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It is (not only) the will of god»: the king-doms of Cyprus and Cilician Armenia... 171

growing threat from the East and the Byzantines led the Armenians to
send a letter to Pope Lucius III offering submission to the Roman Church
in 1184 . In return, Armenian Catholicos Gregory IV received a pallium
79
and a copy of Rituale Romanum sent by the papacy. Despite the fact that
the pope now believed the Armenian Church to be under papal authority,
the Armenian attitude was more concentrated on gaining help from the
West than on an actual union .
80
In the 1180s, Cilician Armenia, having survived Saladin’s con-
quests, became important to the success of the Crusade of the Holy
Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, and the papacy was therefore
keen to maintain good relations with Cilician Armenia’s lay and eccle-
siastical leaders, Prince Leo II, and Catholicos Gregory IV. In 1189,
Pope Clement III sent letters to Leo and Gregory urging them to assist
the Crusaders militarily and economically . Having defeated the Sel-
81
juks near Iconium, Frederick sent letters to Leo and soon received a
response from the Catholicos Gregory. Pleased with the approach to
the Armenians Frederick sent another message and stated that he was
willing to crown Leo. Nerses of Lampron was an ideal mediator for Leo,
who sent Nerses to meet with the catholicos first and then to meet the
emperor afterwards, in Seleucia. Leo joined the meeting party to wel-
come the emperor, but the emperor died while crossing the Göksu
River before meeting the Armenian party. Nevertheless, the Armenians
had managed to contact the emperor via ambassadors before his
death . Even after Saladin died in 1193, Cilician Armenia sustained
82
relations with the West to defend itself against a possible future Mus-
lim attack or Byzantine intervention. According to the Muslim sources
Leo, while on the one hand trying to establish his link with the Holy

79 P. Halfter, Papacy, Catholicosate and Kingdom of Cilician Armenia, in R.G.
Hovannisian, S. Payaslian, Armenian Cilicia, Mazda Publishers, Costa Mesa, California,
2008, pp. 114-116; T.L. Aloysius, (ed.), Acta Romanorum Pontificum a S. Clemente ad
Coelestinum III Pontificia Commissio ad Redigendum Codicem Juris Canonici Orientalis,
Fontes: series 3, vol. 1, Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, Vatican City, 1943, pp. 811-13, n.
395; P. Halfter, Das Papsttum und die Armenier im Frühen und Hohen Mittelalter: Von
den ersten Kontakten bis zur Fixierung der Kirchenunion in Jahre 1198, Böhlau, Köln,
1996, pp. 150-151.
80 K.M. Setton, R.L. Wolff, H. Hazard, (eds.), The Later Crusades: 1189-1311 cit., p.
643; B. Hamilton, The Armenian Church and the Papacy cit., pp. 67-69.
81 K.M. Setton, R.L. Wolff, H. Hazard, (eds.), The Later Crusades: 1189-1311 cit., p.
645, fn. 18; Papal letters are not preserved in Latin, see L. Alishan, Léon le Magnifique
Premier roi de Sissouan ou de l’Arménocilicie, St. Lazare, Venice 1888, (reis. Hachette
Groupe Livre, Paris, 2014), pp. 163-165; For the relations between Pope Clement III and
the Armenians, see also P. Halfter, Das Papsttum und die Armenier cit., pp. 172-77.
82 Ibidem; RHC Arm., vol. 1, pp. 422-23; C. Mutafian, The Brilliant Diplomacy of
Cilician Armenia, in R. G. Hovannisian, S. Payaslian, Armenian Cilicia, Mazda Publish-
ers, Costa Mesa, California, 2008, pp. 98-99.

Mediterranea - ricerche storiche - Anno XIX - Aprile 2022
ISSN 1824-3010 (stampa) ISSN 1828-230X (online)