Meyer Schapiro’s ‘Road not Taken’: San Millán de la Cogolla and Resistance to the Roman Rite

Abstract

Meyer Schapiro’s landmark article, ‘From Mozarabic to Romanesque at Silos’, advanced the notion that visual evidence for resistance to the newly adopted Roman rite (Council of Burgos, 1080) could be found in the art and architecture of the monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos. This article suggests that Schapiro’s inquiry could have been more successfully pursued at the Riojan monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla, the only site where written evidence for this resistance is preserved. This study considers the Arca of San Felices and its Romanesque ivories (c. 1090) in the context of sweeping political and religious changes that threatened the cult of Emilian, the monastery’s patron saint, who was venerated in the Old Hispanic rite and whose remains were translated to their own deluxe shrine earlier in the century. That efforts were again marshalled to promote Felix, an obscure local hermit who was once Emilian’s teacher, are presented here as a form of resistance to the imposition of the Roman rite.