shop: a spiritual leader and military
personage, more influential and wealthy than any prelate in Spain,
excepting the Archbishops of Toledo and Santiago.

During the French invasion in the beginning of the nineteenth century,
Sigueenza had already lost its political significance. The invaders
occupied the castle, and, as was their custom, threw documents and
archives into the fire, to make room for themselves, and to spend the
winter comfortably.

Consequently, the notices we have of the cathedral church are but
scarce. The fourth bishop was Jocelyn, an Englishman who had come over
with Eleanor, Henry II.'s daughter, and married to the King of Castile.
He (the bishop) was not a whit less warlike than his predecessors had
been; he helped the king to win the town of Cuenca, and when he died on
the battle-field, only his right arm was carried back to the see, to the
chapel of St. Thomas of Canterbury, which the dead prelate had founded
in the new cathedral, and it was buried beneath a stone which bears the
following inscription:

"_Hic est inclusa Jocelini praesulis ulna._"

From the above we can conclude that the cathedral must have been begun
previous to the Englishman's coming to Spain, that is, in the beginning
of the twelfth century. Doubtless the vaulting was not closed until at
least one hundred years later; nevertheless, it is one of the unique and
at the same time one of the handsomest Spanish monuments of the
Transition period.

The city of Sigueenza, situated on the slopes of a hill crowned by the
castle, is a village rather than a town; there are, however, fewer spots
in Spain that are more picturesque in their old age, and there is a
certain uniformity in the architecture that reminds one of German towns;
this is not at all characteristic of Spain, where so many styles mix and
mingle until hardly distinguishable from each other.

The Transition style--between the strong Romanesque and the airy
ogival--is the city's _cachet_, printed with particular care on the
handsome cathedral which stands on the slope of the hill to the north of
the castle.

Two massive square towers, crenelated at the top and pierced by a few
round-headed windows, flank the western front. The three portals are
massive Romanesque without floral or sculptural decoration of any kind;
the central door is larger and surmounted by a large though primitive
rosace. The height of the aisles and nave is indicated by three ogival
arches