THE CONDITION OF CONSTANTINO I'LE IN 1200. 203 ances into the national life. Nominally we have and have bad in England the theory of a head of the State in things spiritnal as well as in things temporal. Actually the sover- eign has never been generally regarded as possessing such predominance as is accorded to the czar or was accorded to the emperors in Constantinople. As I have already pointed out, the emperor, when he ceased to be officially recognized as divine, had acquired a position over the Christian Church which gave him very nearly divine attributes. If it be said that such a regard was incompatible with his being in theory an elected sovereign, I may point to the fact that the pope's position certainly loses nothing by the fact that he too is elected. The ruler of the East was emperor and pope in one. That the head of the State was at once the head of the Church explains also what in the West would be regarded as the strange mixture of things temporal and spiritual in Con- stantinople. The churches were the great treasure - liouses and the great depositories of merchandise. The markets were usually about their doors. Ilagia Sophia, in the capital, was not merely the greatest church in Christendom, but was the centre of the life of the city. I do not forget how great a part our own parish churches and cathedrals played during the Middle Ages in the social and municipal life of the people. But in the New Home Hagia Sophia was at once the minster and the town-hall — the patriarchal church and the chamber for the election of the emperor, the meeting-place for coun- cils of the Church and for the inhabitants who wished to de- pose an unpopular emperor. Amid the marvels of its luxury, its spacious narthex and yet outer courts and outbuildings were applied to the purposes of commerce and the ordinary requirements of a great city. The priests, who, it must be remembered, are always married, and the churches were both largely employed in the secular life of the city. Contracts were registered by the priests. The sanctions of the Church were employed to enforce fair dealing, and an amount of honesty was thus secured in trade which, for the period, was remarkable. For those who sought a more severe religious practice the
