Table of contents

1. Preliminary notes - 2. The historical roots of the problem: Aragon and Castile facing the Papacy - 3. Episcopal elections and ecclesiastical benefices: legislation and canonical doctrine in the Middle Ages - 4. The patronage jus ab Ecclesia concessum - 5. The conflict on patronage between Spain and the Holy See: aporias of the system - 6. The turning point of the Catholic Kings: the Congregación general de la clérezia and the role of common law – 7. The "glorious history" of the bull "Tuae dilectissimae" of Urban II - 8. Towards universal patronage - 9. The jus patronatus between politics and law: the benefices in Curia vacantes - 10. Between practice and doctrine: the benefices in Curia vacantes in the work of the royal councillor Luis Lopez de Vivero de Palacios Rubios - 11. Pro Christo legatione fungimur (Paul. II, Cor.V, 20). Vicarious power prerogative of the Papal Primacy