Jurisdiction on Trial: Law, Morality, and Power in Late Medieval Italy. The Domodossola Case (1318–1321)
Jurisdiction on Trial: Law, Morality, and Power in Late Medieval Italy. The Domodossola Case (1318–1321)

Summary/Abstract: The trial between Bishop-Count Uguccione Borromei and the universitas of Domodossola (1318–1321) illustrates the juridical and ideological tensions at the heart of late medieval political authority. Ostensibly a dispute over jurisdiction, it became a confrontation over legitimacy, where charges of adultery and usury were deployed to delegitimize communal autonomy. The bishop’s strategy relied on constructing collective guilt, turning individual transgressions into evidence of institutional corruption and incapacity for self-government. The universitas, in turn, defended its legal identity through the election of magistrates, entrenched customs, and autonomous jurisdiction, while balancing affirmation of autonomy with formal concessions to episcopal authority. The case highlights the performative power of legal language in shaping political subjectivity. Far from a fixed order, medieval jurisdiction appears as a negotiated process, continuously contested and redefined. The Domodossola trial thus exposes both the fragility and resilience of communal autonomy within the broader framework of ecclesiastical power.

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