Page:The Fall of Constantinople.djvu/410

 392 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. clared that the Crusaders might keep the land conquered by the judgment of God ; but its people must be governed with justice, must be maintained in peace and made to conform to religion. The property of the Church must be restored; restitution and repentance must be shown for what was past, and the vow which the Crusaders had taken must yet be ful- filled. I have insisted that the great object of Innocent's pontif- icate was to strike a blow at Mahometanism. He hoped against hope that by the conquest of Constantinople the cause of the Crusades might be advanced. Hence, in claiming from the Crusaders, after the conquest of the citj^, that they should fulfil their vow, he pointed out that " the conquest of Greece would facilitate the conquest of the Holy Land," and he re- minded them that they themselves had made use of the argu- ment that the shortest way to Palestine was through Con- stantinople rather than through Alexandria. Again and again he returns to the same idea, and, beyond the miion of the churches, the great practical benefit which Innocent sought to derive from what he elsewhere describes as " an act of justice where wicked men have been made use of by God to punish other wicked men," is that by means of Greece a heavier blow might yet be struck against the Mahometans. Baldwin had summoned the two legates from Palestine. Innocent could not approve of their conduct in obeying the summons. "If you have left in order to obtain aid for the Holy Land, we approve of what you have done ; if you have done so to assist in organizing the Church of Greece, you have acted too hastily. We authorize you to remain at Constantinople on condition that you do not lose sight of Jerusalem, to which you were sent." As the Venetians had been the instruments Especially r t- • i t* r^ -it ncainstthe of divcrtmor the expedition to Constantinople, In- Veiietiaus. o i i ' nocent's opposition to them was greater than it was to the Crusaders. By the former his wishes had been disre- garded to the last. In accordance with the agreement for the division of the spoil, the Venetians named one of their own countrymen, Thomas Morosini, as patriarch. The arrange- ments for his appointment, and for naming Latin priests to the