214 Turtas
Iglesias. They were primarily artisans, merchants, retailers, doctors, traveling
salesmen, business agents, and collectors of royal taxes. Their juridical status
was that of “servants of the Crown,” which meant that they were protected
from many of the sovereign’s privileges. Nonetheless, they had to adapt to local
discriminatory laws, like the obligation to wear a distinguishing sign on their
clothing. Following the decree of expulsion of 31 July 1492, the majority of the
Jews who chose exile over “conversion” went to Naples; the rest went to north-
ern Africa and Constantinople. Their synagogues were taken and turned into
churches dedicated to the Holy Cross.96
As early as 1493, Ferdinand revealed his plan to “reform the church of
Sardinia” to Alexander VI (1492–1503). The economic straits in which almost all
of the Sardinian dioceses found themselves, he said, did not encourage clergy-
men to take up residence and worship, and the cura animarum were neglected.
It was therefore necessary to reduce the number of cathedrals in relation to
the income they produced. The relevant bull, Aequum reputamus, took effect
in December of 1503, resulting in a reduction of the number of dioceses from
16 to seven (those of Suelli and Galtellì had already been merged into that of
Cagliari in 1420 and 1495, respectively). The ecclesiastical province of Cagliari
was united with the dioceses of Suelli, Galtellì, Iglesias, and Dolia, but with-
out suffragan sees; this comprised one third of the total area of the island. Of
the province of Arborea, Oristano, to which the diocese of Santa Giusta was
united, remained, along with the suffragan diocese of Usellus (Ales); Terralba
having already been merged with the latter. In the province of Torres, the met-
ropolitan see of Sassari was united with the sees of Ploaghe and Sorres, and the
suffragan sees of Bosa and Ampurias, which had merged with that of Civita,
and the new see of Alghero formed by the union of the sees of Ottana, Castra,
and Bisarcium.97
Translated by Teddy Jefferson, Irina Oryskevich and Michelle Hobart
96 Cecilia Tasca, Ebrei e società in Sardegna nel XV secolo: fonti archivistiche e nuovi spunti di
ricerca (Florence, 2008).
97 Raimondo Turtas, “Erezione, traslazione e unione di diocesi in Sardegna durante il
regno di Ferdinando II d’Aragona,” in Vescovi e diocesi in Italia dal XIV alla metà del XVI
secolo: atti del VII Convegno di storia della Chiesa in Italia, Brescia, 21–25 settembre 1987,
ed. Giuseppina De Sandre Gasparini (Roma, 1990), pp. 717–755.