Crusades and Crusaders in Medieval Greece 59
imposing any such taxation on the clergy in the West until the 14th century.
Prior to that, requests for tithes were limited to the local clergy in Romania.113
This changed after the turn of the century. In the 1300s and 1310s, Charles of
Valois and Philip of Taranto were granted crusade tithes in France, Naples and
Sicily for their planned expeditions to defend Achaea and to restore the Latin
Empire.114 Tithes were also used against the Turks. The naval league of 1333–34
enjoyed no such grants, but for the Crusade of Smyrna a three-year tenth in
over 60 provinces was decreed in 1343, extended for two more years in 1345.115
In 1443, Eugenius iv proclaimed a universal tithe for the Crusade of Varna.116
After the fall of Constantinople, Nicholas v called for a European-wide tenth
to support his planned crusade to reclaim the imperial city.117
Tithes were not the only measures to which the papacy resorted for fun-
draising. From the 13th century, crusade calls regularly stipulated the grant
of indulgences not only for the warriors themselves, but also for those who
would fund others to fight in their place or who would provide monetary sup-
port corresponding to their means and equal to the expenditure they would
incur if they went on crusade in person.118 Furthermore, the redemption of
crusade vows became a major aspect of crusade funding by the mid-13th
century. In Romania, it was particularly promoted by Gregory ix who used it
extensively to finance the defence of Latin Constantinople. Vow redemption
allowed for wider participation of non-combatants in crusading.119 However,
the practice was also open to abuse, and it earned the papacy a—not always
deserved—reputation for greed and for prioritising worldly benefits over spiri-
tual aims. The papacy also tried to fund the crusades in Greece by encouraging
voluntary contributions, in the form of donations or bequests, or by allocat-
ing funds from various other clerical resources, such the proceeds of vacant
benefices or those of absentee canons. Such provisions were included in the
decree Arduis mens of the First Council of Lyon (1245) for the support of the
113 Pressutti, Regesta Honorii, nos. 5186, 5189, 5202, 5270, 5277, 5279; Auvray, Registres,
nos. 3408–09, 4035–36, 4711, 6035; Berger, Registres, nos. 22, 33.
114 Regestum Clementis, nos. 243–44, 1755–58, 7759–65; 8863–68, 8913–16; Mollat, Jean xxii,
nos. 2128 and 8241.
115 Déprez, Glenisson and Mollat, Clément vi, 1: nos. 433, 559, 2203–06; Thomas,
Diplomatarium, 1: no. 140; Housley, Documents, no. 22, pp. 79–80.
116 Hofmann, Epistolae pontificiae, 3:69–75, no. 261; Setton, Papacy, 2:75, 88.
117 Jacques Paviot, “Burgundy and the Crusades,” in Crusading in the Fifteenth Century ,
pp. 70–80, at 78.
118 See e.g. Theiner, Vetera Monumenta, 1: nos. 171, 212; Auvray, Registres, nos. 3395–96.
119 E.g. Auvray, Registres, nos. 2200–10; see Lower, Barons’ Crusade, pp. 13–36, esp. 18–19, 23.