The Organization of the Latin Patriarchate of Constantinople, 1204–1261: Social and Administrative Consequences of the Latin Conquest

Ecclesiastical problems naturally loom large in any investigation of relations between Greeks and Latins after the conquest of Constantinople in 1204. The story of the negotiations between the Popes and the Patriarchs at Nicaea-the diplomacy and debate with regard to a union of the Churches-has been well told by Walter Norden; except for materials discovered by Schillmann and Heisenberg, little important information has become available since he wrote. I have therefore not re-examined this range of problems here. The purpose of this study is two-fold: first, to investigate within the Empire itself certain of the local ecclesiastical relationships between Greeks and Latins; and, second, to discover the modifications in ecclesiastical organization brought about by the Roman Church in the newly-conquered Byzantine territories which, from 1204 on, formed part of the Latin patriarchate. It is, then, the social and administrative rather than the theological and diplomatic aspects of the subject which engage our attention here.