ABSTRACT
There have been many studies of the influence of the Holy Land upon the imagination and actions of the Latin West.1 Considerably less attention has been given to that of Constantinople and the Aegean world, especially in matters not directly related to the crusades. In what follows, it will be suggested that although Jerusalem, as the physical site of human redemption, dominated the spiritual consciousness of Latin Christians, it may have been the far more complicated relationships with the legacy of Greek antiquity and the contemporary Greek church that shaped crucial elements in Latin thought during the thirteenth century. Given the limited space in which to defend this thesis, it will be explored through the writings of one prominent individual: the English Franciscan, Roger Bacon.2 Writing between 1266-71 for Clement IV and then Gregory X, he argued fiercely that the proper study of Greek philosophy was essential if the Church was to fulfil its moral, evangelical and eschatological roles.3 These arguments, it will be suggested, echoed and elaborated papal statements concerning the Greek church and built on the experiences of Franciscans involved in negotiations over the union of the churches. Rather than being radical and provocative, much of what Bacon had to say was being said by others and had its roots in the rhetoric developed by the papacy in order to legitimize and defend the Latin Empire of Constantinople.
