Episcopal power and capitular power in struggle: the conflict between Bishop Malvar y Pinto and the Ecclesiastical Cabildo of Buenos Aires over the question of the liturgy

Abstract

This article analyzes a conflic al the Catedral of Buenos Aires, in which the Bishop of Buenos Aires and the Ecclesiastical Cabildo confronted one onother. The dispute reveals the extent of the tensions generated by the exercise of power in the Church and by the confrontation between differing eccesiological conceptions. From this perspective, a dispute in which all that is apparently debated are questions concerning church ceremonial unveils itself to us in its full sifnificance: it reveals the Ecclesiatical Cabildo´s tendency towards autonomy in the face of episcopal prerogative. Such a tendency constitutes one of the many elements of conflict latent in a colonial diocese, which during the Eighteenth Century aquired increased relevance as the Metropolis slipped towards ruin, and it may furthermore be considered an anticipation of the political-religious ferment which would manifest itself in 1810.