At Compostella in his Church His body and one head, Have been, for some eight hundred years, By Pilgrims visited.-p. 249. — a visitar el cuerpo santo Todo fiel Christiano la via toma: Adonde viene peregrino tanto Como a Jerusalem, y como a Roma, Que a el de tierra y mar por los caminos Vienen de todo el mundo peregrinos. "Varia gente fiel, pueblo devoto, "El coxo del lugar propio se alexa "El que ya tuvo vista, y no tiene ojos, De que alcancó salud su humilde ruego, "El que hablar no puede, aunque con lengua Pide remedio de su falta y mengua, "Si aqueste viene de sus miembros manco, "A quien de prision saca, ô cautiverio, La milagrosa fabrica bendita, Libra de muerte en agua, en hierro, en fuego, "Da toda alma fiel gracias al cielo, Cristoval de Mesa, El Patron de España, ff. lxxii. p. 3. The high altar at Compostella is, as all the altars formerly were in Galicia and Asturias, not close to the wall, but a little detached from it. It is ten feet in length, and very wide, with a splendid frontispiece of silver. The altar itself is hollow, and at the Gospel end there is a small door, never opened except to royal visitors, and when a new Archbishop first comes to take possession. It was opened for Ambrosio de Morales, because he was commissioned to inspect the churches: nothing, however, was to be seen within, except two large flat stones, which formed the floor, and at the end of them a hole about the size of an orange, but filled with mortar. Below is the vault in which the body of Santiago is said to be deposited in the marble coffin wherein it was found. The vault extends under the altar and its steps, and some way back under the Capella Mayor: it is in fact a part of the Crypt walled off with a thick wall, para dexar cerrado del todo el santo cuerpo. The Saint, whose real presence is thus carefully concealed, receives his pilgrims in effigy. The image is a half figure of stone, a little less than life, gilt and painted, holding in one hand a book, and as if giving a blessing with the other. Esta en cabello, without either crown or glory, on the head, but a large silver crown is suspended immediately above, almost so as to touch the head; and the last ceremony which a pilgrim performs is to ascend to the image, which is over the altar, by a staircase from the Epistle side, kiss it reverently on the head, embrace it, and place this crown upon it, and then go down on the Gospel side. · - Viage de Morales, t. xx. p. 154. "Ingens sub templo fornix, et claustra per umbras Jacobi effigies addunt, humerosque bacillis Circundant, conchisque super fulgentibus ornant.” PACIECIS, lib. vii. p. 117. The sepulchre was thus closed by the first Archbishop D. Diego Gelmirez, “que ya de ninguna manera se puede ver, ni entenderse como está. Y esto hizo con prudentissimo consejo aquel gran Principe y valeroso Perlado, y con reverencia devota, porque cada uno no quisiese ver y tratar aquel precioso relicario comunmente, y sin el debido respete; que se pierde sin duda quando los cuerpos santos y sus sepulturas pueden ser vistas vulgarmente de todos.". · MORALES, 1. ix. c. vii. § 67. A print of the sepulchre, from an illuminated drawing in the manuscript of the Historia Compostelana, is given in the 20th volume of the España Sagrada. And in that history (pp. 50, 51.), is the following characteristic account of the enlargement of the altar by D. Diego Gelmirez. "Among the other worthinesses, with the which the aforesaid Bishop in no inactive solicitude hastened to decorate his Church, we have been careful to defend from the death of oblivion whatsoever his restauratory hand did to the altar of the said Church. But, lest in bringing forward all singular circumstances we should wander into devious ways, we will direct our intention to the straight path, and commit to succeeding remembrance so far as our possibility may reveal those things which we beheld with our own eyes. For of how small dimensions the altar of Santiago formerly was, lest we should be supposed to diminish it in our relation, may better be collected from the measure of the altarlet itself. But as religion increased in the knowledge of the Christian faith, that another altarlet, a little larger than the other, was placed over it by those who were zealous for their holy faith, our ancient fathers have declared unto us as well by faithful words, as by the assured testimony of writings. But the aforesaid Bishop being vehemently desirous of increasing the beauty of his Church, and seeing that this little altar, though thus enlarged, was altogether unworthy of so great an Apostle, thought it worthy of pious consideration to aggrandize the Apostolical altar. Wherefore, being confirmed thereunto by the prudent counsel of religious men, although the Canons stoutly resisted him in this matter, he declared his determination to demolish the habitacle which was made in the likeness of the sepulchre below, in which sepulchre we learn, without all doubt, that the remains of the most holy Apostle are inclosed. They indeed repeatedly asserted that a work which, rude and deformed as it was, was nevertheless edified in honour to the remains of such holy personages, ought by no means to be destroyed, lest they themselves or their lord should be stricken with lightning from heaven, and suffer the immediate punishment of such audacity. But he, like a strenuous soldier, protected with the impenetrable shield of a good resolution, forasmuch as, with the eye of his penetration, he perceived that they regarded external things more than inner ones, trampled upon their fears with the foot of his right intention, and levelled to the ground their habitacle, and enlarged the altar, which had originally been so small a one, now for the third time, with marble placed over and about it on all sides, making it as it ought to be. Without delay also he marvellously began a silver frontispiece for this egregious and excellent work, and more marvellously compleated it." There used to be interpreters at Compostella for all languages; lenguageros they were called. They had a silver wand, with a hand and finger pointed at the top, to show the relics with. Among those relics is the head of St. James the Less; a grinder, in a splendid gold reliquary, of one St. James, it has not been determined which; one of St. Christopher's arms, of modest dimensions; and seven heads of the Eleven Thousand Virgins. These are from the list which Morales gives but that good and learned man, who often swallowed the bull and stuck at the tail, omits some more curious ones, which are noticed in an authentic inventory. (España SaAmong these are part of our Lord's : grada, t. xix. p. 344.) |