Thirteenth Century Support for Greek Churches

8. At the start of the thirteenth century the Latins gained control of Constantinople. Innocent III then decided to establish a Latin Patriarch in that city with jurisdiction over Greeks as well as Latins; but he still was careful to state openly that he did not want any harm done to the Greek rites, excepting only those traditional customs which endangered souls or were at variance with the honor of the Church. The decretal of this pope, issued at the Fourth Lateran Council, is to be found both in Harduin's Collectionis Conciliorum, vol. I, p. 22, and in the chapter Licet, de Baptismo. "Although the Greeks have returned to obedience to the Apostolic See in Our day, We desire them as greatly as We can in the Lord to cherish and hold in honor their custom and rites, except for those customs which give rise to danger for souls and detract from the honor of the Church, for in these cases We neither should nor do We want to respect them." Later Honorius III, the immediate successor of Innocent, used the same words in a letter to the king of Cyprus who wanted two bishops in some cities in his kingdom, a Latin bishop for the Latin inhabitants and a Greek bishop for the Greeks living in the same district. This letter of Honorius is printed in the Annals of Raynaldus, 1222, a. 5.