The Endowment License of Pope Sixtus IV to Leonardo III Tocco (10 September 1476): The Church of St. Demetrios on Lefkada
The Endowment License of Pope Sixtus IV to Leonardo III Tocco (10 September 1476): The Church of St. Demetrios on Lefkada

Summary/Abstract: The paper focuses on a license which Pope Sixtus IV granted to Leonardo III Tocco on 10 September 1476. This license allowed the Tocco lord to found a Catholic church dedicated to St. Demetrios on the Ionian island of Lefkada. The research shows that the immediate motives for this endowment reflected wider political interests of the pontifical Curia which regarded Leonardo as one of its allies in the Crusade planned against the Ottomans. The stability of Leonardo’s power was reinforced by the Curia’s ambitions to strengthen Catholicism in his domain. The licensing of Leonardo’s ipso iure patronage over the newly founded church, as well as the permission to dedicate the endowment to the popular Orthodox warrior-saint Demetrios, both appear in this document as distinctive methods of this papal policy. The paper also discusses the size of the church of St. Demetrios, its location, and chronology, as well as the paleo-diplomatic features of this pontifical license, providing also a transcription in which the document’s significant vocabulary follows diplomatic standards of reading.

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