volume one

2 HISTORY OF THE CEUSADES. ^
St. Helena, the motlier of tlie emperor, repaired to Jerusalem,
at a very advanced a2:e, and caused churches and
chapels to be built upon Moimt Tabor, in the city of
]Srazareth, and in the greater part of the places which Christ
had sanctified by his presence and his miracles. From this
period, pils^rimages to the Holy Land became much more
frequent. The pilgrims, no longer in dread of the persecutions
of the Pagans, could now give themselves up, without
fear, to the fervour of their devotion ; the Eoman eagles,
ornamented with the cross of Jesus Christ, protected them
on their march ; they everywhere trampled under-foot the
fragments of idols, and they travelled amidst the abodes of
their fellow- Christians.
TTlien the emperor Jidian, in order to weaken the authority
of the prophecies, undertook to rebuild the temple of
the Jews, numerous were the prodigies related by which
God confounded his designs, and Jerusalem, for that attempt
even, became more dear to the disciples of Jesus Christ.
The Christians did not cease to visit Palestine. St. Jerome,
who. towards the end of the fourth centurv, had retired to
Eethlehem, informs us in one of his letters that pilgrims
arrived in crowds in Judea, and that around the holy tomb
the praises of the Son of God were to be heard, uttered in
manv languages. From this period, pilgrimages to the
Holy Land were so numerous, that several doctors and
fathers of the Church thought it their duty to point out the
abuses and danger of the practice. They told Christians
that long voyages might turn them aside from the path of
salvation : that their God was not confined to one cit^' ; that
Jesus Christ was everywhere where faith and good works
were to be foiuid ; but such was the blind zeal which then
drew the Clu"istians towards Jerusalem, that the voice of the
holy doctors was scarcely heard.* The counsels of enlightened
piety were not able to abate the ardour of the
pilgrims, who believed they should be wanting in faith and
zeal, if they did not adore Jesus Christ in the very places
* See the letter of St. Gregory of Xyssen, translated into Latin and
commented on by Casaubon. St. Augustin, and St. Jerome himself, raised
their voices against the abuses of pilgrimages. (See the first of the
Appendix, in which is an abridgment of the pilgrimage of St. Jerome
and St. Eusebius of Cremona.)