162 Coureas
further instructions. On 15 March 1222 the pope wrote to Geoffrey expressing
strong criticism over his refusal to implement the Ravennika agreement, and
his lands were placed under sentence of interdict in addition to the excommu-
nication his person was under since 1216. By late 1223, however, Geoffrey had
accepted a modified version of the Ravennika agreement, agreeing to pay cash
sums by way of compensation to churches up to the pass of Megara for posses-
sions, incomes and goods they had lost from the time of his own excommuni-
cation in 1216 until 1223. This agreement did not settle disputes over property
between the Latin archbishop Antelm of Patras and Geoffrey de Villehardouin
and other Latin secular lords, first recorded in letters of Pope Innocent iii writ-
ten late in 1210 and still outstanding in 1224 under Pope Honorius iii, the reso-
lution of which is not known.41
In Cyprus the agreements of 1220 concluded at Limassol between the crown,
the secular lords and the Latin Church, confirmed in 1223 by Pope Honorius iii
and discussed above with respect to the diocesan structure, also dealt with
the issues of tithes and properties formerly belonging to the Greek Church.
Pope Honorius’ demand to Queen Alice and the lords of Cyprus that the Latin
Church was to obtain all properties formerly belonging to the Greek Church
and now in their possession was rejected outright. The secular lords won on
this point, for in the final agreement of 1223 the Latin Church acknowledged
their possession of all such properties. As regarded tithes, the Latin lords agreed
in principle to pay them in full to the Church, but this was never implemented
in full, and disputes over their payment continued into the mid-14th century.
It should be noted that in Cyprus unlike Latin Greece and Europe in general
the Latin Church never received tithes directly from the peasants’ share of the
crops, only from that of the feudal lords themselves and from free Greek and
Syrian landowners, practices brought over from Latin Syria. Likewise, the prop-
erties of the Latin bishops and their cathedral chapters were not distinct in
Cyprus, unlike western Europe or Latin Greece. Hence the papacy enjoyed a
distinct advantage as regarded taxation on diocesan incomes in Cyprus during
episcopal vacancies.42
These agreements on Cyprus also limited the numbers of Greek serfs enter-
ing the Church. The ease with which numerous Greek serfs had been taking
41 Schabel, “Antelm the Nasty,” pp. 114–21; Claverie, Honorius iii, pp. 136, 156, 164–65 and
177–79.
42 Coureas, Latin Church 1195–1312, pp. 11–21; idem, Latin Church 1313–1378, pp. 253–60, 268
and 285; Jean Richard, “Le diocèse de Limassol en 1367,” in Chypre sous les Lusignans:
Documents chypriotes en archives du Vatican (xive et xve siècles), ed. idem. (Paris, 1962),
p. 70; Claverie, Honorius iii, p. 142.