SEPULCHRE, CANONS REGULAR OF THE HOLY, an order said to have been founded in '114 (or, according to other accounts, during the rule of Godfrey of Bouillon in Jerusalem) on the rule of St. Augustine. Pope Celestine III., in 1143, confirmed the Church and Canons of the Holy Sepulchre in all their posses sions, and enumerated several churches both in the Holy Land and in Italy belonging to the Canons.
See the Catholic Encyclopaedia, article "Sepulchre, Canons Regular." SEPULCHRE, THE HOLY. The authenticity of this site has been much disputed. From N.T. data it is evident that the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea was near Calvary, which adjoined a high road and was outside the City walls, but perhaps quite near, as the Romans crucified criminals in such situations. On which side of the City it lay is not recorded. There is no reference in Christian literature of the first three centuries to the "empty tomb." Even if the tomb was venerated—as one might suppose probable—there must have been a break in the possibility of access to it at the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus (A.D. 7o) and again in the more complete devastation after Bar Kokba's rebellion and whether any tradition regarding the site survived is doubtful. When (A.D. 135) Hadrian rebuilt the City, calling it Aelia Capitolina, he is stated by Eusebius to have erected a Temple of Aphrodite over the site of the Holy tomb. In A.D. 325 the remains of this pagan shrine were removed by Macarius and under these were found an ancient Jewish tomb. The rock around was cut away, the tomb chamber was isolated and a circular building—the Anastasius—was erected around it. That this is the same tomb as that shown today is indisputable though the actual roof and much of its walls were destroyed (A.D. Ioio) by orders of the Chalif Hakim.
The situation of this tomb presents topographical difficulties.
Thus the site is now so much the centre of Jerusalem as to make it difficult to accept its genuineness. It must however be remem bered that in earlier times the City extended further south and the present position of the walls is in no small measure the result of veneration for the Traditional Sacred Sites. The course of the ancient northern walls is one which is still unsolved. The "First Wall" ran from the neighbourhood of the existing Jaffa Gate east wards to the wall of the Temple enclosure and the "Second Wall," which began at the Gate Ganath—a site on the "First Wall" unidentified—ran round the northern quarter of the City to the fortress of Antonia. It is admittedly difficult—but not impossible
—to plot out a wall running this course, which would exclude the Holy Sepulchre, but actually, no remains of a City wall follow ing such a possible course have been found. Some authorities claim that the existing northern City wall is not, as many sup pose, on the general lines of the third wall, but on those of the second wall, making the traditional site impossible. This view has certainly been strengthened by the recent excavation of exten sive remains of a more northern wall, which by position and con struction may be the third wall built, but not completed by King Herod Agrippa (about A.D. 41).
The traditional view being so difficult, speculation naturally suggested alternative sites. Thus—among others—in i73o Korte of Altona suggested one west of the Jaffa Gate, Clarke in 1812 one south of the Zion Gate and Barclay one east of St. Stephen's Gate. In 1842 Otto Thenius promulgated his theory that the Crucifixion must have taken place above Jeremiah's Grotto, outside the Damascus Gate. This theory—with the addition of a tomb to the west of this hill claimed to be the true Sepulchre— has had many supporters notably General Gordon. It must be admitted that no site lends itself better to a spectacular re construction of the Crucifixion Story but it presupposes that the centuries have made but little change in the topography of the City and the archaeological evidence is entirely against it. The fact is that while the claims of the Holy Sepulchre rest upon un certain tradition and the archaeological evidence raises difficulties, no other site can be said to have any serious validity.
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is a collection of building, mainly of mediaeval origin and only the most scanty traces of the work of Constantine the Great have been found. The circular building, round the little Greek Chapel covering the tomb, is certainly in the original position of the Circular Anastasius of the fourth century. The various ancient branches of the Church hold property in the collection of buildings around, and all have rights in the rotunda and the Sepulchre itself—a position which has led to many bitter disputes.