“+ Hoc Templum inceptum est anno a nativitate Domini millesimo quingentesimo tercio decimo die Jovis duodecima mensis Maii.”
“+ Pio. IV. Papa, Philippo II. Rege. Francisco Manrique de Lara, Episcopo, ex vetere ad hoc templum facta translatio xxv. Martii anno a Cristo nato 1560.”—G. G. Dávila, Teat. Ecc., iii. 320, 344.
[98] It will be seen presently that in the somewhat similar cathedral at Zamora the Romanesque steeple occupies precisely the same position as this. It is possible that when the Junta sat the steeple they spoke of was of the same age as the old church, and that it has been subsequently recast in Renaissance.
[99] Yet I think a more careful search would be rewarded, for we know of the consecration of several churches at an early date, and Mr. Ford speaks of them as still existing.
Church of San Nicholas, consecrated 11 Kal. Nov. 1192.
Do. San Pedro, do. Nov. 1202.
Church of Sta. Maria de los Caballeros, consecrated Nov. 1214.
Do. San Emilian, do. Nov. 1226.
Do. S. Michael, do. Nov. 1238.
—G. G. Dávila, Teatro Eccl., iii. pp. 272-4.
[101] G. G. Dávila, Teatro Eccl., ii. 397. Dávila’s statement, supported by the inscription on his tomb, is that Bernardo was the first Bishop of Zamora; but this does not appear to accord exactly with the result at which Florez arrives. His statement is that Gerónimo was the first Bishop of Zamora after a long hiatus, that he was succeeded by Bernardo, and that both these bishops were appointed by Bernard of Toledo, and both were natives of Périgord. The fact seems to be that Gerónimo was Bishop of Valencia, and had to fly thence when the Moors regained possession after the Cid’s death, and that he was then made Bishop of Salamanca. It is certainly not a little curious that two of the eleventh-century bishops of Zamora should have come from a district where all the vaulting is more or less domical, and that we should have in their cathedral one of the most remarkable examples of a domed church. It will be recollected that nearly the same facts have been mentioned in regard to Salamanca. See Esp. Sag., vol. xiv. pp. 362-368, and p. 79 ante.
Fit domus hista quidem, veluti Salomonica capridem
Huc adhibite fidem: domus hæc successit eidem.
Sumptibus, et magnis viginti fit tribus annis.
A quo fundatur, Domino faciente sacratur.
Anno millessimo, centessimo, septuagesimo.
Quarto completur, Stephanus, qui fecit habetur.
Alfonsus imperator, Rex Septimus fundavit.
G. G. Dávila, Teat. Eccl., ii. 397-8.
The same historian says that King Fernando I. rebuilt the city of Zamora with very strong walls in 1055.—ii. 395.