ABSTRACT
James of Vitry in his Historia Orientalis records how the Maronites of the Lebanon had been brought into union with Rome by the patriarch Aimery of Limoges, who had persuaded them to renounce the Monothelete heresy. Despite the presence of a strong anti-uniate group among the Maronites, the bishop of Acre saw this rapprochement as a sign of hope for the extension of church unity among the separated eastern Christians: 'I believe', he wrote, 'that many of the heretics dwelling in thefeast, and many of the Saracens as well, might easily be converted to the Lord if they heard sound doctrine preached'.1
