] It is reached by an inclined plane built against the exterior of
the south wall of the church.

[406] _De top. C.P._ iv. c. 2.

[407] For these particulars we are indebted to MS. 85, formerly in the
library of the theological seminary at Halki. According to the same
authority, near the Pantokrator stood a church dedicated to the
Theotokos Eleousa, and between the two buildings was the chapel of S.
Michael that contained the tombs of the Emperor John Comnenus and the
Empress Irene. But according to Cinnamus (pp. 14, 31), as we have seen
(p. 221), those tombs were in the Pantokrator. Is it possible that of
the three buildings commonly styled the church of the Pantokrator, one
of the lateral churches was dedicated specially to the Theotokos
Eleousa, and that the central building which served as a mausoleum was
dedicated to the archangel Michael? The parecclesion of the Chora
where Tornikes was buried (p. 310) was associated, as the frescoes in
its western dome prove, with the angelic host.

CHAPTER XVI

THE CHURCH OF S. THEODORE,
KILISSI MESJEDI

High up the western slope of the Third Hill, in a quiet Turkish quarter
reached by a narrow street leading off Vefa Meidan, stands a small but
graceful Byzantine church, known since its use as a mosque by the style
Kilissi Mesjedi. Authorities differ in regard to its dedication.
Gyllius[408] was told that the church had been dedicated to S. Theodore.
On the other hand, Le Noir, on the strength of information furnished by
Greek friends, and after him Bayet, Fergusson, Salzenberg, claim it as
the church of the Theotokos of Lips. But the church of that dedication
was certainly elsewhere (p. 123). Mordtmann[409] suggests that we have
here the church of S. Anastasia Pharmacolytria ([Greek: tes
pharmakolytrias]),[410] and supports his view by the following argument.
In the first place the church of S. Theodore the Tiro was situated in
the quarter of Sphorakius,[411] which was in the immediate vicinity of
S. Sophia,[412] and therefore not near Vefa Meidan. Secondly, the
indications given by Antony of Novgorod and by the Anonymus of the
eleventh century respecting the position of S. Anastasia point to the
site of Kilissi Mesjedi. The fact that the church was ever supposed to
be dedicated to S. Theodore is, in Mordtmann's opinion, a mistake
occasioned by the circumstance that both S. Theodore and S. Anastasia
were credited with the power of exposing sorcery and frauds, so t