La Chiesa del re. Istituzioni ecclesiastiche e regio patronato nella Sicilia di Filippo IV

The royal patronage of the Sicilian church, definitively granted by the pope in 1621, also allowed King Philip IV to freely manage the presentations of the bishops and abbots of the island. Relatives of the king, officials and servants of the monarchy, cardinals of the Roman curia, were often preferred to Sicilian candidates, with frequent violations of the so-called privilege of the alternative (alternation between foreigners and Sicilians in the collection of ecclesiastical benefits). The controversies on the subject, in the 30s of the 1600s, also moved within the Council of Italy, animating an interesting debate and contrasting the positions of the Sicilian and Neapolitan regents to those of the Spanish regents, without however reaching any concrete solution. that put a limit to the abuses of Madrid. The Sicilian Church remained the "Church of the King".