the seizure of
Constantinople.] Still worse, and shameful to be said--partly from the
lust of plunder, and partly through ecclesiastical machinations--it
again turned aside for an attack upon Constantinople, and took that city
by storm A.D. 1204, thereby establishing Latin Christianity in the
Eastern metropolis, but, alas! with bloodshed, rape, and fire. On the
night of the assault more houses were burned than could be found in any
three of the largest cities in France. [Sidenote: Sack of that city by
the Catholics.] Even Christian historians compare with shame the
storming of Constantinople by the Catholics with the capture of
Jerusalem by Saladin. Pope Innocent himself was compelled to protest
against enormities that had outrun his intentions. He says: "They
practised fornications, incests, adulteries in the sight of men. They
abandoned matrons and virgins, consecrated to God, to the lewdness of
grooms. They lifted their hands against the treasures of the
churches--what is more heinous, the very consecrated vessels--tearing
the tablets of silver from the very altars, breaking in pieces the most
sacred things, carrying off crosses and relics." In St. Sophia, the
silver was stripped from the pulpit; an exquisite and highly-prized
table of oblation was broken in pieces; the sacred chalices were turned
into drinking-cups; the gold fringe was ripped off the veil of the
sanctuary. Asses and horses were led into the churches to carry off the
spoil. A prostitute mounted the patriarch's throne, and sang, with
indecent gestures, a ribald song. The tombs of the emperors were rifled;
and the Byzantines saw, at once with amazement and anguish, the corpse
of Justinian--which even decay and putrefaction had for six centuries
spared in his tomb--exposed to the violation of a mob. It had been
understood among those who instigated these atrocious proceedings that
the relics were to be brought into a common stock and equitably divided
among the conquerors! but each ecclesiastic seized and secreted whatever
he could. The idolatrous state of the Eastern Church is illustrated by
some of these relics. [Sidenote: The relics found there,] Thus the Abbot
Martin obtained for his monastery in Alsace the following inestimable
articles: 1. A spot of the blood of our Saviour; 2. A piece of the true
cross; 3. The arm of the Apostle James; 4. Part of the skeleton of John
the Baptist; 5.--I hesitate to write such blasphemy--"A bottle of the
milk of th