«Absolutamente no entra obispo si no el que presenta y nombra su Magestad». Vescovi del re contro vicari del papa nella Sicilia spagnola (XVI-XVII secolo)

Abstract

The concentration of ecclesiastical powers held by the Spanish crown in the kingdom of Sicily in the early modern period was very often translated into jurisdictional competencies among the ecclesiastical courts of the island: each of them tried, indeed, to extend his own prerogatives over suspects and crimes in spite of others, putting its "falcem in alienam messem". The defendants themselves, often clerics, were well aware of this jurisdictional overlap and tried, often successfully, to take advantage of it, sometimes involving Roman congregations and courts. Other times it was the Holy See itself to tackle the Sicilian caesaropapism head-on, sending commissars and apostolic vicars in quarrelsome dioceses (bishop against local communities), or devoid of a bishop (temporarily absent), or with bishops unable to govern due to his advanced age. The consequences of this struggle between Rome and Madrid are well summarised in an anonymous "Discurso" – drafted on occasion of some disputes that broke out in the early 1630s in three Sicilian dioceses (Messina, Catania and Agrigento) – which this article focuses on, putting it in relation to its historical context.