Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England

CHAP. XVII. What he likewise wrote of the place of our Lord’s Ascension, and the tombs of
the patriarchs.
CONCERNING the place of our Lord’s Ascension, the aforesaid author writes thus. "The Mount
of Olives is equal in height to Mount Sion, but exceeds it in breadth and length; it bears few trees
besides vines and olives, and is fruitful in wheat and barley, for the nature of that soil is not such
as to yield thickets, but grass and flowers. On the very top of it, where our Lord ascended into
heaven, is a large round church, having round about it three chapels with vaulted roofs. For the
inner building could not be vaulted and roofed, by reason of the passage of our Lord’s Body; but
it has an altar on the east side, sheltered by a narrow roof. In the midst of it are to be seen the last
Footprints of our Lord, the place where He ascended being open to the sky; and though the earth
is daily carried away by believers, yet still it remains, and retains the same appearance, being marked
by the impression of the Feet. Round about these lies a brazen wheel, as high as a man’s neck,
having an entrance from the west, with a great lamp hanging above it on a pulley and burning night
and day. In the western part of the same church are eight windows; and as many lamps, hanging
opposite to them by cords, shine through the glass as far as Jerusalem; and the light thereof is said
to thrill the hearts of the beholders with a certain zeal and compunction. Every year, on the day of
the Ascension of our Lord, when Mass is ended, a strong blast of wind is wont to come down, and
to cast to the ground all that are in the church."
Of the situation of Hebron, and the tombs of the fathers, he writes thus. "Hebron, once a
habitation and the chief city of David’s kingdom, now only showing by its ruins what it then was,
has, one furlong to the east of it, a double cave in the valley, where the sepulchres of the patriarchs
are encompassed with a wall foursquare, their heads lying to the north. Each of the tombs is covered
with a single stone, hewn like the stones of a church, and of a white colour, for the three patriarchs.
Adam’s is of meaner and poorer workmanship, and he lies not far from them at the farthest end of
the northern part of that wall. There are also some poorer and
smaller monuments of the three women. The hill Mamre is a mile from these tombs, and is
covered with grass and flowers, having a level plain on the top. In the northern part of it, the trunk
of Abraham’s oak, being twice as high as a man, is enclosed in a church."
Thus much, gathered from the works of the aforesaid writer, according to the sense of his words,
but more briefly and in fewer words, we have thought fit to insert in our History for the profit of
readers. Whosoever desires to know more of the contents of that book, may seek it either in the
book itself, or in that abridgement which we have lately made from it;