The pope’s misspeak, or on observance of the council rules in medieval Crimea

Introduction . In the papal bulls concerning the establishing of the bishopric of Cherson and the metropolis of Vosporo in 1333, a specific point is made on erecting these towns from the status of locus to that of civitas and metropolis, contravening their status in the hierarchy of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Methods and materials . In order to understand what had formed the legal basis for establishing the Catholic hierarchy, documents of the Constantinople Patriarchate are attracted. Analysis . The Greek archbishoprics of Cherson and Vosporo are mentioned in the lists of bishoprics of Notitiae episcopatuum and in the acts of the Constantinople Patriarchate. However, by 1333, both of the archbishoprics suffered difficulties: an archbishop of Cherson had not been mentioned in the acts since 1280, as his archbishopric dropped out of the main list of the Notitiae episcopatuum under the reign of the emperor Andronicus II Palaiologos. The metropolis of Vosporo had not been mentioned in documents since the middle of the 13th century. Thus, Pope John XXII chose the right time to substitute vacant sees by Latin bishops. The pope, however, paid much attention to observing the canonical borders of the Patriarchate of Constantinople as set by Rule 28 of the Chalcedonian Council. Results . The attention paid by the Roman pontiffs to observing council rules helps us to correct the perception of parallel church hierarchies coexisting in the Black Sea Region in the 14th - 15th centuries. The presenting of bishops with the same titles, even of different confessions, was not considered normal and was understood as a schism to be overcome. Similar game rules may be traced to the examples of other sees of the North Pontic Region, as Sugdaia and Phoulloi, Solchat and Zichia.