198 Turtas
In contrast, there is abundant documentation of the conflicts between
the bishops and clergy of the cathedrals, on the one hand, and the monastic
congregations, on the other. The most important episodes involve the more
widespread congregations: the Victorines in Cagliari and the Cassineses in
Logudoro. Regarding the former, the aforementioned letter from Archbishop
William speaks of the donations of the judges to the Victorine order, as a re-
sult of which the archbishop maintains that his “once powerful and honored”
church suffered. Possibly as early as 1114, William, on his way to Pisa via Rome
to participate in an expedition to the Balearic Islands, sought out Pasquale II
and obtained a letter from him to Judge Mariane Torchitorius II demanding
that the latter return to the church of Cagliari the undeserved donations that
had been made to the Victorines. William tried again in 1118, but still did not re-
ceive the desired response. As a result of such opposition, a new agreement be-
tween the church of Cagliari and the Victorines was to define their relationship
for the second half of the century; it was drawn up in 1163 between Archbishop
Bonatus and Abbot Fredolus, who had come from Marseilles for the occasion,
in the presence of Villanus, archbishop of Pisa and papal legate in Sardinia.
The aforesaid “monoculture” of Cagliari was a result of the fact that, apart
from donations to the cathedrals of Pisa and Genoa, there was no other mo-
nastic presence in the area. It is still unclear whether this was because the
Marseillaise did not tolerate competition with other monks or whether it was
simply the preference of the judges, as was the case in Arborea. In Torres, on
the other hand, all the congregations were represented, often with their most
important sees; there were even Victorines, with the priory of Saint Nicholas of
Guzule, near Ozieri.62 This was not the only anomalous feature of this realm,
which also had the highest concentration of dioceses (it had seven suffra-
gan sees, whereas Cagliari and Arborea had only three each) and monaster-
ies, despite its size. It is surprising that the female judge, Adelasia of Torres
(1207–1259), complained that “there was not enough revenue coming in to
survive,” blaming the feudal concessions made by her ancestors to the Pisans
and Genoese, but forgetting that it was they that supported the monks and
bishops.
For the most part, the struggles against the monks came not so much from
the bishops as from the clergy of the cathedrals—the future canons—perhaps
because the bishops were often selected from the monastic congregations. For
nascent chapters, this presented an opportunity to defend the possessions of
their cathedrals, when the bishops neglected to do so. The monks would typi-
cally react by asking the pope to remind the bishops to respect their privileges.
62 Boscolo, L’abbazia di San Vittore.