The study examines the appointments to the office of Bishop in two Italian church provinces (Milan and Salerno) in the period from 1676 to 1903. It covers the legal and political parameters, the state and ecclesiastical bodies selecting the candidates, and the social prerequisites for advancement to higher church orders. The study draws on extensive material from the Vatican archives on the personnel policy of the Roman curia from the pontificate of Innocent XI to that of Leo XIII and casts an unusual light both on the relations between the Papacy and the Italian states and on the social history of the Roman Church.