The position of the Catholic Church in areas under Ottoman rule was extremely difficult. Owing to hostility toward Roman Catholics, the diocesan clergy fled from their parishes, episcopal seminaries were closed, and the existing church-administrative network of parishes was destroyed, while the Franciscans assumed pastoral care of the faithful. Gradual changes in attitudes toward the Catholic population first became noticeable after the signing of the Peace of Zsitvatorok in 1606, when the reduction of raids allowed for a smoother exercise of priestly duties. In Ottoman-controlled territories, papal visitors and missionaries increasingly appeared, resided, or passed through, regularly reporting to their contemporaries on the situation and population in the occupied regions. Alongside them, bishops also played an important role, as they were regularly appointed to serve in their dioceses. This practice likewise characterized the territory of Eastern Croatia in the seventeenth century, where two dioceses were located — the Diocese of Bosnia and the Diocese of Syrmia. Despite the Ottoman presence, bishops of both dioceses were regularly appointed throughout the seventeenth century, and their canonical processes have been fully preserved. The aim of this presentation is to use the preserved and hitherto unexplored processus canonici (canonical processes), conducted by the Vienna Nunciature, to present the sociodemographic characteristics and personal competencies — as recorded in the testimonies of witnesses — of selected bishops of Syrmia and Bosnia in the seventeenth century who exercised either real or nominal episcopal authority. Ultimately, since both dioceses were under Ottoman rule, the intention is to address the question of whether there existed, in the seventeenth century, a unified episcopal ideal within dioceses under Ottoman control. 

Keywords: bishops; canonical process; Diocese of Bosnia; Diocese of Syrmia; Eastern Croatia; 17^th century