The sack of the richest city in Christendom

The sack of the richest city in Christendom, which had been the bribe offered to the Crusaders to violate their oaths, was made in the spirit of men who, having once broken through the trammels of their vows, are reckless to what lengths they go. Their abstinence and their chastity once abandoned, they plunged at once into orgies of every kind.

The Greek eye-witness gives the complement of the picture of Villeliardouin. The lust of the army spared neither maiden nor the virgin dedicated to God. Violence and debauchery were everywhere present; cries and lamentations and the groans of the victims were heard throughout the city; for everywhere pillage was unrestrained and lust unbridled. The city was in wild confusion. Nobles, old men, women, and children ran to and fro trying to save their wealth, their honor, and their lives. Knights, foot-soldiers, and Venetian sailors jostled each other in a inad scramble for plunder. Threats of ill-treatment, promises of safety if wealth were disgorged, mingled with the cries of many sufferers.

These pious brigands, as Gunther aptly calls them, acted as if they had received a license to commit every crime. Sword in hand, houses and churches were pillaged. Every insult was offered to the religion of the conquered citizens. Churches and monasteries were the richest storehouses, and were therefore the first buildings to be rifled. Monks and priests were selected for insult. The priests’ robes were placed by the Crusaders on their horses. The icons were ruthlessly torn down from the screens or were broken. The sacred buildings were ransacked for relics or their beautiful caskets. The chalices were stripped of their precious stones and converted into drinking-cups. The sacred plate was heaped with ordinary plunder.

The altars of Hagia Sophia

The altar cloths and the screens of cloth-of-gold, richly embroidered and bejewelled, were torn down, and either divided among the troops or destroyed for the sake of the gold and silver which were woven into them. The altars of Hagia Sophia, which had been the admiration of all men, were broken for the sake of the material of which they were made. Horses and mules were taken into the church in order to carry off the loads of sacred vessels and the gold and silver plates of the throne, the pulpits, and the doors, and the beautiful ornaments of the church. The soldiers made the chief church of Christendom the scene of their profanity.

Among the Western princes made by Innocent

It is probable that the proposals for a truce among the Western princes made by Innocent at this time were due to his desire to place difficulties in the way of the execution of these designs. If Otho could gain time by means of such a truce, he could form a league which might be sufficiently strong to occupy all the energy of Philip. We corrodingly, when Bishop Kivelon and John de Noyon arrived in Rome, in the early part of February, the pope was ready to hear their news. Before their arrival he had sent to Peter Capuano, who was in the neighborhood of Zara, a solemn bull of excommunication against the Venetians, together with a letter which he was directed to forward to the army. “Satan,” said he, “has pushed yon to flesh your swords upon a Christian people. You have offered to the devil the first- fruits of your pilgrimage. You have not directed your expedition against Jerusalem or against Egypt.

King of Hungary

Loyalty to the Cross you bear, respect for the King of Hungary and his brother, and to the authority of the apostolic see, which gave you on this subject precise orders, ought to have prevented you from doing such wickedness. We exhort you to put a stop to the destruction, and to restore all the plunder to the envoys of the King of Hungary. Unless this be done you will be liable to the excommunication which you have incurred, and you will be deprived of all the benefits of the crusade which have been promised you.”

The letter further required that the Crusaders should give written declarations under seal that they would not again attack Christian nations. The pardon granted to them was to be conditional on such declarations being made and observed. In particular they were to pledge themselves not to attack Greece, either under pretext that they would thus be able to bring about the union of the churches or to punish the crimes committed by Alexis the Third.

When the messengers arrived from the army, they did their Report made best to excuse the conduct of the Crusaders, but they to innocents. To a man was their superior in intelligence, and who probably was to a considerable extent behind the scenes. One of the knights who accompanied Nivelon and John de Hoyon refused to explain the matter as the majority wished ; in doing which, says Villehardouin, he perjured himself. The others excused themselves to the pope by saying that the Crusaders had done the best they could under the circumstances.

The subtile Greek intellect was too often inclined to waste

The subtile Greek intellect was too often inclined to waste its strength on the useless distinctions of a hair-splitting philosophy or theology which has become to us intolerable and almost incomprehensible; but even while accepting the waste of intellectual strength and the valuelessness of the subjects usually discussed, one is compelled to admit that the fact that a considerable proportion of the population took an interest in these subtilties implies an amount of education and of literary development to which the men of the West were almost altogether strangers. The interest, too, which the great mass of the population took in the discussion of religious questions shows an intelligence which, entertained by men possessed of the acuteness of Greek thinkers, must in all likelihood have led to a great religious movement for reform of doctrine that would have amounted to an Eastern reformation, which would probably have profoundly modified Western Christianity, had circumstances allowed it to be developed.

In former times religious questions had occasioned infinite Absence of discussion in Constantinople. In the twelfth century the popular interest in such discussions had questions. altogether ceased. The period in question had not, in the East at least, given rise to any special religious or intellectual movement. The disputes which had raged in the early Church, and which had been continued by the Blues and Greens, by many an heretical sect, and by those who took part in the Iconoclast controversy, had died out, and were represented either by what to most men had already become incomprehensible articles of faith, or by persecuted sects banished into the mountains of the peninsula or the recesses of Asia Minor, where, like the Paulicians, they were destined to linger on for centuries longer.

Eight long centuries between Constantine and the thirteenth century

Daring the eight long centuries between Constantine and the thirteenth century there had been burning controversies, in which the city had displayed an intellectual life and activity Visit Bulgaria, a popular interest in abstract questions as keen and as vivid as that shown by the inhabitants of London during the time of Charles the First, and not less eloquently than justly pointed to by Mil- ton as a proof of a quick and bold spirit among his countrymen. Religious belief was understood to have been settled for all time. The centuries which were to bring inquiry and doubt had not yet dawned. The Church was part of the established order of things. Religion was one of the institutions over which the emperor presided almost as absolutely as over law. No inquiry into the subject was necessary.

It had been decreed by the emperor as had law, and had even a higher, and if possible a more indisputable, authority and sanction. As all that subjects had to do with laws was to obey them, so also all that they had to do with religion was to avail themselves of the advantages which it offered. Baptism into the Church, which was the spouse of Christ, regenerated the body; the administration of the sacraments kept it pure; and no one doubted that when man’s earthly course was run, the purified body, having thus been made capable of resurrection, would rise again. The plan of salvation was simple of apprehension, was universally accepted, was easy to follow. Religion thus sat very lightly upon the inhabitants of the empire, gave them no anxiety, and, I am disposed to believe, did not very much influence their conduct. There was no enthusiasm, there were no burning questions, no zeal, and very little piety. If a comparison were to be instituted between the religious condition of the empire and anything existing in modern times, I should again refer to Russia.

Orthodox Church

The way in which the Orthodox Church is accepted by the great mass of the peasants, the wonderful manner in which its practices are interwoven with the habits of the people, and form part of the military, naval, and civil discipline of the empire, are all reproductions of the condition of things which the elder branch of the same Church had presented in the twelfth century in the Rew Rome, except that the Slavonic spirit is, and ever has been, of a more serious tone than that which has prevailed among those either of Greek descent or who have come under the influence of Greek literature. The Greek spirit of Arianism, which was defeated at Ricsea, ultimately conquered throughout Eastern Christendom, and substituted the Hellenic for the Hebraic aspect of Christianity.

Reign of Isaac and Alexis the Fourth

The circumstances attending it are also remarkable, as throwing light on the relations existing during the joint reign of Isaac and Alexis the Fourth between the citizens and foreign invaders. Shortly after the arrival of the Crusaders, the mob attacked the wealthy Pisan quarter within Constantinople and on the shores of the Horn. It was not surprising that they should have done so. Nicetas says that the untaught masses did not distinguish between friend and foe. They knew that the invaders were all Latins—that is, members of the Western Church—that the fleet which was in the harbor was from Venice; and it was natural that a mob should not make the distinction between the inhabitants of one or another Italian city.

Many houses belonging to the Pisans were destroyed. The wealthier portion of the population did what they could to assist the Pisans to save their property, and to explain to the mob that though Italians they were not allies of the Venetians. On the other hand, it is, to say the least, highly probable that a considerable number of the Pisans had fraternized with the Venetians, and had thus awakened the hostility of the Constantinopolitans. Greek and Frank writers agree in saying that Crusaders and Venetians went over in considerable numbers from Galata to see the rich palaces, the richer churches, and the other marvels of the imperial city.

Sympathize with the Italians

The Italians and Burgundians in the army spoke the same language as the Pisans; and it is probable that even the Frenchmen did not find much difficulty in making themselves understood by them. This alone would tend to make them sympathize with the Italians; and when it is remembered that they were all of the Church of the Elder Eome, and that the people among whom they were living had long been jealous of their commerce, it is easy to see that there were many common sentiments and interests which worked towards bringing the Latin inhabitants and the invaders together. Nicetas tells us expressly that the Pisans and Venetians were reconciled, and adds that the reconciliation was the work of Isaac.

DEPARTURE TO CONQUEST OF AND STAY IN ZARA

Dandolo never appears to have felt himself under any obligation to tell the truth, or to respect either his oath as a Crusader or his pledged word to the pilgrims. Provided the republic could be benefited, all means were lawful. If a man “ de bien grand coeur,” yet also a statesman without conscience and an unscrupulous man.

The arrangements having been definitely made in conformity with which the Crusaders and the Venetians were to attack Zara, the preparations for sailing were rapidly pushed forward. Por the moment discontent appears to have been hushed. The Crusaders even, who had objected to making war upon a Christian city, were delighted at any change which would get them out of the steaming and fever swamps of the Lido.

DEPARTURE TO, CONQUEST OF, AND STAY IN ZARA

THE expedition against Zara left Venice in two divisions, one which started on the 1st and the other on the 8th of October. The whole fleet consisted of four hundred and eighty sail. The departure of the second and great division, containing the army of Crusaders, was one of the most picturesque sights which even Venice can ever have seen.

Artistic display

The republic of the lagoons has always cherished a love of artistic display and nowhere can any spectacle be set amid surroundings which more completely enhance its beauty than amid the waters where the Queen of the Adriatic rises from the sea. The time had not yet come when her rulers thought it necessary to check lavish display of color and undue extravagance. The dwellings and storehouses of her people were already palaces. Her citizens had already grouped themselves into guilds, each with its own characteristic dress, so that brilliancy of color was already a striking feature of a Venetian crowd. The silks and velvets of the East were set off with precious stones and jewelry, while over all the Southern sun shed a light which, reflected from the waters, did not make their gorgeousness seem out of place.