page_title: Jerome of Périgord
section_title: Bishop of Valencia
hierarchical_section_title: Jerome of Périgord / Bishop of Valencia
caption_attribution_description: English: Original diploma of the Cid making a gift to the church of Valencia under JeromeEspañol: Donación de Jimena Díaz del diezmo de todos sus bienes a la catedral de Valencia el 21 de mayo de 1101. Véase Ramón Menéndez Pidal, «Autógrafos inéditos del Cid y de Jimena en dos diplomas de 1098 y 1101», Revista de Filología Española, t. 5, 1918. Madrid, Sucesores de Hernando, 1918. Copia digital: Valladolid, Junta de Castilla y León. Consejería de Cultura y Turismo. Dirección General de Promociones e Instituciones Culturales, 2009-2010. Original en Archivo de la Catedral de Salamanca, caja 43, leg. 2, n.º 71. Texto: Principium scripti maneat sub nomine Christi. Ego denique Eximina Didez, inspirante me divina clementia, nullius cogentis imperio nec suadentis articulo, sed propria atque spontanea mea voluntate, una cum consensu filiis atque filiabus necnon et meis bonis hominibus, facio hunc titulum scriptionis et donationis ad honorem Dei et beate Marie semper virginis Valentine sedis. Concedimus Deo et gloriose Dei genitricis predicte atque patroni nostro domino Jeronimo pontifici eiusque successoribus, pro remedium anime domini et viri mei Ruderici C[a]mpidoctoris sive pro remedium anime mee vel filiis atque filiabus et nepotibus meis, non solum illis decimis quem predictus dominus et vir meus donavit, sed remota omni occasione adimpleta decima pars omnium rerum quem adquisiero per totum meum honorem, quam modo e[g]o et filiis vel filiabus et nepotibus meis abemus vel deincebs per terra sive per mare, auxiliante Deo, adquisituri sumus. In primis de pane et vino, oleo vel ficus, de ortif et arboribus vel omnia quem tellus fruifera profert, aduc etiam de molendinis et valneis, de tendis vel tavernis, de alfondicis vel de domibus, de furnis sive de illas maximas et minimas alkabalas; insuper et de quinta pars quam usum visumque est accipere de meis hominibus, vel etiam de omnibus rebus, tam de foris quam et de intrinsecis, meis urbibus vel castris maximis et minimis adquisituri sumus, damus Deo et predicte Dei gennitricis et omnibus sanctis eius, et patri nostro reverentissimo Jeronimo episcopo eiusque successoribus donanda concedimus. Ideo ego prefata Eximina hec omnia libenti animo do et iuro, filiis filiabusque et nepotibus meis iurare atque firmare precipio, ut quamdiu vita vixero et honorem tenuero, ita adimpleuo in omnibus, sicut promisi Deo et matri nostre ecclesie. Quando autem eis istum honorem dimisero ipsis meis filiis et filiabus, hoc totum prescriptum adimpleant, quemadmodum Deo iurabimus et promisimus. Et non tantummodo ego et filiis vel filiabus meis ista donaria Deo concedimus, sed et nostris principibus, qui nostro iure sunt constituti, simili modo illut quod ex nobis tenent in eorum hereditario decimis Deo promittunt atque concedunt. Nos autem non solum hanc paginam firmamus, sed et aliis privilegiis quos dominus et vir meus Rudericus donavit atque firmabit, et nosmed ipsas paginas firmabimus, et filiis vel filiabus, et principibus nostris firmare precepimus; et ut firme permaneant propriis nostris manibus presignabimus. Quod siquis diabolico instinctu vel aliqua contra hec nostra dona venire ad disrumpendum temptaverint, c. libras auri cogantur persolbere pontifici vel ecclesie; et ut que temptaverint se posse minime adimplere confidant, precamur episcopum quatinus eos gladio anathematis ferias et animadversionis ultime iaculo districte confodiat. Ego Jeronimus, Valentine ecclesie episcopus, cum omnibus clericis mihi subditis, auctoritate Dei patris omnipotentis et Filii et Spiritus Sancti et beate Marie semper virginis, et beatorum apostolorum Petri et Pauli a Deo divinitus nobis per eos eorumque successores potestate collata, excomunicamus et anathematizamus et separamus a sinu matris nostre eclesie, et ab omni consorcio christianorum sequestramus, et iungimus diabolo et satellitibus eius, omnes homines utriusque sexus qui his sacris institutis rebelles vel inobedientes obstiterint, donec resipiscant et digne Deo et sancte ecclesie et nobis vel successoribus nostris satisfacian. Facta cartula huius donationis .XII. kalendas iunii, era .T.CXXXVIII, anni domini nostri Ihesu Christi .Mº.Cº.Iº. Deus verus. Ego Eximina predicta, qui hanc paginam fieri iussi, manul mea fircmabi./Ranimirus, roborat. Munio, roborat. Fredinando, roborat./ Petrus, confirmans. Rudericus, confirmans. Sancius, confirmans. / Pelagio, testis. Didaco, testis. Nunno, testis.Martinus scripsit
context_page_description: Jerome of Périgord, in Spanish Jerónimo, was a French monk who became the bishop of several dioceses in Spain. He was a companion of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, and in 1097 or 1098 became the bishop of Valencia after Rodrigo's conquest of the city. Forced to abandon it following Rodrigo's death, Jerome entered the service of Duke Raymond of Galicia in 1102 and became bishop over the churches in Salamanca, Ávila and Zamora.
  Jerome has been posited as the author of both the anonymous verse history Historia Roderici, in which he is not mentioned, and of the anonymous epic poem Cantar de mio Cid, in which he figures as a warrior-priest.
context_section_description: Jerome's life before he came to Spain is obscure. According to Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada, writing a little over a century later, he was originally from the region of Périgord in France. He was a black monk, possibly at the Cluniac abbey of Moissac further south. His obituary is not listed in the necrology of Moissac, although that of his contemporary and countryman, Bishop Gerald of Braga, is.
  It is unclear when Jerome came to Spain, although he was certainly one of the "honest and learned" (honestos et litteratos) French monks recruited by Bernard of Sedirac, archbishop of Toledo, at the suggestion of Pope Urban II. According to Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada, Bernard went to Rome in 1096, where he tried to join the First Crusade only to be turned back by Urban. The pope, however, was travelling in southern France between the synod of Clermont (November 1095) and the synod of Nîmes (July 1096). Bernard was present at Nîmes, and he and Urban both attended the consecration of the Basilica of Saint-Sernin in Toulouse on 24 May 1096. Moreover, Urban visited Moissac on 13 May 1096. If Jerome was indeed a monk of that place, and Rodrigo de Rada's account is accurate, then it is probable that he was recruited during Urban's visit. Thus, it has traditionally been assumed that Jerome did not cross the Pyrenees until Bernard's return to Spain sometime after July 1096. However, Gerald of Braga had been installed in his see by earlier that year and the recruitment of French monks for Spanish work may have begun as early as 1088. Jerome probably entered the cathedral of Toledo as a canon before joining Rodrigo Díaz in Valencia in 1097 or 1098. A document from the Cid's rule in Valencia describes him as "coming from the North" (adueniente de Susana), which must refer to France, and suggests he may have arrived directly from there.
  At Jerome's arrival in Valencia, Rodrigo gave him a property at Yubayla (now El Puig), which had been conquered in July 1093. After the conquest of Valencia in 1094, Rodrigo wanted to replace the native bishop of the Mozarabic rite with one of the Latin rite. According to a later source, he asked Bernard of Sedirac to send him a new bishop for Valencia. If Jerome was sent by Bernard, he was sent as a mere priest, not yet consecrated a bishop. According to a document drawn up for Rodrigo, Jerome was "canonically elected with the agreement of the people" in Valencia. He then travelled to Rome to be consecrated "by the pope's hand" (per Roman pontificis manus), becoming thereby the first bishop of Valencia in connection with the wider church in about a century. The dates of his election as bishop and of his trip to Rome are not clear. Sometime after the conquest of Murviedro on 24 June 1098, the old mosque of Valencia was consecrated as the new cathedral dedicated to the Virgin Mary. That same year, after the consecration of the new cathedral, Rodrigo made the church a large endowment of his personal property. The charter of this endowment, possibly drawn up by Jerome himself, survives in its original form with Rodrigo's autograph. Jerome and the priests of the cathedral then pronounced excommunication and anathema on anyone who would deprive the church of this gift. The charter also specifies that Jerome "raised by a special privilege of freedom" (specialis priuilegii libertate sublimato) from the pope, probably a reference the church of Valencia being exempted from any metropolitan authority and being subject only to the pope. The charter implies that Jerome was not elevated to the bishopric until after the consecration of the new cathedral, but historian Bernard Reilly has argued that Jerome's trip to Rome must be placed in the first half of 1098.
  Rodrigo died in 1099 and his widow, Jimena Díaz, took over. On 21 May 1101, Jimena donated a tenth of her possessions to the Valencian church under Jerome. In late August 1101, the city was blockaded by the Almoravid Emirate and Jimena sent Jerome to the court of King Alfonso VI of Castile and León to ask for assistance. Alfonso arrived with an army in February 1102. Perha
caption: The donation of Jimena to Valencia in 1101
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