Adam Simmons at 20:00, 16 May 2015

2015-05-16T20:00:48Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:00, 16 May 2015
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	had this holy place long, but only for the last fifteen		had this holy place long, but only for the last fifteen
	years ; for they offered presents to the King of Egypt,		years ; for they offered presents to the King of Egypt,
	the ~~Soldan~~, who turned out the ~~[135 a]~~ Armenians from it		the Sultan, who turned out the Armenians from it
	and put in the Georgians in their stead. They also own		and put in the Georgians in their stead. They also own
	the place and cave of the Invention of the Holy Cross,		the place and cave of the Invention of the Holy Cross,

Adam Simmons: Created page with "Friar Felix Fabri ''(c. 1483)'' ''Swiss-born Dominican from Ulm. Went on Pilgrimage to Jerusalem between 1480-3.'' ''Fratris Felicis Fabri Evagatorium in Terræ Sanctæ, Ar..."

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Created page with "Friar Felix Fabri ''(c. 1483)'' ''Swiss-born Dominican from Ulm. Went on Pilgrimage to Jerusalem between 1480-3.'' ''Fratris Felicis Fabri Evagatorium in Terræ Sanctæ, Ar..."

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Friar Felix Fabri

''(c. 1483)''

''Swiss-born Dominican from Ulm. Went on Pilgrimage to Jerusalem between 1480-3.''

''Fratris Felicis Fabri Evagatorium in Terræ Sanctæ, Arabiæ et Egypti peregrinationem.''

''Latin.''

Yet it is true that when the deceased has
any friends they do what they please with his body, and
put it into the sea either without stones or with stones,
or with a plank. When the body has been laid out
the clerk of the galley makes a list in writing of all
the property left by the deceased, and presents it to
the captain, and pays the deceased's debts, if he has no
friends. If he has friends they manage this for him,
and have him buried in the next port at which they
touch; and unless pilgrims previously make a covenant
with the captain, as we ourselves did, the captain receives
the bed and bedding, and clothes, of the deceased. Many
think this to be the noblest kind of burial, and preferable
to being crushed by the weight of the earth. So at
the present day the Aethiopians throw their dead into
the river Nile, as we are told by Diodorus, because they
hold the river to be the best of all sepulchres, for whether
the body be eaten by beasts, or whether it rots there,
it defiles neither the air nor the earth. If one of the
Venetian grandees dies at sea, they bury his body in
the sand which is within the ship, and bring it to Venice;
this I have seen

…

Howbeit, when it was night there came
some young Aethiopians, shield-bearers of the Moorish
lords, who were very mischievous and vicious, and wanted
to come into the cave to pilfer and to plague us ; but the
watchmen whom we had hired would not suffer them to
come in, and they disputed and strove with one another
for some time before the mouth of the cave. When they
found that they would not be suffered to enter therein,
they sat down before the door and sang all night long
howling, barking, and grunting like beasts, dogs, and pigs.
For all Easterns have most harsh voices; nor can they
form any melody, but their singing is like the noise of
goats or calves. So with this disturbance we spent that
night.

…

The aforesaid chapel beneath
Mount Calvary belongs to the Nubian Christians, who
conduct their services therein, and say that King Melchior,
one of the three magi of whom we read in the second
chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel, was a King of Nubia,
and that when he came from Nubia and had drawn nigh to
Jerusalem, he would not enter the city, but was entertained
near Mount Calvary, and that therefore this place has
been assigned to them from old times.

…

The Georgians, who are also called Nubians, and who
are most generally known as Christians of the Cincture,
come from parts very far distant from the Holy Land,
and are warriors, who even train their women to fight.
They are Christians, but tainted throughout with the same
errors as the Greeks. In the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
they own Mount Calvary, and they always have a guardian
of the holy rock shut up in the church. They have not
had this holy place long, but only for the last fifteen
years ; for they offered presents to the King of Egypt,
the Soldan, who turned out the [135 a] Armenians from it
and put in the Georgians in their stead. They also own
the place and cave of the Invention of the Holy Cross,
and three lamps therein, which, however, they seldom
light. They also own the chapel beneath Mount Calvary,
wherein the Latin Kings of Jerusalem were buried,

…

Now, as for the thirty pieces of money, I have read a
long rambling story which says that Terah, the father of
Abraham, struck them at the bidding of King Ninus, with
others of the same mintage; and that Abraham received
them and brought them into this land, and that from him
they were handed down to Ishmael by inheritance, all
together, and that they never were divided from one
another. They were paid by the Ishmaelites to the
children of Jacob for their brother Joseph, whom they
sold to them, and the brethren carried them down into
Egypt to buy corn with. From Egypt they were carried
into Sheba, as the price of merchandise. The Queen of
Sheba gave them to Solomon among other presents, and
he cast them into the treasury of the Lord's temple.
Nebuchadnezzar carried them off together with the other treasures of the temple, and made a present of them to
Godolia (sic!), by whom they were sent to the kingdom of
Nubia. When the Lord was born in Bethlehem, Melchior,
the King of Nubia, offered them to the Lord, and the
blessed Virgin and Joseph lost them in the desert when
they were fleeing with the child. A shepherd found them,
and kept them for thirty years. This shepherd, hearing
the fame of the miracles of the Lord Jesus came to Jerusalem sick; and, having received health from Him, offered
the thirty pieces to Jesus, Since He would not receive
them, he gave them to the priests of the temple, who set
them aside as corhan. When the Lord had been betrayed,
they handed them over to Judas, who, moved by remorse,
flung them down in the temple. The priests picked them
up, and bought this field for them, and thus they became
scattered separately throughout the world. I have seen
one of them in Rhodes, and Johannes Tucher, of Nuremberg, took a cast of it, had a leaden mould made, and
cast silver coins in its likeness, which he distributed among
his friends ; indeed, when we were all gathered together
in Nuremberg in the year 1485, to celebrate the meeting
of the chapter of the province, the aforesaid man gave one
of his pieces of silver to a certain brother of our order. It
is about as large as those of the coins called blaffardi which
are marked with a cross; on one side there is a human
face, on the other a lily. There once was an inscription,
but it cannot now be seen. So much for Mount Aceldama.

…

Twelfthly, this knighthood of Jerusalem is wiser,
because of the various experiences which a man under-
goeth therein. A nobleman who sets out for Jerusalem
gains much experience about the way of the world at
sea and on either side of the sea, about the customs of
men and their differences ; for he receives knowledge both
of the faithful and of infidels, because he sees and dwells
with Christians, Turks, Saracens, Mamelukes, Tartars,
Arabs, Jews, Samaritans, Moors, Greeks, Nubians, Jacobites,
Abyssinians or Indians, Georgians, Armenians, Hungarians,
Dalmatians, Pannonians, Achaeans, Italians, Gauls, Angles,
Teutons, and, in short, he gains knowledge about men
of all lands, both Eastern and Western, if he be a man
of reflection.

…

After dinner we met upon Mount Sion, took with us
Elphahallo, the sub-Calinus, and entered Jerusalem by the
Dung Gate or Gate of the Dunghill, whereof mention is
often made in Scripture, more especially in Nehemiah. It was called the Dung Gate of old, and is so called at this
day, because all dirt and dung is carried out through it and
cast down toward the valley, wherefore out of the mass of
rubbish thrown there a heap has grown up like a little hill, so high that it overlooks the city wall at that
place. When we had passed through it we came to the
sheep market, from thence we went into a narrow street
wherein dwelt many Nubian Christians, and we knocked
at the door of their church. When the door was opened we
went in and said a prayer there. This church was pretty
large, but dark ; and, indeed, all the Eastern churches are
dark and gloomy. This church stands upon the place
where once stood the house of Mary, the mother of John,
whose surname was Mark, at whose door Peter knocked
when he was brought out of prison by the angel, whereof
the sweet story may be read in the twelfth chapter of the
Acts.

…

When I came out of the grotto I went up to
Galilee, and from thence along the ridge of the Mount of
Olives I came to the Church of the Lord's Ascension, which
I entered, and found therein a choir of Jacobites praising
God with music which was strange to me. Moreover,
Abyssinians or Indians likewise came thither to hold their services, and Nubians were waiting there for the same
purpose; indeed, the whole Mount of Olives was crowded
with Eastern Christians on that day, but what the cause
of this gathering of Easterns on that day was, I do not
know. I went about, the only Latin Christian among
these Easterns, and no one did me any harm, nor did they
drive me away from their services ; but they wondered at
me, and gazed curiously at me, my dress, and my ways.
These aforesaid Easterns are all as a rule black, and differ
from us in colour, dress, language, ritual and customs.

…

We settled ourselves down in these caves to rest during the
heat of the day; for we could not have stayed under our
tents because of the excessive heat of the sun, which
pierced through the cloth of the tents and made the
inside of them like ovens. For this cause the Midianites,
Arabs, and Aethiopians have tents made of leather to keep out the sun's heat.

…

Beyond the gulf of the sea toward the south, we saw as
we looked down toward the west an exceeding high mountain, which they call Olympus of Aethiopia, to distinguish
it from Olympus of Macedonia. At sunrise this mountain
pours forth flames in a terrible fashion for five hours.
From this mountain Aethiopia begins, which country was
of old named Atlanta, and is bounded by the river Nile.
It is a very wide land, and brings forth strange men and
wondrous beasts in its wildernesses. Some of these men
look upon the sun when he rises and sets with dreadful
curses, and always angrily abuse the sun because of their
sufferings from the heat. There satyrs run about, who are
so like men that they are reckoned to be men indeed,
though they are not so, and there are many wonders in
that country. It is bounded by Libya, a great district of
Africa, and by Egypt

'''Selected editions'''

Felix Fabri (Circa 1480 — 1483 A.D.), trans. A. Stewart (2 volumes. London: 1893-1896).

[[Category:Literary Sources]]
[[Category:Occidental]]

Friar Felix Fabri - Revision history

Adam Simmons at 20:00, 16 May 2015

Adam Simmons: Created page with "Friar Felix Fabri ''(c. 1483)'' ''Swiss-born Dominican from Ulm. Went on Pilgrimage to Jerusalem between 1480-3.'' ''Fratris Felicis Fabri Evagatorium in Terræ Sanctæ, Ar..."