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tinued b^ Michad Psellus. Leo's book was not very Alfonso V rebuilt and repeopled the city, giving it its

popular in the following centuries. Other writers famous /uero, or charter, a collection of laws promul-

who drew their information from him, were preferred, gated in the Ck)uncil of Leon. This council which

e. g. Nicephorus Bryennius. A result of this is that opened 1 Au^st, 1020, had a politico-ecclesiastical

only one manuscript of his history is extant (cod. cnaracter similar to that of the Toledan councils of

Paris, 1712). the Visigothic period. Among other privileges, this

Fint complete edition in the Paris Corpu% edited with a com- fuero secured to the inhabitants of Leon mviolability of

?K^.S5 ^. ir^ThSI^^E^^l^ domicile and it estabUshed the rights of benefadaria

poblished Book VI with a Latin veraion and an analysis of the (whence the local term, be-hetria), by which a vassal

whole work in the Notices d, exiraiU de la bibliolhiqw naiionale, miirht bind himself to anv lord who WOUld protect

VIII (Paris. 1810), 2, 254-296; Fischer. BeUrUge zur histori- i^- * ^ *^

Air Oeaiemiehiache Oeachichiaforachung, VII (1886), 353-377; In the spnng of 1029 the City of Leon was the SCene

BcHLUMBSBOKB. NiUphore PHocoa (Paris, 1890) of a bloody event which was of transcendent impor-

Adrian Fortescub. tance in Spanish history. Don Garcia, C!ount of Gas- Leon. See QuiMPER, Diocese of. * *?e, who was about to be manied to Dona Sancha.

sister of Bermudo III, King of Leon, was assassinated

Leon, Diocese and Givil Province of. — History, as he was entering the church of S. Juan Bautista. b^

— ^Probably before the time of Trajan, the Romans the Velas, a partv of Gastilian nobles, exiles from tneir

founded in the Asturias, in the neighborhood of the own country, who had taken refuge in Leon. Leon

ancient Lancia, a military colony to which they gave and Navarre disputed the succesaon to the 0)unt8hip

the name of Legio Septima Gemina. From Legio (ace. of Gastile thus left vacant. Ferdinand, son of Sancho

legionem) was formed, in accordance with the nature of the Elder (or the Great), of Navarre, married Sancha,

the Romance-Gastilian language, the name LedUy and sister of Bermudo III, of Leon, and received the title

the identity oi this name with that of the king of of King of Gastile, and when, the war being renewed,

beasts (ledn, from leo, ace. leonem) perhaps explains Bermudo was slain at the battle of Tamar6n, the

how, by what in German is called a Volksetimologiey united crowns of Leon and Gastile became the posses-

the Uon came to be considered the heraldic cognizance sion of Ferdinand I. From that time the hegemony

of the city and province of this name, and even of the which Leon had enjoyed began to pass to Gastue. The

whole Spanish people. Very soon the ori^nal mili- causes of this change, which left so deep an impression

tary colony admitted civilian colonists, as the ancient upon the history of Spain, may be summed up as fol-

epitaphs prove. Within a few years after its founds- lows: (I) Ferdinand, first King of Gastile, had van-

tion the Z^a/u8 ilu9u«to/i« who governed the Asturias ouishea Bermudo; (2) Ferdinand I at his death,

was residing in this settlement. aivided his kingdoms between his sons; Sancho, King

Ghristianity must have been introduced very early, of Castile, then wrested the Kingdom of Leon from

for it had its bishops at least as early as the thira Alfonso, but, Sancho bein^ himself assassinated before

ooitury, and the names of Basiiides and Decentius are the walls of Zamora by Vellido Dolfos, Alfonso in his

known before the time of the Germanic invasions, turn obtained possession of both the kingdoms. (3)

These invaders do not seem to have established them- The Kingdoms of Gastile and Leon being once more

selves in Leon — a stronghold of the imperial power — separated upon the death of Alfonso VII (the Emperor

until Euri<r(466-84), or at least Leovigild (572-86), — see below) Alfonso VIII of Gastile notably advanced

drove out the imperial garrison. In the Roman per- the reconquest of Spain by saining the victory of Las

secutions Leon had numerous martyrs, among whom Navas de Tolosa (1212)^ while Alfonso IX of Leon

were Sts. Facundus, Primitivus, the husband and wife pursued a dastardly policy of fomenting civil strife.

Ifarcellus and Nonia, with their sons Glaudius, Vic- (4) Ferdinand III, the Saint — ^who inherited Gastile

toricus, and Lupercus, Vincent, and Ramirus. The through his mother, Dona Berenguela, and then, on

name of St. Facundus took, in the ancient dialect, the the death of his father, Alfonso DC, became King of

form Sorhagiln, which survives as a geographical Leon — transferred the centre of his activities to Cas-

name. A monastery was built, in the fourth century, tile. (5) Above all, Gastile led the van of the recon-

on the spot where (jlaudius and his brothers sufiferea quest beyond the Garpetan Moimtains (Sierras de

martyrdom. Leon fell into the power of the Mussul- Gata, de Gredos, de Guadarrama), while Leon^ by its

man mvaders, but they did not long retain it; it was separation from Portugal, found its expansion ar-

reconquered by Alfonso I, the Gatholic. Destroyed a rested at the boundaries of Estremadura.

second time by the Mussulmans in the time of Abder- The principal events which took place in Leon at

rahman II (846), it was again rebuilt by Ordofio I this period were the following: The translation of the

^850-866), who erected there a royal residence which relics of St. Isidore to the ancient church of S. Juan

Ordofio II afterwards transformed into a cathedral. Bautista, which was rebuilt and dedicated to the

Among the bishops of Leon at this period figure Sevillian Doctor, 21 December, 1063. Alvito, Bishop

Siuntila, Frunimius, Maurus, and Vincent, and the of Leon, went to Seville with an embassy to Ebn Abed,

jffeat St. Froilan (900-05), who was followed by Gix- to bring the body of St. Justa. but, not finding it,

Da and Frunimius II. brought that of St. Isidore. The Monk of Silos has

However^ as the Gourt remained at Oviedo during preserved the history of this religious expedition. On

all this period, Leon did not attain any great impor- 26 May, 1135, Alfonso VII was proclaimed, in the

tance. When Alfonso III (the Great) was dethroned basilica of Sta. Maria, Emperor of Spain (Ildephansus

by his sons (910), the eldest of them, Garcfa, took for plus totiu8 HispanuB impiraior). In 1176

himself the city of Leon, which then began to be the the Military Order of Santiago was installed in the

capital of a kingdom. Garcfa died early (914), and hospital of S.Marcos. In the minority of Ferdinand

Galicia, which had been Ordofio's share, was united to IV, the infante Don Juan was proclauned King of

Leon. Ordofio II, who vanquished the Moors at Leon; and in the minority of Alfonso XI, the parti-

S. Esteban de Gormaz, and was routed by them at sans of the infante brought his son Alfonso into the

Valdejunquera, reduced the Gounts of Gastile to city of Leon and fortified themselves in the cathedral,

submission and founded the cathedral of Leon wmch was almost destroyed by the attacking party

(914-24). Leon now attained the chief place among who tried to dislodge them. The Leonese opposed

the Ghristian States of Western Spain, but in the mid- Henry of Trastamare, who had killed his brother

die of the same century (the tenth) Gastile began her Pedro the Gruel (1368). After his triumph, never-

efforts to achieve her liberation from Leonese vassal- theless, Henry showed himself favourable to Leon,

age. Meanwhile Leon succumbed for a brief period confirming its privileges, and John I reformed the

to the irresistible power of Almanzor (983). But municipal government which had been established by