Iglesia del papa o iglesia del rey? Política y religión en Sicilia bajo el reinado de Carlos II

Abstract

The author examines the solidity of royal patronage in Sicily and proposes to revise the usual observation of a balance between Sicilians and Spanish in the appointments to bishoprics under Charles II. His thorough examination of these appointments, taking into account the naturalization of foreigners, shows the extent of the monarch’s power over the Sicilian Church. The intangibility of the force of royal patronage in Sicily is comparable, indeed, to that in Spanish America and did not decline under Charles II. Actually, it did not falter until the early Eighteenth century, on the occasion of the War of the Spanish succession