nd while his head was displayed to
public view in the Milion for three days, his mutilated body was taken
to the Chora. This might have seemed sufficient revenge. But the rebel's
offence so rankled in the emperor's memory, that even after the lapse of
some thirty years his resentment was not allayed. The widow of Bactagius
was then forced to proceed to the Chora to disinter the bones of her
husband from their resting-place in holy earth, and carry them in her
cloak to the dreary burial-ground of Pelagion, where the corpses of
persons who committed suicide were thrown.[519]

Like similar institutions the Chora suffered severely during the
iconoclastic period. Because of its connection with the Patriarch
Germanus it became the special object of the hatred of Constantine
Copronymus for monks and was almost ruined. What he left of it was
turned into a secular residence, and devoted to the confinement of
Artavasdos and his family. There also that rebel, and his nine children
and his wife, Constantine's sister, were eventually buried.[520]

With the triumph of the iconodules, in 842, under Michael III. and his
mother the Empress Theodora, happier days dawned upon the Chora. It was
then fortunate in the appointment of Michael Syncellus as its abbot, and
under his rule it rapidly recovered from poverty and desolation. The new
abbot was a Syrian monk distinguished for his ability, his sanctity, and
his devotion to eikons. He came to Constantinople in 814, to remonstrate
against the religious policy of Leo the Armenian, and, according to the
custom of monks from Palestine on a visit to the capital, lodged at the
Chora. But so far from succeeding in the object of his visit, Michael
was imprisoned and then banished to one of the monasteries on Mount
Olympus in Bithynia. Accordingly, when the cause for which he suffered
proved victorious, no honour seemed too great to bestow upon the martyr.
It was even proposed to create him patriarch, but he declined the
office, and supported the appointment of his friend Methodius to that
position. Methodius, in return, made Michael his syncellus and abbot of
the Chora.[521] Under these circumstances it is not surprising that
funds were secured for the restoration of the monastery, and that the
brotherhood soon gained great influence in the religious circles of the
capital. There is, however, no mention now of the church of the
Archangel Michael or of the church dedicated to the Theotokos. Possib