OF THE CITY OF CONSTANTINOPLE, AND OF THE FAITH OF THE GREEKS.
At Constantinople lieth St. Anne, our Lady's mother, whom St. Helena
caused to be brought from Jerusalem. And there lieth also the body of
John Chrysostom, who was archbishop of Constantinople. There lieth also
St. Luke the Evangelist, whose bones were brought from Bethany, where he
was buried. And many other relics are there. And there is the vessel of
stone, as it were of marble, which men call Enydros, and which
continually drops water, and fills itself every year, till it run over,
besides what men take from within. Constantinople is a very fair and
good city, and well walled, and it is three-cornered. There is an arm of
the sea of Hellespont, which some men call the mouth of Constantinople,
and some men call it the Brace (or arm) of St. George; and that arm
incloses two parts of the city. And upward to the sea, upon the water,
was wont to be the great city of Troy, in a very fair plain; but that
city was destroyed by the people of Greece, and little thereof now
appears, because it is so long since it was destroyed.
About Greece there are many isles, as Calliste, Calcas, Cetige, Tesbria,
Mynea, Flaxon, Melo, Carpate, and Lemne. In this latter isle is Mount
Athos, that passeth the clouds. And there are divers languages and many
countries obedient to the emperor, namely, Turcople, Pyneynard,
Cornagne, and many others, as Thrace and Macedonia, of which Alexander
was king. In this country was Aristotle born, in a city called Stagyra,
a little from the city of Thrace. And at Stagyra Aristotle lieth; and
there is an altar upon his tomb. And they make great feasts for him ever
year, as though he were a saint. And at his altar they hold their great
councils and their assemblies, expecting that through inspiration of
God and of him they shall have the better council. In this country are
very high hills, toward the extremity of Macedonia. And there is a great
hill, called Olympus, which divides Macedonia and Thrace, so high that
it passeth the clouds. And there is another hill, called Athos, so high
that the shadow of it reaches to Lemne[289], which is an island
seventy-six miles distant. At the summit of this hill the air is so
clear, that no wind is found there, and therefore no animal may live
there; and the air is dry. And men say in those countries, that
philosophers once went upon those hills, and held to their nose a sponge
moistened with water, to have air, because the air above was so dry; and
at the summit, in the dust of those hills, they wrote letters and
figures with their fingers, and at the year's end they came again, and
found the same letters and figures which they had written the year
before, without any change. And therefore it appears evident that these
hills pass the clouds and join to the pure air.
At Constantinople is the palace of the emperor, very handsome and well
built; and therein is a fair place for joustings, or for other plays and
sports. And it is made with stages, and hath steps about, that every man
may see well, and not intercept the view of those behind. And under
these stages are stables well vaulted for the emperor's horses; and all
the pillars are of marble. And within the church of St. Sophia, an
emperor once would have buried the body of his father when he was dead;
and, as they made the grave, they found a body in the earth, and upon
the body lay a fine plate of gold, on which was written in Hebrew,
Greek, and Latin, letters that said thus, "Jesus Christ shall be born of
the Virgin Mary, and I believe in him." And the date when it was laid in
the earth was two thousand years before our Lord was born. The plate of
gold is still preserved in the treasury of the church. And they say that
it was Hermogenes, the wise man.
Although the men of Greece are Christians, yet they vary from our faith;
for they say that the Holy Ghost may not come of the Son, but only of
the Father. And they are not obedient to the Church of Rome, nor to the
pope; for they say that their patriarch hath as much power over the sea
as the pope hath on this side the sea. And therefore pope John XXII.
sent letters to them, how Christian faith should be all one, and that
they should be obedient to the pope, who is God's vicar on earth, to
whom God gave his full power to bind and to assoil, and therefore they
should be obedient to him. But they sent back divers answers, amongst
others saying thus: "We believe well that thy power is great upon thy
subjects. We may not suffer thy great pride. We are not in purpose to
fulfil thy great covetousness. The Lord be with thee; for our Lord is
with us.—Farewell." And no other answer might he have of them. They
make their sacrament of the altar of unleavened bread, because
our Lord made it of such bread when he made his Maundy[290]. And on
Shere-Thursday they make their unleavened bread, in token of the Maundy,
and dry it in the sun, and keep it all the year, and give it to sick men
instead of God's body. And they make but one unction when they christen
children. They anoint not the sick. And they say that there is no
purgatory, and that the souls shall have neither joy nor pain till the
day of doom. They say, moreover, that fornication is not a deadly sin,
but a thing that is according to nature; and that men and women should
wed but once; and whosoever weddeth oftener than once, their children
are bastards, and begotten in sin. Their priests also are wedded. They
say, also, that usury is no deadly sin; and they sell benefices of holy
church; and so do men in other places, (God amend it when his will is!)
and that is a great scandal; for now is simony king crowned in holy
church: God amend it for his mercy! And they say that in Lent men shall
not fast, or sing mass, except on the Saturday and on the Sunday. And
they fast not on the Saturdays, except it be Christmas Eve, or Easter
Eve. They suffer not the Latins to sing at their altars; and if they do
by any chance, they immediately wash the altar with holy water. And they
say, that there should be but one mass said at one altar upon one day.
They say also that our Lord never ate, but that he made sign of eating.
They say, moreover, that we sin deadly in shaving our beards; for the
beard is token of a man, and the gift of our Lord. And they say that we
sin deadly in eating of animals that were forbidden in the Old
Testament and by the old law, as swine, hares, and other beasts that
chew not their cud. And they say that we sin in eating flesh on the days
before Ash Wednesday, and in eating flesh on the Wednesday, and eggs and
cheese on the Fridays. And they curse all those who abstain from eating
flesh on the Saturday. The emperor of Constantinople appoints the
patriarch, the archbishops, and the bishops, and gives the dignities and
the benefices of churches, and deprives those who deserve it, when he
finds any cause; and so is he lord both temporal and spiritual in his
country[291].
And although these things touch not to our way, nevertheless they touch
to that that I have promised you, to show you a part of the customs, and
manners, and diversities of countries. And because this is the first
country that is discordant in faith and in belief, and varies from our
faith on this side the sea, therefore I have set it here, that you may
know the diversity that is between our faith and theirs. For many men
have great liking to hear of strange things of diverse countries.