The Latin and Greek Churches in former Byzantine Lands 171
later, both orders ministered almost exclusively to the resident Latins, doing
little to convert Greeks to Roman Catholicism.55
Notwithstanding their lack of success in converting Greeks, the mendicant
orders in Latin Greece, including Carmelites and Austin friars who established
themselves in Cyprus in the mid to late 13th century, made a notable contribu-
tion in the fields of learning, service to secular rulers and service to the papacy,
both in diplomatic missions and in missionary work among non-Christians,
with the two types of mission sometimes combined. Dominican and Franciscan
missionaries such as Andrew de Longjumeau and John of Piano Carpini used
Cyprus as a springboard in missions to the Mongols in the 1240s. In 1324, more-
over, Pope John xxii granted King Hugh iv of Cyprus the right to keep by his
side some Dominican, Franciscan, Augustinian and Carmelite friars to assist
him in overseas missions, which perhaps included intelligence gathering as
well as diplomacy and missionary work. Mendicant clergy also served as bish-
ops in Greece, where in 1351 for instance the Franciscan John Raolceti was
appointed bishop of Venetian Coron in the Peloponnese. Peter Corner, another
Franciscan bishop of Coron, in 1382 presided over a congress of Latin lords
of the Peloponnese and in 1387 he presided over a second such congress, this
time as the Latin archbishop of Patras. Over 300 regular Latin clergy became
archbishops or bishops in Greece between 1204 and 1500, of whom 129 were
Franciscans, 111 Dominicans, 53 Augustnian friars and 22 Carmelite friars. The
indigence of many Greek dioceses made such bishops, attached to the mendi-
cant ideal of poverty, suitable choices, although the education and command of
Greek among the Latin regular clergy also counted. On Cyprus the Dominican
archbishop of Nicosia John del Conti was noted for his charitable activities
while his Franciscan successor Helias de Nabinaux organised a provincial
synod in 1340 in Nicosia in which the non-Latin Christian denominations,
Maronites, Armenians, Jacobites and Nestorians as well as Greeks, accepted
the fundamental articles of the Roman Catholic faith. On Crete the Dominican
archbishop Alexander was instructed by Pope John xxii to have a Greek vicar
appointed for the spiritual needs of the Greeks, as was done when Georgios
Rampani was appointed for this purpose. Peter Philargis, an orphaned Greek
rescued from a life of begging in Candia by a Franciscan, joined the order and
briefly became one of the anti-popes from 1409 until 1410, the year of his death,
55 Robert Lee Wolff, “The Latin Empire of Constantinople and the Franciscans,” Traditio
2 (1944), 213–28; Hussey, Orthodox Church, 213–216; Coureas, Latin Church 1195–1312,
pp. 281–86; Lori F. Ranner, “Mendicant Orders in the Principality of Achaia and the Latin
Communal Identity, 1204–1453,” Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 31.2 (2007), 157–69.