monks of the city, at the Synod of 536.
[298] In the Epistle to Pope Agapetus the monastery 'near the
aqueduct' is described as 'Anastasii prope Agogum,' Mansi, viii. p.
907.
[299] _Esquisses top._ p. 70.
[300] Const. Porphr. _De cer._ i. p. 75.
[301] P. 428; Banduri, i. p. 18; viii. pp. 697-98.
[302] _Archaeologia_, vol. lv. part 2, p. 438.
[303] _Mediaeval Art_, p. 66.
[304] _Manuel d'art byzantin_, p. 312.
CHAPTER X
THE CHURCH OF SS. PETER AND MARK,
HOJA ATIK MUSTAPHA JAMISSI
The Byzantine church, now Hoja Atik Mustapha Jamissi, situated in the
Aivan Serai quarter, close to the Golden Horn, is commonly regarded as
the church of SS. Peter and Mark, because it stands where the church
dedicated to the chief of the apostles and his companion stood, in the
district of Blachernae (Aivan Serai) and near the Golden Horn.[305] Such
indications are too vague for a positive opinion on the subject, but
perhaps the Patriarch Constantius, who is responsible for the
identification, may have relied upon some tradition in favour of the
view he has made current.[306]
NOTE
Tafferner, chaplain to the embassy from Leopold I. of Austria to the
Ottoman Court, speaking of the patriarchal church in his day (the
present patriarchal church of S. George in the Phanar quarter), says,
'Aedes haec in patriarchatum erecta est, postquam Sultan Mehemet
basilicam Petri et Pauli exceptam Graecis in moscheam defoedavit'
(_Caesarea legatio_, p. 89, Vien. 1668). Probably by the church of SS.
Peter and Paul he means this church of SS. Peter and Mark. If so, the
traditional name of the building is carried back to the seventeenth
century. The church of SS. Peter and Mark, it is true, never served as
a patriarchal church. That honour belonged to the church of S.
Demetrius of Kanabos, which is in the immediate vicinity, and has
always remained a Christian sanctuary. Tafferner seems to have
confused the two churches owing to their proximity to each other. Or
his language may mean that the patriarchal seat was removed from S.
Demetrius when SS. Peter and Paul was converted into a mosque, because
too near a building which had become a Moslem place of worship.
The church of SS. Peter and Mark was founded, it is said, by two
patricians of Constantinople, named Galbius and Candidus, in 458, early
in the reign of Leo I. (457-474). But the present building cannot be so
old. It is a fair question to ask whether it may not be the church of S.
Anastasia referred to in a chrysoboullon of John Palaeologus (1342), and
mentioned by the Russian pilgrim who visited Constantinople in the
fifteenth century (1424-53).[307]
The church of SS. Peter and Mark was erected as a shrine for the
supposed tunic of the Theotokos, a relic which played an important part
in the fortunes of Constantinople on several occasions, as 'the
palladium of the city and the chaser away of all diseases and warlike
foes.' As often happened in the acquisition of relics, the garment had
been secured by a pious fraud--a fact which only enhanced the merit of
the purloiners, and gave to the achievement the colour of a romantic
adventure. In the course of their pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Galbius
and Candidus discovered, in the house of a devout Hebrew lady who
entertained them, a small room fitted up like a chapel, fragrant with
incense, illuminated with lamps, and crowded with worshippers. Being
informed that the room was consecrated by the presence of a chest
containing the robe of the mother of their Lord, the pious men begged
leave to spend the night in prayer beside the relic, and while thus
engaged were seized by an uncontrollable longing to gain possession of
the sacred garment. Accordingly they took careful measurements of the
chest before them, and at Jerusalem ordered an exact facsimile of it to
be made. Thus equipped they lodged again, on their homeward journey, at
the house of their Galilean hostess, and once more obtained leave to
worship in its chapel. Watching their opportunity they exchanged the
chests, and forthwith despatched the chest containing the coveted
treasure straight to Constantinople. They themselves tarried behind, as
though loth to quit a spot still hallowed by the sacred robe. Upon their
return to the capital the pious thieves erected a shrine for their prize
on land which they owned in the district of Blachernae, and dedicated
the building to SS. Peter and Mark instead of to the Theotokos, as would
have been more appropriate, in the hope that they would thus conceal the
precious relic from the public eye, and retain it for their special
benefit. But the secret leaked out. Whereupon the emperor obliged the
two patricians to surrender their treasure, and, after renovating the
neighbouring church of the Theotokos of Blachernae, deposited the relic
in that sanctuary as its proper home.
[Illustration: PLATE LI.
(1) SS. PETER AND MARK, FROM THE SOUTH-EAST.
(2) SS. PETER AND MARK. FONT OUTSIDE THE CHURCH.
_To face page 192._]
The site of that celebrated church lies at a short distance to the west
of Hoja Atik Mustapha Jamissi, and is marked by the Holy Well which was
attached to it. The well, in whose waters emperors and empresses were
wont to bathe, is now enclosed by a modern Greek chapel, and is still
the resort of the faithful.
_Architectural Features_
The plan of the church presents the simplest form of the domed-cross
type without galleries. The dome, without drum, ribs, or windows, is
almost certainly a Turkish reconstruction, but the dome arches and piers
are original. The arms of the cross and the small chambers at its angles
are covered with barrel vaults, and communicate with one another through
lofty, narrow arches. In the treatment of the northern and southern
walls of the building considerable architectural elaboration was
displayed. At the floor level is a triple arcade; higher up are three
windows resting on the string-course; and still higher a window divided
into three lights. The arches in the church are enormously stilted, a
feature due to the fact that the only string-course in the building,
though structurally corresponding to the vaulting spring, has been
placed at the height of what would properly be the column string-course.
The three apses, much altered by repairs, project boldly, all of them
showing three sides on the exterior. The roof and the cornice are
Turkish, and the modern wooden narthex has probably replaced a Byzantine
narthex. On the opposite side of the street lies a cruciform font that
belonged to the baptistery of the church.
[Illustration: FIG. 63.]
From a church of this type to the later four-columned plan is but a
step. The dome piers of SS. Peter and Mark are still [Symbol: L]-shaped,
and form the internal angles of the cross. As the arches between such
piers and the external walls increased in size, the piers became
smaller, until eventually they were reduced to the typical four columns
of the late churches.
[Illustration: PLATE LII.
(1) SS. PETER AND MARK. INTERIOR OF THE DOME, LOOKING NORTH.
(2) SS. PETER AND MARK. LOOKING ACROSS THE DOME FROM THE SOUTH-WEST.
_To face page 194._]
[Illustration: FIGS. 64 AND 65.]
[305] Synax., July 2.
[306] _Ancient and Modern Constantinople_, p. 83.
[307] [Greek: Neologou hebdomadiaia epitheoresis], January 3, 1893, p.
205; _Itin. russes_, p. 233.
CHAPTER XI
THE CHURCH OF THE MYRELAION,
BODROUM JAMISSI
The identification of Bodroum Jamissi as the church attached to the
monastery styled the Myrelaion rests upon the tradition current in the
Greek community when Gyllius visited the city. According to that
traveller, the church on the hill rising to the north of the eastern end
of the gardens of Vlanga, the site of the ancient harbour of Theodosius,
was known as the Myrelaion--'Supra locum hortorum Blanchae nuncupatorum,
olim Portum Theodosianum continentium, extremam partem ad ortum solis
pertinentem, clivus a Septentrione eminet, in quo est templum vulgo
nominatum Myreleos.'[308] This agrees, so far, with the statement of the
Anonymus[309] of the eleventh century, that the Myrelaion stood on the
side of the city looking towards the Sea of Marmora. There is no record
of the date when the monastery was founded. But the House must have been
in existence before the eighth century, for Constantine Copronymus
(740-775), the bitter iconoclast, displayed his contempt for monks and
all their ways by scattering the fraternity, and changing the fragrant
name of the establishment, Myrelaion, the place of myrrh-oil, into the
offensive designation, Psarelaion, the place of fish-oil.[310] The
monastery was restored by the Emperor Romanus I. Lecapenus (919-945),
who devoted his residence in this district to that object.[311] Hence
the monastery was sometimes described as 'in the palace of the
Myrelaion,'[312] [Greek: en tois palatiois tou Myrelaiou], and as 'the
monastery of the Emperor Romanus,'[313] [Greek: Mone tou basileos
Rhomanou]. It was strictly speaking a convent, and became noteworthy for
the distinguished rank of some of its inmates, and as the mausoleum in
which the founder and many members of his family were laid to rest. Here
Romanus II. sent his sister Agatha to take the veil, when he was obliged
to dismiss her from the court to soothe the jealousy of his beautiful
but wicked consort Theophano.[314] Upon the abdication of Isaac
Comnenus, his wife Aecatherina and her daughter Maria retired to the
Myrelaion, and there learned that a crown may be a badge of slavery and
the loss of it liberty.[315] Here were buried Theodora,[316] the wife of
Romanus Lecapenus, in 923, and, eight years later, his beloved son
Christopher,[317] for whom he mourned, says the historian of the event,
with a sorrow 'greater than the grievous mourning of the Egyptians.'
Here also Helena, the daughter of Romanus Lecapenus, and wife of
Constantine VII. Porphyrogenitus, was laid to rest, in 981, after an
imposing funeral, in which the body was carried to the grave on a bier
of gold adorned with pearls and other precious stones.[318] To this
monastery were transferred, from the monastery of S. Mamas, near the
Gate of the Xylokerkou, the three sarcophagi, one of them a fine piece
of work, containing the ashes of the Emperor Maurice and his children.
And here also Romanus Lecapenus himself was interred in 948, his remains
being brought from the island of Prote, where his unfilial sons, Stephen
and Constantine, had obliged him to spend the last years of his life as
a monk.[319]
[Illustration: PLATE LIII.
MYRELAION. THE SOUTH SIDE.]
[Illustration: MYRELAION. THE NARTHEX, LOOKING NORTH.
_To face page 196._]
_Architectural Features_
The building is on the 'four column' plan. The dome, placed on a
circular drum, is supported on four piers, and divided into eight
concave compartments, with windows in the alternate compartments. The
arms of the cross, the chambers at the angles, and the bema are all
covered with cross-groined vaults that spring, like those in the chapel
of the Pammakaristos (p. 151), from the vaulting level. The apsidal
chambers have dome vaults, a niche on the east recessed in an arch to
form the apse, and a niche both on the north and the south rising above
the vaulting string-course. In the lowest division of the south wall
stood originally a triple arcade with a door between the columns. The
arcade has been built up, but the moulded jambs and cornices of the
door, and the arch above it, now contracted into a window, still show on
the exterior, while the columns appear within the church. Above the
column string-course is a range of three windows, the central window
being larger than its companions; higher up in the gable is a single
light. The interior of the church has been much pulled about and cut
away. The narthex is in three bays, separated by strong transverse
arches, and terminates at either end in a high concave niche that shows
on the outside. The central bay has a dome vault; the other bays have
cross-groined vaults. The church had no gynecaeum, although Pulgher
indicates one in his plan. A striking feature of the exterior are the
large semicircular buttresses that show beyond the walls of the
church--six on the south side, one on either side of the entrance on the
west, and two on the east, supporting the apsidal chambers. In the last
case, however, where entire buttresses would have been at once too large
and too close together, the buttresses are only half semi-circles. The
apses project with three sides. The northern side of the church and the
roof are modern, for the building suffered severely in 1784 from
fire.[320] The church stands on a platform, built over a small cistern,
the roof of which is supported by four columns crowned by beautiful
capitals. Hence the Turkish name of the mosque, Bodroum, signifying a
subterranean hollow. Gyllius[321] is mistaken in associating this church
with the large underground cistern situated lower down the slope of
the hill close to the bath Kyzlar Aghassi Hamam.
[Illustration: PLATE LIV.
MYRELAION. THE INTERIOR, LOOKING EAST.]
[Illustration: MYRELAION. THE SOUTH-WEST CROSS ANGLE.
_To face page 198._]
Since the above was in print, the church has, unfortunately, been burnt
in the great fire which destroyed a large part of Stamboul on the 23rd
July 1912 (see Plates II., III.).
NOTE
Gyllius (_De top. C.P._ iii. c. 8) places the Horreum, the statue of
Maimas, the house of Craterus, the Modius, and the arch bearing the
two bronze hands, after passing which a criminal on the way to
punishment lost all hope of reprieve, near this church; basing that
opinion on the statement of Suidas that these buildings stood near the
Myrelaion. But there was a Myrelaion also (Codinus, _De aed._ p. 108)
in the district in which the Shahzade mosque is situated. The
buildings above mentioned were near this second Myrelaion. On the
other hand, the Chrysocamaron near the Myrelaion mentioned by Codinus
(_De signis_, pp. 65-66) stood near the church under our
consideration, for it was close to the church of S. Acacius in the
Heptascalon. So also, doubtless, did the xenodocheion Myrelaion (Du
Cange, iv. p. 160), possibly one of the many philanthropic
institutions supported by Helena (Theoph. Cont. p. 458), the daughter
of Romanus Lecapenus and wife of Constantine VII. Porphyrogenitus.
[Illustration: FIGS. 66 AND 67.]
[308] _De top. C.P._ iii. c. 8.
[309] Banduri, iii. p. 48.
[310] _Ibid. ut supra._
[311] Theoph. Cont. p. 402.
[312] Scylitzes, in Cedrenus, ii. p. 649.
[313] Theoph. Cont. p. 404.
[314] _Ibid._ pp. 461, 757.
[315] Scylitzes, _ut supra_, pp. 648-49.
[316] Theoph. Cont. p. 402.
[317] _Ibid._ p. 420.
[318] _Ibid._ p. 473.
[319] _Ibid._ pp. 403-4.
[320] Chevalier, _Voyage de la Propontide et du Pont Euxin_, vol. i.
p. 108.
[321] _De top. C.P._ iii. c. 8, 'habens inter se cisternam, cujus
camera lateritia sustinetur columnis marmoreis circiter sexaginta';
cf. _Die byzant. Wasserbehaelter_, pp. 59, 222-23. The bath of Kyzlar
Aghassi Hamam may represent the bath built by the eunuch Nicetas, in
the reign of Theophilus, and was probably supplied with water from the
cistern beside it (Banduri, vi. p. 133).
CHAPTER XII
THE CHURCH OF S. JOHN THE BAPTIST IN TRULLO,
ACHMED PASHA MESJEDI
The identification of the church of S. John the Baptist in Trullo
([Greek: Mone tou hagiou prophetou prodromou Ioannou tou en to
Troullo]) with the mosque of Achmed Pasha Mesjedi is based on two
reasons: first, because of their common proximity to the church of the
Pammakaristos,[322] now Fetiyeh Jamissi; secondly, on the ground of the
tradition current in the Greek community on that point. The latter
reason is in this case particularly strong, seeing the church of the
Pammakaristos was the patriarchal cathedral almost immediately after the
Turkish conquest, and retained that honour until 1591.[323] The highest
Greek ecclesiastical authorities were therefore in a position to be
thoroughly acquainted with the dedication of a church in their close
vicinity. In 1578 the protonotarius of the patriarch showed Gerlach the
site of the Trullus close to Achmed Pasha Mesjedi.[324]
The church is mentioned in history only by Phrantzes,[325] who informs
us that when the Patriarch Gennadius transferred the patriarchal seat
to the monastery and church of the Pammakaristos, certain nuns
previously accommodated in that House were removed to the neighbouring
monastery of S. John Baptist in Trullo. Phrantzes explains the
designation of the church, 'in Trullo,' as derived from a palace named
Trullus which once stood in the vicinity to the north of the
Pammakaristos. It was the palace, adds the historian,[326] in which the
Council of Constantinople, known as the Concilium Quinisextum ([Greek:
Penthekte]), or the second Concilium Trullanum, assembled in 692, in the
reign of Justinian II. But the palace Trullus, in which the first
Concilium Trullanum met in 680, was one of the group of buildings
forming the Great Palace[327] beside the Hippodrome, and there the
second Concilium Trullanum also held its meetings.[328] Phrantzes is
therefore mistaken in associating the Council of 692 with a palace in
the vicinity of the Pammakaristos and Achmed Pasha Mesjedi. But his
mistake on that particular point does not preclude the existence of a
palace named Trullus in the neighbourhood of the Pammakaristos. In fact,
the existence of such a palace in that district is the only possible
explanation of the attachment of the style 'in Trullo' to a church on
the site of Achmed Pasha Mesjedi. Nor is it strange to find a name
pertaining primarily to a building in the Great Palace transferred to a
similar building situated elsewhere. The imperial residence at the
Hebdomon, for example, was named Magnaura after one of the halls in the
Great Palace.[329] There was an Oaton or Trullus in the palace of
Blachernae,[330] and in the palace at Nicaea.[331] Consequently, a
palace known as the Oaton or the Trullus might also be situated near the
Pammakaristos, to command the fine view from that point of the city.
Mordtmann,[332] indeed, maintains that the building to which Phrantzes
refers was the palace at Bogdan Serai, the subsequent residence of the
Moldavian hospodar in Turkish days, and that the church of S. John in
Trullo was not Achmed Pasha Mesjedi, but the church of S. John in Petra
(Kesme Kaya) beside that palace. This opinion, however, is at variance
with the statements of Phrantzes and Gerlach. Furthermore, the
designation 'in Petra' was so distinctive a mark of the church of S.
John near Kesme Kaya, that the church could scarcely have been
recognised under another style.
[Illustration: PLATE LV.
S. JOHN IN TRULLO, FROM THE SOUTH-WEST.]
[Illustration: BALABAN MESJEDI (page 265). INTERIOR VIEW.
_To face page 202._]
[Illustration: FIG. 68.]
_Architectural Features_
S. John in Trullo belongs to the ordinary 'four column' type of church
building, and has a narthex. Its three apses are semicircular both
within and without, presenting the only instance in Constantinople of
apses semicircular on the exterior. The central apse projects m. 3
beyond the body of the building, and was lighted by a large but low
window, divided into three lights by two pilasters crowned with carved
capitals (for details see Fig. 68); the diaconicon has been built up to
form the mihrab of the mosque; the prothesis, to the north, has a barrel
vault.
[Illustration: FIG. 69.]
The drum dome is octagonal, with eight ribs and as many windows. It
seems large for the size of the church, and is lower than usual inside.
The windows do not cut into the exterior cornice of the dome. Originally
the dome arches rested on four piers or columns, but these have been
removed in the course of Turkish repairs, and the dome arches are now
supported by beams running across the church, under the impost of the
arches.
The arms of the cross to the north and south have barrel vaults, and
the walls are pierced by triple windows. Two capitals built into the
exterior face of the northern wall, and marked with a cross, were
doubtless the capitals of the shafts which divided the northern window
into three lights. The western arm of the cross is covered by the roof
of the narthex, and lighted by a small round-headed window above it. The
small narthex is in three bays, covered with cross-groined vaults.
It is not probable that the church was converted into a mosque before
1591, when the patriarchal seat was removed from the Pammakaristos to S.
Demetrius beside the Xyloporta. Nor could the conversion have been later
than 1598, the year in which Achmed Pasha--who converted the building
into a mosque--died.[333]
[Illustration: FIGS. 70 AND 71.]
[322] Phrantzes, p. 307.
[323] Patr. Constantius, p. 80.
[324] _Tagebuch_, p. 456. On the way eastwards from the residence of
the Moldavian agent (Bogdan Serai), says Gerlach, 'Auf diesem
Spazier-weg hat mir Theodosius auch den Trullum auf der Seiten des
Patriarchats gegen dem Sultan Selim gewiesen. Welches vor diesen ein
sehr weiter Platz gewesen, nun aber nichts mehr da als ein rundes
getaeffeltes Haus, wie ein kleines Kirchlein ist.' Cf. his statement
reported by Crusius in _Turcograecia_, p. 189: 'Patriarchatui
contiguum est monasteriolum Joannis Baptistae a Graecis
sanctimonalibus inhabitatum.'
[325] Phrantzes, p. 307; cf. _Turcograecia_, p. 189.
[326] It was also styled [Greek: Oaton], 'the Oval,' after the form of
its roof or of the body of the building itself (Synax., Sept. 14).
_Vita Stephani._ For the [Greek: Oaton], see Labarte, _Le Palais
imperial de Cons'ple_, pp. 62, 121, 122, 186.
[327] _Vita Stephani Junioris_, Migne, _P.G._ tom. 100, col. 1144
[Greek: en to hiero palatio, entha epilegetai ho Troullos hoper hemeis
Oaton kaloumen].
[328] Balsamon, vol. i. col. 501 [Greek: en to Troullo tou basilikou
palatiou].
[329] Theoph. p. 541.
[330] Pachym. i. p. 405.
[331] _Acta et diplomata Graeca_, iii. p. 65; cf. Paspates, _Great
Palace_, p. 248, Metcalfe's translation.
[332] _Proceedings of Greek Syllogos of C.P._, Archaeological
Supplement to vol. xvii. p. 8. His principal reason seems to be the
fact that a company of nuns occupied some of the cells in the old
monastery of S. John in Petra when Gerlach visited the city. But,
according to Gerlach, another sisterhood was at the same time
accommodated in the small convent of S. John the Baptist near the
patriarchate.--_Turcograecia_, p. 189.
[333] Cf. Paspates, p. 304.
CHAPTER XIII
THE CHURCH OF S. THEKLA,
TOKLOU IBRAHIM DEDE MESJEDI
In the quarter of Aivan Serai, a few paces to the rear of the
Heraclian Wall, stands a small mosque known as Toklou Ibrahim Dede
Mesjedi, the architectural features of which proclaim it at once to be
an old Byzantine chapel. There is no decisive tradition in regard to
the identity of the building. The Patriarch Constantius is uncertain
whether it should be recognised as the church of S. Nicholas or as the
church of S. Thekla, two sanctuaries situated in the quarter of
Blachernae. It cannot have been the former, inasmuch as the site of
that church was near the Holy Well, still venerated by Christians and
Moslems,[334] in the area enclosed between the Wall of Heraclius and
the Wall of Leo the Armenian, now a picturesque Turkish cemetery. One
argument for regarding the building as the church of S. Thekla, in
this part of the city, is the striking similarity of its Turkish name
Toklou to the Greek name Thekla, rendering it exceedingly probable
that the former is a corruption of the latter, and a reminiscence of
the original designation of the edifice.[335] Turkish authorities,
however, have their own explanation of the name Toklou. In the
_Historical and Geographical Dictionary_ of Achmed Rifaat Effendi, we
are told that a certain Toklou Dede was the guardian of the tombs of
the companions of Khaled, who took part in the first siege of
Constantinople (673) by the Saracens. 'His real name was Ghazi Ismail;
Dogulu was his nickname. Now Dogh is the Persian for a drink named
Airan (a mixture of curds and water), and he was called Dogulu Dede
because during the siege his business was to distribute that drink to
the troops. At his request a Christian church near Aivan Serai was
converted into a mosque. The church was formerly named after its
founder, Isakias.'[336] Another Turkish explanation of Toklou derives
the epithet from the rare Turkish term for a yearling lamb, and
accounts for its bestowal upon Ibrahim Dede as a pet name given in
gratitude for his services to the thirsty soldiers engaged in the
siege of the city.[337] In keeping with these stories is the tradition
that the cemetery in the area between the Walls of Heraclius and Leo
V. the Armenian, is the resting-place of Saracen warriors who fell in
the siege of 673. But have we not here the fancy-bred tales which
Oriental imagination weaves to veil its ignorance of real facts? When
etymology or history fails, romance is substituted. We may as well
believe the tradition that the body of Eyoub, the standard-bearer of
Mahomet, lies buried at the head of the Golden Horn, in the mosque of
Eyoub, where the Sultan girds the sword on his accession to the
throne. No Moslem graves could have been tolerated between the lines
of the city's fortification in Byzantine days. The cemetery between
the old walls near Toklou Ibrahim Dede Mesjedi must therefore be later
than the Turkish conquest. And as soon as Moslems were laid there, it
was almost inevitable that a church in the immediate neighbourhood
should either be destroyed or converted into a mosque. By what name
that mosque would thenceforth become known was, of course, an open
question. The new name might be purely Turkish. But when it sounds
like the echo of a name which we know belonged to a Byzantine building
in this quarter of the city before Turkish times, it is more
reasonable to regard the new name as a transformation of the earlier
Greek term, than to derive it from fine-spun etymological fancies and
historical blunders. The identification, therefore, of Toklou Ibrahim
Dede Mesjedi with the church of S. Thekla, on the ground of the
similarity of the two names, has a strong presumption in its favour.
[Illustration: PLATE LVI.
S. THEKLA. NORTH SIDE, FROM THE NORTH-WEST.]
[Illustration: S. THEKLA. EAST END.
_To face page 208._]
NOTE ON THE CHURCH OF S. THEKLA
(CHAPTER XIII.)
On page 209, note 3, I have said that if the mosque Aivas Effendi
(more correctly Ivaz Effendi), which is situated behind the Tower of
Isaac Angelus within the old area of the palace of Blachernae, could
be proved to stand on the site of a church, the argument in favour of
the identification of the Church of S. Thekla with Toklou Dede Mesjedi
would be weakened. Since this book went to the press, my learned
friend Mr. X. A. Siderides has shown me a passage in the historical
work of Mustapha Effendi of Salonica, published in 1865, where the
mosque of Ivaz Effendi is described as a church converted into a
mosque by a certain Ivaz Effendi who died in 1586, at the age of
ninety. In that case we should have a Christian sanctuary whose
position corresponded strictly with the position occupied by the
Church of S. Thekla "in the palace of Blachernae," an indication not
exactly accurate in regard to Toklou Dede Mesjedi. In view of the late
date of Mustapha Effendi's work, and the absence, so far as I can
judge, of Byzantine features in the structure of the mosque, it is
difficult to decide if the arguments in favour of the identification
of the Church of S. Thekla with Toklou Dede Mesjedi are entirely
overthrown by the statement of Mustapha Effendi.
A second consideration in support of this identification is the
statement made by Achmed Rifaat Effendi, that before the church became a
mosque it was known by the name of its founder, 'Isakias.' For it is a
matter of history that the church of S. Thekla was restored by the
Emperor Isaac Comnenus[338] in the eleventh century. The association of
his name with the building was therefore perfectly natural, if the
building is indeed the old church of S. Thekla, otherwise it is
difficult to account for that association.
There is, however, one objection to this identification that must not be
overlooked. According to Byzantine authorities, the church of S. Thekla
stood in the palace of Blachernae ([Greek: entos ton basileion; en to
palatio ton Blachernon][339]). That palace occupied the heights above
Aivan Serai, on which the quarter of Egri Kapou and the mosque of Aivas
Effendi now stand, within the walls that enclose the western spur of the
Sixth Hill. Toklou Ibrahim Dede Mesjedi, however, does not stand within
that enclosure, but immediately to the north of it, on the level tract
that stretches from the foot of the Sixth Hill to the Golden Horn. If
the reasons in favour of regarding the mosque as S. Thekla were less
strong, this objection would, perhaps, be fatal. But the strip of land
between the northern wall of the palace enclosure and the sea is so
narrow, and was so closely connected with the life of the imperial
residence, that a building on that tract might with pardonable
inaccuracy be described, as 'in the palace.'[340]
The church is mentioned for the first time in the earlier half of the
eighth century as a chapel ([Greek: eukterion]) which Thekla, the eldest
daughter of the Emperor Theophilus, restored and attached to her
residence at Blachernae.[341] The princess was an invalid, and doubtless
retired to this part of the city for the sake of its mild climate. To
dedicate the chapel to her patron saint was only natural. As already
intimated, the church was rebuilt from the foundations, in the eleventh
century, by Isaac Comnenus, in devout gratitude for his escape from
imminent death[342] in the course of his campaign against the barbarous
tribes beside the Danube, when he was overtaken at the foot of the
Lovitz mountain by a furious tempest of rain and snow. The plain on
which his army was encamped soon became a sheet of water, and many of
his men and animals were drowned or frozen to death. Thunder, lightning,
and hurricane combined to produce an awful scene, and there were moments
when the whole world seemed on fire. The emperor took shelter under a
large oak, but, fearing the tree might be thrown down by the furious
wind, he soon made for open ground. Scarcely had he done so when the oak
was torn up by the roots and hurled to the earth. A few moments later
the emperor would have been killed. This narrow escape occurred on the
24th September, the festival day of S. Thekla, and, therefore,
attributing his deliverance to her intervention, Isaac rebuilt and
greatly beautified the old sanctuary dedicated to her in Blachernae, and
frequently attended services there in her honour. Anna Comnena[343]
speaks of the restored church in the highest terms. According to her it
was built at great cost, displayed rare art, and was in every way worthy
of the occasion which led to its erection. Zonaras[344] is not so
complimentary. He describes the church as a monument of the
niggardliness of Isaac Comnenus. In any case, it was pulled down and
rebuilt in the following century by the Emperor John Comnenus in
splendid style, and dedicated to the Saviour.[345] As the beauty and
wealth of a Byzantine sanctuary were exhibited in the lavish adornment
of the interior, it is possible that the church of S. Thekla, though
small and outwardly plain, may have been a beautiful and rich building
in its latest Christian character. It had then the honour of seeing
among the worshippers before its altar Anna Dalassena, the mother of the
Comneni. For, when charged with the government of the Empire during the
absence of Alexius Comnenus from the capital, that able woman came often
to pray in this church, 'lest she should be immersed in merely secular
affairs.'[346]
_Architectural Features_
(For Plan see p. 206)
The building is an oblong hall, m. 13.55 by m. 5.4, divided into three
compartments. It is now covered with a wooden roof, but the arrangements
of the breaks or pilasters on the walls indicate that it had originally
a dome. At the east end is a single apse, the usual side-apses being
represented by two niches. The western compartment served as a narthex.
During the repairs of the mosque in 1890, frescoes of the eikons which
once decorated the walls were brought to view. On the exterior the apse
shows three sides, crowned with a corbelled cornice. The central side is
pierced by a window of good workmanship, divided by a shaft into two
lights, and above the window are two short blind concave niches. High
blind concave niches indent the other sides of the apse. In the northern
wall are the remains of a triple window, divided by shafts built in
courses. Above this is a row of three small windows.
[334] _Ancient and Modern C.P._ p. 46.
[335] Paspates, p. 359.
[336] For this information I am indebted to Rev. H. O. Dwight, LL.D.,
late of the American Board of Missions in Constantinople.
[337] Paspates, p. 357, note.
[338] Anna Comnena, vol. i. p. 168.
[339] Scylitzes, p. 647 (Cedrenus, vol. ii.); Zonaras, iii. p. 672.
[340] If the mosque Aivas Effendi could be proved to stand on the site
of a church, the argument against the identification of Toklou Dede
Mesjedi with the church of S. Thekla would be stronger.
[341] Theoph. Cont. p. 147.
[342] Anna Comnena, vol. i. p. 168.
[343] _Ibid._ vol. i. p. 168.
[344] Zonaras, iii. p. 672.
[345] _Ibid. ut supra._
[346] Anna Comnena, vol. i. p. 169.
CHAPTER XIV
THE CHURCH OF S. SAVIOUR PANTEPOPTES,
ESKI IMARET MESJEDI
The reasons which favour the identification of the mosque Eski Imaret
Mesjedi, which is situated on the heights above Aya Kapou (Gate of S.
Theodosia), with the church of S. Saviour Pantepoptes, the All-Seeing
([Greek: pantepoptes]), are the following: first, the tradition to that
effect,[347] which in the case of a building so conspicuous can scarcely
be mistaken; secondly, the correspondence of its position to that of the
Pantepoptes, on a hill commanding an extensive view of the Golden
Horn;[348] and finally, the architectural features which mark it to be
what the church of the Pantepoptes was, a building of the Comnenian
period. The church of the Pantepoptes was founded or restored by Anna
Dalassena,[349] the mother of Alexius I. Comnenus (1081-1118), one of
the most remarkable women in Byzantine history, combining to a rare
degree domestic virtues with great political ambition and administrative
ability. For twenty years she was associated with her son in the
government of the Empire, and was the power behind the throne which he
owed largely to her energy and devotion. About the year 1100 she laid
aside the cares of state, and without renouncing altogether her royal
style retired to rest in the monastery she had built, until her death,
five years later, at an advanced age.[350] There is nothing of special
importance to record in the annals of the House. Its inmates were
occasionally disturbed by the confinement among them of some dignitary
who had offended the Government, or by the theological disputes that
agitated the ecclesiastical circles of the capital.[351] But for the
most part life at Pantepoptes was quiet and peaceful. Only once does the
monastery stand out conspicuous before the eyes of the world. When the
Venetian ships under Henrico Dandolo, with the army of the Fourth
Crusade on board, lined the shore of the Golden Horn from Ispigas and
the church of S. Saviour the Benefactor to Blachernae (_i.e._ from
Jubali Kapoussi to Aivan Serai) on Easter Monday, 12th April 1204, the
Emperor Alexius Murtzuphlus established his headquarters beside the
Pantepoptes. There he pitched his vermilion tent, marshalled his best
troops, and watched the operations of the enemy. And thence he fled when
he saw the walls on the shore below him carried by storm, and Flemish
knights mounted on horses, which had been landed from the hostile fleet,
advancing to assault his position. So hurried was his flight that he
left his tent standing, and under its shelter Count Baldwin of Flanders
and Hainault slept away the fatigue of that day's victory.[352] During
the Latin occupation the church passed into the hands of the Venetians,
and was robbed of many of its relics for the benefit of churches in the
West.[353] Upon the Turkish conquest it served for some time as an
imaret or refectory for the students and teachers of the
_medresse_,[354] then in course of construction beside the great mosque
of Sultan Mehemed. Hence its Turkish name. After serving that purpose it
was converted into a mosque later in the reign of the conqueror.
[Illustration: PLATE LVII.
S. SAVIOUR PANTEPOPTES. DOOR LEADING FROM THE OUTER TO
THE INNER NARTHEX. VIEW LOOKING NORTH.]
[Illustration: S. SAVIOUR PANTEPOPTES. THE DOME, LOOKING WEST.]
_To face page 212._
[Illustration: FIG. 72.]
_Architectural Features_
In plan the church belongs to the 'four column' type, and has two
narthexes. The dome, placed on a drum, circular within and twelve-sided
without, is carried on four piers which the Turks have reduced to an
irregular octagonal form. It is divided into twelve bays by square ribs,
and is lighted by twelve semicircular-headed windows. The cornice-string
is adorned with a running leaf spray of a pleasing and uncommon design.
The arms of the cross have barrel vaults, while the chambers at its
angles are covered with cross-groined vaults. The apsidal chambers are
small, with shallow niches on the north, south, and west, and a somewhat
deeper niche on the east where the apse stands. These niches are carried
up through a vaulting string-course, carved with a repeating leaf
ornament, and combine with the groined vault above them to produce a
charming canopy. The southern transept gable, though much built up,
still displays the design which occurs so frequently in Byzantine
churches, namely, three windows in the lunette of the arch (the central
light rising higher than the sidelights), and three stilted arches below
the vaulting string-course, resting on two columns and containing three
windows which are carried down to a breastwork of carved marble slabs
between the columns. The floor of the church is paved with square red
bricks, except in the apses, where marble is employed. The gynecaeum,
above the inner narthex, is divided into three bays separated by broad
transverse arches. The central bay, which is larger than its companions,
is covered with a dome vault, and looks into the body of the church
through a fine triple arcade in the lunette of the western arm of the
cross. The smaller bays are covered with cross-groined vaults. As
elsewhere, the vaulting-string in the gynecaeum is decorated with carved
work. The inner narthex, like the gynecaeum above it, is divided into
three bays covered with cross-groined vaults, and communicates with the
church, as usual, by three doors. Its walls seem to have been formerly
revetted with marble. In the northern wall is a door, now closed, which
gave access to a building beyond that side of the church. The exonarthex
is also divided in three bays, separated by transverse arches, and
communicates with the inner narthex by three doors and with the outer
world by a single door situated in the central bay. That bay has a low
dome without windows, while the lateral bays have groined vaults.
Turkish repairs show in the pilasters and the pointed arches which
support the original transverse arches. The doors throughout the
building are framed in marble jambs and lintels, adorned in most cases
with a running ornament and crosses. In the case of the doors of the
exonarthex a red marble, _breche rouge_, is employed, as in the
exonarthex of the Pantokrator, another erection of the Comnenian period.
On the exterior the building is much damaged, but nevertheless preserves
traces of considerable elaboration. The walls are of brick, intermixed
with courses of stone, and on the three sides of the central apse there
are remains of patterned brickwork. On the buttresses to the southern
wall are roundels with radiating voussoirs in stone and brick, and if
one may judge from the fact that the string-course does not fit the face
of the wall, parts of the exterior of the church were incrusted with
marble. The round-headed windows of the dome cut into its cornice. Under
the church is a cistern[355] which Bondelmontius deemed worthy of
mention.[356] Until some twenty years ago extensive substructures were
visible on the north-east of the church, affording homes for poor Greek
families.[357] They were probably the foundations of the lofty monastery
buildings whose windows commanded the magnificent view of the Golden
Horn that doubtless suggested the epithet Pantepoptes, under which the
Saviour was worshipped in this sanctuary.
[Illustration: PLATE LVIII.
S. SAVIOUR PANTEPOPTES. EXTERIOR DECORATION IN BRICK, ON
SOUTH SIDE.]
[Illustration: S. MARY PAMMAKARISTOS. BRACKET AT THE SOUTH-EAST ANGLE OF
THE EXTERIOR WALL OF THE PARECCLESION.]
_To face page 214._
S. Saviour Pantepoptes is the most carefully built of the later churches
of Constantinople. The little irregularities of setting out so common in
the other churches of the city are here almost entirely absent. This
accuracy of building, the carving of the string-courses, and the remains
of marble decoration both within and on the exterior, prove exceptional
care.
For details see Figs. 68, 72, 75.
[Illustration: FIG. 73.]
[Illustration: FIG. 74.]
[347] Patr. Constantius, pp. 70-80.
[348] Nicet. Chon. p. 752.
[349] Glycas, p. 622.
[350] _Ibid._ For the career of this distinguished woman, see Diehl,
_Figures byzantines_.
[351] Nicet. Chon. pp. 315-16; Pachym. i. pp. 314-15, ii. p. 185.
[352] Villehardouin, _La Conquete de C.P._ pp. 141-44; _Chroniques
greco-romaines_, pp. 96, 97.
[353] Riant, _Exuviae sacrae_, p. 178.
[354] Paspates, p. 314.
[355] _Die byzantinischen Wasserbehaelter von K.P._, von Dr. P.
Forcheimer und Dr. J. Strzygowski, pp. 106-7.
[356] _Librum insularum Archipelagi_, 65.
[357] Paspates, p. 314.
CHAPTER XV
THE CHURCH OF S. SAVIOUR PANTOKRATOR,
ZEIREK KILISSI JAMISSI
According to the tradition current in the city when Gyllius[358] and
Gerlach[359] explored the antiquities of Constantinople, the large
Byzantine church, now the mosque Zeirek Kilissi Jamissi, overlooking the
Golden Horn from the heights above Oun Kapan, was the famous church of
S. Saviour Pantokrator. There is no reason for doubting the accuracy of
this identification. The church was so important, and so closely
associated with events which occurred late in the history of the city,
that its identity could not be forgotten by the Greek ecclesiastical
authorities soon after the Turkish conquest. Moreover, all indications
of the position of the church, although too vague to determine its
precise site, are in harmony with the tradition on the subject. For,
according to Russian pilgrims to the shrines of Constantinople, the
Pantokrator could be reached most readily from the side of the city on
the Golden Horn,[360] and stood in the vicinity of the church of the
Holy Apostles[361]--particulars that agree with the situation of Zeirek
Kilissi Jamissi.
The church was founded by the Empress Irene,[362] the consort of John
II. Comnenus (1118-1143), and daughter of Ladislas, King of Hungary. She
came to Constantinople shortly before 1105 as the Princess Pyrisca, a
beautiful girl, 'a plant covered with blossoms, promising rich fruit,'
to marry John Comnenus, then heir-apparent to the crown of Alexius
Comnenus, and adorned eight years of her husband's reign by the
simplicity of her tastes and her great liberality to the poor. The
monastic institutions of the city also enjoyed her favour, and not long
before her death in 1126 she assumed the veil under the name of Xene.
The foundations of the church were, probably, laid soon after her
husband's accession to the throne, and to the church she attached a
monastery capable of accommodating seven hundred monks;[363] a
xenodocheion, a home for aged men, and a hospital.[364]
But the pious and charitable lady had undertaken more than she could
perform, and was obliged to turn to the emperor for sympathy and
assistance. Accordingly she took him, one day, to see the edifice while
in course of erection, and falling suddenly at his feet, implored him
with tears to complete her work. The beauty of the building and the
devotion of his wife appealed so strongly to John Comnenus that he
forthwith vowed to make the church and monastery the finest in the city,
and altogether worthy of the Pantokrator to whom they were
dedicated;[365] and so well did he keep his promise, that the honour of
being the founder of the church has been bestowed on him by the
historian Nicetas Choniates.[366]
The imperial typicon or charter of the monastery,[367] granted in 1136,
made the monastery an autonomous institution, independent of the
patriarch or the prefect of the city, and exempt from taxes of every
description. At the same time it was provided with vineyards and richly
endowed.
According to Scarlatus Byzantius[368] and the Patriarch
Constantius,[369] a mosaic in the building portrayed the Emperor
Manuel Comnenus (1141-1180) in the act of presenting the model of the
church to Christ. If that was the case the church was completed by that
emperor. As will immediately appear, Manuel certainly enriched the
church with relics.
[Illustration: PLATE LIX.
S. SAVIOUR PANTOKRATOR, FROM THE WEST.
_To face page 220._]
The history of the Pantokrator may be conveniently divided into three
periods: the period of the Comneni; the period of the Latin Empire; and
the period of the Palaeologi.
During the first the following incidents occurred: Here, as was most
fitting, the founders of the church and monastery were laid to rest, the
Empress Irene in 1126,[370] the Emperor John Comnenus[371] seventeen
years later. Here their elder son Isaac was confined, until the
succession to the throne had been settled in favour of his younger
brother Manuel. That change in the natural order of things had been
decided upon by John Comnenus while he lay dying in Cilicia from the
effects of a wound inflicted by the fall of a poisoned arrow out of his
own quiver, when boar-hunting in the forests of the Taurus Mountains,
and was explained as due to Manuel's special fitness to assume the care
of the Empire, and not merely to the fact that he was a father's
favourite son. But when the appointment was made Manuel was with his
father in Cilicia, while Isaac was in Constantinople, in a position to
mount the throne as soon as the tidings of John's death reached the
capital.
The prospect that Manuel would wear the crown seemed therefore very
remote. But Axuch, an intimate friend and counsellor of the dying
emperor, started for Constantinople the moment Manuel was nominated, and
travelled so fast, that he reached the city before the news of the
emperor's death and of Manuel's nomination was known there. Then,
wasting no time, Axuch made sure of the person of Isaac, removed him
from the palace, and put him in charge of the monks of the Pantokrator,
who had every reason to be loyal to the wishes of the deceased
sovereign. The wily courtier then set himself to win the leading men in
the capital over to the cause of the younger brother, and, by the time
Manuel was prepared to enter Constantinople, had secured for him a
popular welcome and the surrender of Isaac's claims.[372]
In 1147, the famous eikon of S. Demetrius of Thessalonia was transferred
from the magnificent basilica dedicated to the saint in that city to the
Pantokrator. This was done by the order of Manuel Comnenus, at the
request of Joseph, then abbot of the monastery, and in accordance with
the wishes of the emperor's parents, the founders of the House.[373] It
was a great sacrifice to demand of the Macedonian shrine, and by way of
compensation a larger and more artistic eikon of S. Demetrius, in silver
and gold, was hung beside his tomb. But Constantinople rejoiced in the
greater sanctity and virtue of the earlier picture, and when tidings of
its approach were received, the whole fraternity of the Pantokrator,
with the senate and an immense crowd of devout persons, went seven miles
out from the city to hail the arrival of the image, and to bear it in
triumph to its new abode, with psalms and hymns, lighted tapers,
fragrant incense, and the gleam of soldiers' spears. Thus, it was
believed, the monastery gained more beauty and security, the dynasty of
the Comneni more strength, the Roman Empire and the Queen of cities an
invisible but mighty power to keep enemies afar off.
In 1158 Bertha, the first wife of Manuel Comnenus, and sister-in-law of
the Emperor Conrad of Germany, was buried in the church.[374] Twenty-two
years later, Manuel Comnenus himself was laid in its herooen in a
splendid sarcophagus of black marble with a cover cut in seven
protuberances.[375] Beside the tomb was placed the porphyry slab upon
which the body of Christ was supposed to have been laid after His
deposition from the cross. The slab was placed there in commemoration of
the fact that when it was brought from Ephesus to Constantinople, Manuel
carried it on his broad shoulders all the way up the hill from the
harbour of the Bucoleon (at Tchatlady Kapou), to the private chapel of
the imperial residence near S. Sophia.[376] Nicetas Choniates thought
the aspect of the tomb and of its surroundings very significant. The
seven protuberances on its cover represented the seven-hilled city which
had been the emperor's throne; the porphyry slab recalled the mighty
deeds which he whose form lay so still and silent in the grave had
wrought in the days of his strength; while the black marble told the
grief evoked by his death. Robert of Clari, who saw the tomb in 1203,
extols its magnificence. 'Never,' says he, 'was born on this earth a
holy man or a holy woman who is buried in so rich and splendid a fashion
as this emperor in this abbey. There is found the marble table on which
Our Lord was laid when taken down from the cross, and there are still
seen the tears which Our Lady shed upon it.'[377]
Some seven months after Manuel's death a strange spectacle was witnessed
at his tomb. His cousin, Andronicus Comnenus, the torment of his life
and one of the worst characters in Byzantine history, taking advantage
of the intrigues and disturbances which attended the minority of
Manuel's son and successor, Alexius II. Comnenus, left his place of
exile in Paphlagonia and appeared in Constantinople at the head of an
army, as though the champion of the young sovereign's cause. No sooner
had he reached the city than he proceeded to visit Manuel's tomb, to
show the regard he professed to feel for a relative and sovereign. At
the sight of the dark sarcophagus Andronicus gave way to the most
violent paroxysms of grief. So deep and prolonged, indeed, did his
distress seem, that his attendants implored him to control his feelings
and leave the sad spot. But the mourner protested that he could not quit
so hastily a place hallowed by such sacred and tender associations.
Moreover, he had not yet said all he had to tell the dead. Bending,
therefore, again over the grave, Andronicus continued to address the
deceased. The words were inaudible, but they seemed a fresh outpouring
of sorrow, and deeply affected many of the spectators, for, as the
mourner had not lived on the best terms with his imperial cousin, his
grief appeared to be the victory of a man's better nature. But those who
knew Andronicus well interpreted his conduct as the performance of a
consummate actor, and understood his whispers to mean curses and vows of
vengeance upon his dead and helpless relative. Events justified this
interpretation. For Andronicus ere long usurped the throne, murdered
Alexius, insulted his remains, ordered his head to be cut off, and cast
the mutilated corpse into the Sea of Marmora to the strains of
music.[378]
During the Latin occupation the church was appropriated for worship
according to the ritual of the Roman Communion, and many of its relics,
its vessels of gold and silver, its jewels and vestments, were carried
off to enrich S. Mark's at Venice, and other shrines of Western
Christendom. How great a value was set upon such trophies, and by what
strange methods they were secured, is seen in the account which
Guntherus,[379] a contemporary historian, gives of the way in which some
of the relics of the church were acquired. As soon as the Crusaders
captured the city in 1204 and gave it over to pillage, a numerous band
of looters made for the Pantokrator in search of spoil, having heard
that many valuables had been deposited for safe keeping within the
strong walls around the monastery. Among the crowd hastening thither was
Martin, abbot of the Cistercian Abbey of Parisis in Alsace, who
accompanied the Crusade as chaplain and chronicler. The fever of plunder
raging about him was too infectious for the good man to escape. When
everybody else was getting rich he could not consent to remain poor. His
only scruple was not to defile his holy hands with the filthy lucre
which worldlings coveted. To purloin sacred relics, however, was lawful
booty. Entering, therefore, the Pantokrator with his chaplain, Martin
accosted a venerable, white-bearded man who seemed familiar with the
building, and in stentorian tones demanded where the relics of the
church were to be found. The person addressed was, in fact, a priest,
though Martin had mistaken him for a layman on account of the
strangeness of the Greek clerical garb. The priest did not understand
Latin any more than the abbot understood Greek, and the situation became
awkward, for the pitch of Martin's voice made it evident that he was not
a person to be trifled with. The old man therefore tried what the
Romance patois, which he had picked up from foreign residents in the
city, could do to establish intelligible intercourse with the rough
visitor. Fortunately the crusader also knew something of that patois,
and made the purpose of his visit sufficiently clear. As soon as the
iron safe containing the coveted relics was opened, abbot and chaplain
plunged four greedy hands into the hoard and stowed relic after relic
under the ample folds of their robes until there was no room for more.
Thus laden, the pious thieves made as fast as they could for the ship in
which they had come to Constantinople, not stopping to converse with
friends on the way, and giving to all curious inquiries the brief and
enigmatical reply, 'We have done well.' Upon reaching the ship Martin
found himself the happy possessor of no less than sixty-two relics,
including a piece of the Holy Cross, and drops of 'the blood shed for
man's redemption.' Martin wished to start immediately for Alsace, but
circumstances obliged him to remain in Constantinople for several
months. Thanks, however, to the priest of the Pantokrator, whom the
abbot had treated generously, Martin secured a small chapel where to
conceal his spoils until an opportunity to return home should occur. A
fellow-countryman, indeed, the only other person let into the secret,
advised him to secure by means of the relics an abbotship, if not a
bishopric, in the Holy Land. But Martin was above personal ambition, and
notwithstanding all the difficulties involved in the attempt to carry
the relics to the West, waited patiently till he could smuggle them out
of the city. At length his chance came; whereupon he embarked for
Venice, and after a hard and tedious journey of eight months reached
home safely. Again and again on the way he had narrowly escaped the loss
of his treasures at the hands of pirates on the sea and of brigands upon
land. But all toils and dangers were forgotten when, on the 24th of June
1205, at the head of the brotherhood of which he was the chief, Martin
placed the relics purloined from the Pantokrator of Constantinople upon
the high altar of the church of Parisis with a conqueror's pride and
joy, while the people shouted, 'Blessed be the Lord God, the God of
Israel, who only doeth wondrous things.' There is archaeology even in
morals.
[Illustration: PLATE LXI.
S. SAVIOUR PANTOKRATOR. INTERIOR OF THE SOUTH CHURCH,
LOOKING EAST.]
[Illustration: S. SAVIOUR PANTOKRATOR. THE SOUTHERN ARM OF THE SOUTH
CHURCH.]
_To face page 224._
[Illustration: FIG. 75.]
But while called thus to deplore the removal of many of its valued
relics, the Pantokrator came during the Latin period into possession of
a sacred object which compensated the house abundantly for all losses of
that kind. The church became the shrine of the eikon of the Theotokos
Hodegetria. No relic was held in higher estimation. It was considered
to be the portrait of the mother of our Lord painted by S. Luke, and was
brought from Jerusalem to Constantinople by the Empress Eudocia, wife of
Theodosius II., as a present to her sister-in-law Pulcheria. It led the
hosts of the Empire to victory, and shared the honours of their
triumphal entry into the capital. When enemies besieged the city, the
eikon was carried in procession through the streets and around the
fortifications, or was placed near the post of danger. After the capture
of the city by the Latins the picture was first taken to S. Sophia, then
the cathedral of the Venetian patriarchs of Constantinople. But the
Venetian clergy of the Pantokrator claimed the sacred picture as their
own, in virtue of a promise made to them by the Emperor Henry; and when
their claim was ignored, they persuaded the podesta of the Venetian
community to break into S. Sophia and seize the eikon by force. In vain
did the patriarch appear upon the scene with candle and bell to
excommunicate the podesta, his council, and his agents for the
sacrilegious act. The coveted prize was borne off in triumph to the
Pantokrator. In vain did the Papal Legate in the city confirm the
excommunication of the guilty parties, and lay their churches under
interdict. In vain were those penalties confirmed by the Pope
himself.[380] The eikon kept its place in the Pantokrator
notwithstanding all anathemas until the fall of the Latin Empire, when
it was removed from the church to lead the procession which came through
the Golden Gate on the 15th August 1261, to celebrate the recovery of
Constantinople by the Greeks.[381]
[Illustration: PLATE LXII.
S. SAVIOUR PANTOKRATOR. ENTRANCE FROM THE NARTHEX TO THE
SOUTH CHURCH.]
[Illustration: S. SAVIOUR PANTOKRATOR. THE INTERIOR, LOOKING FROM THE
SOUTH CHURCH THROUGH INTO THE NORTH CHURCH.
_To face page 226._]
Towards the close of the Latin occupation the monastery became the
residence of the Latin emperor, probably because the condition of the
public exchequer made it impossible to keep either the Great Palace or
the palace of Blachernae in proper repair. Money was not plentiful in
Constantinople when Baldwin II., the last Latin ruler of the city, was
compelled to sell the lead on the roof of his palace for a paltry sum,
and to use the beams of his outhouses for fuel, nor when he had to leave
his son and heir in the hands of the Capelli at Venice as security for a
loan. Still, the selection of the monastery for the emperor's abode,
even under these trying circumstances, implies the importance and
comparative splendour of the building. Here Baldwin was in residence
when the forces of Michael Palaeologus, under the command of Alexius
Strategopoulos, approached the city, and here he received the
intelligence, early in the morning of the 25th of July 1261, that the
Greeks had entered the city by the Gate of the Pege[382] (Selivri
Kapoussi), and set fire to the capital at four points. Baldwin's first
impulse was to make a brave stand. But his fleet and the greater part of
his army were absent from the city, engaged in the siege of Daphnusium
on the coast of the Black Sea. Meantime the fires kindled by the Greeks
were spreading and drawing nearer and nearer to the Pantokrator itself.
So casting off sword and helmet and every other mark of his station,
Baldwin took ship and led the flight of the Latin masters of
Constantinople back to their homes in the West.[383]
The first incident in the history of the Pantokrator after the
restoration of the Greek Empire was not fortunate. The monastery then
became the object upon which the Genoese, who had favoured that event,
and been rewarded with the grant of Galata as a trading post, saw fit to
vent the grudge they bore against certain Venetians who, in the course
of the feud between the two republics, as competitors for the commerce
of the East, had injured a church and a tower belonging to the Genoese
colony at Acre. To destroy some building in Constantinople associated
with Venice was thought to be the best way to settle the outstanding
account, and so a band of Genoese made for the Pantokrator, over which
the banner of S. Mark had recently floated, and tore the monastery down
to the ground, making it a greater ruin than the Venetians had made of
the Genoese buildings in Syria. Then, not only to deprive the enemy of
his property but to turn it also to one's own advantage, the scattered
stones were collected and shipped to Genoa for the construction of the
church of S. George in that city.[384]
[Illustration: PLATE LXIII.
S. SAVIOUR PANTOKRATOR. GALLERY OF THE NORTH CHURCH, LOOKING SOUTH.]
[Illustration: S. SAVIOUR PANTOKRATOR. THE INTERIOR OF THE NORTH CHURCH,
LOOKING EAST.
_To face page 228._]
In the reign of Michael Palaeologus, a member of the noble family of the
princes of the Peloponnesus became abbot of the Pantokrator, and
acquired great influence. He led, as we shall see, the mission which
conducted the emperor's daughter Maria to the Mongolian court, and when
the patriarchal seat was vacant in 1275, a strong party favoured his
appointment to that position instead of Veccus.[385]
During the period of the Palaeologi the church frequently served as a
mausoleum for members of the imperial family. Here in 1317 was buried
Irene, the second wife of Andronicus II., a Spanish princess and
daughter of the Marquis of Monferrat. She came to Constantinople in
1285, when only eleven years old, a beautiful girl, Yolande by name,
distinguished for the elegance of her manners, and for a time was the
idol of the court. But what with the desire which she developed to amass
wealth, and to see her sons share in the government of the Empire, she
ultimately proved the cause of much unhappiness to her husband.[386] She
deserves to be remembered for bequeathing the funds which enabled
Andronicus II. to build the buttresses supporting the walls of S. Sophia
on the north and east.[387]
Here, in 1425, Manuel II. was laid to rest after his long and troubled
reign.[388] Beside him were buried his wife Irene (1450)[389] and his
three sons, Andronicus (1429),[390] Theodore (1448),[391] John VI.
Palaeologus (1448).[392] Here also was placed the tomb of the Empress
Maria of the house of Trebizond, the fourth wife of John VII.
Palaeologus;[393] and not far off was the grave of Eugenia, the wife of
the despot Demetrius and daughter of the Genoese Gatulazzo, who had
helped to overthrow John Cantacuzene and to recover the throne for the
Palaeologi.[394] As we follow to the grave this procession of personages
so closely associated with the fall of Constantinople, one seems to be
watching the slow ebbing away of the life-blood of the Empire which they
could not save.
In 1407 John Palaeologus, then heir-apparent, added to the endowments of
the church by giving it a share in the revenues of the imperial domains
at Cassandra.[395] It would appear that the affairs of the monastery
about this time were not in a satisfactory state, for on the advice of
the historian Phrantzes they were put for settlement into the hands of
Macarius, a monk from Mt. Athos.[396]
A protosyngellos and abbot of the Pantokrator was one of the ambassadors
sent by John VII. Palaeologus to Pope Martin V. to negotiate the union
of the Churches.[397]
[Illustration: PLATE LXIV.
S. SAVIOUR PANTOKRATOR. ARCH IN THE NORTH WALL OF THE
SOUTH CHURCH, SEEN FROM THE SOUTH CHURCH, LOOKING NORTHWARDS.]
[Illustration: S. SAVIOUR PANTOKRATOR. ARCH IN THE NORTH WALL OF THE
SOUTH CHURCH, SEEN FROM THE CENTRAL CHURCH, LOOKING SOUTHWARDS.
_To face page 230._]
The most famous inmate of the Pantokrator was George Scholarius, better
known as Gennadius, the first patriarch of Constantinople after the
Turkish conquest. On account of his learning and legal attainments he
accompanied the Emperor John VII. Palaeologus and the Patriarch Joseph
to the Council of Ferrara and Florence in 1438, to take part in the
negotiations for the union of Christendom. As submission to the Papal
demands was the only hope of obtaining the aid of the West for the
Roman Empire in the East, the emperor, with most of the Greek clergy in
attendance at the council, subscribed the decrees of that assembly, and
on the 8th July 1438 the two Churches were officially reconciled and
bound to common action. But it was a union without sufficient religious
motive on the one side and without strong political interest on the
other. Instead of improving the situation it made matters worse. But
drowning men clutch even unsubstantial objects, and accordingly the
Emperor Constantine Dragases, a few years later, implored again the
assistance of the Pope, begging him to send a commission of Roman
ecclesiastics to Constantinople to confer once more with Greek
theologians with the hope of making the union more effective. In
response to that request a Commission was appointed, having at its head
Cardinal Isidore, a Greek ecclesiastic, who at the Council of Florence
had cast in his lot with the Latins and been created cardinal and
titular archbishop of Kiev. Isidore and his colleagues were welcomed
with great demonstrations of joy, and after several meetings with
representatives of the Eastern Church terms of union were once more
devised. The event was celebrated by a religious service in S. Sophia,
according to Roman rite, in the presence of the emperor, the senate, and
a large body of ecclesiastics. In the order of the prayers offered that
day in the cathedral of the East the name of the Pope was mentioned
first. But these proceedings only exasperated the opponents of the
union, who had the advantage in numbers and in passionate convictions.
Seeking for a leader they flocked to the monastery of the Pantokrator to
consult Gennadius. It was a critical moment. Gennadius retired to his
cell. Then opening the door he affixed his answer in writing upon it,
and again shut himself in. The oracle had spoken: 'Wretched Romans,
whither have ye strayed, and gone far from hope in God to put your trust
in the Franks? Your city and your religion will perish together. You
abandon the faith of your fathers and embrace impiety. Woe unto you in
the day of judgment.' The words spread like wildfire and enflamed the
excited crowd within and around the monastery. Anathemas, cursing all
supporters of the union in the past, in the present, and in the future
resounded on every hand. The answer of Gennadius was carried through the
city and found an echo among all classes of the population. Men ran to
the taverns to drink undiluted wine, in derision of the Roman practice
of mixing water with the wine of the Holy Communion; they shouted
themselves hoarse with maledictions on the unionists; they drank to the
honour of the Theotokos, invoking her aid as in the days of old, when
she delivered the city out of the hands of the Persians, the Avars, and
the Saracens. Far and wide rose the cry, 'Away with the help and the
worship of the Latin eaters of unleavened bread.'[398] The two scenes
witnessed, on the 12th December 1452, in S. Sophia and at the
Pantokrator displayed a discord that hastened the downfall of New Rome.
That day the party with the watchword, 'Better the turban of the Turk
than the tiara of the Pope,' gained the victory.
Upon the capture of the city, the Greek community, owing to the recent
death of the Patriarch Athanasius, found itself without an
ecclesiastical chief. The conqueror, anxious to conciliate his Greek
subjects, proclaimed complete religious toleration, and gave orders that
they should forthwith proceed to the free election of a new patriarch.
Under the circumstances there could be no question as to the right man
for the place. Gennadius, who had opposed the unprofitable Latin
alliance, and saved the national Church notwithstanding the ruin of the
Empire, was unanimously chosen to be the first guide of his people along
the strange and difficult path they were now to follow. The choice being
confirmed by the Sultan, Gennadius left the Pantokrator to do homage to
the new master of the realm. Every mark of honour was paid to the
prelate. He was invited to the royal table and granted a long audience,
at which, following the practice of Byzantine emperors, the Sultan
presented him with a magnificent pastoral staff, and promised to respect
all the ancient privileges of the patriarchal see. When Gennadius took
leave, the Sultan accompanied him to the foot of the stairs of the
palace, saw him mounted on a fine and richly caparisoned horse, and
ordered the notables of the court to escort him to the church of the
Holy Apostles, which was to replace S. Sophia as the cathedral of the
Greek Communion.[399] It was certainly fortunate for the Orthodox Church
at that cruel moment in its history to find in one of the cells of the
Pantokrator a man able to win the goodwill of the Empire's conqueror.
When nothing could save the State, Gennadius saved the nation's Church,
and with the Church many forms of national life. Muralt, looking at
these transactions from another standpoint, says, 'C'est ainsi que les
Grecs virent accompli leur voeu d'etre delivres de l'union avec les
Latins.'[400]
[Illustration: PLATE LXV.
S. SAVIOUR PANTOKRATOR. NARTHEX OF THE NORTH CHURCH, LOOKING NORTH.]
[Illustration: S. SAVIOUR PANTOKRATOR. OUTER NARTHEX OF THE SOUTH
CHURCH, LOOKING NORTH.
_To face page 232._]
It would appear that the Pantokrator was abandoned by its Christian
owners very soon after the conquest. The great decrease of the Greek
population that followed the downfall of the city left several quarters
of Constantinople with few if any Christian inhabitants, and so brought
to an end the native religious service in many churches of the capital.
For some time thereafter the deserted building was used by fullers and
workers in leather as a workshop and dwelling.[401] But the edifice was
too grand to be allowed to suffer permanent degradation, and some twenty
years later it was consecrated to Moslem worship by a certain Zeirek
Mehemed Effendi.[402] Its actual name, Zeirek Kilissi Jamissi, recalls
the double service the building has rendered, and the person who
diverted it from its earlier to its later use.
_Architectural Features_
As it stands the Pantokrator is a combination of three churches, placed
side by side, and communicating with one another through arched openings
in their common walls. The three buildings are not of the same date, and
opinions differ in regard to their relative age. On the whole, however,
the northern church may be safely considered the earliest structure; the
central church is somewhat later; the southern church is the latest.
[Illustration: FIG. 76.]
[Illustration: PLATE LXVI.
S. SAVIOUR PANTOKRATOR. SOUTH BAY IN THE GALLERY OF THE SOUTH CHURCH.]
[Illustration: S. SAVIOUR PANTOKRATOR. IN THE NORTH CHURCH, LOOKING
SOUTH.
_To face page 234._]
_The Northern Church._--This is a simple and dignified building of the
domed 'four column' type, with a gynaeceum above the narthex. The
narthex is in four bays covered with cross-groined vaults on
transverse arches. Its southern bay, however, is a later extension,
running about half-way in front of the central church to give access to
a door into that building. Only two bays of the original narthex have
doors opening into the north church; the third door which once existed
in the northern bay has been partly built up. The narthex is very much
out of repair, and the western wall threatens to fall outwards. The
dome, pierced by eight windows, shows so many Turkish features that it
may be pronounced as mostly, if not wholly, a Turkish construction. The
four square piers which support it are manifestly Turkish. When Gyllius
visited the church in the sixteenth century the dome arches rested on
four columns of Theban granite, 'hemispherium sustentatur quatuor
arcubus, quos fulciunt quatuor columnae marmoris Thebaici.'[403] Barrel
vaults cover the arms of the cross, which, as usual in churches of this
type, appears distinctly above the roof on the exterior. The southern
arm extends to the central church and its vault is pierced by two
windows, inserted, probably, to compensate for the loss of light
occasioned by the erection of that building. These windows furnish one
indication of the earlier date of the north church. The gynaeceum, like
the narthex below it, is covered with cross-groined vaults and contains
a small fireplace. The prothesis and diaconicon have barrel vaults and
apses with three sides projecting slightly on the exterior. The main
apse has a very lofty triple window, and shows five sides. All the apses
are decorated with high shallow blind niches, a simple but effective
ornament.[404]
_The Central Church._--The central church is an oblong hall covered by
two domes, and terminates in a large apse. It is extremely irregular in
plan, and does not lie parallel to either of the churches between which
it stands. The domes are separated by a transverse arch. The western
dome, though flattened somewhat on the four sides, is approximately
circular, and divided into sixteen shallow concave compartments, each
pierced by a window. Some of these windows must have been always blocked
by the roof of the north church. The eastern dome is a pronounced oval,
notwithstanding the attempt to form a square base for it by building a
subsidiary arch both on the south and on the north. It is divided into
twenty-four concave compartments, twelve of which have windows. The
drums of the domes adjoin each other above the transverse arch, so that
the central west window of the eastern dome is pierced through to the
western dome. The two windows on either side of that window are blind,
and must always have been so. The floor in the archway leading into the
south church is paved with inlaid marbles forming a beautiful design
(Fig. 76). If the whole floor of the church was thus decorated the
effect must have been extremely rich. On the exterior the apse shows
seven sides, decorated with shallow blind niches. Like the church it is
very irregularly set out. (Plate LXIX.)
The central church probably served as a mausoleum for the tombs of the
imperial personages interred at the Pantokrator. In its form and in the
arrangement of its domes, as well as in its position on the south of the
church to which it strictly belongs, it resembles the parecclesion of S.
Saviour in the Chora (p. 310).
[Illustration: PLATE LXVII.
S. SAVIOUR PANTOKRATOR. THE PULPIT IN THE SOUTH CHURCH.]
[Illustration: S. SAVIOUR PANTOKRATOR. WEST SIDE OF THE CENTRAL BAY IN
THE GALLERY OF THE SOUTH CHURCH.
_To face page 236._]
_The South Church._--The south church is of the same plan as the north
church, but is larger and more richly decorated. It has two narthexes,
which extend to both the north and south beyond the body of the
building. The outer narthex, entered by a single door placed in the
centre, is in five bays, covered with cross-groined vaults resting on
pilasters. Its floor is paved with large slabs of Proconnesian marble
surrounded by a border of red marble. Five doors lead to the
esonarthex--the three central doors being framed in red marble, the
other two in verd antique. On either side of the central door is a
window also framed in verd antique, the jambs of the windows being cut
from old columns, and retaining the circular form on their faces. Over
the central door and the windows beside it is a large arch between two
smaller arches--all three, as well as their bracket capitals, now
partially built up. There is a door framed in verd antique in each end
bay of the narthex. Like the outer narthex the esonarthex is in five
bays, and was paved with marble in a similar fashion. But while its
other bays are covered with cross-groined vaults the central bay is open
to the gallery above, and is overhung by a drum dome. The gallery was
thus divided into two parts by the open central bay, and both gallery
and narthex were lighted by the dome. The exterior of this dome is
twelve-sided, with flat angle pilasters and level moulded plaster
cornice. It has evidently been repaired by the Turks. The inside,
however, preserves the Byzantine work. It is in twenty-four concave
apartments pierced by twelve windows, of which those facing the west
cross arm of the church are blind. As the original west window still
shows from the inside, though built up, it would appear that the
gynecaeum dome was added after the completion of the main church. At
present the open bay is ceiled by the woodwork that forms the floor of
the tribune occupied by the Sultan when he attends worship in the
mosque.[405] A door in the northern wall of the north bay communicates
with the narthex of the north church, while a door in the eastern wall
of the bay gives access to the central church. Two doors in similar
positions in the bay at the south end of the narthex led to buildings
which have disappeared. The three doors leading from the narthex into
the church are framed in red marble, the other doors in white marble.
The main dome of the church is in sixteen compartments, and is pierced
by as many windows. Its arches rest on four shafted columns, somewhat
Gothic in character, and crowned with capitals distinctly Turkish. These
columns have replaced the columns of porphyry, seven feet in
circumference, which Gyllius saw bearing the arches of the dome when he
visited the church: 'maximum (tectum) sustentatur quatuor columnis
pyrrhopoecilis, quarum perimeter habet septem pedes.'[406] The southern
wall is lighted by a triple window in the gable and a row of three
windows below the string-course. The northern wall was treated on the
same plan, but with the modifications rendered necessary by the union of
the church with the earlier central church. The triple windows in the
gable of that wall are therefore almost blocked by the roof of the
central church against which it is built; while the three windows below
the string-course are blind and are cut short by the arch opening into
the central church, as that arch rises higher than the string-course.
As explained, the gynaeceum above the inner narthex is divided by the
open central bay of that narthex into two compartments, each consisting
of two bays. The bays to the south are narrow, with transverse arches of
decidedly elliptical form. A window divided by shafts in three lights,
now built up, stood in the bay at the extreme south, and similar windows
looked down into the open bay of the narthex from the bays on either
hand. The northern compartment of the gynaeceum connects with the
gynaeceum of the north church.
In the interior the apse retains a large portion of its revetment of
variously coloured marbles, and gives some idea of the original
splendour of the decoration. Fragments of fine carving have been built
into the pulpit of the mosque, and over it is a Byzantine canopy
supported on twin columns looped together, like the twin columns on the
facade of S. Mark's at Venice.
The lateral apses are covered with cross-groined vaults, and project in
three sides externally, while the central apse shows seven sides. All
are lighted by triple windows, and decorated on the exterior with
niches, like the other apses in this group of buildings, and those of S.
Theodosia.
In the brickwork found in the fabric of the Pantokrator, as Mr. W. S.
George has pointed out, two sizes of brick are employed, a larger and a
smaller size laid in alternate courses. The larger bricks look like old
material used again.
[Illustration: PLATE LXVIII.
S. SAVIOUR PANTOKRATOR. INTERIOR OF THE EAST DOME IN THE
CENTRAL CHURCH.]
[Illustration: S. SAVIOUR PANTOKRATOR. INTERIOR OF THE DOME IN THE SOUTH
CHURCH, LOOKING NORTH.
_To face page 238._]
As already intimated, the monastery was autonomous ([Greek;
autodespotos, autexousios]), and its abbot was elected by the
brotherhood in the following manner:--On some suitable occasion the
abbot for the time being placed secretly in a box the names of three
members of the fraternity whom he considered fit to succeed him after
his death, and having sealed the box deposited it in the sacristy of the
church. Upon that abbot's death the box was opened in the presence of
the whole fraternity, and the names recommended by the late chief were
then put to the vote. If the votes were unanimous the person thus chosen
became the new abbot without further delay. But in case of disagreement,
a brother who could neither read nor write placed the same names upon
the altar of the church; there they remained for three days; and then,
after the celebration of a solemn service, another illiterate monk drew
one name off the altar, and in doing so decided the question who should
fill the vacant office. The church was served by eighty priests and
fifty assistants, who were divided into two sets, officiating on
alternate weeks.
In connection with the monastery there was a bath, capable of containing
six persons, in which the monks were required to bathe twice a month,
except during Lent, when the bath was used only in cases of illness.
The home for old men supported by the House accommodated twenty-four
persons, providing them with bread, wine, oil, cheese, fuel, medical
attendance, and small gifts of money.
The hospital had fifty beds for the poor. It was divided into five
wards: a ward of ten beds for surgical cases; another, of eight beds,
for grave cases; a third, of ten beds, for less serious complaints; the
fourth ward had twelve beds for women; the fifth contained ten beds for
what seemed light cases. Each ward was in charge of two physicians,
three medical assistants, and four servitors. A lady physician, six lady
medical assistants, and two female nurses, took charge of the female
patients. The sick were visited daily by a house doctor, who inquired
whether they were satisfied with their treatment, examined their diet,
and saw to the cleanliness of the beds. The ordinary diet consisted of
bread, beans, onions, oil, and wine.[407] Throughout their history the
monasteries of Constantinople remembered the poor. (See Plate III.)
[Illustration: FIG. 77.]
[Illustration: FIGS. 78 AND 79.]
[Illustration: FIG. 80.]
[Illustration: PLATE LXIX.
S. SAVIOUR PANTOKRATOR. THE EAST END, FROM THE SOUTH.]
[Illustration: S. SAVIOUR PANTOKRATOR. THE EAST WINDOW OF THE CENTRAL
CHURCH.]
[Illustration: S. SAVIOUR PANTOKRATOR. THE EAST END, FROM THE NORTH.
_To face page 242._]
[358] _De top. C.P._ iv. c. 2, p. 283, 'in supercilio quarti collis
vergente ad solis ortum visitur templum Pantocratoris, illustre
memoria recentium scriptorum.'
[359] _Tagebuch_, p. 157.
[360] _Itin. russes_, pp. 105, 233-34.
[361] Du Cange, _Const. Christ._ iv. p. 81; _Itin. russes_, pp. 123,
203-4.
[362] Synax., August 13; Cinnamus, p. 9; Phrantzes, p. 210.
[363] Du Cange, _C.P. Christ._ iv. p. 81, quoting Anselm, bishop of
Havelsberg, who was in Constantinople as the ambassador of Lothair the
Great to the Emperor John in 1145.
[364] MS. No. 85, in the Library of the Theological Seminary at Halki.
[365] Synax., 13th August.
[366] Pp. 66, 151.
[367] MS. No. 85, in the Library of the Theological Seminary at Halki.
[368] Vol. i. p. 555.
[369] _Ancient and Modern C.P._ p. 69.
[370] Cinnamus, p. 14; Guntherus Parisiensis in Riant's _Exuviae
sacrae_, p. 105. The sarcophagus that forms part of a Turkish fountain
to the west of the church is usually, but without any proof,
considered to be the tomb of Irene. A long flight of steps near it
leads to the cistern below the church.
[371] Cinnamus, p. 31.
[372] Nicet. Chon. pp. 53, 56, 66.
[373] Synax., October 26th.
[374] Nicet. Chon. p. 151.
[375] _Ibid._ p. 289.
[376] Nicet. Chon. p. 151.
[377] Riant, _Exuviae sacrae_, ii. p. 232.
[378] Nicet. Chon. pp. 332-33, 354-55.
[379] Riant, _Exuviae sacrae_, i. pp. 104 _seq._
[380] Belin, _Histoire de la latinite de Constantinople_, pp. 73-74,
113-14.
[381] Pachym. i. p. 160; Niceph. Greg. p. 87; G. Acropolita, pp.
196-97. The last writer says the eikon was taken from the monastery of
the Hodegon, which was its proper shrine. The eikon may have been
removed from the Pantokrator to the church of Hodegetria on the eve of
the triumphal entry.
[382] Niceph. Greg. i. p. 85. Cf. Canale, _Nuova Storia_, ii. p. 153,
quoted by Belin, _Latinite de C.P._ p. 22, 'ov'erano la chiesa, la
loggia, il palazzo dei Veneziani,' cf. Belin, p. 92.
[383] George Acropolita, p. 195. On the contrary, Pachymeres
represents Baldwin as taking flight from the palace of Blachernae, and
embarking at the Great Palace. See vol. i. of that historian's works,
pp. 132-48.
[384] Belin, _Histoire de la latinite de C.P._ pp. 22-23, quoting
Canale, _Nuova Storia_, ii. p. 153; cf. Sauli, i. p. 55. According to
Fanucci, the Venetians themselves removed their national emblems from
the Pantokrator and tore down the monastery.--Belin, _ut supra_, pp.
88, 92.
[385] Pachym. i. p. 402.
[386] _Ibid._ ii. pp. 87-88; Niceph. Greg. i. p. 167.
[387] _Ibid._ i. pp. 273, 233-34.
[388] Phrantzes, p. 121.
[389] _Ibid._ p. 210.
[390] _Ibid._ p. 134.
[391] _Ibid._ p. 203.
[392] _Ibid._ p. 203.
[393] _Ibid._ p. 191.
[394] _Ibid._ p. 191.
[395] Muralt, ad annum.
[396] Phrantzes, p. 156.
[397] _Ibid._ p. 156.
[398] Ducas, pp. 252-60.
[399] Phrantzes, pp. 304-7.
[400] _Essai de chronographie byzantine_, ii. p. 889.
[401] Ducas, p. 318.
[402] Chadekat, vol. i. p. 118, quoted by Paspates, p. 312.
[403] _De top. C.P._ iv. c. 2.
[404] 'The breaking of wall surfaces by pilasters and blind niches is
a custom immemorial in Oriental brickwork.'--_The Thousand and One
Churches_, by Sir W. Ramsay and Miss Lothian Bell, p. 448.
[405] It is reached by an inclined plane built against the exterior of
the south wall of the church.
[406] _De top. C.P._ iv. c. 2.
[407] For these particulars we are indebted to MS. 85, formerly in the
library of the theological seminary at Halki. According to the same
authority, near the Pantokrator stood a church dedicated to the
Theotokos Eleousa, and between the two buildings was the chapel of S.
Michael that contained the tombs of the Emperor John Comnenus and the
Empress Irene. But according to Cinnamus (pp. 14, 31), as we have seen
(p. 221), those tombs were in the Pantokrator. Is it possible that of
the three buildings commonly styled the church of the Pantokrator, one
of the lateral churches was dedicated specially to the Theotokos
Eleousa, and that the central building which served as a mausoleum was
dedicated to the archangel Michael? The parecclesion of the Chora
where Tornikes was buried (p. 310) was associated, as the frescoes in
its western dome prove, with the angelic host.
CHAPTER XVI
THE CHURCH OF S. THEODORE,
KILISSI MESJEDI
High up the western slope of the Third Hill, in a quiet Turkish quarter
reached by a narrow street leading off Vefa Meidan, stands a small but
graceful Byzantine church, known since its use as a mosque by the style
Kilissi Mesjedi. Authorities differ in regard to its dedication.
Gyllius[408] was told that the church had been dedicated to S. Theodore.
On the other hand, Le Noir, on the strength of information furnished by
Greek friends, and after him Bayet, Fergusson, Salzenberg, claim it as
the church of the Theotokos of Lips. But the church of that dedication
was certainly elsewhere (p. 123). Mordtmann[409] suggests that we have
here the church of S. Anastasia Pharmacolytria ([Greek: tes
pharmakolytrias]),[410] and supports his view by the following argument.
In the first place the church of S. Theodore the Tiro was situated in
the quarter of Sphorakius,[411] which was in the immediate vicinity of
S. Sophia,[412] and therefore not near Vefa Meidan. Secondly, the
indications given by Antony of Novgorod and by the Anonymus of the
eleventh century respecting the position of S. Anastasia point to the
site of Kilissi Mesjedi. The fact that the church was ever supposed to
be dedicated to S. Theodore is, in Mordtmann's opinion, a mistake
occasioned by the circumstance that both S. Theodore and S. Anastasia
were credited with the power of exposing sorcery and frauds, so that a
church associated with one of these saints might readily be transferred
to the other, especially in the confusion which followed the Turkish
conquest.
In reply to this line of argument, it may be urged, first, that the
presence of a church of S. Theodore in the district of Sphorakius does
not prevent the existence of a church with a similar dedication in
another part of the city. S. Theodore was a popular saint. There was a
church named after him in the district of Claudius ([Greek: ta
Klaudiou]);[413] another church built in his honour stood in the
district Carbounaria ([Greek: ta Karbounaria]);[414] the private chapel
of the emperors in the Great Palace was dedicated to S. Theodore;[415]
and according to Phrantzes,[416] a church dedicated at once to S.
Theodore the Tiro and S. Theodore the General, as at Athens, was erected
in Constantinople in his day. As to the indications supposed to favour
the view that the church of S. Anastasia stood at Kilissi Mesjedi, they
are, to say the least, exceedingly vague and inconclusive. According to
Antony of Novgorod[417] the shrine of S. Anastasia was found near the
church of the Pantokrator, on the Fourth Hill, whereas Kilissi Mesjedi
stands on the Third Hill. Furthermore, the order in which the
Anonymus[418] refers to the church of S. Anastasia Pharmacolytria,
immediately before the Leomacellum, which Mordtmann identifies with the
Et Meidan, would allow us to place S. Anastasia in the valley of the
Lycus. Under these circumstances it is wiser to accept the information
given to Gyllius as correct; for while the Greeks of his day were not
infallible in their identification of the buildings of the city, there
is no evidence that they were mistaken in this particular case.
[Illustration: PLATE LXX.
S. THEODORE. NORTH END OF THE WESTERN FACADE.]
[Illustration: S. THEODORE. THE CHURCH, FROM THE NORTH-WEST.
_To face page 244._]
Paspates[419] agrees so far with this view, but maintains, at the same
time, that the building was the church of S. Theodore 'in the district
of Sphorakius.' That identification is inadmissible, for beyond all
dispute the district of Sphorakius stood close to S. Sophia and not at
Vefa Meidan. Muehlmann[420] likewise regards Kilissi Mesjedi as a
church of S. Theodore, and identifies it with the church dedicated to
that saint in the district of Carbounaria. This is possible, although
the Anonymus[421] mentions the Carbounaria before the Anemodoulion and
the forum of Taurus (the region of the Turkish War Office), and
consequently suggests a position for the Carbounaria much farther to the
east than Vefa Meidan. Still the order in which the Anonymus mentions
places and monuments cannot be confidently appealed to as coincident
with their relative positions.
[Illustration: FIG. 81.]
(For other details see Figs. 19, 54.)
To which of the many saints named Theodore in the Greek Calendar this
church was actually dedicated is a point open to discussion, but we
cannot go far wrong in ascribing it to one of the two most prominent
saints of that name, or, as sometimes was the case, to both of them, S.
Theodore the Tiro and S. Theodore the General. The former was a young
soldier in the Roman army who was tortured and put to death in 306 for
not taking part in the persecution of Christians under Maximian. The
latter was a general in the army of Licinius, and won the martyr's crown
for refusing to sacrifice to false gods, and for breaking their images
in pieces. He was the titular saint of the great church in Venice before
that honour was bestowed upon S. Mark the Evangelist. His relics were
carried to Venice from Constantinople in 1260, and his figure still
stands on one of the columns in the Piazzetta of S. Mark, with the
attribute of a dragon or a crocodile, symbolic of the false gods he
destroyed.[422]
_Architectural Features_
The church is a good example of the 'four column' type, with an outer
and an inner narthex. The former is in five bays, and extends to the
north and south, by one bay, beyond the inner narthex and the body of
the church. The terminal bays, it would seem, led to cloisters built
against the exterior of the northern and southern sides of the building.
Le Noir and Salzenberg[423] show a cloister along the south side of the
church, with four columns and an apse at its end. The central bay and
the two terminal bays are covered with domes on high drums, without
windows. The dome of the central bay has sixteen lobed bays, while its
companions have each eight flat ribs. All traces of the mosaics which
Salzenberg saw in the central dome have disappeared. On the exterior the
three domes are octagonal, decorated with flat niches and angle shafts
supporting an arched cornice. The exonarthex deserves special attentions
on account of its facade. It is a fine composition of two triple
arcades, separated by a solid piece of masonry containing the door. On
either side of the door, and on the piers at each end of the facade, are
slender flat niches, similar to those which occur in S. Mark's, Venice.
The finely carved capitals of the columns differ in type, the two
northern being a variant of the 'melon type,' the pair to the south
being Corinthian. They are probably old capitals re-used. Throughout
the building are traces of stones from some older building recut or
adapted to the present church. Between the columns is a breastwork of
carved marble slabs similar in style to those seen in S. Mark's and in
S. Fosca, Torcello.[424] The upper part of the facade does not
correspond to the composition below it, but follows the divisions of the
internal vaulting. It is in five circular-arched bays, each containing
an arched window. The infilling is of brick in various patterns. The
cornice looks Turkish. While the masonry of the lower portion of the
arcade is in alternate courses of one stone and two bricks, that of the
upper portion has alternate courses of one stone and three bricks.
Moreover, while the design of the upper portion is determined by the
vaulting of the narthex, the lower portion takes a more independent
line. These differences may indicate different periods of construction,
but we find a similar type of design in other Byzantine buildings, as,
for example, in the walls of the palace of the Porphyrogenitus, where
the different stories are distinct in design, and do not closely
correspond to one another. The outer narthex of S. Theodore may have
been built entirely at one time, or its upper story, vaults, and domes
may have been added to an already existing lower story. But in any case,
notwithstanding all possible adverse criticism, the total effect
produced by the facade is pleasing. It presents a noteworthy and
successful attempt to relieve the ordinary plainness and heaviness of a
Byzantine church exterior, and to give that exterior some grace and
beauty. The effect is the more impressive because the narthex is raised
considerably above the level of the ground and reached by a flight of
steps. 'Taking it altogether,' says Fergusson,[425] 'it is perhaps the
most complete and elegant church of its class now known to exist in or
near the capital, and many of its details are of great beauty and
perfection.'
[Illustration: PLATE LXXI.
S. THEODORE. THE CENTRAL DOME, FROM THE SOUTH.]
[Illustration: S. THEODORE. THE WESTERN FACADE, FROM THE SOUTH.
_To face page 246._]
The esonarthex is in three bays covered with barrel vaults, and
terminates at both ends in a shallow niche. The outer arches spring from
square buttresses. From each bay a door conducts into the church, the
central door being set in a marble frame and flanked by two Corinthian
columns, which support a bold wall arcade.
The drum of the dome is a polygon of twelve sides, and was lighted by
the same number of windows. It rests on four columns, which were
originally square, but now have large champs at the angles, dying out at
top and bottom. Barrel vaults cover the arms of the cross, and dome
vaults surmount the chambers at its angles. As in the Pantokrator (p.
235), the eastern arm is pierced by two windows in the vaulting surface.
The central apse is lighted by a triple window, having oblong shafts,
circular on their inner and outer faces, and bearing capitals now badly
injured. A niche indents the northern, eastern, and southern interior
walls of the apsidal chapels. The windows in the northern and southern
walls of the church have been built up almost to their full height,
leaving only small openings for light at the top. There can be little
doubt that they were triple windows with a parapet of carved marble
slabs between the shafts. On the exterior the apse shows five sides, and
is decorated by an arcade of five arches and an upper tier of five
niches. The lateral apses do not project beyond the face of the eastern
wall, but are slightly marked out by cutting back the sides and forming
angular grooves. Bayet[426] assigns the church to the ninth or tenth
century, the age of Leo the Wise and Constantine Porphyrogenitus.
Fergusson[427] is of the same opinion so far as the earlier portions of
the building are concerned. But that date is based on the mistaken view
that the building is the church of the Theotokos erected by Constantine
Lips. Diehl[428] assigns the church to the second half of the eleventh
century.
[Illustration: PLATE LXXII.
S. THEODORE. SOUTH CROSS ARM (EXTERIOR), FROM THE SOUTH-EAST.]
[Illustration: S. THEODORE. THE EAST END, FROM THE SOUTH.
_To face page 248._]
[Illustration: FIG. 82.--S. THEODORE. PLAN AS GIVEN BY TEXIER.]
[Illustration: FIG. 83.--S. THEODORE. PART OF SOUTH ELEVATION SHOWING
THE SIDE CHAPEL AS GIVEN BY TEXIER.]
In the library of the Royal Institute of British Architects, in London,
are four volumes of Texier's sketches and drawings of buildings in or
near Constantinople. In that collection is found a complete set of
drawings of this church, showing a chapel on both the north and south
sides of the building, and even giving measurements on the south
side. Texier's drawings are unfortunately very inaccurate, so that
little trust can be placed in any of them. In addition to the plan of
the church an elevation is given, and two sketches covered with
indications of elaborate decoration, but evidently quite imaginary. The
chapel on the north side is noticed by no other writer, and was probably
added by Texier for the sake of symmetry. That on the south side, as
shown by him, differs in some respects from Salzenberg. The only thing
certain is that a side chapel did exist here.
This church presents a good example of the greater interest taken during
the later Byzantine period in the external appearance of a church. To
the exterior of the walls and the apses some decoration is now applied.
The dome is raised on a polygonal drum, with shafts at its angles, and
an arched cornice over its windows; the roof gains more diversity of
form and elevation by the multiplication of domes, by the protrusion of
the vaults of the cross arms and of the apses, thus making the outward
garb, so to speak, of the building correspond more closely to the figure
and proportions of its inner body. In all this we have not yet reached
the animation and grace of a Gothic cathedral, nor the stateliness that
crowns an imperial mosque; but there is, at all events, a decided
advance towards a fuller expression of artistic feeling. (See Plates
LXXIV., LXXV.)
[Illustration: PLATE LXXIII.
S. THEODORE. CAPITAL ON THE SOUTHERNMOST COLUMN IN THE FACADE.]
[Illustration: S. THEODORE. CAPITAL IN THE FACADE OF THE NARTHEX.
_To face page 250._]
[Illustration: FIGS. 84 AND 85.]
[Illustration: FIGS. 86 AND 87.]
[408] _De top. C.P._ iii. c. 6.
[409] _Esq. top._ paragraphs 110, 114, 124, 125.
[410] Banduri, ii. p. 38.
[411] _Ibid._ i. p. 10.
[412] Const. Porphyr, _De cer._ p. 623.
[413] Banduri, iii. pp. 16, 48.
[414] _Ibid._ i. p. 17.
[415] Const. Porphyr, _De cer._ p. 640.
[416] P. 140.
[417] _Itin. russes_, pp. 105-6.
[418] Banduri, i. p. 16; ii. p. 38.
[419] P. 314.
[420] See his paper in the _Mitteilungen des deutschen Excursions-Club,
Konstantinopel_, Erstes Heft, 1888.
[421] Banduri, p. 16.
[422] See _The Monastery of St. Luke of Stiris_, p. 61.
[423] _Altchristliche Baudenkmaeler von K.P._ plates 34, 35.
[424] Pulgher, _Les Anciennes Eglises de C.P._ p. 23.
[425] _History of Architecture_, i. 458.
[426] _L'Art byzantin_, p. 126.
[427] _History of Architecture_, vol. i. p. 458.
[428] _Manuel d'art byzantin_, p. 414.
CHAPTER XVII
THE MONASTERY OF MANUEL,
KEFELE MESJEDI
The mosque known as Kefele Mesjedi, in the quarter of Salma Tomruk, is
commonly supposed to represent the monastery founded by Manuel,[429] a
distinguished general in the wars with the Saracens during the reign of
Theophilus (823-842). This opinion is doubtless based upon the
circumstance that the monastery in question stood in the vicinity of the
cistern of Aspar,[430] [Greek: synengys te kisterne tou Asparos] (the
large open reservoir to the east of the Gate of Adrianople), near which
Kefele Mesjedi is also situated. But that circumstance alone cannot be
regarded as sufficient ground for the identification of the two
buildings. There are at least five other monasteries mentioned in
Byzantine history, all distinguished by the mark of their proximity to
the cistern of Aspar.[431] And at a short distance to the west of Kefele
Mesjedi, and nearer to the cistern of Aspar, we find the remains of an
old church, now Odalar Mesjedi, which might with equal force claim to
represent the monastery of Manuel. The commonly received identification
may, however, be correct as a happy conjecture. Mr. Siderides,[432]
indeed, considers the identification of the monastery of Manuel with
Kefele Mesjedi a mistake. According to him, that monastery was a
reconstruction or enlargement of the ancient monastery of SS. Manuel,
Sabel, and Ishmael, which stood on the heights above the Phanar, now
crowned by the mosque of Sultan Selim. To the objection that there it
would not be near the cistern of Aspar, Mr. Siderides replies by denying
the correctness of the identification of that cistern with the open
reservoir (Tchoukour Bostan) to the east of the gate of Adrianople, and
in the vicinity of Kefele Mesjedi. In Mr. Siderides' opinion the cistern
of Aspar is the beautiful covered cistern, generally known as the
cistern of Puicheria, to the south-west of the mosque of Sultan
Selim.[433] But the dimensions of the cistern ascribed to the famous
sister of Theodosius II. do not accord with the size of the cistern of
Aspar. The latter was 'a very large cistern,' [Greek: ten megisten
kinsternan],[434] while the former is only m. 29.1 long by m. 18 wide,
with a roof supported on four rows of seven columns[435]--not a large
cistern as works of that class went in Constantinople. But if the
cistern of Aspar was not situated in the district now marked by the
mosque of Sultan Selim, neither could the monastery of Manuel have been
there. Mr. Siderides,[436] moreover, identifies the monastery of Manuel
with that of Manoueliou [Greek: tou Manoueliou] which appears in the
Proceedings of the Synod held at Constantinople in 536 under
Justinian.[437] This, however, does not agree with the statement that
the monastery of Manuel was originally the private residence of the
well-known general of that name in the ninth century. Furthermore, it is
always dangerous to assume that the same name could not belong to
different buildings, especially when the name occurs at distant
intervals in the history of the city. Many mistakes in the topography of
Constantinople are due to this false method of identification. As a
matter of fact, the monastery of Manuel near the cistern of Aspar was
not the only House of that name in the capital of the East. Another
monastery of Manuel stood beside the Golden Horn, in the Genoese
quarter, between the gate of the Neorion (Bagtche Kapoussi) and the gate
of Eugenius (Yali Kiosk Kapoussi). It had a pier, known as the pier of
the venerable monastery of Manuel, [Greek: skala tes sebasmias mones
tou Manouel].[438] Paspates is consequently wrong in associating
that pier with Kefele Mesjedi.[439]
[Illustration: PLATE LXXIV.
S. THEODORE. THE OUTER NARTHEX, LOOKING NORTH.]
[Illustration: S. THEODORE. CAPITAL TO THE NORTH OF THE DOOR LEADING
FROM THE OUTER TO THE INNER NARTHEX.
_To face page 254._]
Mordtmann[440] accepts the identification of Kefele Mesjedi with the
monastery of Manuel as correct, but he identifies it also with the
church and monastery which Gerlach found in this neighbourhood, and
describes under the name of Aetius ([Greek: tou Aetiou]).[441] When
visited by Gerlach in 1573, the church had been converted into a mosque,
and was a beautiful building in excellent preservation. If all that
remains of it is the bare structure of Kefele Mesjedi, the city has to
mourn a great loss.[442] (Plate LXXVII.)
Manuel, the founder of the monastery, was the uncle of the Empress
Theodora, wife of the Emperor Theophilus, and proved a loyal and devoted
servant of the imperial family. Twice at the peril of his own life he
saved the emperor from capture, if not from death, during the wars with
the Saracens. Nevertheless, being accused of treason he fled to the
court of Baghdad and took service under the Caliph Mutasim, until
assured that Constantinople would welcome him back.
He was one of the three counsellors appointed by Theophilus to assist
Theodora during the minority of Michael III., and so highly was he
esteemed, that he was acclaimed emperor by the populace in the
Hippodrome, and might have worn the crown but for his fidelity to the
little prince. Silencing the shouts raised in his favour, he exclaimed,
'You have an emperor; my duty and highest honour is to defend his
infancy and to secure for him, even at the price of my blood, the
heritage of his father.' In the iconoclastic controversy Manuel
supported the policy of Theophilus, and therefore found himself in a
difficult position when Theodora decided to restore the use of eikons.
The story is, that while he lay dangerously ill at the time, monks of
the Studion assured him that recovery was certain if he vowed to uphold
the orthodox cause. The vow was taken, and upon his restoration to
health Manuel favoured the measures of Theodora. Probably he felt that
the current of public feeling on the subject was too strong for him to
oppose. But the task of working in harmony with his colleagues in the
regency, Theoctistus and Bardas, was soon found impossible, and rumours
of a plot to blind him and remove him from the administration of affairs
led him to retire to his house near the cistern of Aspar. For some time,
indeed, he continued to appear occasionally at the palace, but at last
he quitted for ever that scene of intrigue, and converted his residence
into a monastery, where he might spend the closing days of his life in
peace and finally be laid in a quiet grave.[443]
[Illustration: PLATE LXXV.
S. THEODORE. THE INTERIOR, LOOKING EAST.]
[Illustration: S. THEODORE. THE INTERIOR, LOOKING EAST (UPPER PART).
_To face page 256._]
The building which Manuel bequeathed was reconstructed almost from the
foundations, a large and beautiful edifice, by the celebrated Patriarch
Photius.[444] It underwent extensive restoration again at the command of
the Emperor Romanus Lecapenus (919-945),[445] in token of his friendship
for Sergius, the abbot of the monastery, a nephew of Photius, and
eventually an occupant of the patriarchal throne for twenty years
(999-1019). In it the Emperor Romanus Argyrus (1028-1034) confined
Prussianus, a relative of the Bulgarian royal family, on a charge of
treason;[446] and there Michael VII., nicknamed Parapinakes (the
peck-filcher), because he sold wheat at one-fourth of its proper weight,
and then at an exorbitant price, ultimately retired after his
deposition.[447] The connection of so many prominent persons with the
monastery implies the importance of the House.
_Architectural Features_
Kefele Mesjedi is a large oblong hall, m. 22.6 long by m. 7.22 wide,
with walls constructed in alternate courses of four bricks and four
stones, and covered with a lofty timber roof. It terminates to the north
in an arch and a semicircular apse in brick. Two niches, with a window
between them, indent the walls of the apse, and there is a niche in each
pier of the arch. The building is entered by a door situated in the
middle of the western wall. Originally the eastern and western walls,
which form the long sides of the building, were lighted by two ranges of
round-headed windows, somewhat irregularly spaced. The upper range is
situated a little below the ceiling, and forms a sort of clearstory of
ten lights; the lower range has five windows, except in the western
wall, where the place of one window is occupied by the entrance. The
southern wall is also lighted by two ranges of windows, the lower
windows being much larger than the higher. At some time buttresses were
built against the eastern wall. Under the west side is a cistern, the
roof of which rests on three columns. In view of all these features it
is impossible to believe that the building was a church. Its
orientation, the absence of lateral apses in a structure of such
dimensions, the position of the entrance, are all incompatible with that
character. We have here, undoubtedly, the refectory and not the
sanctuary of the monastic establishment. It resembles the refectory of
the Laura on Mt. Athos,[448] and that of Daphni near Athens. It recalls
the 'long and lofty building,' adorned with pictures of saints, which
formed the refectory of the Peribleptos at Psamathia.[449]
There is a tradition that the use of the building was granted at the
conquest to the Armenian colony which was brought from Kaffa in 1475 to
repeople the capital, Hence the Turkish name of the building.[450]
[Illustration: PLATE LXXVI.
THE REFECTORY OF THE MONASTERY OF MANUEL, FROM THE WEST.]
[Illustration: THE REFECTORY OF THE MONASTERY OF MANUEL, FROM THE
SOUTH-EAST.
_To face page 258._]
NOTE
As Gerlach's work is rare, the reader may wish to see his
description of the church of Aetius in the original (_Tagebuch_, pp.
455-56):--Nicht weit hiervon [the church of S. John in Petra] ist
eine sehr schoene Kirche, [Greek: tes Aetiou], da vor Zeiten ein sehr
gross und weites Closter gewesen seyn und viel Haeuser der Lehrer und
Lernenden in sich gehabt haben solle. Jetzt wird nichts mehr davon
gesehen als das zerfallene Gemaeuer einer herrlichen Pforten und eine
trockene Ziternen, darinnen die Juden die Seiden spinnen, zwirnen
und bereiten (_serica nectunt fila_). Vor der Kirchen ist ein weiter
Hoff, rings aber umb denselbe herumb ein bedeckter Gang
(_porticus_), welcher mit schoenen auff vergueldten viereckichten
glaesern Taffeln kuenstlich gemahlten Figuren auss dem Alten und Neuen
Testament, und mit griechischen Ueberschrifften gezieret ist, aber
alte Gesichter derselben aussgekratzet sind. Die Waende dieser
Umbgaenge sind mit Marmel von allerhand Farben bekleidet. Hat auch 3
oder 4 hohe Crepidines oder Absaetze mit der Propheten, Apostel und
Christi Bildnuessen von Gold. Der Hauss- oder vielmehr Bau- herr oder
auch der Stiffter ([Greek: ho ktetor]), und sein Weib, sind da auch
gemahlet in einem Habit, fast wie man heut zu Tage gehet, aber mit
einer ganz fremden Hauptzierde (_capellitii genere_), class man
darauss abnehmen kan, er sey einer aus den vornehmsten Kaeyserlich
Bedienten gewesen, dann diese Zierde siehet auss fast wie ein
Hertzogs Bareht von Seiden and Beltzwerck, der Bund oder das
Umgewundene (_cinctura_) von mancherley Farben, wie heut zu Tage die
Juden und Armenier weiss und blau durcheinander tragen. Sein Weib
hat einen Schleyer (_peplum_) fast wie die Griechinnen. Der bedecte
Gang und die Kirche sind ein Gebaeu (_porticus muro etiam templi
continetur_), und gehet man durch zwey hohe Pforten hinein, welche 4
Theil in sich begreifft, oder in 4 Theil abgetheilet ist. 1. der
bedeckte (_Porticus_) Gang, dessen Waende mit Marmelstein biss auff
die Helffte bekleidet sind. Der Obertheil, da die Schwibboegen
(_Laquearia_) anheben, hat er wie auch die Schwibboegen selber die
Gemaehlde. In diesem Gang oder Halle (_porticu_) stehen die Weiber,
und kommen nicht in die Kirchen hinein, wie auch in andere Kirchen
nicht, als wann sie zum Abendmahl gehen. 2. ist die Kirche fuer sich
so mit Tuerckischen Deppichen (_aoreis_) beleget und hat nur ein
Thor. Ist ein hohes Gewoelb (_laquearia_) und wie auch die ueberige 2
Gewoelbe (_laquearia_) ganz vergueldet und uebermahlet, und die Waende
von unten an biss an die Schwibboegen mit dem schoensten Marmelstein
bekleidet. Auss diesem gehet man 3. durch einen niedern Crepidinem
in dem dritten Theil der Kirchen, da der Bauherr oder Stiffter mit
andern sehr schoenen Bildnuessen mit Gold gemahlet stehen, mit einem
etwas niedern als der vorige Schwibboegen (_laquearia_). Auss diesem
gehet man in den 4ten gewoelbten auch gemahlten aber etwas finstern
und viel kleine Fenster in sich haltenden Ort. Aussen an der
Kirchmauren stehet diese Schrift.
[Illustration: Monogram in Greek.]
Vor dem Vorhoff (_vestibulo_, [Greek: propilio]) dieser Kirchen
[Greek: tes 'Aetiou] zeigte mir Theodosius den Ort, da der letzte
Christliche Kaeyser Constantinus als er bey der Tuerckischen Eroberung
der Stadt fliehen wollen, von Pferde gestuertzet, und tod gefunden
seyn solle.