The Latin and Greek Churches in former Byzantine Lands 165
Information is available on the properties the Latin and Greek churches
possessed in Crete and the Cyclades. In Crete as elsewhere the Latin Church
appropriated certain Greek churches for its own use, and although as else-
where in Greece it was urban-based it also possessed rural property. The
Greek Church, however, continued not only to exist but to expand under the
Venetian dominion. In 1226 Pope Honorius iii defended the Greek monastery
of Mt Sinai’s extensive landholdings and incomes in Crete against the claims
of both the Latin archbishop and secular Latin lords, while over 20 newly con-
structed Greek churches appeared in Candia’s suburbs in the early 14th cen-
tury. Among the rural properties of the Latin Church may be mentioned the
casalia of the Latin patriarchate of Constantinople, reduced to titular status
following the Byzantine re-conquest of 1261. Most of these casalia, located in
central Crete, remained attached to the patriarchate throughout the period of
Venetian dominion.46 In the Cyclades the Latin archbishopric of Naxos had
considerable revenues and numerous churches, including some serving both
rites and on Tenos with its 20 Latin parishes the local Latin bishop enjoyed the
incomes of a major fief. Less wealthy was the small Latin bishopric serving Kea,
Kythnos and Siphnos, which had various rural properties. A similarly uneven
picture emerges regarding the Greek secular church. As stated above, the Greek
bishop of Naxos had a large income and Ekatompyliani, the principal church
on the island of Paros, remained Greek after the Latin conquest. Yet the Latin
cathedrals on Andros, Kythnos and Syros may well have been former Greek
churches, while two ancient Greek churches on Naxos also became Latin.47
The Latin and Greek Regular Churches
The Greek regular clergy, both before and after the conquest, consisted of
monks and nuns living in monasteries. The concept of monastic orders was
alien to the Greek Church, although the Latin clergy, at least after 1215, classified
the Greek monks as belonging to the “Basilian Order” because they followed
the rule of St Basil. The Latin regular clergy were more ramified, consisting
not only of monks and nuns belonging to specific monastic orders, notably
the Benedictines, the Cistercians, themselves reformed Benedictines, the
Carthusians, the Crucifers and valetudinarian orders like that of St Anthony
46 McKee, Uncommon Dominion, pp. 105–06; Tsirpanlis, Κληροδότημα, pp. 176–248 and esp.
201 and 223; Claverie, Honorius iii, p. 154; Nickiphoros I. Tsougarakis, The Latin Religious
Orders in Medieval Greece, 1204–1500 (Turnhout, 2012), p. 93.
47 Slot, Archipelagus Turbatus, pp. 58, 60 and 62.