But  what  is  strangest  is,  that  these  madmen  are
not  altogether  mistaken.  The  enthusiasts  of  Jeru-
salem, who  at  the  very  moment  that  she  was  in
flames  declared  her  to  be  eternal,  were  nearer  the
truth  than  the  men  who  believed  them  to  be  only
vulgar  assassins.  They  were  wrong  as  to  the  imme-
diate military  question,  but  right  as  to  the  far-off
religious  result.  Those  days  of  trouble  really  marked
the  moment  at  which  Jerusalem  became  the  spiritual
capital  of  the  world.  The  Apocalypse,  the  burning
expression  of  the  love  which  she  inspired,  has  taken
its  place  among  the  religious  books  of  humanity,  and
has  consecrated  for  ever  the  image  of  "  the  beloved
city."  Ah  !  we  ought  never  to  say  beforehand  who,
in  the  time  to  come,  is  to  be  saint  or  scoundrel,  fool
or  sage !  Jerusalem,  a  city  of  ordinary  citizens,
would  have  developed,  one  cannot  tell  for  how  long,
only  an  ordinary  history.  It  was  because  she  had
the  incomparable  honour  of  being  the  cradle  of
Christianity  that  she  was  the  victim  of  John  of
Giskhala  and  Simon  Bar  Gioras,  in  semblance  the


GROWING    ECCLESIASTICAL    AUTHORITY.  113

scourges  of  their  country,  in  reality  the  instruments

of  her  apotheosis.     These  zealots,  whom  Josephus

regards  as  robbers  and  murderers,  were  politicians

of  the  lowest  class,  incapable  soldiers;    but  they

heroically  lost  a  country  which  it  was  impossible  to

save.     They  lost  a  material  city ;  they  opened  the

reign  of  the  spiritual  Jerusalem,  more  glorious  in  her

desolation  than  in  the  days  of  Herod  and  of  Solomon.
