The Latin Archbishopric of Corinth is a titular see of the Latin Church. It dates to 1210, when a Catholic archbishop was installed on the Orthodox Metropolis of Corinth, in Southern Greece, in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade. Since the Byzantine reconquest in the early 15th century, and except for a brief period of Venetian rule in 1688–1715, it has been awarded as a titular see. It has been vacant since 2005.

History The See of Corinth has a long history, and is held to have been founded by the Apostle Paul. In the Roman and early Byzantine periods, Corinth was the capital and metropolitan see of the province of Achaea (southern Greece).Gregory (1991), pp. 531–533 From the early 9th century, however, the primacy of Corinth over the Peloponnese was challenged by the See of Patras, and from the 10th century on the jurisdiction of the See of Corinth was restricted to the eastern Peloponnese and certain of the Ionian Islands.

In 1203/4, the city fell to the lord of the Argolid, Leo Sgouros, who used the weakness of the Byzantine government and the turmoil of the Fourth Crusade to carve out for himself a practically independent state in southern and central Greece.Setton (1975), pp. 21–24 Sgouros' ambitions to create a state of his own were checked by the onslaught of the victorious Crusaders, who captured Corinth in 1210 after a long siege.Bon (1969), pp. 56–59Setton (1975), pp. 22–25, 36

The Crusaders established a Roman Catholic ("Latin") Archbishopric to replace the Greek Orthodox see, covering the same territory: the seven suffragan sees of Cephalonia, Zakynthos, Damala, Lacedaemon/Monemvasia, Argos, Helos and Zemena.Setton (1975), pp. 36–38 In reality, Monemvasia and Helos were not to come under Latin control until thirty years later, and the Latin clergy had difficulty imposing itself on the rural Greek population and priesthood. As a result, the sees of Damala, Helos and Zemena seem to have never been occupied,Bon (1969), pp. 93–94 and Zemena and one half of Damala came to form part of the diocese of Corinth itself.Bon (1969), pp. 478–480 Along with its rival, the Latin Archbishop of Patras, the Archbishop of Corinth ranked as one of the two senior ecclesiastic barons in the Principality of Achaea, with eight knight's fiefs attached to him (and four each for the suffragan bishops of Argos and Lacedaemon).Bon (1969), p. 114 Nevertheless, despite its ancestry and prestige, Corinth was rapidly eclipsed by Patras during the period of Frankish rule.Bon (1969), p. 92

Le Quien (III, 883) mentions twenty Latin prelates from 1210 to 1700, but Eubel (I, 218; II, 152) mentions twenty-two archbishops for the period from 1212 to 1476. The city was recovered by the Byzantine Despotate of the Morea in 1395, and, after a short period (1397–1404) of rule by the Knights Hospitaller, returned to Byzantine hands, where it remained until it fell to the Ottoman Empire on 8 August 1458. After this the Catholic see remained as a titular see.

The Archbishopric of Corinth became once more the centre of the Catholic Church in the Peloponnese during the brief period of Venetian rule in 1688–1715, while the Orthodox Metropolis of Patras remained the centre of the local Orthodox Church.Vakalopoulos (1975), p. 209

Residential archbishops Name Tenure NotesWalter1212 – after 1215Unknown10 June 1224 – ?Unknown1228Peter of ConfluenziaFebruary 1268 – 5 April 1278William of Moerbeke9 April 1278 – ?Robert22 October 1286 – ?Matthew of Osenioca. 1294Louisca. 1300John of Spoleto18 January 1306 – 5 June 1307 Apostolic administratorJames5 June 1307 – ?Bartholomewca. 1312Jamesca. 1340 – 7 January 1349Francis of Massa29 March 1349 – ?Paul15 March 1363 – ca. 1379Matthew 19 September 1386 – ?Stephen8 July 1390 – 15 March 1395Peter John26 April 1395 - 12 January 1396Biagio12 January 1396 – ?John ca. 25 June 1407Antony?Peter Rainaldi14 February 1421 – ?

Titular archbishops Name Tenure NotesMarco Antonio Saraco 31 July 1476 – ?Giulio de Blanchis ca. 1512 – ?Juan de Sepúlveda 1517 – ?Alfonso Paleotti 13 February 1591 – 23 July 1597Dominique de Vic 1625 – 29. Oktober 1629Jean François Paul de Gondi 5 October 1643 – 21 March 1654Carlo Bonelli 16 October 1656 – 15 April 1665Giacomo Filippo Nini 28 April 1664 – 15 March 1666Stefano Ugolini 29 March 1666 – 18 April 1667Galeazzo Marescotti 27 February 1668 – 23 March 1676Francesco Martelli 9 September 1675 – 21 July 1698Leonardo Balsarini19 December 1698 – 1699Angelo Maria Carlini11 December 1702 – 1715Mondilio Orsini (Mundillus Orsini)26 June 1724 – 20 November 1724Giuseppe Spinelli5 September 1725 – 15 December 1734Giovanni Francesco Stoppani 14 March 1735 – 20 May 1754Antonius Biglia 22 July 1754 – 29 November 1755François Mattei28 March 1757 – 13 March 1758Henry Benedict Mary Clement Stuart of York2 October 1758 – 13 July 1761Marcantonio Colonna 19 April 1762 – 20 September 1784Ippolito Antonio Vincenti Mareri11 April 1785 – 21 February 1794Giuseppe Maria Spina 10 June 1798 – 24 May 1802Dionisio Ridolfini Conestabile9 August 1802 – 26 September 1803Giovanni Giacomo Antonio Gaetano Fraschina26 March 1804 – 27 March 1837Giuseppe Angelini21 December 1868 – ?Cesare Sambucetti1 April 1882 – March 1911Pio Armando Pietro Sabadel27 November 1911 – ?Bonaventura Cerretti 10 May 1914 – 14 December 1925Louis Petit 24 June 1926 – 5 November 1927 Ettore Felici6 November 1927 – 9 May 1951Gennaro Verolino 5 September 1951 – 17 November 2005

References

Sources

Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig 1931, pp. 430-431 Konrad Eubel, Hierarchia Catholica Medii Aevi, vol. 1 , p. 210; vol. 2, p. 136; vol. 3 , p. 178; vol. 4, pp. 164-165; vol. 5, p. 173; vol. 6, p. 183 "Corinthe", in Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de Géographie ecclésiastiques, vol. XIII, Paris 1956, coll. 876-880

External links Corinthus, at catholic-hierarchy.org