In 1649, in consequence of a conspiracy,
Cristoforo Girarda, a
Barnabite of
Novara and
Bishop of Castro, was assassinated in the
Second War of Castro. In punishment of this crime,
Pope Innocent X ordered Castro to be destroyed, and raised Acquapendente to the dignity of an episcopal city (Bull, 13 September 1649), directly under the
Holy See. Its bishops, however, retained the appellation "post Castrenses." The first incumbent of the new See was the
Hieronymite Pompeo Mignucci of Offida, who had been
Archbishop of Ragusa. He took possession on 10 January 1650. Bishop Nicolò Leti (1655–1674) held a diocesan synod in Acquapendente on 9–10 May 1660, and published the Constitutions of the synod. Bishop Florido Pierleoni, C.O. (1802–1829) held a diocesan synod in 1818. By the middle of 1986, papal policy in the selection of bishops had concentrated in the person of Bishop Luigi Boccadoro: the
Diocese of Viterbo e Tuscania, the diocese of
Acquapendente (since 1951), the diocese of Montefiascone (since 1951), and the Administratorship of the diocese of Bagnoregio (since 1971); he was also the Abbot Commendatory of Monte Cimino. On September 30, 1986,
Pope John Paul II moved to consolidate these several small dioceses by suppressing them and uniting their territories into the diocese of Viterbo e Tuscania, whose name was changed to the Diocese of Viterbo. The diocese of Acquapendente ceased to exist. The title of
Acquapendente, though not the diocese structure, was revived in 1991, to serve as a titular see. It is currently the episcopal title of an auxiliary bishop. ==Bishops of Acquapendente==