The Diocese of Casale Monferrato (Latin: Dioecesis Casalensis) is a Roman Catholic diocese in northwest Italy, a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Vercelli which forms part of the ecclesiastical region of Piedmont. The diocese, which adheres to the Roman Rite, was established on 18 April 1474 for political reasons, to transform the Marquisate of Montferrat into an ecclesiastic territory. History Casale Monferrato, the ancient Bodincomagus, is a city in the province of Alessandria, Piedmont (Italy), on the River Po, and has been a stronghold since the time of the Lombards. Liutprand, King of the Lombards enlarged it, and Emperor Otto II made it the chief town of a marquisate, giving it to the sons of Aleran, Duke of Saxony; later it was inherited by Emperor Michael VIII, Palaeologus, who sent thither his son Theodore. In 1533, the dynasty of the Palaeologi became extinct, and The Emperor Charles V gave Casale to the House of Gonzaga. From 1681 to 1706 it was in the hands of the French, from whom, in 1713, it passed to the House of Savoy. Casale was created a diocese by the papal bull "In Eminenti" of 18 April 1474, by Sixtus IV; previously it belonged to the Diocese of Asti. The pope had been urged to action by Marchese Guglielmo Paleologo of Monferrat. The diocese was a suffragan of the metropolitan archdiocese of Milan, and its bishops attended the provincial synods of Milan. On 1 August 1474, Sixtus IV issued another bull, "Super Gregem," defining the boundaries of the new diocese. Its first bishop was Bernardino de Tebaldeschi. His successor was Gian Giorgio Paleologo (1517–1525), who also governed the marquisate for his nephew, a minor. Among its noteworthy bishops were: the Dominican Benedetto Erba (1570), most zealous for the Christian instruction of children and the introduction of the Tridentine reforms, in which good work he was associated with St. Charles Borromeo; he was also the founder of the monti di pietà; Tullio del Carretto (1614), who imitated other contemporary bishops and founded an oratory for priests. Scipione Pasquali (1615–1624) was the author of a history of the campaign of Charles Emmanuel of Savoy against Montferrat in 1613. When the plague was ravaging Casale (1630) during the struggle between the French and the Spanish, the bishop is said to have nursed the sick himself. Among the churches of Casale are the cathedral, a monument of Lombard architecture,