THE CHURCH OF THE PURIFICATION. 
An inquiry has been long on foot among the intelligent investigators of the Holy Land, 
for the site of the great Church built by Justinian, in honour of the Virgin Mary, in the 
sixth century. Procopius, in his description of the imperial works, 1 states it to have been 
erected on the loftiest hill of the city; adding, that as there was not space enough for its 
intended magnitude, the architect was compelled to raise a wall with arched vaults from the 
valley to support the south-east part of the edifice. The only fabric whose site corresponds 
with this description is the Mosque El-Aksa, at the southern extremity of the inclosure of 
the Harem-esh-Sherif. It stands adjacent to the southern wall, where the latter is about 
one hundred feet above the foundation of the parallel city wall. The mosque is 280 feet in 
length from north to south by 190 broad. It is universally regarded by the Oriental and 
Western Christians as an ancient Christian Church, once dedicated to the Virgin, and the 
latter give it the name of the Church of the Purification or Presentation. 2 The interior 
retains exactly the appearance of an ancient Basilica . 3 
In researches like these, the reader must be warned of the extreme difficulty of verify¬ 
ing points of topography much more important than the sites of imperial labours. Until 
the beginning of the fourth century Jerusalem was in Roman hands, deprived of all rights 
but those which cannot be refused even to the slave, and almost forgotten by the world. 
The establishment of Christianity on the imperial throne once more turned the general eye 
to Jerusalem, yet less as the seat of Jewish gi*andeur than as the memorial of Christian 
sacrifice. Invention became busy, and perhaps unscrupulous. Whatever the mother of 
the Emperor sought for, she was sure to find. Where the site was unknown to authentic 
record, tradition was ready, or where even tradition failed, all difficulty vanished before a 
dream. Thus Helena ascertained all the chief localities of the life of our Lord in Jeru¬ 
salem. During the three following centuries Jerusalem became a place of pilgrimage to 
the pious, the curious, and the superstitious. The pilgrims adopted the legends of the past, 
or made legends of their own; until every spot of the sacred region was partitioned among 
rival fables. But this visionary age received a sudden and formidable check; the Saracen 
came, overspreading the land like a flood, and the pilgrim and the fable perished together. 
The Crusades were a bold and brilliant effort to restore the fallen honours of Jerusalem; 
but, while the Saracen scimitar was still glittering from the Nile to Lebanon, the knights 
were too amply employed in guarding their feeble sovereignty, to revive controversies, 
which probably their martial habits taught them to disdain. 
On the revival of letters in Europe, Jerusalem became once more that object of interest, 
which it has continued to the present day. But the eager acquiescence with which the first 
travellers listened to the authority of the Conventuals, was suddenly changed into almost 
total doubt; and a species of calm scepticism as to every locality became the tone of the 
1 Procop. de iEdificiis, Justin, v. 6. 2 The title of the Purification is rejected by Quaresmius. 
3 Bononi, quoted in Bib. Researches, vol. i. p. 439. 
