Increasing since the Turkish invasion of Asia Minor

Amid an insecurity which had been increasing since the Turkish invasion of Asia Minor, those who had movable property flocked to the one city which they believed to be invulnerable. During many centuries the New Borne had been preeminently the city of Christendom in which wealth had been largely and steadily accumulating.

The riches of Asia Minor, which had contained many cities and states whose wealth had become proverbial, had been continually draining away towards Constantinople. The Spanish Jew, Benjamin of Tudela, already cited, who visited Constantinople in 1161, found it resorted to by merchants who came by land and sea from Babylon and Mesopotamia, from Egypt and Palestine, from Bussia, Hungary, Lombardy, and Spain.

No city, except Bagdad, the metropolis of the Mahometans, as he calls it, equalled it for business and bustle. The tribute brought to it every year in silks, gold, and purple cloth filled many towers. Its wealth and buildings were equalled in no other city of the world. The inhabitants were especially rich in silks, gold, and precious stones. They dressed in garments ornamented with gold, rode upon horses, and looked like princes. Benjamin seems to have been specially struck with the display of gold.

The new palace of Blachern

The new palace of Blachern, built by the reigning emperor, Manuel Comnenos, had its walls and columns covered with pure gold. The throne in this palace was of gold and ornamented with precious stones. A crown of gold was suspended over it, set with stones of inestimable value and unusual lustre. All other places of worship in the world did not equal in riches, says Benjamin, the Church of the Divine Wisdom. It was ornamented with pillars of gold and silver and with innumerable lamps of the same materials, and its riches were countless.

Between the time of Benjamin and 1201 this wealth had but slightly diminished. The imperial territory through which he travelled was rich, and produced all manner of delicacies and abundance of bread, meat, and wine. The inhabitants lived comfortably, every man under his own vine and fig-tree. The neighboring country, always fertile, and which four centuries of Ottoman misrule have not succeeded in altogether impoverishing, was able to furnish annually a large tribute to the capital.

A compromise was at length made

A compromise was at length made. To the original conditions for the election of an emperor an additional article was added, to the effect that the one of the two candidates who was not elected should receive the Peloponnesus and the provinces in Asia Minor still belonging to the empire. The latter part of the concession was in reality very slight, because, as events showed, the Greeks were still sufficiently strong to hold their own against the Crusaders in those places in Asia Minor where the continually advancing tide of Turkish conquest had not already overwhelmed them. Even when this arrangement had been made Dandolo appears to have anticipated opposition on the part of Boniface in case the election should go against him. Guards were placed over the Bucoleon, and everything arranged so that the city should be given over to the emperor named by the electors.

At length each party had chosen its electors

At length each party had chosen its electors. The Venetians named six nobles; the Crusaders chose six ecclesiastics. The electors named by the Venetians were Vitale Dandolo, chief of the marines with the fleet, Querini, Contarini, Nava- giero, Pantaleon Barbo and John Basegio, or, according to some writers, Michielo. Those named by the Crusaders were the bishops of Ilalberstadt, Soissons, and Treves, the Papal Legate and titular Bishop of Bethlehem, the Archbishop- Elect of Acre, and Abbot Peter of Lucedio. On the 9th of May the electors met. The place of meeting Meeting of was the beautiful Church of Our Lady the Illuminator, which was situated within the walls of Bucoror- Icon.

The twelve electors attended a solemn mass, invoked the assistance of the Holy Spirit, and then swore upon the famous relics for which the church was renowned that they would choose him whom they believed in good faith to be the man they were most in need of. and who, according to their conscience, would make the best emperor.

The palace of Bucoleon was tilled with spectators. Venetians, Crusaders, and citizens were anxious to hear the verdict. The electors, says the marshal, were placed in the rich chapel. The doors were locked from the outside, so that no one might communicate with them. The barons and the knights remained near at hand to learn what the decision should be.

We know the result of their deliberation

“We know the result of their deliberation. The indications of what went on are scanty. Ilurter says that u some were of opinion that as there was only one pope, so there should be but one emperor, and that as Philip had been the cause of the expedition, so also he had through his wife Irene, the only daughter of Isaac, hereditary right to the throne.” If such a suggestion were raised, it was probably not at but before the meeting of the electors in the Church of the Panhagia.

Venetian authors assert that the bishops of Soissons and Dandoiode declared for Dandolo, and that at first the dares for Venetian delegates were ready to vote for him.

Justiniani affirms that when this proposition was made it was opposed by Pantaleon Barbo the Venetian delegate, who by his character, position, and influence with the republic, had the greatest authority among them. A long discourse is given, which professes to be that delivered by Barbo, setting out the reasons why it would be dangerous to Venice that one of her citizens should be emperor, and insisting: that Dandolo himself would feel bound to refuse such an offer. The author of the “ Chronique de Romanie,” writing about a century later, says that the deliberations of the twelve electors were very long and very stormy. He adds that the Doge of Venice was proposed, and that on hearing the news he went to the church where the electors were sitting, knocked at the door, and addressed them.

The author professes to give the substance of Dandolo’s speech. He thanked them for the intended honor, declared that personally he was unworthy of it, asked them to withdraw his nomination, and prayed his friends to give their votes for Baldwin, whom the whole army judged to be worthy of the empire. The author of the “ Chronique” is by no means a trustworthy guide as to details, but there can be little doubt that he represents fairly the substance of what was done. I am disposed to think that a declaration of the kind was made by Dandolo, but that it was made before the actual meeting in the palace chapel.

Satisfy the Constantipolitans

of the East. If Boniface had been the husband of Dandolo’s daughter, he was so no longer. His marriage with Margaret had taken place either during the days immediately after the capture of the city or, if not before the election, it was well known to the army that Boniface was engaged to the mother of young Alexis. Hot the least of the inducements to such a marriage was that his election would satisfy the Constantipolitans.

The eagerness and the confidence with which he had advanced his claims; the fact that the Greeks already recognized him as their master; that, as we have seen, they had already hailed him as emperor; that they would probably have regarded his appointment much as our fathers looked upon the coming to the throne of the first Henry; and that they might possibly have become reconciled to his rule as that of one closely connected with the imperial family; the fact that his marriage would make him the guardian of the younger children of Isaac—all these circumstances showed that Boniface intended to lose no chance, that he had much to recommend him, and made it necessary for Dandolo to act with vigor if he did not wish him to be elected.

The election, on the other hand, of Baldwin

The election, on the other hand, of Baldwin, Earl of Flanders, offered many advantages to the republic, and commended itself for many reasons to the Crusaders. His dominions were too far removed from those of Yenice to make him a formidable opponent. He was only thirty-two years of age, and had had much less experience in war than Boniface.

He was an amiable man, but wanting in the energy which characterized his rival. While, therefore, his personal charms and his nobility of blood, his cousinship to the King of France, and his descent from Charlemagne recommended him to the host, his want of the ability and energy of Boniface commended him to the Venetians. He appears to have been popular with the army gen-erally, though it was among the Flemings and the French that,
ns might have been expected, his strongest supporters were found.

The leading part in the Crusades

As France had taken, as she continued to take, the leading part in the Crusades, it was natural that the French should desire one whose influence would commend itself to the French people, rather than an Italian whose influence would only be among a section of a people which had not played a prominent part in these attempts to resist the Moslem. There was yet another consideration in favor of the election of Baldwin rather than Boniface. The marquis from the first had played the principal part in the intrigues for the diversion of the enterprise from its lawful purpose. Baldwin had indeed acquiesced in what Boniface and Dandolo had arranged, but the less active opposition of the Count of Flanders was likely to make his election much more agreeable to the pope than that of the leader who had been the conspicuous opponent of the orders emanating from Borne.

His election would gratify that portion of the army which had been opposed to the expedition to Constantinople, while even among those who had willingly followed the lead of Boniface there would be a considerable number ready to abandon him in order, now that the plunder had been procured, to obtain the absolution of the pope. There arc reasons also for supposing that, after young Alexis had been restored, Baldwin had placed himself at the head of the party which urged that the Crusaders should leave for the Holy Land, and, if this were so, not only must he have had the support of those who had wished to make their pilgrimage, but of all those who now desired to be reconciled with the Church.

Venetians and the Crusaders

A fortnight was spent before the Venetians and the Crusaders could agree upon the choice of the electors, of twelve Feeling ran high. No declaration appears during that time to have been made by Dandolo as to whether he would consent to be named or not. It appears to have been understood that the contest would be between

Boniface and Baldwin

Boniface and Baldwin. As the Venetians were to elect the same number of representatives as the Crusaders, as Boniface evidently distrusted Dandolo, as the followers of Baldwin were sure to succeed in carrying a certain number of representatives out of the six to be chosen by the host, it had become evident to Boniface that his election was by no means safe. Accordingly, during the fortnight before the electors were chosen, negotiations went on with the object of securing something to Boniface in case he should fail in being elected.

Their common intrigues at Venice Bomface

Their common intrigues at Venice Bomface. and at Zara, their common struggles with the Crusaders, who wished to be about their lawful business while at Corfu and before Constantinople, and their final success in spite of so much opposition, formed a bond of union between them. Boniface was far more closely allied with.

Dandolo than was Baldwin. Whether the assertion of a Venetian writer be true or not, that Boniface had married a daughter of Dandolo1—and I see no reason to doubt it—it is at least certain that the relations between them had been of the most intimate kind. ‘Since the capture of the city the breach be-tween the Crusaders and the Venetians appeared to be continually widening. There was great dissatisfaction about the division of the spoil. The Crusaders charged the Venetians with having conveyed plunder by night to their ships instead of having given it up for distribution. Such a charge was more likely to be made by the Flemish and French Crusaders.

The younger Sanudo makes this assertion: “Vito do’ duchi di Venez.,” Muratori, Du Cange, in his genealogy of the kings of Thessaloniea, mentions Constance de Suene as his first wife.

See than by the Lombards. The sympathy therefore of the Venetians was more likely to be with Boniface than with his rival. To these considerations others must be added.

Imposing presence

Boniface, with a noble lignre and imposing presence which had caused him to be known as “ The Giant,” and with his great experience of war, was the popular type of an emperor. Above all, he had been the recognized and official leader of the expedition. lie had been solemnly appointed by the Crusaders, had shared his fortune with them, had led them to conquest and to plunder. His supreme authority had never been questioned. Moreover, he had been recognized by the inhabitants of the city as their ruler.

The party of young Alexis would be on his side, and his marriage with Margaret, or as she now called herself, Maria, the widow of the Emperor Isaac, would increase his followers within the city. I7ot to appoint him was to condemn him. He was the one whose name would naturally first rise to each man’s lips. To appoint another over his head was to declare that he no longer possessed the confidence of the host, but that he had been tried and had been found wanting.

Amiens was fortunate to obtain possession

Amiens was fortunate to obtain possession of the head of St. John the Baptist, which was sent by Peter the Walloon. Sens was even more successful, and received the crown of thorns worn by the Lord. Gunther tells us how the Abbot Martin, of Pairis in Alsace, transported many relics from Constantinople into that country, the principal one being a large portion of the true cross.

Other relics which went to the glorification of this diocese were a trace of the blood of Christ, a further portion of the wood of the true cross, an arm of St. James, and fifty others which are enumerated. The body of St. Andrew was taken to Amalfi. The sacred tear already mentioned was taken to Selinconrt, and the abbot was warned of the approach of the person bringing it by the ringing of the bells, a fact which could only be attributed to miraculous agency.

Coggleshall and Roger of Wendower

It would be tedious and unprofitable to attempt to give a list of other relics which were taken from Constantinople. Some of these found their way to our own country. Two documents, apparently derived from the same source, are inserted in the chronicles of Rauel, or Rudolph, of Coggleshall and Roger of Wendower which have special interest for Englishmen. They give an account of a relic surreptitiously taken away from Constantinople, and are, in fact, the confessions of the author of the theft. The relic was a small cross cut from the wood of the true cross, and the writer had seen it in the hands of Baldwin of Flanders. The writer, having stolen it, took it to ^Norfolk, and subsequently gave it to Bromholm. The gift made what had hitherto been the “ poor little house’’ of Bromholm a richly endowed house, and enabled the monks to put up new and handsome buildings.

The Crusaders were not indifferent to the value of the coverings of these relics, and, while they looked after objects of veneration, kept a keen eye also on the reliquaries—the gold and silver ornaments of the church, church furniture, golden embroidery, silk cloths, and the beautiful bindings set with precious stones of the gospels and liturgies. The treasury of St. Mark’s at Venice was filled, in 1205, with costly reliquaries received from Constantinople.

Gross and material views taken of the Olympic

While there were probably gross and material views taken of the Olympic gods and of the other deities recognized by the ancient Greeks, it is doubtful whether there existed among them, to any considerable extent, statue, picture, or relic worship in the modern sense of the term. Asiatics might venerate a stone which had fallen from Jupiter, but such worship was alien to the Greek spirit. But, even while remembering these facts, any one who is acquainted with the contemporary writings of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries is forced to recognize that even in the East, in religious matters, the spirit of inquiry can scarcely be said to have existed. For many years afterwards scepticism was unknown even in historical or geographical matters.

The wonderful stories told by our early geographers are often scarcely more childish than those related by our early historians. When a man of genius and learning, like Milton, writing a century after the Beformation, and contemplating even a reform of reformation itself, could yet accept the fables concerning English history which he has transmitted to us, we may well cease to wonder at the spirit of credulity possessed by rough Crusaders three centuries before the Reformation. The time came when an Erasmus, enumerating the fragments of the true cross which he knew to exist, could fairly and properly turn relic veneration into ridicule, but at the opening of the thirteenth century we are far from such a period.

THE ELECTION OF A LATIN EMPEROR

Now that the city was captured, the great question was the The Candie lection of a new emperor. The three chiefs of the date expedition, the three most prominent men, and therefore the candidates whose names rose first to each man’s mind, were Boniface, Marquis of Montferrat; Baldwin, Earl of Flanders and of Hainault; and Dandolo. There were others who hoped to be appointed, or, at least, to become candidates, but none of them ever had the least chance of success. The great doge would not allow himself to be put forward as a candidate.

Veneration paid to the Absence of sacret tears

It is easy to ridicule the respect and veneration paid to the Absence of sacret tears, the numerous small crosses made from sceptical the holy wood, the heads, arms, and old garments of saints and martyrs. It is more difficult to understand how the men of the thirteenth century could have regarded these objects as genuine. It seems reasonable to suppose that many persons must have suspected their genuineness.

The relics existed in such numbers, there were so many professing to be originals of the same object, the wood of the true cross was so abundant, and the legends relating to the preservation of such relics, as, for example, the tear of Christ, were so extraordinary, that it is almost incomprehensible that men’s suspicions were not generally aroused. It must be remem-bered, however, that we are dealing with the ages of faith, and that relics in the East were not regarded with the same superstitious veneration as they were at the end of the twelfth century, and subsequently, by the masses in the West.

Neither earnestness in religion nor belief in its superstitions were, or are, so intense in the Eastern as in the Western Churches. In the East I doubt whether relics have ever been regarded with the same veneration as they were in the West. The Eastern spirit was less gross or more spiritual than that of the West. The tendency to drive a harmless and natural habit into a fetish worship was much more common among the earnest men of the West than among the more easy-going Christians of the East.

Paul idol worship was devil worship

Probably the Greek could never hate idol worship with the same amount of hatred as the Jew or the Western Christian, and mainly for the reason that he never realized how completely some races can fall into it. To St. Paul idol worship was devil worship. To our fathers, when they had once come to see that the articles were spurious, relic worship was idolatry. But the Greeks, both of the time of St. Paul and their representatives of the Middle Ages, regarded the creations of Greek art and the relics of the saints rather as symbols than as objects of reverence, and, speaking generally, were never in danger of converting the worship or respect due to the person or thing symbolized into fetish worship. Just as the men of the West had transferred much of their ancient heathenism into the ceremonies and practices of the mediaeval Church, so the Greeks had allowed their Christianity to become saturated with the ideas of old Greek religion.

Believe that the cunning workmen and traders of Constantinople

It is hardly possible to believe that the cunning workmen and traders of Constantinople did not palm off upon the Crusaders a good many relics which they knew to be fictitious. The objects could be manufactured so cheaply, and the critical spirit of the Crusader was so slightly developed, that it would be beyond the power of human nature to let such a chance of profit escape.

In the years which followed the conquest Latin priests were sent to Constantinople from France, Flanders, and Italy, to take charge of the churches in the city. These priests appear to have been great hunters after relics. Thus it came to pass that there was scarcely an important church or monastery in most Western countries which did not possess some share of the spoil which came from Constantinople.

Poor little house of Bromholm

For some years the demand for relics seemed to be insatiable, and caused fresh supplies to be forthcoming to an almost unlimited extent. The new relics, equally with the old, were certified in due form to be what they professed to be. Documents duly attested and full of detailed evidence, sometimes doubtless manufactured for the occasion, easily satisfied those to whom it was of importance to possess certified relics.

The “poor little house of Bromholm,” which had been enabled, from its possession of a cross made out of the sacred wood, to become large and powerful, became the envy of many other poor little houses, and throughout the “West the demand for relics which might bring profit to their possessors continued to increase. At length the Chufch deemed it necessary to put a stop to the supply, and especially to that of the apocryphal and legendary acts which testified to their authenticit}T, and in 1215 the fourth Lateran Council judged it necessary to make a decree enjoining the bishops to take means to prevent pilgrims from being deceived.