ABSTRACT
This chapter intends to delineate both the papal prefiguration of what it appeared to be a Roman-unfriendly Spanish theology and also the measures adopted by Clement VIII in order to struggle against excessive Habsburg interference in the ecclesiastical field, through the prism of the Roman diplomatic reaction to the Spanish policy concerning doctrinal controversies. This shows that papal attitudes towards the Spanish monarchy, generally characterized in this period by a very cautious, even openly suspicious, trust towards its necessary political ally, were also marked by a specific and substantial distrust of the Spanish monarchs religious and ecclesiastical policy, which popes like Clement judged to be highly detrimental to their own prerogatives and primacy. With the temperature of the controversy rising steadily, in 1594 Clement VIII had finally prorogued proceedings on it to his court in Rome. In Spain, doctrinal unsoundness of the Ignatians became a common refrain and soon formed the premise for all different charges against Society of Jesus.
