The inhabitants of most twelfth-century European kingdoms derived some sense of their common interest from sharing the same religion. In earlier times, English Christians had, for example, drawn together politically when confronted by the pagan Vikings. This southern kingdom could not count on common religious sympathies, since there was in the island a numerous population of Muslims, and also many Christians of the Greek rite scattered in various densities across its territories. The confessional ‘problem’ was not of equal importance in all parts of the kingdom. There were no real precedents to guide the Normans in how to treat Muslims or how to govern Christian subjects of another tradition. The Normans had to feel their way, though it was certainly part of their strength that they arrived as Latins determined to establish Latin ways in both secular and ecclesiastical matters. This did not make them impatient persecutors of alien traditions, though they could from the beginning deal harshly with both Greeks and Muslims. The Greeks immediately lost their ecclesiastical autonomy when their bishops were obliged to recognise Roman claims in southern Italy, though there was no attempt to change Greek rites. Many Muslims were obviously brought under alien domination, even if parts of Sicily seem to have remained predominantly Muslim and the practice of religion continued without a break. The Normans, with their Lombard allies, themselves operated in a Latin tradition, and in the long-term, Norman hegemony involved the eventual emergence of a dominant Latin church.