JERUSALEM, 
339 
have exhausted the most vigorous youth \ chap. 
Nothing could surpass the zeal with which she ^ 
visited every spot consecrated by the actions of 
Jesus Christ, and hy his apostles'", from the. 
hills of Jerusalem to the shores of the Sea of Galilee, 
and over all Samaria, nor the piety with which 
she endeavoured to perpetuate theTemembrance 
of the holt/ places by the monuments she erected^. 
But, after all, the manner in which the identity 
of any of those places was ascertained seems 
not less an object of derision, than the gross 
superstition, founded upon their supposed dis- 
covery, has long been of contempt. From the 
time of Adrian, to that of Constantine, Jerusalem 
had been possessed by Pagans : Helena arrives, 
overturns their temples, and prepares to identify 
the situation of every place connected with our 
Saviour's history. The first thing to be ascer- 
tained is the site of Mount Calvary. An acci- 
dental Jissure in one of the rocks of Jerusalem 
suggests the idea of a possible consequence 
(4) " Cum aetate recipiens incrementa virtutum, sexu et setate 
quidem infirma, sed diving virtute promptior et fortior reddita," &c. 
Quaresm. Elncid. T. S. lib. v. cap. 28. Antv. 1639. 
(5) Vid. Nicephor. lib. viii. c. 30. Paris, 1630. 
(6) Nicephorus, (ibid.) after enumerating twenty-six churches and 
chapels built by Helena in the Holy Land, adds, " Quin et plures 
ecclesias alias in Sanctis illis locis, supra triginta, amanttssinia Dei 
ficmina Imperatoris mater condidit." 
Y.2 
