The Destruction of the Greek Empire and the Story of the Capture of Constantinople by the TurksPears, Edwin
History
The Destruction of the Greek Empire and the Story of the Capture of Constantinople by the Turks
Pears, Edwin
Byzantine Empire -- History -- 1081-1453; Istanbul (Turkey) -- History -- Siege, 1453
DISSENSIONS IN CITY: BETWEEN GREEKS THEMSELVES; BETWEEN
GREEKS AND ITALIANS; BETWEEN GENOESE AND VENETIANS; CHARGE
OF TREACHERY AGAINST GENOESE EXAMINED; FAILURE OF SERBIA AND
HUNGARY TO RENDER AID; PREPARATIONS FOR A GENERAL ASSAULT;
DAMAGES DONE TO THE LANDWARD WALLS; CONSTRUCTION OF STOCKADE.
[Sidenote: Dissensions among the besieged.]
It is convenient to halt here in the narrative of the siege in
order to call attention to certain dissensions within the city.
These dissensions are made much of by the Latin writers and are
probably exaggerated. They arose in great measure from a traditional
ill-feeling, due to history, to difference of race and language,
diversity of interest, and to the hostility between the Eastern and
Western Churches. It is especially to the differences on the religious
question that the Western writers call attention. In reference to the
dissensions among the Greeks themselves, it must be remembered that
the majority of them, priests and laity, either openly repudiated
the arrangement made at Florence or conformed under something very
near compulsion. The Greeks, says Leonard, the Catholic archbishop,
celebrate the Union with their voice but deny it in fact.[351] He
points out that the emperor, for whose orthodoxy he has nothing but
praise, accepted it with heart and soul. But he was an exception.
The majority still followed the lead of Gennadius and the Grand Duke
Notaras. If it be true that the Grand Duke declared that he would
prefer to see the head-dress of the Turk rather than that of the
Latin priests, his prejudice furnishes evidence of the intensity of
his dislike for the Latins, and is confirmatory of other statements
made by Leonard. When the pope’s name was pronounced in the liturgy,
the congregation shouted their disapprobation. Most of the citizens
had shunned the Great Church since the reconciliation service of
December 12 as if it were a Jewish synagogue. Many who were present on
a feast day when Mass was celebrated left the church as soon as the
consecration commenced.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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