Byzantium Quotes
The Hagia Sophia was the greatest architectural and engineering enterprise of that era and remained so for centuries. The Church was so massive that there was a permanent city of 7000 people on the second level balconies with wide ramps so that horses and carts could go to the upper level. The dome was the largest unsupported dome for centuries and historians are still ignorant of exactly how it was constructed. It changed the history of architecture. The reference to Solomon referred to the building of the original Jewish Temple in Jerusalem which was up to then considered the greatest building ever constructed.
The Ottoman Turks had already conquered the Eastern Roman empire outside of Byzantium. They had overwhelming superiority and it was just a matter of time when they would take the city. Surrender would have been the sensible course, but religious passion against surrendering the holy city capital of Christendom to the Muslims was dominant in the Emperor and some of the leadership. But the morale of most was very low—and for good reason. The Ottomans soon captured the city.
Gennadios II, 1400-1473, had been taken as a prisoner when the Ottomans captured Constantinople 3 days earlier. Despite the fact that there was doctrine that said that Islam should be the only religion, Mehmed—only 21 at the time—realized that he had to rule the city including the many Greek Orthodox and had Gennadios freed and personally invested him as the Petrarch of the Eastern Christian Church. Mehmed was particularly shrewd in his choice. Gennadios had been a strong opponent of the Union movement of Eastern and Western Christian Churches would end their schism and reunite. See {635099} for another notable who was vehemently opposed to Union. There were some Unionists among the defeated Christians who were still alive. The last thing strategically that the Ottoman’s wanted was for Union to have traction and the Eastern Christians of Constantinople looking to the Western Christians led by the Pope, the Holy Roman Emperor and the Christian European Kings for an alliance to eject the Ottomans from and retake Constantinople. The graphic depicts Mehmed investing Gennadios—a practice that was followed with each new Patriarch and the Sultan then in office. See {635084} for another quotation describing Ottoman pragmatic religious tolerance. One of Mehmed’s historical heroes was Alexander the Great who was able to rule most of the known world in large part because of his education by Aristotle advising him to be very tolerant of conquered people’s cultures, religious and otherwise. Mehmed, after his death, came under criticism from ultra orthodox Muslims including his own son and successor, for his religious tolerance and emulating a non-believer—Alexander the Great.
The city was besieged by the Ottoman Turks. The Emperor stayed and died in the siege. Ironically, if he had escaped earlier and allowed the city to surrender to the Sultan and his troops, very few of the city residents would have died, and the rapine and pillaging never would have occurred. The negative result is that the Muslims would have controlled what was regarded by many Christians as a holy Christian city. But that is exactly what occurred.
This is a good example of how religious zeal has sometimes caused rulers to really do stupid things. Rather than try and negotiate a deal with the Sultan and pay an annual tribute or other such diplomatic solution as was common at the time, he was convinced that God would make sure that the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire—a holy city would not fall to the infidel and allow all the holy relics to fall into the hands of the heathen. In reality he would not fight for the inhabitants; he would force the inhabitants to fight for him and his view of the will of God. The message was taken by the young Sultan to be a personal challenge to him and to his God. See {634805} for his response to Constantine.
The Christian Roman Empire was split in two—a Western (Latin) Empire led by the Roman Catholic Church in Rome, and the Eastern (Greek) Roman Empire led by the Orthodox Church headquartered in Constantinople (Byzantium). The two churches were not only in a theological conflict but violence broke out and the armies of the two religious empires attacked each other now and then. In 1439, leader of the two versions of Christianity met in Florence, and they agreed to reunuion in which the Eastern Orthodox would again acknowledge the authority of the Pope. This was not a popular agreement with the majority of the Eastern Orthodox people and some of the clerical leadership including Gennadios who had dissented in 1439 and voted against unification. In this speech, and in {634755}, he argued against unification to a public that was mostly opposed. The leadership was interested because they were facing the Muslim Ottoman Turks who were getting more powerful each day. The Eastern Emperor, Constantine XI, more of a soldier and politician than a cleric, wanted the military strength of the Franks and other Western European Christian armies to help protect the Eastern Empire and Byzantium and were willing to reunite under the Pope to get it. Gennadios and his faction were not. They prevailed and the next year, the Muslims conquered Byzantium which had little help from the armies of the Western Roman Empire.
Rome & the Roman Catholic Church Islam, led by the Ottoman Turks, were in a constant state of tension against the Christian World of Europe. However there had been a huge schism in Christianity where the Christian Roman Empire was split in two—a Western (Latin) Empire led by the Roman Catholic Church in Rome, and the Eastern (Greek) Roman Empire led by the Orthodox Church headquartered in Constantinople (Byzantium). The two churches were not only in a theological conflict but violence broke out and the armies of the two religious empires attacked each other now and then. This was a great advantage to the Muslims who were essentially unified under the Ottoman Turkish Sultan. Manuel knew that the reunification of Christianity was about the worst thing that could happen from the geopolitical view of the Ottomans and they always placed a high priority on doing whatever they could to magnify the stress between the two Christian empires. Manual and the Orthodox hierarchy were absolutely opposed to union as the schism had been precipitated by them to begin with. However, Manuel knew that the hatred of the East and the Orthodox Church was so great amongst the Latins that even if some of the Roman Catholic leadership might be interested in healing the schism and having a “unity in Christ”, the kings and nobles of the Western European nations would never accept unity and would scuttle the negotiations. This quotation is an excellent example of the kind of complex, foreign policy and political intriguing that caused our language to have an adjective—byzantine—which is in common use today.
The Turks could not take the city then, but they did 56 years later in 1453.
In one of the most bizarre events in the History of Christianity, the Christian Crusaders of the 4th Crusade diverted from their destination in Egypt and attacked Constantinople—the Christian seat of the Eastern Roman Empire and the Eastern Orthodox Church. At the time Byzantium was a much larger city than any in France. (Istanbul still is.) This event is the major historical barrier that maintains the schism between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.
In 1453 the Ottoman Turks shocked Christendom by capturing Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Eastern Christian Empire. It was always perceived as a religious conflict between Christians and Muslims but that is an over simplification of a very complex sociological, religious, and political historical period. As this quotation shows us there were many Christians aiding the Muslim side. There were also many Muslims fighting on the Christian side.
The Ottoman Turks had captured Byzantium (Constantinople) in 1453. The Byzantines had received no help from their fellow Christians. The Christian Roman Empire was split in two—a Western (Latin) Empire led by the Roman Catholic Church in Rome, and the Eastern (Greek) Roman Empire led by the Orthodox Church headquartered in Constantinople (Byzantium). The two churches were not only in a theological conflict but violence broke out and the armies of the two religious empires attacked each other now and then. It was assumed that there would be mutual interest in protecting Europe from the Muslim armies. The comparison to the Sultan of Cairo was facetious of course. As a leading Muslim he would never provide any help to the Christians against other Muslims.
