Bishopric of Sigüenza

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The Roman Catholic bishopric of Sigüenza' in the province of Guadalajara in Castilia, central Spain. It is a suffragan of the primatial archbishopric of Toledo; it is bounded on the north by Soria, on the east by Saragossa and Teruel, on the south by Cuenca and on the west by Guadalajara and Segovia.

[edit] History

The diocese is very ancient: the fictitious chronicles pretended that St. Sacerdos of Limoges in France had been its bishop; Protogenes was present as Bishop of Sigüenza at the Third Council of Toledo and again the same Protogenes at Gundemar's council in 610; Ilsidclus assisted at the fourth, fifth and sixth councils; Wideric, at the seventh to the tenth; Egica, at the eleventh; Ela, at the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth; Gunderic, at the fifteenth and sixteenth. The succession of bishops continued under the Arab domination: after St. Eulogius, in 851, we find there Sisemund, a man of great sagacity. But later on Sigüenza was so completely depopulated that it does not appear among the cities conquered by Alfonso VI of Castile (1065-1109) when he subdued all this region. The first bishop of Sigüenza, after it had been repeopled, was Bernardo, a native of Agen in France, who had been "capisol" (caput schola, Latin for school head(master)) of Toledo; he rebuilt the church and consecrated it on the Feast of St. Stephen, 1123, and placed in it a chapter of canons regular; hHe died Bishop-elect of Santiago. On 14 March 1140, Alfonso VII granted the bishop the feudal lordship of Sigüenza, which his successors retained until the fourteenth century, making the diocese a minor prince-bishopric.

After the long episcopate of Bernardo, Pedro succeeded, and was succeeded by Cerebruno, who began the building of the new cathedral. Jocelin, an Englishman, was present with the king at the conquest of Cuenca; he was succeeded by Arderico, who was transferred to Palencia; Martin de Hinojosa, the holy Abbot of Huerta, abdicated the see in 1192, and was succeeded by Rodrigo.

In 1465 Diego López of Madrid, having usurped the mitre, fortified himself there. Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, the Crown Cardinal of Spain, held this diocese together with the archbishopric of Toledo, and enriched his relations by providing establishments for them at Sigüenza. His successor, Cardinal Bernardino de Carvajal, was dispossessed as a schismatic by pope Julius II for his share in the Conciliabulum of Pisa. After that Garcia de Loaisa, Fernando Valdés, Pedro Paeheco and others held this wealthy see. The castle-palace, modified in various ways, suffered much from the storms of civil war, and was restored by Joaquin Fernandez Cortina, who was bishop from 1848, and the restoration was continued by Bishop Gomez Salazar (1876-79).

Current bishop is José Sánchez González.