The diocese of Cagli e Pergola was a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical territory in the Marche, central Italy, in the province of Pesaro and Urbino. Up until 1563 it was under the direct supervision of the Roman pontiff. In that year, the diocese of Urbino was elevated to metropolitan status, and Cagli became a suffragan see of Urbino. The diocese was abolished as an independent entity in 1986, when it was incorporated into the diocese of Fano-Fossombrone-Cagli-Pergola. It was still a suffragan of the archdiocese of Urbino. The historical diocese of Cagli was renamed in 1819. Pergola, which had been in the diocese of Urbino, was raised to the rank of an episcopal city and united to the See of Cagli.
History
Bishop Egidio had many controversies with the municipality of Gubbio. Under his successor the Ghibellines revolted against the papal power. After the death of Bishop Jacopo, the Ghibelline canons wished to elect a noble, Berardo Berardi, while the Guelphs elected Rinaldo Sicardi, Abbot of San Pietro di Massa. As a result the see remained vacant for some years. Finally Berardo was made bishop of Osimo, and Sicardi died, whereupon a certain Guglielmo was elected bishop. Civil discords, however, did not cease, and after a terrible massacre, Cagli was burned by its own citizens. It was afterwards rebuilt on the plain of St. Angelo, and Pope Nicholas IV named it St. Angelo of the Pope. Later on, however, the original name of Cagli was substituted. In 1297 the first stone of the cathedral was laid by the Bishop Lituardo Cervati, and in 1398 Niccolò Marciari brought the building to completion. In 1503 the partisans of Cesare Borgia killed the Franciscan bishop Gasparo Golfi. His successor, a Spanish Dominican, Ludovico di Lagoria, was nearly killed by the people.
End of the diocese
In a decree of the Second Vatican Council, it was recommended that dioceses be reorganized to take into account modern developments. A project begun on orders from Pope John XXIII, and continued under his successors, was intended to reduce the number of dioceses in Italy and to rationalize their borders in terms of modern population changes and shortages of clergy. The change was made urgent because of changes made to the Concordat between the Italian State and the Holy See on 18 February 1984, and embodied in a law of 3 June 1985. The reorganization was approved by Pope John Paul II in an audience of 27 September 1986, and by a decree of the Sacred Congregation of Bishops of the Papal Curia on 30 September 1986. The diocese of Fano was united to the dioceses of Cagli e Pergola and of Fossombrone. Its name was to be Fanensis-Forosemproniensis-Calliensis-Pergulanus. The seat of the diocese was to be in Fano. The former cathedral in Cagli and the former cathedral in Fossombrone were to have the honorary title of co-cathedral, and their chapters were to be called the "Capitulum Concathedralis". There was to be only one episcopal curia, one seminary, one ecclesiastical tribunal; and all the clergy were to be incardinated in the diocese of Fano-Fossombrone-Caglia-Pergola. The combined diocese was suffragan of the Archdiocese of Urbino-Urbania-Sant'Angelo in Vado. The diocese of Cagli ceased to exist.
