Corruzione del clero nella settecentesca diocesi di Milano. La scandalosa vicenda di un «indegno sacerdote» (incesto, stupri, abusi)

The administration of penal justice in Church courts and the criminal behavior of members of the clergy have been scantily investigated, especially as regards the eighteenth century. A sampling effected in the archives of the penal court of the Milan diocese points to a broad assortment of crimes committed by ecclesiastical persons. The outrageous case of a priest convicted of incest and sexual violence enables us to highlight legal and extra-legal procedures and points to the existence of peculiar relationships between church authorities and civil society in Lombardy in the second half of the eighteenth century.