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 COMPOSTELA

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COMPOSTELA

hill was crowned by a Celtic castle, known as Liberum Donum, according to the twelfth-century "Historia Compostelana" (cf. Welsh Uu-ybr, "way", and don, "tower", "castle". Compostela overlooks two Ro- man roads; the C'elto- Roman name was probably Liberodunum). It has been an archiepiscopal see since 1120, but as the successor to the ancient See of Iria its episcopal rank dates certainly from the fourth, probably from the first, century of our era.

Etyjiology. — The name Compostela does not ap- pear before the tenth century. In a document of 912 it is said of the monastery of St. Martin, near the cathe- dral: quod situ m est in urbe Compostetld. King Ferdi- nand I in a privilege of 10 March, 1063, apropos of St. James the Great, says: cujus corpus requiescit Gallecia in urbe Composlelid. Three years previous a council held in the cathedral is called Compostellanum. From this the name is in frequent use and gradually usurps the names familiar to previous centuries; locus sanctus, arcis marmoreis, ecclesia, or cii'itas sancti Jacobi. The name seems to be a diminutive of composta, "estab- lished", in reference to the stronghold (civitatella) of the city. Similar diminutives abound in the Middle Ages. The cite of Paris, the city of London, the Tole- tula of Toledo, the Almudena, diminutive of Almedi- na, in Madrid and in Palma (Majorca), recall the former distinction between the territory without the walls and the city {civitas) properly so called. The episcopal city of the Island of Minorca (in Romano- Punic, lamo) yet retains its medieval name Ciutadilla. The See of Compo.stela. — Its history may be divided into two periods, before and after its elevation (1120) to the metropolitan dignity. — The Bishopric. — The Sar swollen by the Sarela flows onward from Com- postela some fifteen or sixteen miles until it joins the Ulla, and empties into the sea at Padron (Patronus), a hamlet which has borne that name since the ninth century in memory of the fact that it was the landing- place of the galley which bore to Gallicia the body of the Apostle St. James the Great. Here stood in those days the city of Iria, capital of the Gallician Caporos, as may be seen from its Roman ruins, especially the inscriptions, some of which are contemporary with the beginning of the Christian Era. Pomponius Mela, who lived in the reign of Emperor Claudius, i. e. at the time of St. James's martyrdom, says that the Sar en- ters the ocean near the Tower of Augustus (Turris Augusti); the foundations of the latter are still recog- nizable in the outer harbour of Iria. In the reign of Vespasian the cognomen Flavia was added; as Iria Flavia it appears in the Geography of Ptolemy. Ac- cording to a very probable tradition, it was here that the Apostle St. James the Great preached the Christian religion and founded an episcopal see. This tradition was already widespread in the year 700, when St. Ald- helra, Abbot of Malmesburv, later Bishop of Sher- borne, wrote as follows (P. L., LXXXIX, 293):—

Hie quoque Jacobus, cretus genitore vetusto Delubrum sancto defendit tegmine celsum; Qui, chimante pio ponti de margine Christo, Lin(|uel)at proprium panda cum puppe parentem. Primitus Hispanas convertit dogmate gentes, Barbara divinis convertens agmina dictis, Qua; priscos dudum ritus et lurida fana, D;pmonis horrendi deceptse fraude, colebant; Phirima hie prcesul patravit signa stupendus Qua; nunc in chartis scribuntur rite quadratis.

(Here also James, born of an ancient sire, protects the lofty shrine with a holy roof — he who, when dear ("hrist called him from the seashore, left his own father with the curved ship. He, at the first did convert the Spani.sh peoples by his teaching, (mining towards God's word the barbarous hordes tluit had long practised primitive rites and worshij)ped at the shrines of darkness, being deceived by the craft of the evil one. Here did the wonderful bishop per-

form many portents, which are now set down in order upon our fourfold chart.)

The list of the bishops of Iria known to us from their presence at councils and from other authentic sources begins with the year 400. They are : Ortigius,. . ., Andreas (572), Dominicus, Samuel,. . ., Gotuma- rus (646), Vmcibilis, Ildulfus FelLx (683), Selva, Leo- sindus,. . ., Theudemirus (808?), Adaulfus I (843),andAdaulfusII (851-79). Under the last-named the city was destroyed by Norman pirates, on which occasion both bishop and chapter took refuge behind the strong walls of Compostela. Soon they peti- tioned King Ordono II and Pope Nicholas I to permit them to transfer the see from Iria to Compostela, near the sepulchre and church of St. James. Both pope and king consented, on condition, however, that the honour of the see should be divided between the two places. From the second half of the ninth cen- turj- therefore, the bishops of this see are known indis- criminately as Irienses or Sancti Jacobi, even as eccle- siw apostolicce sancti Jacobi, finally as Compostellani. At the end of the eleventh century, through rever- ence for the body and the sepulchre of St. James, Ur- ban II withdrew from Iria its episcopal rank and trans- ferred the see in its entirety to Compostela. At the same time he exempted it from the authority of the metropolitan and made it immediately subject to the Holy See. This is evident from the Bull of 5 Dec, 1095, in favour of the Cluniac bishop, Dalmatius, present at the famous Council of Clermont.

The Metropolitan See. — Thenceforth the see grew in importance, likewise its magnificent Romanesque church, modelled on that of Puy in France, and fre- quented by pilgrims from all parts of Christendom. Like the cathedral of Toledo after the reconquest (1085), it became the principal centre of the political renaissance of Catholic Spain and its self-assertion against the Moslem power. Pope Callistus II recog- nized the great merits of Diego Gelmirez, Bishop of Compostela, and in view of the reconquest of much Portuguese territory, and the near recovery of its free- dom by Merida, the ancient metropolis of Lusitania (Portugal), confided to him the perpetual administra- tion of that archdiocese, whereby Compostela became a metropolitan see. Since then it has been occupied by many illustrious men, not a few of whom were raised to the cardinalitial dignity (Gam.s, "Series epis- coporum ecclesiiE Catholicip", Ratisbon, 1873; Eubel, " Hierarchia catholica medii sevi", Munster, 1898). The Bull of Callistus II (26 Feb., 1120) clothed the metropolitan of Compostela with authority over the following dioceses of the ancient Provincia Lusitano: Salamanca, Avila, Coria, Ciudad Rodrigo, Plasencia, Badajoz — (in Spain); Idanha(Guarda), Lamego, Lis- bon, Evora, Osonova (Silves) — in Portugal beyond the Duero. Though Compostela lost the Portuguese dioceses, 10 Nov., 1399, when Lisbon was made an archbishopric, it acquired in retiun Astorga, Lugo, Mondonedo, Orense, Tuy, and Zamora. The Concordat of 1851 left it with only five: Lugo, Mondonedo, Orense, Oviedo, and Tuy. The list of the coimcils of Com- postela may be seen in the aforementioned work of Gams, and their text in Mansi or Aguirrc. One of the most important is the pro\-incial council which as- serted the innocence of the Templars within its jiu-is- diction; another, held 29 Oct., 1310. anticipated in its fourth canon the action of the Council of London (29 Oct., 1329) under Simon of Mepham, Archbishop of Canterbury in decreeing the yearly celebration of the feast of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin through- out the proWnce of Compostela on the eighth of December. Among those who have ocoujiied the See of Compostela may be mentioned: St. Kosendus (970- 77); St. Peter dc'Mosoncio (9.S(-100I)), probalilv the author of the Salve Regina; Diego Pehiez (1070-88), who began the reconstruction of the cathedral; Diego Gelmfrez (1100-42?), the first Archbishop of Com-