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The Voiage and Travayle of Sir John Maundeville Knight / Which treateth of the way towards Hierusalem and of marvayles of Inde with other ilands and countreys cover

The Voiage and Travayle of Sir John Maundeville Knight / Which treateth of the way towards Hierusalem and of marvayles of Inde with other ilands and countreys

Chapter 30: CAP. XXII.
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About This Book

The narrator offers a medieval travelogue that traces routes toward Jerusalem and across regions of Asia, Africa, and India, blending eyewitness-style observations, borrowed reports, and fantastic tales. It catalogs cities, landscapes, animals, plants, trade goods, and unfamiliar customs, alternating itinerary notes with moral and religious commentary. Frequent digressions present marvels and monstrous races alongside practical details about pilgrim routes, local rites, and fortifications, producing a text that shifts between guidebook information and imaginative storytelling. The structure mixes descriptive chapters with episodic anecdotes, inviting readers to weigh veracity while encountering the era's geographical knowledge, commerce, and popular curiosities.

CAP. XXII.

Of the Temple of God.

AND from the churche of the sepulcre towarde the East at xviii1 paces is Templum Domini. That is a fayre house and it is all rounde and ryghte high & covered with leed,2 and it is well paved with white marble, but ye Sarasins wyl suffre no christen men ne Jewes to come therein, for they say that so3 foule men should not come into that holye place, but I came therein and in other places where I woulde, for I had letters of the Soudan, wyth hys great seal, and, commonly, other men but have of his signet, and men beare hys letter with his seale before them hanginge on a speare, and men do great worship thereto, and kneele against4 it as it were against God's body: for those men that it is sent to, before they take it, they encline5 thereto and then they take it, and laye it upon their heads, and afterward they kisse it, and then they reade it, all enclining with great worship, and then they profer6 them to do all that the bringer will. And in this Templum Domini were wont to be Chanons regulers, and they had an Abbot to whome they were obedient, in this Temple was Charlemaine when the Aungell brought him the prepuis of our Lorde when he was circumsised, and after King Charles brought it to Acon7 into our Ladies Chapell.

1:  Other editions say 160 paces.

2:  Lead.

3:  Such unclean.

4:  Before.

5:  Bow.

6:  Proffer or offer.

7:  Pynson and others say Paris.