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
the Christian symbols, but of having ordered a monk to administer the
Sacrament to the children of the sultan without having been assured
that they were baptized. He was charged, further, with having said
the Litanies with the sultan and his followers. The patriarch replied
to the two first with contempt; if the Turks had used the church
bath, no harm had been done. As to giving Communion, he declared that
he had been duly certified that the children had been baptized.[44]
Witnesses asserted that it was true that the accused had said the
Litanies with the sultan, and that he had allowed him to sit by his
side during celebration, but added that they did not know whether the
sultan was a Christian or not! Other persons were found who declared
that he was not a Christian. The sultan, hearing of the proceedings,
sent to ask, either in jest or seriously, that the emperor would give
him the sacred relics which he wore round his neck, and offered to eat
ham as a proof that he was not a Moslem. Pachymer adds that in thus
professing his readiness to worship the relics and to eat the forbidden
flesh, the sultan caused the proceedings against the patriarch to fail.
As it appeared that there were eminent ecclesiastics in the court
who really believed that the sultan of the Turks was a Christian,
those who desired the condemnation of the patriarch tried to turn the
question by suggesting that, whether he was Christian or not, it was
certain that members of his suite, who had been present when Communion
was administered, were unbelievers.[45] That the sultan should have
been present at a Christian service at all, that his children should
have been allowed by him or his Moslem followers to communicate, and
that his children were baptized, or believed to be baptized, show
that, whether they were Christians or not, the fanatical spirit which
animated the Moslems of an earlier period, or the Turks a century
later, was not present among these representatives of the Asiatics
who had entered the country as followers of Genghis or his immediate
successors.
[Sidenote: Permanent characteristics of Turkish race.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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