Page:The Fall of Constantinople.djvu/233

 THE CONDITION OF CONSTANTINOPLE IN 1200. 215 the superstition of his people, and insisted upon reversing tlic position, believing, says Nicetas, that by so doing he could change the fate of the two nations. The same writer tells us that even Manuel never failed to consult the astrologers in all his enterprises. Madmen were held in honor, and believed to be divinely inspired. Every church had its relics, and the belief in their intercession, or in that of the saint to which they had belonged, was of the most implicit kind. Certain pictures wept. The famous representation of the Virgin in the chapel of Blachern was only one among hundreds of miracle-working pictures. Each person had his charm, his relic, or some particular object of worship in which he trusted. Isaac Angelos had special confidence in the intercession of the Virgin, and went into ecstasies when he saw her portrait. Superstition saturated the life of the period. Certain days were sure to bring good luck, others to cause disaster. The stars had their meaning, and governed or showed the lives of individuals or of states. Eclipses and exceptional darkness portended events which the astrologers pretended to read. Nicetas notes with amazement that the conquest of the city was not attended by any prodigy, and appears to think that the absence of such an event was an additional proof of the judgment of Heaven against the capital. In spite of the horrible punishment which had been de- creed by successive emperors against the practice of demon- ology and divination — which, it must be remembered, did not mean an attempt to defraud, but the actual consulting with devils — there were still recognized professors of the myster}-. The Emperor Andronicos consulted one of them, who, says Nicetas, had been initiated in these detestable mysteries from his earliest youth, and who had been punished as a sorcerer in the time of Manuel. Ilis act of divination appears to have been the childish one, which still lingers as an amusement among us, of whirling round an infusion in a basin, and ob- serving what letters are made by the sediment. The Jiisto- rian, while expressing his horror of the practice, has no doubt of its efiicacy. The demon gave an answer, and the answer was necessarily right.