Bede's Ecclesiastical History of EnglandBede, the Venerable, Saint
History
Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England
Bede, the Venerable, Saint
England -- Church history -- 449-1066
the dead that are held in honour, their bodies remaining meanwhile in the
street. To the westward of this church is the round church of the
Anastasis or Resurrection of our Lord, encompassed with three walls, and
supported by twelve columns. Between each of the walls is a broad passage,
which contains three altars at three different points of the middle wall;
to the south, the north, and the west. It has eight doors or entrances in
a straight line through the three walls; four whereof face the south-east,
and four the east.(862) In the midst of it is the round tomb of our Lord
cut out of the rock, the top of of which a man standing within can touch
with his hand; on the east is the entrance, against which that great stone
was set. To this day the tomb bears the marks of the iron tools within,
but on the outside it is all covered with marble to the very top of the
roof, which is adorned with gold, and bears a large golden cross. In the
north part of the tomb the sepulchre of our Lord is hewn out of the same
rock, seven feet in length, and three hand-breadths above the floor; the
entrance being on the south side, where twelve lamps burn day and night,
four within the sepulchre, and eight above on the edge of the right side.
The stone that was set at the entrance to the tomb is now cleft in two;
nevertheless, the lesser part of it stands as an altar of hewn stone
before the door of the tomb; the greater part is set up as another altar,
four-cornered, at the east end of the same church, and is covered with
linen cloths. The colour of the said tomb and sepulchre is white and red
mingled together.”(863)
Chap. XVII. What he likewise wrote of the place of our Lord’s Ascension,
and the tombs of the patriarchs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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