The Fourth Crusade: Event, Aftermath, and Perceptions

Papers from the Sixth Conference of the Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East, Istanbul, Turkey, 25-29 August 2004

Thomas F. Madden

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781351889452
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: History

The Fourth Crusade (1201-1204), launched to restore Jerusalem to Christian control, veered widely off course, finally landing at Constantinople which it conquered and sacked. The effects of the crusade were far-reaching during the Middle Ages and remain powerful even today, which explains the continued vibrancy of its historiography. This volume, based on studies presented at the Sixth Conference of the Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East in Istanbul, Turkey in 2004, represents some of the best new research on this fascinating event. With the "Diversion Question" of the past centuries now largely settled, these studies focus on three aspects of current scholarship: evaluations of the event itself, investigations into the aftermath of the conquest of Constantinople in 1204, and analyses of the evolving perceptions and memories of the event in Europe and the Middle East. Together these essays help to place the Fourth Crusade within the larger context of medieval Mediterranean history as well as larger issues such as agency, accommodation, and memory that inform new aspects of modern historiography.

PERCEPTIONS

The Translatio Symonensis and the Seven Thieves: A Venetian Fourth Crusade Furta Sacra Narrative and the Looting of Constantinople

David M. Perry

On Palm Sunday of 1204, twelve Venetian crusaders ventured out from their ship into the chaotic city of Constantinople.¹ They planned to steal relics. All twelve came from the parish of St. Simon the Prophet in Venice, and their intention was to take home the relics of their parish’s patron saint from the Church of St. Mary Chalkoprateia, located close to Hagia Sophia on the Golden Horn. The men had reconnoitered the premises a few days earlier, because one of the Venetians, Pietro Steno, had seen the relics while in the city on business in 1201, but needed to retrace his steps to find them again. With this accomplished, the conspirators made their plans, and on Palm Sunday had put them into motion. But the best laid plans of Venetian crusaders often went awry.

So begins the Translatio Symonensis, a relatively recently discovered source for the Fourth Crusade.² This narrative describes the “translation” (the term used when one moves relics from one place to another) of the relics of St. Simon the Prophet from Constantinople to Venice. It covers the follies and successes of these crusaders as they find the relics and smuggle them out of the church, eventually sending the sacred items back to Venice. Drawing from chronicle sources and an inscription on the tomb in Venice (where the relics eventually were deposited), scholars knew that Venetians took St. Simon from Constantinople after the Fourth Crusade, but lacked the details of the theft. This translatio provides them. Thanks to the research of Paolo Chiesa, the full story of the theft of St. Simon is now available for scholars of the Fourth Crusade.³

This article will consider two groups of questions about the text and the story it relates. First, the text: What does it say? Where does it come from? Who wrote it? Is the narrative historically accurate? Second: Who were these Venetian relic thieves and what is the significance of their decision to steal the relics of their patron saint from Constantinople and bring them home to Venice?

The Story

What does the text say? This is a good story with many moments of humor. The characters seem real, with both flaws and virtues. Certainly, boiler-plate elements found within most furta sacra tales also occur in this narrative, but these elements exist side by side with amusing idiosyncrasies that add an air of verisimilitude.⁴

The first few sections of the text set the scene. The events of the Fourth Crusade, summarized in just a few lines, follow a description of Venice and the pious parishioners of St. Simon. The Greeks receive the blame for the conflict that led to the crusade. According to the text, Doge Enrico Dandolo of Venice, the Count of Flanders, and other counts took up the cross and went to Constantinople to prosecute a just war on behalf of Alexius Angelos, the deposed Greek prince. The narrative describes the Greek enemies as impious rulers and iniquitous actors.⁵ The text suggests that the purpose of the entire campaign was to see justice done in Constantinople, and does not mention the crusade’s original destination of Egypt, or its goal of recapturing Jerusalem. A few lines describe the Venetian ships drawing close to the walls and men from the vessels storming them. Close fighting follows, and in the course of the battle, fires flare up around the walls. The crusaders emerge victorious and take both the city and the kingdom. The army then begins to loot.

At this point, the narrative turns to the protagonists. The Holy Spirit moves seven men from the parish of St. Simon to desire only sacred items, thus differentiating themselves from the other crusaders, who are moved by the lust for gold and silver. After a brief homily on the virtues that the Holy Spirit can inspire, the main action of the story begins. During the days after the fall, Andrea Balduino and Pietro Steno speak together on their ship. Andrea claims that he has heard that the body of their patron, Simon, is in the city. Pietro responds that this is true, for he has seen it. Two years earlier, Pietro had been in Constantinople with his uncle, Matteo Steno, a most religious man. Together, they had gone to venerate at the tomb of St. Simon, which was located somewhere near the church of St. Sophia. Steno and Andrea decide to steal the relic, gather together ten other co-conspirators, and form their plans. The first step is to find it, and Steno leads Andrea, one Marino Calbo, and “certain others” into the neighborhood of St. Sophia. They explore, find the right church, locate the tomb within the church, and creep back to their ship to make plans for the heist. They decide to do the deed on Palm Sunday, when the people of the city would be distracted.

The narrative relates a series of mishaps after the preamble and the plotting. In order to avoid attracting attention as they make their way through the streets, the twelve men split into two groups, one of five, the other of seven. The group of five gets lost on the way, and never arrives at the church. Andrea Balduino urges the seven to hurry, and they split up again into groups of four and three. The three go inside to retrieve the relics, and the four stay behind to guard the door and alert the three if anyone comes. The three, Balduino, Steno, and another man, approach the stone crypt of St. Simon, but find themselves too afraid to act. They then argue over which of them should break open the crypt, each deferring to the others, suggesting that the saint’s preference would be for another to do the deed. Time passes.

The men at the door become impatient and call inside, asking what could possibly be taking so long. Those inside, hearing some muffled shouts and sure that someone is coming, panic and dash back to their comrades. The seven stand at the door, staring at each other. The four guardians at the door wonder, reasonably, where the saint’s relics might be. They reproach the three would-be-thieves. “Where is your courage?” they ask. “Are you men?” They order the thieves to “Go, in the name of God and complete this task.” They suggest that the Venetians would be better off dead than to leave the theft undone. Chastened, the three head back to the crypt. Balduino finds his courage and breaks open the stone with one mighty blow of the hammer, but inside the sarcophagus is a lead ark. So they break open the ark and find a box with iron bands that have rusted and broken open. Pietro Steno now reveals that he had dreamt of this moment the previous night and that it had been revealed to him that he would be the one to lift out the relics from this last container. He does, and is rewarded with that familiar sweet smell of success for the would-be relic thief – a sweet aroma that miraculously fills the chamber. All breathe easy, knowing that God and the Saint have approved of their venture.

Even here the men’s trials are not done. They make it back to their ship and hide the relics away, for now they have begun to glow with holy light. Before they can leave for home, however, the Doge of Venice, for reasons not expressed in the text, orders all the uxeria – ships used to transport horses – to be beached.⁶ No one could depart. A great “murmur” then arises amongst the Greek people over the loss of St. Simon. The Doge and “other princes of war” hear the hue and cry and decide to help.

For the safe return of the relics of St. Simon, the Doge offers those relics’ weight in gold. The Venetian thieves quickly take the relics off the ship and hide them in a little local chapel connected to an abandoned palace on the Bosphorus. They pay an old, pious Greek woman to care for the chapel, though they keep her ignorant of what is inside. “God be praised,” none of the conspirators become tempted to turn in their comrades, or the relics, for the bounty. Finally, after six months, one of the thieves receives permission (by lottery) to head back to Venice. Andrea Drusiaco (presumably one of the door guards) takes the relics and a letter describing the events from his comrades, and journeys home without incident. Back in Venice, he gives everything to Leonardo, rector of their parish church. Shortly thereafter, with great pomp and ceremony, this priest installs the relics in the local church. Venice’s two highest-ranking clerics, the Bishop of Castello and the Patriarch of Grado, both assist Leonardo in the celebration and interment of the relics.

The Source

Paolo Chiesa, an Italian scholar, published an edition and commentary on the manuscript in 1995. He found it in Milan in a large, bound, fourteenth-century collection of Venetian hagiographical tracts. Although the manuscript that holds this story is from the fourteenth century, it is fairly clear that the narrative is actually older. The core source for the translatio is the actual account of the theft by the Venetian crusaders, followed by a contemporary shaping of that account into the traditional hagiographic genre. The text contains many realistic depictions, including the story about the men who get lost in the confusing streets of Constantinople and never arrive at the church, and the necessity for Steno, who had seen the relic in 1202, to retrace his steps from St. Sophia. The stashing of the relics in an abandoned Greek palace chapel on the banks of the Bosphoros is a credible solution to their problem. The hesitation on the part of the Venetian leaders to let the crusaders return to Venice is consistent with other sources about the crusade.⁷ The church of St. Mary Chalkoprateia was near St. Sophia, as described.⁸ In short, the text provides a largely trustworthy account of the crusaders’ story.

If we trust the text, then we should be able to trust that the identities of the Venetians involved in the theft are accurate. Their names are Andrea Balduino, Pietro Steno, Leonardo Steno, Marino Calvo, Angelo Drusario, Nicola Feretro, and Leonardo Mauro. The text also mentions Matteo Steno, Pietro Steno’s uncle. We lack the names of the five who got lost, if indeed they ever existed.

Only a few of the published and unpublished Venetian sources from around the year 1200 mention the names lis...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• The Fourth Crusade: Event, Aftermath, and Perceptions
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• List of Contributors
• Programme of the Conference
• EVENTS
• AFTERMATH
• PERCEPTIONS
• Index