The Sardinian Church 213
performing the cura animarum had to know how to write, as well, so they could
keep the register of the administration of sacraments up to date. The punctili-
ousness with which certain prohibitions were listed (do not bear arms; do not
keep a concubine; avoid secular garments and hair styles; do not frequent tav-
erns or dance halls, etc.) was a sound indication that the observance of these
rules was far from complete, despite the certainty of being fined for violations.
Particular problems arose in Cagliari and Alghero, cities inhabited largely by
Iberian citizens, including the clergy, who were not pleased with the reserva-
tions placed on dioceses’ benefices and often clashed with local churchmen.
However, while the discipline of the clergy was part of the bishop’s job—with
the chapter’s consent in judicial and financial matters—it was up to the parish
priests to oversee the religious practices of their flock; implicit in their obli-
gation to administer the sacraments was the believer’s duty to receive them.
From this situation arose the rules regarding baptism, the various phases that
made the practice of the pascal precept nearly automatic, the canonic form
of marriage, and care for the sick and dying.95
6.9 Provisions of Ferdinand “the Catholic” (1479–1516)
Three provisions relevant to the Sardinian church occurred before the end of
the fifteenth century, two of which took effect in 1492. Although the Tribunal of
the Inquisition was operating in Spain from 1478, it did not reach Sardinia until
- It began in Cagliari, where it stayed until 1563, when it was transferred to
Sassari. Its mission was to protect the Sardinian kingdom of the reyes católicos
from every danger of heterodoxy emanating from Judaism, Islam, and, before
long, Protestantism. Under the reign of Ferdinand, the activity of the inqui-
sition in Sardinia was rather contained: there had never been Islamic settle-
ments on the island and the few Jewish communities had always refrained
from any proselytizing. The Jews lived largely in the cities, especially Cagliari,
and they were but 10 percent of the larger population. The first prosecutions of
the Inquisition were against those Jews who, a few years earlier, had undergone
baptism to avoid expulsion (1492), which placed them automatically under the
jurisdiction of the holy tribunal.
Though the Registrum of Gregory the Great mentions of an important
Jewish community in Carales, and there is contemporary archeological evi-
dence of a Jewish presence in Sulci and Turris, the first news about the Jews
in medieval Sardinia regards two doctors, who attended the infant Alphonsus
(1323). After the conquest of Cagliari in 1326, the Jews established a quarter
of their own, as they did to a lesser extent in Sassari, Alghero, Oristano, and
95 Turtas, Storia della Chiesa in Sardegna dalle origini al Duemila, pp. 317–324.