Calvary

CALVARY, or Golgotha¹, that is to say, the place of Skulls. A little Mountain to the North of Mount Sion², went by this name, probably by reason of the similitude it bore to the figure of a Skull, or Man’s Head. Many of the Ancients were of opinion³, that this Mountain was called Calvary, because the Head of the first Man in the world was buried there; and that our Saviour was crucified in the same place, that his blood running down upon the body of this person, who was the first of mankind, he might thereby be restored to Life, and the favour of a Resurrection procured by it. To support this Tradition, they tell us, that Noah having put his Body in the Ark, distributed the Relicks of it to his Children, and as a particular favour gave the Skull or Head to Shem, who was to be the Parent of that holy Stock, from which the Messiah was to descend; that Shem with a spirit of foresight buried this Skull at Calvary, where he knew the Messiah would be crucified. But neither the ancient Fathers, nor any modern Authors, that mention these Traditions, were ever well persuaded of the truth of them, and we may, without any disrespect to them, take these to be apocryphal Stories.

Mount Calvary was very near to Jerusalem, and was the place, in all probability, where criminals were generally executed. After the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in the reign of Titus, it was by degrees rebuilt, and the Jews were very numerous there, when Barchochebas revolted against the Romans. Adrian, or his Generals were forced to besiege it, and having taken it they entirely destroyed it⁴. After this Turanus Rufus, or Tinnius Rufus, who was then Governour of Judæa, plowed up the ground, on which the Temple formerly had stood⁵, to shew that this place was never to be rebuilt, without a particular Decree of the Senate. When the War was ended, Adrian forbad the Jews ever to set footing in Jerusalem, upon pain of death to those who should act contrary to this order⁶. He settled a Roman Colony in the place, and called the City Ælia Capitolina. This new City was not built upon the ruins of the old, but more to the North; so that Mount Calvary, which before lay out of the City, was almost in the center of Ælia. There was but a small part of old Jerusalem included within this City. Mount Sion, where the Temple stood before, was either cultivated as a field, or was covered with ruins⁷.

At present the City of Jerusalem is in the same place, where Adrian built it. But whereas this Prince had profaned Mount Calvary, and in particular the place, where Jesus Christ was crucified, and that where his body had been buried, the Empress Helena, Mother to Constantine the Great, erected there a stately Church, which is still in being, and enriched it with abundance of magnificent ornaments. So that the Cross and Sepulcher of Jesus Christ, and Calvary, are more honoured by all Christians, than old Jerusalem ever was by the Children of the Synagogue .

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