Bishops of the Habit in Castile, 1621–1665: A Prosopographical Approach

The seventeenth-century Spanish Church stood out among other Catholic countries of western Europe on account of the high percentage of members of the religious orders – especially Dominicans – recruited as bishops. While their authority as preachers and theologians, schooled in the post-Tridentine tradition, made them eminently suitable candidates for office, they had none of the secular experience normally required of an episcopate that worked in close alliance with the state. The political and fiscal pressures placed on this alliance under Philip IV prompted an unprecedented crisis of recruitment to the Spanish church hierarchy, of which the religious orders became the direct beneficiaries.

expansion in their number. There were a total of 1,326 religious communities (841 male and 485 female) in the kingdom of Castile at the accession of Philip III in 1598. By the beginning of the reign of Philip IV, just over twenty years later, there were reported to be 2,141 in Spain as a whole. This figure may have risen to 3,000 by 1700. The most dramatic growth was registered in the size of the mendicant orders, notably the Franciscans and the Dominicans, as well as the Observant Augustinians, Discalced Carmelites, Mercedarians and Trinitarians. Male mendicant order membership rose from 12,000 in Castile in 1591 to an estimated 34,000 throughout Spain in 1623. By contrast, the size of the male monastic orders (including the Benedictines, Carthusians, Cistercians and Jeronimites) largely remained unchanged over this same period. 1 Both Philip III and Philip IV were renowned patrons of the orders. Both monarchs actively encouraged the founding of new and reformed religious communities in order to meet the devotional needs of lay society on the one hand and to sanctify their own positions on the other. They did so despite a growing public outcry, voiced by contemporary observers (some of whom were churchmen), at the excessive number of regulars. The orders, charged with saving the soul of the nation, clearly absorbed many men and women who were seeking a refuge from the rigours of secular existence in early seventeenth-century Spain rather than pursuing a genuine religious vocation. In 1621 the Junta de Reformación, an executive branch of the Council of Castile, reported to Philip IV that ' the majority of regular clergy currently in these kingdoms follow this path as a means of getting enough food to eat rather than out of Christian duty or devotion'. 2 Numerous attempts made by the Cortes of Castile to link its concession of a regular fiscal subsidy to the crown (known as the servicio) to a restraint being placed on the licensing of new monasteries failed to prevent their continued expansion. 3 Protected by the crown, the orders established an important power base in society, legitimised through further royal concessions. Madrid, re-established as the Spanish capital in 1606, experienced a veritable explosion in the size of its religious communities during the first half of the seventeenth century. At the beginning of the reign of Philip III there were eleven monasteries and seven convents in Madrid, housing just over 1,000 friars and nuns. By the accession of Philip IV in 1621, the total number of religious establishments in the city had risen to thirty-one (nine of them Franciscan) and their membership had more than doubled to just over 2, 500. 4 It was at the royal court in Madrid, the centre stage of Philip IV's monarchy, where pomp and ceremony provided the backdrop for diplomacy, political intrigue and the exercise of royal patronage, that senior members of the religious orders came to the attention of the king and his first minister, the count-duke of Olivares. 5 There may have been as many as 100 religious attached to the royal household including the senior royal chaplain (an office traditionally held by the archbishop of Santiago), responsible for religious ceremony at court and the management of the royal chapel; the royal confessor (a position reserved for a leading Dominican); the grand almoner, in charge of distributing alms in accordance with royal wishes; ten royal preachers drawn from different orders, as well as numerous lesser chaplains and confessors to other members of the royal household. On special occasions the provincials and generals of the major orders might also be in attendance, underlying the importance of their relationship with the monarchy. The wider presence of the religious orders in society and at court paved the way for their preferment to the hierarchy of the Spanish Church. It is the purpose of this article to examine the reasons for the rise in prominence of regulars to the office of bishop within the Castilian branch of the Spanish Church (the largest of its two divisions) under Philip IV (1621-65), the Habsburg reign that witnessed the greatest number of bishoprics being conferred on members of the orders, and to assess the phenomenon in the context of the leadership of the Castilian Church as a whole during this period. 6 II By the middle of Philip II's reign, as the crown strengthened its control over ecclesiastical patronage and directed the implementation of episcopal reform  London 1977, 179-80. 6 The statistical and biographical data used in the compilation of this article has been drawn from the episcopal nomination records for the reign of Philip IV, found in AHN, consejos, legajos 15221-93 (1621-65); ASV, PC, vols 17-18, 22, 32-3, 38, 40, 48, 50, 57, 60 (1621-63). Additional supportive evidence has been taken from P. B. Gams, Series episcoporum ecclesiae catholicae, Leipzig 1931 ; G. V. Gulik and C. Eubel, Hierarchia catholica medii aevi, iii-v, Munich 1935-40 ; Gil González Dávila, Teatro eclesiástico de las iglesias metropolitanas y catedrales de los reynos de las dos Castillas, Madrid 1645-1700. as decreed at the third session of the Council of Trent (1562-3), a typical profile of a Castilian bishop had begun to emerge. 7 He was a member of the secular rather than the regular clergy, of middle noble family origins, university educated in theology and/or canon law, possibly to doctoral level, with a background of experience in a cathedral chapter or within the secular administration, most notably as an inquisitor. Members of the religious orders were rarely first choice candidates. Those friars who did obtain bishoprics under Philip II (12 per cent of appointees in Castile) tended to be confined to geographical outposts of the peninsula in need of theological guidance, such as Galicia in the north-west, Aragón in the north-east and the Canary Islands off the north African coast, or otherwise sent to the New World. 8 Regular clergy were not prepared or trained for episcopal office in the same way as secular clergy were. In the case of mendicants, their experience (including their educational background) was acquired within the professional and vocational structure of their order rather than within the wider Church and community. The Franciscans, for example, bound by vows of humility and poverty, did not take university degrees. 9 According to canon law, friars were not intended to be bishops, for in this capacity they stepped outside the boundaries of their rule (based on poverty) and became involved in secular affairs. A friar effectively renounced his vows once he became a bishop. This opinion was endorsed by members of the Cámara de Castilla (a subcommittee of the Council of Castile with specific responsibility for patronage) in the 1570s and 1580s which advised Philip II on nominations to bishoprics. In his review of a list of candidates for the vacant see of Oviedo in October 1584, Mateo Vázquez de Leca, private secretary to the king and camarista, suggested that friars should become bishops 'on as few occasions as possible '. 10 The trend was set to change dramatically under the later Habsburgs.
The number of members of the religious orders appointed as Castilian bishops more than doubled during the course of the first half of the seventeenth century : from 12 per cent of appointees under Philip II, to 24 per cent under Philip III, 27 per cent under Philip IV and 36 per cent under Charles II (see Table 1). The Church in the neighbouring crown of Aragón also witnessed a similar phenomenon. 11 The appointment of bishops of the habit represented an important new departure in preferment practice to emerge under the later Philips and their favourites. Members of the orders now became major rather than minor contenders for Castilian bishoprics. In 1626 Philip IV issued a brief to the Cámara urging them not to exclude members of the orders from consultas, 'for it is not an office from which personal profit is to be made and should not be regarded as incompatible with their vows'. 12 Of the 153 men appointed to serve as bishops in Castile under Philip IV, forty-one (27 per cent) were members of the religious orders who between them -taking account of transfers and promotions -held sixtyfive (24 per cent) of the 266 offices dispensed. Almost twice as many Castilian bishoprics were held by mendicant as by monastic clergy. In contemporary France, over a period equivalent to the reigns of Philip III and Philip IV (1589-1661), only 12 per cent of bishops were drawn from the orders, balanced between old (monastic) and new (mendicant) branches. 13 Thirty-five per cent of offices held by members of the orders were of low rental value and status within the Castilian Church (with annual incomes of less than 15,000 ducats in 1630). Sees that fell into this category were predominantly located in remote areas of the peninsula, often in much need of pastoral guidance. The appointment of religious at this level was in keeping with their traditional role within the Church as pastors and preachers, qualities that accorded with the Tridentine model of a ' good bishop '. Thirty-five per cent were of middle rental value (with incomes of between 15,000 and 30,000 ducats) and 29 per cent of high rental value (with incomes of over 30,000 ducats). 14 The number of appointments made to religious within the middle and higher ranks of the episcopate was significant for this was where the administrative and political challenges of office were arguably the greatest -tasks for which members of the orders were generally considered unsuited. Regulars now had a one in three chance of preferment not just as religious but also as secular leaders of the Spanish Church, working in close alliance with the crown. Furthermore, the representation of the orders at the highest level of office witnessed a considerable increase on the previous reign when it stood at 19 per cent.

III
Specific entry points to episcopal office for members of the orders that had emerged under Philip III became more regularly established under Philip IV.  (43) Total bishoprics held by monastic orders (22) OSD (24) OSJ (9) OSF (12) OSB (10) OSA (5) OCist (3) OMerc (2) Those religious who had previously served as royal preachers or confessors, as provincials and generals of their orders, as university professors and as theological advisors (calificadores) to the inquisition all became major contenders for promotion to the Castilian episcopal bench. The Dominicans were the most successful order to infiltrate the Spanish church hierarchy under Philip IV, holding a total of twenty-four offices, fourteen of which were of high  (1657)  status. (This compares with a total of six offices, of which one was at high status, under Philip III.) Their professional rise to positions of seniority, established via a number of key power bases, set a precedent for other orders to follow and to challenge. There were discernible reasons for the rise of the Dominicans to power within the Church. The order had undergone a programme of root and branch reform under the Catholic Kings, taking a leading role in the Spanish mendicant reform movement. The sixteenth century was the siglo de oro of the Spanish Order of Preachers. It was the second largest male religious order in Castile (after the Franciscans), established in virtually every town, with a membership of 2,500 recorded in the 1591 census. The order produced some of the most distinguished theologians and preachers of the early modern period, whose ideology and theological discipline (based upon the teachings of St Thomas Aquinas) was to exercise a fundamental influence on the shape of Spanish orthodoxy in the early modern period. Thirty Dominicans took part in the Council of Trent (1545-63), where, despite theological differences, they adopted a conservative approach to reform. They included the brothers Pedro and Domingo de Soto, Bartolomé de Carranza y Miranda (the future archbishop of Toledo), Melchor Cano (his academic rival), Diego de Chaves (confessor to Philip II) and Juan Gallo, each of whom held the distinguished professorial chair of Prima de Teología at Salamanca. The University of Salamanca was one of the major centres of scholarship in late sixteenth-and early seventeenth-century Castile. It was to provide an important academic forum for the theological expertise nurtured from within the Dominican monastery-academy of San Esteban in the city. Between 1490 and 1645, the School of Salamanca produced a total of thirty-four bishops and archbishops, two inquisitors-general, four royal preachers and more than thirty provincials, writers and professors, as well as numerous overseas missionaries. 15 In 1606 a new Salamanca chair in Thomist Theology was established exclusively for a leading Dominican from San Esteban by Philip III and the duke of Lerma (who had become a patron and protector of the order in Castile from 1603). At the same time the order relinquished its right to the original Prima de Teología, over which its members had held a monopoly for almost 200 years. Two further professorial chairs in theology were created specifically for San Estebanistas under the patronage of the king and duke in succeeding years: the Cátedra de Vísperas at Salamanca in 1608 and the Cátedra de Santo Tomás at Valladolid in 1611. The holders of these chairs were automatic contenders for Castilian episcopal sees. 16 The Dominicans were highly influential figures within the Holy Office, which they had been instrumental in establishing in Castile in 1478. As professional theological advisors (calificadores) they had an overriding influence in doctrinal issues and, arguably, over the whole ideological direction of post-Tridentine Spain. In 1614 a supernumerary councillorship of inquisition (previously held by a Franciscan) was permanently reserved for a member of the Dominican order, confirming their privileged position within the Catholic state. The first man to hold the office was Luis de Aliaga, the controversial confessor to Philip III (1608-21) who, in conjunction with the Franciscan royal chaplain Juan de Santamaría, led a factional struggle between 1618 and 1619 aimed at removing the duke of Lerma from court. 17 The Dominicans had held a monopoly over the royal confessorship since 1218, a position which gave the holder intimate access to the royal conscience, making him the most trusted personal advisor to the king next to the favourite. It was traditional for the royal confessor to be consulted in choosing candidates for episcopal preferment and for his opinion to be sought on major issues of Church and State.
The Dominican friar, Antonio de Sotomayor, who was royal confessor from 1621 to 1643 and inquisitor-general between 1632 and 1643, exercised a major influence in the distribution of royal patronage during the first half of the reign of Philip IV. The royal favourite, the count-duke of Olivares, who may have assisted Sotomayor's rise to office, was quite content to allow him to take the initiative in appointment-making procedures, apparently without consultation. From 1635 the Cámara de Castilla made formal announcements of vacant bishoprics as they arose but, in contrast to the pattern established under Philip II and Philip III, the selection process leading to the nomination of the preferred candidate was undocumented. (A similar reduction in the consultative process also affected the competition for inquisitorial office.) In 1638 Olivares remarked that ' ecclesiastical business is managed by His Majesty's confessor, without me knowing anything more about one or the other than is known by the secretaries and officials of the Protonotorio's office, and a good deal less '. 18 Sotomayor was renowned for his exercise of favouritism in the distribution of offices, by-passing councillors and camaristas. Ten Dominicans rose to Castilian bishoprics during his tenure as royal confessor. Two of his nephews were elevated through the episcopal ranks : Diego de Zúñiga y Sotomayor (from Orense to Zamora in 1634) and Fernando Andrade de Sotomayor (from Burgos to Sigüenza in 1640 and from Sigüenza to the family see of Santiago in 1645). Sotomayor's forced retirement from office in June 1643, at the request of the papacy, was an acknowledgement, albeit veiled, that he had exceeded his powers and perhaps that the Dominicans' heavy infiltration into inquisitorial and episcopal office had reached its peak. 19

IV
Over the course of Philip IV's reign the Dominicans were to find their role as royal advisors and confidants gradually undermined by the rise of new orders with their own distinctive theological outlooks. Their refusal to support the cult of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary (which implied that Mary had been conceived free from sin) set them apart from other orders, notably the Franciscans and the Jesuits, both fervent Immaculists, who elicited the support of Philip III and Philip IV in seeking to have devotion to the Virgin Immaculate enshrined formally in Catholic doctrine. In 1624 the Dominican Íñigo de Brizuela was obliged to renounce the bishopric of Segovia since it was a requirement of all those who held office within its church to support the doctrine. 20 Pictorial representations of the Immaculate Conception by Spanish artists such as Velázquez, Murillo and Zurbarán, played an important role in the propaganda campaign to spread belief in the doctrine and raise it to the status of a dogma of the Catholic Church. The cult of the Immaculate Conception became a public crusade with the monarchy firmly identifying itself with the Virgin as its protectress in its traditional role as defender of the Spanish nation and its faith. Three special juntas of theologians were convened by Philip III in 1616, 1617 and 1619 to discuss the matter and emissaries were sent to Rome to petition for papal recognition of the dogma, but without a conclusive outcome. The first emissary was Plácido Pacheco de Tosantos (OSB) in 1616, later bishop of Guadix (1620-4) and Zamora (1624). The third emissary, Antonio de Trejo y Paniagua (OSF), was nominated to the bishopric of Cartagena in 1618 prior to his departure for Rome in the following year, thus elevating his status as ambassador to the Holy See. Agustín Antolínez's (OSA) endorsement of the cult through his membership of the second junta (1617) brought him to the attention of the crown. He soon gained the confidence of the new king and rose to the bishopric of Ciudad Rodrigo in 1623. 21 Membership of these juntas thus came to reflect the balance of power between the religious orders and their relationship with the monarch. 22 The Dominicans were significantly excluded from the fourth (1643) and fifth (1652-65) juntas convened by Philip IV. Four of the theologians who served on the 1652-65 committee were rewarded with bishoprics in acknowledgement of their service to the crown: Francisco Guerra (OSF), bishop of Plasencia (1656-8), Francisco Gamboa (OSA), bishop of Coria (1659-63), Alfonso Pérez (OCist ), bishop of Almería (1659-63) and Bernardo de Ontiveros (OSB), bishop of Calahorra (1659-62). 23 By the end of the reign, after almost half a century of petitioning by the Spanish crown, the papacy agreed to allow the feast of the Immaculate Conception to be celebrated in Spain but it would not be enshrined in Catholic doctrine until 1854.
From the 1640s the Dominicans also found their privileged position within the higher echelons of academic life and the Holy Office gradually being eroded. The second half of the century saw the creation of multiple ' rival' chairs in theology reserved for different religious orders (including the Jesuits, the Benedictines and the Franciscans) at Salamanca, Alcalá de Henares and Valladolid, each representing different schools of theological thought. This marked the beginning of the decline of those university faculties dedicated to the teaching of theology in Spain and of the Dominicans' pre-eminence within them. The Dominicans were also finding their authority undermined on the council of inquisition. From the 1620s the Jesuits began to infiltrate the office of calificador and within two decades outnumbered fellow Dominican members. 24 They also took up the office of councillor. The first Jesuit to hold a councillorship of the inquisition (1631) was Hernando Chirinos de Salazar, confessor to the count-duke of Olivares, who sat on various juntas, including that set up to address grievances against Rome on matters of ecclesiastical finance and discipline. Two years earlier Olivares, who described Salazar as ' the cleric in Spain to whom I owe most and whom I love most', had attempted to get his confessor nominated for the bishopric of Málaga but the papal dispensation required for a member of the Society of Jesus was not granted. 25 The favouring of different orders at court exacerbated rivalries between them. In 1634 Philip IV instructed the inquisitor-general to intervene in public disputes between them but they responded with a counter-attack. In the spring of 1637 two royal preachers -a Jesuit and a Capuchin friar -were expelled from court for attacking the government's economic policy in their sermons. 26 23 Juan Meseguer Fernández, 'La real junta de la Inmaculada Concepción (1616-1817/ 20) ', Archivo Iberoamericano xv (1955), 663-71. Alonso Pérez (OCist), nominated for Almería in 1659, is referred to as 'uno de los de la junta de la inmaculada concepción de nra. Señora'/ 'a member of the Immaculate Conception committee ' : ASV, PC, vol. 57, fo. 455r. 24

V
The second half of the reign of Philip IV witnessed a number of tensions within the higher ranks of the Church, partly motivated by the increased fiscal demands being placed upon the clerical estate by the crown to support its heavy military commitments in Europe and off-set falling state revenues, most notably those deriving from American silver. The period in question was characterised by a particularly high rate of episcopal transfer, despite attempts to limit the practice given its destabilising effect on the Church's leadership. In November 1656 Philip IV wrote to the Councils of Castile and Aragón requesting that they 'avoid frequent transfers of prelates from one diocese to another '. 27 Similar requests had been made under the earlier Philips, demonstrating the continuity of the practice. 28 Forty-five per cent of nominations to Castilian bishoprics under Philip IV were generated by promotions and 52 per cent by deaths in office. On average six sees were changing hands each year, as opposed to four under the earlier Philips. At the same time there is evidence of a greater incidence of refusals of office occurring on the part of those candidates with the best credentials, giving rise to a ' recruitment crisis' which became particularly acute during the 1660s. Nine Castilian bishops refused to take up promotional positions in 1663 alone. A total of twenty-one refusals were recorded in the nine-year period between 1661 and 1670, which coincided with the change of monarch and the deepening economic crisis. 29 The wealthier sees with the heaviest financial obligations were those that became increasingly difficult to fill in the later years of Philip IV's reign. Serving bishops (including some members of the orders) preferred to stay put rather than move up the episcopal career ladder and increase their fiscal and pastoral burdens. The archiepiscopal see of Seville (with an annual income of around 100,000 ducats in the 1650s) proved to be a particularly undesirable prize. The crown's right to exact between one third and one quarter of the gross value of the most lucrative episcopal incomes to offer as pensions to long-serving churchmen hit richer sees such as Seville particularly hard. In practice it was liable to concede more than the theoretical maximum of up to 30,000 ducats in pensions, as well as meeting the ordinary and extraordinary taxation demands made upon it of at least 10,000 ducats. 30 Enrique Pimentel, bishop of Cuenca (1623-53), declined promotion to Seville in 1643 on account of his advanced age and the costs that would be incurred. 31 Pedro de Urbina OSF was reluctant to accept the see in 1658, having already refused a transfer from Valencia to Plasencia in 1655 for financial reasons. 32 When Seville became vacant again in 1663, two senior bishops (Jaen and Pamplona) turned it down. 33 As a result, the crown had to be content with its third choice of candidate, the archbishop of Burgos. The increase in the number of promotional opportunities that arose, combined with a lack of suitable or willing candidates to fill certain vacancies, meant that Philip IV had to draw further upon the potential candidature at his disposal. This situation helped to provide opportunities for new men to enter the profession, a significant proportion of whom were drawn from the religious orders. From the biographical evidence available, it seems that members of the regular clergy tended to be older than their secular counterparts upon taking up office. Their average age on appointment was sixty-one and average age upon death seventy-four. The comparable figures for all bishops appointed under Philip IV are fifty-four and sixty-five respectively. Although they could potentially bring greater stability to the office of bishop on account of their longevity, in practice their periods of tenure tended to be around 5.5 years in length (half the average) as they became engaged in the cycle of frequent transfers from one see to another which characterised the reign: fourteen served in two bishoprics, eight in three and two in four. The increased presence of the orders within the Castilian Church significantly reduced that of bishops with university degrees in law from 35 per cent under Philip III to 20 per cent under Philip IV. Correspondingly the percentage of bishops who had a background of experience in state office (predominantly but not exclusively lawyers) fell over the two reigns from 44 per cent to 33 pe rcent. 34 Given the growing disaffection between Olivares and his senior secular servants (some of whom were also bishops) over policy decisions, it is possible that bishop-theologians were deemed to be more compliant servants and contributors than bishop-jurists, although in practice this did not always prove to be the case. 35 The decline of the ecclesiastical statesman in office was also an acknowledgement of a general decline in Church-State relations.
In the mid-1650s the Dominican friar Pedro de Tapia emerged as a major agitator for fiscal disobedience amongst the Castilian clergy. As archbishop of Seville from 1652 to 1657 (the fourth high-ranking Castilian see in succession he had held since his nomination to Segovia in 1641) he fiercely objected to the renewal of the millones tax -a universal subsidy levied on essential food items -being imposed on the ecclesiastical estate by the crown without the required papal sanction having been received. Tapia led an ecclesiastical revolt, inciting the bishops of Segovia (Francisco de Araujo), Osma ( Juan de Palafox) and Málaga (Diego Martínez de Zarzosa) into opposition. 36 The primate, Baltasar de Moscoso y Sandoval, added his voice of protest to the assault on clerical immunity, threatening to resign over the matter. Allegations of fiscal fraudulence were hurled at the Church by government ministers, invoking a heated response from Friar Araujo of Segovia (a fellow Dominican). He rigorously defended the position of the clergy, whom he claimed were only just able to survive on their incomes and attributed the poor state of royal finances to government maladministration. Friar Araujo's resignation from office in October 1656 stands as testimony to his exasperation over the matter. Tapia threatened to take the case to Rome rather than agree to churchmen becoming taxpayers. The Council of Castile discussed removing him from office. In December 1656 the newly elected pope, Alexander VII, conceded a renewal of the standard subsidio and excusado subsidies paid by the clergy, but in July of the following year he was still refusing to sanction the renewed levying of the millones tax on the members of the Church. Tapia's death in August 1657 must have helped diffuse some of the tension. Within a year Rome had retreated from its position and issued the required sanction. The incident reveals how, under pressure, the crown's most trusted allies could become its fiercest enemies.

VI
Although during the course of the reign of Philip IV the Dominicans were losing out to the Franciscans over the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception and to the Jesuits in the competition for both university chairs and inquisitorial posts, they nevertheless continued to be major contenders for the highest ranking Castilian episcopal sees, despite their reluctance in some instances to accept the burdens of office. Indeed they increased their hold on high status sees from five in the period 1621-43 to nine in the period 1644-65, remaining the most successful order next to the Franciscans in taking up bishoprics in Castile during the Habsburg period as a whole. The rise of bishops of the habit in mid-seventeenth century Castile may have derived from the tensions that characterised Church-State relations under Philip IV. The demands, both fiscal and political, being placed on senior churchmen to support state expenditure prompted resistance on the part of a significant number of candidates to accept the challenges that being a bishop entailed. The 'crisis of leadership ' within the church hierarchy that ensued raised the profile of the religious orders in the competition for preferment. The success of the orders, and in particular that of the Dominicans, served as confirmation of both the conservative and the dogmatic direction of the Spanish Church in the closing decades of Habsburg rule.

Name and order
Background Episcopal career