ABSTRACT
The activity on the part of the Popes to secure centralization was a reaction from their former apathy. In 991, Bishop Arnulf of Orleans had taxed the Papacy with being responsible, not only for the schisms of Constantinople and Alexandria, but for the isolation from Rome of the interior regions of Spain. To all appearances, Spain had dissented from the Roman Church, which no doubt accounted for the exaggerated importance attached to the action of the Bishop of Compostela, when, led away by his aspirations to the primacy of Spain, he arrogated to himself the title of “Bishop of the Apostolic See”. For so doing he was excommunicated by Leo IX at the Synod of Rheims (October, 1049), but, in spite of this, the title was still being employed without question in 1088.
