according to the plans of Modestus, in the reign of the Egyptian Khalif Maabad-Abutamin Mustansir-Billa. They are described by Sæwulf, who visited Jerusalem during the years A.D. 1102 and 1103[395]. The numerous pilgrimages, which were made annually to the Holy Sepulchre after A.D. 1048, kindled a wide-spread enthusiasm in Europe and a strong excitement against the Mohammedans, who had made themselves masters of the Christian Holy Places. These found their vent in the Crusades, and the soldiers of the Cross, who took possession of Jerusalem, acquired the sanctuaries in the condition in which they had been left by Constantine Monomachus; and it was not till A.D. 1130 that they united them under one roof, nearly as they are at the present time[396]. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was not altered by Saladin on his regaining the city, A.D. 1187. It was polluted and injured by the wild tribes, especially by the Kharismian hordes, A.D. 1244; but in 1555 when Father Bonifacius of Ragusa was Guardian of the Holy Land, the whole building was repaired and the great dome restored at the expense of Philip II., King of Spain; as appears from the testimony of some valuable documents preserved by the Commissary General of Madrid and the convent of S. Saviour at Jerusalem. About the year A.D. 1607, Sultan Ahmet I. ordered the whole church to be destroyed, and a mosque erected on its foundations, by a decree inflicting the punishment of death upon all who attempted to prevent its execution. One man alone had the courage to raise his voice against it, Girolamo Capello, Venetian Ambassador at Constantinople, whose nation, from its powerful navy, was more highly respected by the Sultan than any other. By his firmness and energy, he got the order revoked, and the punishment denounced against all who tried to carry it into effect, or inquire into the reason of its revocation. About a century later the great dome was again restored by help of contributions from Spain. The cost would appear incredible, if it were not established by authentic documents, and the chronicles of the Holy Land, still preserved in the convent of S. Saviour at Jerusalem. These state that, in order to obtain a firman from the Porte (which was opposed and retarded during 21 years by the Greeks, who hoped to procure it for themselves), and to complete the restoration 400,000 colonnati (about £92,000) were expended.