Roman Catholic Diocese of Ciudad Rodrigo

Diocese of Ciudad Rodrigo
Dioecesis Civitatensis
Diócesis de Ciudad Rodrigo

Location
Country Spain
Ecclesiastical province Valladolid
Metropolitan Valladolid
Statistics
Area 4,264 km2 (1,646 sq mi)
Population
- Total
- Catholics		 (as of 2006)
45,474
44,487 (97.8%)
Information
Denomination Roman Catholic
Rite Latin Rite
Established 1168
Cathedral Cathedral of St Mary in Ciudad Rodrigo
Current leadership
Pope Francis
Bishop Raúl Cecilio Berzosa Martínez
Metropolitan Archbishop Ricardo Blázquez
Map
Website
Website of the Diocese

The Diocese of Ciudad Rodrigo (Latin: Dioecesis Civitatensis) is a Roman Catholic diocese in Spain, located in the city of Ciudad Rodrigo in the ecclesiastical province of Valladolid.

Foundation

The origins of the diocese of Ciudad Rodrigo have been studied in depth in two papers by Fidel Fita.[1] The exact date when the town was conquered is unknown, but it was purchased by the citizens of Salamanca about 1135.[2] They controlled it until 1161, when it was annexed to the royal domain by king Ferdinand II, who built a castle for the defence of the frontier and founded the diocese as well as two monasteries. The move provoked hostility: the Salamancans revolted in 1162[3] and Portugal, threatened by a new royal fortress so near its border, invaded in 1163.[4]

When Ferdinand II founded the diocese in 1161, he claimed only to be re-establishing the ancient diocese of Caliabria, the location of which was in fact unknown. On 13 February Ferdinand issued a charter (called the fuero eclesiástico) for the new diocese, in which he gave the metropolitan Archbishop of Santiago de Compostela full authority to appoint the bishop without reference to the cathedral chapter. The king did not consult the pope, Alexander III, who showed he was displeased by the fuero in a bull of 1175. By that time it may have even been allowed to lapse, since a further royal charter of 20 September 1168 does not mention the special provision of 1161. It is uncertain how the first bishop, Domingo, came into his office, or even when. He is not recorded in any document before 1168 and he was dead by 1172 or 1173.[4] Of the early bishops, only Pedro de Ponte is well-known. Martín (1190–1211) and Lombardo (1214–27) are known only from the witness lists of royal charters and from Martín's stint as a papal judge-delegate.[5]

The Almohads attacked the city (Alsibdat in Arabic sources) in 1174, the same year that a dispute over the boundary between the diocese of Ciudad Rodrigo and that of Salamanca was settled. The diocese was bounded to the north and east by the rivers Huebra, Yeltes and Duero. Its southern frontier was desolate and extended to the diocese of Coria. To its west lay Portugal.[4]

Bishop Raúl Berzosa

Leadership

Notes

  1. ↑ "La Diócesis y Fuero Eclesiástico de Ciudad Rodrigo", Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 61 (1912): 437–48; "El Papa Alejandro III y la Diócesis de Ciudad Rodrigo", Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 62 (1913): 142–57.
  2. ↑ H. Grassotti, "Sobre una concesión de Alfonso VII a la iglesia salmantina", Cuadernos de Historia de España 49, 1 (1969), 347–48.
  3. ↑ Such urban revolts were not uncommon in León, cf. Mutiny of the Trout.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Richard A. Fletcher, The Episcopate in the Kingdom of León in the Twelfth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978), 35–36.
  5. ↑ Fletcher, Episcopate, 36–37. He notes that Lombardo may have been the archdeacon of Medina and Alba in the diocese of Salamanca before becoming bishop.

Source