How did the church settle the Templars' tithe fights?
Research question: How did the church resolve the tithe and first-fruits disputes that William of Tyre attributes to the Templars, and do papal or synodal records show any settlement?
The records provided do not mention William of Tyre or any Templar tithe dispute, and they contain no synodal record. They show that the popes generally appointed mediators, such as other ecclesiastical authorities or the Abbot of Ripoll, rather than settling these conflicts directly 6. In the Tortosa case, Innocent III in 1198 forbade the Hospitaller commander of Amposta to bury or administer sacraments to residents interdicted for withholding tithes and first fruits 2, then ordered the Bishop of Lleida and the Abbot of Poblet to force that commander to comply 4. Later decisions set terms, such as a 1326 tithe threshold of 60 florins for the grangia of Credo 3, and a 1329 order from John XXII on returning seized goods at Psimolofa 5, but none of these facts shows a final settlement of the Templar disputes.
Sources
"The Omne datum optimum gave the Order the papal sanction it needed to operate independently of ecclesiastical and secular authorities."Omne datum optimum
"One was addressed to the commander of Amposta, prohibiting him from burying and administering the sacraments to the residents of Tortosa who were interdicted for not offering their tithes and first fruits."Papal policies towards the Templars and Hospitallers in the Crown of Aragon and the Kingdom of Navarre (12th-13th centuries) (2018)
"John XXII ordered the bishop of Paphos himself, along with the abbot of Stavrovouni and the cantor of Nicosia, to implement the decision, although this time only if the annual tithe did not exceed 60 florins"The Village of Psimolophou in Cyprus and the Latin Patriarchs of Jerusalem (2021)
"This situation was of such importance that the pope himself sent another letter to the Bishop of Lleida and Abbot of Poblet to force the commander to fulfil said demand."Papal policies towards the Templars and Hospitallers in the Crown of Aragon and the Kingdom of Navarre (12th-13th centuries) (2018)
"or to instruct them to keep only what covered the tithe debt and return the rest to Patriarch Pierre"The Village of Psimolophou in Cyprus and the Latin Patriarchs of Jerusalem (2021)
"The popes chose to offer mediators instead of directly solving the problems."Papal policies towards the Templars and Hospitallers in the Crown of Aragon and the Kingdom of Navarre (12th-13th centuries) (2018)