n a just one, and that he should
therefore pronounce sentence--which he did in these words: 'I condemn Jesus
of Nazareth, the King of the Jews, to be crucified;' and he ordered the
executioners to bring the cross. I think I remember likewise that he
took a long stick in his hands, broke it, and threw the fragments at
the feet of Jesus.

On hearing these words of Pilate the Mother of Jesus became for a
few moments totally unconscious, for she was now certain that her
beloved Son must die the most ignominious and the most painful of all
deaths. John and the holy women carried her away, to prevent the
heartless beings who surrounded them from adding crime to crime by
jeering at her grief; but no sooner did she revive a little than she
begged to be taken again to each spot which had been sanctified by the
sufferings of her Son, in order to bedew them with her tears; and thus
did the Mother of our Lord, in the name of the Church, take possession
of those holy places.

Pilate then wrote down the sentence, and those who stood behind him
copied it out three times. The words which he wrote were quite
different from those he had pronounced; I could see plainly that his
mind was dreadfully agitated--an angel of wrath appeared to guide his
hand. The substance of the written sentence was this: 'I have been
compelled, for fear of an insurrection, to yield to the wishes of the
High Priests, the Sanhedrin, and the people, who tumultuously demanded
the death of Jesus of Nazareth, whom they accused of having disturbed
the public peace, and also of having blasphemed and broken their laws.
I have given him up to them to be crucified, although their accusations
appeared to be groundless. I have done so for fear of their alleging to
the Emperor that I encourage insurrections, and cause dissatisfaction
among the Jews by denying them the rights of justice.'

He then wrote the inscription for the cross, while his clerks copied
out the sentence several times, that these copies might be sent to
distant parts of the country.

The High Priests were extremely dissatisfied at the words of the
sentence, which they said were not true; and they clamorously
surrounded the tribunal to endeavour to persuade him to alter the
inscription; and not to put King of the Jews, but that he said, I am
the King of the Jews.

Pilate was vexed, and answered impatiently, 'What I have written I
have written!' They were likewise anxious that the cross of our Lord
s