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A Medieval Urban Church: The Case of the Crusader States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Bernard Hamilton
Bernard Hamilton*
Affiliation:
University of Nottingham
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Extract

Although the great majority of first-generation western settlers in the crusader states must have come from rural areas, most of them lived in towns when they reached the levant. This presented no problem: there was plenty of space in the towns of Outremer, for the Franks either slaughtered their Moslem inhabitants or, more commonly, expelled them. Initially, therefore, the towns of Frankish Syria were inhabited only by Franks and native Christians. The crusaders did not pursue a similar policy in the countryside because they were conscious of the need to keep an adequate labour-force. Native Christian peasants presented no problem in any case, while the Moslem peasants, who were probably the more numerous, were left undisturbed by their new rulers.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 16: The Church in Town and Countryside , 1979 , pp. 159 - 170
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1979

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References

1 At Antioch in 1098, Jerusalem in 1099, Caesaraea in 1101.

2 For example at Arsuf in 1101, Acre in 1104.

3 In 1184, for example, most of the villages between Toron and Acre were inhabited by Moslem peasants. [The Travels of] Ibn Jubayr, [trans Broadhurst, R. J. C.] (London 1952) pp 316-17Google Scholar.

4 Some examples of fortified Frankish manor houses dating from the twelfth century have been discovered. Their function is not clear. Possibly they were collecting centres for Frankish landlords. Benvenisti, M., The Crusaders in the Holy Land (Jerusalem 1970), pp 233-45Google Scholar. On the rural organisation of Frankish Syria see Riley-Smith, J., The Feudal Nobility and the Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1174-1277 (London 1973) cap 3 Google Scholar, ‘The Domain in the Countryside’, pp 40-61.

5 The casale of Saint Gilles to the north of Jerusalem is an example of a rural administrative centre; the mount Thabor monastery in Galilee and the convent of Bethany in Judaea are examples of fortified shrines.

6 Darum was founded as a royal Frankish village by Amalric I, W[illiam of] T[yre, Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum,] bk 20 cap 19, RHC Occ 1, p 975; Beth-Gibelin was a Frankish village founded by the Hospitallers in 1168, CGOH p 399.

7 There were mosques at Acre and Tyre in 1184, Ibn Jubayr pp 318, 321.

8 An exception was the Praemonstratensian house of Saint Habacuc at Ramleh whose first abbot, Amalric, was commissioned by Innocent II to preach to the pagans in the holy land, Backmund, N., Monasticon Praemonstratense, (Straubing 1949-) 1, pp 397-9Google Scholar.

9 For example, Abu ‘l-Durr of the Mahgrib who became a Christian monk in Syria, Ibn Jubayr p 323. He seems to have been motivated by religious conviction, but many Moslem converts were deserters and, even at the time, Christians were sceptical about their sincerity. Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi auctore ut videtur Ricardo, canonico S. Trinitatis Londonensis, bk 3 cap 16, ed Stubbs, W., Chronicles and Memorials of the Reign of Richard I, 1, RS 38, 1 (1864) p 230 Google Scholar.

10 Description of the Holy Land by John of Würzburg, A.D. 1160-1170, trans Wilson, C. W., PPTS 14 (1890) p 69 Google Scholar.

11 ‘The Franks never raised any difficulties about matters of faith, nor [sought] to reach a single definition [of belief ] among the Christians of different races. . . . They accepted as a Christian anybody who venerated the Cross, without [further] . . . examination.’ [Chronique de] M[ichel le] S[yrien, patriarche Jacobite d’Antioche (1166-99),] bk 16 cap 1, [ed with French translation Chabot, J. B.], 4 vols (Paris 1899-1924) 3, p 222 Google Scholar.

12 When the sources speak of Greeks they clearly mean Orthodox, Syrian is an imprecise term which could mean either Orthodox or Jacobite unless it is qualified - for example, ‘Suriens de la loy de Grèce’, Chronique du Templier de Tyr (1242-1309), Les Gestes des Chiprois, ed Raynaud, G., Publications de la Société de l’Orient Latin, série historique 5 (Geneva 1887) pp 151 Google Scholar, 239. From the context it is clear that most references to Syrians in the kingdom of Jerusalem relate to Orthodox. This has been convincingly argued by Every, G., ‘Syrian Christians in Palestine in the early Middle Ages’, Eastern Churches Quarterly 6 (Ramsgate 1945-6) pp 363-72Google Scholar.

13 For example, at a time when feelings ran high between Rome and Constantinople on the subject of the Filioque clause, Greek artists commissioned by the Byzantine emperor Manuel I executed a mosaic illustrating the council of Constantinople of 381 in the Latin cathedral of Bethlehem in which belief in the Holy Spirit is formulated in the Orthodox way without the addition of the Filioque. Stern, H., ‘Les réprésentations des Conciles dans l’Église de la Nativité à Bethléem’, B 11 (1936) pp 101-54Google Scholar; 13 (1938) pp 415-59; text of the mosaic ibid 13, p 421, see also p 437.

14 This was the situation in north Syria, MS bk 14 cap 9, Chabot 3, p 191. There is no information known to me about initial crusader treatment of Orthodox bishops in the patriarchate of Jerusalem.

15 A document of 1173 mentions an Orthodox ‘archbishop of all the Syrians and Greeks living in Gaza and Jabin’ who was in communion with the Latin church. Gaza and Jabin were in the Latin diocese of Hebron. CGOH, p 443.

16 ‘. . . quatuor . . . episcopi graeci, qui de consensu nostro . . . semper remanebunt in Cypro, oboedientes erunt Romanae Ecclesiae et archiepiscopo et episcopis Latinis, secundum consuetudinem regni Hierosolymitani.’ Pontificia Commissio ad redigendum codicem iuris canonici Orientalis, Fontes, 3 séries, 3, ed Tautu, A. L., Acta Honorii III et Gregorii IX (Vatican City 1950) pp 144-8, no 108 Google Scholar.

17 Patriarchate of Antioch, Latin sees at Antioch, Mamistra, Tarsus, Edessa, Coricium, Hierapolis, Apamea, Marasch, Keiçoun, Artah, Raphaniah, Laodicea, Tortosa, Tripoli, Biblos, Jabala. Patriarchate of Jerusalem, Latin sees at Jerusalem, Tyre, Petra, Nazareth, Caesaraea, Bethlehem, Hebron, Lydda, Sebaste, Tiberias, Banias, Acre, Sidon, Beirut.

18 For example, Saint Peter’s, Jaffa, [Cartulaire de l’Église du St-Sépulcre de Jérusalem, ed de Rozière, E.], Collection des documents inédits sur l’histoire de France, 1 series, 5 (Paris 1849) pp 15–17, no 14 Google Scholar; Saint Paul’s, Ascalon, WT bk 17 cap 30, RHC Occ 1, p 812.

19 For example, Saint Nicholas, built to serve the faubourg of Jaffa, de Rozière, pp 289-90, no 161.

20 See Baldwin IV’s letter of appointment of William Lovell as chaplain of the royal castle of Jaffa, Delaborde, [H.-F.], [Chartes de la Terre Sainte provenant de l’Abbaye de Notre-Dame de Josaphat], BEFAR 19 (1880) pp 85-6, no 38 Google Scholar.

21 For example Nostre-Dame du Bourg in the Hospitaller castle of Krak des Chevaliers, Le Roulx, J. Delaville, ‘Inventaire des pièces de Terre Sainte de l’Ordre de l’Hôpital’, R[evue de l’] O[rient] L[atin] 3 (Paris 1895) p 87, no 267 Google Scholar.

22 For example those built by the canons of the Holy Sepulchre in villages which they founded, de Rozière, pp 233-8, no 128.

23 For example the church cum iure parrochiali in the royal casale of Saint Gilles, de Rozière, pp 258-60, no 142.

24 The consequences of this ruling are explained in a letter of Innocent IV to the abbot of Sainte Margarite de Agros, in the archdiocese of Nicosia, Latrie, L. de Mas, Histoire de l’Ile de Chypre sous le règne des princes de la maison de Lusignan, 3 vols (Paris 1852-61) 3 pp 643-4Google Scholar.

25 For example, in 1140 the prior of the Holy Sepulchre successfully laid claim to property at Antioch which had belonged to his cathedral temporibus antiquorum Grecorum, de Rozière pp 178-80, no 90.

26 For example, Eugenius III’s confirmation of the lands of the Holy Sepulchre, de Rozière pp 36-41, no 23; Gregory IX’s confirmation of the lands of the church of Bethlehem, Riant, [P.], [Études sur l’Église de Bethléem], 2 vols (Genoa 1889, Paris 1896) 1, pp 140-7Google Scholar, no 11; and documents relating to the property of the church of Nazareth in Italy, Società di Storia Patria per la Puglia, Codice diplomatico Barese, 18 vols (Bari 1897-1950) 8, pp 123-4 no 85, pp 155-6 no no, p 170 no 125, pp 178-9 no 134, p 210 no 164, pp 244-5 no 190, pp 342-3 no 269, pp 337-8 no 267, pp 343-4 no 270, pp 346-7 no 273, pp 359-60 no 279, pp 360-1 no 280.

27 Constable, [G.], [Monastic Tithes from their origins to the Twelfth Century] (Cambridge 1964) p 85, n 2 Google Scholar.

28 [Les Registres de Grégoire IX, ed Auvray, L.], 3 vols, BEFAR, 2 series (Paris 1896-1955) no 4474 Google Scholar.

29 For example, the Benedictine monastery of Our Lady of Josaphat at Jerusalem had daughter-houses at Tiberias, Köhler, Ch., ‘Chartes de l’Abbaye de Notre-Dame de la Vallée de Josaphat en Terre Sainte (1108-1291). - Analyses et extraits’, ROL 7 (1899) pp 113-14, no 2 Google Scholar; at Sidon, ibid p 124, no 14; at Sichern, ibid pp 156-7, no 48; at Antioch, ibid pp 172-3, no 64.

30 Many of these monasteries received privileges similar to that which Paschal II granted to Santa Maria Latina, Jerusalem: ‘Cimiterium quoque, quod vel in ipso monasterii claustro vel in ecclesiis ad ipsum pertinentibus habetur, omnino liberum esse decernimus, ut eorum, qui illic sepeliri deliberaverint, petitioni et extremi voluntati, nisi forte excommunicati sint, nullus obsistat.’ ed Holtzmann, W., ‘Papst-Kaiser-und Nor-mannenurkunden aus Unteritalien’, QFIAB 35 (1955) pp 50-3, no 1 Google Scholar.

31 For example, archbishop William of Nazareth disputed the right of the monks of Josaphat to control the parish church in the casale of Ligio which his predecessor had given them, Delaborde, pp 56-8, no 24.

32 Jaffé 5948, Constable, pp 95-6.

33 See, for example, the large number of grants of tithe confirmed to the monastery of Josaphat by Anastasius IV, Delaborde pp 63-7, no 28.

34 The Templars in the bull Omne Datum Optimum of 1139. The Hospitallers’ right to have brother priests and to become a completely exempt order was formally recognised in the bull Christiane fidei religio of 1154. Riley-Smith, [J.], [The [Knights] of St John in Jerusalem and Cyprus, 1050-1310] (London 1967) pp 235-6CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

35 WT bk 18 cap 6, RHC Occ 1, pp 826-7.

36 Riley-Smith, J., ‘The Templars and the castle of Tortosa in Syria: an unknown document concerning the acquisition of the fortress’, EHR 84 (1969) pp 278-88CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

37 The exemption of the Venetian churches at Acre and Tyre is attested in [Urkunden zur älteren Handels- und Staatsgeschichte der Republik Venedig mit besonders Beziehung auf Byzanz und die Levante, ed Tafel, G. L. F.] and Thomas, [G. M.], Fontes rerum Austriacarum, Sectio 2, 12-14, 3 vols (Vienna 1856-7) 2 pp 445-8Google Scholar, nos 212, 213; that of the Pisan church of Acre in Müller, [G.], [Documenti sulle relazioni delle città toscane coli ’Oriente cristiano e coi Turchi fino all’ anno 1331], Documenti degli archivi toscani, 3 (Florence 1879) pp 82-3, no 52 Google Scholar.

38 Lettres [de Jacques de Vitry (1160/70-1240), évêque de Saint-Jean d’Acre, ed Huygens, R. B. C.] (Leiden 1960) pp 85-6, no 2 Google Scholar.

39 For example, two new parishes are named in Acre in 1200, Müller pp 82-3, no 52; and two in Antioch in 1227, Riant 1, p 145, no 11.

40 Acre, Tyre, Caesaraea, Beirut.

41 The patriarch of Jerusalem, the archbishop of Nazareth and the bishops of Bethlehem, Lydda, Hebron, Sebaste, Tiberias and Sidon.

42 Innocent III, Regesta, PL 214-16 (1856) an I, no 516; PL 214, col 476.

43 Our Lady of Josaphat, Our Lady of Sion, Mount of Olives, Santa Maria Latina, Templum Domini, Saint Anne’s, Sainte Marie la Grande, Convent of Bethany, Saint Samuel’s, and the hospital of Saint Lazarus.

44 Carmelite church at Acre, [Les Registres d’Alexandre IV, ed Roncière, C.]Bourel de la, BEFAR, 2 series, 2 vols (Paris 1902-31) no 3250 Google Scholar. On the Franciscans, Golubovich 1, passim. References to the Dominicans in the crusader states in Abel, F. M., ‘Le couvent des frères précheurs à Saint-Jean d’Acre’, Révue Biblique 43 (Paris 1934) pp 265-84Google Scholar. Some of the more important of the minor houses at Acre were Sancta Trinitas Captivorum, Auvray no 4014; the Cistercian nuns of Saint Mary Magdalen’s, CGOH no 1828; Saint Catherine’s, Strehlke, E., Tabulae Ordinis Theutonici (Berlin 1869) pp 68-9, no 86 Google Scholar; Saint Thomas of Canterbury, Bourel de la Roncière, no 1553.

45 For example the many bequests listed in the will of Saliba, burgess of Acre, in 1264, CGOH no 3105.

44 Anconitan church, Pauli, S., Codice diplomatico del sacro militare ordine gerosolimitano oggi di Malta, 2 vols (Lucca 1733-7) 1 pp 157-61Google Scholar; church of the Provençals, Tafel and Thomas, 3, p 32. The commune churches sometimes faced setbacks. Thus the Pisan church of Acre was deprived of its parochial status by pope Innocent IV in 1247, Les Registres d’Innocent IV, ed Berger, E., BEFAR, 2 series, 4 vols (Paris 1884-1921) no 2801 Google Scholar.

47 Bishops fought tenaciously for their rights, sometimes with success. Thus the compromise reached between the bishop of Acre and the Hospitallers about payment of dues and parochial rights in 1221, (CGOH no 1718), was re-negotiated in 1228 in the bishop’s favour (ibid no 1911). On the other hand the archbishop of Nazareth in 1263 renounced all his episcopal rights over the Mount Thabor monastery and the lands which it owned in his diocese in favour of the Hospital, who had gained possession of it (ibid no 3054).

48 Lettres, p 83, no 2.

49 Les Registres d’Urbain IV, ed Guiraud, J., BEFAR, 2 series, 4 vols (Paris 1901-29) no 168 Google Scholar.

50 Ibid no 241.

51 Riley-Smith, Knights pp 32-59; WT bk 12 cap 7, RHC Occ 1, p 520 gives details of support for the early Templars.

52 Boase, T. S. R., ‘Ecclesiastical Art in the Crusader States in Palestine and Syria. A. Architecture and Sculpture’, A History of the Crusades, ed Setton, K.M., 4 vols (Philadelphia 1955-) 4 Google Scholar, ed Hazard, H. W., The Art and Architecture of the Crusader States (Wisconsin 1977) pp 69–116 Google Scholar; Hamilton, B., ‘Rebuilding Zion: the holy places of Jerusalem in the twelfth century’, SCH 14 (1977) pp 105–116 Google Scholar.

53 Buchtal, H., Miniature Painting in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (Oxford 1957)Google Scholar; Folda, J., Crusader Manuscript Illumination at Saint-Jean d’Acre, 1275-91 (Princeton 1975)Google Scholar.

54 There is some discussion of this in Runciman, S., The Eastern Schism (Oxford 1955) pp 112-17Google Scholar, but a fuller treatment of this subject is needed.

55 The Maronites were reconciled in 1182, WT bk 22 cap 8, RHC Occ 1, pp 1076-7; the Jacobite union lasted from 1236 (see Gregory IX’s bull, Causam Conditoris Omnium, Auvray no 3789), until 1263, Bar, Hebraeus, Chronicon, cap 96, ed Abbeloos, J.B., Lamy, T. J., 2 vols (Louvain 1872-4) 1 cols 746-50Google Scholar. For the Armenian union, formally inaugurated in 1198, see Hamilton, B., ‘The Armenian Church and the Papacy at the time of the Crusades’, Eastern Churches Review 10 (1978) pp 61–87 Google Scholar.