Munio, bishop of Calahorra, (1066-1080): defender of the mozarabic rite? Review of the documentary test

Abstract

The episcopate of Munio, Bishop of Calahorra (1066-1080) coincided with the suppression within the Castilian church of the indigenous Mozarabic rite, and its substitution with the Roman liturgy. For centuries, historians of the Spanish church have upheld the tradition, based on the evidence of eleventh- and twelfth-century sources, that Munio occupied a position at the forefront of a powerful Castilian clerical defence of the Mozarabic rite. However, careful analysis of the documentary evidence reveals this tradition to be a fallacy, and the source from which it principally sprung to constitute a deliberate exercise in misinformation. On the other hand, the circumstances that surrounded the fabrication, towards the beginning of the twelfth century, of the story of Munio’s defensive heroism have interesting implications that may reveal different ways in which Munio of Calahorra can be associated with a clerical resistance to the imposition of the Roman rite.