Concerning this the eloquent Pere Abbe de Geramb, in his
interesting Pelerinage at Jerusalem in 1832, informs us that "by means
of a figure in relief of the natural size, whose head, arms, and feet
are flexible, the religious represent the crucifixion, the descent
from the cross, and the burial of Jesus Christ, in such manner as
to render all the principal circumstances apparent to the senses and
striking".
Both these distinguished writers of different periods agree in
testifying, that all the devotions of the Catholics were and are still
conducted with so much order that they are admired both by Christians
and Turks, whereas those of the schismatical Christians took place
with much confusion, and with such a noise, that the Janissaries, who
had to preserve order, were obliged to strike the persons engaged in
them as well as the spectators. This statement is confirmed by the
account, which they and other travellers give, of the _holy fire_
of the Greeks and other schismatics. Benedict XIV observes that no
mention is made of the supposed miracle of the holy fire by early
Christian writers who lived at Jerusalem; as Eusebius, S. Jerome, S.
Epiphanius, or S. Cyril bishop of Jerusalem. It is however spoken of
by Bernard a Frank monk of the ninth century, and in a Pontifical
of the church of Poictiers of about the tenth century: by Hugo
Flaviniacensis in Chronico Virdunensi, in the discourse of Urban II
in the council of Claremont, and in other documents of the middle
ages mentioned by Martene (lib.
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