the chapter was told as much (as though it did not know it!)
the architect was ordered to pull it down. After hesitating to do so,
the latter acceded: the pillar was pulled down, and with it the whole
church tumbled down as well! But the chapter's game was discovered, and
it was obliged to rebuild the cathedral on the same spot and with the
same materials.

Consequently, the church at Soria is a sixteenth-century building of
little or no merit, excepting the western front, which is the only part
of the old building that did not fall down, and is a fine specimen of
Castilian Romanesque, as well as the cloister, one of the handsomest,
besides being one of the few twelfth-century cloisters in Spain, with a
double row of slender columns supporting the round-headed arches. This
modification of the conventional type lends an aspect of peculiar
lightness to the otherwise heavy Romanesque.

As regards the settlement of the strife between Soria and Osma, the see
is to-day a double one, like that of Madrid and Alcala. Upon the death
of the present bishop, however, it will be transported definitely to
Soria, and consequently the inhabitants of the last named city will at
last be able to give thanks for the great mercies Allah or the True God
has bestowed upon them.

[Illustration: CLOISTER OF SORIA CATHEDRAL]

_Osma._--From an historical and architectural point of view, Osma,
the rival city on the Duero River, is much more important than Soria.

According to the tradition, St. James preached the Holy Gospel, and
after him St. Peter (or St. Paul?), who left his disciple St. Astorgio
behind as bishop (91 A. D.). Twenty-two bishops succeeded him, the
twenty-third on the list being John I., really the first of whose
existence we have any positive proof, for he signed the third council in
Toledo in the sixth century. In the eighth century, the Saracens drove
the shepherd of the Christian flock northward to Asturias, and it was
not until 1100 that the first bishop _de modernis_ was appointed by
Archbishop Bernardo of Toledo. The latter's choice fell on Peter, a
virtuous French monastic monk, who was canonized by the Pope after his
death, and figures in the calendar as St. Peter of Osma.

When the first bishop took possession of his see, he started to build
his cathedral. Instead of choosing Osma itself as the seat, however, he
selected the site of a convent on the opposite banks of the Duero (to
the north), where the Virgin had ap