Abstract

In Early Modern Sicily, the Tribunal of the Spanish Inquisition played an important role both in terms of the suppression of political and religious dissent and in its sphere of competence as a civil and criminal legal court for its officials and familiares. Its introduction rendered the process of justice dubious and murky and weakened relations based on a correspondence between contract and expectation, leading to the breakdown of trust; also the Spanish monarchy intervened on these aspects and many jurists affirmed the importance of the privilegium fori.