ABSTRACT
This chapter provides some account of the career and activities of Gil Torres, cardinal deacon of SS. Saints Cosmas and Damian, and his role in the development of the system of papal provisions at the expense of the ordinary collators about which Bishop Martin II had complained in 1233, identifying the cardinal as one of three prelates responsible for damaging the prospects of promotion for local men. These provisions may help to explain where many of those previously thriving jurists went after the death of Master Florencio in 1237 and the departure of Bishop Martín II for León in November 1238. Indeed, for all the technical expertise of the conduct of Fr. Garcia's case, the record of its hearing conveys only an indistinct impression of the importance of the church of Zamora as a juristic centre in, before and after the year 1223. Nor are the exchanges of the parties regarding the impugned chirograph itself devoid of interest.
