Pelagius (or Pelayo) of Oviedo (died 28 January 1153) was a medieval ecclesiastic, historian, and forger who served the Diocese of Oviedo as an auxiliary bishop from 1098 and as bishop from 1102 until his deposition in 1130 and again from 1142 to 1143. He was an active and independent-minded prelate, who zealously defended the privileges and prestige of his diocese. During his episcopal tenure he oversaw the most productive scriptorium in Spain, which produced the vast Corpus Pelagianum,A catalogue of the Corpus can be found in the Inventario General de Manuscritos de la Biblioteca Nacional, IV (Madrid: 1958), no. 1513, pp. 401–4. to which Pelagius contributed his own Chronicon regum Legionensium ("chronicle of the Kings of León"). His work as a historian is generally reliable, but for the forged, interpolated, and otherwise skilfully altered documents that emanated from his office he has been called el Fabulador ("the Fabulist")According to Simon Barton and Richard A. Fletcher (2000), The World of El Cid: Chronicles of the Spanish Reconquest (Manchester: Manchester University Press), p. 65 and n3, this comes from M. G. Martínez (1964), "Regesta de Don Pelayo, obispo de Oviedo," Boletín del Instituto de Estudios Asturianos, 18:211–48. and the "prince of falsifiers".According to Barton and Fletcher, p. 70, the sobriquet was coined by Peter A. Linehan (1982), "Religion, Nationalism and National Identity in Medieval Spain and Portugal," Religion and National Identity, ed. S. Mews, Studies in Church History, 18 (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 161–99, at p. 162. Linehan (1993) History and the Historians of Medieval Spain (Oxford), 78, also remarks that Pelagius "was a giant amongst falsifiers in an age which provided him with keen competition and ample opportunity." It has been suggested that a monument be built in his honour in Oviedo.Vicente J. González García, "El obispo don Pelayo, clave para el estudio de la historia de Asturias", El Basilisco, 8 (1979), 72–84.
Life The date and place of Pelagius' birth are unknown. The Liber testamentorum includes a genealogy that suggests that Pelagius may have been related to the western Asturian families that founded the monasteries of Coria and Lapedo. He also made a donation to his own canons of properties he owned in Villamoros and Trobajuelo, near León, suggesting perhaps a Leonese connexion.Barton and Fletcher, pp. 65–66.
The earliest known reference to Pelagius is as a deacon at Oviedo in 1096. He was an archdeacon there in 1097. His consecration as the auxiliary of bishop Martin I took place on 29 December 1098.Bernard F. Reilly (1982), The Kingdom of León-Castilla under Queen Urraca, 1109–1126 (Princeton: Princeton University Press), p. 32 n66. He succeeded Martin four years later, as the choice of Alfonso VI,Bernard F. Reilly (1988), The Kingdom of León-Castilla under King Alfonso VI, 1065–1109 (Princeton: Princeton University Press), p. 14 and n1. and with vigour took up the defence of his church's properties and jurisdictions. The Archbishop of Toledo (1086), Bernard de Sedirac, sought to incorporate the sees of Oviedo, León, and Palencia into his province as suffragans. In 1099 Pope Urban II gave the order. In 1104, Pelagius of Oviedo and Peter of León went to Rome to plead their case to the new pope, Paschal II, who granted them a privilege of exemption and made them dependent directly on Rome (1105).Barton and Fletcher, p. 69. At the same time (1104), Pelagius engaged in lawsuits with the count Fernando Díaz, the countess Enderquina Muñoz, and the abbot of Corias to maintain his rights of seignory within Asturias.Barton and Fletcher, pp. 67–68. He was also involved in jurisdictional battles with the neighbouring sees of Burgos (over Asturias de Santillana) and Lugo, and between 1109 and 1113 had to fight off the metropolitan claims of the Archdiocese of Braga as well. In 1121 the Archdiocese of Toledo successfully petitioned Pope Callistus II to remove Paschal's 1105 exemption, though this was regained in 1122.
Pelagius was generally on good terms with Alfonso VI (died 1109) and his successor, Urraca (died 1126). After 1106 no new Count of Asturias was appointed and it seems that the title lapsed, while a castellan, a novus homo, with lesser authority replaced the last count. This was probably in the interests of Pelagius and his authority, since the county of Asturias corresponded to the centre of his diocese.Reilly (1982), pp. 286–87. The bishop gave Urraca political support against both her husband, Alfonso the Battler of Aragon, and her son, the future Alfonso VII, who was in conflict with his mother after 1110. She in turn made grants to Oviedo on three separate occasions, in 1112, 1118, and 1120 and Pelagius was the dominant Asturian at court, confirming fifteen royal charters during her reign.Reilly (1982), p. 221. Pelagius had a part in reconciling the queen and her son at a council of the realm in Sahagún (1116). After Alfonso's accession he never recovered his importance, rarely appearing at the new king's court and never receiving a gift from him.On the relationship between Pelagius and Urraca, see Barton and Fletcher, p. 67. The grant of 1120 has been partially interpolated, cf. Reilly (1982), p. 79 and n107. The source for his rôle at Sahagún is the Historia Compostelana, I.cxiii (in Enrique Flórez, ed., España Sagrada, XX).
In 1130 Pelagius was deposed by a synod held under Cardinal Humbert at Carrión, along with Diego and Munio, bishops of León and Salamanca, and the abbot of Samos, because they had opposed the marriage of Alfonso VII and Berenguela of Barcelona (1127) on grounds of consanguinity. Their deposition was politically motivated, engineered by Alfonso and the prelate Diego Gelmírez.Barton and Fletcher, p. 66, citing Bernard F. Reilly (1978), "On Getting to be Bishop in León-Castile: the 'Emperor' Alfonso VII and the Post-Gregorian Church," Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History, 1:37–68, esp. pp. 48–51. During the last decades of the eleventh century and the first of the twelfth, Santiago de Compostela became one of the leading centres of pilgrimage among the Catholic faithful, aided by the efforts of its archbishop, Diego Gelmírez. The rivalry between Pelagius and Diego can be seen in the former's attempt to establish Oviedo as a comparable destination for pilgrims, by expanding the cult of the relics of the Cathedral of San Salvador, most importantly the alleged Sudarium of Christ.S. Suárez Beltrán (1993), "Los orígenes y la expansión del culto a las reliquias de San Salvador de Oviedo," Las peregrinaciones a Santiago de Compostela y San Salvador de Oviedo en la Edad Media, ed. J. I. Ruíz de la Peña Solar (Oviedo), pp. 37–55, esp. pp. 46–51, has yet to be consulted. He has even been credited with the creation of the Arca Santa to house his cathedral's relics.Julie A. Harris (1995), "Redating the Arca Santa of Oviedo," The Art Bulletin, 77(1):82–93.
Pelagius continued to live in Oviedo and be addressed as bishop. When his successor, Alfonso, died in January 1142, Pelagius took up the diocesan administration again until early in the summer of 1143.Barton and Fletcher, p. 66 and n10. Pelagius is named as Bishop of Oviedo in documents of March and April 1142 and March 1143. By June the see was being administered by Froila Garcés, the archdeacon, and in September Martin II was elected bishop at a council in Valladolid. He had planned his own funeral and had reserved a space in the Cathedral of San Salvador for his burial. Nevertheless, his death came unexpectedly while he was visiting Santillana del Mar, and there he was buried.
Corpus Pelagianum Among Pelagius writings is a short treatise on the origins of the cities of León, Oviedo, Toledo, and Zaragoza in 1142.Edited in Manuel Risco (1793), España Sagrada, 38:372–76. In the sixteenth century Ambrosio de Morales discovered a manuscript titled "Many Genealogies of the Scripture until Our Lady and Saint Anne", a genealogy of the Virgin Mary and Saint Anne ascribed to Pelagius, in the cathedral library of Oviedo. It contained several historical texts under the heading "Itacius", after the first of them, the chronicle by Hydatius. This manuscript has since been lost, but it demonstrates an especial interest of Pelagius' in the extended family of Jesus and his maternal grandmother.Harris, 90.
Liber chronicorum Pelagius' original ChroniconThe definitive modern edition is Benito Sánchez Alonso (1924), Crónica del Obispo Don Pelayo (Madrid). A partial Spanish translation is available by J. E. Casariego (1985), Crónicas de los reinos de Asturias y de León (León), pp. 172–81. An English translation can be found in Barton and Fletcher, pp. 74–89. was composed as a continuation of a series of chronicles which he gathered together and had copied into the Liber chronicorum, the principal part of the Corpus Pelagianum. These included the Historia Gothorum of Isidore, the Chronica ad Sebastianum, and the Chronicon of Sampiro (which was heavily interpolated, but ultimately truncated).For the relationship between Pelagius and Sampiro, see Justo Pérez de Urbel (1951), "Pelayo de Oviedo y Sampiro de Astorga", Hispania, 11(44):387–412. Altogether these form the Liber chronicorum ("Book of Chronicles") which was finalised in 1132, when its preface, with an index, was composed.
Pelagius' original chronicle, that known as Chronicon regum Legionensium, was completed sometime after 1121, since it refers to the marriage of Alfonso VI's daughter Sancha to Rodrigo González, who is given the title Count.Rodrigo did not become Count until 1121 and the first reference to his marriage dates to July 1122. Additionally, Pelagius refers to the marriage of Elvira, daughter of Alfonso VI, to Roger II of Sicily in 1118 (cf. Reilly, p. 14). The Chronicon can be found in twenty-four manuscripts, the earliest dating to the late twelfth century.Barton and Fletcher, 71. It begins with the rise of Vermudo II in 982 and ends with the death of Alfonso VI in 1109. Pelagius' work as a historian has been contrasted with that of the contemporary anonymous authors of the Historia seminense and the Chronica Adefonsi imperatoris. Pelagius' Latin is "unsophisticated and workmanlike ... [lacking] the verve and the rhetorical flourishes" of the Historia, and he does not display the "conspicuous erudition" of either. Pelagius probably drew up his history in haste with a minimum of preparation.