CHAPTER V
THE RITUAL ARRANGEMENTS AND INTERIOR PARTS OF THE CHURCH
Main Divisions.—Du Cange, in the commentary to his edition of the Silentiary’s Poem, was the first to make a serious attempt to elucidate the interior arrangements of S. Sophia. This appeared with the poem in the folio of 1670,[95] but a revised edition was incorporated in his Historia Byzantina, 1680.[96]
In the first his knowledge of the actual state of the church seems to have been limited to the description of Gyllius unassisted by any plan. Drawings of S. Sophia were desiderata at that time, and Grelot tells us how he was induced to attempt to make them by a knowledge that others who had been commissioned by the King of France had failed. Before the publication of his revised edition of 1680 Du Cange had obtained a plan. This appeared in the same year as Grelot’s work, and divergences seem to show that the plans were, in great measure at least, independent of one another. The main text of his commentary however remained the same, and the alterations, although crucial, were mostly made by the omission of a few lines here and there without any attention being specially called to the fact.
This has been the cause of much confusion, as it has unfortunately happened that the first edition has been reproduced without remark in the series of Byzantine texts published at Bonn and in Migne’s Patrologiae Cursus Completus. In this Du Cange placed the iconostasis “under the great eastern arch which supports the dome,” and thus included the whole eastern hemicycle in the bema. He devoted the whole central square under the dome to the “priests and singers,” separating it from the western hemicycle by “marble columns,” which were obtained by a curious misreading of Gyllius’ description of the verde antique columns in the western opening on the first floor. In the centre between these “marble columns” he placed the “Beautiful” or “Royal Gate,” and the western hemicycle outside this was alone allotted to the people. In the corrected edition of 1680 the bema is confined to the eastern extension, the eastern hemicycle became the solea, and the central area and western hemicycle are given to the people.
There is actually very little diversity of opinion in regard to the main divisions of the church between Du Cange, Neale,[97] and Salzenberg, but Rohault de Fleury has been misled into making an engraving of the iconostasis, stretching across the whole hundred feet of the hemicycle.
Bema.—A church, as Simeon of Thessalonica writes, is properly “divided into three parts, the pronaos, the naos, and the bema.” The bema (see Plan, [Fig. 5]) is the raised part within the screen or iconostasis included by the apse. This was the place set apart for the priests, who are hence sometimes called “they of the bema.”[98] Decrees were passed from time to time to enhance its sacred character; as that no member of the laity should pass beyond the screen, except with the consent of a bishop. Even the emperor was only allowed there during a few portions of the liturgy.
The bema of S. Sophia was indifferently called the adyta, hierateion, thusiasterion. The history of Michael Attaliotas also speaks of it as the “second skene, that is, the Holy of Holies.”[99] The apse proper is by Paulus mentioned apart from the space contained by the straight walls, and it is possible that this is the kuklios (cyclius) of Porphyrogenitus. From the poet we gather that the priests’ stalls against the wall were plated with silver. The upper part of the curved wall is incrusted with precious marble of sombre golden tones, beneath which the surface has been disturbed and is now covered by plain gray slabs. When we recall the immense quantity of silver that Procopius says was used in the sanctuary, and remember that the iconostasis and the altar-ciborium were of silver and the Holy Table of gold, it seems likely that the plating of the silver stalls covered the whole of this narrow strip, which would not be more than six or eight feet above the top seat, the level of which we suppose is marked by the projection of the lower part of the wall. In the small oratory of the Saviour built by Basil in the palace “the whole pavement was of massive silver wrought by the hammer and enriched by niello, and the walls to the right and left were covered with great plates of silver damascened in gold and glistening with precious stones and pearls.”[100] To this space we should refer the four panels with images in the wall mentioned in the Novgorod Chronicle,[101] which we suppose were of embossed silver or enamel. The most eastward point of the apse was occupied by the patriarch’s throne.[102] A bishop’s chair with a canopy preserved in the cathedral church of S. George at Constantinople, said to have belonged to S. Sophia, is in any case quite late. It is of wood, ornamented with inlaid work representing the two-headed eagle, which was not adopted earlier than the tenth century.
In [Fig. 8] we give an outline of a miniature in the Menologium (Jan. 16) of the adoration of S. Peter’s chains, which were kept in the chapel of S. Peter attached to the great church. We have here a bema fully represented with the altar, ciborium, and apsidal stalls for the clergy. We can hardly suppose that these latter could have belonged to a small dependent chapel, and hence the miniature in the symbolic way of these old drawings is probably intended as a view of the great apse.
Altar.—The central object of the bema was the altar, which stood beneath the cylindrical vault, on the under side of which the two great watching angels are represented in the mosaic. Paulus says, “On columns of gold is raised the all golden slab of the Holy Table; it stands too on a base of gold, and from it gleams the brightness of precious stones.” The doubtful Anonymous says that it was “supported on four columns, overlaid with gold,” and again that “it was set up on solid columns of gold, studded with precious stones;” and that beneath the altar was a “sea” (thalassa) ornamented with gold and precious stones.[103] This seems to refer to the “base of gold” beneath the columns.
Fig. 8.—View of Bema from the Menologium.
According to Labarte, the description by the Anonymous (see p. [138]) shows that the altar itself was decorated with the bright diversity of enamel. This he seems to prove by passages in Suidas[104] and Cedrenus. The last-named writes: “It is formed of gold, of silver, of every kind of stone and metal and wood, and everything which earth, sea, or the whole universe contains. Of all these he (Justinian) collected the most valuable, with some small amount of commoner ones. He then melted those that would melt, added those that were dry, and poured them into a mould till it was filled. He wrote upon it, ‘We (Justinian and Theodora) thy servants, O Christ, bring thee of thine own, praying that thou wilt graciously accept it, O Son and Word of God made flesh and crucified for us. Strengthen us in the true faith, increase and guard this state, which thou hast intrusted to us, through the mediation of Mary, the holy Virgin, the Mother of God.’”
However doubtful these late Greek writers are as authorities for Justinian’s time, enamel was used in later days in the most extravagant manner, and we cannot doubt that at the time when the Crusaders took the church the altar was of enamel.[105] Robert de Clari,[106] writing at this time, says, “the chief altar of the church (S. Sophia) is so rich that one cannot value it; for the slab which forms the altar is of gold and of precious cut stones (esquartelées) and pearls (molucs) all thrown together.” Nicetas is even clearer; describing the capture of Constantinople and the sack of the church, he says: “The Holy Table, made of all kinds of precious materials, cemented together by fire, and formed into a many-coloured harmony so as to be the wonder of all nations, was broken in pieces and distributed by the soldiers.”[107]
It is very probable that some of the enamels added to the Pala d’Oro at Venice after the sack of Constantinople came from the sanctuary of S. Sophia, possibly from its altar. Sylvester Sguropulus[108] who accompanied John Palaeologus to Venice in 1438, describes the Pala d’Oro as “an icon which is formed out of many, and we heard that some of these were taken from the Church of S. Sophia.” It may be only a coincidence that one of the panels of the Pala contains the figure of Solomon with the Greek inscription, “Wisdom hath builded her house,” that being the usual legend for Solomon.
The altar would have been covered, like the altars shown in the mosaics at Ravenna, and the illustrations of the Menologium,[109] by a cloth reaching on all sides to the floor. These cloths bear very simple devices—in the centre a plain cross, circle, or star, and at the four corners gammidae ⛶ which in the code of symbolism probably expressed the four corners of that world, for which the daily sacrifice was offered.
Others however were more richly embroidered. In the Liber Pontificalis of Agnellus[110] it is said that Maximian, the Archbishop of Ravenna in Justinian’s time, ordered a most precious altar-cloth (endothis) of byssus, on which was embroidered the whole history of the Saviour. “It is not possible to imagine the human figures, or the beasts and birds which are made on it.” The figure of the archbishop was represented with the inscription, “Praise the Lord with me, for he hath raised me from the dust.” The Continuator of Theophanes also speaks of an altar-cloth on which “the birth of the Lord was represented.”[111]
The general Greek name for altar-cloth was endute. Those at S. Sophia are thus spoken of by the Anonymous, and we read that Michael Palaeologus sent to the Pope “an endute of the Great Church, of rose red, with gold and pearls worked on it.”[112]
Ciborium.—The altar stood under a canopy of silver called a kiborion, as is fully described by Paulus. According to the Anonymous it was patterned with niello or damascening (see p. [138]). Such ciboria are frequently spoken of in the Lives of the Popes.[113] Thus Gregory I. made for S. Peter’s a “ciborium with four columns of pure silver,” and Leo III. “made for the basilica of S. Paul a ciborium with large and beautiful columns of the purest silver.” The ciborium of S. Demetrius at Salonica, a fifth-century work described in the Acta Sanctorum, was also of silver. It supported at the top “a solid sphere of silver, with wonderful lily-leaves curved round it, and a cross above.”[114]
An illustration[115] in an eighth-century Gospel preserved at Venice represents a ciborium, like that at S. Sophia. We see four arches on four columns, and from the flat top above rises an octagonal cone. At the four corners stand bowls, and in each bowl is a candle or a representation of one, as the Silentiary describes. Pope Leo III. placed “above the altar of S. Peter four large cups of the purest silver, every one having in its centre a candle of silver-gilt.”[116]
The ciborium at S. Sophia described by Paulus may have lasted till 1203; Robert de Clari, writing at this time, says: “Around the altar there are columns of silver, which carry a canopy (abitacle) over the altar, made like a tower (clokier), which is all of massive silver, and so rich that one cannot estimate its value.”
Crowns, &c.—From the first a crown and dove of gold would have been suspended from the centre of the canopy; such doves are spoken of as being in use in Constantinople during the Council of 536.[117] Theophanes says: “On Easter Day Sophia, the widow of Justin II., and Constantia, the wife of Maurice, gave the Emperor Maurice a crown of exceeding value. When the emperor saw it, he took it to S. Sophia, and hung it above the Holy Table by triple chains of gold and precious stones.”[118] This, Nicephorus Callistus says, was preserved there till the taking of the city by the Latins.[119] According to Buzantios, the emperor Leo IV. and his wife Irene also suspended crowns here. Nicetas speaks of the “crown of the great Constantine, which hung above the Holy Table;” and again of one “John, surnamed Crassus, who rushed into S. Sophia and placed on his head a small crown, one of those which hang round the Holy Table;”[120] and it appears from the account of the Russian pilgrim Anthony, given in the next chapter, that just before the Crusade there were thirty crowns suspended from the ciborium—a beautiful symbolism.
The splendid hanging crowns at Monza and in the Cluny Museum show us that these votive crowns were broad circlets of gold incrusted with large uncut rubies and emeralds with borders of pearls, and strings of jewels, and other pendants hanging from the rim. A small enamelled crown for suspension above an altar which is amongst the Constantinople treasures at S. Mark’s is inscribed ΛΕΟΝ ΔΕϹΠ(ΟΤΗϹ); this, according to Labarte, must be Leo VI., who died in 911.[121]
Altar-veils.—Round the four sides of the ciborium were suspended the curtains described in such detail by Paulus. They were all the more wonderful at this time as being silk-woven and not embroidered.[122] The gold thread however seems to have been “laid” on. By the later Greeks those curtains were named tetrabela. They were often of deep red embroidered with gold, and were usually hung on rods going from capital to capital of the ciborium, as some of the illustrations in the Menologium show, though others seem to have been suspended from the curves of the arches.
The Iconostasis.—For a description of the screen in front of the bema, with its columns, beam, panels, and doors plated with silver, we refer to the Silentiary. A screen of this kind, from the sacred paintings with which it is adorned, is now called the iconostasis, but by the Byzantine writers it is usually named herkos, druphrakta, kinklidai, or kankelloi. Such screens were generally of bronze or marble. The Church of S. John the Evangelist, built by Galla Placidia at Ravenna, had a screen of silver. At the Church of the Apostles at Constantinople, built by Constantine, the iconostasis was gilded bronze. The screen of S. Peter’s in Rome was formed by the twelve beautiful antique columns which figure in Raphael’s tapestry, standing in two rows.[123] Eusebius connects twelve columns which stood about the tomb in the Sepulchre church with the number of the apostles, and it is possible, as De Fleury suggests, that in the six pairs of pillars forming the iconostasis at S. Sophia a reference may be seen to the dismissal of the apostles two by two. From the narrowness of the bema it seems certain that the coupling of the pillars was transversely to the screen as shown on our plan, [Fig. 5]. Thus they easily supported the passage way, where stood a great gemmed cross and a row of branched silver candelabra. This was the “narrow way for the lamp-lighter above the silver columns” described by the Silentiary.
The decoration of the silver plating of the breastwork and the beam by figures of apostles, prophets, and angels, and with circles bearing crosses and monograms, may have been formed in repoussé, like a beautiful gilt panel with a figure of the Virgin and Greek inscription now at Kensington Museum, which formed a part of the decoration of the screen at Torcello, but we think it more probable that it was damascened with gold like the silver work in Basil’s chapel.
The iconostasis probably reached up to the base of the porphyry strip which forms the border of the marble plating of the bema; if so it was about twenty feet high; it had three doors—“The Holy Doors”—that in the centre being the largest.
The “gold and silver columns in the middle of the temple” seen by Benjamin of Tudela, 1173, must refer to the iconostasis.
When the Crusaders practically sacked the church, the iconostasis, ciborium, and altar were broken up and distributed. Nicetas says, “The furniture of surpassing beauty, the silver, which went round the screen of the bema, the ambo, the doors, and many ornaments, in which gold was used, were carried away.” The Novgorod Chronicle[124] gives a fuller account of the eventful morning when the doors were broken through and S. Sophia was invaded. “They broke down the podium of the priests, ornamented with silver, the twelve silver columns, the four panels in the wall, decorated with images, and the Holy Table. They also destroyed the screen walls of the altar placed between the columns, and twelve crosses which stood above the altar; amongst these were crosses of metal, like trees, higher than a man. All these things were made of silver.
“They carried off also the wonderful table, with the gems and a great pearl; so great a crime did they commit in ignorance. Moreover they snatched away forty cups standing on the altar, and silver candelabra, whose number was so great that it is not possible to enumerate them, as well as the silver vessels which the Greeks use, more especially on feast days.
“They stole a Gospel, that was used for the services, and sacred crosses and single images and the covering which was above the altar, and forty censers made of pure gold: they laid hands on all gold and silver and on priceless vessels in the cupboards, walls, and other places, in such quantity that they cannot be numbered.”
Grelot says that before the Turks altered the church the iconostasis had figures of the Virgin and S. John Baptist between the central and side-doors and the Twelve Apostles over.[125]
Prothesis and Diakonikon.—Two chapels that in Byzantine churches almost invariably occur right and left of the bema with which they communicate directly are usually called the prothesis and diakonikon; they were sacristies, used respectively for the preparation of the mass and as a treasury or vestry. Du Cange in both editions placed them in the two exedras of the eastern hemicycle, and in this he is followed by Salzenberg. The impossibility of this arrangement is shown by Neale, who suggests that two chambers on either side of the bema which Du Cange thought were only supplementary were the sacristies in question. The chapels at the east end of S. Sophia have now been built up, but the doors that led into them still exist. We are not however certain that these chapels were built with the church. Paulus does not mention them, and there do not appear to have been chapels in this position at S. Sergius. In regard to the use of the prothesis and diakonikon, Dr. Freshfield[126] considers that the procession with the bread and wine called the Megale Eisodos, described in our last chapter, only became a part of the ritual in the reign of the successor of Justinian, to whose time the Cherubic Hymn sung during the ceremony is referred. The earlier liturgies, he says, contain no directions for this ceremony, but merely speak of the deacon as moving the elements from the prothesis table to the altar, and he concludes that the two side-chapels found in so many churches belong to a time subsequent to Justin II. Two narrow passages however, right and left of the bema, at S. Sophia, S. Sergius, S. Irene, and S. Vitale seem to show that they were intended for access to lateral portions used in connection with the bema, even if these parts were merely screened from the aisles, and a comparison of many early churches in Syria and Asia Minor proves that such chapels were in frequent use if not essential long before Justinian built his church.[127] See our figures [31] and [32], and compare Cattaneo, page 60.
The prothesis and diakonikon of S. Sophia are very infrequently mentioned by those names. In the catalogue of the Constantinopolitan patriarchs we read of “relics being kept in the diaconicum.”[128] The diakonikon is also named where Codinus speaks of the emperor as “hearing the prayers of S. Basil near the diakonikon,” and the prothesis is mentioned in the passage on p. [63]. Certain divisions of the church at the east end are however frequently mentioned by Porphyrogenitus, the Anonymous, and the Russian pilgrims. Thus we have the skeuophylakium (treasury of vessels) and other chapels referred to. The skeuophylakium of the Anonymous seems to be the same as the “lesser sanctuary” of Anthony, by which stood the cross which gave the exact height of Christ. This lesser sanctuary, or skeuophylakium, is probably the diakonikon—“the oratory in front of the metatorion”—where the relics of the Passion were kept.[129] Again we read: “Then by the right-hand side of the bema, they enter the oratory where stands the silver crucifix ... after worshipping they ascend by the cochlea [spiral stair, we suppose at south-east angle where minaret now is] which is by the part called the Holy Well, to the eastern part of the right-hand catechumena.” Again, “Then by the right-hand side of the bema, they enter the oratory where stands the silver crucifix.”[130]
The Holy Well and Metatorion.—The Holy Well, so frequently mentioned in the Ceremonies, seems to have been not merely an object but a division of the church. Labarte makes it a chamber external to the church on the south side, but the Anonymous shows that it was to the east, by speaking of “that part of the temple in which was the Holy Well, the bema, and the ambo.” The author of an account of “the miracle in the Holy Well of the Great Church” speaks of a picture of Christ as being by the eastern gate, “where is the holy mouth of the well of Samaria.”[131]
The Russian pilgrims generally speak of the Samaritan well, from which flowed water from the Jordan, as “in the sanctuary:” the Anonymous Russian says “in the chapel to the right.” At this time it was probably in one of the eastern chapels, which, may have been identical with the prothesis or diakonikon. Some passages of the Ceremonies seem to imply that in the tenth century the Holy Well was without the building; thus we hear of the “embolos [portico] of the Holy Well:” and again, “from the Holy Well, they enter by the door leading to the church;”[132] possibly it was moved later, but probably one of the eastern attached chapels will fulfil the conditions. In our [Fig. 5] we have followed Du Cange’s ground-plan in the distribution of these eastern chapels. It is possible that the round north-east building was used as a great sacristy as Salzenberg suggests; Grelot calls it so on his plan, and T. Smith says this was a tradition. The Anonymous definitely distinguishes the Skeuophylakium, the Holy Well, and the Chapel of S. Peter.
The Metatorion, frequently spoken of together with the Holy Well, Labarte and Paspates place on the south side, external to the church. We think it was probably the name of portions of the side-aisles screened off by curtains. This would agree with Unger,[133] who thinks that the word means a “quarter of the church” (metatio), and that Du Cange was mistaken in deriving it from mutatorium. In the Ceremonies,—“The princes go out of the right side of the bema and enter the metatorion.” Again, the patriarch stands within the iconostasis “on the right-hand side of the bema, towards the metatorion.” From the metatorion a small door led to the Holy Well. Again, “they leave the bema by the right-hand side through the small holy door (in iconostasis) and proceed to the porphyry columns (of exedra), and by the staircase of the metatorion they enter the catechumena.”[134] Again, “the emperor takes off his crown in the metatorion within the Beautiful Gate,” and “within the veil, hanging in the metatorion at the back of the narthex door.” Metatoria in the catechumena of S. Sophia and of S. Sergius are also referred to.[135]
Solea.—The later writers often mention the solea of S. Sophia. Thus Cantacuzenus speaks of the emperor passing through the solea up to the “Holy Doors.”[136] It was immediately outside the iconostasis, and must have closely agreed with the choir of the singers in a Western church. Paulus does not use the word, but he describes the singers as occupying the space in front of the Holy Doors, and embraced by the exedras. The ambo, with its long passage of approach from the step of the Holy Doors, divided this space in two, so it is clear that the singers stood on either side of the ambo. The portion round about the ambo screened by the circle of columns was reserved for the leaders of the choir, the Protopsaltae.[137] We cannot infer from the Silentiary that there was any other screen to the Solea, and no stalls for the singers are mentioned.
It is possible that in the tenth century, when the Book of the Ceremonies was written, the ambo had been modified at least in regard to the approach from the bema, and that a considerable space was interposed between it and the Holy Doors, in front of which there was at this time a porphyry omphalion stone (see our page [96]). Paspates[138] says this is still quite intact, somewhat oval in shape, seven feet across, and adorned with a mosaic of marbles. It seems probable from the Anonymous that in these later days the solea was inclosed by a screen which he says was of silver.[139]
Paulus describes a part on the south side as being inclosed for the emperor, and in Porphyrogenitus we read that the emperor had his seat “near the Holy Doors on the right-hand side.” It is probable that opposite the emperor’s throne there was another bishop’s chair, for that in the bema might only be occupied by the bishop in his own diocese. Grelot indeed reports that the emperor’s and bishop’s thrones were opposite one another.
Nave.—We now come to the central division of the church, the naos or nave, the square space beneath the dome contained between the four main piers: its centre was called omphalos, mesomphalos, or mesonaos.
The pavement, according to the poet Paul, was covered with white Proconnesian marble and darker Bosporus stone. In the opening lines of the description before given he seems to compare the veined marble to flowing streams, or foam-flecked sea, and the ambo is likened to an island rising from the sea. According to Glycas and Codinus the first pavement was of various hues like the ocean. The Anonymous, in comparing a pavement which he says was laid down afterwards with this supposed earlier one, says that “messengers were sent to Proconnesus, and marble of a green colour was worked there, as is seen now like rivers flowing into the sea.” Codinus says, “four rivers of leek-green marble were like the four streams which flow from Paradise to the sea.” As is seen now certainly seems to bring something definite before our eyes, and so far as the pavement can be seen through the narrow chinks of the matting there is much to confirm this part of the Anonymous. Grelot tells us that the pavement is laid in compartments. It is of whitish gray Proconnesian marble, laid in slabs about 4 × 10 feet, with here and there strips of verde antique about 2 feet wide, which suggest the quartering of the floor by a great cross. Moreover the square of rich Alexandrine work still existing, and figured by Salzenberg, lies on a diagonal, and would thus exactly occupy one of four square spaces left in the angles (see [Fig. 5]). Now in the palace the floor of the bedchamber of Basil had four rivers or streams of Thessalian-green marble which seemed to flow away from the centre, and the quarters were filled with mosaics of large eagles.[140] It may also be noticed that four rivers are depicted as flowing away from the cross on the central bronze door of narthex. Many parallel examples of pavements, still existing, confirm the Anonymous in this respect. The mosaic floors of Italy furnish many instances where the four rivers of Eden are represented in the several angles as human forms pouring from urns, waters which are inscribed with the names Gihon, Tigris, Euphrates, and Pison. The design of the pavement of the Baptistery at Florence has been much disturbed, but it seems to have represented flowing streams, which led from the font in the middle to the doors like four paths. It has been pointed out that the carpet of Chosroes, which is described as having represented a garden with flowing streams, was a traditional pattern of which an example showing four streams quartering the field is in the possession of Mr. Colvin.[141] We understand that a similar carpet is now in New York.
We give here a representation of a square of pavement at the centre of the Western Gynaeceum; it is of Proconnesian slabs with border, and a disc of verde antico.
Fig. 9.—Marble Pavement at centre of West Gallery.
Font.—A fine marble font formerly in the precincts of the Mosque Zeinab Sultana at the west of S. Sophia, and now in the Imperial Museum, is the one referred to by Paspates as being probably the font of S. John Baptist (the Baptistery). He writes that there were only two remaining in Constantinople, the other being a smaller font in the precincts of the Mosque Kotza Mustapha Pasha.[142] The font in the museum which we illustrate is 8 feet 2½ inches long, 6 feet 1½ inches wide, and 4 feet 6 inches high, wrought out of one fine block of Proconnesian marble. The outside is carefully finished, which shows that it stood above the floor. The inside is formed into steps, and about the rim are several roughly sunk crosses, which we suggest were filled by inlaid votive crosses of metal. Similar fonts are shown in the mosaics at S. Mark’s and other places. Texier found one in the marble quarries of Synnada with steps inside, and others are found in Palestine, one of which, illustrated in the Memoirs of the Exploration Fund,[143] closely resembles this at Constantinople, which we may therefore look on as a typical Byzantine font.
Fig. 10.—Font from Constantinople.
Consecration or other Crosses.—On the great verde antico columns of the north side of the nave, about six feet above the floor, appear sunk crosses about six inches high; on the south side shallow sunk panels occupy similar positions, formed we may suppose by the Turks for the purpose of destroying the crosses. Similar sunk crosses occur on some of the marble columns in the gallery at S. Sergius and at Bethlehem; at Sinai the nave columns bear inlaid bronze crosses. From the character of those at S. Sophia we should suppose that they were also formerly filled by inlaid metal; their similarity in size and the regularity with which they are placed seem to show that they are of the nature of consecration crosses rather than being merely votive, or rather that they were made by the builders, just as a farmer crosses his bags of wheat. In most of the cisterns of Constantinople one column at least bears a large fairly wrought cross.
Miraculous Marbles and Mosaics.—Clavijo describes a large white slab in the right of the gallery naturally figuring “the Virgin with Christ in her most holy arms:” beneath this was an altar in a little chapel where they said mass. These marbles, in which accidental resemblances to figures might be traced, were evidently much valued. Felix Fabri describes a slab at the Holy Sepulchre in which S. Jerome and his lion appeared. “This picture was not produced by art, but by simple polishing alone.”
The column of S. Gregory Thaumaturgus, mentioned by Anthony of Novgorod as by the entrance and “covered with bronze plates,” may possibly be the celebrated “sweating column,” which is the first square pillar in the north aisle. At about five feet from the floor it is cased with bronze, in which a hole is left over the cavities in the pillar which are supposed to exude the dampness. The indents are smooth, and look like natural cavities discovered in the marble when it was wrought. Canon Curtis, who was kind enough to examine the pillar for us, says it was perfectly dry, and the attendants assured him that water never oozed out of the cavities, although “a few drops of water might be easily kept in each of them.” Sweating columns are well known in the legends of the middle ages. Benjamin of Tudela speaks of two in Rome which sweated on the anniversary of the fall of Jerusalem, and Mandeville mentions four pillars in the Holy Sepulchre “that always drop water, and some men say that they weep for our Lord’s death.” Stephen of Novgorod speaks of a mosaic of Christ in S. Sophia from which holy water flowed from the wounds of the feet.
Water Vessels.—At the west end of the church in the right and left exedras stand two large white Proconnesian marble urns about seven feet high, of beautiful gourd-like forms. They rise from the centre of polygonal basins, and water is drawn from them through bronze taps. It has been said that they were brought from Pergamus or Marmora by Sultan Murad III.[144] The carving of the turban-like tops is certainly Turkish, but the vessels seem to be of Byzantine form, and we are disposed to agree with Grelot, who saw them in their present position before 1680. He says they were kept full of water “to cool the Mohammedans overheated by their devout gesticulations.” “If they are not very ancient, they stand in the place of others, which contained holy water for the Christians who entered the church.” He associates with these the palindrome inscription given by Gruter (see our page [191]), which he says was written on these, or similar, vessels in gold letters.[145]
Now a beautiful cantharus in the Church of S. Peter and S. Andrew, on the island of Murano,[146] which is almost identical with those of S. Sophia, is stated to have been brought back thence with the Venetian booty, and bears a Byzantine inscription:—
ΑΝΤΛΗϹΑΤΑΙ · ΥΔΩΡ · ΜΕΤΑ · ΕΥΦΡΟϹΥΝΗϹ · ΟΤΙ · ΦΩΝΗ · ΚΥ · ΕΠΙ · ΤΩΝ · ΥΔΑΤΩΝ ·
(“Draw the water with gladness, for the voice of the Lord is upon the waters”); together with a monogram which reads ΝΙΚΟΜΕΔΟΥ. Beneath the monogram appears a stopping where evidently a tap was fixed, in exactly the position of those to the urns in S. Sophia. The first half of the latter inscription is on a small vessel of lead found at Tunis, which, from the character of the decoration, cannot be later than the fourth or fifth century. The first mention of the vessels in S. Sophia which we have been able to find is by an English traveller, Fynes Moryson (1595), who says, “I did see two nuts of marble of huge bigness and great beauty.”
We give in [Fig. 11] the vessel in the south exedra at S. Sophia, together with that of Murano, and for further comparison some beautiful vessels from a relief of Justinian’s time on the ivory throne at Ravenna. We have omitted the Turkish top of the former. Canon Curtis, who has specially examined them, writes to us that between the top and body of each vessel is a copper band which conceals the joint, if there is a joint.
Images and Tombs.—Very few fragments of Christian sculpture remain in Constantinople. The Silentiary does not mention any sculpture at S. Sophia. Probably the feeling which was mature in Leo the Isaurian was always latent; Oriental Christians sharing in the dislike with which Jew and Moslem regarded statues. Canon Curtis writes: “On the northern side of the sweating column I used to see parts of a bas-relief representing, as I thought, a procession, but it was almost concealed by the metal plates, and now it is entirely hidden.” The wealth of the church in icons at a late period may be gathered from incidental references. Not until a late time do we hear of any tombs in the church. S. Chrysostom and most of the other patriarchs were buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles.
Pachymeres mentions “the stele of the three Germani (Patriarchs of Constantinople) near the porphyry columns on the west.” Nicephorus Gregoras[147] also writes that the remains of the patriarch Arsenius were buried in the great Church of S. Sophia.
Fig. 11.—Water Vessels from S. Sophia and Murano.
Hangings.—The descriptions on several occasions mention veils and hangings by the names of vela and velothyra. With mosaics and miniatures to help us it is possible to judge of the lavish way in which these hangings were used.
The mosaics at Ravenna show veils hanging at the door of the church through which Theodora is about to enter, and the large elevation of the Palace of Theodoric, likewise in mosaic, shows hangings in all the arches of the portico. Such textiles suspended at entrance doorways are often mentioned by contemporary authors.[148] At S. Sophia the doors entering the narthex, and those between it and the church, all have bronze hooks, to which such “door veils” were suspended; and embroidered Turkish hangings, which roll up from the bottom by means of cords and pulleys, are still hung to them. In the Byzantine mosaics the hangings are often shown raised by being gathered into a loose knot, or by being drawn to the sides and passed once round the pillars between which they hang.
Fig. 12.—Vessels of Sixth Century: from Ivory Throne, Ravenna.
The account of the coronation ceremony describes how the royal persons were seated in the gynaeceum, screened by “golden velothyra,” so that they should not be seen until the psaltae sang the “Lift up,” when immediately the velothyra were raised. Of these hangings in the interior we have a picture in the account given in the continuation of Theophanes of an ambassador, Iber Curopalates, who visited Constantinople in 923, and “was taken to the church of S. Sophia, that he should inspect its beauty and size and precious ornaments. Now the walls were all draped with cloth of gold before they led him in, and he, struck with the great size of the church and its wealth of adornment, exclaimed, ‘Truly this is the house of God,’ and returned home.”[149] The Ceremonies mention gold hangings in Catechumena above Royal Door.[150] Nicetas tells us how the Crusaders “spared neither the house of God nor His ministers, but stripped the great church of all its fine ornaments and hangings, made of the richest brocades of inestimable value.”
We have no doubt that S. Sophia was frequently adorned inside by the arcades of both tiers having hangings suspended from the iron bars, which cross all these arches at their springing, exactly like those shown in the mosaic of Theodoric’s palace. Indeed Ignatius of Smolensk (circ. 1395), who was present at the coronation of Manuel, says that the women in the galleries remained behind curtains of silk so that none might see their faces.[151]
These hangings seem either to have had simple figures such as squares with large “gammidae” at the corners worked on them, probably in gold, or they were patterned over with figures, animals, and flowers, woven in the stuff like the elaborate veils of the altar described by the Silentiary. The linen vestments found at Panopolis in Egypt show us that the “gammidae” originated in embroidered shoulder straps, with seal-like ends applied on either side of the neck opening. [Fig. 13] shows two of the door veils represented at Ravenna; that on the right is from the mosaic in S. Apollinare Nuovo showing the palace. The gammidae are here exactly of the form found on the early Coptic linen vestments, and it cannot be doubted that they were “applied” in a similar way. The pattern on the left is the door-hanging from the mosaic of S. Vitale; the plain squares are of gold. The designs on the robes in this mosaic are interesting. Justinian’s chlamys is covered with birds in circles, the border of Theodora’s robe displays the three Magi making their offerings; one of her attendants has a robe powdered with swimming ducks and a mantle with four petalled red roses on a gold ground, and another robe has five pointed leaves scattered over its field. Many examples of the figured silks are preserved in museums. There is at South Kensington Museum a piece of pictured silk of this kind, probably of Justinian’s time, which is covered with circles, in each of which is figured a man and a lion. More than a century before the time of Justinian, Asterius, Bishop of Amasius, had made these elaborately figured stuffs a subject of satire: “When men so draped appear in the streets the passers-by regard them like painted walls. Their clothes are pictures which little children trace out with their fingers. There are lions, panthers, and bears, also rocks, woods, and hunters. The most devout carry Christ, His disciples, and His miracles. Here we may see the marriage in Galilee and the pots of wine; there is the paralytic carrying his bed, the penitent woman at the feet of Jesus, or Lazarus come again to life.”[152]
Fig. 13.—Door Veils of the Sixth Century: Ravenna Mosaics.
Later the patterns became more heraldic and larger in scale, figuring for the most part great displayed eagles, and griffons, or lions affronted. A piece of a textile of this kind in the museum at Düsseldorf, of which there is a full-size copy at South Kensington, bears golden lions about two feet six inches long, and the names of Constantine VIII. and Basil on a pallid purple ground. Frauberger[153] compares this with another signed example of the same age and similar design preserved at Siegburg, and a third at Autun, “all of which were intended for church hangings.” The same writer says that after Justinian’s introduction of silk weaving in 552 and the loss of Bosra with its purple-dye vats to Chosroes, an imperial textile industry was established by the Golden Horn, which existed until the fourteenth century. Here these hangings were probably produced.
Carpets.—Portions of the floor of S. Sophia were almost certainly strewn with carpets. Porphyrogenitus relates of the New Church of Basil that “woollen carpets (nakopetai) called prayer carpets, of wonderful size and beauty, and resembling the bright plumage of peacocks, were laid one over another, completely covering the mosaic pavement of valuable stones.” The carpets and prayer-rugs of the mosques thus had their direct parallels, if not their prototypes, in the Byzantine churches.
Synods.—The patriarchal registers, dating from the fourteenth century, speak of synods sitting “in the right-hand catechumena”; this probably refers to the south gallery, where the vault has displayed in mosaic the descent of the Holy Ghost on the Apostles.
Across this gallery there is at present a screen, which possibly, as Paspates suggests, shut off the part used by the Synods. (See dotted line on [Fig. 6].) The screen is made up of two marble slabs, each sculptured into the form of panelled double doors, with architraves and carved panels. Above the opening left between these is a coloured marble slab. At the top is a carved wood beam, which, being exactly like the permanent vault ties, is evidently of Justinian’s age; but the whole is certainly not an original assemblage of the parts. Each slab, which imitates a pair of wood doors, has a representation of a bronze ring handle and a lock-plate on one half, and a hasp on the other, all exactly copied in sculptured marble. We believe that these imitation doors are earlier than the church; the idea was common in late classic times. De Vogüé and Dr. Merrill[154] found several tomb doors, similarly panelled, studded with imitation nails, and having elaborate knockers, all carved in stone. An example in marble now in the museum at Leeds closely resembles the S. Sophia slabs.
Clergy and Ritual.—In the time of Justinian the total number of clergy was 525, but at the time of Heraclius this had been increased to 600.[155] They were thus divided:—
| Presbyters | 80 |
| Deacons | 150 |
| Deaconesses | 40 |
| Subdeacons | 70 |
| Readers | 160 |
| Singers | 25 |
| Doorkeepers | 75 |
| Total | 600 |
The subdeacons, according to the forty-third canon of the Council of Laodicea, stood by the doors. Porphyrogenitus[156] speaks of the emperor “passing through the narthex of the gynaeceum, where the deaconesses have their usual place.” The same author also mentions[157] “hypurgi of the narthex, readers for alternate weeks, ostiarii of the Holy Well, a domesticus of the subdeacons, and deputati of S. Sophia.” A series of seals of the officers of S. Sophia is given by Schlumberger;[158] the seals are those of the klerikos, diakonos, manglabites, ekdikos, deuteroboetes, protospatharios, and the chartophulax. An anonymous author[159] gives a list of the officers of the “holy and great” church which is too long to be given in full, but we may note some of the duties mentioned.
The Oeconomus held “one of the flabella, and stood at the right hand of the altar, when the patriarch was officiating;” while “the sacellarius, holding a napkin, stood on the left.” The skeuophylax stood in front of the skeuophylakium, so as to be ready to hand any vessel that might be wanted. The chartophulax stood near the “holy doors,” and pronounced the words of the service, “Approach, ye priests.” The castensius holds the censer, and draws the curtain at the Trisagion. The refendarius and deputati carried the orders of the patriarch to the princes and nobles, and summoned them to his presence. When the patriarch was officiating, the protopapas took precedence of all the other priests, and even gave the communion to the patriarch. The protopsaltes “stood in the middle of the church between the right and left choirs,” and led the singing. On one occasion the number of priests was so great “that the church of S. Sophia, though it is the greatest of all on the earth, seemed then too small.”[160]
Up to the eleventh century, services were only performed in S. Sophia on Sundays and Saints’ days. In the middle of the eleventh century, Monomachus arranged that the service should be every day, and for this extra salaries were given.[161]
Some idea of the ritual of the services may be gathered from the offices in the Euchologium, edited by Goar, the Cherubic and other hymns, together with the Ceremonies of Porphyrogenitus. An account given by Anthony of Novgorod is quoted in the next chapter. Bertrandon Brocquière writes: “I was curious to witness the manner of the Greeks performing divine service, and went to S. Sophia on a day when the patriarch officiated. The emperor was present accompanied by his wife, his mother, and his brother, the despot of the Morea. A Mystery was represented, the subject of which was the three youths whom Nebuchadnezzar had ordered to be thrown into the fiery furnace.”
Having in our last chapter quoted the description of the procession and celebration of the Mass, we now give the accounts of the Adoration of the Cross given by Arculf[162] in the seventh century, and by Porphyrogenitus in the tenth; together with the directions for the emperor’s procession to the great church.
The Adoration of the Cross.—“In the northern part of the interior of the house (S. Sophia) is shown a very large and beautiful aumbry, where is kept a wooden chest, in which is shut up that wooden cross of salvation on which our Saviour hung for the salvation of the world. This notable chest, as the sainted Arculf relates, is raised with its treasure of such preciousness upon a golden altar, on three consecutive days after the lapse of a year. This altar also is in the same round church, being two cubits long, and one broad. On three consecutive days only throughout the year is the Lord’s cross raised and placed on the altar, that is on the day of the supper of the Lord, when the emperor and the armies enter the church, and, approaching the altar, after that sacred chest has been opened, kiss the Cross of Salvation. First of all the emperor of the world kisses it with bent face, then going up one after another in the order of rank or age all kiss the cross with honour. Then on the next day, that is on the sixth day of the week before Easter, the queen, the matrons, and all the women of the people approach it in the above-mentioned order, and all kiss it with reverence. On the third day, that is on the Paschal Sabbath, the bishop, and all the clergy after him, approach in order with fear and trembling and all honour, kissing the Cross of Victory which is placed in its chest. When these sacred and joyful kissings of the sacred cross are finished, that venerable chest is closed, and with its honoured treasure it is borne back to its aumbry. But this should also be carefully noted, that there are not two but three short pieces of wood in the cross, that is the cross beam and the long one which is cut and divided into two equal parts; while from these threefold venerated beams when the chest is opened, there arises an odour of a wonderful fragrance,[163] as if all sorts of flowers had been collected in it, wonderfully full of sweetness, satiating and gladdening all in the open space before the inner walls of the church, who stand still as they enter at that moment; for from the knots of those threefold beams a sweet-smelling liquid distils, like pressed-out oil, which causes all men of whatever race, who have assembled and entered the church, to perceive the above-mentioned fragrance of so great sweetness. This liquid is such that if even a little drop of it be laid on the sick, they easily recover their health, whatever be the trouble or disease they have been afflicted with.”
The passage from the Book of the Ceremonies[164] describing the Exaltation of the cross on September 14th begins with the emperor “passing through the palace Manaura, and the upper corridors, ascending by the wooden staircase, and entering the catechumena[165] of the great church.” After he has reached the catechumena and “lighted candles, and prayed, he takes his seat in the part on the right-hand side.” “The emperor then summons the patriarch, who remains for a short time with the emperor, and then goes out, and comes to the small secretum, where is kept the Holy Wood, and receives the emperor there. And as the congregation begin the ‘Glory to God in the Highest,’ the emperor enters, and kisses the Sacred Wood, and comes out into the great secretum. Then the emperor, following the Cross, descends by the great winding staircase, keeping to the left, and passes through the Didaskalion,[166] where the paschalia are inscribed, and having gone down the steps, he enters through the great gate of the narthex, and reaches the royal doors and stands there. The emperor and patriarch now pass through the middle of the nave, and on the right of the ambo into the solea; here the emperor stands before the Holy Doors, and gives the candle he is carrying to the praepositus. He then enters the bema, and having kissed the Sacred Wood, and turning round, he comes out again, and passes through the solea, then mounts the third or fourth step of the ambo and stands there, holding the candle. The patriarch then comes out of the bema and mounts the ambo with the Sacred Wood, and the emperor gives his candle to the praepositus, and remains there until the Wood has been elevated in the four quarters of the ambo. The emperor and patriarch then descend from the ambo and enter the bema, and the Wood being placed before them the emperor prays and kisses it, and coming out through the side of the bema he is conducted by the patriarch to the Holy Well, and having kissed it, he continues to the palace.”
It would almost appear that whereas in the time of Arculph (circa 680) the Cross was kept in one of the north-eastern chambers by the bema, in the time of Porphyrogenitus (tenth century) it was preserved, during certain periods, in a secretum accessible from the gynaeceum. Possibly the small upper chapel on the south side with mosaic ceiling, and the additions over the south porch, both built about the tenth century, may be the chambers in question. At the end of the ceremony the Cross was left in the bema, and it may be that only on the occasion of the Festival of the Cross was it taken up to the gallery, preparatory to a procession through all parts of the church.
Procession to the Church.—The following is an account of a pageant, which is the first in the Book of Ceremonies—the order of the royal procession to the Great Church. On the day preceding the feast, notice was given so that the way might be adorned with flowers. The emperor and princes carried gifts, and processional candles, and the Cross of St. Constantine.[167] Priests were sent to receive him with the Cross of the Lord, which was taken from the church by the Sacristan (skeuophulax).
In proceeding to the church there were six “receptions.” Three were in various parts of the palace, “and the princes come to the gate (Chalké), and the fourth reception takes place outside the barrier of Chalké; the fifth reception takes place in front of the Great Gate which leads into the Augusteum; and the sixth reception is at the Horologium of S. Sophia.”[168]
“And from thence the princes enter through the Beautiful Gate, and have their crowns removed by the praepositi within the curtain that hangs in the chamber, that is to say, the propylaeum of the narthex. And the patriarch receives them at the door of the narthex with the usual ceremony.... The lords remove their crowns, kiss the holy Gospel carried by the archdeacon, greet the patriarch, and proceed up to the royal doors. Bearing the candles and bowing thrice, the entrance is made after a prayer by the patriarch; then those carrying the sceptres and vessels stand right and left of the church; but those bearing the banners and the books stand on either side in the solea; and the Cross of St. Constantine is placed on the right side of the bema. And when the lords come to the Holy Doors and to the porphyry omphalion, the patriarch alone enters within the screen, by the holy door on the left. The princes, after bowing thrice, enter with the candles, following the patriarch, and coming to the holy table they kiss the holy cloth, and they place as is usual on the holy table the two white veils, and kiss the holy chalices, and the two discs and the holy corporal cloth, which are handed to them by the patriarch. And then by the right-hand side of the bema the princes enter with the patriarch the Kuklis, where is placed the Holy Crucifix of gold, and again they bow with the candles three times praising God; and the patriarch gives the censer to the emperor and he censes the crucifix: then they kiss the patriarch, and take leave of him and enter the oratory, which is in front of the metatorion, and there, bowing three times and praising God, they kiss the Holy Cross as well as all the Instruments of our Lord’s Passion, and then enter the metatorion.”