Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela and papal power in the 12th to 15th centuries

Summary : In this article we will analyse the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela during the Middle Ages from a different perspective from the traditional one, taking as our source the papal communications to Compostela throughout the 12 th -15 th centuries. We will set the act of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in relation to papal power and the communication maintained by several popes with the Church of Santiago concerning various questions connected with the Santiago de Compostela pilgrim-age. A pilgrimage that formed and established itself gradually with the process of development of the Middle Ages, and which was interwoven with various regulations coming from the papacy, which will enable us to go deeper into its characterization and some of its evolutionary lines.

[188] Xosé M. sánChez sánChez Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela… Papal communications are revealed as a collection of fundamental sources when considering any aspect of the Santiago de Compostela phenomenon, from both a direct and indirect viewpoint.Some factors, like political, economic and administrative factors, can count on numerous documents that directly refer to their development, while for others it is quantitatively less; this is the case of the Compostela pilgrimage.We do not have an extensive quota of documentary sources that refer to it directly, neither are there monographic regulations, but there are references in various texts, and in certain actions carried out from the papal court, where the act of pilgrimage to Santiago forms part of the background.
So, we have three bulls, issued in the 13th century, whose subject was directly related to the pilgrimage, specifically about the scallop shell as the symbol of the pilgrimage to Compostela7 .But, despite not having direct communications, the information and the influence of the pilgrimages in the relationship of the Church of Santiago with the pontifical court, by no means ends there; references and mentions come to our aid in other documents dealing with various matters, not just to enable us to document these question but to carry out a more profound analysis of the phenomenon from the 12th-15th centuries.The majority of these documents are conserved in the Archive of the Cathedral of Santiago and in the Secret Vatican Archive.
Just as in the other metropolitan sees, pontifical policy influenced and was connected with the development of the Church of Santiago since its beginnings, and in that context the sphere of the pilgrimage is no exception 8 .
The confirmation of the Church of Santiago as a see, strictly speaking, took place on the 5th of December, 1095, with the bull Et decretorum synodalium of Urban II 9 .Issued at the Council of Clermont-Ferrand, it transferred the old see of Iria to Compostela, marking the beginning of the history of the Church of Santiago as such.
Previously, almost since the inventio, what was to be the Church of Santiago maintained behaviour in keeping with that of its older sister, the Roman see, and both were taken as the main pilgrimage centres in the Christian West.The founding, with Sisnando I, of churches dedicated to Saint Sylvester, the Saviour and Saint John the Baptist in the Santiago basilica, as happened in the Roman See10 , and the use of the title bishop of the apostolic see in the 11th century 11 , is a good example of that; two sees [190]   Xosé M. sánChez sánChez Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela… that maintained, grosso modo, an equivalent foundation: the possession of an apostolic sepulchre and, what we believe is more important from an effective point of view, the fact of being a centre of pilgrimage.
The processes of recognition of the Church of Santiago, transfer of the Iria see in 1095 and the advance of the institution in the 12th century, have two foundations which the Galician Church used to base its claims.on the one hand it sought the recognition of the see as Episcopal -at that time the metropolitan possibility had still not been broached-on the basis of being an apostolic centre; this aspect had already been requested by Dalmacio, in the last quarter of the 12 th century, and the bishop himself attended the Council of Clermont, adding the claim for exemption of the Church of Santiago and its direct submission to papal authority 12 .
Secondly, the act of pilgrimage to Compostela as the place where the sepulchre and remains of St James the Apostle are located, gave it an important basis for its successive claims13 , signs and traces of which are in pontifical documents.
The influence of the pilgrimage is essential in this first moment of Santiago de Compostela history and highlighted by several authors, although on occasions a meaning is attributed to it which we believe is not totally correct.Vázquez de Parga, Lacarra and Uría, in their consideration of the transfer of the Iria see, confer key importance on the act of pilgrimage, in the sense that the development of the pilgrimage to Compostela in the 11th century had caused a certain apprehension in the pontifical court14 ; this was also the opinion expressed in the Chronicle of Santa María de Iria, in the 15 th century, when it affirmed, with regard to the pontificate of Urban II "ca enton a Egleja de Roma avia en odio a Eglleja de Santiago, porque lle non obedescia tanto como devia, et se afirmava sua igoal et cabeça das egllejas occidentales, porque tiiña o corpo do apostollo señor Santiago"15 .These authors attributed the use of the formula "corpus requiescere creditur"16 to it, in reference to the apostolic sepulchre and Church of Santiago, in the papal concessions and communications, emphasizing a belief in apostolicism and not a clear affirmation.
Certainly, the use of this formula or something similar is partly observed in the earliest Santiago documents since Urban II, although it presents significant changes throughout the epistolary relationship between both sees in the 12th century, changes linked more to the political sphere than to cultural considerations or belief [191]   Xosé M. sánChez sánChez Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela… in the presence of the apostolic remains.And this, with the concessions in existence throughout the different papacies, is no paltry thing in relation to the pilgrimage.If we consider the known pontifical concessions to Compostela from the year 1095, the ascent of the see seems to be unstoppable until well into the papacy of Diego Gelmírez.In 1095 Urban II transferred the see, with the status of exempt, in 1100 Don Diego is named bishop, in 1120 Calixto II granted it temporal metropolitan status over the province of Merida and the position of pontifical legate in the provinces of Braga and Merida, and from 1124 the position of archiepiscopate is definitive.This is a development that does not display a very hostile attitude.
The pontifical considerations of the 12 th century in relation to that effective presence of apostolic remains swung between the creditur and the positum, especially in the communications from Paschal II to the papacy of Alexander III, in the second half of the century.Such changes have a strong connection to the political sphere, fluctuating in the different papacies according to their relationship with the Church of Santiago until, in the second half of the century; the formulas themselves lose their literal meaning 17 .But, beyond the political significance which can be suggested to us, their interpretation offers us anyway some information concerning the scope of the pilgrimage.
These formulas do not only employ the creditur but now with Paschal II, the status "Iacobi apostoli corpus im partes Hyspaniarum allatum occidentalis credit et veneratur Ecclesia"18 is incorporated.In this sentence two associated verbs appear and not by chance, credit and veneratur, referring us to a more specific position on the part of the papacy in this first half of the 12th century: the clear non-affirmation of the effective presence of the apostolic remains in Compostela.These formulas are documented in the papacies of Urban II, Paschal II, Eugene III and Anastasius IV, principally the creditur, except in the case of Calixto II in which it is substituted for the positum 19 .
Although at first sight one could interpret this declaration as an attitude against the see, the contents of these concessions and the development itself of the Church of Santiago should lead us to qualify such an affirmation.A good part of these documents grant important concessions, such as the transfer of the see or the pallium bestowed on Diego Gelmírez by Paschal II20 , documents from the papacy in which the rights of the people of Santiago de Compostela are not limited but rather, the strengthening of the institution is favoured.
This can be interpreted in part thanks to the veneratur, the veneration that developed around the apostolic sepulchre in the city of Compostela, materialized in the pilgrimage which since the High Middle Ages had flowed from the Peninsula and a good [192]   Xosé M. sánChez sánChez Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela… part of Europe to Compostela 21 .As was declared in the papal formula which alluded specifically to veneration, this pilgrimage constituted an element of force fundamental to the claims of Compostela; and the papacy was conscious of this.We should not interpret such veneration as being confined to the clerical class, for this would not have constituted such a serious factor of force, rather it was partly veneration by the people and its diffusion through the whole of the Western Church which underlay papal discussions.Paschal II himself, in his concession of the pallium, explained it clearly: "veneratur Ecclesia" 22 .Calixto II, one of the popes who most favoured the Church of Santiago, stressed this in his definitive concession of the Merida ecclesiastical province in 1124, when he refers to the apostolic remains as "venerandissimum corpus" 23 .on some occasions, more specific testimony was given by the papacy itself on the veneration felt towards the Compostela see; in 1121 Calixto II asked Diego Gelmírez to receive and look after Guido, a knight close to the papacy who had taken a vow to visit the Church of Santiago; although in this case no mention was made of the term pilgrimage, it was affirmed that "votum habuit beatissimi Iacobi apostoli ecclesiam visitandi" 24 .Such a practical proof, along with the good relationship and accord between the Compostela prelate and the Pope, meant in practice that there was recognition of the devotion through the "positum".
The use of the formulas "positum" and "creditur", by successive papacies, also derives from the evolutionary context of the Roman Church itself.Returning again now to an idea already formulated midway through the 11th century by Gregory VII who attributed a petrine foundation to the Spanish Church by seven men sent by Saint Peter, reducing the sphere of evangelization of Santiago to Jerusalem 25 ; it is on this basis that the apostolic nature of Compostela was recognised.This fits perfectly at a time when the papacy was being formed as the power at the head of the Church, constituting a strong argument for the petrine Church 26 .
In this way and considering the lukewarm papal pronouncement about the apostolic presence, what forceful argument does the Compostela church have regarding its claims?Undoubtedly, apart from others, the veneration of the locus and its diffusion through pilgrimage; a phenomenon that was accepted and recognized by the papacy 21 A pilgrimage which, at this time, had a decisive influence on the shaping of Compostela as a city.Portela Silva, E., "El Camino de Santiago y la articulación del espacio en Galicia", , Pamplona, 1984, p. 238.22 ACS, Tumbo B, fol.CCXXVvº-CCXXVIrº and HC, I, XVII, 2. 23 ACS, Tumbo B, fol.CCXXXIXvº-CCXLXrº, HC, II, LXIII, 4 y LXIV, 7.With Calixto II a much more determined affirmation was made concerning the presence of the apostolic remains in Compostela, connected with the European political scene, principally with the fact that the pope was the uncle of Alfonso Raimúndez, the future King Alfonso VII, and pupil of Diego Gelmírez; his support of his nephew implied the favouring of the seee.SánChez SánChez, X. M., , ., p. 61.24 HC, II, XLIV, 4. 25 lóPez alSina, F., "Años Santos", ., p. 215-216.26 About the formulation of the Roman primacy at the time of Diego Gelmírez: Blumenthal, Uta-Renathe, "Paschal II and the Roman primacy", , 16 (1978), Rome, p. 67-92.
Ad Limina / Volume I / Nº 1 / 2010 / Santiago de Compostela / ISSN 2171-620X [193]   Xosé M. sánChez sánChez Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela… in the formulas already considered.Klaus Herbers emphasizes the importance of the possession of apostolic relics as an argument in the demands of the Church of Santiago27 , as materialization, and to this we must add pilgrimage, that equally becomes a forceful element, as well as constituting, as Herbers also pointed out, a fundamental factor in the development and rise of the see through the boosting and organization of that pilgrimage28 .The papacy gladly received this pilgrimage, in a geographic area in which a Crusade was being fought, and where the pilgrimage could be posed as a means of strengthening worship, faith and also promote the Reconquest; let us not forget that the regulation that sanctioned the transfer of the see of Iria to Compostela came from the Council of Clermont-Ferrand, in 1095, in which Urban II also proclaimed the First Crusade29 ; at this time the spirit of the Crusade, conceived as an armed pilgrimage30 , led to the development of several forms of piety, outstanding of which was the veneration of relics through pilgrimage 31 , a great boost for the growth of Santiago de Compostela.
Well, we do not possess explicit papal documents for this first period that would permit us to assess the reach of Compostela pilgrimage, but we do have a series of testimonies, inserted in other documents, that not only testify to the veneration of the Compostela apostolic remains, but also to the assumption of them on the part of the papacy and which permit us to see in this one of the strong arguments for the rise of Compostela in the 12 th century, especially in the first half.
Both the situation and the sources went one step further in the 13 th century.Throughout this century not only pilgrimage but also its rites and symbols had been established, derived from a process of development since the High Middle Ages.The volume of pilgrims and travellers along the Way of St James must have been considerable, and the rites and symbols associated with the pilgrimage became established little by little with papal confirmation.
At the beginning of the century a question more related to the spiritual sphere gives us a glimpse of the magnitude of the phenomenon.on the 3 rd of october, 1224, Pope Honorius III advised the Compostela prelate to avoid contact with the travellers that came to visit Compostela from many parts, on their way through Logroño, with [194]   Xosé M. sánChez sánChez Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela… a series of excommunications by the Archbishop of Calahorra 32 ; the object of this bull was the "universis limina beati Iacobi visitantibus" who were, in any case, "peregrinus" in the classic sense of the word, foreigners 33 , or "peregrinatores", travellers, and as such, in both cases, must not be excluded from the consideration shown to the contingent of pilgrims on the medieval Way of St James; if the number of pilgrims and travellers had reduced, such a regulation makes no sense.
The administration and organization problems caused by the flow of pilgrims began to affect the most basic foundations of the religion itself, in face of which the Compostela prelature was obliged to request certain tools from the papacy.At a period of increased popularity of pilgrimages, as in the 12th-13th centuries, the volume of pilgrims could not always have been easy to control, especially inside the Compostela basilica, leading, on occasions, to disputes within the church 34 ; in fact that situation was communicated to Pope Innocent III by the prelate Don Pedro Muñiz at the beginning of the century, to which the Pope responded by bestowing the possibility of reconciling the church, on the 20 th of June, 1207 35 .Throughout the century the chapter statutes referred precisely to the disputes and acts of violence which occurred in the cathedral, so the statute passed by the Chapter in 1271 specified the sentences imposed for these cases 36 .Such circumstances would become even worse as we will see, at the beginning of the 14th century in the midst of an urban uprising.
on the other hand, in the 13 th century we find one of the main symbols of Santiago pilgrimage given official status, in a process related to the papacy: the shell.The association of the scallop shell with the Compostela pilgrimage dates back to the past.In the Liber Sancti Iacobi a well-known reference established its presence in the Compostela pilgrimage; the sermon Veneranda dies in Book I of the Liber refers to the use of the shells as a distinguishing feature of the pilgrimage, by saying that "for the same reason that pilgrims that come from Jerusalem bring their palm leaves, so those that return from the shrine of Santiago bring their shells" specifically those of "some shellfish from the sea close to Santiago, which the common people call scallops" 37 .Evidence which, beyond any controversy concerning the authorship of the codex or its data, documents the use of this symbol as already associated with the pilgrimage to Compostela in the 12 th century.
Ad Limina / Volume I / Nº 1 / 2010 / Santiago de Compostela / ISSN 2171-620X [196]   Xosé M. sánChez sánChez Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela… Political development and the political power experienced by the Church of Santiago in the 12th century was certainly accompanied by the settling of the rites of pilgrimage, forming and establishing elements like those highlighted in the Veneranda dies concerning the clothing and symbols of Santiago pilgrims, beyond the volume and importance that this pilgrimage might have.And among these symbols is found the shell or scallop as evidence of having walked the Way of St James.With this "official recognition" of the rite, by the 13th century it was already a very specific shell, made in Compostela in a particular way and produced by both city artisans and by the Compostela ecclesiastical institution.The stamping of shells must have made up an important part of the economic resources of the Church of Santiago, until the 10th of February, 1200, when an agreement was reached with the city's shell makers to share the production and sale of these elements; an agreement with a double meaning of course: "quod ministerium concharum fideliter exerceatis utilitatem nobis et ecclesie nostre faciendo et veritatem peregrinis conservando" 38 , service to the pilgrims and profits to the Church itself, establishing on one hand 28 shops, property of the ecclesiastical institution with which "haremos lo que fuere nuestra voluntad" (we will do as we wish) 39 , and on the other an income it would receive from the others 40 .
But, like many other aspects, the stamping of symbols did not escape the roguery that must have operated around the Way, and a parallel illegal stamping of shells flourished, something that not only falsified the evidence of pilgrimage but also reduced revenues.Faced with this situation the Church of Santiago and its prelate, Don Pedro Suárez de Deza, appealed once again to the competent authorities: the papacy.
At the beginning of the 13 th century the papacy had established itself as head of the Church and as supreme auctoritas, strengthened by the great authority and activity of Pope Innocent III.The request carried out must have been for the stamping and sale of the Santiago shells and had, as before, the support of the pope; so, on the 18th of June, 1207, Innocent III issued a bull to the bishops of Spain and Gascony in which he prohibited the production and false stamping of the shells associated with the Santiago pilgrimage, imposing excommunication for those who stamped the socalled "adulterina insignia Beati Iacobi, que conchae dicitur" 41 .In the case of Innocent III this regulation was not the only one to affect the Compostela pilgrims but, in the midst of a reinforcement of the Reconquest and the Crusade, one of the principal concerns of his papacy, the pope compared the pilgrims to crusaders, granting them 38 An agreement established in ACS, Tumbo C, fol.82.lóPez Ferreiro, A., , ., t.V, ap.V, p. 16-17.39 Trad.de lóPez Ferreiro, A., , Santiago de Compostela, 1895, p. 109.40 The possession of the shells should not be taken lightly, for even some brotherhoods called for their possession in order to become a member., lóPez Ferreiro, A., , ., p. 38-40.41 aguirre, , t. V, Rome, 1755, doc.138, p. 140.A document that in this edition appears under the epigraph .About the bulls concerning the shells of Alexander IV and Gregory X notes in the Collection Guerra Campos in ACS, C 30/1, under the partial epigraph of .nováS Pérez, Mª E., , ., doc.60-4. [197] Xosé M. sánChez sánChez Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela… the privilege of being able to receive the Sacrament of Penance42 ; all this favoured the image of Santiago miles Christi, as it was entitled on the frontispiece of Tumbo B of the Cathedral of Santiago 43 , so that the strengthening of its cult was, in a way, another means of boosting support for the Reconquest and Crusade.With regard to the scallop it was regulated thus, the production of emblems associated with the Santiago pilgrimage was sanctioned from the papacy, in a process which, as regards the shells, did not end there.Such a warning could not have been too effective in the medium term, for the Compostela institution felt obliged to appeal once again to the papacy as guarantor of its rights; so, on the 7th of March, 1266, Clement VI repeated his warning, sanctioning in advance anyone who illegally stamped or sold the symbols of the pilgrimage to Compostela, the "signa beati Iacobi, que conche vulgariter nuncupatur" 44 .This confirmation was ratified once again by Gregory X, on the 7th of March, 1272, establishing that the production of those "signa beati Iacobi, que conche vulgariter appellantur" should only take place in the city of Compostela 45 .
The three documents were inserted in a more general context of the evolution of the Church in Europe and on the Peninsula, and of papal policy, principally with that concerning the economic sphere.Throughout the 13 th century complaints of exactions on the part of the papacy increased with respect to the previous century; in fact it was after this century that we begin to find papal documents addressed to the Church of Santiago and related to the economic sphere 46 .With the papacy of Innocent III, from 1198, papal attention was dedicated to a new Crusade and to the conflict with the Moslems, both on the Iberian Peninsula and in the Holy Places; Innocent would dedicate a large part of his efforts to this, and leaving to one side any other particular matters concerning the different kingdoms, such as internal struggles.In several communications the pope requested monarchs and prelates to dedicate all their efforts to overthrow the Moslems.
But these military expeditions needed a great injection of money and so, in 1215, the Fourth Council of Letran, approved the Twentieth Tax, directed towards a new Crusade.In the case of the peninsular churches, added to this payment was the cost of giving aid to the Reconquest armies, obliging them to maintain a double financial burden. [198]

Xosé M. sánChez sánChez
Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela… on the other hand, in 1230 and 1240 there were various claims from pontifical legates for the non-payment of taxes and exactions on the Peninsula, for example, with the collector Carsilio in 1238-1239 commissioned by Gregory IX, in the requirements of 1240-1241, and those of the Council of Lyons of 1245 47 .A situation which prevailed throughout the whole century and worsened in the 14 th century with a diversification of taxes in such a way that after the economic and administrative centralization of Avignon, the Twentieth tax was no longer the main tax 48 .on this basis, papal reception of the Compostela claims for the stamping of shells as a symbol of pilgrimage must be interpreted from two aspects.on the one hand the acceptance and protection of the Compostela phenomenon was maintained as we had guessed with the formulas present in papal documents in the 12 th century, now protecting one of its symbols and, with this, the exclusive rights to the management of this pilgrimage by the Compostela ecclesiastical authorities.And, in second place, through these warnings the papacy also protected a source of income for one of the most important peninsular sees, in what was an uncomfortable economic situation throughout the whole of the century.
Compostela, along with the archbishop of Toledo, played a very important part in the carrying out of the Reconquest, both from the symbolic and effective viewpoint.For example, both were commissioned by Innocent III in 1206 and 1211 to intervene between the monarchs of Castile and Leon, with the aim of calming the situation and directing royal efforts to the battle against the Saracens 49 .
So, the possibility of the sees being able to comply with the contribution to Reconquest funds at the beginning of the century, and with general papal exactions, like the Twentieth tax, throughout the whole century, depended on the exploitation of their own resources, trying to alleviate situations like those of the 40s.In the case of Compostela this meant maintaining the resources derived from pilgrimage, nominally pilgrims' donations and the stamping and sale of shells, among others 50 .The papacy was conscious of that circumstance, not because of its knowledge of the situation, but because of the Compostela requests for aid, and it acted in consequence, granting it all the protection it possibly could 51 .
Halfway through the century another Compostela entreaty, to which the papacy responded, affected the economic resources derived from pilgrimage, in this case the pilgrims' donations.Midway through the 13 th century the offerings made at the high altar of the Cathedral constituted a good source of income, although subject 47 lineham, P., , Salamanca at the beginning of the century, 1975, p. 166-167.48 SánChez SánChez, X. M., , ., p. 156-157.49 manSilla reoyo, D., , ., 1953, docs.331 and 452.50 SánChez SánChez, X. M., , ., p. 212.51 The production and sale of shells was also protected by the monarchy, with the defence of the right to stamp them by Alfonso X in 1260.lóPez Ferreiro, A., , ., p. 114-115. [199] Xosé M. sánChez sánChez Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela… to the inherent ups and downs of the pilgrimage itself, that is to say, the greater or lesser influx of pilgrims 52 .In this context, and for a correct sharing out of revenue, the Chapter approved a statute to distribute these resources among the canons.This text was approved by Pope Gregory IX, on the 23 rd of March, 1241; in this confirmation reference was made to a "secundum varietates temporum et peregrinorum frequentiam" income 53 .This confirmation was made at the request of Compostela, with the papacy as "roborador" of an already approved statute, but, just like the dispositions mentioned, it was inserted by the Church of Santiago in the reinforcement of some of its principal sources of income: those derived from the pilgrimage.Although such sources of income were very extensive, through such things as property transactions and income collection by courts and contract, we must not forget those we are referring to here, which appear in documents precisely because of their importance.
In the 14 th century the situation did not change with regard to the sources which we have for our study, maintaining limited documentary references but allowing us to infer more general lines of action.
In the Low Middle Ages, pilgrimage to Compostela was well-established and flowed from most of Europe, and for its normal carrying out needed a circumstance which was obvious but "sine qua non": access to the city of Santiago.Since the 12 th century there had been a regular series of urban disturbances, within the framework of the feudal system itself, with dominion over the city as its object; disturbances which, in the first quarter of the 14 th century violently erupted again 54 .In this case, we are not looking at the extensive socio-political dimension of this uprising, but a practical consequence which enormously affected the pilgrimage: the closing of the city walls.
The uprising erupted in 1317, at a time of division within the Compostela Chapter after the death of Don Rodrigo de Padrón in 1316, with a double prelate election.The inhabitants of the city, headed by Alonso Suárez de Deza, rose up to wrest the city from the control of the Church of Santiago and make it free.
Faced with this situation the Avignon Pope John XXII named as archbishop of Compostela a trustworthy man, the French Dominican Berengar de Landore, who after some hesitation accepted the post and went to Compostela.This episode was prolonged from 1318-1320, ending with the death of the ringleaders in the archbishop's stronghold of A Rocha Forte, but during this time the rebels carried out two symbolic but very effective acts: the retention of part of the archbishop's 52 About the incidence of pilgrimage on the income of the see: Pérez rodríguez, F. J., , ., p. 144 ss.53 ACS, Tumbo B, fol.CCLXVIIrº-vº.Ed. in gonzález BalaSCh, Mª T., , ., doc.325, p. 615-616.The regulation of alms and offerings derived from pilgrimage was not futile, but had a bearing on an aspect that led the Chapter to be involved in more than one conflicto between the 13th and 14th centuries.Pérez rodríguez, F. J., , ., p. 147-149.54 Portela, E. and PallareS, Mª C., "De Gelmírez a los irmandiños.Conflictos sociales en la ciudad de Santiago", , Madrid, 2000, p. 117-123. [200] Xosé M. sánChez sánChez Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela… strongholds 55 , and the closing of the walls of Santiago, preventing any entry.In fact, when Berengar went to Compostela in october, 1317, he had to go past it and take refuge in the castle of A Rocha Forte, for the city was occupied.
The implications and outcome of the uprising were intense but, regarding the question that occupies us, one consequence was clear: with the closing of the city, pilgrims' access to it was also interrupted, after their long peregrination, and the flow of pilgrims came to a halt 56 ; this was the panorama which pilgrims like Rodulfo de Monte Hermero, one of Edward II of England's rangers, must have encountered, who, in 1316, was authorized to make a pilgrimage to Santiago 57 .The recently named archbishop found himself in a very difficult situation, prevented from taking possession of the see; so, he asked for all the help possible from the man who had appointed him.Towards May of 1318 Berengar entreated John XXII to help him to cleanse the Compostela church in face of the violent situation it was experiencing, even inside the church, and which could affect both the pilgrims and the inhabitants of the diocese, literally "peregrinos et alios de civitate ac diocesi compostellane" 58 , referring in fact to both as "ad eandem ecclesiam assidue concurrentes" 59 .
The pope's reply was clear and forceful, if we consider it against the collection of concessions made by the prelate to try to control the situation.Several bulls were issued addressed to Santiago on the 2nd of June of this same year, provisions were made, all directed to both re-establish normality in as much as it was possible, and, especially, to strengthen Episcopal authority and give Berengar a certain margin for manoeuvre 60 .Thus, among other privileges, he was granted the authority to make the ecclesiastic visit and tax collection 61 , the raising of 2000 gold florins 62 , the use of the pallium 63 and the power to dispense sentences of excommunication 64 .In this way he provided the prelate with economic resources and strengthened his figure.In the context of these documents one was issued in which the papacy granted Berengar the right to bless the Compostela church if blood was spilt, for a period of three years, [201]   Xosé M. sánChez sánChez Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela… in order to be able to maintain its normal liturgical function and avoid it affecting both the inhabitants and the pilgrims 65 .
The situation during the uprising was critical, but the flow of pilgrims continued, as was to be expected, and solutions were sought from the papacy to such question, both from the political and dominion viewpoint and from a more practical consideration with regard to worship and pilgrimage.It was for this reason that the opening of the walls of the city occupied John XXII's attention as it did in his communications, always at the request of Compostela.Thus, on the 22nd of September, 1321, with the uprising now quelled and Alonso Suárez de Deza executed in the castle of A Rocha Forte along with the other ringleaders of the uprising 66 , John XXII not only insisted on an oath of loyalty and homage to the prelate from the rebels, but also the handing over of the keys to the city 67 .Here, in part, underlies the need to accommodate and make sure that pilgrims are treated correctly when they reach Compostela, from the viewpoint of the cult, trying to ensure in the long term the free transit to the city and avoid a new closing of the walls.
[202] Xosé M. sánChez sánChez Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela… Although on certain occasions some sources relating to the pilgrimage in the Middle Ages have been questioned, the validity of the documents we are using here is beyond doubt.John XXII issued those orders at the request of Compostela; if in the bull sent the term "pilgrims" appears it is because it also appeared in the request which was sent.And this responds to a practical necessity with which a newly arrived prelate found himself who wasn't even from the Peninsula, like Berengar de Landore; a prelate who had no special interest in falsifying this evidence given that, in fact, it was not his main concern, if we consider the attacks he had suffered, the taking of the stronghold, the rebellion by the Chapter and a town which was completely opposed to him.
We also document, thanks to papal sources, a Compostela pilgrimage phenomenon which should have had a certain notoriety; at least enough to constitute a practical problem deserving of a petition and a papal order.Undoubtedly, if the number of pilgrims had been meagre or much reduced such a reference would not have appeared in the documents.
A new defence then, of the pilgrimage to Santiago, from the papacy, always at the petition of Compostela, which was placed in the wider context of the conflict in the see and relates this area with its practical implications with regard to the volume of recent arrivals.
It will not have gone unnoticed that in a study on papal power and the pilgrimage to Santiago, we have still not made any reference to the bull Regis AEterni and the concession of the Jubilee, even when we have considered the general lines of the question throughout the 12 th century.This is due to the fact that, as we have already demonstrated 68 , the Compostela Jubilee was not granted in 1179, as had supposedly been thought until now, nor was it granted from the papacy, something about which other authors had also previously expressed their great doubts 69 .
The document of concession of the Compostela Jubilee was produced, both in its content and its form, in Compostela itself and, although we still do not possess a specific chronology, we can infer that it was between 1350 and 1434.It tried, thus, to establish and give official status to the pilgrimage phenomenon and not to miss out in face of the announcement in 1300 of the Roman Jubilee by Boniface VIII.To do this they tried to give prestige to the Compostela Jubilee, conferring considerable antiquity on it, taking it back to a period of the pilgrimage's greatest expansion, the 12th century, specifically 1179, and attributing it to a papacy with a very favourable attitude to the see, that of Alexander III.
What interests us in this case, apart from the production of the text, is the reception it received from the papacy; that is to say, how the papacy reacted to a document, [203]   Xosé M. sánChez sánChez Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela… unknown until then but which formulated the Compostela Jubilee and made it seem to have come from the papacy.The text must have been cleverly introduced into the documents of the Compostela treasure, and not broadcast to the four winds or referred to constantly; that would make no sense, for, supposedly, it had been there for two hundred years.So, its existence was formally admitted without documenting any kind of claim or any need for validation 70 , something that we can only interpret in the context of a relatively strong flow of pilgrimages throughout the whole of the Middle Ages.The papacy assumed the existence of a document that established a pilgrimage phenomenon which had expanded throughout the whole Middle Ages; in this way, in the 16th century and with the authorization of Pope Paul IV, on the 1 st of April, 1557, an authentication of the bull Regis AEterni was made by Don Juan Suárez de Carvajal, bishop of Lugo, finally giving official status to the document 71 .

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The analysis of papal documents of the Middle Ages, related to the Compostela pilgrimage, enables us to extract a general conclusion: throughout the High and Low Middle Ages, the Church of Santiago had the support of the papacy with everything concerning the importance, development and establishment of the Compostela pilgrimage phenomenon.
Although it is certain that the sources we have are not extensive and neither are the references detailed, they do permit us to observe that, throughout the 12th-15th centuries, papal power supported the Church of Compostela in everything related with the cult of the Way of St James and the pilgrimage, and responded almost always to the request of the peninsular institution.The references found in the communications of the 12 th century enable us to document a Compostela cult recognised by the papacy, even when on occasions it did not affirm with total clarity the presence of apostolic remains in Compostela; this went farther in the 13th century when, from Rome, protection was given to one of the symbols of pilgrimage, the shell, appreciating also its dimension as an economic resource of the Compostela see at a time of financial difficulties.Thus, it went deeper into the establishment of the rite at the heart of the Compostela pilgrimage and, in the 14th century, attention was already being paid to its correct use by Pope John XXII, who tried to ensure this was done during the Compostela conflict between Alonso Suárez de Deza and his supporters and the recently arrived archbishop Don Berengar de Landore.A papacy [204]   Xosé M. sánChez sánChez Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela… that, in the 16 th century assumed and confirmed a document like the bull Regis AEterni which had been reformulated and established the event of the Santiago pilgrimage in the Low Middle Ages72 .Consideration of these sources has also permitted us to confirm the continuation of the Santiago pilgrimage, to a greater or lesser degree, throughout the 12th-15th centuries, with some unimpeachable sources with regard to the veracity of the information they give us.
Although it did not occupy a pre-eminent place in papal policy regarding the Galician see, the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela during the 12th-15th centuries, was shown in a good light in the communications which we conserve and which we have analysed.The act of pilgrimage constituted a basic factor in the power structure built up by the Compostela see throughout the Middle Ages; something that, thanks to the various requests by Compostela, the papacy also bore in mind and which, in as far as they could, they took care to protect "ad maiorem gloriam Sancti Iacobi".