Lord God, is there not a great difference between things temporal and things eternal? Surely. That which is temporal we value most when we do not have it, but seems less valuable when we acquire it. Why? Because it fails to satisfy the soul. On the other hand, that which is eternal cannot be diminished through possession. Why? Because no one can set a value on it that is not its own.
Some that pillaged Constantinople did so out of fright, dreading excommunication when they returned unless they might give the church a martyr’s knuckle or shin, mayhap silver enough to smooth the abbot’s palm. Only the Venetians acted with much restraint, albeit they scoured churches and homes and public buildings for what might grace their handsome city. As for merchants from Pisa and Genoa who took up residence in Galata, once Constantinople lay in Frankish hands they streamed toward it avidly, feeling they were dispossessed of shops and trade. Gunther the monk alleges that they murdered two thousand citizens. So reduced was Constantinople that Greeks knelt in the street if pilgrims rode by and laid one finger behind another to form a cross, signifying their mutual faith.
Abbot Martin of Elsass, who did not want to return with nothing to show for the expedition, considered what he might carry off. Because it did not seem virtuous to search for worldly objects he thought of relics. Accompanied by a chaplain he went to the church of Pantokrator, which held the sarcophagus of Emperor Manuel’s mother, Irene. There in the church he saw Jerusalemfarers eagerly helping themselves to gold and silver and precious stones. But as he thought it sacrilegious to rifle a church except in pursuit of some holy cause he ventured deeper. And he encountered an old man with a long beard, a priest, yet not dressed like a priest. Abbot Martin therefore mistook him for a layman and spoke roughly. Come now, said he. Show me your most puissant relics or you shall die! This terrifed the old man and with a few words of Romana lingua he sought to pacify the abbot. He unlocked a coffer bound with iron hoops to show the treasure. Abbot Martin thrust both hands into the coffer to help himself and he filled up the arms of his chaplain, whereupon they departed. As they hastened away from the church they were asked by others if they had stolen anything or not, for if not how could they be so loaded down as they walked. To which Abbot Martin responded that they had done well. Thanks be to God! the others answered. Gunther the monk saw fit to note what this abbot delivered to his church in upper Elsass. One foot of Saint Cosmas the martyr. A tooth of Saint Lawrence. An arm of Saint James. A piece of the skull of Saint Cyprian. A splinter from the Holy Cross. And among other items a trace of His precious blood, shed for our redemption. In these gifts the church exulted.
Chronicles report that Dalmatius de Sergy took the mummified head of Saint Clement from the church of Saint Theodosia and presented it to the monks at Cluny. The bishop of Soissons returned with one arm of John the Baptist, the skull of Saint Stephen, and the questing finger Doubting Thomas thrust into the side of our Lord. As for Robert de Clari, they say he collected numerous relics, which he gave to the church of Saint Peter at Corbie, including thorns from the Crown, a shred of the loincloth He wore on the cross, an arm of Saint Mark, a finger of Saint Helena, and Veronica’s holy sudarium. I have no knowledge of the rest.
King Andrew of Hungary some time afterward took from the Holy Land a length of Aaron’s rod, a water jug used at the marriage feast of Cana, the head of Saint Margaret, the right hand of Saint Thomas, the right hand of Saint Bartholomew. Yet is not simony a doubtful act? Lord, if it please Thee, lighten the darkness of our understanding.
These Latins swore on Holy Gospels to pass through Christian land without spilling blood, looking neither right nor left because they had vowed to oppose Saracens and would spill the blood of Saracens only. They vowed to keep themselves chaste as befits servants of God, but used the inhabitants of Constantinople worse than Saracens. Images that should be adored were trampled underfoot, altars overturned, reliquaries stripped, sacred vessels used for drinking cups as if these Latins might be the vanguard of Antichrist. They brought mules to the doors of churches because they could not by themselves carry off so much. Should a sumpter beast slip on bloody cobblestones, what did they do but stab it. All around took place the most brutal acts. Shrieks, cries, laments, groans from every quarter. Nicetas declares that when he escaped the blazing city he saw the patriarch on a donkey like a
