The Latin Church in the Crusader States The Secular Church

This is the first major work on the history of the secular church in the Frankish states of Syria and the Holy Land - a subject which has not hitherto attracted the interest of ecclesiastical historians. The present book has been written to fill this important gap in crusader studies. It deals with the period stretching from the establishment of a Latin hierarchy after the First Crusade to the final conquest by the Mamluks in 1291. Dr Hamilton examines the development of the Church in the Patriarchates of Jerusalem and Antioch and its organisation from the parish level upwards. Two chapters are devoted to a study of its sources of income and the financial problems that arose after the Battle of Hattin through the thirteenth century. Particular attention is paid to the relations between the Latin and the Eastern Churches. The author documents the unequal treatment given to the Orthodox and to the separated Churches, and traces the course of the various attempts at church union. In his conclusion he makes an overall assessment of the spiritual achievments of the Church during this period and the extent to which it justified the first crusaders' ideals.

Preface, 1. The First Crusade and the Eastern Churches, 2. The establishment of a Latin Church at Antioch, 3. The establishment of a Latin Church at Jerusalem, 4. Latin parish organisation, 5. The senior Latin clergy in the twelfth century, 6. The sources of income of the Latin Church in the twelfth century, 7. Relations with the Orthodox, 1098-1187, 8. Relations with the separated Eastern Churches, 1098-1187, 9. The Latin Church of Antioch after 1187, 10. The Latin Church of Jerusalem after 1187, 11. The economic problems of the Latin Church in the thirteenth century, 12. The Orthodox schisms at Jerusalem and Antioch, 13. Reunion with separated Eastern Christians, 14. The spiritual work of the Latin Church in Syria, Appendix, Abbreviations, Bibliographies, Maps, Index

Bernard Hamilton