n Castile and Leon at the end of
the eleventh and the beginning of the twelfth centuries. These had
established the dominion of King Alfonso VI, and the great influence
of the distinguished immigrant prelates of the French orders. King
Alfonso left Castile to his daughter Urraca, who, with her husband,
Count Raymond of Burgundy, settled in Salamanca. The old city, which had
suffered so long and terribly from the successive fortunes of war and
its quickly shifting masters, was once more to feel the blessings of law
and order. To replace its sad depopulation, Count Raymond allotted the
various portions of the city to newcomers of the most different
nationalities,--Castilians, Gallegos, Mozarabes, Basques, and Gascons.
Among them were naturally pilgrims and monks, who played an important
part in every colonizing enterprise of the day, introducing new ideas,
arts, and craftsmen's skill. After his conquest of Toledo, Alfonso VI
placed on the various episcopal thrones of his new dominion Benedictine
monks of Cluny,--men of unusual ability and energy. The great Bernard,
who had been crowned Archbishop of Toledo, had brought with him many
brethren from the mother house, whose patrimony was architecture. Among
them was a young Frenchman from Perigueux in Aquitaine, Jeronimo
Visquio, whose ability as organizer and builder, up to the time of his
death in 1120, left great results wherever he labored, and most
especially in Salamanca. He was the personification of the Church
Militant of his time,--fighting side by side with the most romantic hero
of Spanish history and legend, confessing him on his death-bed, and
finally consigning him to his tomb. Jeronimo was transferred from the
See of Valencia to that of Zamora, to which Salamanca was subject, and
shortly afterwards Salamanca was elevated to episcopal dignity by Pope
Calixtus II, Count Raymond's brother. Even in the days of the Goths, we
find mention of prelates of Salamanca who voiced their ideas in the
Councils of Toledo, and later followed, for such scanty protection as it
offered, the Court of the early Castilian kings. In calling Jeronimo to
Salamanca, Raymond had, however, a very different purpose in mind from
that of attaching to his court an already celebrated churchman. He
understood the vital importance of building up within his city a
powerful episcopal seat with a great church. Grants and other assistance
were at once given the churchman and were in fact continued thro