論聖地 第 1 章 第 1/2 段

Here begins the prologue of Peter the Deacon of Monte Cassino to Wibald, abbot of Monte Cassino and Stavelot, in the book on the holy places. To his lord and father, venerable in Christ, Wibald, by the grace of God abbot of the sacred mountain of Cassino, Peter, deacon of Cassino, offers the service of due obedience. With how great a fire of longing I have burned, venerable father in Christ, and with what and how great a desire I have wished that almighty God might snatch you from adversities, I call to witness God Himself, whom the recesses of the mind, whom the secrets of the conscience do not deceive, who is believed to be the future judge of the human race from those very motions of the soul.

But because, according to the prophet's saying, the way of man is not in his own hand, nor by man, but by the Lord are the steps of man directed, that has not come to pass which human eagerness coveted—our misdeeds demanding it—but what God the judge has judged to befit human merits; for when, with the impiety of all the wicked raging, the state of the Church of God is seen to be daily shaken, and almost, so to speak, no one rises up against them on behalf of the house of Israel, partly through love, partly through fear of secular powers:

therefore our lord the emperor Lothair, of august memory, appointed your beatitude abbot in the monastery of Cassino, that you might carefully and diligently treat those things which pertain to the correction of the wicked and the salvation of the good, and might bridle the unbridled and humble the proud, so that, righteousness being recovered and religion restored, the ecclesiastical assembly might be able justly and mercifully to serve itself and to entreat the clemency of almighty God for the state of the Roman empire. Whence not undeservedly are you loved and venerated by all upright and wise men. For who would spurn the friendship of so great a man, scorn his affability, flee his diligence?

For, to pass over the other very great and excellent and illustrious monuments of your genius, you surpass all the wise men of the Roman empire who excel in Ciceronian eloquence, and at all hours and moments you surpass the lavish munificence of your predecessors. Beholding you, I say, crowned with such and so great garlands and adorned with laurels, I have taken care to send to your paternity an itinerary of the holy places, somehow composed by us and collected, so to speak, from all the books, asking that it be confirmed by your eminence;

in which I ask that you attend not to the sloth of the writer, but to the most useful matter; nor that you will learn anything new and hitherto unknown to you in this itinerary, but that you may know we have here collected those things which you have already learned by living voice from those relating them, who journeyed to the Sepulchre of the Lord, or those things which you have read through the various volumes of books. But what unbending and monstrous hindrances, from the faithless and wicked who limp on both knees, have stood in our way, I should call not now God, but you yourselves as witnesses, you yourselves as faithful and conscious witnesses thereof.

For the rest, to the little space that has been left from the bounty of divine indulgence, I have set forth this little work by heavenly munificence, trusting nonetheless that God will one day confer upon us the victory over our rivals. For just as a work is never solid if the craftsman does not fit everything as reason demands, so every writer flowing with manifold verbosity will have no power of producing a writing filled with sweetness, as Horace, that most strenuous orator, has left in his writings, saying: 'He has won every point who has mingled the useful with the sweet'—if, after he attempts to write, he does not search out his material. But now, with Christ as our auspice, let this be the end of this preface. The prologue ends. The book on the holy places begins.

From Bede's books on the holy places, chapters 1 and 2, as far as the words: 'There are very few cisterns there.' Anonymous: The Sepulchre of the Lord, of which we spoke above, is built in the middle of the temple, and the temple in the middle of the city, toward the north, not far from the gate of David. After the resurrection, however, there is a garden, in which holy Mary spoke with the Lord. Outside the church, behind it, is the middle of the world, of which place David says: 'Thou hast wrought salvation in the midst of the earth.' Another prophet also says: 'Thus says the Lord: this is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations.' In Golgotha, moreover, is a part of the wood of the saving cross, on which the Lord was fastened, and the title, which is laid up in a little silver casket.

There too is the horn from which kings were anointed, and the ring of Solomon. Not far, moreover, from the middle of the world is the prison; there indeed is the binding, there nearby also the scourging, and there nearby also the crowning with thorns; there nearby is the stripping and the division of the garment. In Calvary, moreover, where the Lord was crucified, is the cleft mountain, and on that very mount of Calvary one ascends by seventeen steps, and there hang nine lamps with their several silver bowls. Beneath, indeed, is Golgotha, where the blood of Christ fell upon the cleft rock. Beneath the mount of Calvary, however, toward the east, is the temple of the Lord on the other side of the city, which Solomon built. It has four gates:

the first toward the east, the second toward the west, the third toward the south, the fourth toward the north, which signify the four quarters of the world; on the outside, moreover, it has eight angles, and at each angle it turns through twelve paces. In the middle of the temple is a great mount surrounded by walls, in which was the tabernacle, and there too was the Ark of the Covenant, which, when the temple had been destroyed, was carried off to Rome by the emperor Vespasian. On the left side of the tabernacle, upon a rock, the Lord Jesus set his foot when Simeon received him in his arms, and so the footprint remained engraved, as if it had been set in wax. On the other side of the rock there is an open chamber, into which one descends by twenty-two steps.

There the Lord used to pray, and there too Zechariah used to offer sacrifice. Outside the temple is the place where Zechariah, the son of Barachiah, was slain. Upon the rock in the middle of the temple hangs a golden lamp, in which is the blood of Christ, which ran down through the cleft rock. Toward the south, not far off, was built the temple of Solomon, in which he dwelt, which has twenty-five gates; within it has three hundred and sixty-two columns, and below, not far away, are the cradle of Christ, his bath, and the bed of the holy Mother of God. Below the temple of the Lord, on the eastern side, is the Beautiful Gate, through which the Lord entered seated upon the foal of a donkey. There also Peter healed the lame man.

Toward the north is the church of Saint Anne, where the blessed Mary was nourished for three years. Nearby is the Pool of Bethesda, which has five porches. (From Bede, chapter II, from the words: 'In the vicinity of the temple, the pool of Bethsaida,' down to the words: 'Whence they suppose the middle of the earth to be there.') Anonymous: In the church which is called holy Sion is the throne of James the brother of the Lord, who was buried near the temple; and it was founded in the place where, after the Passion, with the doors shut, the Lord appeared to the apostles as they were dining. And nearby is the gate through which the angel led Peter out.

Of the temple which Solomon built, only two pinnacles remain, of which one, which is very high, is the very one on which the Lord was tempted by the devil; the rest, however, were destroyed. On the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite the temple was built. Near the gate the blood of Zechariah, son of Barachiah, was poured out. (From Bede, chapters III and IV, down to the words: 'And it had a length of eight feet.') Anonymous: The cloth with which Christ wiped his face, which by others is called the Veronica, was brought to Rome in the time of Tiberius Caesar.

The reed with which his head was struck, and his sandals, and the thongs with which he was bound, and the relic of his circumcision and his blood, are venerably honoured in the Constantinian basilica at Rome. (From Bede, chapter IV, from the words: 'Also another somewhat larger linen cloth,' down to the end, chapters V and VI.) Anonymous: Across the brook Kidron is a cave, and over it a church on the spot where, on the fifth day of the week after supper, the Jews seized the Saviour; this place is at the head of the valley of Jehoshaphat. In that same valley stood the palm tree from which the children took branches when they cried out 'Hosanna.'

Likewise on the Mount of Olives is a cave, and in it a very bright altar, in which the Lord was wont to teach his disciples; above which cave is a great holy church, and not far off is the martyrium of Saint Stephen. Not far from there is the place where the Lord prayed when his sweat became like drops of blood. And on the road to Bethany is the village from which the donkey was brought. (From Bede, chapter VII, except the last words: 'Marked by the title of his name down to this day.') Anonymous: The pool where Rabshakeh reviled is near Bethlehem. And by the mouth of the cave is the well from which David longed for water. In the valley also which is at Bethlehem are the memorials of the kings of Judah.

Not far from there is the church called 'At the Shepherds,' where there is now a great garden, carefully enclosed with walls all around, and there is a most luminous cave having an altar in the very place where, as the shepherds were keeping watch, an angel appearing announced to them the nativity of Christ. At Anathoth is a tower in which the prophet Jeremiah lamented; it is distant from Jerusalem by the fourth milestone. At the twelfth milestone from Jerusalem is the tomb of the holy prophet Amos, the place which is called Tekoa. On this road, opposite, is a mountain which Herod hollowed out and made himself a palace upon the wilderness over against the Dead Sea. At Timnath-serah is the tomb of the holy Joshua, son of Nun;

there also are the flint knives with which the children of Israel were circumcised the second time; a church was built there, and it is distant from Jerusalem by twenty milestones. On another mountain at the second milestone is a church where rest the bodies of the saints Eleazar and Phinehas. At the ninth milestone from Jerusalem, in the place called Kiriath-jearim, where the Ark of the Lord once was, a church has been built there. (Bede, chapter VIII.) Anonymous: At the twenty-fourth milestone from Jerusalem, near Hebron, is the fountain in which the apostle and evangelist Philip baptized the eunuch of Candace the queen.

In the place called Terebinth, where the three angels appeared to Abraham, is Abraham's excellent well and two most luminous caves where he dwelt; for there too an altar is set, and before it there is a church. Not far from there is the mountain as far as which Abraham escorted the angels as they went to Sodom. Within Hebron stands the house of David, of which some part still stands; for the chamber in which he stayed is still resorted to there for prayer to this day. And not far from Hebron, at three hundred paces, in the place called Abramiri, is the house of Jacob, where a roofless church has been built. And from there, at fifty paces, is the tomb of the holy Caleb.

Likewise at Abramiri is a vineyard, in which is a cave where rest the bodies of the eleven sons of Jacob; but the bones of Joseph are buried separately in their own church. Not far from Hebron is the tomb of Abner, son of Ner. (Bede, chapters IX, X, XI, XII, XIII.) Anonymous: Whoever desires to go from Jerusalem to the Jordan descends by the Mount of Olives. From the Mount of Olives Christ ascended to heaven, and there he made the 'Our Father.' Mount Sion is on the south; there holy Mary died, and there the Lord supped with his disciples, and there he sent the Holy Spirit upon the disciples. In the church which is at Bethlehem is the table at which holy Mary ate with the three kings who sought Christ the Son of God.

Within the church itself are sixty-four columns; there rest the children slain for Christ by Herod. The foundations of the walls of the city of Jericho, which Joshua, son of Nun, overthrew, still appear in part. The sycamore tree into which Zacchaeus climbed stands beside the house of Rahab. And not far from Jericho is the place from which Elijah was caught up into heaven. Across the Jordan are very high mountains, among which one is higher, called Nebo, onto which Moses climbed when he saw the land of promise, and died. Gibeon, which Joshua conquered, is not far from Jerusalem. And Emmaus, where the Lord ate with his disciples after the resurrection, is distant sixty stadia from Jerusalem.

In the tower of Kedesh was the house of Jacob, whose foundations still appear to this day. In Galilee is the village of Shunem, from which came Abishag the Shunammite, and the woman in whose house Elisha stayed, which house remains to this day. From Mount Hermon, which is exceedingly high, all Galilee can be seen, than which nothing is more beautiful; for though it is a great plain, there is nothing else there but vineyards and olive-groves. There is a field in which the Lord ate with his disciples; there is a stone on which the Lord pressed his elbow, which can be seen to this day. And not far from that same mountain is a spring which the Saviour blessed, which spring avails against all infirmities.

In the village of Nain, in the house of the widow whose son was raised up, there is now a church; and the tomb in which they wished to lay him still exists to this day. At Nazareth is a garden where the Lord was after he returned from Egypt. (Bede, chapter XIII.) Anonymous: That church is distant two miles from the same village which was once called Shechem. And far from that church, at five hundred paces, is a church in which rests Saint Joseph. (Bede, chapter XV.) Anonymous: The cave in which he dwelt is great and most luminous, where an altar is set; and there, within the cave itself, is the place from which he drew water. And in that same city, where the synagogue was, there is now a church where the Lord read the book of Isaiah.

Outside the village is a spring from which Mary used to draw water. (Bede, chapter XVI.) Anonymous: It is far loftier and higher than Hermon; for from there appear all Galilee and the Sea of Tiberias; and over against it on both sides are set mountains. At Endor is the house of the witch, to whom Saul came by night, of which house the foundations still appear. At Tiberias there is now a church in the place where the house of the apostles James and John was. There also, beside the Sea of Tiberias, is the place upon which the Lord walked with his feet. At Capernaum, out of the house of the prince of the apostles, a church has been made, whose walls stand to this day just as they were. There the Lord healed the paralytic.

There too is the synagogue in which the Lord healed the demoniac, to which one ascends by many steps; this synagogue is built for him of squared stones. Not far from there one sees stone steps upon which the Lord stood. In the same place, above the sea, is a grassy field with plenty of hay and many palm trees, and beside them seven springs, each of which pours out boundless water; in this field the Lord satisfied the people with five loaves and two fishes. Indeed the stone upon which the Lord set the bread has been made an altar, and from this stone those who come now break off fragments for their salvation, and it profits all. Beside the walls of this church passes the public road, where the apostle Matthew had his toll-booth.

From there, on the mountain which is nearby, is a watchtower upon which, ascending, the Saviour spoke the Beatitudes. Not far from there is the synagogue which the Saviour cursed; for when the Saviour was passing by and the Jews were building it, he asked them, saying: 'What are you doing?' and they: 'Nothing.' And the Lord said: 'Therefore, if it is nothing that you are doing, it shall be nothing forever.' And so it remains to this day. For afterward, however often the Jews wished to build it, whatever they made by day was torn down by night, and in the morning the building was always found in the same measure as it had been then, when it was cursed. And from there, not far off, are the mountains of Gilboa, where also is the village of Gibea, where Saul and Jonathan died.

At Jezreel the vineyard which had been Naboth's is now only a well; there too the foundations of the tower appear to this day. The tomb of Jezebel is stoned by all even to this day. Not far from the city is a mountain on which the prophet Elijah sat when Jezebel was persecuting him. Far off is part of Mount Carmel; there is the place where Elijah consecrated an altar to the Lord. Sebaste, which was once called Samaria, contains a church in which rest the body of Saint John the Baptist, and of Elisha, and of Obadiah. At the second milestone is a very high mountain on which are two most luminous caves, in one of which the prophets were hidden under Jezebel, and in the other holy Elijah sat.

At the twentieth milestone from Shechem is the temple, destroyed, at Shiloh, where also is the tomb of Eli the priest. At Bethel, where a church has been built in the place where Jacob, as he was going into Mesopotamia, saw the ladder stretching up to heaven, there too is the tomb of the prophet who prophesied against Jeroboam. At the twenty-second milestone from Jerusalem, between Socoh of Judaea and Azekah of Mahel, David slew Goliath the Philistine. At Eleutheropolis, in the place Bycoyca, is the tomb of the prophet Habakkuk.

And at the fifteenth milestone from Eleutheropolis is the tomb of the holy prophet Ezra, in the place called Asoa; and at the third milestone, in the place called Chariassati, which formerly was called Morasthi, is the tomb of the holy prophet Micah. Tanis is set upon the bank of the river Nile; there is the palace of Pharaoh, where holy Moses was held as the son of Pharaoh's daughter; there too are the chief men, where holy Moses worked wonders before Pharaoh. (Bede, chapter XVIII.) Anonymous: Memphis still contains a palace, into which holy Joseph frequently entered. From there, at the sixth milestone, over against the bank of the river Nile, is the throne of Moses and Aaron;

and these aforesaid thrones are on a high mountain, where there are two little towers, which are ascended by very many steps; one of them had a roof, but the other is without a roof. There Moses used to ascend when he spoke to the children of Israel as they were being oppressed, and in the other he prayed. Below, round about, is a plain where the children of Israel made bricks. And from there, at a thousand paces, is a village above the bank of the river, where holy Mary stayed with the Lord when she went into Egypt. Between Memphis and Babylon there are twelve miles, where there are very many pyramids which Joseph made for storing grain. Heliopolis is distant from Babylon twelve miles. In the middle of this city is a huge field,

in which is the temple of the Sun, and there is the house of Potiphar. Between the house of Potiphar and the temple is the house of Asenath. The inner wall within the city is more ancient and of stone, enclosing only the temple together with the house of Asenath and the house of Potiphar. There too is the garden of the Sun, where there is a great column called Bomon, on which the Phoenix was wont to alight after five hundred years. Although Egypt is most fertile, yet the places which the children of Israel held are better. The part of Arabia which is joined to Palestine has an inaccessible road; for although one may travel fifteen stages, yet those very places are without water. From Jerusalem to the holy mount Sinai there are twenty-two stages.

Pelusium is the metropolis of the province of Augustamnica, and the province of Augustamnica is in Egypt. From Pelusium to Mount Sinai there are twelve stages. But before you reach the holy mount Sinai, you come upon the fort of Clysma upon the Red Sea, where the children of Israel crossed the sea dry-shod. The tracks of Pharaoh's chariot appear in the midst of the sands forever. The very wheels are much wider apart from one another than the chariots of our time which are now made in the Roman empire; for between wheel and wheel there were twenty-four feet or more, and the ruts themselves are two feet in width.

The tracks of Pharaoh's chariot reach as far as the sea, at the very point where he entered into the sea while wishing to seize the children of Israel. In the place where the children of Israel entered the sea, that is, as far as Pharaoh's ruts appear to this day, two signs have been set up, one on the right and the other on the left, made as it were like little columns. The place itself is not far from the fort, that is, from Clysma. And Clysma itself is on the shore, that is, upon the sea; for there is an enclosed harbour there, through which the sea enters into the fort, which harbour sends ships to India or receives ships coming from India; for nowhere else on Roman soil do ships from India have access except there. And the ships there are both many and huge;

wherefore the harbour is famous on account of the merchants coming there from India. For even that official whom they call the logothete, that is, the legate who every year goes to India by command of the Roman emperor, has his seat there, and his ships stand there. This is the place where the children of Israel arrived as they fled from Pharaoh, when they set out from Egypt; and this fort was afterward set there for defence and good order against the incursion of the Saracens. The place itself is such that it is all wilderness, that is, sandy plains, except for that one mountain which overhangs the sea, on the side of which, opposite, porphyry marble is gathered;

for from this, it is said, the Red Sea takes its name, because this mountain, which lies over a great expanse above the Red Sea, has reddish stone, or porphyry, for the mountain itself is as it were of a reddish colour. This mountain, however, was on the right of the children of Israel as they fled from Egypt, where they had begun to approach the sea; for to those coming from Egypt, on the right side, this mountain rises up very steeply and is high enough, like a wall, which you would think had been cut by the hand of men. The mountain itself is utterly barren, so that it has not even a shrub upon it. But the children of Israel, going out from Rameses, first wandered through the midst of the sands;

but when they had approached the Red Sea, then the mountain which appeared to them on the right drew near at hand; and joining themselves to the mountain, they come to the sea, while the side of that high mountain came on their right and the sea on their left; then suddenly, as they went, there appeared before them that very place where the mountain joined the sea, or rather entered into it, as headlands do. And the field itself, where the children of Israel stayed that night with Moses, is boundless, and its plain is vast. The place where the mountain leans into the sea is distant five hundred paces from the fort of Clysma. Between the fort and the mountain itself is the place midway from the headland of the mountain, where the children of Israel entered the sea, and Pharaoh after them.

And the crossing, where they passed the Red Sea dry-shod, is eight miles in width. The Red Sea does not have its name because the water is red or turbulent, but rather it is as limpid and bright and cold as the Ocean sea. There the fish are of exceeding flavour and sweetness. Every kind of fish in that same sea are of as great a flavour as the fish of the Italian sea. Moreover, all the things which are usually desired from the sea abound there for food. There are whelks and various kinds of shellfish, and spondyli and various and huge snails; and along its shore lie various things, but larger and more beautiful than in any other sea.

And there is very much coral on that same shore, and the Red Sea itself is a part of the Ocean. The desert of Shur is a wilderness of boundless extent, as far as a man can ever behold, and the sand of that solitude is beyond reckoning, where they walked for three days without water. From the desert of Shur to Marah there is one stage along the shores of the sea. At Marah there are very few palm trees; there too are two springs which holy Moses sweetened. From there, for three days, on the left is a boundless wilderness as far as the place called Arandara; and Arandara is the place which was called Elim. There a river runs, which however at some season dries up, but in its channel or along its bank waters are found.

Grass abounds there abundantly, and palm trees are very many there. From the crossing of the Red Sea, that is from Shur, no place is found so pleasant, with such great and such water and so abundant, except this one. From there, then, a half-stage lies beside the sea. At length two very high mountains appear; and on the left side, before you come to the mountains, is the place where the Lord rained down manna upon the children of Israel; and those mountains are very high and steep. On the other side of the mountains is a most level valley, like a portico, the valley itself having two hundred paces in width. And on either side of the valley the mountains are high and steep.

Where the mountains open out, there is a valley six miles wide, and considerably more in length. The mountains all around have been hollowed out, and those grottoes have been so fashioned that, if you wished to hang up curtains, they would be most beautiful chambers; and each chamber is inscribed with Hebrew letters. The waters there too are good and abundant enough at the far end of the valley, but not such as at Elim. The place itself is called the desert of Paran, whence the spies were sent by Moses to survey the land; and on both sides that place is fortified with mountains. That place bears neither fields nor vineyards, and there is nothing else there but water and palm trees.