sometimes credited to him. The attribution of the Saint
dent Nostre Seigneur, a poem about a relic discovered
at Soissons, which appears in only two manuscripts, is
even less certain.
The Miracles (ca. 30,000 lines) are divided into two
books organized symmetrically. Each begins with a pro-
logue and a series of seven songs in honor of the Virgin.
The fi rst book, begun in 1218 and revised four years
later, contains thirty-fi ve miracles and ends with three
songs in honor of St. Leocadia. The second book, with
twenty-three miracles, was perhaps written between
1223 and 1227. Gautier, who sought to convert the
lapsed and strengthen the faith of the believer, intended
his collection for an unlearned but aristocratic audience,
as he expresses contempt for the vileins.
Gautier found his stories in a collection of Latin Mar-
ian legends in his monastery at Soissons. Although this
manuscript has been lost, enough of its character has
been established to determine the way Gautier treated
his sources. He did not follow his model slavishly but
sometimes expanded it by resorting to other sources and
even drew on events of his own life. In most stories, a
sinner is saved by a single redeeming virtue, usually
devotion to the Virgin. The fi nal sections of the stories,
often satirical attacks on all classes of society, are
original and of great interest to modern readers. Gautier
was a skilled versifi er who made frequent use of rich
and equivocal rhymes. The reactions of modern critics
to this material range from enthusiasm to hostility but
depend largely on their appreciation of the genre rather
than Gautier’s treatment of it.
The songs that begin each book are important in their
own right, for they are the best examples of religious
lyric poetry from the 13th century. Despite his antipathy
to secular literature, Gautier’s lyric poetry was strongly
infl uenced by the secular tradition. If his musical com-
positions were not of the fi rst rank, he was nevertheless
a musician of considerable skill and refi nement.
Further Reading
Gautier de Coinci. Les miracles de Nostre Dame, ed. V. Frederic
Koenig. 4 vols. Geneva: Droz, 1955–70.
——. Miracles de Gautier de Coinci: extraits du manuscrit de
l’Ermitage, ed. Arthur Långfors. Helsinki, 1937.
Drzewicka, A. “La fonction des emprunts à la poésie profane dans
les chansons mariates de Gautier de Coinci.” Moyen âge 91
(1985): 33–51, 179–200.
Ducrot-Granderye, Arlette. Études sur les Miracles Nostre Dame
de Gautier de Coinci. Helsinki, 1932.
Långfors, Arthur. “Mélanges de poésie lyrique, II, III.” Romania
53 (1927): 474–538; 56 (1930): 33–79.
Lommatzsch, Ernst. Gautier de Coincy als Satiriker. Halle:
Niemeyer, 1913.
Verrier, Paul. “La ‘Chanson de Notre Dame’ de Gautier de Co-
inci.” Romania 59 (1933): 497–519; 61 (1935): 97.
Maureen B.M. Boulton
GELMÍREZ, DIEGO, ARCHBISHOP OF
COMPOSTELA
(c. 1070-1140)
This most famous and most powerful ordinary of the
shrine of Santiago de Compostela was a native of Gali-
cia, born about 1070 into a family of the minor nobility
of that province. He probably was educated in part at the
court of Alfonso VI (1065–1109) of León-Castile and
in part within the clerical community of the cathedral.
In 1090, and again in 1096, Gelmírez was the royal ad-
ministrator for the possessions of the then vacant see of
Compostela. In 1094 he had become the notary of Count
Raymond of Galicia (1090–1107), originally from
Burgundy, who held the province by virtue of his mar-
riage to Urraca, daughter of King Alfonso. The choice
of both king and count, Gelmírez was elected bishop
of Compostela perhaps as early as 1098, and certainly
by 1100. He was consecrated on 21 April 1101. The
see to which he succeeded had been famous since the
ninth century as the shrine-church purportedly housing
the relics of the apostle St. James the Great. As the only
site of apostolic remains in the Western world except
Rome, it had long been the destination of pilgrims. In
1095 Pope Urban II had approved the exemption of the
see from its traditional metropolitan, Portuguese Braga,
and made it directly dependent on Rome.
Gelmírez’s major triumph was to secure the transfer
of the former metropolitanate of Visigothic Mérida to
Compostela by Pope Calixtus II in 1120. As a result
Compostela immediately became the metropolitan see
for Ávila, Salamanca, and Coimbra, and Gelmírez, an
archbishop. The suffragan see of Coimbra fi nally could
not be retained, but in the long rivalry for power that
ensued, Compostela ultimately wrested the Galician sees
of Túy, Lugo, Mondoñedo, and Orense away from Braga.
In addition Gelmírez had been named papal legate for
the ecclesiastical provinces of both Braga and Mérida by
Calixtus II, and used his power for the aggrandizement
of his own church. He also hoped to have Compostela
replace Toledo as the primatial see of Iberia, but fell
short of his goal. He was also an energetic reformer of
the church and cathedral chapter of Santiago de Com-
postela, and carried out much of the construction of a
major new Romanesque cathedral there, begun a quarter
of a century earlier.
Gelmírez was also a major political fi gure of the
realm of León–Castile. He was guardian, along with the
Galician magnate Count Pedro of Traba, of the only son
of Count Raymond and Alfonso VI’s daughter, Urraca.
When Urraca succeeded to her father’s realm in 1109
and married King Alfonso I of Aragón (r. 1105–1134),
Gelmírez and Pedro raised a revolt against the royal
couple in the name of the rights of the future Alfonso
VII. The Galician prelate was sometimes the soul of theGELMÍREZ, DIEGO, ARCHBISHOP OF COMPOSTELA