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190 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. upon visitors from the West.' The walls of the building ^vere veneered with beautiful slabs of marble, arranged so as to produce a general effect of richness and a harmony of tone, while the wliole of the interior gave an impression of unity and beauty such as even no Gothic cathedral produces, and which makes a modern authority in architecture doubt whether any Christian church exists of any age whose interior is even now so beautiful as this marvellous creation of By- zantine art.'^ Seen by Sir John Maundeville in 1322, and when it had been considerably injured, it impressed him as " the fairest and noblest church in the world." ^ But while the Great Church of the Divine "Wisdom was the crown of so much that was beautiful and magnificent, there were other buildinojs which claimed the attention of travel- lers. It was surrounded with edifices which were character- other build- ^^^^ '^'^^^^ Byzautiue splendor. Near at hand, to the injjs. northeast, was the imperial palace, a mass of build- ings between St. Sophia and the Marmora, and occupying a site which, from its choice by Constantino down to the pres- ent day, has been renowned at once for wonderful beauty and for the many and great events with which its history is crowd- ed. The Imperial Square — the ancient forum, or Augusteon 1 See Stanley's "Eastern Church," p. 299. The author remarks that the Byzantine historian of the visit of tlie Russian envoys to St. Sophia gives the reply of the guides, " What ! do you not know that angels come down from heaven to mingle in our services ?" without any obser- vation, and that the effect was a striking one produced on a barbarous people by the union of religious awe and outward magnificence. He ob- serves also that a like confusion supports the supposed miracle of tho Holy Fire at Jerusalem. As to the latter, whatever may have been its origin, it is now purely and simply a fraud, and that the Greek Church should still retain a service in which God is thanked for sending the fire is the worst piece of evidence I know of against that Church. ' Fergusson's " History of Architecture," ii. 321. See also in the Nine- teenth Century of December, 1884, an article by the same author on " The Proposed New Cathedral for Liverpool," in which he says (p. 911): "S. Sophia . . . which is the most beautifully proportioned in- terior of any church yet erected for Christian purposes anywhere." =* " Early Voyages in Palestine," p. 130.