3110

December 17. Lateran. Pope Alexander IV writes to Patriarch O[pizo Fieschi] of Antioch, papal legate, relating that the patriarch claimed in a petition that the late Pope I[nnocentius IV], considering the miserable state of the land of Antioch, had conceded to him the first cathedral church to become vacant in the province of Antioch or in the Kingdom of Cyprus, to retain as long as the Turkoman threat lasted. Although by this concession a prohibition [against filling episcopal vacancies] was done in some churches of said province and kingdom, because however the [present] pope revoked all previous papal letters with such concessions, the patriarch fears for his own concession. Thus the pope was asked on behalf of the patriarch to help him out of the kindness of the Apostolic See, since the Turkoman threat is growing in those parts. The pope therefore agrees to his predecessor’s concession to the patriarch of a vacant cathedral church in those parts, or the next one to become vacant, notwithstanding the revocation.