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The Secularisation of Castilian Episcopal Office Under the Habsburgs, c. 1516–1700

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

H. E. Rawlings
H. E. Rawlings
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10 Rofant Road, Northwood, Middlesex HA6 3BE
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Extract

The Spanish Church of the Golden Age has been much discussed but little studied. Certainly, its professional structure and internal administration are much less well understood than those of secular government. This paper seeks to correct some of the imbalance by applying to the 540 members of the Castilian episcopacy who served under Habsburg leadership the prosopographical techniques which in recent years have advanced our understanding of the State. But before doing so it might be useful to describe the structure of the episcopacy and the principles and procedures which governed appointments to it.

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Articles
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The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , January 1987 , pp. 53 - 79
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

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References

AGS, PE = Archivo General de Simancas, Patronato Eclesiastico; DHEE = Diccionario de Historia Eclesidstica de Espana; AHN, Cons. = Archivo Historico Nacional, Consejos Suprimidos; CODOIN= Coleccidn de Documentos Ineditos para la Historia de Espana, ix.

I wish to thank The Twenty-Seven Foundation of the Institute of Historical Research for having financed a field trip to Spain in 1983, which enabled me to carry out the final stages of the research for this article. I am also grateful to Professor J. H. Elliott and Dr P. Williams for their generous support in the preparation of this paper.

1 Some recent Spanish studies on the Church include: Diccionario de Historia Eclesidstica de Espana, ed. Vaquero, Q. Aldea, Martinez, T. Marin and Gatell, J. Vives, 4 vols, Madrid 1972-1975Google Scholar ; Historia de la Iglesia de Espana, ed. Villoslada, R. Garcia, pts iii, iv, Madrid 1980Google Scholar . Dussel, Enrique D., Les Iiviques hispano-americains. Difenseurs el ivangelisaleurs de I'Indien, 1504-1620, Wiesbaden 1970Google Scholar , provides an insight into the Spanish-American episcopacy, while Annie Molinie-Bertrand draws on demographical data in ‘Le clerge en Castille a la fin du XVIe siécle’, Revue d'Histoire tconomique el Sociale li (1973), 5–53Google Scholar.

2 The history of the secular administration under the Spanish Habsburgs has been the subject of a number of related studies, among them: Thompson, I. A. A., ‘The Armada and administrative reform: the Spanish council of war in the reign of Philip II’, EHR lxxxii (1967), 698–725CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; War and Government in Habsburg Spain, 1560-1620, London 1976Google Scholar ; Wright, L. P., ‘The military orders in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spanish society’, Past and Present xliii (1969), 34–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Williams, P. L., ‘Philip m and the restoration of Spanish government, 1598-1603’, EHR lxxxviii (1973), 751–69CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Kagan, R. L., Students and Society in Early Modern Spain, Baltimore 1974Google Scholar ; Lawsuits and Litigants in Castile, 1500-1700, Chapel Hill 1981Google Scholar ; Lovett, A. W., Philip II and Mateo Vazquez de Leca: the government of Spain, 1572-1592, Geneva 1977Google Scholar ; Fayard, J., Les Membres du Conseil de Castille a I'epoque modeme, 1621-1746, Geneva-Paris 1979Google Scholar ; Pelorson, J. M., Les Letrados. Juristes castillans sous Philippe III, Poitiers 1980Google Scholar ; Contreras, J., El Santo Oficio de la Inquisicidn de Galicia, Madrid 1982Google Scholar.

3 I have taken the criterion of wealth to determine group status. Rent calculations for Castilian dioceses in the late sixteenth century used in this article are to be found in the following MSS: AGS, PE, legs 135-7; AHN, Cons, legs 15192-8.

4 Low-status see (with rents in units of 1.000 ducats) — mountainous: Oviedo (12.7), Astorga (12.i), Orense (7.3), Lugo (5.2), Mondofiedo (4.0), Gaudix (4.0); coastal and frontier: Canarias (14.5), Cadiz (10.8), Ciudad Rodrigo (7.5), Tuy (7.3), Almeri'a (2.4), Ceuta (1.5). Valladolid (11.1) represents an exceptional case: its low income was the result of its recent foundation (1596). Ceuta was not founded until the late seventeenth century (c. 1675).

5 Middle-status sees-central Castilian: Zamora (24.4), Coria (24.4), Salamanca (21.5), Osma (21.0), Avila (15.0); peripheral areas: Palencia (26.7), Granada (25.1), Cartagena (22.4), Pamplona (20.5), Leon (18.0), Calahorra (15.9), Badajoz (15.3).

6 High-status sees: Toledo (200.0), Sevilla (72.5), Santiago (54.7), Sigiienza (45.8), Plasencia (42.0), Burgos (40.0), Cordoba (38.6), Cuenca (38.0), Malaga (34.4), Segovia (34.0), Jaén (32.0).

On the background to the Christian reconquest of the peninsula and the shaping of religious boundaries see Linehan, P. A., The Spanish Church and the Papacy in the Thirteenth Century, Cambridge 1971Google Scholar ; Hillgarth, J. N., The Spanish Kingdoms, 1250-1516, 2 vols, Oxford 1975–1978Google Scholar ; Lomax, D. W., The Reconquest of Spain, London 1978Google Scholar ; MacKay, A., Spain in the Middle Ages, Edinburgh 1977.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8 Azcona, P. Tarsicio de, La Eleccidny reforma del episcopado espanol en tiempos de los reyes catdlicos, Madrid 1960Google Scholar , gives full details of the patronato negotiations.

9 At least one-third of the annual income of the Castilian Church was being appropriated by the Crown in the late sixteenth century. See below p. 69.

10 Letter from Fray Garcia de Loaysa to Philip 11, Madrid, 26 Oct. 1586: BL Add. MS 23,371, fos 87-8.

11 AHN, Cons. leg. 15193: consulta for the diocese of Léon, dated January (?) 1593: ‘y de aqui adelante mi'rele va consultarme en personas q no sean obispos…q no es bien promoverles sin ninguna causa’.

12 Instructions to the cdmara are found in Novisima Recopilacidn de las leyes de Espana, facs. edn, Madrid 1976, i. 17Google Scholar , leyxi; and also in a document entitled ‘Instrucciones a la Camara’, in Instituto de Valencia de Don Juan, Madrid: envio 90, caja 129, fo. 529.

13 I have studied over 100 legajos of consultas for appointments to bishoprics in Castile (1556-1700), to be found, for the most part, in AHN, Cons, legs 15189-293. The documents that have survived account for some 27 per cent of the total.

14 A selection of these reports (relaciones), covering the years 1570-1601, is found in AGS.PE, legs 135-7.

15 ‘A Discourse on the State of Spaine, written in the year 1607, by Sir Charles Cornwallis, Knight, Ambassador for his Majestie of Great Brittaine to the King of Spaine.’ MS printed in A Fourth Collection of…Tracts, ed. Somers, Lord, London 1751, ii. 438–52 at P. 443Google Scholar.

16 Appointment documentation under the emperor is haphazardly classified in AGS under ‘Patronato Eclesiastico’. Systematic records appear in AHN, Patronato de Castilla (Consejos Suprimidos), from 1575 onwards. Plaza, D. Angel de, Guia del Archivo de Simancas, Madrid 1980, pp. 145–7Google Scholar , explains the history of the cámara.

17 Charles brought many Flemings to office, for example his tutor Adrian de Utrecht (bishop of Tortosa 1516-22); the nephew of the grand chancellor, Guillaume de Croy (bishop of Coria 1517, archbishop of Toledo 1517–21); and Flemish noblemen such as Carlos Lalaing (bishop of Coria 1520-7) and Guillaume Vandenese (bishop of Coria 1529-30).

18 ‘No office or position of authority whatsoever in these kingdoms should be given to foreigners, and those already granted should be taken away from them’: cited by Pedro Mexi'a, ‘Historia del Emperador Carlos v’, in Coleccidn de Crinkas Espanolas vii, Madrid 1945, 129. On comuneros see recent works by Perez, J., La Revolucidn de las comunidades de Castilla, 1520-1521, 3rd edn, Madrid 1970Google Scholar ; Maravall, J. A., Las Comunidades de Castilla. Una primera revolucidn moderna, 2nd edn, Madrid 1979Google Scholar.

19 See Rodriguez, Manuel Pazos, El Episcopado gallego a la lui de los documentor romanos, 3 vols, Madrid 1946Google Scholar.

20 On th e background to the limpieza phenomenon see MacKay, Spain in the Middle Ages; Sicroff, A. A., Les Controverses des statuts de ‘purete de sang’en Espagne du XVI au XVII siécles, Paris 1960Google Scholar ; Novah'n, J. L. Gonzalez, El Inquisidor General Fernando de Valdes (1483-1368), 2 vols, Oviedo 1971Google Scholar ; Elliott, J. H., Imperial Spain, 1469-1716, London 1972, 220–4Google Scholar.

21 Early consultas for the reign of Philip II are found in AGS, PE, legs 1, 4, 6, 155.

22 AGS, PE, leg. 1: consulta for the diocese of Lugo, April 1566.

23 See Evenett, H. O., The Spirit of the Counter-Reformation, ed. Bossy, J., Cambridge 1968, ch. v, 96–103.Google Scholar

24 Novísima Recopilacion, i. 17, ley iv.

25 Lynch, J., Spain under the Habsburgs, Oxford 1964, i. 258Google Scholar , Serrano, quoting L. (ed.), Correspondencia diplomdtica entre Espaflay la Santa Sede durante elpontificado de S. Pio V, i. 37–8Google Scholar.

26 Adas de las Cortes de Caslilla ix (Madrid 1586-1588)Google Scholar , Madrid 1885, 432-3.

27 On the setting up of seminaries see DHEE, iv. 2422-9 ; Hernandez, Francisco Martin, ‘Fundación de los primeros seminarios espanoles’, in Misceldnea Conmemorativa del Concilia de Trento, 1563-1363, Madrid 1965Google Scholar.

28 On provincial church councils see Gonzalo Martinez Diez, ‘El decreto tridentino sobre los concilios provinciates’, ibid, 249-63; Ramiro, Juan Tejada y, Coleccidn de cdnones de todos los concilios de la iglesia de Espana, iv, v, Madrid 1853-1855Google Scholar.

29 DHEE, iv, 2487-94.

30 The cédulas are printed in Codoin, 368-94.

31 ‘Ver ahora que en tan breve tiempo se han revocado y relajado cosas tan santas y necesarias’: letter from D. Cristóbal de Rojas y Sandoval to Philip II, 2/9/1568, Codoin, 404-5.

32 AHN, Cons. leg. 15193: consulla for the diocese of Sigiienza, Marc h 1579.

33 AHN, Cons. leg. 15191: consulla for the diocese of Burgos, 25 Nov. 1579.

34 Davila, Gil Gonzalez, Teatro de las grandezas de la villa de Madrid, Madrid 1623, fos 366–8.Google Scholar

35 Pulgar, P. Fernande z del, Teatro clerical, apostolico y secular…Iglesia de Pamplona, Madrid 1679-1680, ii. 235.Google Scholar

36 ‘Qu e sean graduados en Theología o Canones por universidades aprovadas, prudentes, de vida exemplar, modestos, caritativos y de valor, limpios de sangre, ligítimos y en quien concurran estos y las demas calidades necesarias pues es cierto que dello depende la enmienda y remedio de la republica Christiana’: letter found in AGS, PE, leg. 3 no. 6; also in Instituto de Valencia de Don Juan, envío 90, caja 129, fo. 529.

37 See , Lynch, Spain under the Habsburgs, i. 246–8Google Scholar on the career of Quiroga; and Mendoza, Pedro de Salazar y, Cronica del Gran Cardenal de Espana, don Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, Toledo 1625, chs xv, xixGoogle Scholar , entries for the years 1576, 1577.

38 AHN, Cons., leg. 15190: consulta for the diocese of Cordoba, March 1578.

39 Ulloa, Modesto, La Hacienda Real de Castillo en el reinado de Felipe II, Madrid 1977, 635–46.Google Scholar

40 See Cloulas, I., ‘La monarchic catholique et les revenus episcopaux; les pensions sur les “mitres” de Castille pendant la regnede Philippe 11 (1556–1598)’, in Mélanges de la Casa de Velázquez iv (1968), 107–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

41 AHN, Cons. leg. 15194: consulta for the diocese of Plasencia (1594), no date given (‘en todas…me nombrasen personas muy exemplares de mucha estimatión’).

42 See Table 2, The cámara at work, 1556–1663.

43 They included men like D. Juan Baptista Acebedo, tutor to Lerma's children and a former royal chaplain, raised to the see of Valladolid in 1601 and the inquisitorshipgeneral in 1603, while his brother D. Fernando de Acebedo reached the archbishopric of Burgos in 1613 and the presidency of Castile in 1616 from humble beginnings as a chaplain to Philip in. Two abbots of the town of Lerma were raised from relative obscurity to the episcopal ranks — D. Cristobal de Lobera y Torres won appointments to Badajoz (1615), Osma (1618), Pamplona (1623), Cordoba (1625) and Plasencia (1630), while D. Pedro Ruiz de Valdivieso was promoted from Mezina (1609) to Orense (1617).

44 The Venetian ambassador, Simon Contarini, wrote in 1605: ‘There are many indications that these provisions of offices are not being made as in the reign of Philip 11, the blame being put on the duke of Lerma, his relatives and friends, who are intervening in these matters’: printed in Cordoba, Luis Cabrera de, Rdaciones de las cosas sucedidas en la Corte de Espana desde 1599 hasta 1614, Madrid 1857, 572Google Scholar.

45 On the individual work of Lerma in encouraging the orders, see Gonzalez, Ventura Ginarte, El Duque de Lerma, protector de la Reforma Trinitaria, Madrid 1982Google Scholar.

46 The Junta de Reformacidn reported in February 1619: ‘The number of people that there are in the Court is excessive…and there are many ecclesiastics who are obliged to reside in their benefices, and who come to the Court with the excuse that they have legal matters to defend here on behalf of their churches, and by their action they neglect their divine duties’; printed in Archivo Histdrico Espanol, ed. Palencia, A. Gonzalez, Valladolid 1932, v. 22–3Google Scholar.

47 AHN, Cons.leg. 15210:consulta from Badajoz, 1611;leg. 15221: consulta for Tuy, 1612.

48 Castilian bishops under Philip HI originating from the Councils of Inquisition (20); Castile (2); Finance (2); Chancillería Granada (2); presidency of Chancilleria Granada (2); Chancilleria Valladolid (4); presidency of Chancillería Valladolid (1); presidency of Council of the Indies (1); presidency of Council of Italy (1). Inquisitorial details taken from AHN, Inquisicion, Libro de Juramentos 1. 338.

49 Kagan, R. L., Students and Society in Early Modern Spain, Baltimore 1974Google Scholar , perhaps underestimates the number of colegio mayor graduates entering the Castilian Church as a whole. He puts the figure at 27 per cent for the reign of Philip III, for example. See ch. vii, 109-35, esp. pp. 103, 132.

50 Moncada, Sancho de, La Restauración politico de Espand (Madrid 1619)Google Scholar , ed. J. Vilar, Madrid 1974; Discurso vii: ‘Muchos clérigos’, 2-6.

51 Elliott, J. H. and Pefia, Jose de la, Memorialesy carlas del Conde-Duquede Olivares, Madrid 1978-1981, iGoogle Scholar . Introduction general, esp. pp. lvii-lxii and Doc 1, pp. 4-5.

52 Adas de las Cortes de Caslilla, Madrid 1638, lv. 412–13.Google Scholar

53 , Elliott and Pena, de la, op. cit. i. 51Google Scholar , Doc. 4. Olivares writes approvingly of the appointment of bishops to high state office:‘En las presidencias han aprobado bien algunos [obispos], particularmente en las chancillerías, donde casi se ha asentado que lo hayan de ser, y no hay duda sino que es calidad conveniente concurriendo las principales, y en la Castilla tambien se han experimentado buenos efectos.’

54 Memorial Historico Espanol, Cartas de algunos padres de la compania de Jesus, ii. 346. Extract for 10 Mar. 1638: ‘mas creo estimaran y tuvieran por mayor merced si los dejaran volver a sus iglesias’.

56 Guzman and Zúniga family members in Castilian episcopal sees under the count-duke: Juan de Guzman, Canarias (1622), Tarazona (1627); D.Antonio Guzman y Cornejo, Tuy (1640); D. Diego de Guzman de Haros, Sevilla (1625), Cardenal (1630); D. Cristobal Guzman y Santoyo, Palencia (1633); D. Francisco de Manso y Zufiiga, Mexico (1629), Cartagena (1637), Burgos (1640); Diego de Zufiiga y Sotomayor, Zamora (1633).

56 Cardinal Gabriel Trejo y Paniagua: born Plasencia; educated at Salamanca (Arzobispo) in law; introduced to office by Rodrigo Calderon, Lerma's favourite; career: archdeacon Talavera; oydor Chancillería Valladolid, fical council of orders, councillor of Castile, Cardenal (1615), bishop of Salerno (1625), president of Castile (1627), councillor of State, bishop of Malaga (1627); died 1630.

57 Elliott and de la Penia, Memoriales, ii. 13, introduction to Docs i-x (El Rey y El Valido, 1629/30): ‘What is leading these kingdoms to ruin is the ambition, greed and selfish aims of government ministers.’

58 Bernabé de Vivanco, Historic de Felipe IV, Codoin, lxix, 95-6. ‘They remove the presidency of Castile from Cardinal Trejo and give it to the bishop of Solsona.’

59 Ibid. 208-29: ‘They remove from Cardinal Zapata the inquisitorship-general and the governorship of Toledo.’;

60 Ibid. lxxx. 22. Valdes y Llan o is mentioned as being ‘of little aptitud e an d fearful of his position’.

61 Fayard, J., Les Membres du Conseil de Castille, 1621-1747, Geneva-Paris 1979, 90.Google Scholar

62 AHN, Cons. leg. 15221-32; consultas for the years 1621-33.

63 Olivares to Cardinal Ferdinand in a letter of 23 Oct. 1637: Elliott and de la Pefia, Memoriales, ii. 136, introduction to Doc. 14.

64 Avisos de Don Jerdnimo de Barrionuevo {1654-1658), Madrid 1892-1893Google Scholar , iii. 327-8, extract dated 25 July 1657; and ibid. 210, dated 28 Feb. 1657.

65 ‘La grandeza de aquella dignidad, la dificultad en su gobierno... mi corta suficiencia y debil salud pa encargarme de negocios de tanta pesse’; AHN, Cons. leg. 15257: consulta for the diocese of Sevilla, 22 Feb. 1663.

66 ‘Me falta el ánimo para encargarme en su gobierno…para la traslacion son necesarias masd e 30,000 dues…y me hallo sin hacienda alguna‘; AHN, Cons. leg. 15257: consulta for the diocese of Cuenca, dated 4 July 1663.

67 AHN, Cons. leg. 15261: consulta for the diocese of Badajoz, dated 8 Nov. 1667.

68 AHN, Cons. leg. 16266: consulta for the diocese of Osma, dated 11 Jan. 1672.

69 AHN, Cons. leg. 15273: consulta for the diocese of Ciuda d Rodrigo, date d 19 Dec. 1678.

70 ‘Hallándome en los permisos d e no haver podido da r satisfaction de mis deudos a los acrehedores, por havido sido preciso aplicar la corta renta de esta dignidad al alivio y socorro de las necesidades comunes originadas d e la calamidad del tiempo…’; AHN, Cons. leg. 15278: consulta for the diocese of Cartagena, dated 16 Aug. 1684.

71 AHN, Cons. leg. 15266: consulta for the diocese of Léon, dated 6 June 1672.

72 ‘Haviendo entendido que los consultados en primero y segundo lugar no estan ordenados de sacerdotes y no teniendo por conveniente presentar para Obispados a los que no fueren sacerdotes, mando a la Camara que assi para este Obispado, como para los demas que vacaren, me proponga sugetos que todos sean sacerdotes’; AHN, Cons. leg. 15287: consulta for the diocese of Malaga, dated 17 Sept. 1692.