schism between the eastern and western churches was notionally healed, the Church of Rome installing itself in Constantinople.

Yet the empire was short-lived. The Byzantines, ousted from Constantinople, regrouped in two main areas, Epirus, on the west coast of Greece, and Nicaea in Asia Minor (a third 'empire', that of Trebizond, had been established before the sack of Constantinople and continued its marginal existence until the late fifteenth century). It soon became clear that the western emperors were out of their depth. Few reinforcements came from the west, and in the long term the Byzantine forces were bound to have the advantage once they could solidify their positions. But equally, there was among the Latins no real conception of how to rule territory with problems such as those of Byzantium. Little attempt was made to forge alliances or to understand the mentality of the conquered, either to exploit their weaknesses or to respect their strengths. Above all the Latins signally failed to appreciate the special role religion played in Byzantine politics. The growing apart of eastern and western territories, accentuated in the eleventh century by religious differences, had always rested on this. Few measures alienated the Latins' eastern subjects more effectively than the imposition of western ecclesiastics, western rites, and the crass reorganization of the Byzantine diocesan structure along 'rational' lines. Religious union had been achieved in name, but by force; it could never work.

In fact little pressure sufficed to dislodge the Latins from a substantial part of their newly acquired territory. Only a year after the conquest an incursion by the Bulgarians--with whom the emperor had refused a proffered alliance--led to a defeat of the western forces in Thrace and the hurried abandonment of territory in Asia Minor; Thessalonica fell to the rulers of Epirus in 1224. That the Latin Empire lasted for over half a century was due to the disunity of the Byzantines, not to an acceptance of the westerners. By the 1240s, though, the Nicaeans, with the superior diplomatic skills and administrative vision of the vigorous John III Vatatzes, came to the fore, and after further delays due to the impact of Mongol incursions pressure on the Latin Empire intensified. The decisive event was the Nicaeans'

-239-