ret, broken by later Gothic pediments, crosses
the one remaining. Above all soars the dome, the inspiration of our
greatest American Romanesque temple, Trinity Church in Boston.

At the end of the twelfth century the houses of a sacrilegious Salamanca
gentleman were confiscated and given to the Cathedral Chapter, who
forthwith began the cloisters upon their site. They lie to the south and
thus came to be planned and built into the original fabric and with
Romanesque arches and wooden roof. They were practically entirely
rebuilt in the fifteenth century and again restored in the eighteenth.
Curious, elaborate, vaulted chapels--in one of which the Mozarabic rite,
the ancient Gothic ritual prolonged under Moslem rule, is still
occasionally celebrated--adjoin it to the east and south. Recently, old
Byzantine niches and tombs, some of great interest, have been uncovered
in the outer walls.

II

"Most Reverend Father in Christ, Lord Cardinal, our much beloved and
very dear Friend; We the King and the Queen of Castile, of Leon, and of
Aragon, Sicily, etc., send this to salute you, as one whom we love and
esteem highly, and to show we desire God may give life, health, and
honor, even to the extent of your own desire. We inform you that the
City of Salamanca is one of the most notable, populous, and principal
cities of our kingdoms, in which there is a society of scholars, and
where all sciences may be studied, and to which people from all states
continually come. The Cathedral Church of the said city is very small,
dark, and low, to such an extent that the divine services cannot be
celebrated in such a manner as they should be, especially during
feast-days when a large concourse of people streams to the Cathedral,
and by the Grace of God, the said city increases and enlarges day by
day. And considering the extreme narrowness of the said Church, the
Administrator and Dean and Chapter have agreed to rebuild it, making it
as large as is necessary and convenient, according to the population of
the said city. This furthermore as the form and the fabric of the said
Church cannot be rebuilt without disfigurement. And in order to build
better and promptly, as the said Church has a very small income, it is
necessary that our most Holy Father concede some indulgences in the form
that the Bishops of Vadajos and Astorga, our agents and emissaries to
your Court, will tell your Reverend Fatherhood, and we request you to
beseech His Holi