Metropolitan Church of the Divine Wisdom, built by Justinian the
Great more than four hundred years ago. It outshines all temples of
God in the world both in size and beauty, as the Roman Empire
outshines all other states. These statues and monuments in the forum
around are the precious gifts of a line of beneficent princes. That
glorious equestrian statue in the centre of the square is our
ever-to-be-venerated emperor Justinian of immortal memory. And
opposite is the bronze gateway that leads into the corridors of the
Sacred Palace. Follow me, my son, and try to wear a look of less
amazement and confusion at what you see. I have obtained permission
from the parakeimomenos himself that you shall be in attendance on me
to-day in the palace and the procession that will shortly be formed."
They passed in at the gorgeous gates of gilt bronze amid salutes by
the imperial guard and reverences by the ushers addressed to the
general, and wandered at leisure from court to court, along the
corridors and porticos filled with marble and bronze statues, adorned
with mosaic pictures, and now hung with tapestries and Eastern
embroideries. The vast halls and cloisters were crowded with nobles
and officials in robes of state and the higher chiefs of the army in
their most splendid uniforms and jewelled arms. Gradually they
joined the gay crowd, as it gathered up to form the procession from
the sacred apartments within. At last, three ringing blasts from the
silver trumpets summoned the ranks to close, and the formal
ceremonial of the day began.
First came a company of Varangians--stately warriors from the
North--Scandinavians, Russians, Saxons, with long limbs and flaxen or
red hair--the imperial body-guard, in gilt mail tunics, armlets, and
greaves, carrying the peculiar weapon of their country, the huge
battle-axe surmounted by a sickle-shaped halberd. Then came a group
of ushers and palace officials in splendid civil garb. Next followed
the court officials in their due order of precedence--silentiaries,
chamberlains, masters of the robes and masters of the horse, high
stewards, court eunuchs, and privy-councillors, grooms of the
chamber, and dispensers of the royal largesses, the chancellor, and
the logothete, or minister of finance.
A fresh company of guards--these from the Eastern cavalry--separated
this part of the procession from the rest. Then came an almost
interminable procession of priests, each bearing huge wax tapers,
choristers, acolytes, and incense-bearers, with a long array of
crosses, ikons, and holy emblems. The priests were in their bright
robes of high ceremony, embroidered copes charged with long palls
bearing the Greek cross on each fold. The choristers chanted a psalm
as they passed on, and the incense-bearers swung their silver
censers; and as the miraculous ikons passed the privileged
spectators, by whom the courts were lined, bowed to the earth in
reverence of each holy emblem. At last, a fresh group of priests
bore along the true cross of St. Helena, or rather the portion of it
enclosed in an enamelled and jewelled cross of solid silver, and the
miracle-working rod of Moses, the girdle and veil of the Mother of
God, and the portrait of Christ, "not made by human hands," which had
been vouchsafed to men on earth. All these were received with
profound reverences from the spectators in their stations as they
were borne along amid the glitter of the tapers and the perfume of
incense.
And now came a third group, headed by grooms of the chamber,
lords-in-waiting, and masters of the household, all in flowing robes
of embroidered silk of various color and pattern. At last stalked
by, the observed of all beholders, who cringed and cowered before
him, the parakeimomenos himself, the eunuch Joseph, the lord high
chamberlain and president of the imperial privy council, who was
practically the real ruler of the empire. Then came a pause and a
hush of expectation. And lastly there advanced, headed by a further
company of guards--tawny mountaineers from the Anatolian Theme--and
by a band of musicians with trumpets, cymbals, drums, and fifes, the
new Basileus and Basilissa themselves.
Romanus II. was arrayed in a corselet and armlets of gold over his
purple tunic, which shone with jewels and pearls; and from his
shoulders hung the long folds of the imperial scaramangion. His legs
had already been fitted with the quaint scarlet boots, or leggings,
which were the ensign of an emperor. His scabbard was scarlet,
enamelled and jewelled. He wore on his brow a fillet with precious
amulets, but as yet no crown; for the crown was borne along beside
him by Polyeuctus, the venerable patriarch, supported and assisted by
the prelates of his cathedral in their most gorgeous robes of office.
Behind the Basileus, in a dazzling group of court beauties,
ladies-in-waiting, of mistresses and ladies of the robes, came the
new Basilissa herself, in a tunic of silk gauze of the hues of the
rainbow, covered with full robes of massive embroideries and blazing
with precious stones, pearls, and pendants. Pride, joy, hope beamed
from the lovely countenance of the empress, and was reflected as it
were in that of the emperor. As they passed slowly along the
corridors, courts, and colonnades, the privileged spectators, who
lined them, broke forth at the bidding of the silentiary, or usher,
with fervid cries of, "Many, many happy years!" "Holy! Holy! Holy!
Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth! To our great
Basileus and Autocrator Romanus, many years of life!" And as the
empress passed, again they chanted, thrice, "Long life to our blessed
Augusta. Welcome, Theophano. May God keep thee, most pious lady of
our sovereign lord!" It may be doubted if Romanus II. were the most
glorious emperor of his mighty line, and yet more if Theophano were
the most pious of royal princesses; but this is certain, that in all
that concourse of brilliant men and lovely women in the wonderful
panorama of that crowded day, in all that empire which stretched from
far Calabria to the Chersonesus, from the Adriatic to the Caucasus
and the Euphrates, there could be found no more brilliant figure than
that of the young Romanus, and no such dazzling beauty as that of the
Greek Theophano herself.
A space separated the imperial group from the rest of the cortège.
Then, in gorgeous robes of samite embroidered in gold thread,
advanced alone the huge form of Basil the eunuch, the royal bastard,
now grand master of the ceremonies. He was followed by a group of
general officers in their most splendid uniform of parade. All eyes
were now turned upon the illustrious chief, who stalked on in front
of the line--the generalissimo of the Oriental armies--the first
soldier of the empire.
"See, the hero comes," said Bardas Skleros, in a whisper, to Eric, as
the adored chief turned a friendly glance on his trusty comrade and a
piercing look on his athletic attendant, who now took their places in
the brilliant group of officers of the staff. Nicephorus Phocas, the
most eminent chief of a long line of Armenian nobles, the most heroic
warrior of a family of famous men of war, was now in the flower of
his strength, at forty-six years of age. His natural olive
complexion had been tanned and burned almost to a dark hue in the
incessant campaigns he had fought since his boyhood amid the suns of
Mesopotamia and the snowy passes of Cilicia. He wore his hair long
and flowing, with a crisp beard just beginning to be tinged with
gray. His nose was long and aquiline, his eyes were dark, of an
intense fire under a penthouse of thick, black eyebrows. Of middle
height, he had the trunk and shoulders of a giant, with abnormal
depth of chest, and the long, muscular arms with which he had more
than once in battle cleft a mailed enemy to the chine. His look was
stern and pensive, lighted up at moments, as it were, with a sombre
fire within. He was taciturn and immovable by habit, so that hardly
a gesture or a look ever betrayed his purpose or his thought. To-day
he stalked on alone, his mind far away from the Sacred Palace, with
neither comrade nor lieutenant by his side; and he just acknowledged
with his hand the cheers and obeisances with which he was received.
It was noticed that he alone of all that brilliant throng had chosen
to attend the procession in his well-worn tunic and his close helm
and corselet of action, in the same accoutrements and arms in which
he was wont to appear on many a bloody field. And as his scrutiny
fell on the warlike figure of Eric, the young Scandinavian felt a
thrill to the marrow of his bones; and to his fantastic Northern
imagination it seemed to him that Odin himself was searching him with
a look to judge if the lad were yet worthy to enter into the Valhalla
of heroes. Slowly the immense procession passed on to the royal
gate, where the emperor mounted his cream-colored charger of the
purest stock of Arabia, richly caparisoned with jewelled and golden
ornaments. When the Augusteum was reached--the forum in front of the
palace bounded by St. Sophia and the Hippodrome--the Basileus was
received by an immense crowd of privileged and official spectators,
who again raised the chant of "Long, long life and happy years to our
Augustus and autocrator!" Here was renewed the ancient ceremony of
ages, dating from the time when Cæsar was the true
commander-in-chief. Romanus dismounted and was raised on an immense
shield, upborne by general officers, the heads of the senate and the
palace, and even nominally by the patriarch himself; and, amid
volleys of cheers--"Long life and happy years!"--from the vast throng
in the porticos and terraces around, he was saluted as Cæsar, even as
Trajan, Constantine, and Theodosius had been hailed by the army as
successors of Julius and Augustus.
This secular ceremony accomplished, the Basileus and Basilissa, with
their trains, ascended the staircase which led to their place in the
Hippodrome. In due order they appeared in the cathisma, or raised
balcony, at the northern or straight end of the vast circus, which
for hours had been filled by an immense concourse of citizens. As
the imperial pair, in their gorgeous array, appeared at the rail in
front of their lofty balcony, the sight was one that struck dumb the
raw Norwegian halberdier, and would profoundly impress even the most
experienced sight-seer of modern times. On each side of the long
Hippodrome there rose, tier after tier on the marble steps crowned
with open colonnades, a gathering of at least three hundred thousand
spectators. In their proper places were seated the Factions, now
organized and recognized political clubs. On the city side were
seated in proper uniform the Green Faction, on the sea side were the
Blues, and from ten thousand trained voices, at the baton of their
leaders and at the word of "Salute!" there broke forth, time after
time, and in answering strophe and antistrophe, the ordained chant,
"Long life and happy years to our Augustus and autocrator,
Romanus"--"Holy! Holy! Holy! to God in the highest, and peace on
earth!" The Cæsar descended; and, on this occasion, by special
favor, as he was proud of his beauty and his consummate horsemanship,
Romanus rode in state on his cream charger round the entire arena.
As he passed each block of the enormous throng he was received with
deafening cheers and the eternal chant of "Long life and happy
years!" He was now disrobed from the stately diabetesion and
scaramangion, and had chosen to exhibit his exquisite limbs in the
uniform of a cataphractic trooper in full campaigning equipment. And
as he careered round the long Hippodrome, curveting on his fiery
Arab, the superstitious Byzantine burghers imagined that they saw the
blessed St. George himself.
When he was returned to the cathisma aloft and had taken his seat on
the throne which stood high above the gates whence the chariots
started, the Basileus signed to the parakeimomenos that it was his
wish for the games to begin. The marshals and heralds now cleared
the race-course, and four chariots of four horses each were shot
forth from the carceres. The race was followed with shouts, yells,
and screams of excitement by the vast host in the circus. More races
ensued, and displays of various strange beasts from Asia and from
Africa: camels, elephants, giraffes, ostriches, and lions were
paraded round the ring; and deputations from wild frontier tribes, in
strange, outlandish costumes, advanced to pay reverence and offer
gifts to the Cæsar--naked Nubians, seamen from the Ægean Islands,
vikings from the Baltic, Russ exiles and outlaws, and hillmen from
the Caucasus in huge sheepskins and with bows and arrows.
The shows in the Hippodrome were continued long after the Basileus
and Basilissa had left their thrones in the cathisma. This day of
most exhausting ceremonies had yet to receive its final and most
important function, in the solemn consecration of the imperial pair
in the cathedral church by the patriarch. The emperor again crossed
the Augusteum to the portal of the great church. He had now been
relieved of his military array, and had been formally clothed in the
gorgeous robes of imperial state, brocaded with gold, gems, and
quaint devices. At the entrance to St. Sophia the Basileus was
received by the patriarch and all his clergy; and while his steward
of the largess presented gifts to the holy places, the emperor, the
empress, and all their principal attendants were supplied with
lighted tapers, with which they entered the narthex. They were
conducted into the vestry, where fresh robings took place, and even
some refreshments were offered to the exhausted princes. After a
short rest the sacred ordinances of the ceremony began. Emperor and
empress, in turn, duly prostrated themselves before the holy images,
crosses, and emblems, and devoutly kissed the miraculous ikon. The
procession advanced to the centre of the mighty dome, the choir
chanting hymns and repeating, "Holy! Holy! Holy! Glory to God in
the highest and peace on earth!" and the ushers and prelates placed
the royal personages on the thrones prepared for them. The patriarch
himself, in the bema, or chancel, within the semicircular apse,
opened the stated prayers, and the coronation liturgy was chanted,
the close of each invocation being marked by the chant of the
choristers. Advancing from the chancel to the ambon, the patriarch
caused the gospel of the day to be read out, and again he uttered the
prayers of the rubric. This ambon was a raised platform of colored
marble, surmounted by short columns supporting a canopy of alabaster
and mosaic. It was reached by a flight of marble steps, both on the
eastern and the western sides, and formed a kind of stage between the
chancel, or apse, and the centre of the great dome; and it served at
once as reading station and stand for important ceremonies. Hither
the Basileus was led by one range of stairs, the patriarch standing
at the opposite end and the crown being held beside him. The crown
itself was perfumed with incense and blessed by the patriarch by
placing his hands on it. Then, summoning the emperor to his side,
the patriarch raised the crown aloft and solemnly placed it on the
head of the Basileus, crying, "Holy! God in Three! bless our august
autocrator and Basileus!" Then the Basilissa was led forth by her
attendant eunuchs and borne up into the ambon, where the emperor
himself placed her crown on his consort's head. They both then were
attended to their thrones in front of the chancel, and the rest of
the ceremony was concluded, the patriarch having now returned from
the ambon to the bema.
There he celebrated mass himself and partook of the elements in
solemn form. Thereupon the Basileus was led into the bema and stood
beside the silver altar. His crown is taken from his head and held
by the chief deacon, while the Basileus on his knees partakes of the
body and blood of Christ. The patriarch again blesses him and
anoints him with holy oil, and cries over his bowed head: "May the
Lord be mindful of the power of thy kingdom in His universal kingdom,
now and always, for ever and ever. Amen." Thereupon the emperor
stooped low and thrice kissed the hand of the patriarch, and remained
in silent prayer amid a breathless pause. At last the autocrator
rose and was led to his throne beside the empress. And at once the
choir burst forth with the peals of the organ and the blare of silver
trumpets, and the chants of the choir in the galleries were renewed.
The imperial procession was reformed. Hundreds of pendent
chandeliers held lighted candles and glass lamps. The incense poured
upward in wreaths to the saints, archangels, and cherubim in the
mosaics of the domes, and amid a blaze of color and the rustlings of
a thousand robes of silk and brocade the imperial cortège passed into
the open square. As they issued from the portal, a roar of voices
ascended from the crowd without, with renewed shouts of "Long life
and happy years to Romanus and Theophano! Augustus ever victorious
and Augusta beloved of the Mother of God!"
The imperial procession, with its multitude of officials, soldiers,
eunuchs, and priests, passed into the bronze gates of the palace amid
infinite acclamations, the murmur of a vast mass of excited human
beings, and the incessant strains of martial music. They proceeded
to the hall of the excubitors, or body-guard, where a banquet of
three hundred guests was held. The Basileus and Basilissa themselves
were conducted, with a series of obeisances and forms, to the privy
chambers of the Sacred Palace, where, after a fitting rest, they
supped in the Hall of the Nineteen Couches with the patriarch and a
few of the highest officials of the empire.
VII
The Confession
The young viking had been dismissed from his attendance on General
Bardas; and, stunned as he had been by the noise and marvellous
sights of the day, his senses reeling from the fumes of the incense
and his eyes aching from the incessant panorama he had witnessed, he
ventured to enter the great temple alone that he might recall his
thoughts from the whirl in which they swam. The crowd had left the
building; a few sacristans here and there were extinguishing the last
lights; the air within was heavy with the scent of flowers and
incense. The young soldier raised his eyes from the checkered floor
to the walls resplendent with the most magnificent marbles cut from
the Eastern and African quarries, and thence to the enormous
monoliths crowned with capitals of intricate work of acanthus and
vine leaves. He little understood the nature of the mighty dome
under which he stood; still less, how the marvellous pictures in gold
and colored glass which filled the vaults had been made. To his
untutored eye, the figures of the archangel Michael, of the Mother of
God, and of the Saviour of Mankind seemed to him miraculous
appearances of these sacred and divine beings in their proper
persons. Fainting under the sense of superstitious terror, exhausted
in body and mind by all the excitements of the day, the young
Norwegian, whom neither man nor brute had ever dismayed for an
instant, sank down beneath an ikon in a dark corner of the aisle,
and, striving in vain to utter a few coherent prayers, he bowed
himself to earth, muttering, "God, be merciful to one of the least of
Thy servants!"
How long he remained in this posture he never knew; but when coherent
thought returned to him again he saw by a dim lamp two men in a
distant corner of the aisle: one a priest in his seat of confession,
the other a bronzed veteran, wrapped in a long military cloak, on his
knees before the man of God. The priest was a young monk whose
emaciated face bore witness to a life of austere sacrifice. The
warrior bore the look of the illustrious stratelatos--Nicephorus
Phocas--a look which no man who had ever seen it could forget.
The young soldier was thunderstruck to see at such a moment, in such
a place and with such a look, the chief whom he believed to be within
the Sacred Palace in the place of honor at the coronation feast. The
mighty general was on his knees before the monk; his proud
countenance was now wrung with remorse and some dark purpose within
his mind. To Eric's heated imagination it seemed as if he had
intruded on some hallowed scene, as if he were watching his Saviour
in the Garden of Gethsemane awaiting his hour of passion. The
guardsman stole away in the gloom of the side aisles, muttering
prayers to all the saints whose names and offices he knew or could
remember.
A severe struggle was, indeed, passing between the anchorite and the
general--a critical moment in the life of the mighty commander of the
Eastern armies. The monk, Abraham, had been made known to Nicephorus
by his venerated uncle, Maleinos. The monk was now known as
Athanasius. His eloquence, zeal, and saintly character had deeply
impressed Nicephorus, who held him in profound veneration. This monk
was the sole confessor of the general.
"Holy father," he was saying, in a hoarse whisper, "I have lived from
youth upward as a man of war, to which I was bred by my father and my
grandfather of noble memory; and, if I have done deeds of blood, it
was in obedience to the orders of my commanders and of our lord the
Basileus. But Christ has said that they who take up the sword shall
perish by the sword. I have always hoped to die in some glorious
field, my sword red with the blood of followers of the False Prophet.
But now I, who never feared mortal men, tremble to think of myself as
standing at the judgment-seat of a God of love and mercy. I feel at
last--too late, alas!--how a life such as mine has dishonored the
gospel of Christ. And if He spare me a few years longer, they will
be too short to wipe out my sins by penance and groans and the
solitary life of a hermit. Father, I have come to ask from thee a
blessing, and thy good word to the monks of St. Demetrius on Olympus,
whither I am about to withdraw forever to a cell."
"My son," replied the monk, "if God has given thee success as a
soldier, it was to serve some wise purpose of His own. Thou hast
neither that humility nor that patience which it becomes an eremite
to possess, and without which all penances and prayers are in vain.
Thou art too old to learn our hard and cheerless way of life. Thou
hast no experience of the raptures of the soul when it communes with
the beings above in glory. Thou art not the stuff of which saints
are made or with which the saints can hold converse."
"Ask my troopers," said the hero, proudly, "if I have not lived a
life as hard as any hermit of Mount Athos!"
"And of humility and peace and meditation such as theirs?" said the
monk, with a gentle sadness that entirely covered the sarcasm of his
question.
"Show me how I can humble myself more than I do at this hour, at the
feet of thee and of Christ. It is peace that I ask. And as to
meditation--how often in the watches of the night, in the tented
field, have I lain awake seeking the Lord and His blessed saints,
till I had a vision of the Babe smiling in His mother's arms, and I
knew by that sign that in the morning I should win a new fight for
the Cross."
"Ay, Christ means thee to win yet other fights in His name, for the
peril of the Cross was never greater than it is now. But how comest
thou to be here at this hour? Will not the Basileus and his
courtiers mark thy absence from the feast and accuse thee of treason
against the throne?"
"Does Nicephorus Phocas care for the yelping of these parasites and
eunuchs? Is he anything to-day to the Basileus himself or to the
crowds in the Golden Palace? Can you think that the Basileus is
troubled at his absence--ay--or the--the--the he-women or the she-men
who prowl about the imperial koiton?" he added at last, after a
broken sentence wherein he seemed to choke down some words that rose
to his lips.
"I know of many she-men in that court, but of only one he-woman,"
said the subtle priest, suddenly catching at a new thought and
casting on the soldier a piercing glance. "What! Has the proud
Basilissa dared to affront the first soldier of the empire and
maddened him to forswear the service of his Majesty in his wrath? I
thought a Phocas was of too stern a mould to be goaded or turned from
his duty by the insolence of a spoiled beauty!"