abou-el-haj (barbara)_santiago de compostela in the time of diego gelmirez
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Santiago de Compostela in the Time of Diego GelmírezAuthor(s): Barbara Abou-El-Haj
Source: Gesta, Vol. 36, No. 2, Visual Culture of Medieval Iberia (1997), pp. 165-179Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the International Center of Medieval ArtStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/767236 .
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Santiago
de
Compostela
in
the Time of
Diego
Gelmirez'
BARBARA
ABOU-EL-HAJ
Binghamton University,
SUNY
Abstract
Santiago
de
Compostela
is
examined
in
the
context
of
Diego
Gelmirez's
supra-regional
and
regional,
ecclesi-
astical and
seigniorial
ambitions.
His lavish
enterprises,
which
catalyzed
two
communal
rebellions,
nclude
artistic
programs
designed
to
make visible
the
prelate's
repre-
sentation of his
apostolic
see. Each of
Gelmirez's
ad-
vances
toward
raising
his
see to
metropolitan
ank
(and
expanding
his
lordship
in
western
Galicia)
is noted
to-
gether
with
the
architectural
esign
and
decoration
of the
new
cathedral.
Among
these
advances,
the
systematic
production
f
the cult of
St. James has been
undervalued
and
the
pilgrims
attracted
by
the
cult
have
been
regarded
as the
cathedral's
unique
audience.
When the violent at-
tacks
by burghers
and
canons on the
cathedral and
the
prelate
are
integrated nto hishistory, ocalaudiences can
be understood as
the
target
of
specific
sets of
images.
These include
particularly ggressive figures
of the urban
vices of lust and
avarice,
the
latter conceived
icono-
graphically
as a
type
for
Judas to whom the
communards
are
repeatedlycompared
n
Gelmirez's
chronicle,
he His-
toria
Compostellana.
Historians of
Santiago
de
Compostela
in
the time of
Diego
Gelmirez
have examined the
means
by
which
the
prel-
ate
raised himself to
bishop,
archbishop,
and
preeminent
ord
of
western Galicia
without
assessing
the
role Gelmirez's
av-
ish
artistic
projects
might
have
played
in
these endeavors.
Art
historians
have examined
building
technology,
architectural
design and models, and the content of the sculpturalrepre-
sentations to
identify
how
the
cathedral and its
decoration
projected
Gelmirez's ambitions for
his
apostolic
see and
ad-
dressed
pilgrims
attracted in
large
numbers to St. James's
shrine,
without
assessing
either
the social
consequences
of
excessive
building
on
the
cathedral
chapter
and
the
town,
or
the
responses
to these
groups
that
may
have been
embedded
in
the
sculpture.2
In
either
case,
discussion is framed
within
regional
and
supra-regional
nvironments.
This
paper
calls for
the
local to be
examined
in
equal
measure to
the
regional
and
supra-regional.
The
spectacles
orchestrated for
the
cult
of
St.
James attractedan
alternativeaudience to
local
dissidents,
pilgrim
visitors who
would
have
experienced
the
cathedral's
imposing space,
images,
liturgies
and
processions
in
the ab-
sence of the
seigniorial
authorityby
which
they
were
created
in
the first
place.
Such celebrations
counterpose
the
equally
spectacular
rebellions
staged
a few
years
prior
to the mid-
and
endpoints
of
the
reign
of
Gelmirez,
whose
ambitiousand
volatile record
will serve as
the framework for
discussion.
Gelmirez's
rise from
cathedraladministratorof
Santiago
de
Compostela
(1093-1094;
1096-1100)
to
bishop
in
1100
and then
archbishop
n
1120 relied
upon
the
successful
stag-
ing
of the
apostolic
cult of St. James and
the installation
of
the apostle'schurch as the principalpilgrimagedestinationof
northwest
Europe.
Neither could
have been
a
foregone
con-
clusion even
at the
height
of
pilgrimage
in the firsthalf of
the
twelfth
century.
A successful
cult,
however that
may
be
con-
strued,
had
to be constructed: in
texts,
spectacles,
liturgies,
processions,
all
staged
within
dramatic
architecture and
ar-
ticulated in abundant
images.
In other
words,
cults had
to
be
articulated
in the
opulent
topographies
that
transfigured
highly particularized
activities into transcendent
events
for
which
consensus was the
object,
not the
premise.
Gelmirez'sactivities
towardthis
end were recorded
un-
der
his own
supervision
in a chronicle known
as the
Historia
Compostellana.3
They encompassed a volatile mix of eccle-
siastical and
seigniorial
initiatives
that
included,
above
all,
his
pursuit
of
metropolitan
rank
commensurate with the
ap-
ostolic statusof his
see and with his de facto
lordship
in
west-
ern
Galicia,
accomplished
by
means
of
political
and
artistic
enterprises
of
staggering
extravagance.
He
positioned
himself
to rival
Rome;
to
guarantee
the mistrust of
Toledo,
which
re-
garded Compostela
as a
competitor
for
the
primacy
of
Spain;
and
to
expand
his see at the
expense
of
Braga.4
He
might
have
expected
to
exceed
his
ambitions
when Calixtus
II,
the
brother
of his former
mentor,
Raymond
of
Burgundy,
became
pope
in
1119.
Calixtus,
however,
while
awarding
metropolitan
sta-
tus to
Compostela
the
following year,
also confirmed
Toledo
and Braga as well. Gelmirez expended a fortune or two on
shrines,
on
building,
and on bribes
to the
papal
curia5
and
to
the rulers of
Le6n-Castile.
By
1104,
he had
purchased
the
privilege
to wear
an
archbishop'spallium
on all
major
litur-
gical
feasts.6
Nonetheless,
he had to
wait until
1120
for
his
metropolitan
rank,
encouraged
by
the
large
sums
he
handed
over
to
Rome in
1118 that
likely
supported
Calixtus's
nomi-
nation to
the
papal
throne.
Another
bribe,
recorded
in
1124,
the
year
of
the
pope's
death,
must have had
a similar
purpose.
Gelmirez
simultaneously
spent
substantial sums on
Queen
Urraca,
with whom
he
engaged
in
a
protracted
struggle
over
the
succession in
Galicia from
1109 until her
death
in
1126,
alternatingbetween battles, "the queen's machinations,"and
reconciliations
cemented with
gifts.
According
to
Reilly,
the
gifts
provided
the
bishop
with the
extensive domains
that
consolidated his
position
as the
"paramount
uthority
n west
central
Galicia."7
Money
was also
"alternatelycajoled
or
ex-
torted,"
as
Fletcher
put
it,
by
Urraca's
son
Alfonso VII
well
into the 1130s.
Characterized
n
the Historia as
"immense
and
immeasurable
sums of
money,"
t
helped
to
remedy
financial
losses
afterAlmoravid
conquests
had ended
the flow of trib-
utary gold
dinars from the
south.8
Additional
resources went
GESTA
XXXVI/2 @ The
International
Center of
Medieval
Art
1997
165
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FIGURE 1.
Santiago
de
Compostela,
cathedral,
west
acade,
ca.
1160-1180,
with
archiepiscopal palace
to
left (after
Conant).
for a small
navy
to
assure the
safety
of
pilgrims traveling by
sea to
Santiago.9
In
the same
years,
the
bishop
remodeled the
altarof St. James into
a
splendid
shrine
and advanced the new
cathedral,
the
space
and
setting
that were
designed
to draw
pilgrims
in
the first
place (Fig.
1).
Gelmirez nherited
a cathedral
already
underconstruction
according
to an ambitious
design
formulated under
Diego
Pelhez
and Alfonso VI
(1065-1109),
who were
commemo-
rated
in
two
capitals
in
the
apse.'0
A
vast structurehad
been
planned,
funded with tribute rom Granada
promised
or
given
by
the
king
at a council held at
Santiago,
between
December
1074 and
January
1075. In
Serafin
Moralejo'selegant phrase,
the
king
and
bishop responded
to
Pope Gregory
VII,
who was
"preparingo disavow,with eloquentsilence ... the role Saint
James
played
in
the
evangelization
of
Spain
and ... his
body
at
Compostela.""'
Royal largesse,
however,
did not
guarantee
continuity
in
the
project,
which faltered within little
more
than a decade. In
1087
or
1088
Diego
Peliez
was
deposed
and
imprisoned
as a
traitor,
and Alfonso
directed Andalusi
gold
to
Cluny
in
exchange
for a
daily
commemoration
n the
masses of the dead consecrated to the
king,
his
ancestors,
and
his
descendants,
and for a small
legion
of Cluniac monks to
impose
themselves
together
with the Roman rite on
Spanish
churches in
newly conquered
territories.'2
The new
building
of
transregional
design,
on a scale that
overwhelmed the
tiny
church of Alfonso III
(Fig. 3),
would
set
Compostela among
the
most
imposing
churches
of its
day, including
not
only
the
great pilgrimage
shrines,
such
as
Saint-Sernin of Toulouse with which
it
has
been
regularly
compared,
but also
Speyer, Cluny,
Monte
Cassino, and,
above
all,
St. Peter's in
Rome,
whose
prototypical
shrine
transept
was caricatured
by Santiago's transept,
which is broader
han
the cathedral nave
(Fig.
2).13
The scale envisioned
in
this
design perfectly
suited
Diego
Gelmirez's
pursuit
of
metropol-
itan status for the
apostle's
shrine.
At
considerable
cost,
eco-
nomic and
social,
he
staged
himself as the
centerpiece
of his
own
spectacles, projecting
his cathedral and
palace
as the
setting,
and
the cult of
St.
James as an
attribute.
To that
end,
after his installation as
bishop,
Gelmirez
conducted
a
survey
of his
possessions
in
Braga,
whence he made off with the
bodies
of
St. Fructuosus and
three
others,
whom
he carried
back
to
Compostela
in a
triumphal procession.
This
classic
furta
sacra
is described in
grand
and
stereotyped phrases
in
the Historia: metby the whole population,barefoot, hebishop
and
clergy,
also
barefoot,
were
followed
into the
city by
crowds
of
people, singing hymns
and
psalms.14
Such
specta-
cles were orchestrated o attractand
energize
audiences. Even
acquisitions
of bodies or relics of saints
by
less dramaticad-
ventures
were
styled
as
thefts demanded
by
the
saints
them-
selves,
who
charged
their
pious
thieves to remove them to
sites where
they
would
be
properly
venerated."5
It is
probably
no coincidence that the collection of
mir-
acles in Book
II
of the Codex Calixtinus-the
assemblage
of
texts devoted to St. James's
liturgies,
miracles,
the fabulous
and fictionalized
exploits
of
Charlemagne,
and
the
Pilgrim's
Guidel6-rapidly
multiplied
rom
1100,
the
year
of
Gelmirez's
episcopal appointment.
Between
1100
and
1110
the
eight
mir-
acles
reported
from the mid-eleventh
century
expanded
into
yearly
miracles.17 The
Codex,
falsely
attributed o
Pope
Calix-
tus
II,
neatly
inserted,
posthumously,
he
papal
enthusiasm
or
St. James
that had been absent
n
Gregory
VII's letter of 1074.
In the same
years,
Gelmirez moved to embellish
liturgi-
cal
spectacles designed
to
draw the audiences that
would
pro-
vide confirmationand consensus for the exalted status of
his
apostolic
see. Each of
his
initiatives,
undertaken
within the
first few
years
of his
bishopric,
seems to have alienated a
group
of his canons. In
1102,
as
part
of a
sweeping
reform,
he
received
permission
to
designate
within his
chapter,
simulta-
neously inflated from twenty-four to seventy-two canons,
seven cardinal canons entitled to celebrate
mass at the
high
altar
fully
vested
and
mitred,
who must have dazzled
their
audiences.
They
enhanced the
Compostelan liturgies
as well
as
the
discrepancy
among
the
canons,
now
divided into two
tiers.18
Perhaps
with
some
forethought,
Gelmirez
compelled
his
canons to swear a
personal
oath of
loyalty
to him.19
By
the fifth
year
of his
bishopric,
Gelmirez had com-
pleted
a lavish
remodeling
of St.
James's
altar,
over the stren-
uous
objections
of
the
chapter
who
thought
that the old altar
had
been
built
by
James's
disciples.
This decision must
have
deepened
the
anger
of canons
upon
whom a
comprehensive
discipline had been imposed in the reforms of 1102. The new
altar was faced with marble and over it Gelmirez erected a
gold
and silver
ciborium,20
which
reproduced
salient features
of Peter's shrine
in
Rome
(Fig.
4).
Gelmirez
inscribed the
shrine with his name and his
expenditure
of 75 silver marks.21
Karen Mathews
compared
this sum and the 100 silver marks
that the
prelate
spent
to
purchase
a
single gold
chalice to the
twelve marks
per
month the
bishop
offered for
subventing
the
chapter's
meals,
as a
comparative
measure of
the bene-
ficiaries of
episcopal
largesse.22
166
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FIGURE 2.
Santiago
de
Compostela,cathedral,groundplan(after Conant).
Two
years
after the shrine was
completed,
the cathedral
project
was
in need
of
subvention.
Alfonso VI
(1107)
granted
a
royal
mint,
according
to the
Historia,
to
"provide
for the
costs of construction..
.
and its
perpetual
maintenance,"
an
exceptional
and lucrative
gift
that should in no
way
exclude
the likelihood that most of
the
bishop's
revenues came
from
normal
seigniorial
taxes and
surcharges.23
onetheless,
build-
ing proceeded slowly. By
1112
the
east end was advanced
enough
to
demolish
the
tiny
church
of Alfonso
III,
left stand-
ing andfunctioningas the cathedralcrossing was built around
it.24This
striking
expansion
in scale was in
keeping
with
vast
new churches
forming
a
fragmentary
monumental
topo-
graphy
that extended from northeast
England
to
Sicily.25
Such
ventures,
utterly discrepant
with
local communities and re-
sources,
were realized not
by possession
of resources
alone,
and
certainly
not
by
cooperation
between
the builders
and
their
towns,
but
rather
by
the control
exercised
over resources
within the
political economy
of the
seigniorial clergy.
Hence,
the civil strife
catalyzed by
excessive
building challenged
the
.
jr
mill-
~::-~;,:-~ss~8asle~d~aBi~~sCeW..?
IV IN
::4:
......
FIGURE 3.
Santiago
de
Compostela, cathedral,
nave
(photo: A.y
R.
Mas
[Arxiu
Mas], Barcelona).
whole
spectrum
of
political,
judicial,
economic
and
spiritual
jurisdictions
exercised
by
abbots
and
bishops.
At
Santiago,
the first rebellion
was launched in 1116.
The
beneficiaries
of Gelmirez's
extravagant building
and
apostolic
allusions,
aside
from
himself,
were
pilgrims,
the
transient visitors who were
the alternative audience to the
insiders,
a hostile faction of Gelmirez's
canons led
by
one of
his
proteg6s,26
and a
group
of
patrician
burghers. Together
the latter
two stormed the cathedral
precinct
and took control
of the town for a year, duringwhich time they assaulted the
episcopal
palace,
in
which the
bishop
had had to confine him-
self "as if in
a
hiding place
.
.
. He did not
dare contradict
their statutes
nor refuse their demands.. .
the traitors
pos-
sessed
everything,
in
everything
they
obtainedtheir ends."27
"The
bishop
and the
queen
were in
the
bishop's palace
when
they
heard a clamor
and
din
from the
city,
and
feared
in
what
manner the
companions
of Iscariot had incited
the
citizens
against
them.... The church of
the
Apostle
was taken
by
numerous
assaults; stones,
arrows,
spears
fly
over
[Gelmirez's
167
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~
FIGURE 4.
Santiago
de
Compostela,
ciborium
over the altar
of
St.
James,
1105
(Serafin Moralejo).
splendid]
altar . .
The
depraved
assailants set fire to the
church of the blessed James
and
burn
t
on both sides
because
no small
part
of
the church
was covered with
planks
and
straw."28When
Gelmirez
and Urraca took
refuge
in the ca-
thedral bell
tower,
Compostelanspillaged
the
palace;
others
set fire to
the tower. When the
queen
left,
"they
[the mob]
make a
dash
at
her,
grab
her
and
throw
her on the
ground
in
a
slough,
ravish her like wolves
and shred
her
clothing."29
The
bishop
escaped
through
the midst of the
"perverse
trai-
tors,
more than 3000" to hide
in
Santa
Maria. From there he
punched
his
way
through
walls from house to house and
then
to the
treasury
of San
Pelayo.30
The
queen
finally
made her
escape
by agreeing
to a reconciliation and
a
peace pact
that
would confirm
he communards' rbanadministrator nd
chap-
ter
prior;
this was
another
attack on
Gelmirez,
whose
brother
and
nephew
held these offices. She was to secure
approval
from her son Alfonso VII and
his
ally,
Count
Pedro,
to
whom,
instead,
she
denounced the
commune.31
Meanwhile,
the
rebels
hunted
or the
bishop
"thirsting
or
[his]
blood."32Hidden
under a
cape,
Gelmirez
again escaped,
crawling
over
the tiled roof to the canons'
dormitory,
from
there to the
palace,
and then to the house
of
a cardinal canon
until, with two armed men, he passed as one of the self-
appointed
sentinels out of the
city,
and met with allies who
brought
him
mounted
support.
"Protected
by
no
small
troop
of soldiers"
he rode to
Iria,
where
he was
received "as
if risen
from the dead."33 The
arrogance
of the
Compostelans
[was]
broken,
on the one hand
by
...
many
assaults,
on the other
by
the sword of anathema."
According
to the
Historia,
the
more
sensible canons and citizens
accepted
his
excommunication.
From
Iria,
the
bishop
excommunicated all
the
inhabitants
of
Compostela,
which,
the Historia
reports,utterly
weakened the
Compostelans.
Not
waiting
for this
unlikely
effect,
the
bishop
assembled
a
great
army
of
horsemen and foot
soldiers,
which
were
joined by legions
marshalled
by
Urraca to blockade
and
destroy
Compostela,
described
in
melodramatic
hyper-
bole. The
traitors ran here and
there,
"and fortified the
city
with a
palisade,
barriers,
a
stone
parapet
and wooden
ram-
parts; they
encouraged
and
exhorted
the
people,
but
in vain."
A
large
numberwho had not taken
part
n
the "infamous rea-
son"
saw the
city
besieged
on all
sides,
the trees
and
grain
fields cut
down, heads,
feet or hands
amputated,
he dead not
buried.
They
saw
the
queen's
army grow larger
each
day,
and
their
own
diminish,
and fearedthat the
city,
if
it were
attacked,
would
fall
easily.
"Who would not
eagerly
cast himself
against
the
traitors?
Who would not
extirpate
the abominable
conspiratorsagainst
his
bishop?
Who would not
destroy
those
who want to destroy crown and priesthood?Who would not
scorch those who
violated and burned the
church
of the
Apostle?
All Galicia
holds the authors of such
a
crime to be
enemies;
all
Galacia
is
thirsty
for their
blood."34
Finally,
the commune was
brought
to
a
programmatic
end
by
reversing
the
act with which it had been constituted.
The rebels swore an oath to end their
brotherhood,
urrendered
their briefs
(statutes?)
to
the
bishop
to
be
destroyed,
and were
assessed
a
fine of
1,100
silver marks. The
traitors,
"whether
canons or
citizens,"
one hundred
n
all,
were exiled and their
property
and
goods
confiscated. The
anathemawas
lifted
and
peace
declared.
Fifty
sons
of
the
major
families of
Compos-
tela were surrenderedas hostages
for
reparations,
ownsmen
swore an oath of
fealty
to the
bishop
and
queen,
and
when
the
bishop
entered
Compostela,
he was "receivedwith
great oy."35
Through eighteen pages
of
the
printed
text,
the Historia
presents
a
blow-by-blow
account,
complete
with
dialogue
among
the
conspirators,among
the
bishop
and the
queen
and
their
allies,
punctuated
with denunciationsof the "traitors."
The humiliationsof the
bishop
and
queen
are
spared
no detail.
Each of the
principals
s
cast
in
counterpoise
o the others:
the
evil
conspirators, compatriots
of
Judas;
the
vengeful queen;
168
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and the merciful
bishop, compared
in turn to
Christ,
Daniel,
and the Three Hebrews.
Nonetheless,
the commune
was
de-
feated not
by
the
bishop's spiritual
arsenal but
by
the real
thing,
thousands of horsemen
and soldiers.
Accordingly,
the
sanctions
imposed
were
strictlyseigniorial
and
rather imited:
a
small
fine
and
only
one hundredof the
claimed
3,000
rebels
exiled.36
Although
Gelmirez's
own brother
Gundesindo,
ad-
ministratorof the town
(accused
of
many
evils
likely
pertain-
ing to his supervision of the market),was killed, one of the
leading
communards,
Pedro
Helias,
became Dean
of
Compo-
stela from 1122 to
1124,
and
Gelmirez's second successor as
archbishop
n
1143.37
One
may
take
this as a measure of the
power
and
persistence
of
this
group
of dissidents.
Indeed,
the
violence of 1116-1117 was a
single
episode
in
a conflict that
erupted again
in
1136,
to
be
recorded
in
equal length
and
detail. Another
perpetrator,
Guillermo
Seguin,
"the
principal
promoter
of their
treason,"
went on
to be twice the villicus or
administratorof
Compostela
after Gelmirez's death
(1140-
1141
and
1149-1150).38
The otherwise omniscient authorial
voice
of the
Historia
is virtually silent on the rebels' motives. Only a vague and
stereotyped
accusation,
that the
bishop
had diminished the
dignity
of the church of
Santiago
and
oppressed
the canons
under the
yoke
of
his
domination,
is voiced
by
Gelmirez's
cherished
canon,
whom
he raised
in
his
palace
and whom he
sent to
study
in
France "at no small
expense."39
Pastor
de To-
gneri suggested
that the
commune was driven
by
an
economic
power struggle,
characteristic
of
contemporary
communalre-
bellions,
as at Laon and
Vdzelay,
in
which the
complaints
of
burghers
and
peasants
were
recorded
n
detail.40
Canons were
dissatisfied with
unequal prebends,
while
burghers
wanted
control
over
their
market
(under
the
authority
of Gelmirez's
brother),
lower rents for their
stalls,
and a
greater
share
in
profits from pilgrims attracted to the new cathedraland its
dazzling
shrine. The
burghers'
principal
competitor
was
the
chapter,
which,
at least later in the
century
under
Archbishop
Suairez
de Deza
(1173-1206),
possessed
outright twenty-
eight
of
one hundred souvenir
stalls.41
The
very
same issues
prompted
the riot in
1136
when,
once
again,
the
archbishop
barely
escaped
assassins. This
time,
Gelmirez took
refuge
in-
side
the restored
cathedral,
locked
himself within the
grill
that
protected
his
stunning
altar
shrine
and
hid
beneath
its
ciborium,
which his
assailants
pelted
with
stones
from
the
gallery
above. The
communards offered Alfonso VII
3,000
silver
marks to send the
archbishop
nto
perpetual
exile.42
The ceremonies and the phrasesemployed in the Histo-
ria's
account of the first
commune,
then,
provided
a
satisfy-
ing,
if
temporary,
closure to a rebellion that
might
well have
succeeded
in
establishing
a franchised town
with
some de-
gree
of
autonomy
from its
bishop.
Hence,
Gelmirez's first or-
der of business
was to restore the sites of his
spiritual
and
secular
authority,
his burned
apostolic
churchand his
pillaged
palace.43
The
unfinished cathedral
roof,
set on fire
by
the
communards n
1117,
was
repaired
and
provided
with a stone
thrower aimed at the
town.44
Its
crenellations
may
have been
.........
....
...
ox?JR
4ej.>
X:%~~
........."
M~
FIGURE 5.
Santiago
de
Compostela,
Cathedral
Museum,
spiral
columns
from
the north
portal
(photo:
Santiago,
Camino
de
Europa).
part
of these
repairs,
or added
by
Gelmirezto
fortify
"thetow-
ers and unfinishedworks of the
cathedral"
n
1115
against
an
anticipated
invasion
by
Urraca
prompted by
the
bishop's
al-
liance with her son Alfonso
(Fig.
1).45
A
fortified
cathedral
would have been
just
as useful
against
the hostile
community
within
Compostela
hat aunched ts commune within
the
year.
Building
seems to have resumed and to have
been com-
pleted
to a few
bays beyond
the
crossing by
1120,46
with-
out alteration
to
either the scale
or
the lavish references to
St.
Peter's.
The
cathedral's
ransept
portals
and,later,
the west
portal
(ca. 1160-1180)
were
framed
with
marble and
granite
spiralcolumns (Figs. 5, 10). Moralejo recognizedthese as ex-
plicit
references to the columns that
supported
the ciborium
over St. Peter's
shrine
and
to
Solomon's
Temple,
their
legend-
ary provenance.
This reference to the
Temple
invoked the
scriptural
model for excessive
building
at a time when the
pe-
riodic
debate
over ecclesiastical
luxury
revived
both
the con-
tent and the
phrases
of Jerome's ate
fourth-century
blast. At
Compostela
the
columns,
magnified,
multiplied
and
projected
onto the
portals,
framed the whole of James's
church,
con-
figuring
it as a
giant
shrine,
a lavish church of the sort that
169
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...........
O W
........
t RX
....
......
......
.
.....
......
. ...........
.
........
. . . . . . .
FIGURE 6.
Santiago
de
Compostela,
cathedral,
frieze
above
south
portal
(photo:
author).
Bernard
of
Clairvaux attacked
n
scathing
rhetoric in
1125.47
Among
the columns were shafts
originally framing
the north
portal (Fig. 5) that display the early Christian eucharistic
imagery
of
gathering
grapes
as well as the
contemporary
haunted
tanglewood. Figures entangled
in a
"withered
vine,"
attacked
or
otherwise
entrapped
n the darknessof sin as on the
Gloucester
Candlestick,
1102-1111,48
bring
the columns
into
line with the
program
of sin and
redemption
identified
by
Moralejo
in
the
transept sculpture,
discussed below.
Prominent
figures
of
St. James
on all three entrances
(Figs.
6,
7)
magnified
his
appearance
within the cathedralon
the ciborium
(Fig.
3),
where he
is
the central
figure
among
three
apostles
on the
gabled
front.49
These
figures
marked
he
specificity
of
apostolic
succession claimed
by
Gelmirez and
the
archbishop's
cclesiastical
posture
vis-a-vis Rome.
Both the
prelate
and
the
pope
could claim descent from
apostles
whose
tombs
they possessed,
while most
bishops
were
generically
descended from
unspecified
apostles.
From this succession
derived the
episcopate's
exclusive and
threatening preroga-
tive to bind and loose sinners in
excommunication,
anathema
and
penance,
a
spiritual
arsenal whose dramaticrhetoric was
matched
only by
its
impotence.
It
had been
put
to use
in
the
rebellion
just
a few
years
earlier,
with the
usual
lack of
effect.50
After his elevation to
archbishop
n
1120,
Gelmirez's
ex-
penditures
shifted. To mark his new
rank,
"he
built a
palace
in addition to the church of the
blessed
James,
ample
and
elevated, worthyand sumptuous,sufficientas is fittingto re-
ceive a
multitude
of
princes
as well as
people" (Figs.
8,
9).51
He
may
have transferredthe
episcopal
residence from
the
south to the north side of the
basilica,
that is to
say, away
from the
portals
that faced the canons' houses and the town.52
He
also
had a
private chapel
built above the north
portal,
be-
cause,
according
to
the
Historia,
"the choir of the
church
of
blessed
James
was at a
distance
from this
palace
[it
was
not]
and it was
very
laborious
to
come and
go
there
descending
.............
ZZ
.......
... .
0:::
:In
Poi
ii:x>
FIGURE 7.
Santiago
de
Compostela,
cathedral,
west
facade,
Pdrtico de la
Gloria,
St. James
(photo:
author).
and
ascending
continuously,"53
n
explanation
that excludes
the likelihood
that
such
an
exposed path might
have been
dangerous
for the
archbishop
even after the commune had
been
put
down,
just
as the south or urban side
of the
cathedral
with the canons' residence
may
have been
no
longer
suitable
nor safe for a
metropolitan
residence.
In
any
case,
the
new
palace
provided
direct
and secluded access to the cathedral
and
to
Gelmirez's
new
chapel.54
In the light of the events of 1116-1117, recorded n such
excruciating
detail
by
the
prelate's
own
men,
it is
striking
hat
the
figurative sculpture
on the
cathedral's
ranseptportals
has
been
represented
almost
exclusively
as
addressing
pilgrim
au-
diences.55
Moralejo
dentifiedcoordinated
mages
of sinandre-
demption
originally
displayed
on the north
portal
that
opened
toward the new
archiepiscopal palace. According
to the
Pil-
grim's
Guide,
this
was
the
door
through
which
pilgrims
from
France enteredthe cathedral.These
sculptures
were
dispersed
170
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-Tv-
xo
?--~;:-- --::
-*11
n
.
.
..........::
ignF.
NOW:
.............................
....
..........
?k
W-~_-::_:':::__iii :::::.--iiiiiiiiiii~iii:-
:.::
ii--iiii:i~i_:--::::::-::iii~:
i:::i~~i-::_
--::_-:i
iiiiii~iii~i-iAt
10
....
.....iiiiii~~-~-iiii~iiiil:i-:_i:i~iiiiiiii-iiiiii-i
-??D----::::::::::::::::::--::: .iN
O
W
oiiii~
I~.i_:I.~Ili::-_li:-?;-.low-
ii-:---_-:-iiiiiiiii~iiiiiiiiii::::iim
a
i
:::::::i
it
i
O
N':
-::::::'.:::::--:--
FIGURE 8. Santiago de Compostela,archiepiscopal palace to left (photo: A.y R. Mas [Arxiu Mas], Barcelona).
to
the
south facade
(Fig.
10)
or
to
the
cathedral
museum after
the north side was remodeled in the
eighteenth
century.They
included
figures
of Adam and Eve
created,
reproached
and
expelled
from
paradise by
God, without, however,
the central
scene of the Fall.
Moralejo
linked
the Genesis narrative o an
isolated scene
of the
Annunciation,
pairing Mary
of the Ave
with
Eve,
whose sin she redeemed
ust
as
Christ,
who
appears
enthroned,
redeemed
Adam's sin.
Beneath
these
figures,
the
north portal would have served for a penitential rite per-
formed
by
pilgrims
on Ash
Wednesday
(see below).56
The
tympana
on
the south facade
depict
Christ's
temptations
on
the left
(Fig.
11),
deploying
a
superabundance
of
demons,
pendant
to Passion scenes on the
right (Fig.
12):
Christbefore
Pilate,
the
Flagellation,
and the
Betrayal,
out of
sequence.
Here,
as
in
the Genesis
sequence
minus the
Fall,
crucial
events,
the
Crucifixion
and the Three
Marys
at the
Tomb,
are also
unusually
absent.57
n
effect,
punishment
is
portrayed
n
the
...
FIGURE 9.
Santiago
de
Compostela,
archiepiscopal palace
to
left,
lower
story
ca.
1120
(photo:
author).
171
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..............iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
x
-_--X::X:: '.
ol1
..... .
.
. . . .. .. . . . ...
....... ....
. ........
M5?
cK-
....... .....
.....
..
ix
.
..
......
FIGURE 10.
Santiago
de
Compostela,
cathedral,
south
facade (photo:
author).
absence
of
sin,
and
betrayal
and
suffering
are
unresolved
by
redemption.
Together
with
these
highly
selective
narratives,
Moralejo
inked
capitals depicting
the
cardinal sins of avarice
and lust in the
north and south
transepts
to a
sweeping
attack
on
simony,
the sale of all
spiritual
services and of church
offices,
in the
Codex
Calixtinus.s8
Without
assuming
a local
context of
equal
or
greater
ur-
gency,
scholars have
found
the
Calixtinus's
uniformly
affirm-
ative account of St. James's cult, its liturgies, pilgrimage,
souvenir
trade,
the cathedraland its
decoration,
sufficient to
interpret
he
sculpture
as directed
at
pilgrims.
In
this,
they
are
more
selective
than
medieval
authorswho
regularlyproduced
entirely discrepant
texts aimed at distinct
audiences,
among
which the
Historia and the
Codex
Calixtinus
are excellent
examples.
If
the Historia is taken into account in
the manner
stated
in
its
preface,
as a
history
of
"Diego,
Archbishop
of the
see of
Compostela
by
the
grace
of
God,
[who]
ordered this
book to be
written and to be
placed
in
the
treasury
of blessed
James
..."
to
tell
of
his ".. . honors and how
many legacies
and ornaments and
dignities
the
archbishop acquired
for
his
church and
[in
equal
measure]
how
many
persecutions
and
dangers
he enduredfrom
tyrannical
powers
for
the defense
of
his
church,"59
we
might
see
embedded
n
sculpturesdepicting
transcendentChristian narratives and morals
the
very
same
spiritual
hreats hat were
inoperative during
the rebellionand
absentfrom the
penalties imposed
at
its
conclusion.
They
seem
to affirm he
spiritual authority
of the
bishop
in
images
if not
in
reality.
KarenMathews noticed the extent to which evil and vio-
lent
figures
exceed benevolent ones in the south
tympana
and
suggested
that
they
alluded to Gelmirez's
betrayal by
his can-
ons
and
burghers,
most
pointedly
in
the scene of Christ ar-
rested,
betrayedby
Judas for
thirty pieces
of
silver.60
Such an
analogy
would accord with the occasions on which the
prel-
ate
would
have been
celebrated as
a
type
for
Christ,
at feasts
associated with Easter which commemoratethe events of the
Passion.
This
typology
would
also
be in
line with
the
pas-
sages
in the
Historia that
repeatedly compare
Gelmirez to
Christ and his enemies to Judas in the contexts of the events
of both 1116-1117 and
1136.61
The
Passion
sequence
is
preceded by
an anomalous scene of Christ
healing
the
blind,
the
quintessential
miracle that
equates physical
with
spiritual
blindness and demands faith as a
prior
condition for
healing,
depicted
here in
conventional
postures
of
authority
and sub-
mission
that,
indeed,
would have been
deployed
in
peniten-
tial
rituals.62
Nonetheless,
as with the
Betrayal,
the
Healing
of the Blind also
provides
a
suggestive,
if
inoperative, typol-
ogy
for recent events in
Compostela
where
precisely
the
absence of
spiritual
subordinationon the
part
of the "allies
of
Judas"
was remedied not with
penance
but with
fealty.
Along
with the
narrative,
a
surprisingly
arge
and diverse
group
of
figures portrays
the cardinal sin of
luxury,
linked
by
Moralejo
to
pilgrims
called to
penance:
the woman with
the
skull
excoriated
in
the
Pilgrim's
Guide
as an
adulteress
(Fig.
11),
a siren and centaur
(not
Sagittarius), pendant
alle-
gories
of
lust,
capitals
carved with
lust
in
the
south
transept
(Fig.
13).63
In
addition,
extraordinarilyaggressive, gender-
equal figures
of lust tormented on the north
portal
archivolts
marked the
archbishop's regular
entrance
into his cathedral
(Figs.
14,
15),
while a
capital
in
the lower arcade of the
north
transept, marking
his route to the
choir,
displayed
avarice
hanged by
demons
and
tormented
by
fire
(Fig.
16).
The ar-
chivolt and
capital
figures
are
striking
because their torment s
brutal,even by twelfth-centurystandards,when this select set
of vices was first
projected
onto
public,
architectural
culpture
in the
guise
of
identifiable
social
types.
Such
figures
ac-
companied
an endless
variety
of the tormentedon
capitals
in
churches such as
V6zelay
and Autun.
In
the
latter,
in the
context of new and fearsomescenes of
Judgment,
clergy
and
pilgrims appear among
the elect and a harlot and merchant
(stereotyped
urban
sins)
among
the
damned,
each
group
n
the
center of otherwise
generic
souls
rising
from their
sarcophagi.
At
Autun,
these
figures
addressedhostile local audiences with
172
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.
......
ON.
M.M.-
m
im
. .....
..
ard
ag
?R
0
WF
MM
is
g
..........
....
a
N
R
W.
.
... . ..
z.
.....
..........
. . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . .
. . .
g g .
] l o w
. . . . . . .. . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
. . . . . .. . . . . .
. . . . .
. . . . . . .
O N A M
. . . . . . .. . . . . . .
FIGURE 11.
Santiago
de
Compostela,
cathedral,
south
facade, left tympanum,
Temptationsof
Christ
(photo:
A.y
R. Mas
[Arxiu Mas], Barcelona).
?M:?
iff
k W ` - T : 11
F ?
FIGURE 12.
Santiago
de
Compostela,
cathedral,
south
facade, right
tympanum,
cenes
of
the Passion
(photo:A.y
R. Mas
[Arxiu Mas], Barcelona).
173
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IX.
..........
...............
.......
............................
........ . ............
....................... .... ... .
.............
...
.
...... ............
.................
....................
.. ..................... .......
.........................................................................................................................................................................................................
......................
..............................
................................
.............................
...................... ...........................
....
........................
............
........ .
...........
.................
...... ...............................................
.......................
...............
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . ......
.............
................
. ................
.............. ...
...
...
. . . . . .. . . . . .
. . . . . . .
. . . . .
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
. . . .
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . .
.
. . . . .
. . . . .
. . . . . .
. . . . . .
. . . . . . .
. . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
FIGURE 13.
Santiago
de
Compostela,
cathedral,
south
transept,capital
with
Lust
(photo:
author).
explicit spiritualthreats,carved above the lintel of the resur-
rected:
"Everyone
whom no
impious
life has
betrayed
will
rise
thus,
and the
light
of
day
will shine for
him
without
end,"
for the
elect,
and for the
damned,
"May
this terror
terrify
whomever
earthly
error
binds,
for
the
horror of the
figures
here shows that it will come true."64
At
Santiago,
the
figuration
of
lust
is
doubled,
portrayed
by
both a man and a woman bitten
in
their
genitals.
The
woman,
for
good
measure,
has her
tongue dragged
out
and
bitten
by
demons.65Avarice
appearsamong
the
relatively
few
figural
and narrative
capitals
in
the
cathedral,66
n
an
equally
distinctive
depiction.
He is
not
only
tortured
by
fire,
he is
hanged
as a
criminal,
the form of
execution
reserved for
low-
born thieves. This
iconographic
formula was well known to
artists,
who used it to
portray
a standard miracle
in
which
saints revive those
unjustly
condemned,
a
topos
that
figures
among
St.
James's
miracles
in
the
Codex Calixtinus.
It
was
also used to
portray
retribution,
as in the mass
hanging
of
thieves who tried to break into
Bury
St. Edmunds.67The sec-
ond sense is
the
one
conveyed
in
the
capital.
A
similar
figure,
carved
at
Autun
shortly
later,
depicts
Judas
hanged
for
selling
Christ for
thirty pieces
of silver
(Fig.
17),
not
as
the suicide described
in
Matthew
(27:
3-5)
and
portrayed
at
V6zelay,68
but
as a
common thief executed
by
demons.
If,
by
this visual
alteration,
avarice was
projected
into Judas'spunishment,at Santiago, conversely, we might
see
in
avarice
an
allusion to Judas the traitor.
In
this unusual
form,
he
might
have been intended to threaten
Gelmirez's
en-
emies
who, indeed,
are
compared
o Judas Iscariot
n
key
pas-
sages
of
the Historia. The first
paragraph
f the
chronicle,
the
preface
to the
prologue,
extends and
specifies
the
standard
threats
of
damnationand excommunication
against
evildoers,
anyone
who would steal or
destroy
the
book,
with the same
punishment
as
"Judas,
who
handed over the Lord
(proditore
Domini)
...
may
he be damned forever
in
the inferno." The
insurgents
of 1116-1117 are described as "the
most
depraved
allies of Judas" or as Iscariots four times.69
O.
K. Werckmeister
proposed
that at
Autun,
as
Moralejo
later
argued
for
Santiago,
the north
portal
was the site
for
public penance,70
a
humiliating
ritual
n
which
penitents pros-
trated themselves in the same
posture
as
Eve,
portrayed
on
the lintel
above,
and were
ritually
expelled
from the church.
Subsequently they
could be
readmitted,
absolved
of
their sins
and
eligible
for the lucrative offices of the
dead,
liturgically
elaborated
by
the same
bishop
who had had the Last
Judg-
ment carved and inscribed on the west
portal
facing
the cem-
etery.
The
sculpture
at
Autun, however,
addressed the local
community.
It was
part
of a
panorama
of violence and
strug-
gle depicted
there,
at
Saint-Sernin,
and
elsewhere,
on the
basis of which Werckmeister characterized
Europe
in
the
first half of the twelfth
century
as an
antagonistic society,
a
landlord
regime
threatenedand in
turn
threatening,
n
images
whose
menace
was
magnified
in
inverse
proportion
to
the
seigniorial authority
exercised
by clergy
over
hostile and
resistant
subject populations.
Santiago was just such an urbansetting with just such
an
audience,
a local one to
whom,
from the
perspective
of
the
bishop
and his allies
among
the
canons,
the threat of
tempta-
tion,
sin and the
promise
of
retribution absent
redemption
might
also
apply,
and for
whom the torturedurbanvices
may
have made the transcendent
scriptural
narratives
decorating
the north
portal specific
to the immediate social
environment
of the cathedral and its
prelate. Normally
referred to as
the
French
Door,
according
to the
Pilgrim's
Guide,
the north
por-
tal
was,
as
well,
the
archiepiscopal portal,
adjacent
to
Gelmi-
rez's
new
palace,
a
setting
for the
bishop's
visualization
of
his
threatened
seigniory
in
the
guise
of an
aggressive spiritual
authoritypositioned literally
on the
body
and tomb of
the
apostle
James. In this
scenario,
his
burghers
and his canons
would be the alternativeto
pilgrims
as the default audience.
NOTES
1.
When
I
chose this
title,
I
was unaware of the
similarly
titled
review
article
by
K.
Herbers,
"Santiago
de
Compostela
zur Zeit von Bischof
und Erzbischof
Diego
Gelmirez
(1098/1099-1140),"
Zeitschrift
fiir
Kirchengeschichte,
XXXVI
(1987),
89-102.
2. For a recent
study
that addresses
various
audiences,
see
K. R.
Mathews,
"'They
Wished to
Destroy
the
Temple
of
God':
Responses
to
Diego
Gelmirez'sCathedralConstruction n Santiago de Compostela, 1100-
1140"
(Dissertation,
University
of
Chicago,
1995).
As a member of the
author'sdissertation
committee,
I have benefitted from our discussions
about
Santiago
over several
years.
See also A.
G.
Biggs, Diego
Gelmi-
rez,
First
Archbishop of Compostela (Washington,
1949);
M.
Stokstad,
Santiago
de
Compostela
in the
Age
of
the
Great
Pilgrimages
(Norman,
1978);
L.
Vones,
Die 'Historia
Compostellana'
und die
Kirchenpolitik
des
nordwest-spanischen
Raumes,
1070-1130
(Cologne,
1980);
and
my
own brief accounts: B.
Abou-El-Haj,
"The Audiences for the Me-
dieval Cult of
Saints,"Gesta,
XXX
(1991),
3-15; eadem,
TheMedieval
Cult
of
Saints.
Formations and
Transformations
Cambridge,England,
1994,
rpt. Cambridge,England,
1997),
19-22.
174
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....
mow..
:
ME
iiiii~
FIGURE
14.
Santiago
de
Compostela,
cathedral
museum,
male
figure
of
Lust
(photo:
author).
::
: ::
iii:iiii_-iiii:::: i:
-ii:i--_i:iiiiiiiii~P~i- -::I:::
&~.,.:?
- ----::- ii-idi:~i:iai-
:::::__:.I:::::: :::::::c::::;:i;
:::-:::_:::
-:i:::::::i::::::_iliCiii~~i:jilj;:-::l:i:i?l:j:Ji:;i~_'i:--~:"---(::: :-:i:'::: :
?----.
1:i:.::
iii;iiiii-i
~~.-iii?,iiiiiFiil-i
~-iiiidii'ii'iiiiii_-::ii_-:-;
.:.-.:..
~:~~ii,~iiiii~:~:iiliii-'-;iii:,,~~~iiii~~~"i~:i~~s:".:.:ii:ii--iii~ : : :
:~?~i:~::-::::::l:::;i:j:,_:?g
~~~~:-:?l?dli?iiiiiii-'__iii:`l-:-:-:~ii~ii'i'
I;~-,:?lli-:-iiiii
:"---:
:iilaiiii:--
:-:--::::::_
I, ~iiiiii~iiiiiiiii~i:i~M~':~:'~%$E~I~~'~:
: ::::::::j::
~i:'r:~sj~liiiiiiii-i~ii~i~ii~~ai-~~~_iiiii
:.::::.::::::: ::.: i
i_-i:iiji:ii
:::
iiii~:::-:ii.:..
:i:::::l:i:i:
..
FIGURE
16.
Santiago
de
Compostela,
cathedral,
north
transept,
capital
with Avarice
(photo: after
Durliat).
........
.........
........
......
FIGURE
5.
Santiago
de
Compostela,
athedral
museum,
emale igure of
Lust
photo:
author).
?iiiiiiiA
iii~iAM*
elki
w?ii~
FIGURE 17.
Autun, St.-Lazare,
nave
capital
with Suicide
of
Judas
(photo:
after
Grivot
and
Zarnecki,
Gislebertus).
175
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3. See the
preface
to
the
prologue
(discussed below).
The
Historia was
edited
by
E.
Falque Rey,
Historia
Compostellana
(Corpus
Christian-
orum,
LXX)
(Turnholt,1988);
she
also
published
a
Spanish
translation:
Historia
Compostelana
(Madrid,
1994).
All
references will be to the
Latin
edition
as
HC.
The chronicle is
dated
between 1107 and
1139,
al-
most the entire
span
of Gelmirez's
prelacy.
However,
the
description
of
the 1136
rebellion
at the end
of
the chronicle describes
the
archbishop
posthumously
("D.
uenerabilis
memoriae")
and must have been written
after
his
death
in 1140.
HC, III, 46,
ed.
Falque Rey,
xx-xxi,
504.
4. For Gelmirez's quarrelswith Toledo and Braga, see R. A. Fletcher,
Saint James's
Catapult:
The
Life
and Times
of Diego
Gelmirez
of
San-
tiago
de
Compostela
(Oxford,
1984),
206-11.
5. See Fletcher's
itemized list of
gold
and silver coins from various
French,
Italianand
taifa
mints,
and
precious liturgical
and
Muslim or-
naments,
"a
prodigious
expenditure
of effort and treasure
[by
which]
Diego
became an
archbishop."
Saint
James's
Catapult,
205-6.
6.
HC, I,
17,
ed.
Falque
Rey,
41-42,
for the
privilege
dated 31 October
1104
(II
Kal.
Nov.),
which
pertained
to
all
principal
feasts:
Nativity,
Epiphany,
Annunciation,
Last
Supper,
Palm
Sunday,
Easter,
Ascen-
sion,
Pentecost,
Birth of
Mary,
St.
Michael,
Birth of John the
Baptist,
the Feast
of St.
James,
as
well as
All
Saints,
the dedications of
churches,
the feasts of
SS. Lawrence and
Vincent,
and
of
SS.
Martin
and Isidore.
7. That
would have been
just
as Urraca
came to
power
and at
the mid-
point
between
Gelmirez's
appointments
as
bishop
and
archbishop.
See
B.
Reilly,
The
Kingdom of
Leon-Castilla
under
Queen
Urraca.
1109-
1126
(Princeton,
1982),
144. For sections
on the
queen's
"machina-
tions,"
HC,
I, 102,
107,
ed.
Falque
Rey,
172-74,
180-84.
8. "Immensam
pecuniam"
and
"incomputabilem
pecuniam,"
HC,
II, 91,
ed.
Falque
Rey,
411-12. Alfonso
VII
(died 1157)
ceased these
exac-
tions around
1137,
according
to
Fletcher,
Saint
James's
Catapult,
257-
59.
See also
J.
D'Emilio,
"The
Building
and
the
Pilgrim's
Guide,"
in
The Codex Calixtinus
and the
Shrine
of
St.
James,
ed. J. Williams
and
A. Stones
(Jakobus-Studien,
III)
(Tilbingen,
1992),
185-206,
citing
A.
L6pez
Ferreiro,
Historia
de la S.
A. M.
Iglesia
de
Santiago
de
Com-
postela
(Santiago,
1898-1911),
IV,
129-35;
209-15.
Urraca
was the
Infanta,
widow
of Count
Raymond
(d.
1107)
and the
daughter
of Al-
fonso VI. She
proclaimed
herself "Lordof all Galicia,"a title
granted
by
her
father.
If she
remarried, however,
Galicia
would
pass
to her
son,
Alfonso
Raimundez
VII
(ruled
1126-1157).
Among
the
magnates
who swore
allegiance
to her was
Bishop
Gelmirez,
whose
lordship
was
threatened
by
either
outcome;
see
Reilly, Kingdom
of
Leon-Castilla,
45-49.
9.
HC, I,
103,
ed.
Falque
Rey,
174-76. Protection
by
sea
was matched
by
decrees
to
protect
merchants
and
pilgrims.
Those who harmed
them
were
threatened
with a fine
twice the amount
of what
they
took,
a
pay-
ment of
sixty
solidos
to the owner
of the
goods,
and excommunication.
See
L6pez
Ferreiro,
Historia de
la
Iglesia,
III,
Appendix
XXX,
92,
dated
approximately
1112.
10.
See M.
Durliat,
La
sculpture
romane
de la route
de
Saint-Jacques
(Mont-de-Marsan,1990), Figs.
175,
176.
11. Alfonso had
already
waived tolls for
pilgrims
and merchants
traveling
overland in 1072.
Reilly
suggests
that the
king's
offering
formed
part
of
30,000
gold
dinars
received from Abd Allah
in return or
a
pact
of
peace in 1074, The Kingdom of Lean-Castilla under
King Alfonso VI
1065-1109
(Princeton,
1988),
84
n. 61, 213.
For
the charter hat places
the
king
in
Santiago
to celebrate a
great
council,
see
F
L6pez
Alsina,
La Ciudad
de
Santiago
de
Compostela
en la
Alta Edad
Media
(Santiago
de
Compostela,
1988),
410-12. For
Pope Gregory
VII
and St.
James,
see S.
Moralejo,
"On the Road:
The
Camino
de
Santiago,"
n The Art
of
Medieval
Spain:
A.D. 500-1200
(New
York, 1993),
174-83,
esp.
175,
who concludedthatAlfonso
encouraged Santiago's
apostolic
am-
bitions
in the
Council
of 1074-1075.
12.
Pelaez
was accused of
preparing
to cede Galicia to the Normans. For
Cluny
and Alfonso
VI,
see
O.
K.
Werckmeister,
"Cluny
III
and
the
Pilgrimage
to
Santiago
de
Compostela,"
Gesta,
XXVII
(1988),
103-
12,
esp.
110,
citing
C. J.
Bishko,
"Fernando
I
and
the
Origins
of the
Leonese-Castilian Alliance
with
Cluny,"
Studies
in
Medieval
Spanish
Frontier
History
(London,
1980),
1-136. Between 1076
and
1080
Clu-
niac monks
began
to
"penetrate
he
great abbeys." Among
them was
Bernard
d'Auch,
Abbot of
Sahagin,
who was
appointedprimate
of To-
ledo after its
conquest
in 1085. See
Reilly,
Kingdom of
Le6n-Castilla
under...
Alfonso
VI, 95, 114, 211-13,
also
citing
Bishko,
esp.
71-74.
See also Receuil
des chartes de
l'Abbaye
de
Cluny,
ed.
A.
Bruel,
6 vols.
(Paris,
1876-1903),
and
S.
Moralejo,
"On
the
Road:
The Camino
de
Santiago,"
esp.
176.
13. On
the
architectural
history
of
Santiago
de
Compostela,
see K. J. Co-
nant,
The
Early
Architectural
History of
the Cathedral
of Santiago
de
Compostela (Cambridge,
1926);
idem,
Arquitectura
romdnica
de la
Catedral
de
Santiago
de
Compostela,
trans. J. G. Beramendi
(Santiago
de
Compostela,
1983),
with S.
Moralejo,
"Notas
para
una
revisi6n
de
la obra
de K.J.
Conant,"
221-36.
14. See
Fletcher,
Saint
James's
Catapult,
172-73.
The account in the HC
is
very
lengthy;
see
I, 15, 4,
ed.
Falque
Rey,
31-36,
esp.
35: "Exeuntes
ergo
obuiam nudis
pedibus
clerici
subsequenti
populo
totius ciuitatis
usque
adlocum,
qui
Humiliatoriumdicitur,
religiose
processerunt.
Quo
cum
peruenisset episcopus
et se
et,
qui
secum
uenerant, discalciari
precepisset,
clerici
secundum
eius
dispositionem
sacris uestibus
ornati,
nudis
pedibus
existentes,
post
eos
uenientibus
turbis
gloriosa
sanc-
torum
corpora susceperunt
et
episcopo preeunte
et clero
in
ciuitatem
suam
cum
hymnis
et
canticis
et
pia
deuotione
detulerunt
et
in
ecclesia
sancti lacobi
Apostoli Compostellane
sedis
collocata fuerunt."
15. On relic
thefts,
see
P. J.
Geary,
Furta Sacra.
Thefts of
Relics
in
the
Central
Middle
Ages,
rev.
ed.
(Princeton,
1990).
16. The Codex Calixtinus
has
been dated
variously
to
1130,
1137 or
8,
1173.
For the
Pilgrim's
Guide see
A. Shaver-Crandell
and
P
Gerson,
The
Pilgrim's
Guide
to
Santiago
de
Compostela.
A
Gazetteer
(London,
1995);
P.
Gerson,
J. Krochalis and
A.
Shaver-Crandell,
The
Pilgrim's
Guide
to
Santiago
de
Compostela.
A Critical Edition
(London,
1997).
Forthe CodexCalixtinus,see Liber Sancti Jacobi "CodexCalixtinus",
trans.
A.
Moralejo,
C.
Torres,
and
J. Feo
(Santiago
de
Compostela,
1951);
Codex
Calixtinus,
ed. Williams
and
Stones;
M. C. Diaz
y
Diaz,
"El
Codex
Calixtinus:
Volviendo
sobre
el
tema,"
n
Codex
Calixtinus,
ed. Williams and
Stones, 1-9;
A.
Moisan,
Le
Livre de Saint
Jacques
ou
Codex
Calixtinus
de
Compostelle.
Etude
critique
et
litte'raire
Paris,
1992);
M. C.
Diaz
y
Diaz,
El
Cddice
Calixtino
de la Catedral
de San-
tiago,
Estudio
Codicoldgico
y
de
Contenido
(Centro
de Estudios Ja-
cobeos,
Monografias
de
Compostellanum,
I)
(Santiago
de
Compostela,
1988).
17.
Only
1109
lacks
one;
see K.
Herbers,
"The
Miracles
of St.
James,"
n
Codex
Calixtinus,
ed.
Williams and
Stones, 11-35,
esp.
24,
34.
18. See
Fletcher,
Saint
James's
Catapult,
166-70;
R. Pastor
de
Togneri,
"Diego
Gelmirez:
une
mentalit6
a
la
page.
A
propos
du
r61e
de cer-
taines l61itesde pouvoir," in Mdlanges R. Crozet, I (Poitiers, 1966),
597-608,
esp.
601;
eadem,
Conflictos
Sociales
y
Estancamiento
Econa-
mico en la
Espaiia
Medieval
(Barcelona,
1973),
103-31.
The
bishop
promised
his canons
relief and a new
cloister,
both of
which, however,
he under-fundedand
engagedreluctantly,
f at all. Five
years
before his
death,
he
renewed
his
promise
of a
cloister,
optimistically referred
o in
the Historia as "De
Claustro Consummando,"HC, III, 36, ed. Falque
Rey,
483-84;
it
was
not
completed
at his death
in
1140. Four
years
before his
death,
his canons
joined
in
a
rebellion for
the second
time.
19.
HC, I, 20, 4-6,
ed.
Falque
Rey,
48. Item
5 records the
text of the
oath:
"Ego
N... iuro
uobis domino
Didaco
presenti
episcopo per
Deum
176
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14/16
Patrem
omnipotentem, quod
ab hoc
presenti
die et
deinceps
uobis
obe-
diens et fidelis
semper
in omnibus ero et
uitam
uestram et membra
et
honorem
totum,
quem
habetis nunc uel habituri
estis,
defendam
exal-
tabo
absque
aliqua
fraudeet malo
ingenio
secundum
posse
et
ingenium
meum
omnibus diebus uite mee."
20. It was later enhanced
with a retable:
HC, III, 44,
ed.
Falque Rey,
502.
The ciborium was
replaced
in 1462 with a
new
baldachin. For a recon-
struction
of Gelmirez's shrine from
the
description
in
the
Pilgrim's
Guide,
see S.
Moralejo,
"'Ars Sacra'
et
sculpture
romane
monumentale:
Le Tresor et le chantier de Compostelle," CCuixdi,XI (1980), 189-
238,
and
L6pez
Ferreiro,
Historia
de la
Iglesia,
III,
236.
21. "Hanc tabulamDidacus
presul
jacobita
secundus
Tempore
quinquenni
fecit
episcopi.
Marcas
argenti
de thesauro
jacobensi
/ Hic
octoginta
quinque
minus numera.
Rex
erat
Anfonsus,
gener
ejus
dux
Raimun-
dus,
/ Presul
prefatus
quando
peregit opus."
See J.
Vielliard,
Le Guide
du Pelerin de
Saint-Jacques
de
Compostelle
(Paris, 1984),
110,
112.
For the
altar,
HC,
I, 18,
ed.
Falque
Rey,
43-44.
22. See
Mathews,
"They
Wished to
Destroy
the
Temple
of
God,"
72-87.
23. For
the
mint,
see
Reilly,
Kingdom of
Leon-Castilla
under ...
Urraca,
272-73.
The
HC,
for all the detail
in its
530
printed
pages,
is
none-
theless
a
highly
selective record
replete
with calculated
omissions,
for
example
of
information about
the sources of the
funds
Gelmirez
spent
so
lavishly.
A
better source is the
cartulary
known as Tumbo
A,
designed
by
Gelmifrez's
reasurer,
Bernard,
shortly
before
1129,
to
encourage
Alfonso VII to offer donations to
Santiago
as his
predecessors
had
done;
see
L6pez
Alsina,
La Ciudad de
Santiago
de
C
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