The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-12-25


MKEAR Herod's little kingdom,
TR the eastern provinces,
- and the various states
&<Y tributary to the EN-.
q pire, writes Pere Didon
in his Life of Christ" Augustus had
received from the senate the renewal of
his imperial Office for ten years. He
had reached the end of the first FIVE,
and had numbered the Roman citizens,
even in those towns which had civil
rights, as Antioch, Berytus in Syria,
and Tarsus in Cilicia. For the third
time the doors of the temple of Janus
had been closed; never had there been
more complete and universal peace in
the empire.
The master of the world took ad-
vantage of this, made his inventory
like any wealthy proprietor, and as a
wise farmer or steward measured his
lands, numbered his subjects, AID al
lies, regulated the calendar, and noted
his revenues in an account book, some
fragments Of which are still eXtant.
He ordered census of all the inhabi-
tants of the provinces and of allied
or vassal Kingdoms; Judaea, under
the rule of Herod, was subject to this
imperial edict.
Attempts have been made to deny
this fact. Criticism has done all in
its power to convict st. Luke of ana
chronism, the only author who has
mentioned the census of the provinces
and Judaea; but an impartial histor-
ian cannot follow those who dispute
the witness of the third Gospel.
The people of Herod was numbered
The subservient king, whose policy
never omitted any occasion of flatter-
ing Augustus, took good care not to
disobey the will of the master; an
order was given to all the Jews to
enroll themselves, each in his own
city, and to take an oath of fidelity
to Caesar and the King. This was
the occasion of the journey of Joseph
and Mary to Bethlehem, as Joseph
belonged to this little town, and
legally had to be enrolled there. No
doubt both saw the finger of God in
them to the very place, where, ac-
cording to the prophets, the Saviour
of Israel should be born. In spite of
her advanced pregnancy, in spite of
- the winter season and the fatigues of
long journey, Mary accompanied
Joseph.
The distance from Nazareth to
Bethlehem is three or four days jour
ney, taking the direct road across the
plain of Jezreel, the mountains of
Samaria and Judaea, by Ginaea, Be-
thulia, Sichem, Lebonah, Bethel, Tel
eEFul, Jerusalem, and the plain of
Rephaim. 1t was the constant cara
van route; ordinary people travelled
on foot, but it is rare in Judaea not
to find an ass with each family; the
indefatigable and docile animal lives
on little, it is at once the hackney
and the beast of burden for the poor.
A halt was made near we'll, beside
the road, under the shade of some
tree; or at sunset, in the rainy sea.
son, at the entrance to the villages,
in the caravanserai which served as a
shelter to travellers and their beasts
at dawn the journey was resumed,
the travellers singing psalms which
spoke of Jerusalem and the house of
Jehovah; the end of the journey was
reached by easy stages. Thus it was
that Joseph and Mary travelled, to-
gether with those whom the edict of
Augustus brought, as it did them to
Bethlehem or some other town of
Judah.
Bethlehem lies two leagues to the
south of Jerusalem, above the plain
of Rephaim, in the very heart of the
mountains of Judaea. 1t occupies the
summit of two hills, Joined one to
the other in form of crescent; deep
valleys isolate it on all sides; that on
the south, the most fertile, the Wady-
el.Karroubeh, between the two points
of the crescent, is a steep slope, so
that the walls of the terraces made
to bank up the soil give it the aspect
of vast and verdant amphitheater,
covered with vines, olives, and figs,
with almond and carob trees.
The horizon, narrowed to the north
and west by the mountains, opens
magnificiently to the south and east.
There was the cornfield where Ruth
the Moabitess went to CLEAN, and hard
by the little hill, with the village of
Beit-Saour, was the threshing- floor of
BoaZ. Further is the desert of Ju-
daea with its sandy hills, like mass
of grey cinders. The sun shines upon
this barren scene, but nothing grows
there. Behind, in a basin over which
rise, as rampant, the blue and violet
masses of the hills of Moab, the Dead
Sea hides it blue waters. To the
south lonely mountain raises its
cone: Herodion, where the old king
Heroid desired to be buried and to
sleep his eternal sleep.
Such is the little country which
saw the birth of David, and to which
his descendants were now Fastening.
The houses we're full of people, the
village khan, or inn, was full. When
Mary and Joseph came, there was no
room for them They had to find
shelter in a neighbooring cave, one of
the hollows SO often found in Pales-
slime, half way UP the side of chalk
hill This was called the Manager, or
stable; it was at the extremity of the
nlopn On tho poiut Ia0l<insr fouvsa rdS