206 Turtas
and then vicarii ad nutum, still very few at that time. Later on, given the already
established custom of paying the tithes, which were referred to as “sacramen-
tal,” because it went to support the clergy that administered the sacraments,
every village reported in the Rationes was valued to be economically capable
of supporting its own rector.80
This situation underwent a stunning transformation at the end of the
Aragonese period: only a rector governed a small fraction of parishes on the
island. This means that the others—the overwhelming majority—were run
by a growing number of vicarii ad nutum, precarious clergymen who worked
on behalf of others. The relationships between the rectors and their precari-
ous vicarii was described in terms akin to those used to distinguish between
master and servant, which had inevitable effects on the quality of the services
performed.
6.2 Religious Practices
Despite the lack of records on the subject of religious practices, there are some
clear signs, such as the case of Dorgotorius, archbishop of Torres, who in 1272
cut out four parishes from the only plebania of Sassari as a result of the “believ-
ers’ protest” demanding greater religious attendance: each of these parishes
received its own church and the archbishop granted them all rights, including
that of the baptismal font and a portion of the assets that had been reserved
for the maintenance of the clergy of the plebania, all of them registered in an
appropriate document (condaghe).81
In the spring of 1263, Frederick Visconti, archbishop of Pisa and papal leg-
ate, paid a political and pastoral visit to south-central Sardinia. The reports
of the visit constitute the first known time in which various instances of the
cura animarum, especially preaching, were practiced by a bishop in Sardinia.
This also included the practice of processions, confirmations, the examination
of complex marital situations, and measures regarding the disciplining of the
clergy, as well. A similar situation occurred in the north of the island, but not
until about 200 years later, and was attested to by the so-called “Logudoro’s
synods,” because they were performed in dioceses of this old realm (Castra in
1420; Bisarcium in 1437; Sassari—where the see of Torres was transferred in
1440—in 1442; Sorres in 1463; Ottana in 1475).82
80 Raimondo Turtas, “La cura animarum in Sardegna tra la seconda metà del secolo XI e la
seconda metà del XIII. Da Alessandro II, 1061–1073, alla visita di Federico Visconti, marzo-
giugno 1263,” Theologica & Historica 15 (2006), pp. 359–404.
81 Tola, Codex diplomaticus Sardiniae, vol. 1, pp. 393–394.
82 Ruzzu, La chiesa turritana, pp. 143–162.