The Church of Sancta Sophia, Constantinople: A Study of Byzantine Building

LATER HISTORY AND LEGENDS

§ 1. HISTORY.

From the date of the completion of Justinian’s restored church it has had to withstand the frequent earthquake shocks which, as we have so recently seen, devastate the city from time to time. Von Hammer[201] calculates, from the accounts of the Byzantine historians, that from the beginning of the seventh to the middle of the fifteenth century there were twenty-three severe earthquakes, one of which, in 1033, lasted intermittently for 140 days. In the Turkish records, from 1511 to 1765, ten earthquakes are mentioned. It is remarkable that in this length of time the delicately poised construction of the church should only have required restorations which are relatively unimportant.

It is difficult to say how far the church suffered during the struggles about image worship, which raged for more than a century. The question will be considered more fully when we deal with the mosaics of the vaults. The restoration of images was finally accomplished in 842,[202] by Theodora and Michael.

A belfry was built in the centre of the west front about the year 865:[203] and the eastern walk of the atrium was probably transformed into an exonarthex at the same time. The first regular restoration was also undertaken in the second half of the ninth century, under Basil the Macedonian: “For the wide and lofty western arch of the great church called S. Sophia was showing rents and threatening to fall. With the help of the workmen he girded it round and rebuilt it, so that it was safe and strong. And on it he figured the Virgin with her Child on her arms, and Peter and Paul, the chief of the apostles, on either side.”[204]

The north and south porches and great lateral stairways, which injuriously altered the exterior, must also have been built by Michael or Basil, as we find them mentioned in the Book of Ceremonies.

In October 975 an earthquake caused the “hemisphere with the western arch (apsis) to fall.”[205] They were restored again by the same emperor in six years: he spent, Scylitzes says, “on the machines for mounting for the workmen to stand on, and for raising the scaffolding, to build what was fallen; ten centenaria of gold.”[206] According to Glycas, Romanus Argyrus (1028) beautified the capitals; Scylitzes also says this emperor “made bright with silver and gold both the capitals of the great church and of our Lady of Blachernae.”[207]

The injuries wrought by the Crusaders to S. Sophia are referred to in Chapter V. Baldwin was crowned here in 1204, and for fifty-seven years Catholic priests read masses at its altar. On the recapture the Byzantine emperors made an effort to restore, but the church never recovered its former splendour. The patriarch Arsenius during the reign of Michael Palaeologus “restored the bema and ambo and solea at the king’s expense, besides enriching the church with vestments and sacred vessels.”[208] In the first half of the fourteenth century, Andronicus Palaeologus, the elder, strengthened the north and east sides. Nicephorus Gregoras says the emperor “heard from several experienced builders that in a short time the parts towards the north and east would give way, and fall unless strengthened. And he built pyramidal structures from the foundations and prevented the threatened destruction,” but bricks and mosaic continued to fall.[209] The pyramidal structures to the east must be the four great sloping buttresses which stand over the low attached buildings on that side; they are shown on Fossati’s plan. Gregoras also inveighs against the Empress Anna as having, in the reign of Cantacuzenus, robbed the church of furniture and ornaments, and says that tyranny and oppression were the chief causes of the destruction of the church. Cantacuzenus, in his own history,[210] speaks of the damage caused by an earthquake in 1346, when about a third of the roof fell, destroying “the great stoa by the side of the bema” (perhaps the iconostasis). This is also referred to by Gregoras, “the easternmost of the four arches which rival heaven fell, dragging with it the part of the house which rested on it. The hidden beauty of the bema was destroyed as well as its ornaments of sacred icons.”[211] The stoa and bema were restored by the Empress Anna, the wife of Andronicus Palaeologus, Phaceolatus being prefect of the works, but the upper parts with the roof had to wait until the accession of Cantacuzenus in 1347. He restored the decoration both in marble and mosaic, a work which John Palaeologus finished. Both emperors were helped “by one Astras, in many things a clever man, but especially in building, and by John, surnamed Peralta, one of the Latin subjects of the emperor.”[212]

The church was necessarily much neglected in the last days of the Empire. Clavijo, who gave a careful account of the church in 1403 (see Chapter IX.), says “the outer gates by which the church was approached were broken and fallen.” He notes that “the Greeks do not call Constantinople as we name it, but speak of it as Escomboli.” This clearly proves that the derivation of the Turkish name Istambul from εἰς τὴν πόλιν, “to the city,” is correct.[213]

The Florentine Bondelmontius, who was there in 1422, says that “only the dome of the church remained, as everything is fallen down and in ruins.” This exaggeration is probably explained by a story given by the Chevalier Bertrandon de la Brocquière, who visited the city eleven years later, in the course of his remarkable ride from Damascus to Dijon along the route of the present Oriental express. He attended service in the church, and writes:—“There the patriarch resides, with others of the rank of canons. It is situated near the eastern point, is of a circular shape, and formed of three different parts, one subterranean, another above the ground, and a third over that. Formerly it was surrounded by cloisters, and was, it was said, three miles in circumference.[214] It is now of smaller extent, and only three cloisters remain, all paved and inlaid with squares of white marble, and ornamented with large columns of various colours. The gates are remarkable for their breadth and height, and are of bronze.”[215] The visit of the Chevalier Bertrandon brings us within twenty years of the fall of the great city.

The incidents of the later years of the empire, the vain efforts to get help from Europe, and the schemes for uniting the Greek and Latin churches, are described by Chedomil Mijatovich.[216] In the year before the Fall the negotiations with the West had proceeded so far, that, on the 12th of December 1452, a Te Deum after the Latin rite was sung by Cardinal Isidore in S. Sophia, but this did not meet with favour from the populace. Ducas speaks of the church after that time as being nothing better than a Jewish synagogue or heathen temple. Five months later, on the 28th of May 1453, the last Christian service was held within its walls. At the vesper service on that solemn evening, the emperor, after praying with great fervour, left his imperial chair, and, approaching the iconostasis, prostrated himself before the figures of Christ and the Madonna on either side of the great central door. He then asked for pardon from any whom he might have offended, and the ritual proceeded.

On the morrow at the first capture of the city the Janissaries rushed to the great church, which they conceived was filled with gold, silver, and precious stones. They found the doors fastened, but broke them open, and at once began to pillage. The sultan as soon as possible rode to S. Sophia. Dismounting on the threshold, with the mystic symbolism of an Oriental, he stooped down, and, collecting some earth, let it fall on his turbaned head, as an act of humiliation. Then he entered the edifice, but stopped in the doorway some moments, and gazed in silence before him.

“He saw a Turk breaking the floor with an axe. ‘Wherefore dost thou that?’ inquired the conqueror. ‘For the faith,’ replied the soldier. Mahomet in an impulse of anger struck him, saying, ‘Ye have got enough by pillaging, and enslaving the city, the buildings are mine.’”

A letter to Pope Nicholas V., written in 1453, describes how “the profane heathen broke into the marvellous temple of S. Sophia, unsurpassed by Solomon’s; they reverenced not the sacred images, nay, rather broke them in pieces; they put out the eyes of the priests, scattered the relics of the saints, and seized on the gold and silver.”[217]

Ducas, who died eleven years after the Fall, bewails “the Great Church, a new Sion which has now become an altar of the heathen, and is called the house of Mahomet.” “The dogs hewed down the holy ikons, tore off the ornaments, the chains, the napkins, and the coverings of the holy table. Some of the lamps they destroyed, and others they carried away. They stole the sacred vessels from the skeuophylakium. Everything made of silver and gold or other precious materials was taken away, and the church was left naked and desolate as it had never been before.”

With the exception of the removal of much of the treasure, the church did not immediately suffer great harm from its new masters.

On the outside however the destruction of many of the low attached chambers, and the addition of the minarets, have very much changed its appearance. The first minaret, which was indeed the first in Constantinople, was built at the south-east corner by Mahomet the Conqueror. Selim II., who reigned from 1566 to 1574, built the second at the north-east corner, and also restored the eastern apse which had been again damaged by an earthquake: Amurath III. erected the last two minarets at the western corners.[218]

“The description of the church of S. Sophia as it now appears,” which forms one of the chapters in Gyllius’ († 1555) Topography of Constantinople, describes the church before the addition of these three last minarets. It is interesting to note that he remarks how little the building had been altered, “and it is despoiled of nothing, except a little of the metal work [mosaic?] which shows itself in great abundance through the whole church. The Sanctum Sanctorum, formerly holy and unpolluted, into which the priests only were suffered to enter, is still standing, though there is nothing remaining of the jewels and precious stones which adorned it, these having been plundered by its sacrilegious enemies.” This is later supported by Grelot,[219] who writes, “It is decorated with everything that human industry and skill could devise to render the work absolutely perfect.... I say nothing about the beautiful pictures, the faces of which have been destroyed by the Turks.” It is clear from Tournefort (1702) and Lady Mary Montagu (1717) that the mosaics were not wholly obliterated; the latter writes, “the figures were in no other way defaced but by the decays of time: for it is absolutely false that the Turks defaced all the images they found in the city.” On the other hand, an Italian MS. description of S. Sophia in the British Museum, written in 1611, says, “The Turks took away all the beautiful work and covered everything with whitewash.”[220] It is evident from Dr. Covel’s MS., quoted later, that much was destroyed, defaced, and plastered over. Dr. Walsh tells us that one of the smaller vaults fell in about 1820, scattering its mosaic over the floor.

§ 2. THE ANONYMOUS ACCOUNT.

We must now examine the description of the church by the writer generally called the Anonymous of Combefis (otherwise of Banduri or Lambecius). Codinus, who is believed to have died soon after the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, has so closely copied the Anonymous that the accounts differ only in a few minor particulars. Combefis says that the text of the Anonymous was collated by Lambecius, “who produced it from the royal archives” with the Chronography of the Logothetae, a tenth-century work to which the same account is added as a separate treatise. Labarte however considers that it was written in the eleventh century: Choisy assigns it to the fourteenth, a view with which we are inclined to agree; but in any case we cannot think it earlier than the twelfth century.

The description by Paulus is so precisely accurate where we can—as is so largely the case—check it by the existing work, that there cannot be a doubt of his entire accuracy. With the Anonymous this is not so; and it must first of all be borne in mind that he professes not to write of the church as he saw it, but to celebrate its splendour when first completed by Justinian; in this his account differs entirely from the Silentiary’s, which there is no sign to show that he had ever read. The Anonymous has been very largely used by scholars of the ability of Labarte and Bayet, but we believe him to be entirely unreliable where he speaks of the former state of the church. He simply gathers the legends which had grown up, because facts were forgotten, and enumerates the relics.

“The great church,[221] known as S. Sophia [formerly a place of heathen worship—Codinus], was first built of an oblong (dromica) form, like those of S. Andronicus and S. Acacius. On its completion it was adorned with many statues. This building lasted seventy-four years. But in the reign of Theodosius the Great, at the time of the second synod of Constantinople, an Arian uproar arose, during which the roof of the church was destroyed by fire. The most holy patriarch Nectarius took up his office at S. Irene, a church which was also built by Constantine. Then for two [Codinus and Glycas say sixteen] years S. Sophia was without a roof, until Theodosius, with Rufinus as his master workman (magistros), covered it with cylindrical vaults. After this it remained unhurt for thirty-nine years, making altogether eighty-five years (sic) from the time of Constantine, until the fifth year of Justinian’s reign. This was after the massacre in the Circus, in which thirty-five thousand men were killed, when a faction elected Hypatius emperor. However, in the fifth year of Justinian’s reign, the Most High God put it into his mind that he should build a temple to surpass all that had ever been built from the time of Adam.

“He wrote therefore to the strategi, toparchs, judges, and satraps of the different provinces, that with all zeal they should look for materials—columns, piers, panels, and lattice-doors—everything in fact that would be useful for building. Obeying the emperor’s letter, they quickly sent all that could be found from the shrines of the pagan idols, from baths, and private houses, from every province of east, west, north, and south, and from all the islands.

“Eight porphyry columns from Rome, which, according to Plutarch, Justinian’s secretary, a widow Marcia had received as dowry, were transmitted to Constantinople. They had formerly stood in a temple of the Sun built by Valerian, who surrendered himself to the Persians. Eight others of green, of marvellous beauty, were quarried and sent from Ephesus by the praetor Constantine. The Marcia, whom I have just mentioned, wrote to the emperor as follows: ‘I send thee, master, eight columns from Rome of equal length and size, and the same weight, for the safety of my soul.’

“Of the other columns some were brought from Cyzicus, some from the Troad, others from the Cyclades and Athens. And when sufficient was collected for the work seven and a half years had been spent. Then in the twelfth year of Justinian’s reign, the church built by Constantine was destroyed with the foundations; the old materials were put aside, as a sufficient amount of fresh had been prepared; and Justinian began to buy up the neighbouring houses. The first of these was one belonging to a widow named Anna, of which the price was estimated at eighty-five librae. She was however unwilling to sell it to the emperor, and refused to give it up under five hundred librae; nor did the emperor gain his purpose by sending the nobles of the court to win her over. He finally went himself and begged her to sell her house at any price. But when she saw him as a suppliant, she fell at his feet, saying, ‘Lord and King, I can accept no moneys for my house from thee; I ask only that I may obtain reward in the day of judgment, and that I may be buried in a tomb near the future church, so that the memory of my gift may live for ever.’ The emperor promised that when the church was finished she should be buried there, for the land which she had given up, that the memory of it might live for ever. The part which she gave to the great church is that now occupied by the skeuophylakium, and the chapel (naos) of S. Peter.

“Then the part which is occupied by the Holy Well, and all about the thysiasterium, and the place of the ambo, and the middle of the nave, was the house of a certain eunuch, Antiochus, which was valued at thirty-eight librae. He was offended because the emperor had not offered him a proper price for it. Now the emperor was much distressed, wondering what to do. But the Magister Strategius—a guardian of the treasures, the adopted brother of the emperor—promised that the emperor should gain his point by a little guile, and that the other should sell his house. Now this Antiochus was an eager frequenter of the Circus, and especially favoured the blue faction. When the games were about to be given, he was arrested and imprisoned in the Praetorian prison. Then Antiochus called out from the prison that if he could only witness the games he would do whatever the emperor wished. He was then led by the emperor’s orders to his empty seat, and made to sell his house before the games commenced, the Quaestor and the whole Senate being witness. Now there used to be the custom, that as soon as the emperor ascended to his seat the charioteers should begin, but because they stopped then, until the eunuch had accomplished his deed of sale, even to the present day the chariots for the races are accustomed to enter at a slow trot.

“The whole of the right-hand part of the Gynaeceum[222] up to the column of S. Basil, and some portion of the nave, was the house of an eunuch, Chariton, nicknamed Chenopolus, who sold it as a favour for double its value, which was twelve librae.

“The left part of the Gynaeceum[222] up to the column of S. Gregory Thaumaturgus was the house of one Xenophon, a cobbler. When they wanted to buy this house, besides asking twice the value, which was fourteen librae, he also demanded that, on the day of the games, the four charioteers of the four factions should do obeisance to him as well as to the emperor. The emperor decreed that it should be done as he had asked, but made him a laughing-stock for ever. For on the day of the games he was set midway in the boundaries, so that the charioteers, by way of joke, bowed to his back before beginning their courses, and so it is still done, and the man is styled ‘Chief of those below.’ He wears a white chlamys, woven with byssus.

“On the area of the naos, the four nartheces, the louter, and the parts adjacent, was the house of Damianus, a noble of Seleucia, the value of which he estimated at ninety librae, and gladly gave to the emperor.

“Now Justinian, when he had measured out the site, and found a stone to act as centre, from the thysiasterium as far as the lower [western] apse, laid the foundations of the great dome in circle-wise. Now from the apses right away to the most outside narthex, the foundations were laid in marshy and spongy ground. And when it had been begun, he urged Eutychius the patriarch to offer up prayers to God for its safe building, and then, taking with his own hands lime and stone, giving thanks to God, he himself laid the first stone in its place. Now before the church was built he constructed the oratory of S. John the Precursor with a gilt vault, and various ornamentations of precious stones. This is generally called the Baptistery, and is situated near the Horologium. He built at the same time the adjacent portion of the Metatorium, that he might frequently rest there with his court, and refresh himself with food. Then also he built the whole of the portico, which leads from the palace up to the Great Church, so that, as often as he liked, he might cross over and devote his time to the building, without being seen by any one. There were one hundred master workmen, and each had a band of a hundred men under him, making ten thousand men altogether. Fifty bands took one side, and fifty the other; and by the emulation between them, the work quickly progressed.

“The form of the church was shown to the emperor in a dream by an angel. And the first Deviser (mechanikos) of the builders was skilful and full of sound wisdom, and well versed in building churches. Barley was put into cooking pots, and its decoction, instead of water, was mingled with unslaked lime (asbestos) and tiles [crushed]. The mixture, when warm, became viscous and sticky. At the same time they cut slips off willow trees, which were cast into the cooking pots with the barley; they then made solid masses, having a length of over fifty feet, and fifty feet broad, and twenty feet deep, and placed them in the foundations. They were put there, not hot, nor yet quite cold, that so they might bind better, and above these masses they placed large square stones.

“When the foundations had arisen from the earth two cubits, they had spent four hundred and fifty-two miliarisia of gold. Money was brought daily from the palace, and placed in the Horologium, and each of those who carried stone received a piece of silver, lest any slackness should come upon them, or they should be tempted to complain. Some of them, when carrying stone, gave way under the weight, and fell head foremost and were hurt. Strategius, whom I have mentioned, distributed the wages: he was a Count of the royal treasury, and foster-brother of Justinian.

“Now when the piers (pinsoi) had been finished, and the great columns, both those from Rome and the green ones, had been put in their position, the emperor left his noonday sleep and devoted himself to the work, and inspected, with Troilus, a count of the household, all the polishers (lithoxooi), stonecutters (laotomoi), carpenters (tektonikoi), and labourers (oikodomoi), promising them each week a nummus more, or as much as each might ask, above their fixed wages. He used to come to see how the work was proceeding, clad in a white linen garment, his head covered with a kerchief, and holding a stick in his hand.

“And when they had raised the vaults (apsides) of the upper floor, those on the right and on the left, and had covered over these vaults, the emperor decreed that no miliarisia should be carried from the palace on Sundays. Now it was the third hour of the day, and Strategius ordered the men to go to their dinners. As Ignatius, the first mechanikos of the builders whom I have mentioned above, came down, he left his son on the right-hand side of the upper floor, where he had been working, with strict orders to watch the workmen’s tools. He was a boy of about fourteen. As he was sitting there, a eunuch, clad in shining garments, and fair to look upon, like one sent from the palace, appeared to him and said, ‘What is the reason why the workmen do not quickly finish the work of God, but have left it and gone to eat?’ To him the boy answered, ‘At the earliest hour, my lord, they will be here.’ But he cried, ‘Go quickly and bring them.’ When the boy said that he was not to leave, lest the tools should disappear, the eunuch said, ‘Go quickly and summon them here, for I swear to thee, my son, by the Holy Wisdom, whose temple is now being built, I will not depart, since, by the command of the Word of God, I am to minister and guard here until you return.’ When he heard this, the boy quickly set out, leaving the angel of God as guard. And when he had got down, and gone to his father and the rest, he related everything in order; then the father took his son and led him to the emperor’s table. For the emperor was then dining in the oratory of St. John the Precursor, by the Horologium. When he heard the story, he summoned all his eunuchs, and showed each in turn to the boy. Then the boy calling out that he saw none like the one that had appeared, the emperor knew that it was an angel of the Lord who had addressed the boy, and this was made more clear, as the boy said that he was clothed in a white robe, his eyes glittering like fire; then the emperor praised God, saying, ‘God has accepted my temple.’ And as he had been wondering what name to call it, he named it S. Sophia, according to interpretation ‘Word of God.’ And the emperor took counsel with himself and said, ‘I will not allow the boy to return, so that the angel may guard it for ever, as he promised by his oath. For if the boy return, the angel will depart.’ Having consulted with the principal senators and the bishops, the emperor commanded that the boy should not be sent back to the temple, so that, by the grace of God, it should have a guardian till the end of the world. And then the emperor loaded the boy with gifts and honours, and, with the consent of his father, sent him to the Cyclades. Now the conversation of the angel with the boy happened on the right-hand side of the pier of the upper arch, as one ascends towards the dome. [Codinus says, “near the Syllagonum,” for this it has been suggested to read Syllagoeum, or “the place of the council”].

“When the workmen had continued the work up to the second catechumena, and the upper columns and arches were built, and they were roofing the adjacent parts, the emperor began to be anxious for want of funds. But as he was standing in the upper part of an arch, as they were about to begin the dome, at the hour of the Sabbath just before dinner, an eunuch appeared to him, clad in white, and said, ‘Why are you distressed for money? To-morrow bid some of your nobles to come, and they shall have as much gold as they wish.’ On the following day the eunuch came and showed himself to the emperor. The emperor sent to follow him Strategius, and Basilides the quaestor, and Theodorus the patrician, and Colocyns who was a praefect, besides fifty servants, twenty mules, and twenty paniers. With all these he marched out of the Golden Gate. And when they had come to the Tribunalium, there seemed to those who were sent to be built there palaces of stupendous beauty. But when they had dismounted, the eunuch bade them ascend a wonderful stair, and then, producing a splendid gold key, he opened the door of a room, and, as Strategius says, the whole floor was heaped with gold coins. Taking a shovel, the eunuch filled each panier with four hundred pounds of gold, amounting altogether to eight thousand, and with these he sent them back to the emperor; and having closed up the room with the key, he said to them, ‘Take the gold to the emperor, and bid him spend it on the work.’ The eunuch left them there, and they came and showed the emperor the gold they had received. He was astonished, and asked them where they had been, and where the eunuch dwelt. They told him all in order, and how the wealth of gold was spread on the floor of the room. The emperor hoped that the eunuch would return, but as he was disappointed he sent a slave to the place. When the slave had found the place where the palace had been, and saw that there were no houses there, he returned, and told all to the emperor. He was then astonished, but understanding how it was, said, ‘Truly this is a miracle as all may see;’ and he praised God.

“Now when they were going to build the thysiasterium and let in the light through glass windows, the Deviser (mechanikos) suggested that the apsoid (muax) should have one light. Then he changed his mind, and suggested that it should have two, so that it should not be heavy, because no wooden ties (ikriomata) were placed there as in the narthex, and on the sides of the church. But the rest of the craftsmen were opposed, saying that one arch (kamara) would light the holy place. Then the chief builder (protooikodomos) was at a loss what to do, because the emperor said at one time that there should be one arch (apsis), and at another time two. Whilst the master (maistor) was thus pondering and anxious, on the fourth day, at the fifth hour, appeared an angel of the Lord, like the emperor, with royal robes and red shoes, and said to the craftsman, ‘I will that there be a triple light, and that the conch be made with three windows,[223] in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.’ He then disappeared quickly. Then the master, struck with wonder, rushed to the palace, and said to the emperor, ‘You keep not to your word. Until to-day you wanted one window, and then two, to light the bema; but now, when the work is all but finished, you come to me and say, three windows shall light the bema, as a symbol of the Trinity.’ Now the emperor knew that day that he had not left the palace, and he recognised that an angel of the Lord had spoken. He said, ‘As I have bidden thee, so do.’

“All the piers (pessoi) inside and outside were made strong by iron bars (mochloi), so that they were bound together, and made immovable; the joints of the piers were made with oil and asbestos; and upon them was placed a plating of many marbles (orthomarmarosis).

“The emperor sent Troilus the Cubicular, Thedosius the Prefect, and Basilides the Quaestor, to Rhodes to have bricks (besala) of Rhodian clay, made all equal in weight and length, with the words engraved on them, ‘God is in the midst of her, therefore shall she not be moved; God shall help her, and that right early.’[224] And they sent bricks of measured sizes to the emperor, twelve of them weigh one of ours; for the clay is light, spongy, fine, and white; hence arose the common idea that the dome is built of pumice stone (kiserion); but this is not so, though it is light and of a white colour.

“Thus the four great arches were built; and when they had been raised to the level of the dome (troulos), on the completion of every twelfth course, prayers were uttered for the church, and relics of the saints built in. Thus arose the building; it was then adorned with marble and covered with mosaic. And into the piers, arcades, and larger columns they placed relics of the saints. And when the marble plating had been finished, they applied gold to the margins of the slabs, and to the capitals of the columns. And the carved work, and the ornaments of the upper galleries, both of the parts with two stories, and with three (diorophoi and triorophoi), were all covered with pure gold. The thickness of the gold plating (petalos) was two inches.[225]

“But all the vaults (orophoi) of the upper galleries, of the parts with two stories on the sides, and the vaulting of the nave, and of the parts adjacent, and of the four nartheces, he gilded with glass mosaic. He gilded even the proaulia, with their upper chambers, and columns, and marble slabs.

“The floor of the nave was adorned with various marbles, both with the Roman of a rue-green colour and others of a rosy red; and these were all laid down and polished. The walls outside and all round were covered with large and valuable stones.

“The thysiasterium was of shining silver, the barrier (stethea), and its large columns, with the doors, were all of silver. All the silver was dipped in gold. Four tables were set up in the thysiasterium supported on columns, and these were gilt. The seven seats of the priests, on which they sat on either side, with the throne of the patriarch, and the four columns, were all gilded. And it was forbidden to go up into the holy place, the Kuklios, also called the Holy of Holies, which is above the steps.

“He set up also large columns of silver-gilt, and the lilies with the ciborium. And the ciborium he made with silver and nielloed (arguroencauston). Above the ciborium was a globe of solid gold, weighing 118 pounds, and golden lilies, weighing six pounds, and above them a golden cross, with most precious and rare stones, weighing eighty pounds. Such was the design he made.

“And as he wished to make the holy table more beautiful than the rest, and more precious with gold, he collected numerous craftsmen, and consulted with them. Their opinion and advice was to cast into the melting pot (choneuterion) gold, silver, stones of every kind, and pearls, copper, electron, lead, tin, iron, glass, and every other metallic substance. And they ground them all together and formed them into masses (olboi), and poured them into the pot; and when it had been melted, they took it from the fire and poured it out into a mould (tupos). Thus the holy table was made. And it was then set up by the emperor on solid columns of gold, studded with precious stones. And the ‘sea’ (thalassa) of the holy table was ornamented with gold and precious stones. Who can see the holy table without being astonished? and who can gaze at it on account of the many glinting surfaces? so that at one time it all appears of gold, from another place all of silver, and in another of glittering sapphire; and altogether there are eighty-two different colours of metals and stones and pearls.

“He made also, above and below, carved ivory doors overlaid with gold, to the number of 365. In the first entrance into the louter he made the doors of electron; doors also of electron were in the narthex, two of them smaller than the middle one, which was much larger, and of silver dipped in gold (chrusembaphos). The architraves also were overlaid with gold. Three or the doors inside, instead of being made of new wood, were made of wood from the Ark. He wished to make the pavement entirely of silver [Codinus says gold], but his advisers dissuaded him, saying that in the future poor emperors might have it taken up. And those who persuaded him were Maximian and Hierotheus, Athenian philosophers and astronomers, saying that in the latter days poorer rulers would come and take it all away. And following these counsels the thought was given up. And every day the emperor had 2,000 miliarisia put in a heap and mingled with earth; and when work was finished, in the evening, the craftsmen dug out the mound and found the miliarisia, and this the emperor did that they might be eager for their work. And collecting the materials, as was said, took seven and a half years. But the completion of the temple, even with the crowd of workmen I have mentioned, all labouring with the greatest eagerness, took nine years two months.

“The ambo with the solea he paved with sardonyx, and inserted precious stones; its columns were of solid gold, with carbuncles and crystals and sapphires; and he overlaid the upper part of the solea richly with gold. The ambo had also a golden dome studded with pearls, lychnites, and emeralds.

“The gold cross of the ambo weighed 100 pounds. It had also seizae,[226] and lychnites, and was embroidered with pearls. And the ambo above had a hat-shaped covering (petasion), upon[227] supports (stethea).

“The top of the Holy Well was brought from Samaria. It was considered sacred, because Christ had sat on it, and talked to the woman. And the bronze trumpets, which stand by the Holy Well, were brought from Jericho; they were those at whose blasts by angels the walls of Jericho fell down. The honoured Cross, to-day in the skeuophylakium, which was the measure of our Lord’s height, was eagerly sought for in Jerusalem by the faithful and brought hither. And for this reason they surrounded it with silver, and all kinds of precious stones, and overlaid it with gold. And to this day it works healing wonders, and drives away diseases and demons. And in every column [of the church] both above and below is placed one sacred relic.

“He made also golden vessels for the twelve solemn feasts, according to the sacred Gospels: basins (cherniboxeses), ewers (orkioloi), chalices (diskopoteria), and patens (diskoi); they were all of solid gold, set with precious stones and pearls. And the number of the sacred vessels was 1,000; altar-cloths (endutai), with rows of jewels, 300; crowns, 100. Every festal day had its own chalice covering (poterokalumma). There were paten covers (diskokalummata) of gold, with pearls and precious stones, to the number of 1,000; four-and-twenty gospels, each worth two centenaria; thirty-six censers of solid gold with precious stones; 300 lamps (luchnitai) weighing forty pounds; 6,000 candelabra (polycandela), and clustered lights[228] of solid gold, for the ambo, the bema, the two gynaecea, and the narthex.

“The revenues of 365 farms in Egypt, India, and all the East and West were devoted to the maintenance of the church. For each holy day was set aside 1,000 measures of oil, 300 measures of wine, and 1,000 sacramental loaves. Similarly for the daily services, the clergy, including the lowest, numbered 1,000, with 100 singers divided into two for alternate weeks. For the clergy there were cells round the building; for the singers there were two monasteries.

“He made five gold crosses, each weighing 100 pounds, which were adorned with all kinds of precious stones, so that they were each valued at eight centenaria: also two candlesticks of gold incrusted with pearls and precious stones, valued at five centenaria, as well as two other large carved candelabra (manoualia) of gold; these had golden feet, each worth 100 pounds, to stand below the golden candelabra. He made fifty others too, of silver, of the height of a man, to stand by the altar. On the adornment of the ambo and solea was spent 100,000 pounds, which was the tribute levied by Constantine on Saroboris, King of the Persians, and on many others. The whole church with the parts outside and around—with the exception of the vessels and ornaments, which were given by the emperor—cost 800,000 pounds.

“Now Justinian alone began and alone finished the church with no other helping him, or even building a part of it. Its beauty is wonderful to behold; all kinds of pearls glitter there like the sea, and one seems to see the ever-flowing waters of great rivers. Now the four boundaries[229] of the church he called after the rivers that flowed from Paradise, and he made a law that whosoever was excommunicated should stand there for his sins. And for the phiale in the centre he made twelve arcades, and lions belching out water for the people to wash in. On the right side, however, of the right-hand gynaeceum, he made a basin (thalassa) of one cubit for the water to come up in, and one flight of steps (klimax) for the priests to cross above the water. He placed too in the front of the basin (dexamene) an open tank for the rain (ombusia), and carved twelve lions, twelve pards, twelve deer, and eagles, and hares, and calves, and crows, twelve of each, and these spouted out the water for the use of the priests alone. The place was called the place of the lions (leontarion) and metatorion, because there was a golden couch there, that the emperor might rest on his way to the temple. But who can describe the comeliness and beauty of the temple, overlaid with resplendent gold from the crown to the pavement?

“When the temple and the sacred vessels had been all completed, on the 24th of December he marched in solemn pomp from the palace to the Gate of the Augusteum, opening into the Horologium; and he killed 1,000 oxen, 6,000 sheep, 500 deer, 1,000 pigs, 1,000 fowls, and gave them to the poor and needy, as well as 30,000 measures of wheat. And the distribution of these on that day took three hours, and then the emperor entered with the cross, and the patriarch Eutychius, and at the royal entrance he left the patriarch and walked alone to the ambo; then, stretching out his hands to heaven, he cried, ‘Glory be to God who has thought me worthy to finish this work. Solomon, I have surpassed thee.’ And when the ceremony was over he distributed largesse, and with the help of Strategius gave away three hundred pounds of gold. But on the following day he solemnly opened the temple, and killed even more oxen, and feasted every one for fifteen days until the feast of Epiphany, praising God. In such a way as this was the great work completed.

“Now the new dome which was built by Justinian, and the gorgeous and wonderful ambo, with the solea, and the patterned pavement of the nave, lasted seventeen years. But after the death of Justinian, his nephew Justin succeeded, and in the second year of his reign, and the fifth day, at the sixth hour the dome fell, and destroyed the wonderful ambo with the golden supports, and the solea, and all the sardonyx, and choice pearls and sapphires. But the arches, and the columns, and the rest of the building remained unhurt. Then the emperor summoned the skilful mastermen, and inquired what had caused the fall of the dome. But they answered and said to the king, ‘Your uncle took away too quickly the supports (antinux) for the dome, which were of wood, to cover it with mosaic; and made it too high so that it should be seen from everywhere, and thus the craftsmen, by destroying the scaffolding (skalosis) before the foundations had been sufficiently set, caused the fall of the dome.’ Thus spake they to the king, and they added that if he wished to build a dome like a hollow cymbal he should follow his uncle’s example, and send to Rhodes, and should order bricks made in the same way and of the same weight as the previous ones. The emperor gave the order, and bricks were brought from Rhodes, similar to the previous ones. So once more the dome was built, with fifteen fathoms taken from its height, and formed like a drum so that it should not again fall. The supports were left for a year, until they knew that the dome had become well set. But the ambo and solea, which they were not able to build of an equal magnificence to the former ones, they are made of marble, with columns covered with silver, and there was a silver inclosure (stethos), round the solea. But the dome of the ambo he did not build again, frightened by the expense. And for the pavement, as he was not able to find slabs of such beauty and size as heretofore, he sent Manasses, a Patrician and Praepositus, to Proconnesus, and marble was worked there as is seen now, of a green colour, like rivers flowing into a sea.

“But when they wished to cut away the scaffolding of the dome, and to take away the timbers, they filled up the church with water to a height of five cubits, and threw down the beams into the water, and thus the lower parts of the walls were uninjured. And he covered it all with mosaic. Hence there are some who say that Justin, Justinian’s nephew, built the church, but in this they lie. Let us rather give thanks to our God who has willed that the great structure should remain untouched, so that we can enter it, and give the praise that is due to Christ; for He is worthy of all glory, honour, power, and worship, now and for ever, Amen.”

§ 3. LEGENDS.

Many of the points in this celebration of the wonders of S. Sophia seem to be traceable to the writer’s absorbing traditions of the work of Basil—who built like a goldsmith at his new church—into his account. In the destructive rapacity of the Crusaders and the interregnum that followed while they occupied S. Sophia we find such a satisfactory cause for this half-mythical retrospect undertaken in all good faith that we cannot think it was written until after the Frankish ascendency.

We need not suppose that the Anonymous invented even the wildest of these stories; such stories grow up as a matter of course, and to-day various forms of some of them are told within the walls of many other buildings. The accounts given by the Russian pilgrims (see Chapter VI) agree so closely in many respects with the Anonymous description that we might think the writer had been their guide in the church. That the stories were widely told in Constantinople at this time is proved by the account of S. Sophia given by El Harawi, an Arab traveller, who visited the city in the thirteenth century. “Here is also Agia Sophia, the greatest church they have. I was told by Yakub Ibn Abd Allah that he had entered it: within are 360 doors. And they say one of the angels resides there; round about this place they have made fences of gold, and the story they relate of him is very strange.”[230]

This story of the angel recalls the Wingless Victory of the Athenian acropolis, but it is probably more closely related to the “Angels of the Churches” in the Revelation. An interesting reference to this thought is made by Palladius in his Life of Chrysostom. Before he left S. Sophia for ever the patriarch entered it saying, “Come let us pray and say farewell to the Angel of the Church;” but, adds his biographer, “the Angel departed with him.” We give here an account of the church from a thirteenth-century English MS., in the British Museum, Vit. A. xx. 14, which refers to the more commonplace part of the story as told by the Anonymous. “That famous city is endowed with wonderful and inestimable wealth. In it may be seen the famous church Agia Sophia, that is the Holy Wisdom; an angel of God appeared and taught the workmen as they were building. Underneath the church in its cisterns there is refreshing water, some of which is salt and some of it rainwater. The church below is borne on one hundred and seventy-three columns of marbles, and above on two hundred and forty-six. Round the choir from the top to the bottom it is covered with silver gilt. And this same choir has an altar ‘starred’ (stellatum) all over with most wonderful and precious stones. In the church are lamps of the purest silver and gold, and their number cannot be counted. The church is opened and closed by seven hundred and fifty-two double doors, and there are windows innumerable. There are seven hundred prebendary priests, of which three hundred and fifty take each week in turn. Now the Patriarch of Agia Sophia has in that city one hundred metropolitans and archbishops, and each metropolitan has seven suffragans in the same city.”

The idea of competition with Solomon’s Temple and the Tabernacle would be sure to suggest itself, and, once received, it would be justified by many assertions; indeed a tendency to imitate the biblical accounts may be detected in the Anonymous author. For instance, we have Justinian’s intention to cover the floor with silver, the description of the gold vessels for the altar, and the “sea” for the priests. Justinian’s oft-quoted speech on entering the completed church may be assigned to this leading idea, which we find expressed as early as the sixth century by Corippus, the poet-bishop, who says, “Praise of the temple of Solomon is now silenced, and the Wonders of the World have to yield the preeminence. Two shrines founded by the wisdom of God have rivalled Heaven, one the sacred Temple, the other the splendid fane of S. Sophia, the Vestibule of the Divine Presence.”[231] Glycas, who tells many of the stories given by the Anonymous, continues the idea further. Justinian, he says, set up a statue “representing Solomon as looking at the Great Church and gnashing his teeth with envy.”[232]

In the Book of Proverbs we read, “Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars.” This was also seized upon, and Michael Psellus speaks of S. Sophia as “the very beautiful temple, the incomparable home which the Divine Wisdom built in His own name and which He raised on seven pillars.”[233] Modern writers, Tournefort, Von Hammer, &c., have delighted to point out that the church has 107 columns; indeed, with a little humouring, 108 may be counted. The symmetrical number of the workmen employed according to the Anonymous may be matched in a legendary account of the building of S. Luke’s, according to which there were twenty-four protomaistores, each of whom had twenty-four workmen under him.

The story of Justinian mixing money with the earth is parallel to the account, given by Vasari, of Brunelleschi’s scheme for building the dome of S. Maria del Fiore in Florence. It is impossible that the church should have been flooded with water, as described by the Anonymous. There appears to be no basis for the supposition that the great dome was gilt outside. In the texts of Codinus the dome is said to be of ivy-wood (κισσηρίνος): this is evidently somebody’s misreading for pumice-stone (κισήριον).

The stones were actually supposed to be specifics for diseases by the Russian pilgrims and others. Clari the Knight of Amiens[234] (1200) speaks “of the Minster (Moustier) of S. Sophia, and the riches which were there.... There are vaults all round over the church, which are carried on large columns, very rich; for there is not a column but is of jasper, or porphyry, or some precious marble, and every column has a medicinal quality; some keep off Mal des rains, some Mal du flanc, and other diseases: and there is nothing in this minster such as a hinge (gons) or band (verveles) generally of iron, which is not of silver.”

Codinus concludes his account of the church with a story, which may be classed with a large series, as “the gratitude of employers to their architects;” imprisoning and blinding them, or cutting off their hands. It is in a sense one of the truest of stories! The master workman of the great church, “Ignatius (sic), owing to the great favour which his work won for him from the people, was shut up by the emperor in his statue in the Augusteum.” To parallel other tales this must be the artist’s own work which is the instrument of his torture. Here he would have died of hunger had it not been for his faithful wife, who threw to him a rope besmeared with liquid pitch; afterwards fire destroyed all evidence of his flight.

We have also the customary tales of statues found in the ground when the church was begun. Gyllius, quoting from Suidas, says that Justinian discovered more than seventy statues of the Greek deities, the figures of the twelve signs of the zodiac, and eighty statues of Christian princes and emperors. The travels that bear the name of Sir John Mandeville relate that once when an emperor made a grave in S. Sophia, “they found a body in the earth, and upon the body lay a plate of gold, that said thus in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, ‘Jesus Christ shall be born of the Virgin Mary, and I believe in Him.’ It was laid there 2,000 years before the birth of Christ, and is still preserved in the treasury of the church. And they say that it was Hermogenes, the wise man.”

The legends were not forgotten after the taking of the church. Sandys, the English traveller, who was in Constantinople about 1610, tells us that “one of the doors was famed to be the ark of Noe, and is therefore left bare in some places to be kissed by the devoted people,” and “the total number of doors was said to be as many as the days of the year.”

When this, the church of the world, fell into the hands of the Turks, many stories came to the West, or arose there without coming. The poetry of the Fall required the miraculous salvation of the priest celebrating mass, and the prophecy of his return as told by Theo. Gautier. It also required a massacre in the church, the riding in of the proud conqueror, and the mark of his blood-stained hand, which indeed is still pointed out some twenty feet above the pavement! Mijatovich, in his history of the last of the emperors, regards the massacre as unhistorical.

An English romance almost contemporary with the Fall tells us how the Turks took possession,