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Mendicant orders in the Principality of Achaia and the Latin communal identity, 1204–1453

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2016

Lori Frey Ranner
Lori Frey Ranner*
Affiliation:
Loyola University, New Orleans
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Abstract

Despite the fact that the Franciscan and Dominican Orders arrived in Latin Greece well armed with a specific mandate to engage and evangelize the Orthodox population in order to facilitate the implementation of Church union, little if any effort was made in this regard by the members of either order. Rather, reliant as they were on the Latin secular authorities for protection, support and sustenance, they appeared content to spend their tenure in Greece ministering almost exclusively to the Latin segment of the population, becoming deeply involved in the political, economic and cultural life of the Latin states. This was to the utter detriment of their original mission to the Orthodox. Thus, this article examines the role of mendicants in Achaia as contributors to the Latin cultural identity, especially in the episcopal context.

Type
Articles
Information
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , 2007 , pp. 157 - 169
Copyright
Copyright © The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham 2007

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References

1 The Franciscan order was granted official recognition by Pope Innocent III in 1210; the Dominican order was granted the same recognition in 1215. For detailed description of Humbert’s ideas on how the conversion of the Orthodox should be effected, see Humbert of Romans, OP, Opus Tripartitimi, Appendix ad fasciculum rerum expetendarum el fugiendarum, ed. Brown, E. (London 1690) 185–229 Google Scholar.

2 For a description of the Franciscan and Dominican ideals and interpretations of poverty, see Lawrence, C., Medieval Monasticism: Forms of Religious Life in Western Europe (London 1994) 33-4, 60-3, 68-9, 157-8, 223-4Google Scholar.

3 None of which, interestingly, enjoyed much of a lasting or very visible presence in Achaia, save the Cistercians, who nevertheless disappear in the 1270s, not to reappear again. See Lock, P., Franks in the Aegean (London and New York 1995) 223-6, 229-30Google Scholar; Panagopoulos, B., Cistercian and Mendicant Monasteries in Medieval Greece (Chicago 1979) 78–96 Google Scholar; Brown, E. A. R., ‘The Cistercians in the Latin empire of Constantinople and Greece, 1201-1276’, Traditio 14 (1958) 63–120 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bolton, B., ‘A mission to the Orthodox? The Cistercians in Romania’, in Baker, D. (ed.), The Orthodox Churches and the West (Oxford 1976) 169-81Google Scholar.

4 Lawrence, Medieval Monasticism, 256.

5 Latins, on the other hand, had to ask permission to bequeath property to the Church, although whether this covers monastic establishments (or only parochial/diocesan ones) is uncertain. See Topping, P. W., Feudal Institutions as Revealed in the Assizes of Romania, the Law Code of Frankish Greece (Philadelphia 1942) 31, no. 25Google Scholar. There is evidence that Greeks, or at least Gasmouloi, in Achaia did on occasion remember mendicant establishments. The will of the master cook Paul de Gondiano or ‘Mastropoulos’ of Patras states that the Franciscan house of St Nicholas Blatteros (a formerly Orthodox establishment) should be his inheritor if his daughter Romandia should die without legal heirs. The names of Paul and his daughter suggest a gasmoulos context. See Gerland, E., Neue Quellen zur Geschichte des lateinischen Erzbistums Patras (Leipzig 1903) 122 Google Scholar.

6 First mention of a Dominican house in the Peloponnese is in 1228, the Franciscans, in 1247. See Loenertz, R. J., ‘Documents pour servir à l’histoire de la province dominicaine de Grèce’, Archivum Franciscanum Historicum 18 (1944) 72–115 Google Scholar; Wadding, L., Annales Minorum, ed. Fonseca, J. M., 17 vols, III (Rome 1931-5) 39 Google Scholar.

7 Golubovich, G., Biblioteca bio-bibliografica della Terra Santa e dell’Oriente Francescana, 5 vols, III (Rome 1906-27) 224 Google Scholar.

8 Golubovich, Biblioteca, III, 224.

9 Delacroix-Besnier, C., Les Dominicains et la chrétienté grecque (Rome 1997) 75 Google Scholar.

10 As proven most strikingly in the Cretan context by the fourteen revolts between 1207 and 1365.

11 To Chronikon tou Moreos, ed. Schmidt, J., 2nd edn (New York 1979) 11. 1612-50, 1706Google Scholar.

12 Panagopoulos, Cistercian and Mendicant, 10; Violante, T., La Provincia Domenicana in Grecia (Rome 1999) 80, 102Google Scholar; Delacroix-Besnier, Dominicains, 41, 63.

13 It should be remembered that such grants would not only have included the use of a building, but most probably the profits from its landholdings.

14 An anonymous fourteenth-century English Franciscan en route to the Holy Land extols the civility, the fertility and the prosperity of the peninsula as he travelled from Clarentza cross-country to Koroni. He was particularly taken with the wines to be had in Clarentza, that castello nobilissimo: Golubovich, Biblioteca, IV, 430.

15 The most famous beneficiary of mendicant charity in Greece would have been the beggared orphan who was rescued from the streets of Candia by an anonymous Franciscan, and who, becoming a friar himself, eventually resurfaced as V., Pope Alexander See Ehrle, F., Der Sentenzenkommentar Peters von Candia (Münster 1925) 4–7 Google Scholar. Cardinal Bessarion founded a school on his own property outside Candia, with the express purpose of educating Greeks to become good Catholics, but there is no evidence that it ever became very popular or particularly successful. See Panagiotakis, N., ‘The Italian origins of early Cretan literature’, DOP 49 (1995) 295-6Google Scholar.

16 Les Registres d’Urban IV, ed. Guiraud, J., II (Paris 1901) no. 131, 46-8Google Scholar. To be fair, they were also charged to preach, in the fourteenth century, a crusade against the Turks, Byzantium’s great menace. In 1345, Clement IV encouraged the Master General of the Franciscans: ‘in singulis sui ordinis contra Turcas christifidelibus in Romaniae seu Graeciae aliisque circumvicinislocis degentibus tanta mala inferentes crucem faciat praedicari’. See Bullarium Franciscanum, VI, 327.

17 Les Registres de Innocent IV, ed. Berger, E. (Paris 1884-1920) nos. 33, 94 Google Scholar.

18 Delacroix-Besnier, Dominicains, 36; Loenertz, R., ‘F. Philippe de Bindo Incontri’, Archivum Franciscanum Historicum 18 (1948) 265-80Google Scholar.

19 Boissonade, J. F., Anecdota nova (Paris 1884, repr. Hildesheim 1962) 202-3Google Scholar.

20 Incidentally, the triumph of Palamism forced Georgios to leave Constantinople, journeying first to the Holy Land, then Cyprus, Rhodes, and finally to the Morea, where he found a greater degree of tolerance for his views. Another point to bear in mind is that travel in the fourteenth century from Constantinople to the Morea seems to have been relatively easy, safe, and inexpensive; simple monks are known to have made the journey to take care of their own, or their monasteries’, affairs. This could have promoted the spread of anti-mendicant opinion from Constantinople to Greece. See Laiou-Thomadakis, A., ‘Saints’ Lives of the late Paleologan period’, -in Laiou-Thomadakis, A. (ed.), Charanis Studies (New Brunswick 1980) 99 Google Scholar.

21 Kaepelli, T., ‘Deux nouveaux ouvrages de Fr. Philippe Incontri de Pera’, Archivum Franciscanum Historicum 23 (1953) 179 Google Scholar.

22 Fedalto, , La Chiesa Latina in Oriente (Verona 1976) 100 Google Scholar.

23 For a fascinating glimpse into the life of a Latin cleric of Achaia on all these levels (although neither a mendicant, nor a prelate), see Dennis, G. SJ, ‘The Correspondence of Rodolfo de Sanctus,’ in Dennis, , Byzantium and the Franks, 1350-1420 (London 1982) 285–321 Google Scholar.

24 Libro de los Fechos et Conquistas del Principado de la Morea, ed. Morel-Fatio, A. (Geneva 1885) 129 n. 587Google Scholar; Fedalto, Chiesa Latina, 349.

25 Chronique de Morée, ed. Longnon, J. (Paris 1911) 238-9Google Scholar; To Chronikon tou Moreos, ed. Schmidt, 558-60, II. 8606-50. In 1440 the Franciscan provincial was a certain Ludovicus de Venetiis, lately prior of the convent of St Nicholas in Patras. See Gerland, Neue Quellen, 122.

26. Eubel, K., Hierarchica Catholica, 3 vols (Rome 1913), I, 89, 105, 210, 212, 290, 322, 324, 351Google Scholar. See Lock, Franks, 210: ‘During the fourteenth century, the Latin hierarchy in Greece became markedly more Italian in its ethnic composition. It also tended to be recruited from one or other of the two great mendicant orders, but seldom from those serving in Greece.’

27 Fedalto, Chiesa Latina, 88; Delacroix-Besnier, Dominicains, 140. There is even an example of a Catalan prudently appearing as Franciscan provincial at exactly the period (ca.1300-1310) when the Catalan Company was in its ascendancy in Latin Greece; this can hardly be dismissed as coincidence. See Golubovich, Biblioteca, III, 39.

28 Golubovich, Biblioteca, III, 224.

29 Bon, A., La Morée franque: recherches historiques, topographiques et archéologiques sur la principauté d’Achaie (1205-1430), 2 vols (Paris 1969) 203 Google Scholar; Fedalto, Chiesa Latina, 356-7.

30 Eubel, Hierarchica, I, 22.

31 Apart from being involved in Schism politics, Foscari seems to have been a rather poor judge of character: he bestowed a canon’s stall and prebend on his good friend Rodolfo de Sanctus, who had three illegitimate children by three different women and possessed a Greek slave named Omorfia. Foscari later had to discipline him for misuse of Church funds, as well as, rather predictably, loose living. See Dennis, ‘Rodolfo de Sanctus’, 292.

32 Gerland, Neue Quellen, 132-4; Eubel, Hierarchica, I, 22, 394; Golubovich, Biblioteca, V, 133; Fedalto, Chiesa Latina, I, 352.

33 Golubovich, , Biblioteca, V, 133 Google Scholar; Eubel, , Hierarchien, I, 212 Google Scholar; Bullarium Franciscanum, VI, 753, 844, 1008.

34 See Violante, Chiesa Latina, 50, for the reliance of Dominicans in the Aegean on Venice as a protector and patron.

35 Golubovich, Biblioteca, III, 414; Eubel, Hierarchica, 1, 212, Bullarium Franciscanum, V, 549 n. 1023, Lettres communes de Jean XXII, ed. de Boccard, E. (Paris 1921) no. 1566Google Scholar.

36 Les Registres d’Alexandre IV, ed. Bourel de la Ronciére, C., Deloye, J., Coulon, A., 3 vols. (Paris 1895-1959) 2072 Google Scholar.

37 Golubovich, , Biblioteca, V, 133 Google Scholar.

38 Golubovich, , Biblioteca, IV 364 Google Scholar; Bullarmm Franciscanum, VI, 657 n. 19.

39 Les Registres de Nicolas III, ed. Gay, J. (Paris 1932) IV, 26, no. 1.Google Scholar

40 Golubovich, , Biblioteca, III, 39 Google Scholar.

41 Bullarium Franciscanum, VI, 844.

42 Fedalto, , Chiesa Latina, I, 356 Google Scholar.

43 Eubel, , Hierarchica, I, 105 Google Scholar.

44 Wadding, L., Scriptores Ordinis Minorum (Rome 1906) 153 Google Scholar.

45 Acta Ioannis XXII (1317-1334), ed. Tautu, A. (Vatican City 1952), VII.2, 120-1Google Scholar.

46 Fedalto, , Chiesa Latina, 1, 365 Google Scholar.

47 Golubovich, , Biblioteca, I, 215 Google Scholar.

48 Dominican popular wisdom attributes this quote to Dominic; no written source could be found.

49 Gerland, Neue Quellen, 23.

50 Fedalto, Chiesa Latina, 365.

51 Gerland, Neue Quellen, 122, 199. In 1430, Bartolomeo Zane de Visnadeli of Treviso indicated his desire to be buried in the church with his wife, and left 200 hyperpera for this purpose. In the same year, the convent entered into an inheritance dispute with Ioannis, son of Stamatolos Spanopoulos. It is impossible to tell whether Spanopoulos, obviously Greek, was making a gift to the Franciscans because he was a convert or because of other concerns, perhaps in order to ingratiate himself with a powerful local group of Latins. This is seen often in the case of Cretan Greeks who regularly left bequests to mendicant houses as well as Orthodox mones; the same was true in the case of the Venetians in Crete. See McKee, S., Uncommon Dominion (Philadelphia 2000) 110-14Google Scholar.

52 Gerland, Neue Quellen, 45.

53 Bullarium Franciscanum, IV, 576 n. 2; VI, 495.

54 Golubovich, , Biblioteca, V, 133 Google Scholar. In contrast to Corner’s luxurious lifestyle, however, William of Moerbeke, OP, the scholar-bishop of Corinth, lived in the local Dominican convent rather than the bishop’s palace. See Violante, Provincia Domenicana, 85.

55 This appears to have been the case in most of the areas of Latin Greece where mendicants were found. The intellectual circle of converts connected with the Dominican house in Pera, including Kydones and the Chrysoberges brothers, was something of an anomaly, related to particular elements of the social and intellectual climate of the capital.