hese modifications of the tradition, as reported by
the Patriarch Constantius, are substantially the following:--In the
first place, the body of the last Constantine, after its decapitation,
was, at the express order of the victorious Sultan, buried with royal
honours, [Greek: meta basilikes times],[287] and therefore, so Mr.
Siderides maintains, must have been interred in the church which then
enjoyed the highest rank in the Greek community of the city, viz. the
church of the Holy Apostles, the patriarchal cathedral after the
appropriation of S. Sophia by the Turks. The church of the Holy
Apostles, however, soon lost that distinction, and was torn down to make
room for the mosque which bears the name of the conqueror of the city.
Under these circumstances what more natural, asks Mr. Siderides, than
that pious and patriotic hands should remove as many objects of
historical or religious value as possible from the doomed shrine, and
deposit them where men might still do them reverence--especially when
there was every facility for the removal of such objects, owing to the
fact that a Christian architect, Christoboulos, had charge of the
destruction of the church and of the erection of the mosque.

Some of those objects were doubtless transferred to the church of the
Pammakaristos,[288] where the Patriarch Gennadius placed his throne
after abandoning the church of the Holy Apostles; but others may have
been taken elsewhere. And for proof that the church of S. Theodosia had
the honour of being entrusted with the care of some of the relics
removed from the Holy Apostles, Mr. Siderides points to the inscription
over the doorway leading to the chamber in the south-eastern dome pier.
According to the inscription that chamber is consecrated by the remains
of Christ's apostles, _i.e._ the relics which formed the peculiar
treasure of the church of the Holy Apostles.

This being so, Mr. Siderides argues, on the strength of the tradition
under review, that the remains of the last Constantine also were brought
from the church of the Holy Apostles to S. Theodosia under the
circumstances described.

As to the position of the imperial tomb when thus transferred to the
church of S. Theodosia, Mr. Siderides insists that it cannot be in the
chamber in the south-eastern dome pier: first, because the religious
veneration cherished by Moslems for the grave in that chamber is
inconsistent with the idea that the grave contains the ashes of the