340 Readings in European History full remission of the sins of which they have truly repented with contrite hearts and which they have confessed with their mouths; and at the retribution of the just we promise an increase of eternal salvation. To those also who do not go thither in person but yet, according to their ability and means, send suitable men at their expense, and to those like- wise who go in person, although at the expense of others, we promise full remission of their sins. We also will and grant that, according to the kind of their aid and the depth of their devotion, all shall partake of this remission who minister fitly from their property to the aid of that land, or furnish opportune counsel and assistance. Also on all who piously proceed in this task, this general council bestows in common the aid of all its benefits, that it may worthily con- duce to their salvation. Amen. VII. A GLIMPSE OF THE COURT OF THE EASTERN EMPEROR When the crusaders reached Constantinople they saw about them evidences of an elaborate civilization, of which they could have had little conception in their dreary and uncomfortable castles. It is, no doubt, in the general broadening effects of travel that the chief influence of the crusades on the western peoples is to be found. A hundred and fifty years before the First Crusade, when western Europe was still in the midst of the gloomiest period of the early Middle Ages, Liutprand, the historian of Otto the Great, visited Constantinople. He gives the following account of his reception as ambassador of Berengar, king of Italy. 1 Adjoining the imperial palace in Constantinople there is a hall of extraordinary size and beauty. . . . The Emperor Constantine [VII] had this hall arranged in the following manner for the reception of the recently arrived Spanish 1 See above, pp. 255 sq.
