Negotiating encounters, controlling spaces : official meetings between Grand Masters and Inquisitors in Valletta and Vittoriosa

Abstract

The Roman Inquisitor in Malta also served as Apostolic Delegate: two distinct functions centred on one person. Invariably, the two roles overlapped and at times may have seemed indistinct, particularly in the eyes of the Grand Master of the Order of St John. The Grand Master also had a double political/public persona: leader of a military-religious order and 'lay' administrator of the Maltese islands. Traditionally, the relationship between Grand Masters and Inquisitors has been presented as one of antagonism and conflict, for which, admittedly, there is ample evidence. However, this paper will seek to suggest a complimentary reading to this relationship. In particular, by looking at official (i.e. planned) meetings between these two figures - specifically visits by Inquisitors to the Magistral Palace in Valletta and visits by Grand Masters to Vittoriosa - it will seek to locate the Inquisitors as part of the 'apparatus' of the island order state of the Hospitallers on Malta to try to suggest a more holistic understanding of magistral-inquisitorial relations.