The Crusades, the Genoese and the Latin East - DSpace at ...

In any case, Pope Urban III wrote fourteen letters to the ecclesiastical and lay personnel
of the crusader states, all of which concern Genoese properties and rights in the Latin East. Six of
the letters specifically concern the unpaid debts for Gibelet over a period of seventeen years: We
censu illo per annos decem et septem. ' Hugh II's reluctance to pay the census is described in the
letter as an `act of rebellion, ' as the pope wrote in his letters that `sicut pater eius fecit solita
rebellione. '476 These six letters are very similar to each other, which makes the small differences
between them of some interest.
The first two letters were written on 11 March 1186. The first was addressed to `dilecto
filio Hugoni, filio Hugonis de Gibelleto, ' and the second was written to the patriarch of
Antioch 477 The first letter was sent directly to Hugh III. The pope clearly avoided addressing
Hugh or his late father as the lords of Gibelet, but simply used `Hugh of Gibelet'. He wrote that
the church and the city of Genoa had asked him to act because Hugh's father had not paid his
duty for Gibelet, which is property that he had held on Genoa's behalf. The pope bluntly stressed
that Hugh III must pay because he is `his father's successor' 'tu debes ex eius successione.... P479
Finally, Urban entrusted further dealing on this matter with the patriarchs of Jerusalem and
Antioch and the bishops of Tripoli and Gibelet.
The next letter was addressed to the patriarch of Antioch. The pope maintained his rather
severe tone. Urban mentioned the letter that he had already written to Hugh III about
his father's
unpaid debts, using the same words and adding `sicut pater eius fecit, solita rebellione
contempnat' [my emphasis]. The pope further mentioned that previous letters by the late popes
Alexander III and Lucius III were ignored. Lucius III's letter is not available in the archives of the
Vatican, but the reference to such a letter suggests that by 1186, the issue of the relationship and
commitments between Genoa and Gibelet had already required papal involvement for over three
generations. Urban concluded his own letter to the patriarch in the same rigid manner. He
maintained that: `uolumus firmiterque precipiendo mandamus quatinus ipsum ad hoc
exequendum moneas attentius et inducas. Quod si ad mandatum nostrum et monita tua facere
forte neglexerit, tu eum appellatione remota ad hec ecclesiastica districtione compellas. X479
See Hans. E Mayer and Marie-Luise Favreau `Das Diplom Balduins I fur Genua und Genuas Goldene
Inschrift in der Grabeskirche', Quellen und Forschungen aus italianischen Archiven und Bibliotheken
55/56 (1976), 22-95; Benjamin Kedar, `Genoa's Golden Inscription in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre',
7319.
61 Libri lurium, vol. 1/2, nos. 316-329; Letters 322,325-29 concern Gibelet. The latest edition of these
letters is included in Rudolf Niestand, Papsturkunden für Kirchen im Heiligen Lande (Gottingen, 1985),
letters 130-32,135-37.
477 Hiestand, Papsturkunden für Kirchen im Heiligen Lande, the letter to the patriarch of Antioch, no. 131,
pp. 308-9; the letter to Hugh of Gibelet, no. 130, pp. 307-8.
s Niestand, no. 130, P. 308.
479 Hiestand, no. 131, p. 309.
133