Land and Landowners in the Greek Territories 87
The final settlement of the feudatories on their land was followed, as we shall
see, by the compilation of the official land registers, the Catastici Feudorum,
and the cataloguing of the land that had been granted to the colonists. In these
registers (which began to be compiled in their present form between 1234 and
1236) we encounter all of the above-mentioned terms, now clearly defined.
Some of the terms are used interchangeably, with no alteration to their mean-
ing whilst others acquire a more precise sense after a certain period. Thus, a
feudatory (miles, feudatarius) is anyone, Latin (Latinus) or Greek (Grecus) who
owns land which has been granted to him by the Venetian state (Comune) in
perpetuity (imperpetuum) and a fief (feudum) is the property for which he
owes military service (varnitio). The value of the fief is estimated according
to the units of cavallaria and serventaria as well as the caratum from the 14th
century onwards.
The Main Principles of the Landowning System
The foundations of the landowning regime in Crete were set in 1211, through
the document that accompanied the first Venetian colonists. These founda-
tions remained stable throughout the period of Venetian rule in Crete, despite
occasional adjustments.
The landowning regime hinged on two basic principles: a) the island of
Crete and its land belongs to the Venetian state which remains at all times
the direct owner, and b) the land is granted in perpetuity (imperpetuum) to
Venetian citizens, who have full rights to exploit it and bequeath it, in return
for military service (varnitio) for the defence of the colony.
The parcels of land had three main recipients. The Venetian state reserved
for itself an area of land which included many villages around Candia, known
as Paracandia. The Latin Church of Crete supplanted the Greek one but only
inherited a fraction of its property. In this portion we may include the relatively
small property of the churches as well as the monasteries of the island (both
Greek and Latin). The remainder of the land was set aside for the Venetian citi-
zens who agreed to depart from their homeland for the faraway island of Crete.
The largest of these three portions was without a doubt that of the Venetian
feudatories.
The direct ownership of the land by the Venetian state was demonstrated in
practice by the following: a) the right to cede land remained at all times in the
hands of the government; b) even though land was granted in perpetuity, the
authorities reserved the right to rescind the grant at any time, under certain
conditions; c) both the heirs of feudatories and the buyers of fiefs had to be
approved by the state and had to swear the customary oath. In actual fact, for