of the accused.
We now come to more familiar ground, to the Pilgrimages, which, increasing in the number and fervency of their devotees, develop into Crusades. The narrative is told with much force and skill by Messrs. Besant and Palmer. Like many things in mediaeval history, it presents a strange conflict between probability and evidence. The numbers are staggering ; the sum of total misery endured by the multitudes which for two centuries kept on stream- ing in thousands to the East and returning to the West in tens is almost too awful for belief. The quarter of a million which flocks after Peter the Hermit dwindles to three thousand while the Holy Land is still hundreds of miles away ! Fifty thousand boys and girls go on what is called "The Children's Crusade," and but a few scores of them return ; and, strangest fact of all, no one in Europe, as our authors remark, seems to have cared ! All this and much more, the most marvellous medley of the ludicrous and the terrible, not, of course, without an element of the heroic, will be found in this volume ; much of it has been gathered from sources not easy of access, and the industry and ability with which it has been collected are deserving of a very hearty recognition.
Here is the story of Peter Bartholomseas who put courage into the heart of Raymond of Toulouse by discovering the spear which pierced the side of Christ. Unfortunately, a rival chief, Bohe- mond, accused Peter of having joined with Raymond in contriv- ing an imposture. The enthusiastic monk voluntarily offered to submit to the ordeal of fire. The chronicle thus tells the story :—
" Peter's proposition appeared to us reasonable, and after enjoining a fast on Peter, we agreed to kindle the fire on Good Friday itself. On the day appointed, the pile was prepared after noon ; the princes and the people assembled to the number of forty thousand ; the priests coming barefooted and dressed in their sacerdotal robes. The pile was made with dry branches of olive-trees, fourteen feet long, and four feet high, divided into two heaps, with a narrow path, a foot wide, between each. As soon as the wood began to burn, I myself, Raymond, pro- nounced these words, "If the Lord himself has spoken to this man face to face, and if Saint Andrew has shown him the lance of the Lord, let him pass through the fire without receiving any hart : or, if not, let him be burnt with the lance which he carries in his hand." And all bending the knee, replied "Amen." Then Peter dressed in a single robe, kneel- ing before the bishop of Albaric, called God to witness that he had seen Jesus on the cross face to face, and that he had heard from the month of the Saviour, and that of the apostles Peter and Andrew, the words reported to the princes : he added that nothing of what he had said in the name of the saints and in the name of the Lord had been invented by himself, and declared that if there was found any falsehood in his story, he consented to suffer from the flames. And for the other sins he had committed against God and his neighbours, he prayed that God would pardon him, and that the bishop, all the other priests, and the people would implore the mercy of God for him. This said, the bishop gave him the lance. Peter knelt again, and making the sign of the cross, he reached the flames without appearing afraid. He remained one moment in the midst of the fire,
and then came out by the grace of God After Peter had gone through the fire, and although the flames were still raging, the people gathered up the brands, the ashes, and the charcoal, with such ardour that in a few moments nothing was loft. The Lord in the end per- formed great miracles by means of these sacred relics. Peter came out of the flames without even his gown being burned, and the light veil which covered the lance-head escaped uninjured. He made imme- diately the sign of the cross, and cried with a loud voice, "God help!" to the crowd, who pressed upon him to be certain that it was really he. Then, in their eagerness, and because everybody wanted to touch him, and to have even some little piece of his dress, they trampled him under their feet, cut off pieces of his flesh, broke his back-bone, and broke his ribs. Ho was only saved from being killed there and then by Raymond. Pelot, a knight, who hastily called a number of soldiers and rescued him. When he was brought into our tent, we dressed his wounds, and asked him why he had stopped so long in the fire. " Because," he said, "the Lord appeared to me in the midst of the flames, and taking me by the hand, said, Since thou haat doubted of the holy lance, which the blessed Andrew showed to thee, thou shalt not go out from this safe and sound. Nevertheless thou shalt not see hell.' After these words he sent me on. See now the marks of fire on my body." And, in fact, there were certain burnings in the legs, small in number, though the wounds were great.' "
He died two or three days afterwards, not, it was said, from the fire, though there were burns on his body, but from the crush. On the whole, the ordeal could hardly be considered a success.
Beyond mentioning one or two instances of slovenliness, such as the expression on p. 15, " a great accession of strength to the in- surgents was caused by the burning of the public archives, where all debts were incurred,"—where ' entered' or ' enrolled' must be meant ; another on the following page, "the Jews fell upon them, vainly calling on the faith of a treaty," which is evidently a very bald translation of some Latin original, and one or two repetitions, pro- bably due to the double authorship, we have nothing but praise for this most interesting volume.
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