Ecclesiastical organization

An important position in the church life of the empire was held by the Latin archbishop and the papal legatus, who was the representative of the pope in Constantinople. In the election of the Latin archbishop participated the council of the clerics of Hagia Sophia, which consisted entirely of Venetian prelates, and the presiding bishops (praepositi) of the 30 and later 32 monastic churches of Constantinople (praepositurae).

Under Pope Innocent III (1198-1216), the papal legati had increased powers, in the purpose of decreasing the power of the Latin archbishop. From 1231, the office of the papal legatus was conferred on the Latin archbishop. Many changes were brought about in the ecclesiastical organization of the Latin Empire of Constantinople through the creation of new bishoprics and metropolises but also of autocephalous archbishoprics. The ecclesiastical hierarchy remained Latin, despite the representation of orthodox clerics who came under the Latin bishop of each place and constituted the lower degree of the clergy. The orthodox clerics maintained their right to wed and have children and continued to pay the annual Byzantine land tax, the acrosticon, to the secular authorities. The Latin congregation (the emperor, the barons, the knights and the simple people) was to pay the tithe to the parish to which they belonged.

The ecclesiastical military orders of the Hospitaller and the Templar knights settled early in the empire. In 1205, the pope invited the monk orders of Cluny and Citeaux (Cistercians) in Constantinople, with a view to strengthening the Catholic faith. Before long, the small order of St. Sampson was created in Constantinople and gradually assumed military character. After 1220, the monk orders of the Dominicans and the Franciscans settled in the empire. Their aim was to convert the Greeks to Catholicism and strengthen the Catholic faith of the Latin populations.