Kingdom of Cyprus to take Cyprus back. King Richard took them up on the offer and the Templars returned to Syria, retaining but a few holdings on the island. A small minority Roman Catholic population of the island was mainly confined to some coastal cities, such as Famagusta, as well as inland Nicosia, the traditional capital. Roman Catholics kept the reins of power and control, while the Orthodox inhabitants lived in the countryside; this was much the same as the arrangement in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The independent Eastern Orthodox Church of Cyprus, with its own archbishop and subject to no patriarch, was
Church of Cyprus Church of Cyprus The The Church of Cyprus () is one of the autocephalous Greek Orthodox Churches that together with other Eastern Orthodox Churches form the communion of the Eastern Orthodox Church. It is one of the oldest Eastern Orthodox autocephalous churches, achieving independence from the Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East in 431. The bishop of the ancient capital, Salamis (renamed "Constantia" by Emperor Constantius II) was constituted metropolitan by Emperor Zeno, with the title "archbishop". Paul the Apostle, accompanied by Barnabas and Mark the Evangelist (Barnabas' kinsman), came to Cyprus in AD 45 to spread Christianity. Arriving