Spanish Sardinia: Conflicts And Alliances 259
For the naturales (those born on the island)—as was the case in the king-
doms governed by the Crown of Aragon—the battle for the privilege of holding
the most important posts and jobs in the apparatuses of the government rep-
resented a particularly significant moment in their self-awareness of the role
they played within society on a politico-institutional level. Such a claim went
well beyond the mere formal equalization that was achieved in the adminis-
trative systems of other Catalan-Aragonese kingdoms. It expressed the need of
classes that felt cut off from decision-making power and wished to carry more
weight within the kingdom of Sardinia. Obviously, in this context, the feudal
nobility, as well as the high clergy, paid the heaviest price for the reorganiza-
tion of the kingdom’s government. After the reorganization of the Inquisition’s
tribunal, both saw their significant prerogatives, especially in matters of faith,
diminish.14 This nurtured bitter class conflicts, involving even the Inquisition
in a tangle of political reasoning and factionalism. The Inquisition’s tribunal
relied directly on the supreme authority of Aragon and did not recognize any
superior power in Sardinia, creating jurisdictional friction with the archbishop
of Cagliari. In the second half of the century, this became a terrible instru-
ment in the political war that involved members of the feudal and ecclesiasti-
cal class, as well as the new robed class, and the viceroy. The emergence of a
new social sector, which built its interests around the robed class of the letra-
dos, and which—after Philip II’s proclamations of centralized and absolutist
politics—was inclined to solidify its control and handling of power, triggered
the reaction of traditionally more conservative classes, such as the feudal no-
bility and high clergy, with its pursuit of public posts.
An accusation of heresy, real or alleged, with the consequent initiation of
a case before the tribunal of the Inquisition, followed by a bribe for the re-
sults achieved, seems to have been the simplest means of eliminating po-
litical adversaries. With the more authoritative motions of the clergy, cases
of friction between the urban administration and the royal bureaucracy in-
creased. Conflict with the viceroy’s staff grew especially acute, as, according
to the exclusive rights of the tribunal, it was to prosecute unruly officers of
the Inquisition, which sought to use its power as a political weapon to strike
down its enemies. Aiming high, the Inquisition first tried to concoct a case of
witchcraft involving the wife of the actual viceroy Cardona, and shortly there-
after to implicate the young financial counselor and spearhead of viceroyal
power, Sigismondo, in a case of heresy. If in the first case the accusations were
dismissed as altogether spurious and unfounded, concluding in the acquittal
14 Giancarlo Sorgia, L’Inquisizione in Sardegna (Cagliari, 1991); Salvatore Loi, Inquisizione,
sessualità e matrimonio. Sardegna, secoli XVI–XVII (Cagliari, 2006).