Pammakaristos. And there he remained until, on the
charge of attempting to escape, he was confined in a stronger prison.

Another person detained at the Pammakaristos was a Turkish rebel named
Zinet, who in company with a pretender to the throne of Mehemed I., had
fled in 1418 to Constantinople for protection. He was welcomed by the
Byzantine Government, which was always glad to receive refugees whom it
could use either to gratify or to embarrass the Ottoman Court, as the
varying relations between the two empires might dictate. It was a policy
that proved fatal at last, but meanwhile it often afforded some
advantage to Byzantine diplomats. On this occasion it was thought
advisable to please the Sultan, and while the pretender was confined
elsewhere, Zinet, with a suite of ten persons, was detained in the
Pammakaristos. Upon the accession of Murad II., however, the Government
of Constantinople thought proper to take the opposite course.
Accordingly the pretender was liberated, and Zinet sent to support the
Turkish party which disputed Murad's claims. But life at the
Pammakaristos had not won the refugee's heart to the cause of the
Byzantines. The fanatical monks with whom he was associated there had
insulted his faith; his Greek companions in arms did not afford him all
the satisfaction he desired, and so Zinet returned at last to his
natural allegiance. The conduct of the Byzantine Government on this
occasion led to the first siege of Constantinople, in 1422, by the
Turks.

The most important event in the history of the monastery occurred after
the city had fallen into Turkish hands. The church then became the
cathedral of the patriarchs of Constantinople. It is true that, in the
first instance, the conqueror had given the church of the Holy Apostles
to the Patriarch Gennadius as a substitute for the church of S. Sophia.
But the native population did not affect the central quarters of the
city, preferring to reside near the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmora.
Furthermore, the body of a murdered Turk was discovered one morning in
the court of the Holy Apostles, and excited among his countrymen the
suspicion that the murder had been committed by a Christian hand.[235]
The few Greeks settled in the neighbourhood were therefore in danger of
retaliation, and Gennadius begged permission to withdraw to the
Pammakaristos, around which a large colony of Greeks, who came from
other cities to repeople the capital, had settled.[2