Summary: In the course of the seventeenth century the already fragile coexistence of the ecclesiastical and secular jurisdictions in the Iberian-Lusitanian Kingdom tended to deteriorate progressively. Pope Clement VIII reacted defensively to the pressures of the Crown to weaken – to the point of de facto annihilation - the special ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the tribunal of the Apostolic Collector, an office long held by Mgr. Decio Carafa. In the “Derogatio amplissima” a firm response is given to the ambiguous attitude of the monarchy, which while diplomatically submissive to Rome, is rigid in prohibiting with official acts the sending of ecclesiastical causes “extra forum”.