The Cid
Ravager of Churches?
Abstract
The true relationship between the historical Cid and the Christian religion has been scarcely studied in our days. The opinions of scholars from previous centuries, who presented the Cid as the hero of a religious reconquest, are assumed to be true. When reassessing this key aspect, it is helpful to carefully study two episodes: that of the coffers full of sand in the Poema de Mío Cid and the letter exchange with count Ramón Berenguer in the Historia Roderici. The revision of these episodes will shed new light on this problem.