OF THE CITY OF CONSTANTINOPLE, AND OF THE FAITH OF THE GREEKS.
At Constantinople lieth St. Anne, our Lady's mother, whom St. Helena caused to be brought from Jerusalem. And there lieth also the body of John Chrysostom, who was archbishop of Constantinople. There lieth also St. Luke the Evangelist, whose bones were brought from Bethany, where he was buried. And many other relics are there. And there is the vessel of stone, as it were of marble, which men call Enydros, and which continually drops water, and fills itself every year, till it run over, besides what men take from within. Constantinople is a very fair and good city, and well walled, and it is three-cornered. There is an arm of the sea of Hellespont, which some men call the mouth of Constantinople, and some men call it the Brace (or arm) of St. George; and that arm incloses two parts of the city. And upward to the sea, upon the water, was wont to be the great city of Troy, in a very fair plain; but that city was destroyed by the people of Greece, and little thereof now appears, because it is so long since it was destroyed.
About Greece there are many isles, as Calliste, Calcas, Cetige, Tesbria, Mynea, Flaxon, Melo, Carpate, and Lemne. In this latter isle is Mount Athos, that passeth the clouds. And there are divers languages and many countries obedient to the emperor, namely, Turcople, Pyneynard, Cornagne, and many others, as Thrace and Macedonia, of which Alexander was king. In this country was Aristotle born, in a city called Stagyra, a little from the city of Thrace. And at Stagyra Aristotle lieth; and there is an altar upon his tomb. And they make great feasts for him ever year, as though he were a saint. And at his altar they hold their great councils and their assemblies, expecting that through inspiration of God and of him they shall have the better council. In this country are very high hills, toward the extremity of Macedonia. And there is a great hill, called Olympus, which divides Macedonia and Thrace, so high that it passeth the clouds. And there is another hill, called Athos, so high that the shadow of it reaches to Lemne[289], which is an island seventy-six miles distant. At the summit of this hill the air is so clear, that no wind is found there, and therefore no animal may live there; and the air is dry. And men say in those countries, that philosophers once went upon those hills, and held to their nose a sponge moistened with water, to have air, because the air above was so dry; and at the summit, in the dust of those hills, they wrote letters and figures with their fingers, and at the year's end they came again, and found the same letters and figures which they had written the year before, without any change. And therefore it appears evident that these hills pass the clouds and join to the pure air.
At Constantinople is the palace of the emperor, very handsome and well built; and therein is a fair place for joustings, or for other plays and sports. And it is made with stages, and hath steps about, that every man may see well, and not intercept the view of those behind. And under these stages are stables well vaulted for the emperor's horses; and all the pillars are of marble. And within the church of St. Sophia, an emperor once would have buried the body of his father when he was dead; and, as they made the grave, they found a body in the earth, and upon the body lay a fine plate of gold, on which was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, letters that said thus, "Jesus Christ shall be born of the Virgin Mary, and I believe in him." And the date when it was laid in the earth was two thousand years before our Lord was born. The plate of gold is still preserved in the treasury of the church. And they say that it was Hermogenes, the wise man.
Although the men of Greece are Christians, yet they vary from our faith; for they say that the Holy Ghost may not come of the Son, but only of the Father. And they are not obedient to the Church of Rome, nor to the pope; for they say that their patriarch hath as much power over the sea as the pope hath on this side the sea. And therefore pope John XXII. sent letters to them, how Christian faith should be all one, and that they should be obedient to the pope, who is God's vicar on earth, to whom God gave his full power to bind and to assoil, and therefore they should be obedient to him. But they sent back divers answers, amongst others saying thus: "We believe well that thy power is great upon thy subjects. We may not suffer thy great pride. We are not in purpose to fulfil thy great covetousness. The Lord be with thee; for our Lord is with us.—Farewell." And no other answer might he have of them. They make their sacrament of the altar of unleavened bread, because our Lord made it of such bread when he made his Maundy[290]. And on Shere-Thursday they make their unleavened bread, in token of the Maundy, and dry it in the sun, and keep it all the year, and give it to sick men instead of God's body. And they make but one unction when they christen children. They anoint not the sick. And they say that there is no purgatory, and that the souls shall have neither joy nor pain till the day of doom. They say, moreover, that fornication is not a deadly sin, but a thing that is according to nature; and that men and women should wed but once; and whosoever weddeth oftener than once, their children are bastards, and begotten in sin. Their priests also are wedded. They say, also, that usury is no deadly sin; and they sell benefices of holy church; and so do men in other places, (God amend it when his will is!) and that is a great scandal; for now is simony king crowned in holy church: God amend it for his mercy! And they say that in Lent men shall not fast, or sing mass, except on the Saturday and on the Sunday. And they fast not on the Saturdays, except it be Christmas Eve, or Easter Eve. They suffer not the Latins to sing at their altars; and if they do by any chance, they immediately wash the altar with holy water. And they say, that there should be but one mass said at one altar upon one day. They say also that our Lord never ate, but that he made sign of eating. They say, moreover, that we sin deadly in shaving our beards; for the beard is token of a man, and the gift of our Lord. And they say that we sin deadly in eating of animals that were forbidden in the Old Testament and by the old law, as swine, hares, and other beasts that chew not their cud. And they say that we sin in eating flesh on the days before Ash Wednesday, and in eating flesh on the Wednesday, and eggs and cheese on the Fridays. And they curse all those who abstain from eating flesh on the Saturday. The emperor of Constantinople appoints the patriarch, the archbishops, and the bishops, and gives the dignities and the benefices of churches, and deprives those who deserve it, when he finds any cause; and so is he lord both temporal and spiritual in his country[291].
And although these things touch not to our way, nevertheless they touch to that that I have promised you, to show you a part of the customs, and manners, and diversities of countries. And because this is the first country that is discordant in faith and in belief, and varies from our faith on this side the sea, therefore I have set it here, that you may know the diversity that is between our faith and theirs. For many men have great liking to hear of strange things of diverse countries.
Chapter IV.
OF THE WAY FROM CONSTANTINOPLE TO JERUSALEM.—OF ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST, AND OF THE DAUGHTER OF YPOCRAS, TRANSFORMED FROM A WOMAN TO A DRAGON.
Now return I again to explain to you the way from Constantinople to Jerusalem. He that will proceed through Turkey, goes towards the city of Nice, and passes through the gate of Chienetout, and men see constantly before them the hill of Chienetout, which is very lofty: it is a mile and a half from Nice. And if you will go by water, by the Brace of St. George, and by the sea where St. Nicholas lieth, and towards many other places, first, you go to an isle that is called Sylo, in which mastic grows on small trees, out of which comes gum, as it were of plum-trees, or of cherry-trees. And after men go by the isle of Patmos, where St. John the Evangelist wrote the Apocalypse. And you shall understand that St. John was thirty-two years of age when our Lord suffered his passion, and after his passion he lived sixty-seven years, and in the hundredth year of his age he died. From Patmos men go to Ephesus, a fair city, and nigh to the sea. And there died St. John, and was buried in a tomb behind the high altar. And there is a fair church, for the Christians were always wont to hold that place. And in the tomb of St. John is nothing but manna, which is called angels' meat, for his body was translated into Paradise. And the Turks now hold all that place, with the city, and the church; and all Asia the Less is called Turkey. And you shall understand that St. John caused his grave to be made there in his life, and laid himself therein, all alive; and, therefore, some men say that he did not die, but that he rests there till the day of doom[292]. And, in truth, there is a great marvel, for men may see there the earth of the tomb many times openly stir and move, as though there were living things under.
And from Ephesus we go through many islands in the sea to the city of Patera, where St. Nicholas was born, and so to Myra, where he was chosen to be bishop; and there grows very good and strong wine, which they call wine of Myra. And from thence men go to the isle of Crete, which the emperor once gave to the Genoese. And then we pass through the isles of Colos and of Lango[293], of the which isles Ypocras was lord; and some men say, that in the isle of Lango is still the daughter of Ypocras, in form and likeness of a great dragon, which is a hundred fathoms in length, as they say, for I have not seen her. And they of the isles call her lady of the land. And she lies in an old castle, in a cave, and appears twice or thrice in the year; and she doth no harm to any man unless he do her harm. She was thus changed and transformed from a fair damsel into the likeness of a dragon by a goddess named Diana; and they say that she shall remain in that form until the time that a knight come, who shall be so bold that he dare come to her and kiss her on the mouth; and then she shall turn again to her own nature, and be a woman again, but after that she shall not live long. And it is not long since a knight of Rhodes, who was bold and doughty in arms, said that he would kiss her; when he was upon his courser and went to the castle, and entered into the cave, the dragon lifted up her head towards him, and when the knight saw her in that form, so hideous and horrible, he fled away. But the dragon carried the knight upon a rock, and from thence she cast him into the sea, and so was lost both horse and man. A young man that knew not of the dragon, went out of a ship, and proceeded through the isle until he came to the castle and entered the cave, and went so far that he found a chamber; and there he saw a damsel who was combing her head and looking in a mirror, and she had much treasure about her, and he believed that she had been a common woman, who dwelled there to receive men to folly; and he abode till the damsel saw the shadow of him in the mirror, and she turned her towards him and asked him, what he would? And he said, he would be her paramour. And she asked him if he were a knight? And he said, nay. And then she said, that he might not be her leman; but she bid him go again unto his fellows and get him knighted, and come again upon the morrow, and she would come out of the cave before him; and then he should come and kiss her on the mouth, and have no fear, "for I shall do thee no harm, although thou see me in likeness of a dragon; for though thou see me hideous and horrible to look upon, know that it is made by enchantment. For without doubt I am no other than thou seest now, a woman, and therefore fear not; and if thou kiss me, thou shalt have all this treasure, and be my lord, and lord also of all the isle." And he departed from her and went to his fellows, in the ship, and was made a knight, and returned on the morrow to kiss this damsel. But when he saw her come out of the cave, in form of a dragon, so hideous and so horrible, he had so great fear that he fled again to the ship; and she followed him. And when she saw that he turned not again, she began to cry as a thing that had much sorrow, and then she returned to her cave; and anon the knight died. And from that time to this might no knight see her, but he died anon. But when there shall come a knight who is bold enough to kiss her, he shall not die; but he shall turn the damsel into her right form and natural shape, and he shall be lord of all the countries and isles abovesaid.