212 Turtas
unaccommodating pope, Eugene IV (1431–1447). Already assured of the throne
of Naples, Alphonsus met with the pope in 1443 and won perpetual exemp-
tion from the yearly census payment, as well as from the payment related to
the renewal of infeudation, and from the consequent swearing of fealty to the
election of every new pope or the enthronement of every new successor. From
then on, there was no further claim of feudal domination on the part of the
Holy See in Sardinia.93
6.8 The Final Decades of the Aragonese Era
The general context of the more important events and problems that took
place during the Aragonese era was marked by the disastrous demographic
crisis already mentioned. The papacy responded by dispatching clergymen to
the island in order to reform the customs of the church and people. In 1432,
Eugene IV spoke of “evildoers, incests, plunderings, fires, sacrileges, homicides
and other crimes that approached heresy” plaguing Sardinia.94 The pope also
tried to bring many impoverished dioceses under a single authority, but both
efforts failed. An arrangement was reached on the issue of the sacramental
tithes mentioned above: a special judge of appeals was instituted to stand
against undue burdens and resolve Sardinian disputes, which had, up until
then, been resolved in Roman courts at an excessive cost. After the schism, the
papal Curia did not win back the exclusive right to create new bishops, which
was now increasingly the task of the sovereign, or sometimes of a local official,
like the marquis of Oristano.
As a result of the synods of Loguduro, a situation emerged in which, at the
top of the Sardinian dioceses, two powers controlled each other: the bishop,
often of Iberian origin and usually an absentee; and the chapter, made up of
the more influential members of the local clergy, who constituted the perma-
nent element in the religious life of the diocese. Their prebends were founded
on the tithes of some parishes, which received religious services only by the
vicarii ad nutum, who managed the cura animarum in exchange for miserable
remuneration. No surprise that the synodal regulations sought to guarantee
their power, even to the detriment of that of the bishop, who was sometimes
required to swear observance to these rules at the time of assuming his duties.
As for the rest of the clergy, the synodal regulations stipulated that all of
them had to recite the breviary and at least should know how to read. Those
93 Raimondo Turtas, “La lunga durata della bolla di infeudazione della Sardegna (1297–
1726),” in Momenti di cultura catalana in un Millennio, Atti del VII Convegno dell’AISC,
Napoli, 22–24 maggio 2000, ed. Anna Maria Compagna (Naples, 2003), vol. 1, pp. 553–563.
94 Scano, Codice diplomatico delle relazioni, pp. 35–36.