SEGOVIA
685
SEGOVIA
Palencia. It is certain that, in 589, Petrus signed as
Bishop of Segovia in the Third Council of Toledo;
in King Gundemar's synod, Minicianus signed (610);
in the Fourth to the Eighth Councils of Toledo, Auser-
icus; in the Eleventh (675), Sinduitus; in the Twelfth
to the Fifteenth, Deodatus; in the Sixteenth (693),
Decentius.
In their conquest of Spain, the Mussulmans took Segovia soon after conquering Toledo, about 714. With this calamity is associated the legend of St. Frutos, the patron of the city, who Uved as a sohtary in the northern mountains of the province, with his brother and sister, Valentine and Engracia, and re- ceived the Segovian fugitives. There is a fissure in the rocks which is called "la Hendidura de San Fru- tos" (the Ga.sh of St. Frutos), and the legend runs that, as the Saracens were about to pass that spot, the saint went out to meet them and, with his staff, drew a hne beyond which they must not come, upon which the mountain opened, making this chasm. The site of this mona.stic colony of fugitives was granted, after the reconquest, to the monks of Silos (1076), and the priory of San Frutos was founded. To the period of the Reconquest also belongs the tradition of Nuestra Senora de la Fuenciscla, an image of the Ble.s.sed Virgin which takes its name from the peak rising above Las Fuentes (Fuenciscla being derived from Jons stillans, "dripping well"). A cleric hid this image in one of the vaults of the cathedral, supposed to have been what is now the parish church of San Gil, in which the tombs, accord- ing to Mondejar, are those of the ancient bishops. After the Reconquest the image was placed over the door of the old cathedral. .\n Arabic inscription of 960, cut on a capital, proves that Segovia was at that time subject to Abderramdn III; the Mozarabs, however, preserved their religious worship there and for some time had bishops, of whom Ilderedo governed the diocese in 940, as appears in a deed of gift made by him to the Bishop of Leon, which Fray Atanasio fie Lobera, in his "History of L<5on", testifies to having seen. After that Segovia was, as the Tolotan Annals tell us, "deserted for many years". It is beyond question, however, that Christians inhabited it in 1072, when it was laid waste by Alamun, King of Toledo, who, according to the .\rab historians quoted by Luis de Mdrmol, made bold to levy war against Sancho II. The final restoration of Segovia took place in 1088; Count Raymond of Burgundy, son-in- law of Alfonso VI, repeopled it with mountaineers of Northern Spain, from Galicia to Rioja.
Alfonso VII re-established the episcopal see, the first bishop, Pedro, being con.secrated on 25 January, 1120, according to the Toletan Annals, although Pedro had already signed the Council of Oviedo as Bishop of Segovia in 1115. The council placed under his authority the quarter of the city lying between the Gate of St. Andrew and the castle; in 1122 Alfonso I of Aragon made other grants to him, and in 1123 Queen Urraca gave him the towns and domains of Turegano and Caballar. Callistus II confirmed all this in the Bull of 9 April, 1123, in which the events leading up to the restoration are explained. Alfonso VII was in Segovia on many occasions, on one of which he restored peace between its bishop and the Bishop of Palencia, who had been quarrel- ing about the jurisdiction over certain towns. Pedro was succeeded, on his death in 1148, by Juan, who was soon after promoted to the See of Toledo, and Vicente, who died about the same time as Alfonso, the Emperor. Sancho III, shortly before his death, granted Navarres to Bishop Guillermo (13 July, 1158). In 1161 the Laras took Segovia from Alfonso VIII, then a child of five years, who yielded also the fourth part of the revenues of the cathedral. Bishop Gutierre Gir6n perished, with the Segovians whom he was leading, in the disastrous battle of Alarcos.
In 1192 the fifth Bishop of Segovia from the restora-
tion had been succeeded by Gonzalo; he was followed
by Gonzalo Miguel, who lived until 1211.
On the re-establishment of the see, attention was naturally turned to the rebuilding of the cathedral. Certain documents of 1136 speak of the Church of S. Maria as in course of being founded, and in 1144 it is mentioned as having been founded, from which Diego de Colmenares, the historian of Segovia, infers that it must have been finished at that time. It certainly was not consecrated, however, until 16 July, 1228, by the papal legate, John, Bishop of
Chttrch of S. Est^ban, Segovia, 1210
Sabina. Situated on an esplanade to the east of the castle, it retains only a suggestion of its Byzantine structure, as it was entirely destroyed in the War of the Commons, when the Comuneros used it as a base of attack on the neighbouring castle. The relics and treasures of the basilica were saved in the church of S. Clara, in the Plaza Mayor, to which they were transferred in solemn procession on 25 October, 1522. About 1470 Bishop Juan Arias Ddvila undertook the construction of a fine cloister, which, in 1524, Juan Campero caused to be removed, stone by stone, to the site of the new cathedral. The structure of the cloister being closely connected with the episcopal dwelling, the same bishop. Arias Ddvila, transferred the latter to the west of the church and there the bishops continued to reside even after the cathedral was transferred, until, about the year 1750, they moved into the episcopal palace in the Plaza de San Esteban, during the episcopate of Bishop Murillo y Argdiz. The older dwelUng was not totally de- molished until 1816.
The old cathedral having been irreparably de- stroyed. Bishop Fadrique de Portugal selected, as a foundation for the new, the Church of S. Clara, which the nuns had left when they were incorporated with the community of S. Antonio el Real. On 24 May, 1525, Diego de Rivera, Bishop of Segovia, inaugurated the laying of the foundations, and on 8 June solemnly
