where he had hitherto chiefly resided with his beloved wife; and the house was entirely pulled down. To divert his melancholy he began to build at Witton in Norfolk, in a charming situation near the sea, at a distance from his former residence. His melancholy now began to subside; and having no family, a circumstance he was known very much to regret, he turned his thoughts towards matrimony; and accordingly, in 1773, he was married to Charlotte, fourth daughter of the Hon. and Rev. Edmund Townshend, late Dean of Norwich. By this lady he had one daughter, called Charlotte Laura, born in October 1776, and who survived him. Mr. Norris had nearly completed his house, stables, park, &c. all which are upon a superb scale, when he was attacked by a violent fever, which in a few days carried him off, in January 1777, in the 43d year of his age, at his house in Upper Brook-street, London. His widow was married in 1779 to Thomas Fanquier, Esq. of London. Mr. Norris left a sister, married to Mr. Aufrere, of Hofton-hall, near Norwich, by whom she had several children. Mr. Norris was of a peculiarly serious turn of mind, fond of enquiry into religious subjects; of very strong sense, and extensive learning, a lover of justice, of great humanity, and ever extending his bounty to distressed objects: but he was of a reserved disposition, so that he seldom conciliated the affections, except of those who most intimately knew him; and, though respected by all, there were few who felt themselves cheerful in his society. His regard for religion strongly testified itself in his will, whereby, among a number of charitable legacies to a large amount, he left an estate of 1901. per annum for the purpose of establishing a Professorship at Cambridge, with a salary of 1201. per annum to the Professor, besides other advantages for lectures on religious subjects. Upon his death this, with other trusts, was carried into execution, and was called the Norrisian Professorship; the inestimable value of which establishment has been proved by the lectures published by Dr. Hey, and numerous disputations upon religious subjects printed at the Cambridge press, under the title of Norrisian Prize Essays. Mr. Norris's estate, worth about 40001. per annum, descended to his daughter. MISCELLANIES. MISCELLANIES. CEREMONIES OBSERVED at JERUSALEM on GOOD-FRIDAY. FOR THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S MAGAZINE. PRE REVIOUS to the description of the ceremonies of the holy Sepulchre, it may be necessary for the reader to form some idea of the church. The church of the Holy Sepulchre is founded on Mount Calvary, which is a small eminence or hill upon the greater mount Moriah, and is about a hundred paces long, and sixty wide. The builders of this church were obliged to reduce the hill to a plain area, by cutting down several parts of the rocks, and elevating others. But particular care was taken not to alter or diminish any of those parts of the hill which were more immediately concerned in our blessed Lord's passion. Thus that very part of Calvary, where they say Christ was fastened to, and lifted upon his cross, is left entire, being about ten or twelve yards square, and standing at this day so high above the common floor of the church, that you have 21 steps or stairs to go up to its top. And the holy sepulchre itself, which was at first a cave hewn into the rocks under ground, having had the rock cut away from it, is now as it were a grotto above ground. The church is supposed to contain under its roof, twelve or thirteen sanctuaries, or places consecrated, to a more than ordinary veneration, by being reported to have some particular action done in them relating to the death and resurrection of Christ; and all are distinguished and adorned with so many several altars. In galleries round about the church, and also in little buildings on the outside, are certain apartments for the reception of friars and pilgrims; and in these places almost every Christian nation anciently maintained a small society of monks; each society having its proper quarter assigned to it by the appointment of the Turks. But the severe rents and extortions of the Turkish landlords have caused all at present to forsake their quarters except four, the Latins, Greeks, Armenians, and Cophtites. Besides the several apartments, each fraternity have their altars and sanctuary properly and distinctly allotted to their own use. At which places they have a peculiar right to perform their divine services, and to exclude other nations from them. But what has been the source of much unchristian fury, animosity, and bloodshed, is the command and appropri ation of the holy sepulchre. And here our countryman Mr. Maundrell well observes, "Who can expect ever to see these holy places rescued from the hands of infidels? or if they should be recovered, what deplorable contests might be expected to follow about them, seeing even in the present state of captivity, they are made the occasion of such unchristian rage and animosity!" However, at the French king's intercession with the Grand Vizier in 1685, the holy sepulchre was appointed to the Latins, who alone have now a privilege to say mass in it, and solemnize any public office of religion. The Latins, of whom there are always about ten or twelve residing at the church, with a president over them, make every day a solemn procession, with tapers and crucifixes, and other professionary solemnities, to the several sanctuaries, singing at every one of them a Latin hymn, relating to the subject of each place. But their grand ceremony, concerning which we are to treat, begins on Good-Friday night, which they call nox tenebrosa, the black night. A particular description of which will, we doubt not, afford much entertainment to our readers. As soon as it grows dusky, all the friars and pilgrims are convened in the chapel of the Apparition, (which is a small oratory on the north side of the holy grave) so called as being the supposed place where Christ appeared to Mary Magdalen after his resurrection, adjoining to the apartments of the Latins, in order to go in a procession round the church. But before they set out, one of the Latin fathers preaches a sermon, during which all the candles are put out, to heighten the solemnity of the occasion. Sermon being ended, which generally lasts about half an hour, every person present hath a large lighted taper put into his hand, and all necessary preparations made for beginning the procession. Among the crucifixes, there is one of a large size, bearing upon it the image of our Lord, as big as life. The image is fastened to it with nails, crowned with thorns besmeared with blood; and so exquisitely formed, that it represents in a very lively manper the lamentable spectacle of our Lord's body as it hung upon upon the cross. This figure is carried all along at the head of the procession, after which the company follow to all the sanctuaries in the church, singing their appointed hymns at every one. The first place they visit is the pillar of flagellation, a large piece of which is kept in a little cell, just at the door of the chapel of the Apparition. There they sing their proper hymns, and another sermon is preached in Spanish, touching the scourging of our Lord.-From hence they proceed in solemn order to the prison of Christ, where they pretend he was secured whilst the soldiers made things ready for his crucifixion. Here likewise they sing their hymn, and a friar entertains the company with a sermon in Italian. The next visit is paid to the chapel of the division of Christ's garments, where they only sing a hymn, without adding any sermon. Having done here, they advance to the chapel of the derision, at which, after their hymn, they have a fourth sermon in French. From this place they go up to Calvary, leaving their shoes at the bottom of the stairs. Here are two altars to be visited; one where our Lord is supposed to be laid on the cross; another where his cross was erected. At the former of them they lay down the great crucifix upon the floor, and act a kind of resemblance of Christ's being nailed to the cross; and after the hymn a friar preaches a sermon upon the crucifixion, in Spanish. From hence they remove to the adjoining altar, where the cross is supposed to have been erected. At this altar is a hole in the natural rock, said to be the very same individual one in which the foot of our Lord's cross stood. Here they set up their cross, with the bloody crucified image upon it; and leaving it in that posture, they first sing their hymn, and then the father guardian sitting in a chair before it, preaches a passion sermon in Italian. At about one yard and a half distance from the hole in which the foot of the cross was placed, is a remarkable cleft in the rock, which in all probability was made, as it is said to have been, by the earthquake that happened when the Son of God suffered *. That this is a natural and genuine breach, and not counterfeited by art, the sense and reason of every one who Matt. xxvii, 51, 54. sees קר un sees it (say travellers) must convince him; for the sides of it answer exactly to each other, even where they are inaccessible to the tools of a workman. The ceremony of the passion being over, and the guardian's sermon ended, two friars personating, the one Joseph of Arimathea, the other Nicodemus, approach the cross, and with a solemn air both of aspect and behaviour, draw out the great nails, and take the feigned body from the cross. It is an effigy so contrived, that its limbs are soft and flexible, as if it had been real flesh; and nothing can be more surprising, than to see the two pretended mourners bend down the arms which were before extended, and dispose them upon the trunk, in such a manner as is usual in corpses. The body being taken down from the cross, is received into a fair large winding-sheet, and carried down from Calvary, the whole company attending it to the stone of unction. This is taken for the very place where the precious body of our Lord was anointed and prepared for the burial, John xix. 3, 9. Here they lay down their imaginary corpse, and casting over it several sweet powders and spices, wrap it up in the winding-sheet, singing a hymn. After which, one of the fathers preaches a sermon suitable to the occasion. These obsequies being finished, they carry off their fancied corpse, and lay it in the sepulchre, shutting up the door till Easter morning. And now, after so many sermons, and so long and tedious a ceremony, the weariness of the company, and the time of night, make it needful to go to rest. The next morning nothing extraordinary passes: the afternoon of Saturday the congregation are assembled in the area before the holy grave, where the friars spend some time in singing over the lamentations of Jeremiah, which function, with the usual procession to the holy places, is all the ceremony of this day. On Easter morning, the sepulchre is again set open very early. The clouds of the former morning are dispersed, and the fathers put on a face of joy, as if it had been the very time of our Lord's resurrection, Mass is celebrated in the morning, just before the holy sepulchre, when the father guardian has a throne erected; and being clothed with episcopal robes, with a mitre on his head, he gives the host to all Christians who are disposed to receive it, Vol. X. Churchm. Mag. March 1806, Z several |