In the last decades of the eighteenth century, the Bourbon Crown was determined to undermine the personal immunity of the clergy. Examining two assaults on royal authorities by priests serving in indigenous parishes, this research analyses the capacity for political ma-noeuvre of Crown and Church in the Viceroyalty of Peru, prior to the enactment of legal limitations to such exemption. One of the victims was the political and military governor of Tarma, who was in charge of suppressing the Indian rebellion of Juan Santos Atahualpa. Despite not getting the ecclesiastical tribunal to punish the priests to its satisfaction, the Crown took advantage of the dispute to strengthen a royalist position.