nce, early in the morning of the 25th of July 1261, that the
Greeks had entered the city by the Gate of the Pege[382] (Selivri
Kapoussi), and set fire to the capital at four points. Baldwin's first
impulse was to make a brave stand. But his fleet and the greater part of
his army were absent from the city, engaged in the siege of Daphnusium
on the coast of the Black Sea. Meantime the fires kindled by the Greeks
were spreading and drawing nearer and nearer to the Pantokrator itself.
So casting off sword and helmet and every other mark of his station,
Baldwin took ship and led the flight of the Latin masters of
Constantinople back to their homes in the West.[383]

The first incident in the history of the Pantokrator after the
restoration of the Greek Empire was not fortunate. The monastery then
became the object upon which the Genoese, who had favoured that event,
and been rewarded with the grant of Galata as a trading post, saw fit to
vent the grudge they bore against certain Venetians who, in the course
of the feud between the two republics, as competitors for the commerce
of the East, had injured a church and a tower belonging to the Genoese
colony at Acre. To destroy some building in Constantinople associated
with Venice was thought to be the best way to settle the outstanding
account, and so a band of Genoese made for the Pantokrator, over which
the banner of S. Mark had recently floated, and tore the monastery down
to the ground, making it a greater ruin than the Venetians had made of
the Genoese buildings in Syria. Then, not only to deprive the enemy of
his property but to turn it also to one's own advantage, the scattered
stones were collected and shipped to Genoa for the construction of the
church of S. George in that city.[384]

[Illustration: PLATE LXIII.
S. SAVIOUR PANTOKRATOR. GALLERY OF THE NORTH CHURCH, LOOKING SOUTH.]

[Illustration: S. SAVIOUR PANTOKRATOR. THE INTERIOR OF THE NORTH CHURCH,
LOOKING EAST.
_To face page 228._]

In the reign of Michael Palaeologus, a member of the noble family of the
princes of the Peloponnesus became abbot of the Pantokrator, and
acquired great influence. He led, as we shall see, the mission which
conducted the emperor's daughter Maria to the Mongolian court, and when
the patriarchal seat was vacant in 1275, a strong party favoured his
appointment to that position instead of Veccus.[385]

During the period of the Palaeologi the church frequently served as a
ma