I caratteri originari della popolazione di etnia grecanica e la fine del rito bizantino nella Grecìa salentina

It is not easy to be able to somehow reconstruct the original characteristics of the Grecanic ethnic population due to the lack of adequate documentary sources preserved in the many possible archives. Only the fleeting testimonies found in the ancient parishes of Galatina, Copertino and Gallipoli were fundamental, concerning the formulas used in the celebration of birth certificates and those concerning marriage, present in the first book of Melpignano, drawn up before the dictates of the Council of Trent (1545-1563), and from this imposed on the entire Christian world. Through their comparison, the possible differences between the Greek and Latin ethnic groups emerged. In the extreme necessity on the part of the Catholic Church of having to fight the various heresies developed throughout Europe under the pressure of the millenarian instances born at the end of the fifteenth century, Salento Greece, where the language, habits and customs of Byzantine origin still resist, is forced to suffer the inexorable process of 'normalization' to the remaining Latin area. In a context of enormous tax burdens on each community, the fact of being 'Greek' priests and therefore adding the possibility of being married with children, thus taking advantage of ecclesiastical immunities, generates hatred and conflict in one's social context, as is witnessed in the decisions and decrees of the Royal Chamber of Sommaria, a court sitting in Naples, competent to resolve disputes arising locally.