The Latin and Greek Churches in former Byzantine Lands 175
Neokastro in central Greece to the Templars and of the port of Attaleia in
southern Asia Minor to the Hospitallers, both locations on the pilgrim route
to Jerusalem via Asia Minor, remained a dead letter. The Hospitallers, however,
who had possessed a hotel in Constantinople prior to the Fourth Crusade now
received a house in the Kingdom of Thessalonica and used it as a springboard
in their attempt to create a domain in Thessaly, where in 1210 they seized the
castle of Gardiki from the Latin bishop of Larissa to whom it had been assigned,
refusing to return it notwithstanding an appeal the bishop had submitted to
Pope Innocent iii. At around the same time the Templars acquired the cas-
tles of Ravennika and Lamia in Thessaly, but after siding with the Lombards
against the Latin emperor Henry of Hainaut the latter seized these castles. In
Thebes the church of Hagia Photeine, a monastic church outside the walls, was
likewise granted to the Templars, who renamed the church St Lucia, a Latin
translation of the Greek Hagia Photeine.61 The Templars came into conflict
with members of the Latin secular clergy, and in 1210 the Latin bishop of Kitros
knocked the chalice out of a Templar’s hand while he was administering the
last rites to a brother of the order. The numerous complaints the Templars sub-
mitted to Pope Innocent iii reflect their unpopularity in Greece. Nonetheless
the Templars, the Hospitallers and the Teutonic knights all received estates in
the Peloponnese, where Geoffrey de Villehardouin granted all three orders ter-
ritories the equivalent to four knights’ fees.
The Teutonic Order, established in Greece on the initiative of Berthold de
Katzenelnbogen, a German participant in the Fourth Crusade who became
regent of the Kingdom of Thessalonica on the death of Boniface of Montferrat,
acquired a house at Mostenitsa near Coron in 1209, but is recorded in 1237 as
having sufficient resources only for defending Chlemoutsi castle. Geoffrey de
Villehardouin, who as its owner intended to assign its defence to them, stated
in the relevant document that the whole convent should reside there “if it is
necessary for the defence of the castle”. It had also acquired a church in the
diocese of Amyclae before 1222, but there is no further mention of it. The order
fought against the Byzantines in the Peloponnese when Andronikos Asen was
campaigning in the Alpheios valley after 1316, the preceptor of their order
dying while defending the castle of St George in Elis in around 1320. In 1324
Nicholas, preceptor of the Teutonic knights at Mostenitsa, and the Hospitaller
commander John des Baux were summoned to appear at Glarenza with other
vassals of the Principality of Achaea for a campaign against the Byzantines.
The Teutonic knights maintained a presence in Greece until around 1500. The
Templars, as mentioned above, entered into disputes with Archbishop Antelm
61 Richard, “Latin Church in Constantinople,” pp. 52–53; Lock, Franks, pp. 233–36;