the peril of his own life he
saved the emperor from capture, if not from death, during the wars with
the Saracens. Nevertheless, being accused of treason he fled to the
court of Baghdad and took service under the Caliph Mutasim, until
assured that Constantinople would welcome him back.

He was one of the three counsellors appointed by Theophilus to assist
Theodora during the minority of Michael III., and so highly was he
esteemed, that he was acclaimed emperor by the populace in the
Hippodrome, and might have worn the crown but for his fidelity to the
little prince. Silencing the shouts raised in his favour, he exclaimed,
'You have an emperor; my duty and highest honour is to defend his
infancy and to secure for him, even at the price of my blood, the
heritage of his father.' In the iconoclastic controversy Manuel
supported the policy of Theophilus, and therefore found himself in a
difficult position when Theodora decided to restore the use of eikons.
The story is, that while he lay dangerously ill at the time, monks of
the Studion assured him that recovery was certain if he vowed to uphold
the orthodox cause. The vow was taken, and upon his restoration to
health Manuel favoured the measures of Theodora. Probably he felt that
the current of public feeling on the subject was too strong for him to
oppose. But the task of working in harmony with his colleagues in the
regency, Theoctistus and Bardas, was soon found impossible, and rumours
of a plot to blind him and remove him from the administration of affairs
led him to retire to his house near the cistern of Aspar. For some time,
indeed, he continued to appear occasionally at the palace, but at last
he quitted for ever that scene of intrigue, and converted his residence
into a monastery, where he might spend the closing days of his life in
peace and finally be laid in a quiet grave.[443]

[Illustration: PLATE LXXV.
S. THEODORE. THE INTERIOR, LOOKING EAST.]

[Illustration: S. THEODORE. THE INTERIOR, LOOKING EAST (UPPER PART).
_To face page 256._]

The building which Manuel bequeathed was reconstructed almost from the
foundations, a large and beautiful edifice, by the celebrated Patriarch
Photius.[444] It underwent extensive restoration again at the command of
the Emperor Romanus Lecapenus (919-945),[445] in token of his friendship
for Sergius, the abbot of the monastery, a nephew of Photius, and
eventually an occupant of the patriarchal throne for twenty years