venice’s maritime empire in the early modern period 169
in administrative matters to the local Catholic bishop, headed the island’s
Orthodox community.156
Venice used civic and religious rituals to emphasize the union of the
two Churches in its territories. Processions, masses in both Latin and
Orthodox churches, the use of Greek and Latin in the same ceremonies,
and the common celebration of both Western and Eastern feasts, reflect
this policy, although it was not always easy to persuade the Orthodox
clergy to take part in religious rites that expressed, in their eyes, heretical
beliefs.157 Moreover, the participation of Catholics and Orthodox subjects
in common religious processions could also be a cause of trouble.
Many Catholic bishops did not bother to reside in their dioceses and
considered them, rather, a source of income. In such cases, which were
common even in the post-Tridentine era, Venice was unable to rely on their
presence and influence in these territories, and their absence also enabled
the Orthodox Church to gain territory among the local inhabitants.158
Orthodox bishops, and all the more so priests, were in much stronger
contact with the local population. They shared a common language,
common experiences, a common hatred of the Roman Church, and
partially, at least, also a dislike of the foreign rulers. Consequently, the
Greek Church, though formally in a subordinate position, proved to be
much more successful in attracting local inhabitants to its rites, services,
and even religious convictions. This was particularly the case in Crete,
where the relatively few Latins had been increasingly hellenized, includ-
ing in the religious sphere, in the course of the long Venetian domination.159
Yet the situation was not always clear-cut, since the head priests were
often Uniats—those Greeks who, while preserving the Orthodox rites
and codes of canon law, were in communion with the Roman Catholic
156 Slot, Archipelagus, 1:29, 58, 61.
157 E.g., Lunzi, Della condizione, pp. 380–85; Alfredo Viggiano, “Venezia e la chiesa greca.
Forme di potere e modi del conflitto nelle isole del Levante,” in Massimo Costantini, ed.,
Il Mediterraneo centro-orientale tra vecchie e nuove egemonie (Rome, 1998), p. 26; Aspasia
Papadaki, Cerimonie religiose e laiche nell’isola di Creta durante il dominio veneziano
(Spoleto, 2005).
158 Spanakis, “Η Θρησκευτικό-Εκκλησιαστική κατάσταση”; Eva Tea, “Saggio sulla storia
religiosa di Candia dal 1590 al 1630,” Atti del R. Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti 72.2
(1912–13), 1364; Georg Hofmann, “Wie stand ess mit der Kircheneinheit auf Kreta im XV.
Jahrhundert?” Orientalia Christiana Periodica 10 (1944), 100–104; Augliera, Libri, politica,
religione, pp. 106–08.
159 Thiriet, “Eglises, fidèles et clergés,” p. 499.