CONSTANTINOPLE
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CONSTANTINOPLE
itiiagp was considered as the palladium of the city.
The circumference of the walls was then (and still is)
cloven or twelve miles. They were often rebuilt,
especially under Tiberius III (e. 700), Anastasius II
(714), Leo III (740), Nicephorus I (803), Theophilus
(S:U), Michael VIII (1262), Andronicus II (1316),
John VII (between 1431-1444). To protect the
territory of Thrace from the invasions of the barba-
rians, Anastasius I, in the early part of the sixth
century, built a great wall about fifty miles in length
and about twenty feet in breadth from Silistria to the
Lake of Derkoi. The ramparts of Constantinople bad
many gates: the principal one was the Golden Gate,
the terminus of the Triumphal Way. On the Sea of
Marmora numerous havens gave shelter to boats and
barques; the present unique port of the Golden Horn
had not yet been created. The strongly fortified
Great Palace was a real town. Other splendid pal-
aces adorned the city (Boucoleon, Chalks, Blachernae) ;
many graced the European and Asiatic suburbs.
Hundreds of churches and monasteries, thousands of
clerics, of monks, and nuns, attested an intensely
religious life. The church of St. Sophia alone, the
glory of Justinian's reign, owned 36.5 estates. How
vast these domains were may be judged from a law
of Hcraclius (627) that established 625 clerics as the
number necessary for the service of St. Sophia. The
little church of Blachern.'p had 75 endowed clerics.
The names of at least 463 churches are known, 64 of
which were dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. As early
as 536, 68 superiors of local monasteries were present
at a council in the city.
So many rich churches and monasteries, imperial or private palaces, not to speak of the luxury of the court and the great imperial dignitaries, natu- rally excited the covetousness of barbarian peoples. Constantinople had, therefore, to sustain numberless sieges; it was attacked in 378 by the Goths, by the Avars and Persians during the reign of Heraclius (610^1), by the Arabs during the reign of Constan- tine Pogonatus (668-85), and again by the Arabs under Moslemeh in 717; many times also by Bulgarians, Patzinaks, Russians, and Khazars. But the city al- ways defied its besiegers, thanks to the solidity of its walls, often to the valour of its soldiers, but chiefly to the gold that it distributed in profusion. More griev- ous, perhaps, were the domestic conflicts that broke out in almost every new reign ; the quarrels between the Blue and Green factions that clamoured for im- perial favour in the races of the hippodrome; the con- flagrations and earthquakes that sometimes levelled the city with the grovmd, e. g. the conflagration that broke out during the Nika revolt (532), on which oc- casion Justinian nearly lost his throne, more than 80,000 persons were killed, and fire destroyed the greater part of the city.
Heresy .\nd Schism. — When Photius (d. 891) be- gan the schism consummated by Michael C'aerularius in 1054, the Byzantine Church had, since the death of Emperor Constantine in 337, been formally out of communion with the Roman Church during 248 years (55 years on account of .\rianism, 11 on account of the condemnation of St. John Chrj'sostom, 35 on accoimt of Zeno's Henoticon, 41 on account of Monothelism, 90 on account of Iconoclasm, 16 on account of the adulterous marriage of Constantine VI). On the whole, therefore. Constant ino])le had been out of com- munion with the Apostolic See one out of every two I years. During this period nineteen patriarchs of Constantinople were open lieretics, sonie of them quite famous, e. g. Eu.sebius of Niconiedia, Kudoxius, Macc- donius, Nestorius, .Acacius, .Sergius, I'yrrhus. On the other hand mu.st be mentioned several orthodox bishops, e. g. St. Gregory' of Nazianziis, St. John Chrj'i!ostom, St. Flavian, St. Germanus, St. Tarasius. St. Methodius, and St. Ignatius, the opponent of Photius, whose virtues and literary fame compensate
for the scandalous heterodoxy of their confreres. Nor
can we omit illustrious monks and hymnographers like
St. Romanus (Melodus), the greatest liturgical poet
of the Byzantine Church, St. Maximus Confessor, St
Theodore, the noble abbot of the famous monastery
of Studium iStoudion), and many others who .suffered
martyrdom during the reigns of Iconoclast emperors.
Many councils were held in Constantinople, some- times against heresies, sometimes in favour of them. Chief among these councils are: the oecumenical councils of 381, -553, 681, and 869; the Trullan Coun- cil (692), very important for the history of canonical legislation; the councils of 712 and 878 which ratified, respectively, Monothelism and the revolt of Photius against Rome. The schism of Photius was not at once followed by its woi-st consequences. The learned but ambitious patriarch was yet living when union with the Roman Church was re-established by Em- peror Leo the Wise in 886; he obliged Photius to quit the patriarchal throne. From that time to the patri- archate of Michael Caerularius (1043-1049), in spite of the Filioque question, relations with the papacy were generally cordial. There were indeed, at the beginning of the tenth centurj', some diflnculties caused by the emperor's fourth marriage, but in this conflict both the opposing patriarchs attempted to obtahi from the Roman Church justification of their conduct. It v.'as only under Michael Cicrulariiis that the schismatic condition was finally confirmed, almost without any apparent motive and only through the bad will of this patriarch. After long and sharp dis- putes between the two Churches, the pope's legates, with the approbation of the imperial court, deposited, 15 July, 1054, on the altar of St. Sophia the Bull of excommvmication against the patriarch. This act resulted in a popvdar revolution. Five days later Michael Cserularius replied by excommunicating the pope and the "azyraite" Latins. The weak-minded and lewd emperor, Constantine Monomachus, dared not resist the all-powerful patriarch. It must be noted, however, that, unhappily, the idea of schism had long been familiar to the minds and hearts of the Greeks. The first period of the schism was coeval, especially at Constantinople, with a remarkable liter- ary revival, inaugurated as early as the tenth century by the Macedonian dynasty and carried to its perfec- tion under the Comneni and the Paljeologi. This revival, imfortunately, did not affect favourably the morality of the population, being chiefly an uncon- scious return to models of antiquity, indeed a kind of neo-paganism. We owe to it, however, beautiful works in literature, architecture, and painting.
Imperial Succession; Crusades; L.\tin Eaipirb OP Constantinople. — After the division of the Roman Empire in 395, Constantinople beheld the passage of many great dynasties: that of Theodosius, prolonged by adoption until 602; that of Heraclius, from 610 to 711, with intrusion of several usurpers; that of Leo the Isaurian, from 717 to 802; the Amo- riuni dynasty from 820 to 867 ; that of Basil the Mace- donian from 867 to 1057; finally from 1081 to the Franki.sh conquest in 1204, that of the Comneni and the Angeli. Succession, of course, was not always regular; even in the legitimate dynasties murder and cruelty, it is well known, often marked the accession of an emperor. Sometimes the streets of the capital were on the same day decked with flowers and drenched with blood. Nevertheless, till the middle of the eleventh centurj^, the empire held its own in Asia Minor against the .\rabs. The latter were now gr.adually supplanted by their coreligioni.sts, the Turks, who, towards th(! end of that centur)', occu- pied most of the Asiatic |)eninsula and set up their ca|>ilal at NiciPa, not far from Constantinojile. Then began the Crusades, that great overflow of the West towards the East, started by the pious wish of all Christian Europe to deliver the Holy Sepulchre. Con-
