5 The Latin and Greek Churches in former Byzantine Lands under Latin Rule

Abstract

This chapter examines the establishment of Latin Churches in Cyprus, conquered by the King Richard I of England in 1191 during the Third Crusade, as well as in Constantinople, Thessalonica, Crete, Athens, the Peloponnese and the Aegean and Ionian Islands after 1204 and their relations with their Greek counterparts. The Greeks considered the Roman Catholic Church to be distinct from their own. The papacy, however, did not consider the Greek Church to be distinct. Unlike other eastern Christian sects, Jacobites, Copts, Armenians, Maronites and Nestorians which were doctrinally monophysite, miaphysite or monothelite, the Greek Church was Chalcedonian, like the Roman acknowledging two natures of Christ. The adverse effects of the Latin conquest of Cyprus, which caused the flight of the Byzantine nobles who were a source of patronage, on the finances of the Greek Church and the structure of the native Greek episcopacy are recorded early in the 13th century. Keywords: Byzantine; Constantinople; Cyprus; Greek episcopacy; Latin Church