When enemies besieged the city, the
eikon was carried in procession through the streets and around the
fortifications, or was placed near the post of danger. After the capture
of the city by the Latins the picture was first taken to S. Sophia, then
the cathedral of the Venetian patriarchs of Constantinople. But the
Venetian clergy of the Pantokrator claimed the sacred picture as their
own, in virtue of a promise made to them by the Emperor Henry; and when
their claim was ignored, they persuaded the podesta of the Venetian
community to break into S. Sophia and seize the eikon by force. In vain
did the patriarch appear upon the scene with candle and bell to
excommunicate the podesta, his council, and his agents for the
sacrilegious act. The coveted prize was borne off in triumph to the
Pantokrator. In vain did the Papal Legate in the city confirm the
excommunication of the guilty parties, and lay their churches under
interdict. In vain were those penalties confirmed by the Pope
himself.[380] The eikon kept its place in the Pantokrator
notwithstanding all anathemas until the fall of the Latin Empire, when
it was removed from the church to lead the procession which came through
the Golden Gate on the 15th August 1261, to celebrate the recovery of
Constantinople by the Greeks.[381]

[Illustration: PLATE LXII.
S. SAVIOUR PANTOKRATOR. ENTRANCE FROM THE NARTHEX TO THE
SOUTH CHURCH.]

[Illustration: S. SAVIOUR PANTOKRATOR. THE INTERIOR, LOOKING FROM THE
SOUTH CHURCH THROUGH INTO THE NORTH CHURCH.
_To face page 226._]

Towards the close of the Latin occupation the monastery became the
residence of the Latin emperor, probably because the condition of the
public exchequer made it impossible to keep either the Great Palace or
the palace of Blachernae in proper repair. Money was not plentiful in
Constantinople when Baldwin II., the last Latin ruler of the city, was
compelled to sell the lead on the roof of his palace for a paltry sum,
and to use the beams of his outhouses for fuel, nor when he had to leave
his son and heir in the hands of the Capelli at Venice as security for a
loan. Still, the selection of the monastery for the emperor's abode,
even under these trying circumstances, implies the importance and
comparative splendour of the building. Here Baldwin was in residence
when the forces of Michael Palaeologus, under the command of Alexius
Strategopoulos, approached the city, and here he received the
intellige