The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-12-08

l Thus Russia came to stand in a pecu- l liar relation 10 the church and state of | Constantinople. To the eastern empire she owes both her culture and her re- ligion. As far back as the 10th century a popular legend prevailed In Constan- | tinople that an equestrian statue In the square of Taurus was secretly inscribed with prophecy that in the last days Russia would become mistress of the city. Are those last days at hand? Before the foundations of the present city were laid by Constantine the Great in 324 A. D., the ancient town of Byzan- tium had hourshed on it's site. At the Bosphorus Europe is separated from Asia by distance of little more than q mile. From a remote age the harbor on the European side. which Is really an arm of the Bosphorus, was known as the Golden Horn. In his immortal history, Gibbon writes;
 The cure which it describes might be compared to the horn of the stag, or with more proprety to that of the OK. The epithet of golden was expressive of the riches which every wind waited from the most distant countries into the secure and capacious port of constantinople. IL ap- pears to have been formed by nature for the center and capital of a great mon archy. The imperial city commanded from her seven hills the opposite shores of Europe and Asia; the climate was healthy and temperate, the soil fertile the horbor secure and capacous and the approach on the side of the continent was of small extent and easy defence.
 The New Rome
 Here, on a spot which for many ages had attracted the commerce of the an cient world, Constantine first of the Christian Emperors of Rome built the city which was to bear his name. In one of his laws he has been careful to instruct posterity that it was in obedience to the commands of God that he laid the ever lasting foundations of Constantinople. Soon the new city rivalled imperial Rome in riches and in population. The Roman empire was divided between Arcadius and Honorius in 395 A. D.. in 519 came the fall of the empire of the west weakened by internal strife and the shock of sue cessive attacks by Huns and Vandas and Goths. By this time Constantinople had become the new Rome The great Justinian who resigned 521-565 did much 10 restore the glories of the empire What Augustus had done for old Rome-he who found it brick and left it marble-Jus- tinian did for new Rome. One of the achievements of his reign was the build
 ing of the noble Cathedral of St Sophia which, though now a mosque, still stands a stately monument to his fame. After Rome had fallen from its high estate the empire of the east remained for centu- ries barrier protecting Europe against the uncursion of barbarian hordes For a thousand years the empire of which Constantinople was the capital stood as the chief bulwark of civilization. We owe to it the codfication of Roman law the protection of Europe from the fanat- ical followers of Mahomet, the main tenance of European civilization, and the preservation of the priceless traditions of Greek culture and Roman rule.
 The first attack of the Moslems on the empire of the east was made in 629 A, D. For generations. off and on, they made war on the Asiatic provinces, In 1076 they captured Jerusalem. Then came the era of the crusades, those holy wars by which Europe sought to rescue the Holy Land from the hand of the defler, Early In the 14th century, through the victories of the Turks led by othman, all the Asiatic provinces were lost to the em- pire.
 Turks Entry Into Europe
 It was in 1341 that the Turks first passed over into Europe. Amurath the First warred against the nations inhabiting the region between the Danube and the Adriatic-Bulgarians, Servians. Bosnians. and Albanians. In 1889, at the battle of 1<ossovo, the league and independence of the SlaVonic tribes were finally crushed, Rather than submit to the Moslem con querors, some of the vanquished fled into the fastnesses of Montenegro. There In that stony and mountainous land. they preserved involate their freedom and their faith.
 By the beginning of the 18th century the once mighty empire Of the east. de- positary of the Roman tradition, residu- ary legatee of all the glory of the Cae- sars, had dwindled into small Greek state torn with dissension. Constantine Palaeologus, the last of the Emperors, bemoaned his plight. "I am surrounded" he said "by men whom I can neither love nor trust nor esteem." Already the Turks. having vanquished the Bulgars and the Serbs, had established them selves in Thrace, with Adrianope as their center. At last, in 1453, Mahomet 1T cap tured Constantnople after a memorable siege. All Europe was thrilled with grief at the catastrophe. Constantinople was raVaged by the victorious Moslems. St Sophia, the most glorious and venerable shrine in Christendom, after having been despoiled of its priceless treasures, the gifts of the devout through many cen turies, was speedily transformed into a mosque Then Mahomet II performed the namaz of prayer and thanksgiving on the great altar where the Christian mys- teries had so lately been celebrated be- fore the last of the Caesars.
 Constantinople fell on May 29 145S. From that day to this it is the Crescent, not the Cross, that has waved over the in- comparable city of the first of the Chris tian Caesars.