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JERUSALEM JESTER. 



church in the fourth century, after she had found the 

 true cross. The Jews live in great wretchedness, 

 and are confined to a small part of the city. The 

 temple of the Mohammedans, which is regarded as 

 one of their greatest sanctuaries, is magnificent. No 

 Jew or riiri>ti;m is permitted to enter the inner 

 sanctuary. This temple consists of two large build- 

 ings, of which the one, El Aksa, is adorned with a 

 splendid dume and beautiful wilding. The other 

 edifice is octangular, and is called El Sahara. Here 

 the Mohammedans show the footsteps of their pro- 

 phet surrounded with a golden grate ; and a Koran, 

 which is four feet long, and two and a half broad. 

 <>u tlie mount of Olives is to be seen a Christian 

 church, in which is shown a foot-print of the Saviour, 

 which he left on the place, when he ascended to 

 heaven. Besides many old Jewish monuments, there 

 are a great many Greek and Roman, several Chris- 

 tian, nnd, especially, Gothic monuments, which ori- 

 ginated in the times of the crusades. 



A contemporary of Abraham, Melchisedec, is called 

 king of Salem, 2000 years before Christ : this Salem 

 is supposed to be the Jerusalem of after times. This 

 town then came into the possession of the Jebusites, 

 and when the Israelites conquered the land of pro- 

 mise (B. C. 1500), it was assigned, in the division of 

 the country, to the tribe of Benjamin. The Jebusites, 

 however, appear afterwards to have recovered posses- 

 sion of the place ; for David conquered the city, 

 called it after his name, and built the castle of Zion. 

 His son Solomon greatly embellished the city, and 

 caused the temple to be built by the skilful artists of 

 Tyre. Under his successors, Jerusalem was the 

 capital of the kingdom of Judah. Five times it was 

 taken and plundered ; first under Rehoboam by the 

 Egyptians, then under Joram by the Arabians, under 

 Joash by the Syrians, under Amaziah by the Israelites, 

 and under Josiah by the Egyptians again (B. C. 611). 

 Herodotus also mentions the last conquest of it, call- 

 ing the city Kadytas, which resembles Kedushah, the 

 Holy, and the Mohammedans still call the city El 

 Kods. At last, the Chaldean king, Nebuchadnezzar, 

 during the reign of Zedekiah, conquered the king- 

 dom, razed the city to the ground (B. C. 586), and 

 carried the Jews to Babylon. Seventy years after, 

 Cyrus gave them permission to return and rebuild 

 the city and temple. This was done under the 

 direction of their high priests, Ezra and Nehemiah, 

 whose successors governed them a long time. The 

 story of Alexander's making a pacific visit to Jeru- 

 salem, after his conquest of Tyre, is nothing but a 

 Jewish invention, as Josephus is the only author who 

 mentions it. Alexander's successor, Ptolemy, the 

 son of Lagus. captured Jerusalem, and carried a 

 great number of the better sort of Jews to Alexandria. 

 It then remained, for a long time after it was taken 

 by Antiochus the Great, under the jurisdiction of the 

 Syrian kings. Under the Maccabees, the Jews were 

 again free for a considerable time, and chose their 

 own rulers. One of the last of these, Aristobulus, 

 invited Pompey the Great into the country, and thu 

 Jerusalem came under the Roman dominion (B.C. 64). 

 But, as it continued to have its own kings, at least 

 in name, and also high priests, together with the 

 Roman governors, this occasioned constant troubles 

 which were finally ended by the destruction of the 

 city, and extermination of the inhabitants, by Ves- 

 pasian and Titus, after a bloody siege (A. D. 70). 

 Some buildings, however, were left among the ruins 

 The Jews again collected together, built on the place 

 and again rebelled against the Romans. Provoked by 

 this obstinacy, the emperor Adrian, at last, in the year 

 118, ordered all that Titus had spared to be destroyed 

 He commanded a new city to be built in its place 

 called sElia Capitolina, in which no Jew was per 



mitted to dwell. Constantine the Great, and h!s 

 mother Helena, from pious motives, ordered all the 

 leathen monuments to be destroyed, and erected 

 many new Christian edifices. Julian conceived the 

 dea of rebuilding the old temple of the Jews, but is 

 a ill to have been hindered from executing his plan 

 YJ the eruption of subterranean fire. The city 

 remained under the government of the Eastern 

 jniperors till Chosroes, king of Persia, conquered it 

 n the year 614. It was recovered, however, by the 

 emperor Heraclius, in the peace of 628. This prince 

 rohibited the Jews from dwelling there, and so 

 alienated the patriarch of Jerusalem, Soplironius, by 

 sectarian differences, that the Saracen caliph Omar 

 bund little difficulty in making himself master of the 

 city (A. D. 637). From the Saracens it passed into 

 the hands of the Turks. In the first crusade, Godfrey 

 of Bouillon took Jerusalem. It was erected into a 

 Christian kingdom, to which the Turks put an end 

 n 1187. Clarke, Chateaubriand &c., describe its 

 present state. 



JERUSALEM, JOHN FREDERIC WILLIAM, was 

 3orn November 22, 1709, at Osnaburg, where his 

 "ather was a clergyman, and early displayed great 

 talent. As early as 1724, he entered the university 

 of Leipsic, where he studied theology. He then 

 studied at Leyden, went with two young noblemen 

 to the university of Gottingen, visited London, and 

 was, in 1742, appointed, by the duke of Brunswick, 

 court preacher and tutor of the hereditary prince. 

 The Collegium Carolinum, afterwards so famous, was 

 established on a plan suggested by him. In 1752, 

 he was made abbot of the convent of Niddagshausen, 

 near Brunswick. The chancellorship of the uni- 

 versity of Gottingen was offered to him, but he would 

 not leave Brunswick, where his benevolent activity 

 found full exercise. In his old age, his son destroyed 

 himself in consequence of an unfortunate passion for 

 a married lady. This give rise to Goethe's Sorrows 

 of the young Werther. The father died in 1789, 

 esteemed by all Germany as a theologian, and for 

 the purity and beneficence of his character. His 

 sermons (Brunswick, 1788 1789, 2 vols.) are still 

 read, as are also his Contemplations on the most 

 Important Truths of Religion (1785 and 1795, 

 2 vols.) He wrote many other works, and is con- 

 sidered one of the best men of his time in Germany. 



JESO, or JEDSO, or YEDSO, or JESSO, or 

 MATSMAI ; a large island in the North Pacific 

 ocean, governed by a prince tributary to the emperor 

 of Japan. The inhabitants are more rude and savage 

 than the Japanese. They live chiefly on fish and 

 game. Lon. 140 10' to 147 10' E.; lat. 42 to 45 

 N. Square miles, 53,000. Chief town, Matsmai. 



JESSE; a man of Bethlehem, who lived by raising 

 cattle ; the father of eight sons, of whom David was 

 one. When Saul persecuted the latter, Jesse fled 

 into the land of the Moabites, where he seems to 

 have died, as no mention is made of him after 

 David's accession to the throne. 



JESTER, or COURT FOOL. In the middle ages, 

 every court, secular or ecclesiastical, had its fool, as 

 a necessary appendage ; and there are some instances 

 of court jesters in the eighteenth century. Douce, 

 in his Illustrations of Shakspeare, has a dissertation 

 on the fools and clowns. He states that Muckle 

 John was the last person who regularly held the 

 office of court jester in England, his predecessor, 

 Archy Armstrong, having been sentenced to have his 

 coat pulled over his head, and to be dismissed the 

 king's service, for a sarcasm on Laud (1637). Since 

 the time of the commonwealth, the post of king's fool 

 has been discontinued, though some private persons 

 had fools late in the last century. Swift wrote an 

 epitaph on Dicky Pearce, the earl of Suffolk's fool 





