174 THE HOLY LAND. 
CHAP, conducted from one convent to another (each 
< y. I striving to outdo the former in the list of in- 
tiolis'of'the dulgences and of relics it has at its disposal). 
Country, j^gaping tcstimouy to the wretched ignorance 
and sometimes to the disorderly lives of a 
swarm of monks, by whom all this trumpery 
is manufactured. Among the early contributors 
to the system of abuses thus established, no 
one appears more pre-eminently distinguished 
Empress than thc Euiprcss Helena, mother of Constantine 
the First; to whose charitable donations these 
repositories of superstition were principally 
indebted. No one laboured more effectually 
to obliterate every trace of that which might 
have been regarded with reasonable reverence, 
than did this old lady, with the best possible 
intentions, whenever it was in her povv^er. Had 
the Sea of Tiberias been capable of annihilation 
by her means, it would have been desiccated, 
paved, covered with churches and altars, or 
converted into monasteries and markets of 
indulgences, until every feature of the original 
had disappeared ; and this by way of rendering 
it more particularly holij. To such a disposition 
may be attributed the sort of work exhibited 
in the Church and Convent oi Nazareth, originally 
constructed under her auspices. Pocockc has 
proved that the tradition concerning the dwelling- 
