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February 21. Lateran. Pope Alexander IV writes to Patriarch [Opizo Fieschi] of Antioch, papal legate, relating that the Turkoman and other enemies of the Christian name have continually increased their bellicose incursions in the land of Antioch so much that they have laid waste to everything outside the city of Antioch and Castle Quṣair (Cursarium ), which belongs to the Antioch Church. Since on account of this the patriarch’s incomes had dropped too low to support himself properly, the pope’s predecessor I[nnocent IV] wished to help him lest the land be occupied by the infidels and thus endanger the Holy Land. [Innocent] wrote to the abbot of Cistercian Jubino (Jubin), in the diocese of Antioch, to provide for the patriarch with the first vacant archbishopric or bishopric in the Kingdom of Cyprus or province of Antioch, to be held by the patriarch until peace returned to him and his patriarchate. Innocent also prohibited the chapters of the cathedrals in those areas from electing or appointing a successor should a church become vacant in the meantime, reserving for himself the collation of the first vacant see. Pope Alexander later confirmed this with a letter to the same abbot, ordering him to proceed according to [Innocent’s] directions. Since the pope knows that the see of Limassol (Nimotiensis) is now vacant following the transfer of Bishop B[artholomeus] to the church Vicenza (Vicentina), the pope wants the patriarch or his representatives to take over the care and administration of the church of Limassol in its spiritual and temporal affairs, and to receive its income, until peace returns to his patriarchate.