Dispersion and Reception:
The Fate of Constantinople's Relics after the Sack of 1204
Session to be held at the 39th International Congress on Medieval Studies
Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan
May 6-9, 2004

Next year will mark the 800th anniversary of the sack of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade. In commemoration of this historic event, the online discussion list Medieval-Religion will sponsor a panel on the fate of the city's relics in western Europe after the sack of 1204. Possible questions include but certainly are not limited to:

• what repercussions did the loss of Christianity's most powerful relics have for eastern Christians?
• how were western Christians influenced by the new proximity of the same?
• how did these relics influence the material culture of western Europe once they reached their new homes?
• how did western Christians explain or justify these thefts?
• what strategies did eastern Christians adopt to deal with their loss?

It is the hope of the organizer that this session will benefit from the insights of a number of disciplines and will include perspectives of Byzantinists as well as scholars focusing on western Europe.