Vasilief, A History of the Byzantine Empire

Byzantium and the Crusades

The Fourth Crusade and Byzantium 

Page 16

Some scholars suppose that certainly the Frankish rule in Morea, and probably the Chronicle of Morea itself, influenced Goethe, who in the third act of the second part of his tragedy Faust lays the scene in Greece, at Sparta, where the love story between Faust and Helena takes place. Faust himself is represented there as a prince of the conquered Peloponnesus surrounded by the feudaries; the character of his rule reminds us somewhat of one of the Villehardouins, as the latter is represented in the Chronicle of Morea. In a conversation between Mephistopheles, in the form of Phorcias, and Helena; J. Schmitt thinks that Mistra, which had been built precisely at the time of the Latin sway in Morea, is without doubt described, Phorcias said:

Thus stood, for many years, forlorn the sloping ridge That northward to the height rises in Sparta's rear, Behind Taygetus, whence, still a merry brook Downward Eurotas rolls, and then, along our vale Broad-flowing among reeds, gives nurture to your swans. There in the mountain-vale, behind, a stalwart race Themselves establishd, pressing from Cimmerian night, And have upreard a fastness, inaccessible, Whence land and folk around they harry, as they list.

Later appears a description of this castle, which has pillars, pilasters, arches, archlets, balconies, galleries, scutcheons, and so forth, like a typical medieval castle. All this passage of the tragedy seems to have been written under the influence of the Chronicle of Morea, and therefore from the conquest of Morea by the Franks came some of the material for the poetic scenes of Faust.

The taking of Constantinople by the crusaders and the establishment of the Latin Empire put the pope in a difficult position. Innocent III had opposed the diversion of the crusade and had excommunicated the crusaders and Venetians after the seizure of Zara; but after the fall of the capital of the Byzantine Empire, he stood face to face with the accomplished fact.

The Emperor Baldwin, who in his letter to the pope named himself by the Grace of God the Emperor of Constantinople and always Augustus, as well as the vassal of the Pope (miles suus) notified the latter of the taking of the Byzantine capital and of his own election. In his reply Innocent III entirely disregards his former attitude. He rejoices in the Lord (gavisi sumus in Domino) at the miracle effected for the praise and glory of His name, for the honor and benefit of the Apostolic throne, and for the profit and exaltation of the Christian people. The pope called upon all clergy, all sovereigns, and all peoples to support the cause of Baldwin and expressed the hope that since Constantinople was taken it would be easier to reconquer the Holy Land from the hands of the infidel; and at the close of the letter the pope admonished Baldwin to be a faithful and obedient son of the Catholic Church. In another letter Innocent wrote: Of course, although we are pleased to know that Constantinople has returned to obedience to its mother, the Holy Catholic Church, nevertheless we should be still more pleased, if Jerusalem had been restored to the power of the Christian people.

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