Church bells and street fighting : Birkirkara and Don Joannes Matheo Camilleri (1545-57)

Abstract

In a country with a deep-rooted Catholicism such as Malta, cases and stories about the 'misbehaviour' of priests and clerics have always attracted the attention of one and all. One of G. Wettinger's most widely read works is in fact a paper on clerical concubinage between 1420 and 1550, not least because of the on-going debate in Catholic countries as to whether or not Catholic priests should be allowed to marry. In late medieval and sixteenth-century Europe the clerical estate extended far beyond those in priestly orders and contained a vast underbelly of men who were technically clerics, but who in effect lived as laymen. The effect of this was severely to blur the line which in theory separated the clerical estate from the rest of society. In this vein, the unfolding of Joannes Matheo Camilleri's life presents a clear-cut example of those practices which the Tridentine Church would be vigoursly addressing from the second half of the sixteenth century.