JERUSALEM. 359 
About forty years before the idolatrous pro- ^^^^ 
fanation of the Mount of Olives by Solomon, his » ' 
Ascent of 
afflicted parent, driven from Jerusalem by his son j)avid. 
Absalom, came to this eminence, to present a 
less offensive sacrifice ; and, as it is beautifully 
expressed by Adrichomius\ " Flens, et nudis 
PEDiBus, Deum adoravit." What a scene 
does the sublime, though simple, description 
given by the Prophet' picture to the imagination 
of every one who has felt the influence of filial 
piety, but especially of the traveller standing 
upon the very spot* where the pious monarch 
gave to Heaven the offering of his wounded 
spirit. " And David went up by the ascent of 
Mount Olivet'^; and wept as he went up, and 
being lower than the summit of the mountain. There are passages in 
the writings both oi Eusebitis and of St. TVillibaMs biographer which 
seem to point at this place ; the first, referring to a Cave (ri avrfu), 
honoured by Constantine as that of the Ascension, situate i-r) rris 
axptipnus {Vid, cap. xli. lib. iii. de Vit, Constant. Paris, 1659.) and the 
Itist, describing this sanctuary as " Ecclesia desuper patuta et sine 
teeto." {Vid. Vit. S. fVillibald. apud Mabillon. Act. Sanct. Ord. Bene- 
dict. Sacul. 3. Pars % p. 376. L. Paris. 1672.) But another of St. 
fVillibald's biographers, (^Auct. Anonym.) alluding to the same sanc- 
tuary, says, " HODIE ETIAM DOMINICORUM VESTIGIA PEDUM." (Vid. 
Mabillon. &c. ubi supra, p. 387.) and this remark does not apply to the 
Crypt. 
(4) Theatrum Terr. Sanct.p. I'O. Colon. l6^2S. 
(5) 2 Sam. xv. 20. 
(6) " And it came to pass, that when David was come to the top of 
the Mount, where he worshipped God," &c. 2 Samuel, xv. 32. 
(7) Ibid. V. 30. 
