Kako postati zagrebačkim biskupom u posttridentskome razdoblju: Petar Petretić i Zagrebačka biskupija 1648. godine
How to become a bishop of Zagreb in the post-tridentine age: Petar Petretić and the Zagreb bishopric in 1648

Summary/Abstract: The Roman Curial administration developed a very complex system of bishop appointments which relied on decisions reached at the Tridentine council (concluded on 4 December 1563) as well as upon papal constitutions isued in the course of the 16th and during the first decades of the 17th century. In the posttridentine age informative processes became an important instrument used both for collecting information on candidates to be promoted bishops, and for implementing papal reform of local dioceses. Th ey consisted of three witnesses’ interrogation on personal qualities of candidates and the state of the diocese. Although some processes have been organised in the Curia too, they were prevalenty organised by the apostolic nunzio in the residence of his Nunziature. A rich source of information not only on the candidate himself and the diocese he is going to administer, they tell us much more on the entire system of appointments to vacant bishoprics in the researched period.The informative process the authors analysed in this essay was organised in May 1648 by the apostolic nunzio to the Court in Vienna Camillo Melzi, about the candidacy of Petar Petretić following the death of late bishop of Zagreb Martin Bogdan. As Petar Petretić was actually appointed bishop of Zagreb on the Secret Consistory held on 1 February 1649 in the Apostolic palace at Quirinale, and soon consacrated in Bratislava by three catholic bishops, the authors discuss the prerequisites the successful candidate had to satisfy. By analysing the first phase of the long process of his appointment, the authors investigated into the system of acquiring the bishop’s dignity in the lands under the Habsburg dominion which usually started with the monarch’s use of his right of patronage and the presentation of a convenient candidate, continued with the interrogation of witnesses in the Nunziature, and ended with the case discussion on the Secret Consistory in Rome which regularly produced the papal letter of appointment. Along with the profile of Petar Petretić, the portrait of Zagreb, a bishopric on the frontiers of the catholic world in the central years of the 17th century, depicted by the witnesses and the Apostolic nunzio was sent to the Roman Curial administration. The appendix publishes the copy kept in the Vatican Secret Archives of the informative process organised by the Apostolic nunzio in Vienna Camillo Melzi upon the qualities of Petar Petretić and the state of the Zagreb bishopric in 1648.

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