200 Travels into tbehEv ANT. Part -I. 
TheSepul- cents, fo called, becaufe many Innocent Infants, whom the Mothers had hid 
chre of the with themfelves in that Grott, were Murdered and Buried there. Then to 
Innocents. Oratory of St. Jerome, where he Tranilated the Bible out of Behew 
of St 0"^'^*^°^"^ into Latw, and to his Sepulchre which ftands in a Chappel, where there are 
'oemne. ^y^Q^i^^^.^. to wit, one over his Tomb, which is on the Right Hand as you 
enter, and another upon the Tomb of St. /W^, and her Daughter Enfiochmm, 
The Eçitaph where there is an Epi'taph made by St. Jerome, in thefe terms ; Ohnt hic Paula 
of St. rmU. ex Nobilijfimis Romanorum Cornelns & Gracchas orta, cum 20. Annas vixiffet m 
cœnobiis a fc infiitntis, cm tale Epitafhinm pofmt Hieronymns : And this other be- 
fides, Scipio qftem aenkit PSiVllx fudere farentes, Gracchormn foholes : Agamemnonis 
inclyta frètes, hoc jacet in tKmnlo, Paulam dixere friores. Enftochii gemtrix. Ro- 
mani frima Senatiis, Patiperiem Chrifii & Bethleemiti rma [equuta. We made a 
St. Jerome's ftation at the Tomb of St. Jerome, and another at the Tombs of the faid 
• Saints. After that we went to the Tomb of St. Eafebius, the Difciple of 
St. Jeroine, finging at thefe feveral ftations, the proper Prayers for the places. 
All thefe llations are in Grotts under Ground, where there is no Light but 
what they bring along with them. Then we come up again into the Church, 
where the Procellion ended. The Church of St. Catharine, was heretofore a 
Monaftery ; they fay, that it was in that Church that our Lord Efpoufed 
St. Catharine, who came to vifit thefe holy places, and the fame Indulgences 
are there, as in Mount Sinai. There is a. very good Ciftern in that Church, 
near the Door on the left hand as you enter: It is a very pretty Church, and 
was with the whole Convent built by St. faula. After the ProcelTion, we went 
to the great Church, lately come into the Poireffion of the Greeks, which for 
Money they gave the Turks, they wrelled from our Monks. This Church was 
built by Si.Helene, and is a molt beautiful and fpacious Church ; it has a high 
Roof of Cedar- Wood , extraordinary well wrought, and Leaded over, 
with many fair Windows, that render it very light. The Nef, or Body, is 
fupported on both fides by two rows of high and great Marble Pillars, all of 
one entire piece, there being Eleven in each row, lo that it maketh five Ifles, 
feparated one from anpther by thefe four rows of Pillars, on every one of 
which there is the Pidure of a Saint ; and over thefe Pillars all the Wall is pain- 
ted in lovely Mofaick Work of Green, upon a ground of fine Gold. Hereto- 
fore all this Church was lined with beautiful Marble, as may be eafily feen by 
the Cramp Irons fixed all over in the Wall, which have held the pieces; but 
the Turks have removed thefe Ornaments for their Mofques. As you enter 
that Church, you fee on the right hand behind the third and fourth Pillars the 
Greeks Font, which is very fine. The Quire is ftill very large, and clofed all 
round with a Wall ; the Armenians have a third part of it, which was given 
them by the Latins whilft they pofl^elTed the Church ; and they have feparated 
it from the reft by wooden Rails. As you enter this Quire, you fee on each 
fide a kind of Chappel, andalmoft at the farther end of it ftands the high Al- 
tar, which with thefe twoChappels makes aCrofs; in that which is on the 
right hand, there is an Altar, where you fee the Stone on which our Lord was 
Circuracifed : In the other Chappel, on the left hand, which belongs to the 
Armenians, there is an Altar, which they fay, is the place where the Kings 
alighted from their Horfes,^when they came to adore our Lord. On the right 
fide of the high Altar, there is a pair of Stairs, by wiiich you go up to a Tower 
on the out- fide of the Quire, it was formerly the Steeple of the Church, and 
ferves at prefent for Lodgings for the Cm^. There are alfo many Pillars in 
the Qiiire like.to thofe in the Nej, and which with thefe of the Nef, make in 
all fifty Pillars. Near to the high Altar in the Quire, there are two little Mar- 
ble Stair- cafes, one on each fide, having thirteen fteps apiece, and being gone 
down fix of them, you find a neat Brazen Door well wrought, and pierced 
through to let in light from above ; paffing it you come to the foot of the 
Stairs, which lead into a little Church, reaching only in length from the one 
Stair-cafe to the other : Much under the great Altar of the Quire, at this end 
betwixt the aforefaid two Stair-cafes, there is an Altar, under which is the 
place where our Saviour was Born ; this place is faced with lovely Marble, 
in the middle whereof there is a Glory of Silver like the Sun, with this In- 
icription about it, Htc àeVirgine Maria, Jefus Chrifius natns eft. About half a 
Foot 
