Chapter I: Front Matter

The Stations of the Cross

_By the same Author_

=LENT & HOLY WEEK=: Chapters on Catholic Observance
and Ritual. With 3 Plates and 14 Illustrations in the text. Crown
8vo, 6s. _net_.

=THE STATIONS OF THE CROSS=

_An Account of their History and Devotional Purpose_

=By=
=HERBERT THURSTON, S.J.=

BURNS & OATES
28 Orchard Street, London, W.

Reprinted 1914

The Preface

This little book upon the Stations of the Cross explains itself sufficiently to dispense with any lengthy preface. Although its purpose is mainly historical, it will not, I trust, be found so devoid of edification as to be unsuitable for Lenten reading. That devotional attitude of mind on the part of our forefathers which is illustrated in the following pages may be full of _naïveté_ and is sometimes even grotesque in its extreme literalness and credulity, but there is nothing in it which need scandalize the most sensitive. On the contrary, it is impossible to come into close contact with the thought of the religious teachers of that age without being deeply impressed by their nearness to the world of spirit and by the intense reality of their personal devotion to our Lord and His Blessed Mother. The legendary element no doubt is always present in some measure, but it is for the most part devoid of offence. Upon the true Catholic attitude towards this feature, which appears in so many of our most venerated practices of piety, I may refer the reader to some remarks which will be found later on at the beginning of Chapter VII (p. 136).

From the historical point of view the chief novelty which will be discovered in the following pages is the conclusion—the evidence for which appears to me to be quite irresistible—that the arrangement of our actual stations, though professedly made in imitation of a pilgrimage along the Via Dolorosa, owes less to Jerusalem and the Franciscan custodians of the Holy Places than to the pious imagination of a Carmelite friar who lived all his life in Belgium. That our fourteen stations derive directly from the _Theatrum Terræ Sanctæ_ of Adrichomius has for some time been recognized, e.g., by Bishop von Keppler in his excellent work “Die XIV Stationen des heiligen Kreuzwegs.” But when, on the one hand, we find in Adrichomius, himself a Fleming, an explicit avowal of indebtedness to the book of Brother Jan Pascha, and when, on the other, Pascha’s book presents us with the identical enumeration of subjects and distances which appear in the later writer, there can be little doubt that Pascha must be regarded as the immediate source of the subsequent developments. Further, it is clear that Pascha’s own system was evolved in part out of the devotion of the “Seven Falls” which, at the close of the fifteenth century, had become widely popular in Germany and the Netherlands. This devotion is now completely forgotten, but it has left behind one splendid memorial of itself in the famous sculptures of Adam Krafft (c. 1490) still preserved at Nuremberg. I am inclined also to think from the wide diffusion of a fifteenth century booklet attributed to a certain “Heer Bethlem” (see Appendix A) that we must regard this little work as another early and important element in the popularizing of the exercise of the Way of the Cross. The full knowledge of its popularity, however, came to me somewhat too late to deal with it adequately in the text of my essay.

While giving prominence to such technical points as these, which may help in some measure to throw light upon the byways of liturgical history, it seemed desirable not to lose sight of other devotional influences of wider range and more general interest. For this reason the reader will find that the question of pilgrimages to the Holy Land is illustrated rather more fully than was perhaps quite necessary for its bearing upon the immediate subject of this volume. With regard to what is said at pp. 161-172 upon the question of the indulgences of the Holy Places, which no doubt had a considerable influence in attracting pilgrims to Jerusalem, I should like to point out that I have formed no final opinion as to their authenticity, and that I should be glad if the few remarks I have thrown out should lead to further discussion.

Although part of the substance of this essay has already been published in the form of articles in _The Month_ (July to September, 1900), I have been able in the interval which has elapsed since the articles appeared to add very considerably to my former materials. Amongst other minor discoveries, I came quite lately upon a little volume in the Bodleian library which is entitled “A Spiritual Pilgrimage to the Holy Land,” and which was obviously printed abroad in the seventeenth century for Catholic use. Upon examination it proved to be an abridgement in English of that scarce “Gheestelyck Pelgrimagie” of Brother Jan Pascha which plays so large a part in the argument of my little essay. As this Bodleian volume may fairly be called the first book containing the Stations of the Cross which was published in the English language, I cannot, I think, better conclude these few words of introduction than by reproducing a portion of the old translator’s preface. The sentiments expressed are such as every priest in the twentieth century not less than in the seventeenth may be glad to make his own.

THE PREFACE TO THE READER

Seeing it is so (my Catholic brother) that this present life is no
other thing but a continual pilgrimage which we are to make upon the
earth, and that all the time of our life is a term prefixed of GOD
the Creator, during which space we ought to accomplish this voyage
... were it not great folly and negligence in us if we should forget
... the principal place of our repose?... Let us behold therefore
what care and pains our loving LORD hath taken of our salvation, let
us learn to travaille courageously and like devout and holy pilgrims
to follow His steps, who hath left us an example of His blessed life
and passion, and ruminate in our hearts every day apart, some
general point thereof, and after well to practise the same in
ourselves, for such ought to be the end of our spiritual exercise,
by which means we may attain to the happy end that we desire.
Whereof having found this little treatise of _A Spiritual
Pilgrimage_, assuring myself that it would be a thing very agreeable
to all manner of devout and pious persons, I thought good to bring
the same to light. Beseeching the gentle reader to accept of this
little gift, and to respect more my hearty affection than the
littleness of the thing. The rest I remit to the disposition of
Almighty GOD the Creator of all things, whose only honour and glory
I desire herein. Amen.

Thy hearty well-willer in CHRIST JESUS,

R. H.

The kind friends who in many various ways have lightened my task in preparing this book for the press, will know, I trust, that if I do not make more particular mention of the help that they have rendered, it is not for lack of sincere gratitude.

HERBERT THURSTON, S.J.

_31 Farm Street, London, W._

The Contents

CHAPTER I—_The Veneration of the Holy Places._ ... Pp. 1-19.

Imitative tendency in our popular devotions—The Stations a pilgrimage in miniature—Ardour shown in making pilgrimages to Jerusalem—The Lady Egeria—The Holy Places measured to be copied in the West—St Petronius—Peter and John Bechetti or Becket—The spiritual Way of the Cross of the Blessed Henry Suso—The vow of the Nun of Lorvão.

CHAPTER II—_The Beginnings of the Via Crucis._ ... Pp. 20-45.

The Porte Doloreuse—Sites of incidents on the way to Calvary—The inverted order of the official pilgrimage route—The legend of our Lady’s pilgrimage—Fabri’s description of the road to Calvary and of our Lady’s daily journey—A night with the pilgrims in the Holy Sepulchre Church—Rules to be observed—The reopening of the doors.

CHAPTER III—_The earliest Stations and their Sequence._ ... Pp. 45-61.

The word “Station”—William Wey’s use of it in connexion with the road to Calvary—Wey’s memorial verses—Sir Richard Guylforde’s “pylgrymages within Jerusalem”—Torkington’s copy in reverse order—The practice of measuring the distances—Discrepancies in the order of the Stations.

CHAPTER IV—_The “Seven Falls.”_ ... Pp. 46-75

The Stations at Görlitz—The “Seven Falls” of Adam Krafft at Nuremberg—The “Cruysganch” of Louvain—Romanet Boffin and the sets of seven pillars at Rhodes, Fribourg and Romans—The Stations of the Seven Dolours at Antwerp—Fifteenth-century engravings of the Seven Falls—The book of the “Mount of Calvary”—The Seven Falls in Pascha’s “Spiritual Pilgrimage.”

CHAPTER V—_The Spiritual Pilgrimage of Jan Pascha._ ... Pp. 76-95.

Some Dutch books relating to the stations—Bethlem’s “Meditations on the Passion” with distances—The Nuremberg “Ghostly Way” of 1521—Prevalence of the practice of erecting Stations—The “Spiritual Pilgrimage” of Jan Pascha the Carmelite—Description of the book—Various editions and translations—The “proper” Way of the Cross—Adrichomius and his indebtedness to Pascha—Origin of the triple fall in our present system of Stations—Impossibility in the sixteenth century of any public exercise of the “Way of the Cross” at Jerusalem—The initiative consequently did not come from the East but from Europe, especially from the Netherlands—Practice of the Stations in an Antwerp convent.

CHAPTER VI—_The Via Dolorosa at Jerusalem from the Seventeenth century to the Present Day._ ... Pp. 96-135.

Unique authority of the Franciscan traditions at Jerusalem—Contradictions with the map of Adrichomius—Testimony of Bernardino Amico and Quaresmius—Description of the Via Dolorosa—The Stations according to Surius—The _Ecce Homo_ Arch—Place of our LORD’S meeting with His Blessed Mother—The place of the first fall and of the coming of Simon of Cyrene—Attempt to harmonize the Jerusalem tradition with the system of Adrichomius—Sites of our LORD’S meeting with the women of Jerusalem and with Veronica—The Judicial Gate—The gradual displacement of the traditional Stations in the eighteenth century—The question of the site of the Prætorium and of the true Way of the Cross—Prevalence of other systems of Stations and notably of that of Father Parviller.

CHAPTER VII—_The Devotional Aspect of the Stations._ ... Pp. 136-158.

Survival of the fittest in our devotional practices—A legendary element permissible and often helpful to piety—Words of Père Lagrange—Devotional suggestiveness of the legend of Veronica and of the triple fall—Illustrations from the writings of Cardinal Newman and Henri Perreyve—The spirit of the medieval pilgrims—Fabri’s description of Calvary and of the Holy Sepulchre—Perreyve’s meditation on the Holy Sepulchre.

CHAPTER VIII—_The Stations In Modern Times._ ... Pp. 159-177.

One uniform system now prevalent—Committed specially to the charge of the Franciscan Order—Indulgences of the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem attached to the ordinary Stations of the Cross—Early belief to this effect—Origin of the indulgences of the Holy Places—Impossible to attribute them to Pope St Silvester—Remarkable Bull of confirmation issued by Pope Pius IV—Conditions for gaining the indulgences at the present day.