The fishers’ league, or guild, was called _Gremio de la Cofradia del Cuerpo Santo_, and the merchant fishermen called themselves _Mareantes_: they had their own ordinances, laws, and regulations, and, being an extremely powerful and wealthy body, they had control of all municipal affairs, and always came off best in any dispute with their neighbours. In gratitude to Heaven for the prosperity which they enjoyed, these merchant fishers subscribed money to build a church worthy of their town, and the result was the beautiful edifice of _Santa Maria la Grande_. The money was not subscribed all at once in a lump sum, but different parts of the church were built at the expense of the various donors. In the façade to the right of the principal entrance is an inscription giving the name of a _Mareante_--Bartolamé Trigo--and stating exactly what part of the wall had been paid for out of his pocket. Now, two Bartolames figure in the local documents of the fifteenth century, one young and one old, so that, in spite of all his care, we cannot be sure whether this donor was the son or the father. Inside the church there are many more such inscriptions on the walls and on the pillars. Sometimes the wife’s name figures beside that of the husband, as for instance in the oldest of the side chapels, where we find an inscription giving the names of Juan de Barbeito and his wife Taresa, and stating that they were the founders of the chapel; it is the oldest of all the inscriptions. Here is one from the right wall beneath the choir[250]-- AQUI: MANDOV: FAZER JUAN: DECELIS: E SU MUGE R: DUAS: BRACAS: DE PAPEDE Juan de Celis was an influential _Mareante_ of the early days of the sixteenth century. But my readers must not think that the church, because each paid for his own bit of work, was like a patchwork quilt, with work of all shapes and sizes. It is, on the contrary, a remarkably beautiful edifice, and the only patchwork about it results from a fusion of several styles of architecture. Here we find, it is true, the Gothic merging into the Renaissance style, but the fusion is brought about with consummate skill, and, in the opinion of those most competent to judge, the architect could not have succeeded better; he had to keep in touch with the art of the thirteenth century, and at the same time to introduce [Illustration: RUINED CHURCH AT CAMBADOS] [Illustration: INTERIOR OF SANTA MARIA, PONTEVEDRA] [Illustration: THE CHURCH OF SANTA MARIA LA GRANDE AND HOUSES ONCE INHABITED BY MERCHANT FISHERMEN, PONTEVEDRA] the later element of the neo-Græco-Roman or _plateresque_. The result is a harmonious combination which deserves the highest praise. The nearest English equivalent to the predominating style is what we call “Tudor.”