Tridentine reforms and the Sicilian Court of the 'Regia Monarchia': a jurisdictional conflict

Abstract

The Tridentine reforms met a real obstacle in the kingdom of Sicily, linked to the very particular religious-institutional system of the island, unique in the catholic European context. In Sicily, indeed, through a court called Regia Monarchia, re-organized by Philip II in 1579, the king exercised very wide ecclesiastical prerogatives, which went far beyond the simple right of royal patronage and greatly limited the power of Sicilian bishops. The Regia Monarchia jurisdiction was declared over the same Council of Trent decrees, making them virtually inapplicable for a long time. Indeed, as last instance of cases involving ecclesiastics, it often nullified the measures taken by the episcopal courts. The defence of these wide jurisdictional prerogatives by the Kingdom of Sicily (and the Spanish Monarchy) was always very strong against a Holy See convinced they were a schismatic phenomenon and equally dangerous to the Roman primacy as Gallicanism.