Proceso sobre la ordenación de la iglesia valentina entre los arzobispos de Toledo, Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada, y de Tarragona, Pedro de Albalat (1238-1246) by Vicente Castell Maiques (review)

BOOK REVIEWS85 Yet des Roches' secularity, and his strained relations with his feUow bishops, themselves reveal the latent strength of episcopal soUdarity. Unlike his feUow aliens, des Roches was not exiled under Magna Carta, despite his deep involvement in John's poUcies. Bishops do not banish bishops. SimUarly, although the bishops—many ofthem Langton's protégés—helped bring down des Roches in 1234, his episcopal coUeagues also stood by him after his LaU. Vincent's discussion has impUcations as well for understanding the emergence of a self-consciously EngUsh church.When des Roches became bishop of Winchester in 1205, at least three-fourths of English bishops were aUens. By 1234, only des Roches was clearly not of EngUsh origin. Indeed, as aUen bishops died, their aUen clerks found themselves clustering around des Roches for patronage . ForVincent, this change reveals England's growing insularity foUowing the loss of 1204. It also shows, starkly, the importance of that loss in the longterm development of a national EngUsh church. This book is clearly written, resourcefuUy argued, and displays a nice sense of irony.The volume is also weU produced—I found only three typographical errors (stray commas and a period on pp. 96, 260, and 307). It is essential reading for those concerned either with the evolution of English national identity after the Conquest or with thirteenth-century English politics. Ecclesiastical historians can also profit from it, more than can be noted in a short review. Michael Burger Mississippi Universityfor Women Proceso sobre la ordenación de la iglesia valentina entre los arzobispos de Toledo, Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada, y de Tarragona, Pedro de Albalat (1238-1246). Volumen I: Edición crítica; Volumen II: Estudio. By Vicente CasteU Maiques. (Valencia: CortsValencianes. 1996. Pp. 497, 221 .) The labor of over forty years, these volumes distill a lifetime of scholarship into a single book. Its author,Vicente Castell Maiques, canon-archivist of the Valencian archdiocese,was seeing it through press when he died this past May. He had defended it as a doctoral dissertation at Alicante University tardUy in 1990. Long before then, he had scoured over a dozen archives to reconstruct from partial versions and allied documents this full record of a celebrated medieval trial. In his detective mode he discovered the long-lost final sentencing. When Jaume the Conqueror, ruler ofthe Arago-Catalan realms, took the "kingdom " ofValencia from its Muslim overlords, Castile determined to wrest its ecclesiastical jurisdiction (and thus a measure of its wealth and influence) for the Castilian church. The move pitted against Jaume the great primate-warrior of Toledo, Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada.At a deeper but very visible level it put at loggerheads Jaume ofAragon and St. Fernando III of CastUe, both men formidable conquerors of Islamic Spain. 86BOOK REVIEWS Bitterly fought for nearly a decade, in three phases or trials, the process resulted in a paper victory for CastUe but a diplomatic and practical victory for Aragón, since the sentence in prudent fashion contained no provision for execution . The trial record, under the great lawyer popes Gregory LX and Innocent IV, has transcendental resonance for canon law scholars but is central as weU for Iberian history. Its interest for students of diplomatics and paleography is obvious . The author devotes some 160 pages to a meticulous general introduction, another 160 to analysis of the process itself, and 323 pages to the edition. The approach is closely focused and relentlessly analytical, including constant subdivisions and subtitles for both the edition and the study.WhUe that procedure clarifies the materials at the level of outline, paradoxically it also obscures the narrative flow,becoming both a virtue ofthe work and the only point at which it fails.That is a pity, since the trial record is a very human document, rising at times to hUarity as the legal shenanigans multiply. (Delaying tactics and lawyers' tricks were the only real hope for the Aragonese.) The narrative lack may be suppked from my Crusader Kingdom ofValencia,1 done from previous incomplete editions. The edition by CasteU Maiques brings closure by the newly discovered episodes. It also stands as a model of exhaustive scholarship and editing, leaving no...