cades of foreign rule, may not
actually have been "in residence." The Moslem followed the Goth, and
ruled while the nascent Christian kingdom of the Asturias was slowly
gaining strength for independence and the foundation of an episcopal
seat. In the middle of the eighth century, the Christians wrested it
from the Moors. On the site of the old Roman baths, built in three long
chambers, King Ordono II erected his palace (he was reconstructing for
defense and glory the walls and edifices of the city) and in 916
presented it with considerable ground and several adjacent houses to
Bishop Frumonio, that he might commence the building of the Cathedral on
the advantageous palace site in the heart of the city. Terrible Moorish
invasions occurred soon after, involving considerable damage to the
growing Byzantine basilica. In 996 the Moors swept the city with fire
and sword, and again, three years later, it fell entirely into the hands
of the great conqueror Almanzor, who remained in possession only just
the same time, for we may read in the old monkish manuscripts that in
1002 from the Christian pulpits of Castile and Leon the proclamation was
made: "Almanzor is dead, and buried in Hell."

Leon could boast of being the first mediaeval city of Europe to obtain
self-government and a charter of her own, and she became the scene of
important councils during the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth
centuries. In the eleventh century, under the great Ferdinand I, who
united Castile and Leon, work on the basilica was pushed rapidly
forward. French influence was predominant in the early building
operations, for Alfonso VI of Castile, who assumed the title of Emperor
of Spain, had two French wives, each of whom brought with her a batch of
zealous and skillful church-building prelates.

The church was finally consecrated in 1149. About twenty-five years ago,
the Spanish architect, D. Demetrio de los Rios, in charge of the work of
restoration on the present Cathedral, discovered the walls and
foundations of the ancient basilica and was able to determine accurately
its relation to the later Gothic church. The exact date when this was
begun is uncertain,--many writers give 1199. Beyond a doubt the
foundations were laid out during the reign of Alfonso IX, early in the
thirteenth century, when Manrique de Lara was Bishop of the See of Leon
and French Gothic construction was at the height of its glory. It is
thus a thirteenth-century church, belon