A contemporary Greek historian who was an eyewitness to the sack of Constantinople in 1204 described atrocities of which he had thought human beings incapable:
How shall I begin to tell of the deeds done by these wicked men? They trampled the images underfoot instead of adoring them. They threw the relics of the martyrs into filth. They spilt the body and blood of Christ on the ground, and threw it about…
They broke into bits the sacred altar of Santa
Sophia, and distributed it among the soldiers. When the
sacred vessels and the silver and gold ornaments were to be
carried off, they brought up mules and saddle horses inside
the church itself and up to the sanctuary. When some of
these slipped on the marble pavement and fell, they stabbed them where they lay and polluted the sacred pavement with
blood and ordure. A harlot sat in the Patriarch’s seat,
singing an obscene song and dancing lewdly. They drew their daggers against anyone who opposed them at all. In the alleys and streets, in the temple, one could hear the weeping and lamentations, the groans of men and the shrieks of women, wounds, rape, captivity, separation of families. Nobles wandered about in shame, the aged in tears, the rich in poverty.
