PONTIUS PILATE'S BIRTHPLACE.

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 258, 12 March 1898, Page 1 (Supplement)

PONTIUS PILATE'S BIRTHPLACE .

One of the strangest links with the past which can be found in this country is supplied by the obscure village of Fortingall, in Perthshire, which tradition points out as the birthplace of Pontius Pilate. Fortingall lies in a beautiful and sequestered mountain vale some 10 miles west of Aborfeldy, in a district rich in memories of Fingul, Wallace, and Bruce. Near the village are the remains of a Roman camp, where, at the beginning of the Christian era, the soldiers of the empire wore posted to guard the passage from the Highlanders through Glenlyon. This encamp* mentis probably not earlier than the time of Agricola, and before it was made the Scottish king Metallanue held his court at Fortingall, and received an embassy from Augustus. One of the ambassadors, we are told, was the father of Pontius Pilate, and here the future Governor of Judea is said to have been born shortly before the Nativity of our Saviour. The embassy to Metallanus is sufficiently well authenticated in the following passage from Hollinshed. It was sent at a time when Augustus seems to have been pursuing a scheme for universal peace by means of a sort of early Concert of Europe : “ Ambassadors came from Augustus to Cymbelien, King of Britian, exhorting him to keep his subjects in j-eace with all their neighbours, with the whole world, through means of the same Augustus, was now in quiet, without all wars or troublesome tumults. These ambassadors went also unto Metellanus, the King of Se.ottishmen, exhorting him to acknowledge a superioritio in the Romane .Emperour, unto whom the people inhabiting in the farthest parts of the East had sent their ambassadors with rich jewels to present to his person withal. Wherwith Metellanus, being partlie mooved to have a friendlie amitie with the Romanes, he sent into Rome certeine presents to the Empenour, and to the gods in the Capitoll in signe of honour, bv which means ho obteined an amitie with the Romanes, which continued betwixt them and his kingdom for a long time after. Thus a general peace was then reigning throughout the whole world, it pleased the Giver and Authour of all peace to be borne at the same time of that blessed Virgin Marie in the citie ot Bethlem in the tribe of Jada, which most blessed and solutiforous birth did come to passe on the I2fh. year of his reign (Metellanus) and in the 42nd of Augustus his empire.” As the old historians record, Pilate’s latter years were clouded by misfortunes, and like Ovid, he was sent into exile soon after writing that famous epistle to Tiberius, which is alleged to exist to this day in the depth of tho Vatican library. He perished by suicide atVienne in Dauphine, “ overwhelmed by grievous misfortunes, he turned his hand against himself and away his own wicket life.” At Fortingall there is a venerable yew, estimated at 3000 years old, and called the oldest tree in Europe. Antiquaries from all countries have examined the tree, and articles in various periodicals during the pa*t hundred years attest the correctness of its claim to have been a sturdy sapling when Nebuchadnezzar ate grass like the beasts of the fieid. Half a century ago a visitor wrote of this prehistoric yew as follows : “In the churchyard of Fortingall is a very ancient yew tree of remarkable growth, the trunk of which is divided into two stems, between which is an interval of several feet. At a distance it appears like two distinct trees, and, though partly iojund at an early period of its growth, it has attained to such a size that the branches spread over an area of nearly 60ft in circumference.” Some school-boys lit a fire in the tree at a later date and caused irreparable injury, Tho parent stems are now so far apart that a coach and four might drive between them ; and not very long ago it was customary for funerals to pass through tho enormous gap in the trunk. The old tree is still full of life and vigour, and sends out fresh shoots which have formed a dense foliage overhead.—-Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper.