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March. [Nicosia]. [Cardinal-]Bishop Odo (Eudes de Châteauroux) of Tusculum (Frascati), papal legate, writes to all those who will see this letter, relating that it was his duty to carry out a visitation of the church of Nicosia, involving preaching, exhortation, correction, and reform. He first preached and exhorted the audience, then bound Archbishop E[ustorge de Montaigu] (Eustorgius) and the chapter and clerics of Nicosia by oath to inform him truthfully about what needed correction or reform. Thus via an examination the legate found the following in need of reform or correction. (I) The entire church of Cyprus neglected to hold episcopal synods twice yearly for correcting offenses and developing morals, and annual provincial councils for church business and hearing important cases, so the archbishop and bishops of the Kingdom of Cyprus shall hold these henceforth, or else be held accountable for their past neglect as well. (II) Contrary to the stipulations of the [Fourth] Lateran Council that each cathedral shall have a master of grammar and each metropolitan cathedral a master of theology, little or nothing of this has been applied in Cyprus. This is a sin and ignorance is the mother of all errors, but it is worse for a place so far away from schools that poverty, fear, and danger make it more difficult to travel for education. The legate orders the archbishop of Nicosia and his suffragans to rectify this immediately. (III) The archbishop, bishops, and their vicars are forbidden from resorting to excommunication too easily. (IV) The archbishop and bishops are to cease installing completely illiterate master chaplains in their churches, and from now on they should be at least somewhat educated. Their positions are to be permanent, unless they give just cause for removal, and their salaries are to be increased by 40 white besants for Nicosia and 25 in the other churches. (V) Capable and permanent priests are to be installed in the other parishes of the cities and dioceses, and they are to be paid in full the customary incomes at the required times. Each parish shall have fitting ornamentation, books, and a silver chalice. Since there are few Latin parishes in the diocese of Nicosia, the archbishop shall establish a new one in his casale of Fandia (Aphania) or nearby as he sees fit. (VI) Dignitaries, canons, those with assizes, and other clerics shall be paid in full, on time, without difficulty. (VII) When prelates resign or die, it is difficult to find anyone knowledgeable about the church’s possessions, incomes, and rights, so the archbishop and bishops shall examine their churches’ possessions, incomes and rights within two months, write them down separately, and give a written copy with their seal to their chapters to be kept secured in their archives, keeping themselves a sealed copy. (VIII) The archbishop and bishops shall attend more diligently to spiritual matters than in the past, no longer putting the temporal before the spiritual. (IX) Since the church of Nicosia once had a dean (although this had been doubted), and the church needs one, from now one it shall have one, with the income of two canons and the care of the souls of the chapter and clerics of the church, but without jurisdiction in disputes. He shall rank just below the archbishop in the chapter and the choir and will look after the spiritual and temporal affairs of the church. He shall reside continually in the church, under oath. If the one elected is not a priest, he shall swear to be promoted within a year. He shall do homage to the archbishop, who shall confirm and install him, but the chapter shall elect him. (X) Long ago, when the [Nicosia] church’s income was much lower, there were sixteen canons, but gradually through negligence this number was reduced, although the income rose significantly. The church shall henceforth have twelve canons, who shall receive nothing unless they reside in the church, except, with the archbishop’s permission and the chapter’s consent, if they are away studying, are held captive by enemies, or are away on church business or the business of the chapter if they have a dispute with the archbishop, in which case only the chapter’s consent is required. The archbishop and bishops shall have one or two canons with them, as is canonical. When a canon dies, his successor shall receive the same income in full. (XI) Canons who fail to fulfil their duty in something shall be fined six denarii each time, and those with assizes shall be very strictly corrected for such infractions and for missing hours. (XII) The ordinary of the Mass of the church of Nicosia is defective and often performed with confusion, so the ordinary shall follow that of a great secular church of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. On common days in Matins readings shall be done from the middle of the choir, not from the pulpit, from which those in the choir hear little or nothing. (XIII) Since at one time a provincial council of the church of Cyprus established that the canons of Nicosia or their vicars shall do week services in their church, although this has been neglected, this shall be obeyed henceforth. A canon shall be able to serve through a vicar who is not a canon, since according to the custom of the church of Nicosia and of churches in the Kingdom of Jerusalem a canon shall [only] be assigned to a particular service by special assignment. (XIV) Cathedral dignitaries shall have two non-assized clerics in their houses, canons just one, who shall be their associates and increase the number of those serving in the church. (XV) No one shall enter the choir after the first Gloria Patri of the first Psalm and no one shall leave before the end of that hour without good reason. No one shall speak in the choir except concerning the current service. No one shall be barefoot in choir or wear an unbecoming habit. The cantor shall correct transgressions of the above by those in minor orders, but the dean shall correct those in major orders. The other rights and honours of the cantor observed thus far shall be preserved. (XVI) The seal of the chapter shall be guarded with two keys assigned to two separate members, which keys can be reassigned by the chapter when it wishes. (XVII) The legate reports the damnable and scandalous practice in the church of Nicosia that when a procession for the dead is requested, money or security deposits or pledges are demanded first. The legate has been told that, for tolling bells, digging graves, contracting engagements and marriages, and baptizing children, the cleric violently grabs one or more besants’ worth of candle wax that the layfolk have brought for the occasion. These practices are strictly prohibited, and nothing shall be demanded for these or similar things, which shall be done freely and willingly. If laymen do not observe this, they shall be compelled to do so, according to the statute Ut fuerit rationis. (XVIII) When the body of the Redeemer is brought to a sick person, a light should be carried before it in reverence, but the church of Nicosia has no fixed funds for this purpose and on occasion one has to beg for the church to have candles for this. The legate orders that sufficient wax be devoted to this purpose before the wax is distributed in the church. (XIX) Formerly, new canons swore to keep the secrets of the chapter and uphold the church’s rights, but this has been neglected for a long time, and the legate orders that those canons who did not swear shall now take the oath and new canons shall henceforth swear it. A canon shall not be required to defend the church’s rights to his detriment or alone, but only in good faith with the majority or saner part of the chapter. (XX) Formerly, the silk garments placed on the funeral beds of the dead who were to be buried in the church of Nicosia or its cemetery became part of the church’s decoration. This was changed recently, and the legate wants the old custom to be restored. (XXI) Although the whole Church should honour God’s saints, special veneration is due in the places where those saints died. Since it is written that several saints died in Cyprus, namely Barnabas, Epiphanius, Hilarion, Nicanor, Titicus (Tychicus), Iason, Spiridion (Spyridion), Aymon, Alexander, Potamius, and Nemesius, and the legate has learned that only three of these receive nine readings in the church of Nicosia, the legate orders that nine readings shall be performed on the feast day of each of the above martyrs or confessors in all churches of the Latins in Cyprus, as is proper. (XXII) To prevent errors when priests serve the host, when a chaplain appointed by Archbishop E[ustorge] celebrates Mass for the archbishop and his predecessors and an assized occasionally celebrates the Mass for the dead in the church of Nicosia, they shall have a subdeacon or acolyte assigned to each of them to serve during mass for weeks at a turn, using a table or a list. (XXIII) The archbishop and chapter shall receive copies of the above with the legate’s seal, one to be kept by the archbishops, the other by the chapter. The above shall also be transcribed into a large book of the church of Nicosia, at the end or the beginning, so that everyone of the church will have easy access to and awareness of the text.