Die lateinischen Patriarchen von Jerusalem: Von der Eroberung der Heiligen Stadt durch die Kreuzfahrer 1099 bis zum Ende der Kreuzfahrerstaaten 1291 (review)

After an introduction which surveys the sources and the secondary literature and details the "Fragestellung und Methode," this book is divided into three sections: a study of the patriarchal office (pp. 58-90); biographies of the individual patriarchs (pp. 91-447); and a thematic survey that weaves together the various activities and relationships touched upon in the biographical section (pp. 448-506). A ten-page "Epilog" locates the patriarchs in the broader context of medieval ecclesiastical developments.

There is a great deal here that is of considerable interest. As part of the 'Pentarchy' of sees into which Christendom was historically divided, the patriarchates of Jerusalem and Antioch liberated from Muslim rule in 1098-9 posed a potential threat to the emerging Reform Papacy. Jerusalem and Antioch also contested jurisdiction over the archbishopric of Tyre and its suffragans, a problem never properly resolved during the lifetime of the Latin states in Syria and Palestine. There were tensions between the patriarchs and the canons of the Holy Sepulchre. The history of relations during the twelfth century with other religious corporations in Jerusalem—St. Mary of the Latins, St. Mary in the Valley of Josaphat, the Templum Domini, the Mount of Olives, and Mount Sion—is one of their gradual emancipation from patriarchal jurisdiction. The most spectacularly successful of these rival bodies, of course, were the nascent Military Orders of the Temple and the Hospital, which with papal assistance had achieved full exemption by 1170. The loss of most of the patriarchs' landed resources, together with the majority of their suffragan sees, in the débâcle of 1187 meant that they never again enjoyed such a powerful position vis-à-vis the archbishop of Tyre or the papacy as they had earlier in the century. The eclipse of royal power during the era of the Second Kingdom of Jerusalem (from 1192), and particularly in a time of absentee monarchs (1225-1269), provided little real compensation, though the patriarchs did on occasions provide leadership that was sadly lacking.

The book is meticulously researched; Kirstein is extremely well versed in the sources and in the modern literature (the bibliography alone totals 140 pages), and makes a welcome contribution to the history of the Latin Church in the East during the crusader period. There are very few typos, and I noticed only two factual errors: at page 435, for "al-Malik," read "al-Malik al-'Adil"; and at pages 437-438, for "Großmutter" and "Enkelin," read respectively "Tante" and "Nichte." My sole complaint relates to the chronological scope of the volume. The last biography is that of Albert of Vercelli (d. 1214), with the result that most of the thirteenth-century patriarchs are noticed only fleetingly in the final section. The justification for this, apparently (p. 52), is that the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) marked the definitive incorporation of the patriarchs into the ecclesiastical hierarchy over which the pope presided. Such a criterion might have carried greater weight in a study devoted to the institution of the patriarchate as opposed to the personnel. It is bizarre that a book with this title lacks, for example, an account of Gerold of Lausanne, who was in office in 1229 when the Holy City was briefly restored to Frankish possession; or an investigation of the anomalous status of the thirteenth-century patriarchs-in-exile at Acre, which caused so much friction with the city's bishop until Urban IV provisionally amalgamated the two sees in 1261. It is also a great pity, given the book's important contribution in other areas.