The Missionary and the Moorslayer: James the Apostle in Spanish Historiography from Isidore of Seville to Ambrosio de Morales

Abstract

For over a millennium, the relics of James the Apostle (Santiago) were widely believed to lie in Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain. A closely related legend was that James had traveled to Spain and preached the Gospel there in the first century. Both beliefs, firmly established by the ninth century, are usually thought to have prevailed until the critiques of the Counter-Reformation historians Bellarmine and Baronius in the later sixteenth century. The present study shows, however, that medieval Spanish historians did not consider Santiago the founder of the Spanish Church. While most historians writing between 1100 and 1450 upheld the tradition of the translation of the apostle’s relics to Compostela, they did not consistently maintain that he had come to Spain during his lifetime. The tradition of “the coming of the apostle” only become a central part of national historiography in the Renaissance, when humanist historians began to seek apostolic origins for Spanish Catholicism. The tradition was further consolidated during the Counter-Reformation, as part of a defensive response to Protestant challenges to the cult of the saints.

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