The Latin and Greek Churches in former Byzantine Lands 147
retained by Saladin in 1187. Therefore in dealing with non-Latin Christians,
Greeks and others, on Cyprus the new Latin rulers drew on their previous expe-
rience in Latin Syria.5 The Latin clergy arriving in Cyprus following the estab-
lishment of a Latin Church, however, originated for the most part from western
Europe as opposed to Latin Syria, and their treatment of the native Greek epis-
copate recalls practices first implemented in southern Italy and Sicily.6 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. In referring to the election of Isaias as the new Greek arch-
bishop of Cyprus, sometime between 1200 and 1205, the synodal report of the
Greek patriarch of Constantinople, resident in Nicaea in exile after the Latin
conquest of Constantinople, alluded to “a time of economy”, stating as follows:
Indeed in any of the bishoprics becoming vacant, should there be any-
thing impeding the establishment of other bishops, the existing bishops
should become enthroned in the boundaries of the churches thereby
made bereft.7The above passage indicates how economic necessity was causing the amal-
gamation of Greek bishoprics in Cyprus barely a decade following the estab-
lishment of a Latin Church in 1196. The Latin Church established under Pope
Celestine iii consisted of a Latin archbishop of Nicosia and three suffragan
bishops of Paphos, Limassol and Famagusta. The relevant bull lists “the tithes
of those areas in Cyprus that belong to the church of Nicosia” and eight of
the localities listed in the Latin archdiocese of Nicosia were Greek bishoprics.
The Latins’ unfamiliarity with Greek episcopal boundaries resulted in two
such localities awarded to the Latin archbishop in 1196 being awarded to the
Latin bishop of Famagusta in 1197.8 One observes that the German traveller
5 Jean Richard, “Le peuplement latin et syrien en Chypre au xiiie siècle,” Byzantinische
Forschungen 7 (1979), 157–73, repr. in idem, Croisés, missionnaires et voyageurs (Aldershot,
1983), vii.
6 Peter Herde, “The Papacy and the Greek Church in Southern Italy between the Eleventh
and the Thirteenth Century,” in The Society of Norman Italy, ed. Graham A. Loud and Alex
Metcalfe (Leiden, 2002), pp. 216–24; Graham A. Loud, The Latin Church in Norman Italy
(Cambridge, 2007), pp. 495–99.
7 Coureas, Latin Church 1195–1312, p. 254.
8 Peter Edbury, “Latin dioceses and Peristerona: A Contribution to the Topography of Lusignan
Cyprus,” Επετηρίς Κέντρου Επιστημονικών Ερευνών 8 (1978), 45–46; Coureas and Schabel,
Cartulary, no. 8; Coureas, Latin Church, pp. 85–86.