Latin attitudes in Constantinople and the Aegean Islands after the Fourth Crusade (1204) (ecclesiastical and cultural)

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to describe briefly (a) the Latin Church in Constantinople and (b) the attitude of the Latins toward the Greeks in the smaller islands of the Aegean after the Fourth Crusade of 1204. In (a) the paper examines the attitude of the Papacy towards the Greeks In the role of the Church, raising the questions as to whether the Crusaders introduced into the Empire of Constantinople ecclesiastical institutions which had been based on those planned in the Holy Land and Cyprus and whether the Latins were able to preserve their identity within their socio-interaction with the Greeks. In (b) the paper examines not only the ecclesiastical attitude of the Latins towards the smaller Aegean islands, but also describes the cultural, commercial and intellectual developments after 1204.