ALFONSO VIII AND THE PAPACY

Somewhat more than four hundred years ago now, in response to a request from Philip II, the Spanish embassy in Rome picked out two letters to send to Spain and the king from the quite extensive papal-Castilian correspondence concerning the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa. Th e letters were to be used in what was to be a long, drawn-out and ultimately fruitless cause for the canonization of Alfonso VIII of Castile. One of the letters was the Supplicatio generalis, which was Pope Innocent III’s call for a general procession of the clergy and people of Rome, as well