Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1897-02-11
THE JERUSALEM CHAMBER,
A Celebrated Recess In the Wall of West
minister Abbey.


A Celebrated Recess In the Wall of West
minister Abbey.
In the southwest wall Of West
minister abbey Il narrow recess
shows an old oak door. Behind it is
a passage leading into a small room
with finely carved paneling called
the Jericho parlor, which leads into
the celebrated Jerusalem chamber.
This chamber is of profound modern
interest in that 1t was the scene of
the 1911 and 1884 revisions of the
Bible, in the latter instance the
United States taking a most promi-
nent part.
The Jerusalem chamber is also of
great historic interest, being one Of
the few remains of the old palace Of
Westminster, which for centuries
was.distinct and separate from the
abbey. Many rooms in the old pal
ace had similar fanciful names, such
as Heaven, Paradise and the Antioch
chambers.
The Jerusalem chamber was built
by Abbot Ellington in 1885 and was
SO named from the colored glass
brought from Jerusalem which dec
oratesi it. The room is rectangular in
shape, wainscoted with cedar and
other woods, all of which were
brought from the Holy Land. The
ceiling and the upper part Of the
walls are frescoed, and here and
there hang costly tapestries, which
Henry VIII placed in the choir Of
the abbey, but which have since
been removed to this room. The
splendid cedar mantelpiece was put
up in commemoration of the mar
rage of Charles I, then Prince Of
Wales, with the Princess Henrietta
Maria Of France. The carved and
wooden heads on either side of the
mantelshelf represent the royal pair.
One Of the frescoes depicts King
Henry ", who breathed his last
within these walls in 1413. This
event occurred 25 years after the
room was built and was doubtless
the first really important incident
in its history, for celebrated, indeed
sacred, as the chamber has since
become, at its construction it was
only intended as the withdrawing
room for the guests of Abbot Lit
lington.
King Henry, with the uneasy con
science of q usurper and a supersti-
tious belief in a prophecy that fore
told his death at Jerusalem, decided
upon a crusade to the Holy Land.
The crusade, which the king deemed
ample atonement for his sins, was,
however, too long deferred. Prepar-
atory to leaving on his journey to
Jerusalem, while praying before the
shrine of st. Edward the Confesso1
in the abbey, he was stricken with
a mortal sickness, and, in the words
of the old chronicle, ''they for his
comfort bore him into the abbot'e
place and laid him down before the
fire in this chamber"
On coming to himself and learn,
ing that he was in the chamber
named Hierusalem, then said the
king, "Laud be to thee, Father OF
heaven, for now I know that I shall
die in this chamber, according TIC
the prophecy made of me before
said, that l should die in Hierusa.
lem," and so he made himself ready
and died shortly after.
The body of Addison lay in state
in this room, whence it was borne
at the dead of night to its last rest.
ing place In the chapel of Henry
VII, the procession passing round
the shrine of Edward the Confesso1
and the choir singing a funeral
hymn. From the Jerusalem cham.
Der also the body of Sir Isaac New.
ton was carried to the grave, the
pail being borne by the lord chan.
cellor and by dukes and earls.-Ex
change.