Hall of the Great Council._]
Emperor seems to have felt a sudden impulse of penitence, for he threw
himself upon his knees and bowed down to kiss the Pope’s feet; but
Alexander would not allow him to go so far, and raising him to his feet
bestowed upon him the kiss of peace. Side by side the temporal and the
spiritual sovereigns of the world went up the ancient aisle together to
the steps of the high altar, and with the clergy and people intoned the
‘Te Deum Laudamus.’
On the first of August of that year the truce with the Lombard League
was signed, and at the same time the Venetians obtained for themselves
certain especial promises from the Emperor, one of which was that no
imperial ships should navigate the waters of the Adriatic Gulf, which
Venice now looked upon as her exclusive property, without the consent of
the Republic. On his side the Pope accorded numerous privileges to the
city which had given him such abundant proof of its fidelity.
A great part of the importance which was attached to the Doge’s annual
visit to the Lido on Ascension Day had its origin in the fact that
Alexander III. was present in Venice at that feast. It is true that the
custom of the visit dated from the days of Pietro Orseolo II., but the
ceremony of espousing the sea was first performed in 1177, when the
Pope, on presenting the Doge Sebastian Ziani with a magnificent ring,
accompanied the gift with the words: ‘Take this as a token of the
sovereignty which you and your successors shall exercise over this sea
for ever.’ In memory of this speech the Doge afterwards dropped a
[Illustration: CHIOGGIA]
golden wedding-ring into the sea every year with imposing ceremonies.
These are the simple facts upon which is founded
[Sidenote: _Alexander III. recognised in the monastery of the Carità,
school of P. Veronese; Hall of the Great Council._]
the amazing legend of Alexander’s arrival in Venice. Tracked and
pursued, the story says, by his imperial enemies, the fugitive Pope
reached Venice in disguise and at night. After wandering for hours
through the dark and winding ways of the city, he sank down at last upon
the steps of a church, worn out with fatigue and sleep, to wait for the
day. At dawn he took up his staff again, and on seeing a building which
was evidently a monastery, he knocked at the door and asked for shelter.
The house was that of Santa Maria della Carità. He was admitted, and,
according to at least one chronicler, was installed in the kitchen as a
scullion. In this humble office he lived uncomplaining for six months,
until a French traveller, who had often seen him in France, recognised
him, and hastened to inform the Doge of his presence. The emotion
created by the intelligence may easily be imagined. The ducal palace and
the whole city were in a ferment of excitement, and a vast procession
proceeded at once to fetch the sovereign pontiff from the convent
kitchen and conduct him to the palace of the patriarch of Grado. Strong
in the support of the Venetians, the Pope now sent ambassadors to
Frederick requiring him to restore peace to Church and State. The
Emperor, according to the story, sent an arrogant reply, and swore that
he would plant his victorious standard before the very door of Saint
Mark’s. The natural result of such a reply could only be a war, and the
legend did not fail to invent one of the most dramatic nature. Sixty
galleys from the Empire, from Genoa, and from Pisa, entered the Adriatic
under the command of the young Otho, the Emperor’s son, a boy of
eighteen years, endowed with superhuman strength, courage, and
experience. Against this powerful fleet
[Sidenote: _Alexander III. presents the Doge with the sword, Francesco
Bassano; same Hall._]
the Venetians could only send a force of thirty ships. But right was on
their side, and especially the right of legend to give the victory to
its favourites. The Doge knelt before the Pope, the Pope blessed him,
presented him with a golden sword and promised him the victory. On
Ascension Day a great and bloody sea-fight
[Sidenote: _Battle of Salvore, Domenico Tintoretto; same Hall._]
was fought off Salvore, not far from Parenzo, and the Venetians utterly
discomfited their enemies, taking from them forty-eight galleys and a
vast number of prisoners, including the Prince Otho himself. Like all
legendary
[Sidenote: _The Venetians present Prince Otho to the Pope, A. Vicentino;
and other pictures representing scenes from the same legend, in the same
Hall._]
people, these legendary Venetians were noble and generous beyond words,
and at once sent the Prince back to his father with twelve ambassadors.
Touched by so much kindness, the Emperor requested a safe-conduct for
himself to visit Venice, and having arrived there he was kept waiting an
unconscionable time while the terms of a treaty of peace were drawn up.
When he was at last admitted to the presence of Alexander III. Frederick
was made to lay aside all the insignia of royalty, and was forced to lie
down flat upon his face while the Pope placed one foot upon the back of
his neck and recited from Psalm xci. verse 13, ‘The young lion and the
dragon shalt thou trample underfoot.’ Frederick answered, ‘I bow not
before thee, but before Peter.’ ‘Both before Peter and before me,’
insisted the Pope.
The historian Romanin is justified in declaring that it would be hard to
accumulate a greater number of absurdities in a single tale, and the
most elementary historical criticism has sufficed to destroy all such
fables.
[Illustration: S. PIETRO IN CASTELLO]
They are, indeed, so manifestly imaginary that the so-called proofs of
the dramatic events they describe have been allowed to remain untouched,
and they exist to the present day. They consist of an inscription cut in
marble, which recalls to the inhabitants of Salvore the victory of the
Doge Sebastian Ziani, over the fleet of Otho of Hohenstaufen; of an
inscription on the outside of the church of Sant’ Apollinare informing
the public that Pope Alexander III. passed a bad night on the steps of
that church; and of similar inscriptions upon the churches of Santa
Sofia, San Salvatore, San Giacomo, and some other churches, which
dispute with Sant’ Apollinare the honour of having offered the pontiff
the hospitality of the doorstep.
[Illustration: PONTE MALCANTONE]
VI
VENICE AND CONSTANTINOPLE
The most conflicting judgments have been formed upon the action of the
Venetian Republic at the decisive moments of her career, as well as upon
the true sources of her wealth and importance. One writer, for instance,
gravely tells us that Venice, like England, grew rich by usury and the
slave trade; another, whose good faith cannot be doubted, assures the
world that the two great mistakes which led to the final downfall of
the Republic were the ‘Serrata del Gran Consiglio,’ which excluded the
people from the government, and the unjustifiable sack and seizure of
Constantinople. It would be hard indeed to produce any satisfactory
proof of the former statement; for though the Venetians undoubtedly
supplied themselves and one part of Italy with white slaves from the
East, and although the Republic at times lent money at interest to
poorer governments in distress, yet I do not think that these sources of
income were ever to be compared with that derived from a great and
legitimate commerce, and from less justifiable but not less lucrative
conquest.
As for the second statement, it is enough to consider the length of time
which elapsed between the taking of Constantinople and the closure of
the Great Council about a hundred years later, say in 1300, on the one
hand, and the final destruction of Venetian independence in 1797 on the
other. When, in history, an effect is separated from its supposed cause
by an interval of five hundred years or more, I do not hesitate to
assert that the connection is a little more than doubtful. As for the
exclusion of the people from the government having been a source of
danger to the Republic, it is interesting to note that almost in the
same year the Republic of Florence adopted precisely the opposite
course, that it led directly to internal discord and the wars of the
Blacks and Whites, and that in less than two hundred years the city
which had adopted the democratic view was under the dominion of
tyrants--a striking instance of the truth of some of the most important
conclusions reached by Plato in the _Republic_.
In the year 1198 Pope Innocent III. called upon Christendom to undertake
a fourth crusade, and the voice of Fulk of Neuilly preached the delivery
of the Holy Sepulchre, and roused to arms the most valiant barons and
gentlemen of France.
It was not till 1201 that the new army of crusaders was sufficiently
organised to consider the means of reaching Palestine, and they then
decided that they must make the journey by sea. Accordingly they sent an
embassy to Venice, the only maritime power then able to furnish the
ships and transports required.
Enrico Dandolo, the Doge, entertained their request, and, speaking in
the name of the Republic, offered to convey to Palestine four thousand
five hundred horses and nine thousand squires and grooms on large
transports, and to take four thousand five hundred knights and twenty
thousand men-at-arms on other vessels, and to furnish provisions for men
and horses for nine months; and, further, to send fifty armed galleys to
convoy the transports to ‘the shores whither Christianity and the
service of God called them.’
For this transportation the Republic required the payment of 85,000
marks of silver before the army embarked, and the promise of an equal
division of all conquests and of all spoil, Venice to receive one-half
of everything.
To these terms the ambassadors agreed, and they obtained from the Pope a
solemn approval of the agreement, which the Republic fulfilled with
great exactness, but which many of the crusaders violated in a manner
far from honourable; for a large number, deeming that they could make
the journey more cheaply on their own account, embarked from other
European ports without any regard to the engagements made in their names
by the ambassadors they themselves had chosen.
The consequence was that at the time agreed upon for meeting in Venice,
the crusaders found their numbers much inferior to those provided for in
the contract; and, as was natural, those who presented themselves were
not able to produce the sum of money agreed upon for the whole number.
But, according to the agreement signed, if the whole sum was not paid
before embarking, whatever was paid in was forfeited to the Republic,
which had been put to great expense and trouble in fitting out so large
a fleet.
In this extremity Enrico Dandolo pointed out to his countrymen that
Venice should play a generous part, rather than exact the letter of the
contract; that a compromise should be made on some sound basis; and that
the most obvious way of settling the matter was to ask of the crusaders
some service, during the voyage to Palestine, which should be accepted
instead of the balance of the money still unpaid, amounting to no less
than 30,000 marks of silver (about £60,000 sterling). To this proposal
the crusaders agreed, though not without considerable opposition on the
part of some of their number.
Let it be observed here, in defence of what the Venetians afterwards
did, that they were connected with the Fourth Crusade in two totally
distinct characters. In the first place, they themselves took the cross
in great numbers, and were therefore crusaders in the true sense;
secondly, they were a company for the transportation of a great number
of other crusaders at stated rates, under a guarantee. Moreover, they
did not, as some have supposed, include their own forces amongst those
for whom the French were to pay.
According to Sismondi, the estimate they made for the transportation of
the French was as follows:--
For 4,500 horses, at 4 marks of silver each 18,000 marks
“ 4,500 knights, at 2 marks of silver each 9,000 “
“ 9,000 squires and grooms, at 2 marks of
silver each 18,000 “
“ 20,000 men-at-arms, at 2 marks of
silver each 40,000 “
------
For 4,500 horses and 33,500 men, total 85,000 marks
Equal to about £170,000 sterling.
This represented what may be called the business side of the
transaction. As crusaders, the Venetians who accompanied the expedition
appeared not as business men but as allies, and provided for themselves
in every way; and it was as allies that they claimed an equal share of
conquest and spoil.
The weakness of the Pope’s subsequent position lay in the fact that
while he could, and did, excommunicate the crusaders for going out of
their way, he could not possibly have excommunicated them if the
Venetians, as
[Illustration: THE SALUTE]
business men, had insisted on the performance of the contract and had
refused to start at all.
In giving a brief account of the taking of Constantinople, I shall not
offer any criticism of a deed which has been generally condemned, and
which it is certainly not easy to excuse, but I shall present it very
nearly as it appeared to Romanin, himself a Venetian, and one of the
greatest and most just of the Venetian historians.
[Sidenote: _Rom. ii. 154._]
[Sidenote: _1201. Dandolo takes the cross, Giovanni Le Clerc; Hall of
the Great Council._]
[Sidenote: _Rom. ii. 97._]
It was on a Sunday, and in the year 1201, that the decision was reached
which sent a Venetian fleet and army to the East under the aged Doge
Enrico Dandolo. A vast crowd filled the basilica of Saint Mark, and was
swelled by the foreign knights and their attendants, who had descended
from the ducal palace after being received by the Doge. Moreover, there
were many pilgrims in the throng, wearing upon their coats and cloaks
the emblem of the cross. High mass was to be celebrated, and the high
altar was already prepared for the solemn function. Before it began,
however, a very old man of venerable aspect, but still preserving
something of his earlier energy, appeared in the pulpit of the
cathedral. He was almost sightless--so blind, indeed, that he had to be
led when he walked. But, in spite of age and infirmity, Enrico Dandolo
was still one of the most remarkable men living in an age which produced
many characters of wonderful individuality and strength. Even his
blindness was not the consequence of weakness or old age, but of the
fiendish cruelty of the Emperor Manuel Comnenos, who had almost
destroyed his sight when he had been ambassador in Constantinople nearly
a quarter of a century earlier. He had now reached the age of
ninety-four, and had been Doge already eight years.
He stood up in the pulpit and spoke to the people, not long but
earnestly, and though he was nearly a hundred years old his voice rang
clear and distinct through the vast church, and the words he spoke were
heard and long remembered.
[Sidenote: _Rom. ii. 154._]
‘You are allied,’ he said, ‘with the bravest of living men for the
greatest purpose which man can embrace; and I am old and weak and my
body has sore need of rest, yet I clearly see that no one can lead you
in this enterprise with the authority which is mine as chief of the
Republic. I pray you give me leave to take the cross that I may lead you
and watch over you, and let my son take my place here to guard the
territories of Venice while I go forth to live or die with you and with
these pilgrims.’
A great cry went up from all the people, ‘So be it for God’s sake! Take
the cross also and come with us.’ And therewith a great wave of
enthusiasm moved the whole host--strangers, pilgrims, and Venetians
alike; and one who stood in the crowd has recorded that there was
something in the bearing of the ancient Doge, in his prayer for
permission to take the cross, in the sacrifice he offered of the last
strength that was in him, that brought tears to the eyes of them that
saw and heard.
Then Enrico Dandolo, laying one hand upon the shoulder of him who went
before to lead him, came down and knelt before the high altar; and he
asked that the cross should be sewn upon his great cotton bonnet that
all might see it, and a great number of Venetians followed his example
and took the cross also.
The fleet sailed out of the harbour of Venice on the eighth day of
October 1202, a fleet of three hundred sail, the noblest and best
equipped that had yet been seen. Three huge vessels led the line--the
_Aquila_, the _Paradiso_, and the _Pellegrina_. Above the broad sails
the standard of the Republic floated from the masthead, while the flags
of other nations that were sending crusaders with the fleet were
displayed below it and at the yard-arms. The three hundred vessels were
manned by a force of forty thousand men in the bloom of their youth and
strength.
The crusade that followed has been too often described for me to
describe it. I shall merely endeavour to present a short statement of
the main facts and their consequences.
[Sidenote: _Rom. ii. 155._]
Pope Innocent III. had strictly enjoined upon the crusaders to stop
nowhere by the way, but to proceed directly to the Holy Land without
turning aside to pursue any purpose or undertaking foreign to the end
for which they had bound themselves together by solemn oath. The Pope’s
command was peremptory; it is hardly necessary to say that it was also
prudent, since the first three crusades had shown clearly to what extent
the interests of commerce and the desire for gain could thwart the true
purpose of the Holy War. Nevertheless the Venetians considered that the
Pope’s words could be interpreted with a breadth convenient to their
own ends, and in spite of the resistance of the French knights, who
wished to obey the Pope to the letter, the fleet anchored off the coast
of Dalmatia in order to retake the strongholds which had fallen under
the domination of Hungary. Enrico Dandolo’s argument in favour of this
was by no means illogical, whatever his real motives may have been, for
he pointed out that it was absolutely necessary to take possession of
all harbours on the way to the East from which pirates might sail out to
harass the fleet.
[Sidenote: _1202. Zara attacked by the crusaders, A. Vicentino; Hall of
the Great Council._]
No sooner had he taken the city of Zara, however, than the French
knights were perplexed and terrified by a message from the Pope, who
threatened to excommunicate all who had fought in this incidental war
unless they made honourable amends. Ambassadors were at once sent to
Rome to explain Dandolo’s specious argument to the Pope and humbly to
implore the latter’s pardon. Innocent granted his absolution readily
enough, on condition that the crusaders should not turn aside again on
their way to the Holy Land.
[Sidenote: _Rom. ii. 160-1._]
But meanwhile a still greater temptation presented itself to attract the
crusaders out of their straight course. For a long time past the Empire
of the East had been distracted by civil wars. At the time when the
crusaders set sail from Venice the Emperor Isaac had been dethroned and
blinded by his brother Alexis, who had seized the power. But Isaac’s
son, the younger Alexis, had succeeded in eluding his uncle’s vigilance,
and had escaped from Constantinople. He had visited Rome with the
intention of obtaining assistance from Pope Innocent
[Sidenote: _Quadri, 117._]
III., but only to find that his purpose had been forestalled by his
uncle, the reigning Emperor. The latter, fearing the Pope’s
interference, had already sent an embassy to him with instructions to
beguile him with promises of a reconciliation between the Greek and
Latin Churches. As this reconciliation, or submission, was the principal
inducement which the younger Alexis had to offer in return for help, the
Pope considered that it would be wiser to treat with the uncle, who was
in possession, rather than with the nephew who was a fugitive. Deceived
in his hopes, the younger Alexis proceeded to Germany, to the court of
King Philip of Swabia, who had set himself up as Emperor against Otho
IV., and had married a sister of the young Prince. It is not clear
whether it was Philip himself who suggested to Alexis the possibility of
attracting the crusaders to Constantinople, but he appears to have
recommended the plan and to have strongly urged the Venetians to agree
to it. At all events Alexis
[Sidenote: _Alexis Comnenos asks help of the Venetians, A. Vicentino;
same Hall._]
now proceeded to Zara and soon interested the aged Dandolo in his cause.
He made great promises if the crusaders would help him to get back the
throne; he would bear the whole expenses of the crusade for one year; he
would divide amongst the crusaders a sum of two hundred thousand silver
marks; he would guarantee for all future time that five hundred knights
should be supported by the Greek Empire in the Holy Land to guard it
from the attacks of unbelievers; and finally, he promised to bring the
Eastern Church back to the spiritual dominion of the popes. These
magnificent offers on the one hand, and the moving picture which, on the
other, he drew of his father Isaac’s sufferings, produced a profound
impression upon his hearers, and especially, perhaps, upon those who had
already been in Constantinople and had formed an opinion as to the value
of such a prize. In the eyes of the Venetians, too, there was even
another object to be accomplished, namely, the destruction of the power
of Pisa and of her commerce in the East.
[Sidenote: _Rom. ii. 162._]
It was in vain that the Pope, who wished to manage matters himself, and
who was more than half pledged to the usurper of the throne, raised his
voice in threats and protestations; it was in vain that he insisted on
the wretched condition of the Christians in Palestine and the
extremities to which they were reduced, pointing out that their welfare
was to be considered rather than a blind prisoner’s claims to the throne
from which he had been ousted, no matter how unjustly. Nothing that the
Pope could say had the slightest effect upon men whose conscience agreed
to an act of justice in which their ruling passion for gain anticipated
an opportunity for almost unbounded plunder. Those who feared to
displease the Pope, or were terrified by the menace of excommunication,
were told that they were free to leave the ranks if they chose. A few
French knights took advantage of this alternative and left the army;
amongst these was Simon de Montfort. But the principal French nobles
espoused the cause of the younger Alexis, including Boniface of
Montferrat, Baldwin of Flanders, Louis of Blois, and Hugh the Count of
Saint Paul. These and the great majority, with their followers, threw in
their lot with Enrico Dandolo, and looked on with indifference when the
Pope’s cardinal legates left the crusade and proceeded to the East by
themselves.
Sismondi considers that the subsequent attitude of Venice towards the
Holy See throughout her history had its origin at this time; for when,
before the expedition sailed, Cardinal San Marcello arrived in Venice,
as the Pope’s legate, to take command of the crusading fleet, he was
informed that if he shipped as a Christian preacher he should be treated
with the highest honours, but that if he came with the slightest idea of
giving orders he could not be allowed on board; whereupon, having
thoroughly understood the situation, he returned to Rome.
As the fleet proceeded eastwards it was very naturally obliged to put in
at a number of Greek harbours, not only to obtain provisions, but
because it was absolutely necessary to land the crusaders’ horses from
time to time for exercise; and when we consider the conditions of
navigation and the dimensions of vessels in those days, we are surprised
that such a body of cavalry could have been successfully transported at
all from the Venetian islands to the very walls of Constantinople. It
was generally considered at that period that Constantinople shared the
dominion of the sea with Venice, but it appears that the Emperor’s
brother-in-law, who was high admiral of the fleet, had deliberately sold
for
[Illustration: FONDAMENTA S. GIROLAMO]