Page:The Fall of Constantinople.djvu/211

 THE CONDITION OF CONSTANTINOPLE IN 1200. I93 There was yet another species of wealth than those fur- weaith in nishcd by commerce and the other sources I have relics. named, which cannot be passed over. Constantino- ple was conspicuous in the eyes of the Crusaders more for its treasure in relics than in works of art. The men of the West were too ignorant to understand the work of Phidias or of Lysippus. But they were connoisseurs in relics. During many years the cliurches of the West had been striving with each other to obtain possession of these Christian mementoes. When, at rare intervals, a traveller had returned from the East who had obtained possession of such an object, he was regarded as a benefactor of the Church. The relic was re- ceived by the community to which it was destined with sol- emn procession and religious services. In many instances the possession of a relic made the fortune of the church or monastery where it was contained. The search after relics became almost a craze, like that after new varieties of tulips or old china. Constantinople was the greatest storehouse — perhaps I may say manufactory — of such relics. Its popula- tion was the richest among Christian states, and its wealthy citizens were proud of such possessions as evidences of their wealth, and were glad to purchase the favor of the Church by bequeathing them. But Constantinople had never possessed so many relics as at the time of the fourth crusade, and these stores of wealth were always to be seen by those who wished.' The unceasing turmoil in which Asia Minor and Syria had been kept by the Saracens and Turks had made the Christian populations ready to transfer their wealth to the strongest city in the world, but especially to take sacred relics out of reach of the infidel. In the East, as in the West, the church- es, or the buildings adjoining them, were often used as store- houses for the deposit of articles of value. They were strongly built and safer than ordinary houses from fire and thieves. The Church had, from early times, preserved these deposits with extraordinary legislation, of which we have still traces in our law of sacrilege, and it has been suggested that the ' Ingulplius, "History of Croyland." 13"