[2] Nevertheless, in the Sixth Ecumenical Council of 681, a Theodosios, "bishop of the city of the Lacedaemonians", participated, and a bishopric of "Lakedeon" is attested in a Notitia Episcopatuum of ca.
His hagiography gives many, albeit not always reliable, information about the area, including the existence of a Jewish community and still pagan Slavs, on whom Nikon focused his missionary activity.
[2][3] In their conquests, the Crusaders retained the existing Greek Orthodox ecclesiastical structure but installed Roman Catholic prelates.
Due to the scarcity of the Catholic element but also the few higher clergy available, in 1222–23 several smaller sees, which had had a rather theoretical existence under Frankish rule or were never even occupied after the eviction of their Orthodox bishops, were abolished and amalgamated into the larger ones: thus in 1222, Amyclae was joined with Lacedaemon, followed in 1223 by the see of Helos, which had lain vacant after the Frankish conquest.
[4] Lacedaemon experienced a period of splendour in the mid-13th century, when Prince William II of Villehardouin made it his residence, and began constructing the fortress of Mistra nearby.
This lasted until the middle of the century, when the Metropolis of Patras was again separated (and installed at the Mega Spilaion Monastery), while Lacedaemon received Amyclae as its suffragan.
The history of the Metropolis of Lacedaemon during the first century of Ottoman rule is obscure: the first named Metropolitan, Jeremias, is not attested until 1541–46, and then he did not reside in his see but rather was a permanent member of the synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
[1] In 1601, the Athenian Ezekiel was elected as metropolitan, but died soon after, to be succeeded by the former Great Protosyncellus of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, Chrysanthos Laskaris.
[1] A few years later, after the failed Orlov Revolt, the Peloponnese suffered from the raids of the Albanian irregulars invited by the Turks to help suppress the rebellion.
[1] At the time of the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence in March 1821, the incumbent metropolitan Chrysanthos was old and near-blind, but a leading role in the initial days of the revolt was played by the bishop of Vresthena, Theodoretos II, who was a member of the Filiki Etaireia and served as deputy chairman of the Peloponnesian Senate.
[1] With the death of Daniel Kouloufekis in December 1844, the see remained vacant and was governed by a committee until 9 April 1852, when the ecclesiastical hierarchy was once more reorganized.