the Marmora side of the landward walls, had been opened, and already
an affrighted crowd was pressing forward to make its escape from the
captured city. Others were doing their best to bury their treasures.
The Emperor himself, either seized with panic or finding that all was
lost--as, indeed, everything was lost so soon as the army had
succeeded in obtaining a foothold within the walls--fled from the
city, He, too, escaped by the Golden Gate, taking with him Euphrosyne,
the widow of Alexis. The brave Theodore Lascaris determined, however,
to make one more attempt. His appeal to the people was useless. Those
who were not panic-stricken appear to have been indifferent. Some, at
least, were apparently still dreaming of a mere change of rulers, like
those of which the majority of them had seen several. But before any
attempt at reorganization could be made the enemy was in sight, and
Theodore himself had to fly.
The crusaders had expected another day's fighting, and knew nothing of
the flight of Mourtzouphlos. To their surprise they encountered no
resistance. The day was occupied in taking possession of their
conquest. The Byzantine troops laid down their arms on receiving
assurances of personal safety. The Italians who had been expelled took
advantage of the entry of their friends and appear to have retaliated
upon the population for their expulsion. Two thousand of the
inhabitants, says Gunther, were killed, and mostly by these returned
Italians. As the victorious crusaders passed through the streets,
women, old men, and children, who had been unable to flee, met them,
and, placing one finger over another so as to make the sign of the
cross, hailed the Marquis of Montferrat as king, while a hastily
gathered procession, with the cross and the sacred emblems of Christ,
greeted him in triumph.
Then began the plunder of the city. The imperial treasury and the
arsenal were placed under guard; but with these exceptions the right
to plunder was given indiscriminately to the troops and sailors. Never
in Europe was a work of pillage more systematically and shamelessly
carried out. Never by the army of a Christian state was there a more
barbarous sack of a city than that perpetrated by these soldiers of
Christ, sworn to chastity, pledged before God not to shed Christian
blood, and bearing upon them the emblem of the Prince of Peace.
Reciting the crimes committed by the crusaders, Nicetas says, with
indignation: "You have taken up the cross, and have sworn on it and on
the holy Gospels to us that you would pass over the territory of
Christians without shedding blood and without turning to the right
hand or to the left. You told us that you had taken up arms against
the Saracens only, and that you would steep them in their blood alone.
You promised to keep yourselves chaste while you bore the cross, as
became soldiers enrolled under the banner of Christ. Instead of
defending his tomb, you have outraged the faithful who are members of
him. You have used Christians worse than the Arabs used the Latins,
for they at least respected women."
An immense mass of treasure was found in each of the imperial palaces
and in those of the nobles. Each baron took possession of the castle
or palace which was allotted to him, and put a guard upon the treasure
which he found there. "Never since the world was created," says the
marshal, "was there so much booty gained in one city. Each man took
the house which pleased him, and there were enough for all. Those who
were poor found themselves suddenly rich. There was captured an
immense supply of gold and silver, of plate and of precious stones, of
satins and of silk, of furs, and of every kind of wealth ever found
upon earth."
The sack of the richest city in Christendom, which had been the bribe
offered to the crusaders to violate their oaths, was made in the
spirit of men who, having once broken through the trammels of their
vows, are reckless to what lengths they go. Their abstinence and their
chastity once abandoned, they plunged at once into orgies of every
kind.
[Illustration: The lust of the army spared neither maiden nor the
virgin dedicated to God Painting by E. Luminais.]
[Illustration]
The lust of the army spared neither maiden nor the virgin dedicated to
God. Violence and debauchery were everywhere present; cries and
lamentations and the groans of the victims were heard throughout the
city; for everywhere pillage was unrestrained and lust unbridled. The
city was in wild confusion. Nobles, old men, women, and children ran
to and fro trying to save their wealth, their honor, and their lives.
Knights, foot soldiers, and Venetian sailors jostled each other in a
mad scramble for plunder. Threats of ill-treatment, promises of safety
if wealth were disgorged, mingled with the cries of many sufferers.
These "pious brigands," as Gunther aptly calls them, acted as if they
had received a license to commit every crime. Sword in hand, houses
and churches were pillaged. Every insult was offered to the religion
of the conquered citizens. Churches and monasteries were the richest
storehouses, and were therefore the first buildings to be rifled.
Monks and priests were selected for insult. The priests' robes were
placed by the crusaders on their horses. The icons were ruthlessly
torn down from the screens or were broken. The sacred buildings were
ransacked for relics or their beautiful caskets. The chalices were
stripped of their precious stones and converted into drinking-cups.
The sacred plate was heaped with ordinary plunder. The altar cloths
and the screens of cloth of gold, richly embroidered and bejewelled,
were torn down, and either divided among the troops or destroyed for
the sake of the gold and silver which were woven into them. The altars
of Hagia Sophia,[48] which had been the admiration of all men, were
broken for the sake of the material of which they were made. Horses
and mules were taken into the church in order to carry off the loads
of sacred vessels and the gold and silver plates of the throne, the
pulpits, and the doors, and the beautiful ornaments of the church. The
soldiers made the chief church of Christendom the scene of their
profanity. A prostitute was seated in the patriarchal chair, who
danced, and sang a ribald song for the amusement of the soldiers.
Nicetas, in speaking of the desecration of the Great Church, writes
with the utmost indignation of the barbarians who were incapable of
appreciating and therefore respecting its beauty. To him it was an
"earthly heaven, a throne of divine magnificence, an image of the
firmament created by the Almighty." The plunder of the same church in
1453 by Mahomet II compares favorably with that made by the crusaders
of 1204.
The sack of the city went on during the three days after the capture.
An order was issued, probably on the third day, by the leaders of the
army, for the protection of women. Three bishops had pronounced
excommunication against all who should pillage church or convent. It
was many days, however, before the army could be reduced to its
ordinary condition of discipline. A proclamation was made throughout
the army that all the booty should be collected, in order to be
divided fairly among the captors. Three churches were selected as
depots, and trusty guards of crusaders and Venetians were stationed to
watch what was thus brought in. Much, however, was kept back, and much
stolen. Stern measures had to be resorted to before order was
restored. Many crusaders were hanged. The Count of St. Paul hanged one
of his own knights with his shield round his neck because he had not
given up the booty he had captured. A contemporary writer, the
continuator of the history of William of Tyre, forcibly contrasts the
conduct of the crusaders before and after the capture. When the Latins
would take Constantinople they held the shield of God before them. It
was only when they had entered that they threw it away, and covered
themselves with the shield of the devil.
The Italians resident in Constantinople, who had returned to the city
with their countrymen, were conspicuous in their hostility to the
Greeks. Amid this resentment there were examples, however, that former
friendships were not forgotten. The escape of Nicetas himself is an
illustration in point. He had held the position of grand
logothete,[49] but he had been deposed by Mourtzouphlos. When the
Latins entered the city he had retired to a small house near Hagia
Sophia, which was so situated as to be likely to escape observation.
His large house, and probably his official residence, which he is
careful to tell us was adorned with an abundant store of ornaments,
had been burned down in the second fire. Many of his friends found
refuge with him, apparently regarding his dwelling as specially
adapted for concealment. Nothing, however, could escape the
observation of the horde which was now ransacking every corner. When
the Italians had been banished from the city Nicetas had sheltered a
Venetian merchant, with his wife and family. This man now clothed
himself like a soldier and, pretending that he was one of the
invaders, prevented his countrymen or any other Latins from entering
the house. For some time he was successful, but at length a crowd,
principally of French soldiers, pushed past and flocked within. From
that time protection became impossible.
The Venetian advised Nicetas to leave, in order to prevent himself
from being imprisoned and to save the honor of his daughters. Nicetas
and his friends accepted the advice. Having clothed themselves in
skins or the poorest garments, they were conducted through the city by
their faithful friend as if they were his prisoners. The girls and
young ladies of the party were placed in their midst, their faces
having been intentionally smeared in order to give them the appearance
of being of the poorest class. As they reached the Golden Gate the
daughter of a magistrate, who was one of the party, was suddenly
seized and carried off by a crusader. Her father, who was weak and
old, and wearied with the long walk, fell, and was unable to do
anything but cry for assistance. Nicetas followed and called the
attention of certain soldiers who were passing, and after a long and
piteous appeal, after reminding them of the proclamation which had
been made against the violation of women, he ultimately succeeded in
saving the maiden. The entreaties would have been in vain if the
leader of the party had not at length threatened to hang the offender.
A few minutes later the fugitives had passed out of the city, and fell
on their knees to thank God for his protection in having permitted
them to escape with their lives. Then they set out on their weary way
to Silivria. The road was covered with fellow-sufferers. Before them
was the Patriarch himself, "without bag or money, or stick or shoes,
with but one coat," says Nicetas, "like a true apostle, or rather like
a true follower of Jesus Christ, in that he was seated on an ass, with
the difference that instead of entering the new Zion in triumph he was
leaving it."
A large part of the booty had been collected in the three churches
designated for that purpose. The marshal himself tells us that much
was stolen which never came into the general mass. The stores which
had been collected were, however, divided in accordance with the
compact which had been made before the capture. The Venetians and the
crusaders each took half. Out of the moiety belonging to the army
there were paid the fifty thousand silver marks due to the Venetians.
Two foot sergeants received as much as one horse sergeant, and two of
the latter sergeants received as much as a knight. Exclusive of what
was stolen and of what was paid to the Venetians, there were
distributed among the army four hundred thousand marks, or eight
hundred thousand pounds, and ten thousand suits of armor.
The total amount distributed among the crusaders and Venetians shows
that the wealth of Constantinople had not been exaggerated. Eight
hundred thousand pounds were given to the crusaders, a like sum to the
Venetians, with the one hundred thousand pounds due to them. These
sums had been collected in hard cash from a city where the inhabitants
were hostile, and where they had in their wells and cisterns an easy
means of hiding their treasures of gold, silver, and precious
stones--a means traditionally well known in the East. Abundance of
booty was taken possession of by the troops which never went into the
general mass. Sismondi estimates that the wealth in specie and movable
property before the capture was not less than twenty-four million
pounds sterling.
The distribution was made during the latter end of April. Many works
of art in bronze were sent to the melting-pot to be coined. Many
statues were broken up in order to obtain the metals with which they
were adorned. The conquerors knew nothing and cared nothing for the
art which had added value to the metal. The weight of the bronze was
to them the only question of interest. The works of art which they
destroyed were sacrificed not to any sentiment like that of the Moslem
against images which they believed to be idols or talismans. No such
excuse can be made for the Christians of the West Their motive for
destroying so much that was valuable was neither fanaticism nor
religion. It was the simple greed for gain. No sentiment restrained
their cupidity. The great statue of the Virgin which ornamented the
Taurus was sent as unhesitatingly to the furnace as the figure of
Hercules. No object was sufficiently sacred, none sufficiently
beautiful, to be worth saving if it could be converted into cash. Amid
so much that was destroyed it is impossible that there were not a
considerable number of works of art of the best periods. The one list
which has been left us by the Greek logothete professes to give
account of only the larger statues which were sent to the melting-pot.
But it is worth while to note what were these principal objects so
destroyed.
Constantinople had long been the great storehouse of works of art and
of Christian relics, the latter of which were usually encased with all
the skill that wealth could buy or art furnish. It had the great
advantage over the elder Rome that it had never been plundered by
hordes of barbarians. Its streets and public places had been adorned
for centuries with statues in bronze or marble. In reading the works
of the historians of the Lower Empire the reader cannot fail to be
struck alike with the abundance of works of art and with the
appreciation in which they were held by the writers.
First among the buildings as among the works of art, in the estimation
of every citizen, was Hagia Sophia. It was emphatically the Great
Church. Tried by any test, it is one of the most beautiful of human
creations. Nothing in Western Europe even now gives a spectator who is
able with an educated eye to restore it to something like its former
condition, so deep an impression of unity, harmony, richness, and
beauty in decoration as does the interior of the masterpiece of
Justinian. All that wealth could supply and art produce had been
lavished upon its interior--at that time, and for long afterward, the
only portion of a church which the Christian architect thought
deserving of study. "Internally, at least," says a great authority on
architecture, "the verdict seems inevitable that Santa Sophia is the
most perfect and most beautiful church which has yet been erected by
any Christian people. When its furniture was complete the verdict
would have been still more strongly in its favor."
We have seen that to Nicetas, who knew and loved it in its best days,
it was a model of celestial beauty, a glimpse of heaven itself. To the
more sober English observer, "its mosaic of marble slabs of various
patterns and beautiful colors, the domes, roofs, and curved surfaces,
with gold-grounded mosaic relieved by figures or architectural
devices," are "wonderfully grand and pleasing." All that St. Mark's is
to Venice, Hagia Sophia was to Constantinople. But St. Mark's, though
enriched with some of the spoils of its great original, is, as to its
interior at least, a feeble copy. Hagia Sophia justified its founder
in declaring, "I have surpassed thee, O Solomon!" and during seven
centuries after Justinian his successors had each attempted to add to
its wealth and its decoration. Yet this, incomparably the most
beautiful church in Christendom, at the opening of the thirteenth
century was stripped and plundered of every ornament which could be
carried away. It appeared to the indignant Greeks that the very stones
would be torn from the walls by these intruders, to whom nothing was
sacred.
Around the Great Church were other objects which could be readily
converted into bronze, and the destruction of which was irreparable.
The immense hippodrome was crowded with statues. Egypt had furnished
an obelisk for the centre, Delphi had given its commemoratory bronze
of the victory of Platæa. Later works of pagan sculptors were there in
abundance, while Christian artists had continued the traditions of
their ancestors. The cultured inhabitants of Constantinople
appreciated these works of art and took care of them. In giving a list
of the more important of the objects which went to the melting-pot,
Nicetas again and again urges that these works were destroyed by
barbarians who were ignorant of their value. Incapable of appreciating
either their historical interest or the value with which the labor of
the artist had endowed them, the crusaders knew only the value of the
metals of which they were composed.
The emperors had been buried within the precincts of the Church of the
Holy Apostles, the site of which was afterward chosen by Mahomet II
for the erection of the mosque now called by his name. Their tombs,
beginning with that of Justinian, were ransacked in the search for
treasure. It was not until the palaces of the nobles, the churches,
and the tombs had been plundered that the pious brigands turned their
attention to the statues, A colossal figure of Juno, which had been
brought from Samos, and which stood in the forum of Constantine, was
sent to the melting-pot. We may judge of its size from the fact that
four oxen were required to transport its head to the palace. The
statue of Paris presenting to Venus the apple of discord followed. The
Anemodulion, or "Servant of the Winds," was a lofty obelisk, whose
sides were covered with bas-reliefs of great beauty, representing
scenes of rural life, and allegories depicting the seasons, while the
obelisk was surmounted by a female figure which turned with the wind,
and so gave to the whole its name. The bas-reliefs were stripped off
and sent to the palace to be melted.
A beautiful equestrian statue of great size, representing either
Bellerophon and Pegasus or, as the populace believe, Joshua on
horseback commanding the sun to stand still, was likewise sent to the
furnace. The horse appeared to be neighing at the sound of the
trumpet, while every muscle was strained with the ardor of battle. The
colossal Hercules of Lysippus, which, having adorned Tarentum, had
thence been transported to the Elder and subsequently to the
hippodrome of the New Rome, met with a like fate. The artist had
expressed, in a manner which had won the admiration of beholders, the
deep wrath of the hero at the unworthy tasks set before him. He was
represented as seated, but without quiver or bow or club. His lion's
skin was thrown loosely about his shoulders, his right foot and right
hand stretched out to the utmost, while he rested his head on his left
hand with his elbow on his bent knee. The whole figure was full of
dignity; the chest deep, the shoulders broad, the hair curly, the arms
and limbs full of muscle.
The figure of an ass and its driver, which Augustus had had cast in
bronze to commemorate the news brought to him of the victory of
Actium, met with the same fate.
For the sake of melting them down into money the barbarians seized
also the ancient statue of the wolf suckling Romulus and Remus; the
statues of a sphinx, a hippopotamus, a crocodile, an elephant, and
others, which had represented a triumph over Egypt; the monster of
Scylla and others; most of which were probably executed before the
time of Christ.
The celebrated statue of Helen was destroyed by men who knew nothing
of its original. There must be added to these the graceful figure of a
woman who held in her right hand the figure of an armed man on
horseback. Then near the eastern goals, known as the "reds," stood the
statues of the winners in the chariot races. They stood erect in their
bronze chariots, as the originals also had been seen when they gained
their victories, as if they were still directing their steeds to the
goals. A figure of the Nile bull in deadly conflict with a crocodile
stood near. These and other statues were hastily sent to the furnace
to be converted into money. We may judge of the value and artistic
merit of the bronze statues which were destroyed, by the specimens
which remain. The four horses which the emperor Theodosius had brought
from Chios and placed in the hippodrome escaped, by some lucky chance,
the general plunder, and were taken to Venice, where they still adorn
the front of St. Mark's.
The pillage of the relics of Constantinople lasted for forty years.
More than half of the total amount of objects carried off were,
however, taken away between the years 1204 and 1208. During the few
days which followed the capture of the city the bishops and priests
who were with the crusaders were active in laying hands on this
species of sacred spoil; and the statement of a contemporary writer is
not improbable, that the priests of the orthodox Church preferred to
surrender such spoil to those of their own cloth rather than to the
rough soldier or the rougher Venetian sailor. On the other hand, the
highest priestly dignitaries in the army--men, even, who refused to
take of the earthly spoil--were eager to obtain possession of this
sacred booty, and unscrupulous as to the means by which they obtained
it. The holy Cross was carefully divided by the bishops for
distribution among the barons.
Gunther gives us a specimen of the means to which Abbot Martin, who
had had the German crusaders placed under his charge, had recourse.
The abbot had learned that many relics had been hidden by the Greeks
in a particular church. This building was attacked in the general
pillage. He, as a priest, searched carefully for the relics, while the
soldiers were looking for more commonplace booty. The abbot found an
old priest, with the long hair and beard common then, as now, to
orthodox ecclesiastics, and roughly addressed him, "Show me your
relics, or you are a dead man."
The old priest, seeing that he was addressed by one of his own
profession, and frightened probably by the threat, thought, says
Gunther, that it was better to give up the relics to him than to the
profane and blood-stained hands of the soldiers. He opened an iron
safe, and the abbot, in his delight at the sight, buried his hands in
the precious store. He and his chaplain filled their surplices, and
ran with all haste to the harbor to conceal their prize. That they
were successful in keeping it during the stormy days which followed
could only be attributed to the virtue of the relics themselves.
The way in which Dalmatius de Sergy obtained the head of St. Clement
is an illustration of the crusader's belief that the acquisition of a
relic and its transport to the West would be allowed as a compensation
for the fulfilment of the crusader's vow. That knight was grievously
afflicted that he could not go to the Holy Land, and earnestly prayed
God to show him how he could execute some other task equivalent to
that which he had sworn, but failed, to accomplish. His first thought
was to take relics to his own country. He consulted the two cardinals
who were then in Constantinople, who approved his idea, but charged
him not to buy these relics, because their purchase and sale were
forbidden. He accordingly determined to steal them, if such a word may
be applied to an act which was clearly regarded as praiseworthy. The
knight, in order to discover something of especial value, remained in
Constantinople until Palm Sunday in the following year. A French
priest pointed out to him a church in which the head of St. Clement
was preserved. He went there in the company of a Cistercian monk and
asked to see the relics. While one kept the persons in charge speaking
with him, the other stole a portion of the relic.