AT the accession of Isabella in 1474 the Church in Castile lay prostrate for the most part before the will of the papacy. Greater and lesser benefices were controlled from Rome, foreigners were commonly appointed to the highest dignities, and tribunals of justice were rendered impotent by interminable appeals to Rome. No less were the Castilian nobles accustomed to usurping royal authority in the civil and political branches of government. Castile was a patchwork of private jurisdictions and privileges of which Isabella was no more than a titular sovereign.