Table Of ContentSaint James’s Catapult
SAIN £ JAMES’ S
ù
CATAPULT
The Life and Times
of Diego Gelmirez
of
Santiago de Compostela
R. A. FLETCHER
CLARENDON PRESS • OXFORD
1984
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<S> R. A. Fletcher 1984
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Fletcher, R. A*
Saint James's catapult: the life and times of
Diego Gelmirez of Santiago de Compostela.
1. Gelmirez, Diego 2. Christian
biography— Spain
I. Title
270.4'092'4 BR275.G/
ISBN 0-19-822581-4
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Fletcher, R. A. (Richard A.)
Saint James's catapult.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Gelmirez, Diego, d. 1140. 2. Catholic Church—
Spain— Santiago de Compostela— Bishops— Biography.
3. Santiago de Compostela (Spain)— Biography.
4. Galicia (Spain : Region)— History. 5. James, the
Greater, Saint— Cult. 6. Christian pilgrims and
pilgrimages— Spain— Santiago de Compostela. I. Title.
BX4705.G417F56 1984 282'.092'4 [B] 83-24019
ISBN 0-19-822581-4
Typeset by Joshua Associates, Oxford
Printed in Great Britain
at the University Press, Oxford
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To the memory of
Denis Bethell
1934-1981
'Any idea how many times round the deck make a
mile?'
‘None, I’m afraid,' said Tony. 'But I should think you
must have walked a great distance.’
Twenty-two times. One soon gets out of sorts at sea
if you’re used to an active life. She’s not much of a
boat. Travel with this line often?’
•Never before.’
‘Ah. Thought you might have been in business in the
islands. Not many tourists going out this time of year.
Just the other way about. All coming home, if you
see what I mean. Going far?’
‘Demerara.’
‘Ah. Looking for minerals perhaps?’
*No, to tell you the truth I am looking for a city.’
The genial passenger was surprised and then laughed.
‘Sounded just like you said you were looking for a
city.’
‘Yes.’
That was what you said?’
‘Yes.’
‘I thought it sounded like that . . . well, so long.
I must do another few rounds before dinner.’
Evelyn Waugh, A Handful of Dust
Preface
This book is related to my earlier study of The Episcopate
in the kingdom of León in the twelfth century published in
1978: it has grown out of the same concerns; it has at once
a narrower focus and a longer reach; it is intended for a
different readership. I have written it at home, in odd
moments of leisure, over a period of four years and more.
This desultory mode of composition will have made a book
always intended to have something of a discursive character
even more rambling than it might otherwise have been. For
this and other shortcomings arising from the circumstances
of composition the reader’s indulgence is asked.
That the book was completed at all is owing more than
I can express to my wife Rachel. She has fed me, left me
alone, shielded me from interruption, and in the most selfless
way simply put up with me during the hard slog, the bouts
of depression, the moments of elation, which attend on
authorship. I thank her from the bottom of my heart.
To compose a work of this kind in an isolated farmhouse
in the depths of the North Riding of Yorkshire, far from
a good academic library, is to ask for trouble. It is also
to contract many debts. The final stages of my preliminary
research were made possible by a generous grant by the
British Academy from the Small Grants Research Fund in
the Humanities: I am most grateful for this assistance. In
the course of writing the book I have incurred many debts
to scholars who have kindly sent me copies of their books
or articles. These I have acknowledged at the appropriate
place in my footnotes. There remain many friends who have
with great generosity helped me by answering questions,
checking references, procuring photocopies, buying books
for me, and (not least) by giving me hospitality on my
journeys southward. I wish in particular to thank the follow
ing: in Spain, Don Antonio García y Garcia, Professor of
Canon Law at the Universidad Pontificia of Salamanca; in
Cambridge, Peter Linehan; in London, George and Avril
viii Preface
Hardie, Philip Mansel and Michael Weinstein; in Oxford,
James Campbell, Jeremy Catto, Eric Christiansen, Joe and
Rosalind Pennybacker, and Christopher Tyerman.
The dedication of this book is the expression of a debt
which is less easy to particularize. I met Denis Beth ell in
Oxford in the early months of 1966, at a time when I was
reading the Historia Compostellana for the first time. He
was unusual, then, quite possibly unique, among English
medievalists, in knowing well that puzzling and tantalizing
text. (I believe that he had been drawn to it initially by the
information it provides about the circumstances of the
disputed papal election of 1130.) It was a period when
I needed encouragement: this he gave me unstintingly.
Our meeting ripened into a friendship which was sunned
by far more than a shared concern with the ecclesiastical
history of the twelfth century. The rhythms of our lives
sundered us; he to Dublin, I back to Yorkshire: an inter
mittent though lively correspondence and some occasional
meetings linked us. (His letters, infrequent, entertaining,
a shade poignant, were shot through with agreeable mis
understandings. For some reason he was convinced— despite
my denials— that I was a breeder of springer spaniels, and
would enquire solicitously about the state of my kennels.)
It so fell out that I saw much of him during the last year
of his life. And it was while he was staying with me, only
a few weeks before his death, that I showed him some
chapters of this book in draft. The comments that he made
on that occasion, kindly, acute and learned (as his criticisms
always were) I have borne in mind in revising the work for
publication. In dedicating it to his memory I remember
a fine scholar, a selfless friend and a good man.
Nunnington,
York
December 1982
Contents
List of Abbreviations xi
I Galicia 1
II The eleventh century: currents of change 29
III The early history of the cult of Saint James 53
IV Pilgrimage and pilgrims, to Compostela and elsewhere 78
V The making of a bishop 102
VI ‘A second Jezebel': Diego and queen Urraca 129
VII The cathedral community 163
VIII ‘The Gospel according to the Mark of silver’: 192
Diego and the Papacy
IX The bishop in his diocese 223
X ‘The undefeated emperor’: Diego and Alfonso VII 253
XI Epilogue: Santiago Matamoros 293
Appendices
A The sources for the life and times of Diego Gelmirez 301
B Royal charters referred to in the text 309
C Alfonso Ill’s letter to the clergy of Tours 317
D Notes on the intellectual life of the cathedral 324
community of Santiago de Compostela under
Diego Gelmirez
E Cardinal Guido’s first visit to Spain and the council 327
of Le5n,1134
Maps *
I Western Spain and Portugal in the lifetime of 328
Diego Gelmirez
II The diocese of Santiago de Compostela in the lifetime 329
of Diego Gelmirez
Index 331
