60.—How the city of Constantinoppel was built.
It is also to be noted, that the emperor of Constantinoppel himself creates the patriarchs, and also gives all God’s gifts to the church, and is lord of spiritual and temporal matters as far as his territory reaches. I have heard much and often from their learned men, that Saint Constantine came from Rome with many kocken and galleys to Greece, to the place where Constantinoppel lies, and then there appeared to him an angel from God, who said to him: “Here must thy dwelling be; now sit on the horse, and do not look back, and ride to the place from which thou hast begun to ride.” He mounted, and rode quite half a day; and when at night he arrived at the same place where he had mounted, he looked back, and saw a wall of the height of a man spring up from the ground; and from the place where he had looked back, to the place from which he had begun to ride, which is quite twenty paces or more, there was no wall; it has been much tried to build a wall, but it will not stand; but it goes towards the sea, so that they can defend themselves better than if it had been towards the land. I have seen it, because in the same place there is a breakwater,[1][(1)] therefore the Greeks say that the said wall was built by angels; and that the crown with which their emperor is crowned, and which was brought to Saint Constantine by an angel from heaven, is a heavenly crown; and therefore there is no worthier nor more highly born emperor than the emperor of Constantinoppel. And when a priest dies, they put on him everything that belongs to a priest at the altar, and they put him on a seat in the grave, and cover him with earth. The chant, Ayos otheos, which they sing once a year only, they sing upon all other holy occasions; and during Lent they sing the Alleluia every day, when they are in church. They sing Kirieleyson only, in their Mass, and not Xreleyson. They say, there is but one Godhead and no difference, that it is God the Father and God the Son, and therefore it would not be right to sing Christ. They also bow very humbly before their priests. When a layman meets a priest, he takes off his hat, and bows humbly, and says: “Esloy mena tespotha”; which is as much as to say: Bless me, Lord. Then the priest lays his hand on the layman’s head and says: “Otheos efflon essenam”; and that means, God bless thee; and this they do always, men and women, when they meet a priest. When a priest takes a wife, he takes her before he becomes a priest; the reason is, because if he does not beget a child, he cannot be a priest, but so soon as he has got a child, he is consecrated to be a priest. Laymen pray only with the Pater Noster, and do not know the Belief nor the Ave Maria. Many priests wear white garments at Mass.[(2)]
[1]“wann es an der selben stat ein getüll hat.”