154 Coureas
A Latin ecclesiastical structure was established in Macedonia, Attica and in
the regions of central Greece, although the conquest of the Latin Kingdom of
Thessalonica in 1224 by Theodore the despot of Epirus meant that Latin clergy
disappeared from Macedonia. By 1222, for example, the Latin archbishop of
Larissa had been forced into exile by Despot Theodore of Epirus’ expansion into
Thessaly, although in 1224 Pope Honorius iii entrusted him with the applica-
tion of an agreement concerning the chapter of St Demetrius in Thessalonica,
consisting of regular and secular canons subject to the Order of the Holy
Sepulchre. Boniface of Montferrat had claimed the Kingdom of Thessalonica
in 1204, and following his death in battle in 1207 his wife Margaret, once mar-
ried to the late Byzantine emperor Isaac Angelos (1185–95) ruled on behalf
of her under-age son Demetrios, the first crowned king of Thessalonica, and
allegedly favoured Greek prelates. In autumn 1208 Pope Innocent iii reported
that the Latin archbishop of Larissa had complained to him that Margaret was
restricting the movement of Latin abbots and abbesses and favouring Greek
bishops, and in 1210 she was accused of supporting the Greek suffragan bishops
who had refused obedience to the Latin archbishop of Larissa, with the pope
instructing the Latin archbishop of Neopatras and the bishops-elect of Nezero
and Kitros to make her withhold this support. By then, however, some Greek
clergy had offered obedience to Rome, and in March 1210 the pope instructed
the bishops of Thermopylae and Gardiki to protect them.27 In the Greek eccle-
siastical province of Thessalonica, consisting of an archbishopric and 11 suf-
fragan bishoprics, there were five Greek bishops under the Latin archbishop
Garinus according to a letter of 1213 written by the Greek archbishop Demetrios
Chomatianos of Ochrid, although he says nothing about the other six bish-
oprics. Fusions of bishoprics also took place in central and northern Greece.
That of Megara was placed under the archbishop of Athens, those of Carystos,
Avlona and Oreas were united to Euboea and that of Avilon was united to the
bishopric of Castoria, a suffragan bishopric of the archdiocese of Thebes. An
attempt by the cathedral chapter of Avlona to have their suppressed bishopric
reestablished, that was made under Pope Gregory ix, was unresolved as late as
1240 and seems to have failed.28
In Athens Duke Otto de la Roche founded a dynasty that would rule the
city until the Catalan conquest of 1311, and sometime before 1208 the Latin
archbishop appointed was Bérard, who replaced the Greek archbishop
Michael Choniates, then living in exile on the Aegean island of Kea and who
subsequently may have moved on to Thessalonica. In 1208 Bishop Theodore
27 Wolff, “Organization,” pp. 37–39 and 46; Claverie, Honorius iii, pp. 141–42.
28 Wolff, “Organization,” pp. 39–40 and 46–47.