Oxford history of the christian church

(ii) Venetian conquests: Crete.

In Byzantine lands directly occupied by Venice a rather different pattern emerged. The Commune was essentially a secular and nonfeudal state. ²⁵ It was primarily concerned in furthering the economic interests which it had been energetically pursuing in the East Mediterranean long before 1204. With this in mind it selected its share of the spoils and was powerful enough to hang on to some of its conquests for more than two hundred years after the fall of Constantinople. Crete was not finally lost until 1669. Venice was not particularly concerned with the Latinization of the Greek Church though it accepted certain papal rulings — nor did it give any priority to the promotion of the union of the two Churches. It had its own views on dealing with ecclesiastical problems within its conquered lands and its relations with the Roman Church were often strained, as its actions in Constantinople had shown from the outset. Beyond the bounds of the Latin Empire properly speaking Venice's most important acquisitions were Crete, and the two key posts of Modon and Coron in the south Peloponnese, and later in the 1380s Corfu, and Euboea (Negroponte) in 1390.

Crete affords a characteristic example of the Venetian attitude towards the Orthodox Church in its subject domains. The supreme authority was the Duke of Crete. The native landowners were virtually ignored, at any rate to begin with. Later some concessions were made to the archons with regard to their property but they were not given any share in the administration or allowed to marry into Venetian families. Venetian colonists were brought in to garrison the island and some of their castles still survive. In contrast to the Peloponnese there was a constant undercurrent of rebellion supported by the hardy rural population and the native Church and aided by the mountainous character of the island. A Latin hierarchy was set up under the archbishop of Crete with his seat at Candia. This was to some extent facilitated by the early departure of the Greek Archbishop Nicholas with three of his suffragans and some heads of monasteries who refused to recognize Roman primacy. They left the island and joined Theodore Lascaris in Nicaea. Venetian ecclesiastical policy was based on the elimination of any independent Orthodox Church. A Greek bishop would only be permitted if he were a uniate taking the oath of obedience to Rome. ²⁶ What happened to all the original Greek hierarchy (there were ten bishops besides the archbishop) is not clear. It appears that at least one, possibly four bishops may have accepted the authority of the Latin Church. ²⁷ Placed directly under the jurisdiction of the Latin archbishop were 130 Greek papades (priests) in parishes around Candia. The rest of the local Greek papades were under a Greek protopapas, or archpriest (archipresbyter), who was assisted by a protopsaltis or chief cantor. The number of Greek priests and monks was limited. Normally priests and monks could not enter or leave the island. New priests were ordained only to replace those who had died or were gravely ill. Ordination by an Orthodox bishop outside the island was forbidden. Presumably any Greek bishop who had submitted to Rome must have died by the early fourteenth century, for in 1326 John XXII spoke of the Greeks on Crete being without a Catholic Greek bishop and exhorted the Latin archbishop to appoint one. It sounds as though they were being ordained by non-Catholic bishops, for the Pope laid down that in future such functions might not be exercised in Crete by schismatic bishops. ²⁸ Here the questions of language arose and in 1360 the examination of those seeking entry to the priesthood was entrusted to a Greek-speaking commission of four papades selected by the Venetian government to hold office for six months and not to be re-selected, nor were they to be drawn from the 130 Greek papades under the Latin archbishop. ²⁹ The Byzantine rite and usages were freely permitted, subject only to the usual modifications in certain matters, such as the acceptance of minor orders, anointing, episcopal confirmation. ³⁰ Monasteries were respected including those administering the property of houses outside the island, notably the two great foundations of St John on Patmos and St Catherine on Sinai both of whom relied on their Cretan land for food supplies which the Venetians allowed them to continue to export.

In practice the last word in ecclesiastical matters lay with the Venetian authorities and relations between the Commune and the Church were often uneasy. The Archbishop of Crete frequently complained that he was bypassed in decision-making and Urban V's comment that the Doge and Commune had more control over the Latins and Greeks in ecclesiastical matters than was usual was fully justified. ³¹ Increasing absenteeism and the divided authority caused by the Schism in the Latin Church created further confusion and provided an excuse for ignoring papal rulings and was certainly a deterrent to union. ³² After the council of Florence Crete was urged to implement decisions concerning the union of the two Churches. The Commune saw the difficulties involved and realized the advantages of its established policy whereby it controlled the Greek majority, allowing them as much freedom in rite and usage as was compatible with Venetian interests and papal rulings. As elsewhere in lands of the Orthodox Church, the union of Florence was not acceptable to the Greek majority. It is true that since 1204 many regions had been obliged, at least nominally, to accept Roman primacy, but now there would be obligations which seemed to touch them much more nearly, as for instance the acceptance of the filloque in the creed. Opposition was strengthened by the fifteenth-century flood of staunchly Orthodox refugees from Byzantine and former Byzantine lands now being gradually overrun by the Ottomans.

Another fifteenth-century development added to Venetian problems. There were increasing signs that Venetians (castellani) garrisoned throughout the island, and presumably by now often bilingual, were beginning to use the churches of the Greek rite. This was partly because of a shortage of Latin priests and perhaps even more because long years of coexistence had familiarized them with the native religious life. This fraternizing was condemned by the Venetian senate which urged the dispatch of Latin priests to the castellanies and also forbade the erection of further Greek rite churches. ³³ All the same, as in Cyprus, this tendency pointed the way to the increasing predominance of Orthodoxy which never showed signs of succumbing to Latin influence. In contrast to the strict segregation of the early years the late middle ages and after saw the beginning of a symbiosis producing Veneto-Greek families who were greatly to enrich Cretan life.