The Jewish Communities in the Social Fabric of Latin Greece 283
of Angevin Italy, especially in the reign of Charles ii, resulted in mass conver-
sion or exodus in the years 1290–93.145 There is no evidence of similar develop-
ments in the Frankish Principality of the Morea, ruled by the Angevin kings of
Naples from 1278. Shortly after 1347 the authorities of Chios settled the Jews in
the inner fortified section of the city, a preferential treatment with respect to
the Greeks, and in 1558 they shielded them from the Inquisition.146
The Jewries in Latin Greece: Collective Discrimination and
Segregation
As noted above, Jewish leaders and structured communities are attested in
several locations of Latin Greece, yet we have no documentation regarding
communal institutions or the latter’s operation, except for Crete. We also lack
evidence regarding the policies adopted by the rulers of the Frankish Morea or
the Duchy of the Archipelago toward the Jewries in their respective territory.
We are well informed about the Cretan Jewry. It enjoyed full internal auton-
omy. Its institutions headed by a condestabulo residing in Candia issued ordi-
nances, extant from 1228 onward, and supervised their implementation with
the help of its own officers in charge of communal and ritual functions. Venice
recognised the authority of Jewish family law and the proceedings of rabbini-
cal courts, and scrupulously respected Jewish customs. Its interference in the
internal affairs of the Jewry was limited, and it occasionally supported the
implementation of the communal ordinances. The Jewish leadership distrib-
uted the tax burden among the members of the community out of the annual
collective taxes and special levies imposed upon the entire Cretan Jewry. These
taxes and levies were proportionally heavier than those imposed upon the
other categories of taxpayers, the fief-holders, the burghers or city-dwellers,
and the Church. They singled out the Jews as a socially and legally separate and
inferior group among Crete’s inhabitants. Incidentally, this was also the case of
the discriminatory tax rate of five per cent on maritime trade which they paid.147
Still, the collective taxes strengthened from within the authority of the com-
munal leadership and bolstered internal cohesiveness. It is noteworthy that
145 Joshua Starr, “The Mass Conversion of Jews in Southern Italy (1290–1293),” Speculum 21
(1946), 203–11.
146 See above, p. 273, and Philip P. Argenti, The Religious Minorities of Chios: Jews and Roman
Catholics (Cambridge, 1970), p. 142.
147 See above, p. 270.