In a letter of 1 September 1077, Pope Gregory VII wrote to the bishops, clergy, civil leaders, and people of Corsica, acknowledging his responsibility for oversight of their well-being as part of the lands of S. Peter, but admitting that he was unable to do so personally and effectively.
[6] On 21 April 1092, Pope Urban issued the bull "Cum Universis", in which he created the metropolitanate of Pisa, promoting the bishop to the rank of archbishop, and assigning the bishoprics of Corsica as his suffragans.
[8] Pope Gelasius' bull was an unpleasant shock for Genoa, who coveted the island of Corsica, and a war broke out in 1119 between the two naval powers.
A document, written in Rome and dated 16 June 1121, reveals that negotiations had been taking place, with the agreement and authorization of Pope Callixtus, between the Genoese agents, Caffaro and Barisone, and a committee of three cardinals and a bishop on the question of Corsica.
[12] The opportune moment to satisfy the Genoans came when Callixtus II convened the First Lateran Council on 27 March 1123, to ratify the Concordat of Worms and end the schism instigated by the Emperor Henry V. The Pope appointed a committee, consisting of 24 bishops and other prelates, led by Archbishop Gualterius of Ravenna (a personal enemy of the Archbishop of Pisa), to examine and render a judgment on the claims of the Church of Pisa over Corsica.
On 6 April, the last day of the council, the claims of Pisa were rejected by the Fathers, after the damning report of Archbishop Gualterius.
[13] The loss was temporary, however, for, on 21 July 1126, the new pope, Honorius II, restored the privilege, and granted the archbishops the right of holding synods not only in Pisa, but also in Corsica.
The archdiocese of Pisa therefore lost ecclesiastical control of the northern half of the island of Corsica, retaining the dioceses of Ajaccio, Aleria, and Salona.
The number of attendees is not known, but it is said that bishops from Spain, Gascony, England, France, Burgundy, Germany, Hungary, Lombardy, and Tuscany attended.
In 1167 Barbarossa began a fourth war in Italy, and he and his pope Paschal ordered the leaders of Pisa to elect an archbishop to replace the loyal Villano,[23] who had already been sent into exile in 1163 and 1164, and was again in flight from imperial agents.
On 8 April 1167, the leaders of Pisa, who were loyal to the Emperor, chose a Canon of the cathedral, Benencasa, and he and the Pisans travelled to Viterbo, where the antipope ordained him a priest on Holy Saturday and consecrated him a bishop on Easter Monday.
On 26 June, they elected unanimously the Cardinal of Milan, Pietro Filargi, OFM, who took the name Alexander V. He was crowned on 7 July 1411, on a platform erected in the square before the cathedral of Pisa.
[29] In 1511, at the instigation of King Louis XII of France, a meeting was held in Pisa, summoned by four cardinals led by Bernardino Carvajal, which called itself a general council.
The cathedral was staffed and administered by a corporate body called the Chapter (Capitulum), which was originally composed of five dignities and (at one point) twenty-eight Canons.
The meeting was occasioned by the revolution in Rome, which had deposed Pope Pius IX from his position as head of the Papal States and seen him flee from the city in disguise to a refuge in Neapolitan territory.
[39] In a bull of 17 March 1726, Pescia was established as a diocese by Pope Benedict XIII, and was for a long time immediately subject to the Holy See (Papacy).
[40] On 1 August 1856, Pope Pius IX, in the bull "Ubi Primum", made Pescia a suffragan of (subordinate to) the archbishop of Pisa.
The diocese of Livorno was created by Pope Pius VII in the bull "Militantis Ecclesiae" of 25 September 1806, at the urging of Queen Maria Luisa, Regent of Tuscany.
[41] The erection was opposed both by the Archdiocese of Pisa and the Canons of San Miniato, who would lose territory, power, and income from the change.