Two bishops of Morocco

Fidel Fita Colomé was born in Arenys de Mar (Barcelona), on December 31, 1835, and died in Madrid, 1918. He was a Spanish archaeologist, epigrapher, philologist and historian. He was educated for religious life and entered the Society of Jesus.
Those who knew him highlight his passion for work and his tireless thirst for knowledge. Although he developed research on various subjects (History of the Church, Medieval History, Paleography and Diplomatic), Fidel Fita was above all an epigrapher with special dedication to Latin inscriptions; His work on the subject is immense and includes the inscriptions of most of the Spanish provinces.

The testaments of illustrious men are usually living pictures of the time in which they flourished and the family environment in which they moved. For this reason it is important that they be brought to the public in their entirety; and all the more so if they carry with them the solution of serious historical questions. Was it or was it not episcopal jurisdiction exercised in San Telmo outside the walls of Seville by the bishops of Morocco, when the benefit of that hermitage, or sanctuary, was annexed to the Inquisition by virtue of the famous bull of Pius IV (September 16, 1560)? The title of Bishop of Morocco and of San Telmo, who gave himself D. Sancho Díaz de Trujillo on his deathbed (September 23, 1570), the tenacity with which he defended what he considered the prerogative of his dignity of suffragan with the right of assistance to the provincial councils of Seville for enjoying his own territory, which he called Bishopric of San Telmo, and the cut given in the final to the question, that is, the fact that the titular bishop of Morocco was not promoted henceforth to be auxiliary to the archbishop of Seville, enter into the terrain of the probable and litigious the theory of Abbot Gordillo, who did not present himself covered with any reliable document and had against him those emanating from the Archbishop’s Curia and the Apostolic See. The will of D. Sancho Díaz de Trujillo, whose search I requested, has been found and has been obtained in a legalized copy by D. Simón de la Rosa y López, very worthy archivist of the Colombina. I offer this authentic copy to join the collection of manuscripts, treasured by our Academy in order to enlarge and rectify volume LI of Sacred Spain. I accompany a transfer, where I have filled in the clearings or gaps of the text, numbered the paragraphs, and marked accents and punctuation marks, which leaving almost intact the physiognomy of the original comfortably clear the meaning.

Fragment of the work