It seems to me, therefore, highly probable that in fixing
the site of Calvary the Empress was rightly guided. Recollect,
too, that the voice of tradition at Jerusalem is quite unanimous,
and that Romans, Greeks, Armenians, and Jews, all hating each other
sincerely, concur in assigning the same localities to the events
told in the Gospel. I concede, however, that the attempt of the
Empress to ascertain the sites of the minor events cannot be safely
relied upon. With respect, for instance, to the certainty of the
spot where the cock crew, I am far from being convinced.
Supposing that the Empress acted arbitrarily in fixing the holy
sites, it would seem that she followed the Gospel of St. John, and
that the geography sanctioned by her can be more easily reconciled
with that history than with the accounts of the other Evangelists.
The authority exercised by the Mussulman Government in relation to
the holy sites is in one view somewhat humbling to the Christians,
for it is almost as an arbitrator between the contending sects
(this always, of course, for the sake of pecuniary advantage) that
the Mussulman lends his contemptuous aid; he not only grants, but
enforces toleration.
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