Byzantine Churches in Constantinople Part 27

[370] Cinnamus, p. 14; Guntherus Parisiensis in Riant's _Exuviae sacrae_, p. 105. The sarcophagus that forms part of a Turkish fountain to the west of the church is usually, but without any proof, considered to be the tomb of Irene. A long flight of steps near it leads to the cistern below the church.

[371] Cinnamus, p. 31.

[372] Nicet. Chon. pp. 53, 56, 66.

[373] Synax., October 26th.

[374] Nicet. Chon. p. 151.

[375] _Ibid._ p. 289.

[376] Nicet. Chon. p. 151.

[377] Riant, _Exuviae sacrae_, ii. p. 232.

[378] Nicet. Chon. pp. 332-33, 354-55.

[379] Riant, _Exuviae sacrae_, i. pp. 104 _seq._

[380] Belin, _Histoire de la latinite de Constantinople_, pp. 73-74, 113-14.

[381] Pachym. i. p. 160; Niceph. Greg. p. 87; G. Acropolita, pp.

196-97. The last writer says the eikon was taken from the monastery of the Hodegon, which was its proper shrine. The eikon may have been removed from the Pantokrator to the church of Hodegetria on the eve of the triumphal entry.

[382] Niceph. Greg. i. p. 85. Cf. Ca.n.a.le, _Nuova Storia_, ii. p. 153, quoted by Belin, _Latinite de C.P._ p. 22, 'ov'erano la chiesa, la loggia, il palazzo dei Veneziani,' cf. Belin, p. 92.

[383] George Acropolita, p. 195. On the contrary, Pachymeres represents Baldwin as taking flight from the palace of Blachernae, and embarking at the Great Palace. See vol. i. of that historian's works, pp. 132-48.

[384] Belin, _Histoire de la latinite de C.P._ pp. 22-23, quoting Ca.n.a.le, _Nuova Storia_, ii. p. 153; cf. Sauli, i. p. 55. According to Fanucci, the Venetians themselves removed their national emblems from the Pantokrator and tore down the monastery.--Belin, _ut supra_, pp.

88, 92.

[385] Pachym. i. p. 402.

[386] _Ibid._ ii. pp. 87-88; Niceph. Greg. i. p. 167.

[387] _Ibid._ i. pp. 273, 233-34.

[388] Phrantzes, p. 121.

[389] _Ibid._ p. 210.

[390] _Ibid._ p. 134.

[391] _Ibid._ p. 203.

[392] _Ibid._ p. 203.

[393] _Ibid._ p. 191.

[394] _Ibid._ p. 191.

[395] Muralt, ad annum.

[396] Phrantzes, p. 156.

[397] _Ibid._ p. 156.

[398] Ducas, pp. 252-60.

[399] Phrantzes, pp. 304-7.

[400] _Essai de chronographie byzantine_, ii. p. 889.

[401] Ducas, p. 318.

[402] Chadekat, vol. i. p. 118, quoted by Paspates, p. 312.

[403] _De top. C.P._ iv. c. 2.

[404] 'The breaking of wall surfaces by pilasters and blind niches is a custom immemorial in Oriental brickwork.'--_The Thousand and One Churches_, by Sir W. Ramsay and Miss Lothian Bell, p. 448.

[405] It is reached by an inclined plane built against the exterior of the south wall of the church.

[406] _De top. C.P._ iv. c. 2.

[407] For these particulars we are indebted to MS. 85, formerly in the library of the theological seminary at Halki. According to the same authority, near the Pantokrator stood a church dedicated to the Theotokos Eleousa, and between the two buildings was the chapel of S.

Michael that contained the tombs of the Emperor John Comnenus and the Empress Irene. But according to Cinnamus (pp. 14, 31), as we have seen (p. 221), those tombs were in the Pantokrator. Is it possible that of the three buildings commonly styled the church of the Pantokrator, one of the lateral churches was dedicated specially to the Theotokos Eleousa, and that the central building which served as a mausoleum was dedicated to the archangel Michael? The parecclesion of the Chora where Tornikes was buried (p. 310) was a.s.sociated, as the frescoes in its western dome prove, with the angelic host.

CHAPTER XVI

THE CHURCH OF S. THEODORE, KILISSI MESJEDI

High up the western slope of the Third Hill, in a quiet Turkish quarter reached by a narrow street leading off Vefa Meidan, stands a small but graceful Byzantine church, known since its use as a mosque by the style Kilissi Mesjedi. Authorities differ in regard to its dedication.

Gyllius[408] was told that the church had been dedicated to S. Theodore.

On the other hand, Le Noir, on the strength of information furnished by Greek friends, and after him Bayet, Fergusson, Salzenberg, claim it as the church of the Theotokos of Lips. But the church of that dedication was certainly elsewhere (p. 123). Mordtmann[409] suggests that we have here the church of S. Anastasia Pharmacolytria ([Greek: tes pharmakolytrias]),[410] and supports his view by the following argument.

In the first place the church of S. Theodore the Tiro was situated in the quarter of Sphorakius,[411] which was in the immediate vicinity of S. Sophia,[412] and therefore not near Vefa Meidan. Secondly, the indications given by Antony of Novgorod and by the Anonymus of the eleventh century respecting the position of S. Anastasia point to the site of Kilissi Mesjedi. The fact that the church was ever supposed to be dedicated to S. Theodore is, in Mordtmann's opinion, a mistake occasioned by the circ.u.mstance that both S. Theodore and S. Anastasia were credited with the power of exposing sorcery and frauds, so that a church a.s.sociated with one of these saints might readily be transferred to the other, especially in the confusion which followed the Turkish conquest.

In reply to this line of argument, it may be urged, first, that the presence of a church of S. Theodore in the district of Sphorakius does not prevent the existence of a church with a similar dedication in another part of the city. S. Theodore was a popular saint. There was a church named after him in the district of Claudius ([Greek: ta Klaudiou]);[413] another church built in his honour stood in the district Carbounaria ([Greek: ta Karbounaria]);[414] the private chapel of the emperors in the Great Palace was dedicated to S. Theodore;[415]

and according to Phrantzes,[416] a church dedicated at once to S.

Theodore the Tiro and S. Theodore the General, as at Athens, was erected in Constantinople in his day. As to the indications supposed to favour the view that the church of S. Anastasia stood at Kilissi Mesjedi, they are, to say the least, exceedingly vague and inconclusive. According to Antony of Novgorod[417] the shrine of S. Anastasia was found near the church of the Pantokrator, on the Fourth Hill, whereas Kilissi Mesjedi stands on the Third Hill. Furthermore, the order in which the Anonymus[418] refers to the church of S. Anastasia Pharmacolytria, immediately before the Leomacellum, which Mordtmann identifies with the Et Meidan, would allow us to place S. Anastasia in the valley of the Lycus. Under these circ.u.mstances it is wiser to accept the information given to Gyllius as correct; for while the Greeks of his day were not infallible in their identification of the buildings of the city, there is no evidence that they were mistaken in this particular case.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE LXX.

S. THEODORE. NORTH END OF THE WESTERN FAcADE.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: S. THEODORE. THE CHURCH, FROM THE NORTH-WEST.