[38] Above the Valencian bishop stood his metropolitan, the archbishop of Tarragona. This subordination bypassed the claims of the Toledo primate to be metropolitan over the new conquest. James had cannily reserved Valencia to his own Aragonese metropolitanate as early as 1228, when the Moslems still ruled the whole kingdom of Valencia from end to end. The king had formalized this connection early in the crusade, in a document drawn up at Lérida in 1236.⁽¹⁾ King James had no authority at all for assigning the diocese to a given metropolitan. He had ample reasons of state, but the reasons he gave in the document were more discreetly drawn from motives of gratitude and charity.

The Metropolitan Founds His Diocese

The bishop of Valencia soon promised obedience to the metropolitan.⁽²⁾ Under the presidency of the metropolitan the suffragan bishops of the province, including the new bishop of Valencia, would meet regularly in the springtime at an annual council to discuss common problems (nineteen times in the thirteenth century).⁽³⁾ The metropolitan also enjoyed some authority over a suffragan's people but only in areas clearly defined by law.⁽⁴⁾

How extensive this authority could be, however, can be seen by the results of the metropolitan visitation of Valencia early in 1242. A surprising range of diocesan policies seems to have come under scrutiny on that occasion, and important corrections were introduced.⁽⁵⁾ Most of the decisions have as common denominators jurisdiction, revenues, and liturgy. But they also touch upon the parishes, the powers of the archdeacon, the schools, divine services, and diocesan and parochial boundaries.

The preparation and inception of the crusade against Valencia owed much to the metropolitan Spargo Barca (1215-1233), a relative of the king.⁽⁶⁾ Subsequently, during the earlier stage of the crusade, the metropolitan was William of Montgrí (1234-1238) a good man "of no great lineage," conqueror of Ibiza and Formentera. He is always referred to as "elect," apparently because he was never confirmed by Rome and perhaps not even consecrated. It was to William that King James in 1235 made his promise to unite Valencia, when conquered, to Tarragona. In 1238 William renounced his prelacy, though he retained other dignities and lived on until 1273.⁽⁷⁾

[39] His successor was the capable Peter of Albalat (1238-1251). As bishop of Lérida (from 1236), he had created a diocesan inquisition and had played a prominent role in the ecclesiastical affairs of the newly conquered Balearics. As metropolitan he contributed five thousand silver marks, a goodly contingent of knights, and his personal services to the crusade against Valencia. He began the organization of the Valencia diocese and did more than any man to keep the Castilian church from securing metropolitan jurisdiction over it. Peter multiplied provincial councils; the first of his ten councils was occasioned by the Castilian claims to the Valencia diocese. He also took an active part in the ecumenical council at Lyons in 1243. His brother Andrew was bishop of Valencia during the critical decades from 1248 to 1276.⁽⁸⁾

Next came Benedict of Rocaberti (1252-1268), a Catalan noble of rowdy temperament.⁽⁹⁾ A considerable portion of his energies Benedict devoted to quarreling with his chapter and with King James. He led an armed assault against the chapter in a spectacularly scandalous episode (1256), and frightened away the papal legate sent to investigate; all parties were summoned to Rome where a settlement was imposed (1260). The tumultuous archbishop in crusading mood also dispatched a fleet against King James's ally, the Moslem king of Tunis, who promptly sued for damages. This latter affair was settled by papal arbitration in 1259, the three commissioners including the bishop of Valencia. After a long delay, Benedict was succeeded by a Mercedarian, previously bishop of Tortosa, Bernard of Olivella (1272-1287).⁽¹⁰⁾

As far back as 1228, King James had prudently granted any future diocesan rights in the Valencian region, under the titles of Denia and Orihuela, to the bishop of Barcelona. On that occasion he had pointedly warned away any other "archbishop or primate" from establishing a diocese there. It was hardly a needless gesture. Toledo had been keeping a wary eye upon Denia and seems to have appointed some titular bishops both to that see and to Valencia.⁽¹¹⁾ Besides, Toledo had been the active agent behind Jerome of Périgord who had been briefly bishop of Valencia under the Cid and who had died less than a century ago (1125).

The king's choice of Denia and Orihuela, both situated considerably to the south of the city of Valencia, might at first seem singular. Underlying it was an ancient concession (1058), by which the Moslem ruler of Denia entrusted the supervision of Christian affairs in his kingdom to the bishop of Barcelona. It was now possible to argue, as the Aragonese were to do in court in 1239, that the more southerly jurisdiction included the intervening space.⁽¹²⁾ Moreover, in Visigothic Spain there had been dioceses of Valencia, Játiva, and Denia, where James meant to plant only the diocese of Valencia; a title to one could be evolved therefore into a title to more.

As for the jurisdiction going to the bishop of Barcelona, the Aragonese crown could say that "at the time, he acted as representative of the ruined [40] and abandoned [metropolitan] church of Tarragona."⁽¹³⁾ The Denia king's concession had involved the Balearics; King James's recent conquest of those islands further strengthened his claims to Valencia. The Moslem privilege was at least useful as indicating prescriptive rights during Mozarabic times; as a legal title it needed the support of King James's independent grant, based on his ius patronatus.⁽¹⁴⁾

During the crusade the dispute between the metropolitans of Toledo and of Tarragona -- respectively Roderick Simon of Rada and Peter of Albalat -- smoldered warmly. It burst out now and again into legalistic acts of jurisdiction by each side, aimed at establishing legal precedents. When the city of Valencia fell, bitter scenes ensued between the two powers.

Even before the king and queen made their formal entry into Valencia, the bishop of Albarracín had slipped into the city with his clerics as representing the archbishop of Toledo. He chanted vespers "loudly" in the main mosque, and hastily purified and consecrated it. "Who told him to do that?" exclaimed the archbishop of Tarragona. "Curse him! What right had he coming here?" Albarracín had also appropriated St. Michael's, inside the walls, where he offered the first Mass in the conquered city and pursued a busy course of baptism, marriage, burial, installation of rector, and the like before ever the bemused metropolitan could forestall him. In an access of silliness, the metropolitan laid St. Michael's under interdict. After the bishop of Albarracín had taken leave of Valencia later, his work for the claims of Toledo accomplished, the archdeacon of the city caused his altar to be pulled down, and his resident cleric Justus hauled forcibly out into the street. These demonstrations had gone on since the beginning of the crusade. They reached their climax at the cathedral shortly after the conquest, when a Toledo cleric "snatched a missal from the altar" and was treated rather roughly.⁽¹⁵⁾

The metropolitan had retaliated grimly in kind. He locked the door of the main mosque so that at least the first Mass might be his own. Then he made up for lost time, occupying himself "in the church and out of it, in affairs temporal and spiritual, among the clergy and laity." He already had his clerics collecting offerings for the making of altars and other furnishings, and he had overseen the placing of the altar. "It doesn't look good here," John the Painter was later to recall the metropolitan fussing, "put it in that other place."⁽¹⁶⁾

The Tarragona prelate had busied himself in the choice of a bishop-elect even "before the city surrendered." There being no chapter as yet, he had held a meeting of the suffragan bishops to whom he joined the Franciscans and Dominicans.⁽¹⁷⁾ His choice was also of course the king's.⁽¹⁸⁾ Berengar had been "the most honored among your [the king's] eminent personages."⁽¹⁹⁾ It is to the credit of King James, however, that he did not install in the see of Valencia some relative. His contemporary King Saint [41]Ferdinand, with less wisdom, fondly put his son into the episcopate of the conquered city of Seville, at first as procurator since he was too young to be ordained; King Ferdinand even seems to have delayed endowing his diocese as pressure to insure the success of his plan.⁽²⁰⁾

Within Valencia the metropolitan, rather than the bishop-elect, took the lead. With his suffragans he "ceremonially purified" and consecrated the main mosque on Saturday, the day of formal entry; he chanted Mass the following morning.⁽²¹⁾ His consecration of the cathedral did not consist in the farcical scene described by later chroniclers of Valencia, where the king and his armies set about smashing the Arabic carvings, finishing with a benediction.⁽²²⁾ The contemporary manner of consecration is described at some length by the Dominican James of Varazze, archbishop of Genoa (1298), in the closing chapter of his Readings on the Saints. It involved a hallowing both of altar and of church. The first consisted in tracing crosses on the four corners of the altar with holy water, then circling and sprinkling it seven times, burning incense upon it, anointing it, and spreading linens over it.

As for the cathedral building, the archbishop circled it three times processionally. Each time he stopped to knock on the main door. Then he sprinkled it inside and out with holy water, made a pattern of cross and letters in sand and ashes upon the floor, and, painting crosses upon the wall, anointed them and lit candles before them. All this took place along with appropriate prayers and solemn chants. The ceremonies were freighted with liturgical symbolism, as well as with added strata of popular symbolism, as Bishop James narrates at tedious length. Reminiscences of these ceremonies may be found in the testimony of the Valencian witnesses during the trial between Tarragona and Toledo over Valencia.⁽²³⁾

The metropolitan next proceeded to set up a chapter, amidst petitions of benefice-hunting clerics.⁽²⁴⁾ He appointed for the diocese, "as much as the Christians held," rectors and parishes.⁽²⁵⁾ Then he was off around the city, with assisting bishops and auxiliaries, personally to "make mosques into churches and...decide parish boundaries for them." One crusader later recalled going along with the metropolitan at this parochial delimitation, "showing him the places and advising him."⁽²⁶⁾ All the rectors of the city now made formal submission to him as metropolitan (in which capacity he was careful to perform his activities), and also as bishop until confirmation could come from Rome for consecrating their own.

An ecclesiastical court was set up and a full calendar of cases briskly attended to. The crusaders seem to have carried a store of church furnishings with them. A bell was hung in a church, and vestments blessed.⁽²⁷⁾ Rectors inside and outside the city were installed in their parish churches, each with the proper documentation. Enthusiastic crowds witnessed all this. "So thick was the mob" at the election of Castellbisbal that one [42] witness "was unable to get close" enough to be sure of the details. Well-wishers and petitioners swarmed about the metropolitan in these first days, "kissing his hand, and asking favors from him, and requesting benefices from him, and carrying out his orders."⁽²⁸⁾

Castellbisbal, candidate or bishop-elect, seems to have been only a figurehead, a part of the legal furniture being frantically shifted into place before the question of diocesan ownership could reach the courts. He soon drops from view, probably having returned to Barcelona where he was prior of the Dominican house; his designation as bishop was either quietly forgotten, or possibly annulled as uncanonical in view of Tarragona's lack of clear title. In 1229 James had tried to make him bishop of conquered Majorca⁽²⁹⁾ but had been balked. His reward came in 1245 when he was named bishop of the important see of Gerona. Meanwhile, the metropolitan of Tarragona, Peter of Albalat, turned to other affairs, including the trial over Valencia being held at Tudela in Navarre, which he personally attended late in 1239. His locum tenens was Ferrer of Pallarés, archdeacon for twenty years past at the metropolitan see and dean of its chapter.⁽³⁰⁾

The childish tug-of-war between Toledo and Tarragona did not ease until the spring of 1239, when Pope Gregory IX, having heard the arguments of both sides, instituted a commission to investigate. This commission was either to settle affairs definitively or else to choose a suitable candidate. Gregory feared "lest a lengthy vacancy hurt" the "newly planted church which requires meticulous solicitude."⁽³¹⁾ As a result, Valencia had no proper bishop for over two years.

The North: The Diocese of Tortosa

Attention has been concentrated thus far on the diocese of Valencia. This is understandable, since it was the only frontier diocese organizing itself in the new kingdom. The tiny Segorbe diocese was an abortive organism. And Tortosa, covering much of the northern part of the kingdom, was only partly a Valencian or frontier diocese. Some attention nevertheless must be paid to the diocese of Tortosa.

Tortosa represented an earlier frontier, reconquered and tamed now for some time; its diocesan institutions had been developing for nearly a century (from 1148). From its beginning, however, it had been looking to Moslem Valencia as an area into which to expand. Several reasons lie behind this. As a diocese small and relatively less settled, it desired more resources. As a recently consolidated frontier, it held a livelier crusade tradition as well as a more immediate responsibility for its neighbor Valencia. Finally, it could logically claim all the area in the Valencia kingdom formerly comprising the Moslem "kingdom" of Tortosa.

This last point deserves reflection. It explains why the dividing line with [43] the Valencia diocese fell as it did. The northern Valencian area, in short, had nuances of development and history which set it apart. These differences probably rested on deeper and more ancient foundations than the passing political connection with the kingdom of Tortosa. Ramón Menéndez Pidal, studying the linguistic evolution of the Christian kingdom of Valencia, was struck by the sharply defined difference even of dialect between the north and the south. He could not explain it; he could only proclaim the fact, insisting that "by an inexplicable coincidence, it is the ecclesiastical jurisdiction[s] which correspond in this region to the linguistic frontiers."⁽³²⁾ Actually the Tortosa-Valencia diocesan line was the old southwestern frontier of the Moslem Tortosa kingdom.⁽³³⁾ As early as 1151 the bishop of Tortosa had called for restoration to his new diocese of all the land which had ever belonged to Moslem Tortosa. King Alphonse I spoke of the "ancient limits" as including areas like Nules and Onda. In 1178 Alphonse encouraged the Tortosa diocese with some Valencian pre-grants including the castles and territories of Miravet (near Cabanes) and Zufera.⁽³⁴⁾

Bishop Ponce of Tortosa subsequently assisted in financing the risky  earlier stages of the crusade. He was present in armored person at the unfortunate first attack against Peñíscola in 1225. Here young King James in gratitude confirmed and extended the pre-grant.⁽³⁵⁾ Bishop Ponce was active during the hard fighting of the crusade, at the sieges of Burriana and Valencia city; again he won substantial gifts for his diocese.⁽³⁶⁾ King James appreciated both the physical sacrifices ("more than our other realms" undergo),⁽³⁷⁾ and the real need of the diocese for ampler territory. The end result was a broadly sited diocese, based along the seashore from the Almenara country in the south (the present provincial boundary for Castellón and Valencia) up to Pratdip just below Reus in Catalonia.

Did diocesan reorganization progress in the Tortosan section of the realm much as it did in the south? Aside from the obvious differences to be expected in this case of an already functioning diocese undergoing an expansion, there were other important changes in the pattern. It is possible that the Moslems in the north retreated almost en masse out of the country. If this is true, the economic loss in seignorial tithes alone would have been considerable; the psychological position of the Christian authorities, faced with an empty rather than a hostile land, would also have been different from that in the diocese of Valencia. This thesis of mass emigration, though strongly defended, is at best debatable.⁽³⁸⁾ More to the point, anyway, is the slow rate of Christian settlement. Early large-scale replacement of Moslems with Christians took place only at conquered Burriana on the coast and in the mountain-fief of Morella held by Blaise of Alagón. Elsewhere the pace of settlement was slow. The main resettlement will be in the southern diocese.⁽³⁹⁾

The nature of the land in the north encouraged the king to block out [44] great areas for magnates and religious Orders. The exploitation and resettlement would therefore resemble the Castilian pattern in Andalusia rather than the small-holder or scattered pattern in the Valencia diocese. Blocks of land went to the Hospitallers in the northwest and to the Templars below them, for example, with sizable estates to other religious groups like St. Vincent's and Benifasá. There was considerable activity here in sheep raising.⁽⁴⁰⁾ There was more in the way of resettlement projects than the Orders are commonly credited with. The churches of such areas, however, came under the patronage and administration of the Orders. The bishops of Tortosa would fight for their share of tithes and jurisdiction; but much of the direction including the building of churches fell to the Orders. This complex socio-administrative background helps explain why Tortosan documentation for Valencia is relatively scanty and the episcopal activity sluggish.

The Tortosa diocese had but three bishops during this entire period.⁽⁴¹⁾ Ponce of Torella ruled from 1213 to 1254. He was active in the crusade, assisted at provincial councils, presided over the sudden expansion of his diocese into Valencia, and reorganized the canonical regime at his cathedral. With a supporting bull from the pope (1235) he struggled to retain the lands given to the diocese. Above all, he fought to protect his rights in the huge areas controlled by Orders. The next bishop was a Mercederian who had been archdeacon at the cathedral; he was in office until 1270 when he became metropolitan of Tarragona. As bishop he carried to a successful conclusion the fight with the Orders and others for tithes. As metropolitan he crowned James's son Peter king of Aragon.

Arnold of Jardí took his place in Tortosa (1272-1306). He is especially known for his work in codifying the celebrated feudal costums of Tortosa. He presided over the reformatory synods of 1274 and 1278, the earliest recorded medieval synods for this diocese. These bishops of Tortosa, besides delimiting the Valencian section of their diocese, planting parishes, building churches, and vindicating claims, had to work out an equitable distribution of the new Valencian revenues with their chapter. This complicated argument was finally arbitrated by the metropolitan in 1250 and 1266, with further adjustments in 1287.⁽⁴²⁾ The diocese also arranged settlements in Cabanes (1243) and Benlloc (1250).⁽⁴³⁾

Alarums and Excursions: A Diocese of Segorbe

A diocese was like a kingdom. It might be strong or weak, wealthy or poor, large or small. The diocese of Valencia, called into being on the frontier, with ambitions beyond its primitive means, begrudged from the beginning any substantial diminution of its territory. Nor was there really any need to return to the multiple Valencian dioceses of the less developed Visigothic church. These were practical considerations. Underlying them [46] was the medieval man's strong sense of corporate pride which led him to defend his diocese; and this duty could degenerate into a determination to yield neither jot nor tittle to the claims of others except under duress. Diocesan chauvinism was further complicated by a growing nationalism, which resented any intrusion into the new conquest by the Castilian primate; and in this case the primate would intrude as well in his more local capacity as metropolitan.

The case of the diocese of Segorbe is as entertaining an example of local imperialisms as ever disrupted a frontier. The middle area between the two dioceses of Tortosa and Valencia was itself stubbornly determined to be a diocese: Segorbe. Valencia was equally resolved that it should not. The story of this middle area begins over half a century before, in the mountains just west of the Moslem kingdom of Valencia. Here a fragment of territory around the castle of Albarracín had set itself up as an independent Christian country, subject only to the lordship of the Virgin in heaven and of the Azagra family on earth -- though discreetly tributary to the Moslem ruler of Valencia.⁽⁴⁴⁾ For reasons of morale and politics, the bishop was given a traditional Visigothic title by his metropolitan, the primate at Toledo. A subsequent shift in ecclesiastical boundaries sent this title to liberated Cuenca (1182), substituting for it the equally traditional "Segobriga." Contemporaries identified this latter with Segorbe on the coast. The distant Castilian primate thus added to his metropolitan claims over the diocese of Valencia similar claims to "the church of Segorbe and of Jérica."⁽⁴⁵⁾

Whether he was in theory right or wrong, the prelate of Toledo was being unrealistic politically. Since the Tortosa diocese by the gift of James I in 1233 already reached to Almenara, and since Valencia would shortly gain the territory from Almenara to Biar, there was little room for a Segorbe diocese.⁽⁴⁶⁾ Nor was James prepared to tolerate in his new kingdom a diocese controlled by a metropolitan in Castile. Nevertheless, King James seemed indifferent at first to a small Toledan diocese in the Valencian hills; in an impolitic moment in 1235 he allowed himself to refer to the "bishop-elect of Segorbe."⁽⁴⁷⁾ Very shortly, however, "with the favor of the aforesaid king," the bishop of Valencia will proceed to "occupy the place of Murviedro and many others of the diocese of Segorbe, and held them and joined them to the diocese of Valencia."⁽⁴⁸⁾

Dominic, the fourth bishop of Albarracín (1223-1235) and thus bishop of Segorbe, had come along with the lord of Albarracín on the Valencian crusade during its initial stage (1233).⁽⁴⁹⁾ Besides his warrior function, he was filling a double role. As bishop he wanted to be on hand to acquire liberated sections of what he conceived to be his diocese; and as representative of his metropolitan Toledo he intended to perform public acts of jurisdiction in the conquered places so as to foil the legal claims of Tarragona. The primate of Toledo, the great Roderick Simon of Rada, had extended his metropolitan [47] jurisdiction vastly by insisting that ancient sees, when liberated, be returned to their primitive jurisdiction.⁽⁵⁰⁾ At the fall of Burriana, Bishop Dominic of Segorbe made gestures of taking ecclesiastical possession for Toledo. Similarly, he took care to offer the first Mass said in conquered Almenara and Olocau.

His successor, William (ca. 1235-1237), was determined to make good his title to Segorbe and its surrounding Valencian lands. Apparently at William's initiative, Pope Gregory IX wrote urging King Ferdinand of Castile to help William recover Segorbe from the Moslems. In another letter the pope requested alms for Segorbe from the prelates of Castile -- "such help [that] he be not forced to beg, to the dishonor of the episcopal office" (1236).⁽⁵¹⁾ Help of a dramatic nature came from another quarter. The ex-king of Valencia Sa^cîd, under his new Christian name Vincent and in virtue of his ius patronatus as a conquering ally of James I, granted the Visigothic diocese of Segorbe to William.

In a document drawn in 1236 in the presence of the lord of Albarracín, Sa^cîd specified the towns rounding out the central Segorbe grant: Arenoso, Montán and Castielmontán, Tormo de Cirat, Fuente la Reina, Villamalur, Castillo de Villamalefa, Villahaleva [Villahermosa ?], Cirat, Ayódar, Arcos, Bordelos [?], and Bueynegro; off toward the coast, Onda, Nules, Uxó, and Almenara; and, to the south, Alpuente, Cardelles [Canales ?], Andilla, Tuéjar, Chelva, Domeño, Chulilla, Liria, and Murviedro. Essentially this grant conveyed the towns of the Mijares and Palancia river valleys all the way to the coast, and the towns of the Guadalaviar Valley down to Liria almost at the gates of Valencia. It put squarely in the center of James's proposed kingdom a Toledan diocese in the shape of an egg or flattened wheel with the town of Segorbe as its hub.⁽⁵²⁾ The response of King James, toward the end of this same year, was a declaration subjecting all the Valencian conquest past and future to the metropolitan overrule of the archbishop of Tarragona.

The stage was set for a battle royal, though King James's town of Segorbe itself, solidly Moslem, was to remain without Christian church or presence for another decade. Bishop William's successor, Simon (1238-1243), immediately armed himself with another grant from Sa^cîd reconfirming four strategic towns in the upper Guadalaviar Valley (Alpuente, Tuéjar, Domeño, and Azagra). Bishop Simon also had played a prominent part in the critical stages of the crusade. He helped at the long siege of Valencia city and signed the document of capitulation. During the siege he took care to offer the first Mass at St. Vincent's, a celebrated shrine in the suburbs. He has been described already, challenging the metropolitan of Tarragona both in the army and later inside the conquered city at St. Michael's church. He countered indulgence with indulgence, prayer with prayer, burial with burial.⁽⁵³⁾ King James awarded him the usual estates given to barons and warrior prelates, but turned a blind eye to his jurisdictional claims.

[48] Simon appealed to Rome. In reply, Gregory IX set up a commission of three Castilian archdeacons in May 1239 to investigate the region by personal visit; they were to draw up a boundary for the diocese of Segorbe. The pope also dispatched a stern letter to the king of Aragon, sympathizing with Simon's sufferings, and another letter to the barons of Aragon.⁽⁵⁴⁾ Five years of near silence ensue. In 1242 there seems to be an echo of the dispute, when the Tarragona metropolitan takes special care to single out the Murviedro area, on the occasion of his first formal visitation of the Valencia diocese, declaring that the Murviedro churches belong fully to the bishop of Valencia "just as the other churches of his diocese belong to him."⁽⁵⁵⁾ But, on the whole, the Segorbe affair seems to have been temporarily shelved. Most probably this was because the principals were devoting themselves to the larger struggle between the Toledo and Tarragona metropolitans for control of the diocese of Valencia. Obviously the Segorbe question could be settled easily if Toledo won.

This larger quarrel seems to have ended in a negotiated victory for James of Aragon in the spring of 1244. The forces of Segorbe were isolated and thrown on the defensive by this outcome. In 1244, moreover, the secular lordship of the Segorbe region passed by arrangement from Sa^cîd or Vincent and his Moslems to become crown property. James I subinfeuded the area, in effect preparing it for Christian settlement.⁽⁵⁶⁾ In the light of these developments, the latest bishop of Segorbe apparently felt it necessary to regain the initiative. It seemed logical to attempt to take possession of his city. But the city of Segorbe boasted only three Christian residents in 1245. The first ringing of the church bells roused the Moslems to fury; they rioted and drove the bishop out.⁽⁵⁷⁾ To make the bishop's discomfiture complete, Sa^cîd in February 1246 revoked the gift of many of the Segorbe towns. By this time King James seems to have acquired a conqueror's title to other Segorbe towns by having had to reconquer them himself.⁽⁵⁸⁾

The latest in the line of hapless bishops of Segorbe, the Cistercian Peter (ca. 1246-1271), appealed to Rome.⁽⁵⁹⁾ Pope Innocent IV came to his defense with a strong letter to King James and another to the barons of Aragon and Castile (April 1247).⁽⁶⁰⁾ In the same month Innocent presented the bishop with a most important document, confirming him in the possession of Segorbe. And the pope busily set up a new commission to arrange boundaries for a Segorbe diocese. He also sent a bull approving Peter's election as bishop of Segorbe and Albarracín. Peter took heart. He traveled down to Segorbe. There he purified a mosque for use as a cathedral and began alterations (November 1247). He also gave attention to a church of St. Peter in the suburbs, created an archdeaconry of Alpuente, looked into tithe questions, and busily set about building a diocese.⁽⁶¹⁾

This was too much for Bishop Arnold Peralta of Valencia, a man who enjoyed a personality "algo bellicosa."⁽⁶²⁾ His legal appeals to the iuspatronatus [49] of King James and his denial of the identity of Segorbe with ancient Segobriga had failed to impress Rome. If ever he was to vindicate his claim to the upper Guadalaviar Valley, some direct action was indicated. Early in 1248, enveloped by a clutch of supporting clergy and armed retainers, Arnold stormed up to Segorbe. Peter fled to his little cathedral where he locked himself in. The indecorous scene which ensued is vividly described by Pope Innocent IV in his letter of rebuke (April 22, 1248). Bishop Arnold rode in "with hostility"; proceeded to "break down the doors in sacrilegious defiance"; and offended the Segorbe prelate "with many insults and contumelies". Finally, "unmindful of episcopal decency," he "violently laid hands" upon Bishop Peter and "maliciously threw him out of the church" -- along with the cross to which he continued to cling. The bishop's residence was then plundered.⁽⁶³⁾

Such interludes of violence were not unprecedented in that vigorous age. A few years later (1256), the metropolitan of Tarragona was to head a band of retainers into his own cathedral on Holy Saturday, breaking up the services with an unseemly brawl. Then, having collected a modest army of rioters, he returned crying out angrily that he would kill all the canons. He directed his crew as they broke down the choir doors with a log, forced the dormitory entrance, and set the canons scattering with a fair amount of bloodshed. Expressing his hearty satisfaction, the prelate then decamped. By an irony of history Valencia's bellicose Bishop Arnold, by that time transferred to Zaragoza, was present in the city of Tarragona during this tumult.⁽⁶⁴⁾

Civil authorities stood aloof in Segorbe as Bishop Arnold of Valencia retook almost all the churches of the upper Palancia and Guadalaviar valleys by direct military action. King James had his own problems at the time, since the great Moslem revolt was under way in the kingdom of Valencia. Poor Bishop Peter of Segorbe had to flee back to Albarracín and appeal to the pope again. Innocent IV bade the king restore Peter to his see (April 1248); then he instituted a commission to go to the kingdom of Valencia to investigate the violence and require satisfaction from Bishop Arnold. "We do not want to leave such viciousness unpunished, lest others imitate its example."⁽⁶⁵⁾ An excommunication, reserved to the Holy See, was about to descend upon the hasty Arnold's head.

Despite Rome's severity toward Arnold, the bishop of Valencia has his defenders today. Sanchís Sivera, for example, refusing to yield an inch in the defense of his diocese, sees only Arnold's "zeal for the glory of God and sanctification of souls, and the prudence displayed in all his episcopal governance." He flatly rejects the papal letter as a forgery, for no better reason than that it is housed in the Segorbe archives. Warming to his subject, he even comes to suspect that Rome had previous knowledge of Arnold's intentions and occultly approved what was about to happen. Diocesan loyalty can hardly go further.

[50] Arnold had his contemporary defenders as well. Not for nothing had platoons of lawyers been returning from Bologna's lecture halls these many years. A countersuit by Valencia was tabled at Rome. On February 24 of the new year, the bishop and chapter established "you, P. William, rector of the church of Carayana, as our agent" at Rome.⁽⁶⁶⁾ Further to confuse the issue, Arnold was transferred to the important see of Zaragoza (1248), which had fortuitously fallen vacant. Moreover, the metropolitan of James's realms (who happened to be the brother of the new bishop of Valencia) in a fit of family loyalty excommunicated the bishop of Segorbe for persisting in episcopal gestures. Almost reflexively by now, one would think, Peter appealed to Rome. Pope Innocent demanded that the metropolitan and the bishop of Valencia plead their case before him within three months.⁽⁶⁷⁾ But the pens of the lawyers only moved the faster.

By 1258 the new Pope Alexander IV seems to have lost patience. He ordered King James "to see that everything is given back which [Peter] complains he was despoiled of by the aforesaid bishop and archdeacon."⁽⁶⁸⁾ For Pope Alexander the case seemed to be closed. He set up a commission of dignitaries who were to cite the bishops of Valencia, Tortosa, and Zaragoza to a hearing on the precise boundaries of the diocese of Segorbe. He soon acceded also to an appeal from Bishop Peter, that Segorbe and Albarracín be established perpetually as two distinct yet inseparable episcopates; they would share a single bishop, chapter, customs, and privileges (1259).⁽⁶⁹⁾

Even King James retreated before the vigorous papal actions. James composed a heartfelt and petulant defense of his own past activities, being careful to explain to Alexander that he had really obeyed papal directives on Segorbe but had become confused at contradictory orders issuing from Rome. Now, if the pope would make himself clear, the king concluded, he could count on James's support. In fact, however, James refused to help Segorbe. An element in his stubborn anti-Segorbe stand was undoubtedly the new political orientation of Bishop Peter's overlord in Albarracín, which became anti-Aragonese from 1257; Albarracín moved into the Castillan orbit, and became more fixed there from 1260. Indeed, the new papal initiative may well have been stimulated by the intervention of Toledo and Castile.⁽⁷⁰⁾

Bishop Andrew of Valencia, nothing daunted, embarked upon a generous program of distributing the revenues and rights in Segorbe diocese to sundry beneficiaries. The town of Segorbe became a vicarage supporting the dean of the Valencia chapter (1260). The bishop of Segorbe set off for Rome in 1266 to see the new pope, Clement; but both bishop and pontiff soon afterward died. On the eve of the council of Lyons (1274), the primate of Spain called the attention of the new pope, Gregory X, to the anomaly of "a bishop without an episcopate" whose jurisdictions were unjustly held by the bishops of Valencia, Tortosa, and Zaragoza.⁽⁷¹⁾ It might have been possible to manage [51] some agreement at this time. King James's own son Sancho was the incumbent primate-archbishop of Toledo; and the latest bishop of Segorbe, Peter Simon of Segura (1272-1277), enjoyed great personal influence at the court of Aragon.

At this promising juncture the Segorbe worm turned and, in so doing, made a tactical error. The long-suffering chapter of Albarracín apparently had elected young Peter Simon, scion of a distinguished baronial family of Teruel, to inject some life into the Segorbe affair. A quarter-century had gone by since the Valencia diocese had violently taken over the Segorbe regions. Popes and lawyers seemed impotent in the face of a fait accompli. In an access of brashness Bishop Peter Simon now put himself at the head of four hundred armed knights of Teruel plus a contingent of Alpuente stalwarts and marched on Segorbe in late 1273. He expelled the four priests who administered the place for Valencia, then seized Pina, Jérica, and other places. It hardly seemed the apostolic thing to do. Worse, it evened the atrocity score and destroyed his psychological advantage.

Pope Gregory ordered Peter Simon to desist, and to surrender the area until judgment was made. He committed the whole unhappy situation into the hands of the outstanding jurist of the region, Bishop Arnold of Tortosa. Neither side really wanted Arnold's help. Nor would young Peter Simon release his properties into the custody of Tortosa. Bishop Arnold, therefore, as papal delegate excommunicated him. King James froze his revenues. Bishop Andrew, back at Valencia from the ecumenical council at Lyons, prepared lawyers for new campaigns. A graceful retreat was managed, nevertheless, all hands submitting to arbitration (1275 and 1277).⁽⁷²⁾

Valencia emerged still clutching thirty-two of the thirty-six localities comprising the diocese of Segorbe.⁽⁷³⁾ Peter Simon was left with just four places (Segorbe, Begís, Altura, and Castelnovo) and no money. Somehow it didn't seem right. He departed for Rome to make this point. Peter never got beyond Teruel, where he died late in 1277. About the time of his death, a series of documents was filed at the cathedral of Valencia, where they may still be seen; they formally incorporate into the Valencia diocese the towns which had been named in the final compromise.

Some idea of the predicament of Segorbe may be gathered from the crusade tithe of 1278. From all the ecclesiastical incomes in those parts of the Segorbe-Albarracín diocese which fell under the king of Aragon, a total of only 251 solidi could be garnered. This is about the tithe one would expect from a single dignitary at the cathedral of Valencia. In the next year this contribution fell to 166, but was made good in 1280 by a total of 435 -- that is, about 300 solidi for each year. In fact, the collector of the tax felt it necessary to mount a mass excommunication against the canons of Segorbe for refusing to pay at all; the 1280 total seems to be restitution reluctantly offered by the insolvent diocese.⁽⁷⁴⁾

[52] Segorbe could only yield now, so as to salvage what she might. Peter Simon of Segura was succeeded by the Navarrese Michael Sánchez (1278-1288). But the new king of Aragon, Peter III, had no patience for the Segorbe problem. He brusquely intruded as a dubious bishop the superior of the Franciscans at Valencia, his personal confessor Peter Zacosta, while Bishop Michael fled to Castile.⁽⁷⁵⁾ In the opening years of the fourteenth century, when finances were in better order, the Segorbe bishop took care to include the renewed Valencia fight among his major lawsuits. He did not live to see the qualified victory, which only came after mid-century; even this victory would be frustrated for a long time by the disturbances of the Western Schism. In 1318 both Segorbe and Albarracín fell under the newly created Aragonese metropolitan of Zaragoza, thus losing the support of Toledo. On the other hand, Pope Innocent VI soon qualified the settlement of 1275-1277 as "unjust," and many of the lost places returned to Segorbe, including (1347) Jérica, Alpuente, Chelva, and Andilla.⁽⁷⁶⁾

If the dream of the bishops of Segorbe had ever succeeded, and all their claims had been vindicated, a diocese of considerable extent would have emerged. Excluding the enclave of Valencia city and its environs, the base of the diocese would have run from the Guadalaviar river valley to the Mijares river valley and beyond. In terms of towns appearing in the documents, it would have centred on an axis or corridor running from below Albarracín, in the mountains, all the way to the sea. Looking in from the seacoast, it would have begun from Nules and the Mijares River in the north, and from Murviedro (Sagunto) on the border of the municipality of Valencia in the south. The southern boundary would have bent down to Liria, just behind Valencia city, and then have run due west to Chulilla and Domeño on the Guadalaviar River; it would then have proceeded along the northern bank of the river, taking in places like Chelva, Tuéjar, and Alpuente, finally entering and claiming the large Ademuz-Castielfabib sector. The northern boundary, starting again from the sea, would have gone west to Eslida, then have climbed ambitiously north to Tales, Onda, and Ribesalbes, and have continued in a deflected northeasterly direction to Castillo de Villamalefa and Villahermosa del Rio.

The hinterland is filled with names of places claimed by Segorbe in the dispute. But there was more. Below the Guadalaviar, far to the south, a separate sector comprising towns like Castalla, Onu, Ibi, and Tibi was claimed. If one examines closely the pattern of the cities in dispute, it becomes apparent that the base of power for the diocese lay directly along the Murviedro-Teruel highway. This was the invasion route for the main drive of the Valencian crusade. It had also represented the area controlled by, or partly loyal to, the converted Moorish king of Valencia, patron of the bishops of Segorbe. Northward the diocesan base of power extended roughly to the modern Castellón-Teruel road, omitting the small area of [53] coast at Castellón and Burriana. The extension to the south of this Segorbe highway was ambitious in its theory, but shallow when one reflects on the strength of the Valencia diocese opposing it.

Of all these claims, some would be better than others, and some would be canny devices of overreach, designed for use in arbitration. Compiling the actual places claimed in the dispute, and attempting to disentangle them from the medieval orthography, the following names may be suggested as substantially the main identifiable towns and places of the abortive diocese: Ademuz, Adzaneta, Albalat, Alcudia de Veo, Alfara, Alfondeguilla, Algar, Algimia de Almonacid, Almedíjar, Almenara, Alpuente, Altura, Andilla, Aras de Alpuente, Arcos, Arenoso, Argelita, Arguines, Ayódar, Azagra, Begís, Bellida (? Bellota), Benagéber, Castalla, Castelnovo, Castielfabib, Castillo de Villamalefa, Chelva, Chilches, Chulilla, Cirat, Cortes de Arenoso, Domeño, Eslida, Espadilla, Fuente la Reina, Gaibiel, Ibi, Jérica, Liria, Losilla, Lucena del Cid, Matet, Montán, Montanejos, Muela, Murviedro, Navajas, Novaliches (?Berniches), Nules, Onda, Onu, Pandiel (near Cirat), Pavías, Pina de Montalgrao, Ribesalbes, Santa Cruz de Moya, Segart (? or Zucaina: Sijena), Segorbe, Soneja, Sot, Suera, Tales, Teresa, Tibi, Torás, Tormo, Toro, Torrechiva, Tramacastiel, Tuéjar, Vail de Uxó, Vallanca, Villamalur, and Villahermosa del Río. Each of these areas, of course, included its surrounding district.

A frontier is no place for the weak, individual or corporate. Too many elements had conspired to defeat the pretensions of Segorbe. Economic strength was at stake, and jurisdictional powers, and the prospects of a more princely diocese. There was the fierce, local patriotism of the new and growing area to consider, and the deeper antipathy toward Castile. King James viewed the church in a reverent perspective; but somehow the dimensions managed to shift and merge until the spiritual happened to buttress the temporal. The church was, after all, his major transforming agency on the frontier. Surely Rome must have been misadvised; legal dodges would have to serve until the period of formation had safely passed.

1. Aureum opus, doc. 3, fol. 1v (Nov. 13, 1236). See Arch. Cath., perg. 2,354 (id.). On the 1228 episode see below, notes 11 ff. and text.

2. Viage literario, XIX, 89-90.

3. This was to be the third Sunday after Easter, according to the statutes of the Lérida council of 1229; but the crowds congregating then for the fairs made it difficult to lodge the bishops and their retinues, so the time was changed in 1247 to the fourth Sunday of Lent ("Concilios tarraconenses en 1248, 1249 y 1250", ed. Fidel Fita, BRAC, XL [1902], 444). See too José Zunzunegui, "Concilios y sínodos medievales españoles," on the Tarragona provincial councils, in HS, I (1948), 127-132. Including the council at which Valencia was not yet represented, there were twenty-two provincial meetings in the thirteenth century: in 1211, 1229, 1230, 1239, 1240 (at Valencia), 1242, 1243, 1244, 1246, 1247, 1248, 1249, 1250, 1257, 1261, 1266, 1273, 1277, 1282, 1284, 1293, 1294.

4. Penyafort, Summa, lib. III, tit. XXVII, no. 3, p. 329.

5. Arch. Cath., perg. 2,310 (June 14, 1242).

6. On Barca see J. Blanch, Arxiepiscopologi de la santa església metropolitana i primada de Tarragona, ed. J. Icart, 2 vols. (Tarragona, 1951), I, 133-141; Emilio Morera y Llauradó, Tarragona cristiana, historia del arzobispado de Tarragona y del territorio de su provincia (Cataluña La Nueva), 2 vols. (Tarragona, 1888-1889), II, app., doc. 6 (Jan. 29, 1233); Llibre dels feyts, chs. II, 91, 107, 109.

7. On Montgrí, see Blanch, Arxiepiscopologi, I, 143-148.

8. J. Capeille, "Albalat (Pierre de)," DHGE, I, col. 1,364; "Don Pedro de Albalat" in Chapter II, note 39; Morera, Tarragona cristiana, II, 274-289; Blanch, Arxiepiscopologi, I, 149-158. He was awarded the important Valencian town of Alcira; when the knight García Romeu claimed it, Albalat had to be satisfied with an indemnity of 12,000 besants (1241).

9. Morera, Tarragona, II, 75-87; cf. 289-296. Another of the family was metropolitan in 1199-1214, and yet another in 1309-1315.

10. Blanch, Arxiepiscopologi, I, 159-167 and 169-172; Morera, Tarragona, II, 296-304.

11. Roque Chabás, "Obispo de Denia en el siglo xii," El archivo, VII (1893), 140. Toledo seems to have established a bishop of Denia in partibus infidelium as the conquest of the southern regions became imminent; one is found in a document given at the siege of Cordova. Cf. Diócesis valentina, II, 144-145. For the early Valencia bishop see Olmos Canalda, Prelados valentinos, pp. 55-56. Oddly enough a bishop Paternus de Tortosa is in evidence too in 1058.

12. Ordinatio ecclesiae valentinae, p. 322. As early as the treaty of Cazorla with Castile (1179), it is interesting to note that Aragon reserved, as part of her secular conquest of Valencia: Játiva, Biar, "et totum regnum Denie."

13. Ibid., p. 322: "qui tunc temporibus tenebat vicem Tarrachone ecclesie hereme et desolate."

14. See José de Peray y March, "Un documento inédito de D. Jaime el Conquistador, la concesión á la sede barcelonesa de las iglesias de Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza, Denia y Orihuela," Congrés 1, pp. 444-456; Josep Mas, Antigüetat d'algunes esglésies del bisbat de Barcelona, in the Notes històriques del bisbat de Barcelona, no. 13 (Barcelona, 1921), apps. 10, 11. In the Ordinatio ecclesiae valentinae (p. 233) the Tarragona metropolitan was to include an argument from immemorial assumption that Valencia was in his province, a reflection of these documents; later he emphasized the point explicitly (p. 323). For prescriptive rights see pp. 322-323, where the court is told that Barcelona had been "in pacifica possessione" from the time of the Moslem grant. Puig y Puig and others accept the Moslem document as authentic; Lambert scornfully rejects it (see his arguments in A. Lambert, "Baléares," DHGE, VI, cols. 374-375).

15. Ordinatio, p. 369; see p. 359; "alta voce" (p. 366); the benedictions described seem to have been part of the ceremony of consecration, but probably done in haste. "Quis precepit ei, maledicatur, quid habebat hic ad faciendum ipse" (p. 366). "Et extraxerat inde clericum violenter," according to the witness (p. 358). "De altari librum missalem rapuerat" (p. 320).

16. "In ecclesiam et extra ecclesiam in temporalibus et spiritualibus et in clericis et laycis" (ibid., cf. pp. 358, 368). "Non stat hic bene, faciatis illud in illo alio loco" (p. 366). There were compensations; the carpenter recalls the king exclaiming: "ecce melior magister regni mei ad faciendum altare." A picture of the Virgin and Child, provided by the king, seems to have decorated the altar (see the picture and the account of this tradition in Diócesis valentina, II, 117-118).

17. Ordinatio, p. 319: "antequam civitas esset capta"; at the trial the procurator was to say "capta civitate" (p. 233). On the election see above, Chapter II, p. 22. Some have thought the election must have taken place on September 28, assuming that the bishop-elect would have been among the signers of the capitulation, had the election been held before that (Diócesis valentina, II, 413); this is possible, but the phrase quoted, and the foresighted policies followed by the metropolitan, suggest that some other explanation should be sought for the missing signature.

18. Ordinatio, p. 369; see pp. 233, 250, 319, 358.

19. Document published by Chabás, El archivo, IV (1890), 224 (June 22, 1246): "priusquam ad pontificale assumptus esset officium ex regiae familiaritatis gratia tantum in tua curia obtinuisse favorem, ut inter maiores ibidem quasi honorabilior haberetur."

20. Repartimiento de Sevilla, I, 350. Mansilla Reoyo, Iglesia castellano-leonesa, pp. 187-188. He became bishop-elect, but abandoned the office a decade later and married the daughter of Haakon IV of Norway.

21. Ordinatio, pp. 233, 319, 356, 357. Sanchís Sivera, in an interpretation slightly different, has the ceremonies of purification all on October 10 (Diócesis valentina, II, 116).

22. See Pascual Esclapés de Guilló, Resumen historial, de la fundación, i antigüedad de la ciudad de Valencia de los Edetanos, vulgò del Cid, sus progressos, ampliación, i fábricas insignes, con notables particularidades (Valencia, 1738), pp. 45-46. Beuter's Coronica de Valencia has the scene not at the consecration but on a subsequent day when the bishop lays a cornerstone for a new cathedral (part 1, p. 229).

23. Voragine, Golden Legend, II, 769-779. A similar purification of the great mosque of Cordova at this time is described by the contemporary primate of Toledo. The bishops enter; "eliminata spurcitia Machometi, et aqua lustrationis perfusa, in Ecclesiam commutavit, et in honore beatae Mariae erexit altare, et missam solemniter celebravit, et sermonem exhortationis divinae proponens..." See Roderick Simon of Rada, De rebus Hispaniae (in the SS. Patrum toletanorum quotquot extant opera, ed. F. de Lorenzana, 3 vols. [Madrid, 1782-1793], III), lib.IX, c. 17, 206; see too the similar description for Toledo, lib. VI, c. 24, 137. For the Valencian witnesses see Chapter XIV. Tradition also has a preliminary Mass at the city wall as part of the ceremonies, but our documentation is silent on this.

24. Ordinatio, pp. 356, 358; this witness saw two of the canons formally installed. See also Chapter II, notes 73-74, 76.

25. Ibid., p. 233, but cf. the transcription in Roque Chabás, Episcopologio valentino, investigaciones históricas sobre el cristianismo en Valencia y su archidiócesis, siglos i á xiii (Valencia, 1909), p. 380. Sanchís Sivera has rectors in the churches "quarum tenent christiani," but Chabás has the more probably original reading "quantum tenent."

26. Ordinatio, p. 363: "vidit eundem Archiepiscopum de quibusdam meçquitis facientem ecclesias, ac audivit a multis quod limitaverat eas"; see pp. 233, 250, 319, 357. "Ibat cum eo ostendendo ei loca et consulendo ei" (p. 364).

27. Ibid., pp. 234, 250, 319, 358-359, 347.

28. Ibid.: "inde clerici recipiebant de manu eius ecclesias," "fecerat sibi inde instrumentum" (p. 364); a witness recalls seeing him confer the church of St. Bartholomew on some cleric (p. 362); another reports on the tithe being formally assigned to St. Bartholomew's (p. 367). Cf. p. 234. Quotes from p. 363: "dixit quod tanta erat pressura quod non poterat accedere illuc," though he saw it from some distance; and, "osculando manus eius et petendo mercedem ab eo et petendo benefficia ab eo et servando precepta eius."

29. Morera, Tarragona cristiana, II, 269.

30. Ordinatio, p. 320. Chabás believes he is the bishop-elect of a document of July 7, 1239; he contends Castellbisbal was not elected but merely proposed.

31. Ibid., p. 196: "per vacationem diutinam novella...plantatio, exquisitis colenda studiis..."

32. R. Menéndez Pidal, "Sobre los limites del valenciano," Primer congrés internacional de la llengua catalana (Barcelona, 1908), p. 342: "por coincidencia inexplicable, es la jurisdicción eclesiástica la que en esta región conviene con los limites lingüísticos." See also M. Sanchís Guarner, Els parlers románics de València i Mallorca anteriors a la reconquista, 2nd ed. revised (Valencia, 1961), pp. 107-108.

33. E. Bayerri, Historia de Tortosa y su comarca, 8 vols. to date (Tortosa, 1933-1960), VII, 452.

34. "Colección de cartas pueblas," no. LVII, BSCC, XVI (1935), 385-388. See also no. LXII, ibid., XVIII (1943), 32 (April 27, 1225); no. LXI, ibid., 30-31 (same date). Ramón de María, "Fadrell, Almazora, y Castellón, para la catedral de Tortosa," BSCC, XVI (1935), 390-397; and idem, "Un regalo que en realidad es una restitución," ibid., XVIII (1943), 33-36. Arch. Cath. Tortosa, cartulary III, fols. 6-12. Cf. Itinerari, p. 53. On the Tortosa diocese, see especially the comprehensive documentation in the manuscripts of the Bibl. Nac. Madrid, no. 13079, Dd-98; it includes an index of the royal gifts to the diocese, and materials on the limits of the dioceses in the new kingdom.

35. Itinerari, p. 546 (Aug. 13, 1229). See also p. 53 (grant of April 27, 1225); and doc. no. LVII in note 34, above. Arch. Cath. Tortosa, cajón Donaciones y Privilegios, docs. 1, 23. ltinerari, p. 56 (Sept. 3, 1225).

36. Itinerari, pp. 105-106, 134 (docs. of 1233); p. 173 (June 13, 1245) where James gives the diocese Almazora castle and town plus Benimocar hamlet, in exchange for the claims to Castellón and Hadrel. See also Arch. Cath. Tortosa cartularies; the pergs. here note some gifts (e.g. Donaciones, doc. 27, May 1240: "illud alfondicum quod dicitur açichaf quod est in Valencia"; and doc. 38 on a Burriana estate).

37. "Quia magis quam alii regni nostri, pro republica labores subeunt corporales" (James I, 1228, in Bayerri, Tortosa, VII, 129).

38. Sobrequés Vidal has recently insisted on emigration in his "Patriciado urbano" (pp. 30-31); cf. Bayerri, Tortosa, VII, 202, 205.

39. See the sustained analysis by Sobrequés (esp. pp. 30-42). A prizewinning dissertation (Valencia, 1965) has been prepared, but not yet published, by Juan R. Torres Morera, on the repopulation of the kingdom of Valencia.

40. See Chapter XII, notes 70 ff. and text.

41. On these bishops see the Viage literario, V, 86-92; Bayerri, Tortosa, VI, 394-397, 403.

42. Arch. Cath. Tortosa, cajón Común de Cabildo, doc. 18 (1250), where the chapter gets all the tithes of places like Morelia and Corbera; the document covers non-Valencian places too. The cajón Obispo y Cabildo has a 1287 exchange (doc. 35) by which the bishop gives half the tithes of Carrascal, Chivert, Pulpis, and Villafamés, gaining the tithes of Barig and Benlioc. Claims to press included compensatory holding for the loss of Burriana (Obispo-Cabildo, doc. 9; 1245). The parish and castle of Rossell were given to the dean by the bishop and chapter in 1273 (cajón del Deán, doc. 5). In 1266 the bishop took Cabanes, Almazora, and other properties, the chapter getting an equivalent set of properties elsewhere in the diocese. In 1270 Bishop Arnold gave the parish of Bechí with its tithe to the bishop of Zaragoza.

43. Bayerri, Tortosa, VII, 457.

44. Laguía, "Erección de Albarracín," pp. 201-230, and for this whole history his catalogue for the Albarracín cathedral archives (Catálogo de la sección de pergaminos del archivo de la s. i. catedral de Albarracín, Instituto de estudios turolenses, Colección catálogos documentales, no. 2, Teruel, 1955) with its introductory essay and documentary appendix. Viage literario, III passim; Morera, Tarragona cristiana, II, 279. in "Arnaldo de Peralta," Sanchís Sivera touches upon our story, but from a chauvinistic Valencian point of view. There is a general summary with a list of the bishops by M. Legendre, "Albarrazin," DHGE, I, cols. 1,383-1,386. An excellent account of both Albarracín itself and of its episcopate is given by Martin Almagro Basch et alii, Historia de Albarracín y su sierra (3 vols. to date; Teruel, 1959), esp. III. Cf. also J. F. Rivera Recio, "La provincia eclesiástica de Toledo en el siglo xii," Anthologica annua, VII (1959), 95-145. To replace the J. B. Pérez Episcopologium segobricense, reworked and published by F. de Asís Aguilar y Serrat (Segorbe, 1883), the present cathedral archivist of Segorbe, Peregrín Lloréns y Raga, has prepared his own Episcopologio; until its publication see the summary of the medieval chapters in his Presencia histórica de la sede de Segorbe en el reino de Valencia (Segorbe, 1960), esp. chs. 2-4. Useful background may be found too in C. A. Sánchez Narbón, La corona de Aragón y Segorbe, durante la dinastía catalana (Castellón, 1949), ch. 1.

45. "La dita esglesia de Sogob e de Xericha," a phrase from the king's letter cited in note 70.

46. See Chapter V on diocesan boundaries.

47. Almagro, Albarracín, III, 232.

48. F. de Asís Aguilar y Serrat, Noticias de Segorbe y de su obispado, 2 vols. (Segorbe, 1890), I, 144: "cum favore dicti regis occupavit locum de Muroveteni et multa alia, et tenuit occupata, de dioecesi Segobricen. et applicavit ea diocesi Valentino"; this is a fourteenth-century witness repeating what he has heard from elders of his locality.

49. Itinerari, pp. 104-105 (doc. of July 9, 1233); cf. Viage literario, III, 39-41.

50. Gorosterratzu, Rada, p. 57.

51. Aguilar, Noticias de Segorbe, I, 78n.: "nequeat commode sustentan...tale auxilium [des, ut] non cogatur in opprobrium pontificalis officii mendicare."

52. Viage literario, III, II; see too pp. 42-43. Almagro also gives the document (Historia de Albarracín, III, 296-297, doc. 41 and p. 298, doc. 42 confirming it to Bishop Simon in 1238). Chabás, "Çeit Abu Çeit," p. 164.

53. See note 15 and text; and Chapter XIV.

54. Aguilar, Segorbe, I, 81-82 citing from Segorbe archives. Lloréns gives the document establishing a papal commission (Sede de Segorbe en Valencia, p. 39).

55. Arch. Cath., perg. 2,310 (June 14, 1242): "sicut alie ecclesie sui diocesis pertinent pleno iure."

56. King James gave Prince Peter of Portugal, in return for his fief of Majorca and Minorca, a great barony comprising Segorbe, Almenara, Castellón de Burriana, Murviedro, and Morelia; this was in mid-August 1244, three months after the Almizra treaty (cf. Itinerari, p. 169). Between then and spring of 1248 the crown intruded settlements in the area; Peter complained of this, but condoned it in 1248 (Arch. Crown, James I, perg. 1,146).

57. Aguilar, Noticias de Segorbe, pp. 83-84. Viage literario, III, 45 and n. Pérez, Almagro, and others date this incident 1237 as representing the earliest opportunity for its occurrence; but Lloréns convincingly argues that the documentary evidence favors 1245 (Sede de Segorbe, p. 16n.).

58. James may have had to reconquer the region just before 1245. Sa^cîd gave to the bishop of Zaragoza in 1246 Mula, Arenoso, Montán, Tormo de Chat, Cortes, Villamalefa, Villahermosa, Villamalur, Ibi, Tibi, Castalla, and so on.

59. Sometimes two men are suggested as filling part of this reign: Peter Argidi to 1259, Martin Alvarez to 1265, and then Peter Garcés succeeding to 1271. But Almagro and Villanueva consider them all one man, Peter Garcés or García a Cistercian of Piedra monastery and a native of Teruel (Viage literario, III, 46 ff.; Historia de Albarracín, III, 238, 273 ff.). Almagro also inclines to putting a Bishop Giles briefly between Simon and Peter; possibly Giles was the bishop involved in the bell-ringing episode.

60. Aguilar, Noticias de Segorbe, I, 85-86. Lloréns contests Aguilar's date for the letter to James, changing it from March 18, 1246 to April 16, 1247 (Sede de Segorbe en Valencia, p. 17 and n.).

61. Laguía transcribes the first bull in his documentary appendix (Catálogo, pp. 228-229) as does Lloréns (Sede de Segorbe, pp. 40-41). Almagro gives the bull to determine boundaries (Albarracín, III, 127-128, doc. 20) and the first bull (pp. 129-130, doc. 22). See too Aguilar, Segorbe, I, 86. Some of Segorbe's canons and dignitaries, apparently appointed in 1239, appear in the Ordinatio ecclesiae valentinae; Simon Peter is archdeacon of Segorbe, Diego (Didacus) is sacristan, Rodenick is archdeacon of Alpuente (pp. 353, 376).

62. The wry characterization is Fuente's (Historia eclesiástica, IV, 261).

63. Innocent's bull of 1248 describing the ensuing tumult is in Aguilar, Noticias de Segorbe, I, 86-87. See also Sanchís Sivera, "Arnaldo de Peralta," pp. 106-107, and accounts in Lioréns and Almagro.

64. Morera, Tarragona cristiana, II, 79.

65. Aguilar, Segorbe, I, 86-87: "nolentes igitur tantum facinus relinquere impunitum, ne transeat aliis in exemplum."

66. Arch. Cath., perg. 4,615 (Feb. 24, 1248): "constituimus procuratorem nostrum vos P. Guillelmum Rectorem ecclesie de Carayana." Is this a cleric of the Valencia diocese despatched to Rome? Or one already there, from somewhere in James's realms, now delegated? The name is close to any number of towns: Cayrent, "Xericha" (Jérica), Gayaran, Carabaña, and so on. Sanchís Sivera makes him rector of Cariñena ("Arnaldo de Peralta," p. 109).

67. Aguilar, Noticias de Segorbe, I, doc. on p. 88.

68. Ibid., p. 89: "defendens, sibi restitui facias...universa quibus per praedictos Episcopum et Archidiaconum se quaeritur expoliatum."

69. Ibid., docs. on pp. 89-90. Almagro and Villanueva date it 1258, Laguía and Aguilar 1259. Laguía gives a fresh transcription in the appendix to his Catálogo, pp. 230-231.

70. Arch. Crown, James I, Reg. Canc. 10, fol. 98 (June 28, 1258). Sanchís Sivera transcribes it in his "Arnaldo de Peralta" (p. 108) and Almagro in his Albarracín (III, 353-354, doc. 71). The pope had asked that Valencia's legitimate interests not be harmed, so James argued that "las cartas del apostoli eran contrarios la una de la otra." Almagro discusses the Toledo influence.

71. Aguilar, Noticias, I, 93 (May 7, 1274).

72. Ibid., p. 94 (Nov. 15, 1275 and July 13, 1277). Tortosa seems to have got a share by unfair means (see p. 145); on her role see also Bayerri, Tortosa, VII, 151, 448.

73. There is a whole series of documents in the cathedral archives of Valencia on the towns lost in 1275-1277. Separately treated, for example, are Algar, Algimia, Almedíjar, Alpuente, Andilla, Aras de Alpuente, Benaxebe, Chelva, Domeño, Matet, Soneja, Sot, Toro, Tuéjar, Valle de Almonacid, and others.

74. Rationes decimarum, I, 271-272. Excommunication in Arch. Crown doc., Chapter V, note 48.

75. Viage literario, III, 60; Morera, Tarragona cristiana, II, 300. There are documents in the royal archives on Peter Costa or Zacosta for 1278-1279 and later. See, for example, Arch. Crown, Peter III, Reg. Canc. 40, fol. 83v, three documents of April 3, 1278, ordering the officials to surrender revenues and goods belonging to the Segorbe diocese; fol. 84, a document of the same date and tenor to the "Christianis et Sarracenis de termino de Altura et de Casteilnova," and one ordering that the widow of a lay lord restore the "instrumenta, privilegia, et alia bona Episcopalia"; Reg. Canc. 41, fol. 88v, on the opposition of four townships to the first fruits "et alia iura" of Segorbe in their parishes (June 3, 1279); see too the documents given in Chapter IX, note 29.

76. Viage literario, III, 58-59.