He that will go toward Hierusalem on horse, on foote, or by sea.

IN the name of God Almightie. He that will passe over the sea, he may go many wayes both by sea and by lande, after the countreys that he cometh from, and many of them cometh to one ende, but think not that I will tell all the townes, cities & castelles that men shall goe by, for then I should make to long a tale, but only some countries and most principall cities and townes that men shall go by and through to go the right way.

First, if a man come from the west side of the worlde as England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland and Norway, he may if he wyl, go through Almayne¹ and throughout the Kingdome of Hungary, which Kinge is a great lord and a mightie, and holdeth many landes & great, for he holdeth the land of Hungarie, Savoy,² Camonie,³ a great part of Bulgary, that men call the land of Bugres, and a great part of the Kingdome of Rossie,⁴ and that lasteth to the land of Mifland,⁵ and marcheth on Siprus,⁵ and men passe thus through the land of Hungary and through the Citie that men call Cipanum,⁶ and through the castell of Nuburgh,⁷ and by the yll Torwe,⁸ towarde the ende of Hungarie and so by the river of Danubie, that is a full great ryver and goeth into Almayne, under the hilles of Lumbardy, and it taketh into him 40 other ryvers and it runneth throughout Hungary and through Cresses⁹ and Crochie,⁹ and goeth into the sea so strongely and with so great might that the water is freshe xxx¹⁰ myle within the sea and afterwards go men to Belgrave¹¹ and entereth the lande of Bugres and there pass men a bridge of stone that is over the river Marrock,¹² and so men passe through the lande of Pinseras¹³ and come to Grece to the citie of Stermis,¹⁴ and to the citie of Affinpane,¹⁵ that was sometime called Bradre¹⁶ the noble and so to the citie of Constantinople that was sometime called Bessameron¹⁷ and there dwelleth commonly the Emperor of Grece.

At Constantinople is the best and the fairest church of the worlde, and it is of sainct Steven.¹⁸ And before this church is a gylte image of Justinian the Emperour, and it is sitting upon an horse and crowned, and it was wont to holde a round appell¹⁹ in his hand, & men say there that it is a token that the Emperour hath lost a part of his landes, for the appell is fallen out of the images hand: and also he hath lost a great parte of his lordshippe. For he was wont to be Emperour of Rome, of Grece, and of all Asia the lesse, of Surry, and of the land of Jude,²⁰ in the which is Jerusalem, & of the land of Egipt, of Percie & Arabia, but he hath lost all but Grece, and that lande he holdeth all onely. Men would put the appell in the images hande, but it will not holde it. This appell betokeneth the lordship that he had over all the world, and the other hand he lifteth up against the East,²¹ in token to manasse²² misdoers. This image standeth upon a pyller of marble.

At Constantinople is the crosse of our Lord and his cote without seame, the sponge and the rede with which the Jewes gave our Lord gall to drinke on the Crosse, and there is one of the nayles that our Lorde Jesu Christ was nayled with to the Crosse. Some men think that halfe the Crosse of Christ be in Cipres in an Abbey of Monkes, that men call the hill of the holy crosse, but it is not so, for the crosse that is in Cipres is the crosse on which Dysmas²³ the good theefe was hanged, but all men wot²⁴ not that, & that is evil done but for the getting of the offering they say that it is the crosse of our Lorde, and ye shall understande that the crosse of our Lorde Jesus Christ was made of foure maner of trees, as it is conteyned in this verse following.

In cruce fit Palma, Cedrus, et Cypressus, Oliva.

For the piece that went ryght up from the earth unto the head was of Cipres, and the piece that went overthwart, to the which his handes were nayled, was of Palme, and the stock that stood within the earth in the which they had made a morteys, was of Cedre, and the table aboue his head was a foote and a half long, on which y^e tytle was written, y^t was of Olyve. Y^e Jewes made this crosse of these foure maner of trees for they thought y^t our Lord shold have hanged as long as y^e crosse might last, therefore they made the foote of Cedre, for Ceder may not in the erth ne²⁵ in water rot; they thought that the body of Christ shold have stonken, they made the piece y^t went from the yearth upwarde of Cipres so that the smell of his body shold greve no man that came by, and that overthwart was made of Palme in signification of Victory. And the table of the tytle was made of Olive, for it betokeneth peace, as the story of Noe witnesseth, when y^e dove brought y^e braunch of Olive that betokened peace made between God and man. And you also shal understande, that the Christen men that dwell over the sea, say that the pece of the Crosse that we call Cipres was of the tree that Adam eate the appell of, and so finde they written, and they say also that their scripture saith, that when Adam was sicke he sayd to his son Seth that he shold go to Paradise and pray that the Aungel that kepeth Paradise, y^t he wold send him oyle of the tree of mercy for to anoynte him that he might have health, & Seth went, but the Aungel would not let him com in at the gate, but said unto him that he might not have y^e oyle of mercy, but he took him three carnels²⁶ of the same tree that his father eate the appell of, and bad him as sone as his father was dead, that he should put these carnels under his tongue and bury him, and he did so, and of these three carnels sprang a tree, as the Angel sayd and when the tree bare fruite, then shold Adam be made whole. And when Seth came againe and founde his father dead, he did with the carnels as the Aungell commaunded him, of the which came three trees, whereof a crosse was made that bare good fruite, that is to say, our saviour Jesu Christ, through whom Adam and all that came of him should be saved and delivered from everlasting death, but²⁷ if it be their owne defaute.²⁸ This holy crosse had the Jewes hid under the earth in y^e rock of the mount of Calvery, & it laye there two hundreth yeares and more, as they say, unto the tyme that Saint Elene found it, the which Saint Elene was daughter of Coel King of Englande, that then was called Britaine, and after maried to Constantius, fyrst Consul and after Emperour of Rome, who had by hir issue Constantine the great, born in England and afterward Emperour of Rome, which Constantine turned the name of Bezansium into Constantinople, he reedified that citie, and made it monarcall seate of all Europa and Asia Minor. Also ye shall understande that the crosse of our Lord was in length viii cubites and that the piece that went overthwart was three cubites²⁹ and a halfe.

A part of the crowne of our Lord Jesu wherewith he was crowned & one of the nayles, and the speare head and many other reliques are in France at Paris in the chapell of the King, and the crowne lyeth in a vessell of cristall wel dight and richly, for y^e French King bought these reliques sometime of the Jewes, to whome the Emperour had laid them to pledge for a great sume of golde. And although men say that this Crowne was of thornes—ye shall understand that it was of Jonkes³⁰ of the sea, which be white and pricketh as sharp as thornes, for I have seene and beheld many times that at Paris, and that at Constantinople, for they were both of one, and made of Jonkis of the sea. But men have departed him in two partes, of the which one parte is at Paris, and the other part at Constantinople, and I haue a point thereof that seemeth a white thorne, and that was given me for a great friendeship—for there are many of them broken and fallen into the vessell, when they shew the Crowne to great men or lordes that come theither. And ye shall understande that our Lord in that night that he was taken, he was led into a garden, and there he was examined sharply, & there the Jewes crowned him with a crown of abbespine³¹ braunches that grew in the same garden & set it on his head so fast, that the blood came downe by many places of his visage, necke, and shoulders, and therefore hath the abbespine many vertues, for he that beareth a braunche of it about him, no thunder, nor any maner of tempest may hurt him, nor the house that it is in may no evill ghost come, nor in no place where it is. And in that same garden Sainct Peter denied our Lord thrise. And afterward was our Lord led before the Bishop and ministers of the lawe into another gardein of Anne³² and there was he examined, scorned & crowned efte³³ with a swete thorn that men called barbareus³⁴ that grew in the same gardein and that hath many vertues. And afterward he was led to a gardein of Caiphas, and there he was crowned again with eglentine,³⁵ and after that he was led to a chamber of Pilate & there he was crowned, and the Jewes set him in a chaire and clad him in a mantell of purpure³⁶ and then made they a crowne of Jonkes of the sea and there they kneled to him & scorned him saying Ave rex Judeorum. That is to say, haile King of Jewes. And of this crowne, halfe is in Paris and the other halfe at Constantinople, the which our Saviour Jesu Christ hadde on his head, when he was nayled on the crosse, and therefore shall men honour and worship it, and holde it more worthy then any of the other. And the speare shaft hath the Emperour of Almaine, but the head which was put in his side is at Paris they say, in the holy chappell, and oft tymes sayth the Emperour of Constantinople, that he hath the speare head & I have often seen it, but it is greater than that at Paris. Also at Constantinople lyeth Sainct Anne our ladie's mother, whom Saint Elene caused to be brought from Hierusalem, and there lieth also the body of Saint John Chrisostome that was bishop of Constantinople. There lyeth also sainct Luke the Evangelist, for his bones were brought from Bethany where he was buried: and many other relyques are there, and there is of the vessell of stone as it were marble, which men call Idryus, that evermore droppeth water & fylleth himselfe every yeare once. And ye shall wete that Constantinople is a fayre citie and well walled & it is three cornered, and there is an arme of the sea that men call Hellespon, and some men call it the bunch³⁷ of Constantinople and some call it the brace³⁸ of sainct George, and this water encloseth two partes of the citie, and upward to the sea upon that water was wont to be the great citie of Troy in a fayre plaine, but that citie was destroyed by the Grekes.

1: Germany.

2: Sclavonia.

3: Comania may now be placed as being on the north-west side of the Caspian Sea.

4: Or Rosia, was Russia proper, by the Baltic; the huge Empire now so termed being then called Muscovy.

5: Pynson says Nyflond, and in some MSS. it is written indifferently Nyfland, Nyflond, Nislan, and Neflond; but I have no doubt but that by it is meant Livonia, as is explained Apian's Cosmographie: "qui est la derniere Province d'Alemaigne, et de la ChrestiÉtÉ, vulgairement appelee Liefland;" and this is the more likely as Siprus is spelt in Pynson and other editions Pruysse, i.e., Prussia.

6: Pynson says Chypron, other authorities Schyppronne, Cypron, and Chippronne.

7: Neuburgh; sometimes written Neaseburghe, Newbow, or Newborewe.

8: In other editions "evyll."

9: Cresses is rendered in other editions as Grece or Greece, but this is impossible, as also is Crochie, which Pynson calls Tracy, and others call Thracie or Thrace. It probably means Croatia, and he has muddled up the Save or Sau, a tributary to the Danube, which rises not far from Lombardy, joining the Danube at Belgrade.

10: Pynson and others say 20 miles.

11: Belgrade.

12: Now called the Morava.

13: Pynson says Pynteras, others Pyncemartz, and Pyncoras.

14: Pynson says Sternys, others Sternes, or Scernys.

15: Written elsewhere Affynpayn, Assynpayn, and ad fines Epapie.

16: This will best explain the difficulty of placing the localities, for this means Adrianople.

17: Byzantium, the ancient name for Constantinople, the seat of the Western Empire.

18: Pynson has Sophy, now the Mosque of St Sophia.

19: Probably an orb.

20: JudÆa.

21: Pynson says West, but others give East.

22: Menace.

23: The names of the penitent and impenitent thieves vary slightly in different accounts. In the Apocryphal book of Nicodemus, cap. 7, vv. 10, 11, they are thus given: "But one of the two thieves who were crucified with Jesus, whose name was Gestas, said to Jesus, If thou art the Christ, deliver thyself and us. But the thief who was crucified on his right hand, whose name was Dimas, answering, rebuked him, and said, Dost thou not fear God, who art condemned to this punishment? We indeed receive rightly and justly the demerit of our actions: but this Jesus, what evil hath he done?"

But in the Apocryphal book, I. Infancy, cap. 8, vv. 1-7 (a Nestorian and Gnostic book), the names are given differently: "In their journey from hence they came into a desert country, and were told it was infested with robbers; so Joseph and St. Mary prepared to pass through it in the night.

And, as they were going along, behold they saw two robbers asleep in the road, and with them a great number of robbers, who were their confederates, also asleep.

The names of those two were Titus and Dumachus; and Titus said to Dumachus, I beseech thee let those persons go along quietly, that our company may not perceive any thing of them;

But Dumachus refusing, Titus again said, I will give thee forty groats, and as a pledge, take my girdle, which he gave him before he had done speaking, that he might not open his mouth, or make a noise.

When the Lady St. Mary saw the kindness which this robber did show them, she said to him, The Lord God will receive thee to his right hand, and grant thee pardon of thy sins.

Then the Lord Jesus answered and said to his mother, When thirty years are expired, O Mother, the Jews will crucify me at Jerusalem.

And these two thieves shall be with me at the same time upon the cross, Titus on my right hand, and Dumachus on my left, and from that time Titus shall go before me into Paradise."

24: Know.

25: Nor.

26: Kernels—another edition says Greynes.

27: Except.

28: Fault.

29: This measure varied. It was generally accepted as being the length of a man's arm from the elbow to the extremity of the little finger. The Roman cubit is usually reckoned as 17-4/10 in., the Scriptural cubit at 22 in., and the English cubit at 18 in.

30: Rushes. Juncus Maritimus.

31: Albespine—probably meant for White thorn.

32: Annas.

33: Again.

34: ? berberis.

35: Honeysuckle.

36: Purple.

37: Bouche, the mouth.

38: Arm. Lat. brachium, as we should say, an arm of the sea.