The Latin Church in Cyprus, 1195–1312

375 Pages·1997·8.07 MB·English

by  Nicholas Coureas

The Latin Church in Cyprus, 1195-1312
This page intentionally left blank
The Latin Church in Cyprus,
1195-1312
NICHOLAS COUREAS
~~ ~~o~;~~n~~~up
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 1997 by Ashgate Publishing
Published 2016 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routl edge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright© 1997 by Nicholas Coureas.
Nicholas Coureas has asserted his right under the Copyright, Disigns and Patents Act 1988
to be associated as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in
any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are
used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Catologuing-in-Publication Data
Coureas, Nicholas
The Latin Church in Cyprus, 1195-1312
1. Catholic Church-Cyprus-History. 2. Orthodox Eastern Church-Cyprus
History. 3. Cyprus-Church History. I. Title.
282.5'693'09022
US Library of Congress Catologing-in-Publication Data
Coureas, Nicholas
The Latin Church in Cyprus, 1195-1312 I Nicholas Coureas
p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (alk. paper, hb).
1. Catholic Church-Cyprus-History. 2. Catholic Church-Relations-Cyprus
(Archdiocese). 3. Cyprus (Archdiocese)-Relations-Catholic Church.
4. Cyprus-Church History. I. Title.
BX1621.3.C97C68 1997 97-23242
282'. 5693 '0902-dc2l CIP
Transferred to Digital Printing in 2014
ISBN 9781859284476 (hbk)
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements vi
List of Abbreviations vii
Introduction ix
Map 1: Latin Dioceses on Cyprus xii
Map 2: Major Latin and Greek Monasteries in the Countryside xiii
Map 3: The Military Orders xiv
Part One: The Secular Latin Church
1 The Secular Latin Church, the Crown and the Nobility 3
2 The Internal Organisation of the Secular Church 59
Part Two: The Regular Latin Church
3 The Military Orders in Cyprus from 1191 to l3l2 121
4 Other Religious and Monastic Orders on Cyprus 187
Part Three: The Latin and Orthodox Churches
5 Relations between the Latin and Orthodox Churches 251
Conclusion 319
Appendix 323
Bibliography 325
Index 335
Acknowledgements
Many people have contributed towards the commencement, completion and
improvement of this study, which was initially begun as a Ph.D thesis submitted at
the University of London (UK) towards the end of 1993. Firstly thanks are due to the
AG Leventis Foundation, which funded my studies whilst I was a full·time
postgraduate student at Royal Holloway and Bedford New College. My mother and
father provided unqualified and unstinting moral and fmancial support throughout the
course of my undergraduate and postgraduate studies, and words alone cannot express
my gratitude towards them.
As the supervisor of this thesis, and the fust person who suggested its
publication as a book, Professor Jonathan Riley Smith has not only fulfilled but
greatly surpassed all the expectations and hopes placed in him. The same can be said
for Dr. George Georgallides, who as Director of the Cyprus Research Centre
unceasingly encouraged me in the completion of this work and arranged for me to
take a year's leave from my work for research concerning this study. His successor,
Dr. Andreas Phylactou, very kindly granted me an additional eight months leave in
which to complete the study, for which I am extremely grateful.
Professor C.H. Lawrence, Dr. Peter Edbury and Dr. Anthony Luttrell have
all contributed significantly in the improvement of this study by their conunents and
suggestions, while Professor Norman Housley supported its publication. Ms Ruth
Peters and the staff of Ashgate publishing have shown great patience and forbearance
in assisting me in the final stages of editing the book. Last but by no means least, I
wish to thank my wife Ersie not only for her forbearance, but her support and
encouragement in the final stages of this thesis.
List of Abbreviations
AOL Archives de /'Orient lAtin.
BEC Biblioth€que de l 'Ecole des Chanes.
BEFAR Bibliotheque des Ecoies fram;:aises d' Atb!nes et de Rome
BF Byzantinische Forschungen.
8/HR Bulletin of the Institute of Historical
Research.
CSFS Collana storica di fonti e studi. General
editor G. Pistarino. Genoa, 1969-
DOP Dumbarton Oaks Papers.
EHR English Historical Review.
EKEE Epeteris tou Kentrou Epestemonikon Erevnon.
MEFR Milanges de l'Ecole jranraise de Rome.
MGH Monumenta Gennaniae Historica.
MOPH Monumenta ordinis Fratrum Praedicatorum
Historica.
PCRCICO Pontificia commissio ad redigendum codicem
iuris canonici orientalis: Fontes. Series Ill, 15 vols. Rome,
1943-
PL Patrologiae cursus completus: Series Latina,
comp. by J. P. Migne. 217 vols. Paris, 1844-1864.
RHC Recueil des historiens des croisades. 16 vols.
Paris, 1841-1906.
Ann. Documents anniniens. 2 vols. 1869-1906.
Lois Les assises de Jerusalem. 2 vols. Paris, 1841-1843.
Oc. Historiens occidentaux. 5 vols. 1844-1895.
ROL Revue de /'Orient Latin.
RS Rerum Brittanicarum Medii Aevi Scriptores
(Rolls Series). 251 vols. London, 1858-1896.
This page intentionally left blank
Introduction
This boolc is a study of the Latin Church on Cyprus during the years 1195-1312, the
first century of its establishment on the island. The history of both the secular and the
regular clergy, including the brothers of the military orders, will be examined and
discussed. The complex and continuously evolving relations of the
Latin church with the crown, the nobility and the Latin urban population, its relations
with the papacy and the other Latin churches of the Latin east, and finally its troubled
relations with the Onhodox church are included in this survey.
This subject is important because it sheds light on two lcey areas of the history
of the crusading movement. One is the history of Latin churches in the east
Mediterranean, which were established in the walce of the first crusade and its
conquests. The Latin church of Cyprus had close links with them which were not
simply determined by the island's geographical proximity to the mainland of Palestine
and Syria. The Latin patriarchs of Jerusalem and Antioch frequently involved
themselves in the ecclesiastical affairs of Cyprus, with or without papal authorisation,
and the institutional and economic links between the Latin churches of Cyprus and
the mainland were close: this applies to the regular as much as to the secular clergy.
The relations of the secular and regular clergy with the crown and nobility of Cyprus
were modelled, as we shall see, on the customs prevailing in the kingdom of
Jerusalem.
The second Jcey area on which the history of the Latin church of Cyprus sheds
light is the experiences of the Latin churches founded in territories conquered by the
Latins in the wake of the Fourth Crusade of 1204. Even though Cyprus had been
conquered thirteen years prior to this, it had been a Byzantine province. It had been
culturally and politically part of the Byzantine world although it was geographically
close to the Latin east. It was to become politically involved in this area through its
Lusignan monarchy, for the kings of Cyprus were at times also kings of Jerusalem.
In this respect Cyprus was unique, and because of its closeness to both Latin Syria
and the Byzantine lands, some of which were to form Latin Greece, the history of its
church is important for the better understanding of developments which occured in
both those areas.
As regards source materials, by far the greater part consists of papal
correspondence. Part of the papal correspondence for the thirteenth century and for
the fourteenth century popes has been calendared and edited by the Ecole fraru;aise
de Rome into volumes of 'Registres'. Yet the registers of Pope Celestine Ill, under
whom the Latin church was founded on Cyprus, do not survive. Some of his letters
have been edited by R. Hiestand, however, in the collection of papal documents
concerning the Holy Land. The surviving letters of his successor, Pope Innocent Ill,
INTRODUCTION
were printed in the nineteenth century by Migne, who made use of the earlier editions
of S. Baluze, and of those letters unearthed from the Vatican library by la Porte du
Theil and Brecquigny, but parts of Innocent's correspondence are also lost.
Furthennore, Migne's edition of his letters has various shortcomings regarding
chronology. A new edition of ltmocent's letters is currently being undertaken by 0.
Hageneder and G. Haidacher, but so far this covers only the first two years of his
pontificate. The correspondence of Pope Honorius Dl, who succeeded Innocent, has
been calendared by Pressutti, and published in this fonn. It should be pointed out that
the papal registers and other documentary collections do not contain a complete
record of the letters of the thirteenth and founeenth centul)' popes, many of which
do not survive.
Supplementing the above collections of correspondence are the volumes of
papal letters concerning the relations of the papacy with the Orthodox churches of
southern Italy, the former Byzantine lands, and the Latin east, published at the
Vatican by T. Haluskynskyj, M. Wojnar and A. Tauru. Other examples of papal
correspondence exist in the Hospitaller canulary edited by Delaville le Roulx, in
various volumes of the Monumenta Gennaniae Historica series, and in the cartulary
of the Holy Sepulchre edited by Bresc-Bautier. The use of these sources is not
without problems. The letters recorded by the clerks in the papal chanceries and
subsequently placed in the registers as copies could differ in part from the versions
sent out to the various recipients. Furthermore these letters are one-sided in that the
replies to them, or the initial letters that prompted their composition, are not usually
extant. This means that they present matters from an almost exclusively papal
perspective, and this must be borne in mind in the examination of the papacy's
disputes with the secular powers. The same applies as regards the papacy's relations
with the Orthodox church on Cyprus, especially as there are no surviving Orthodox
archival collections. For the Orthodox viewpoint, there are two extant letters written
by the Orthodox Patriarch Gennanos, in exile at Nicaea, and in a few letters written
by the Orthodox Archbishop Neophytos and the Orthodox clergy of Cyprus itself.
A weakness of the available primary source material is in providing little
information on the day-to-day administration within the Latin church as an
organisation, although the surviving Iegatine decrees of the thirteenth and early
fourteenth cenruries are vital for the limited knowledge lhat can be gained. Only one
Latin cartulary written on Cyprus survives, that of the Latin archbishopric of Nicosia.
There are no extant archival collections from the three Latin suffragan bishoprics of
Limassol, Famagusta and Paphos. As a result little is known how the extensive
properties of the secular clturch and of the regular clergy outside the diocese of
Nicosia were acquired and administered. The background of the members of the
cathedral chapters is also little known. Even less is known about the few rural
'