4C6 



C A R M E L. 



Carmel. that the prophet seems to have inhabited successive- 

 - ~r ' ly every part of Mount Carmel ; for almost all the 

 fields, grottos, and fountains, are still called by his 

 name. On the summit of the mountain there is a 

 chapel dedicated to Elijah, which commands a most 

 extensive and delightful prospect. It is certain that 

 Mount Carmel very early began to be an object of 

 great veneration among both Jews and Christians,, 

 and that those parts of* it which were particularly 

 hallowed by his presence, have been always regarded 

 by them with the most pious emotions. Chateau- 

 briand gives an animated account of the impression 

 made upon his own feelings and on those of the pil- 

 grims who accompanied him, by the first view which 

 they got of it. ( See his '. Travels, p. 358.,) And we 

 are told that even the Mahometans, forgetting their 

 principles and their prejudices, participate occasional- 

 ly in the reverence which is felt for Mount Carmel, 

 and invoke the images of the Virgin and Elijah, 

 which are worshipped there in the Carmelite church. 

 Carmel is mentioned in profane history. Suetonius 

 tells us, that Vespasian, when he went into Syria 

 to subdue the Jews who had revolted, ascended 

 this mountain to offer a sacrifice to the deity of the 

 place, and to consult the oracle as to his future for- 

 tunes. Tacitus, (Hist. 1. ii. c. 78.) in relating this 

 fact, states, that the name of this deity was the same 

 with that of the mountain ; that there was no image or 

 statue of him, and no temple erected for his worship.; 

 and that there was only one altar, on which sacrifices 

 were devoutly offered to him. Jamblichus, however, 

 in his life of Pythagoras., speaks of a temple there, 

 to which that philosopher frequently resorted, for the 

 purposes of solitary meditation. In the writings of 

 Scylax, who, according to Gronovius, flourished in 

 the reign of Darius Hystaspes, and whose geogra- 

 phical notices have been much restored by the la- 

 bours of the learned Vossius, we read of Carmel as 

 " the mountain and temple of Jupiter" " Kct^ho? 

 egos xat h^av A*oj." There is a book written by 

 Mendoza a Spaniard, and translated into Latin by 

 .Papenbrochius, which treats particularly of the god 

 Carmel, and contains many things in proof or illus- 

 tration of this point. 



The order of the Carmelites has its name from this 

 mountain, and, if we may believe some of themselves, 

 takes its origin from the prophets Elijah and Elisha. 

 Phocas, already quoted,, gives an account of their 

 origin as rational as any other. In 1185, when he 

 was at Carmel, he tells us, that there still existed the 

 remains of a large monastery, which time and vio- 

 lence had reduced to ruins ; and that a few years be- 

 fore, one Berthold, an aged Calabrian priest, instruct- 

 ed, as he said, by a revelation from the prophet, 

 erected a small temple or chapel, and having col- 

 lected about ten brothers, took up his abode in that 

 holy place. He was in this situation when Phocas 

 was there. These Carmelites, in 1205, got a very 

 rigid rule from Albert the patriarch of Jerusalem ; 

 which, in 1226, was confirmed by Pope Honorius III. 

 and afterwards mitigated by Innocent IV. In 1229, 

 they left the Holy Land under Alan, the 5th gene- 

 ral of the order. Some of them were sent into Cy- 

 prus in 1238; some went to Sicily; and some were 

 Brought by St Lewis into .France. They came in- 

 2 



to England in the year 1240, and erected a great Carmel. 

 number of monasteries. In the 16th century, they v< *~*'i~~* 

 divided into two branches, viz. Carmelites of the an- 

 cient observance, and Carmelites of the strict obser- 

 vance, or bare-footed Carmelites, whic'i separation 

 was confirmed in 1587 by Sextus V., and completed 

 in 1593 by Clement VIII. The Carmelite order has 

 always been eminent for its missions, and for the 

 great number of saints with which it has furnished 

 the Romish calendar. Its members received from 

 several of the popes the title of Brothers of the 

 Blessed Virgin. 



On the mountain, the Carmelites have still a convent, 

 which is almost wholly indebted to nature for its con- 

 struction and accommodations. It has a small cha- 

 pel, containing two altars, one of which is conse- 

 crated to the Virgin Mary, and the other to Elijah. 

 Two priests and two Carmelite laics are here almost 

 constantly at prayer. There are several cells and 

 apartments destined for the use of travellers, and for 

 the French inhabitants of Acre, who come hither 

 sometimes for the benefit of the air. They are un- 

 der the protection of the consulship of Acre, and 

 depend upon the charity of the Mahometans, who 

 esteem them for their exemplary life. The ruins of 

 the monastery formerly mentioned, which are as thick 

 as the walls of a fortress, and have every appearance 

 of solidity, hang over the cells of these Carmelites, 

 who, afraid of being buried under them, an accident 

 not unlikely to happen, have taken a great part of 

 them down. Some 6f the grottoes have been con- 

 verted by the Mahometans into a mosque, under 

 the title of El haden, the green, in which a dervise, 

 who with his family lives in a neighbouring hut, re- 

 gularly performs divine service. Between this place 

 and the convent of the Carmelites, along the whole 

 de-clivity, there is a great number of cisterns, some 

 of them very spacious, intended to hold the rain 

 water which is collected during winter for the use 

 of the monks. Most of them are now insufficient 

 for that purpose, but there are some excellent springs 

 at a little distance, which supply their place in the 

 summer time or dry season. From one of these 

 flowed a stream which passed along a canal cut out 

 of the rock, and after turning a mill lost itself in 

 the sea. Both canal and mill are now destroyed, 

 and the stream is applied to no useful purpose. From 

 the foot of the mountain proceeds the lake Cendevia, 

 out of which flows the Belus, a river mentioned by 

 Pliny, Tacitus, and Flavian, as famous for having 

 its sand richly intermixed with glassy particles. This 

 sand is taken away by foreign vessels 'as ballast ; and 

 from it were manufactured those fine plates of glass 

 with which Venice long supplied the European mar- 

 ket. The brook Kishon, which issues from Mount 

 Tabor, waters the bottom of Carmel, and falls into 

 the sea towards the northern side of the mountain, and 

 not the southern, as some have erroneously alleged. 



On Mount Carmel there are the remains of many 

 magnificent buildings, which are calculated to give a 

 grand idea of what they once were. Mariti tells us, 

 that he saw the vestiges of many convents, and some 

 most beautiful columns of oriental granite. Accord- 

 ing to Pliny, (Nat. Hist. 1. v. c. 19), there was once 

 a town here anciently called Ecbatana, and more re- 



