Note 17 — BOOK I.

Lebeau, in his “History of the Lower Empire,” relates, after contemporary historians, an incident which plainly shows what was the spirit of the Greeks at that time. “A small town of Silicia being invaded by the Saracens, the curé of the place, named Themal, was saying mass at the time. At the noise which he hears he descends briskly from the altar, without taking off his pontificals, arms himself with a hammer which served for a bell in many eastern churches, goes straight to meet the enemy, wounds, knocks down, crushes all that he meets, and puts the rest to flight. Although he had delivered his town from an invasion of the Saracens, the curé Themal was censured and suspended by his bishop. He was so ill treated that he sought refuge with the Saracens, and embraced the religion of Mahomet.”