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Authors: Steven Runciman
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frontier into Moslem
territory. Lietbert, Bishop of Cambrai, was not granted an exit-visa by the
governor of Lattakieh and was forced to go to Cyprus. In 1056 the Moslems,
perhaps with the connivance of the Emperor, forbade westerners to enter the
Holy Sepulchre and ejected some three hundred of them from Jerusalem. Both
Basil II and his niece the Empress Theodora caused offence by ordering their
customs officers to levy a tax on pilgrims and their horses. Pope Victor II
wrote to the Empress in December 1056, begging her to cancel the order; and his
letter suggests that her officials were also to be found in Jerusalem itself.
But such inconveniences were rare. Throughout
the eleventh century till its last two decades, an unending stream of
travellers poured eastward, sometimes travelling in parties numbering
thousands, men and women of every age and every class, ready, in that leisurely
age, to spend a year or more on the voyage. They would pause at Constantinople
to admire the huge city, ten times greater than any city that they knew in the
West, and to pay reverence to the relics that it housed. They could see there
the Crown of Thorns, the Seamless Garment and all the major relics of the
Passion. There was the cloth from Edessa on which Christ had imprinted His
face, and Saint Luke’s own portrait of the Virgin; the hair of John the Baptist
and the mantle of Elijah; the bodies of innumerable saints, prophets and
martyrs; an endless store of the holiest things in Christendom. Thence they
went on to Palestine, to Nazareth and Mount Tabor, to the Jordan and to
Bethlehem, and to all the shrines of Jerusalem. They gazed at them all and
prayed at them all; then they made the long voyage homeward, returning edified
and purified, to be greeted by their countrymen as the pilgrims of Christ who
had made the most sacred of journeys.
But the success of the pilgrimage depended on
two conditions: first, that life in Palestine should be orderly enough for the
defenceless traveller to move and worship in safety; and secondly, that the way
should be kept open and cheap. The former necessitated peace and good
government in the Moslem world, the latter the prosperity and benevolence of
Byzantium.
CHAPTER IV
TOWARDS DISASTER
‘In prosperity
the destroyer shall come’ JOB XV, 21
In the middle of the eleventh century the
tranquillity of the cast Mediterranean world seemed assured for many years to
come. Its two great powers, Fatimid Egypt and Byzantium, were on good terms
with each other. Neither was aggressive, and both wished to keep in check the
Moslem states further to the east, where Turkish adventurers were stirring up
trouble, without, however, seriously alarming the governments of Constantinople
or Cairo. The Fatimids were friendly towards the Christians. Since Hakim’s
death there had been no persecution; and they were opening their ports to
merchants from Byzantium and from Italy. Traders and pilgrims alike enjoyed
their goodwill.
This goodwill was guaranteed by the power of
Byzantium. Thanks to a series of great warrior Emperors the Empire now
stretched from the Lebanon to the Danube and from Naples to the Caspian Sea.
Despite occasional corruption and an occasional riot, it was better
administered than any contemporary kingdom. Constantinople had never before
been so wealthy. It was the unrivalled financial and commercial capital of the
world. Traders from far and wide, from Italy and Germany, from Russia, from
Egypt and the East, came crowding there to buy the luxuries produced by its
factories and to exchange their own rougher wares. The bustling life of the
vast city, far more extensive and populous than even Cairo or Baghdad, never
failed to amaze the traveller with its crowded harbour, its full bazaars, its wide
suburbs and its tremendous churches and palaces. The imperial court, dominated
though it was at present by two wildly eccentric, elderly princesses, seemed to
him the centre of the
territory. Lietbert, Bishop of Cambrai, was not granted an exit-visa by the
governor of Lattakieh and was forced to go to Cyprus. In 1056 the Moslems,
perhaps with the connivance of the Emperor, forbade westerners to enter the
Holy Sepulchre and ejected some three hundred of them from Jerusalem. Both
Basil II and his niece the Empress Theodora caused offence by ordering their
customs officers to levy a tax on pilgrims and their horses. Pope Victor II
wrote to the Empress in December 1056, begging her to cancel the order; and his
letter suggests that her officials were also to be found in Jerusalem itself.
But such inconveniences were rare. Throughout
the eleventh century till its last two decades, an unending stream of
travellers poured eastward, sometimes travelling in parties numbering
thousands, men and women of every age and every class, ready, in that leisurely
age, to spend a year or more on the voyage. They would pause at Constantinople
to admire the huge city, ten times greater than any city that they knew in the
West, and to pay reverence to the relics that it housed. They could see there
the Crown of Thorns, the Seamless Garment and all the major relics of the
Passion. There was the cloth from Edessa on which Christ had imprinted His
face, and Saint Luke’s own portrait of the Virgin; the hair of John the Baptist
and the mantle of Elijah; the bodies of innumerable saints, prophets and
martyrs; an endless store of the holiest things in Christendom. Thence they
went on to Palestine, to Nazareth and Mount Tabor, to the Jordan and to
Bethlehem, and to all the shrines of Jerusalem. They gazed at them all and
prayed at them all; then they made the long voyage homeward, returning edified
and purified, to be greeted by their countrymen as the pilgrims of Christ who
had made the most sacred of journeys.
But the success of the pilgrimage depended on
two conditions: first, that life in Palestine should be orderly enough for the
defenceless traveller to move and worship in safety; and secondly, that the way
should be kept open and cheap. The former necessitated peace and good
government in the Moslem world, the latter the prosperity and benevolence of
Byzantium.
CHAPTER IV
TOWARDS DISASTER
‘In prosperity
the destroyer shall come’ JOB XV, 21
In the middle of the eleventh century the
tranquillity of the cast Mediterranean world seemed assured for many years to
come. Its two great powers, Fatimid Egypt and Byzantium, were on good terms
with each other. Neither was aggressive, and both wished to keep in check the
Moslem states further to the east, where Turkish adventurers were stirring up
trouble, without, however, seriously alarming the governments of Constantinople
or Cairo. The Fatimids were friendly towards the Christians. Since Hakim’s
death there had been no persecution; and they were opening their ports to
merchants from Byzantium and from Italy. Traders and pilgrims alike enjoyed
their goodwill.
This goodwill was guaranteed by the power of
Byzantium. Thanks to a series of great warrior Emperors the Empire now
stretched from the Lebanon to the Danube and from Naples to the Caspian Sea.
Despite occasional corruption and an occasional riot, it was better
administered than any contemporary kingdom. Constantinople had never before
been so wealthy. It was the unrivalled financial and commercial capital of the
world. Traders from far and wide, from Italy and Germany, from Russia, from
Egypt and the East, came crowding there to buy the luxuries produced by its
factories and to exchange their own rougher wares. The bustling life of the
vast city, far more extensive and populous than even Cairo or Baghdad, never
failed to amaze the traveller with its crowded harbour, its full bazaars, its wide
suburbs and its tremendous churches and palaces. The imperial court, dominated
though it was at present by two wildly eccentric, elderly princesses, seemed to
him the centre of the
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