at jerome's arrival in valencia, rodrigo gave him a property at yubayla (now el puig), which had been conquered in july 1093. after the conquest of valencia in 1094, rodrigo wanted to replace the native bishop of the mozarabic rite with one of the latin rite. according to a later source, he asked bernard of sedirac to send him a new bishop for valencia. if jerome was sent by bernard, he was sent as a mere priest, not yet consecrated a bishop. according to a document drawn up for rodrigo, jerome was "canonically elected with the agreement of the people" in valencia. he then travelled to rome to be consecrated "by the pope's hand" ("per roman pontificis manus"), becoming thereby the first bishop of valencia in connection with the wider church in about a century. the dates of his election as bishop and of his trip to rome are not clear. sometime after the conquest of murviedro on 24 june 1098, the old mosque of valencia was consecrated as the new cathedral dedicated to the virgin mary. that same year, after the consecration of the new cathedral, rodrigo made the church a large endowment of his personal property. the charter of this endowment, possibly drawn up by jerome himself, survives in its original form with rodrigo's autograph. jerome and the priests of the cathedral then pronounced excommunication and anathema on anyone who would deprive the church of this gift. the charter also specifies that jerome "raised by a special privilege of freedom" ("specialis priuilegii libertate sublimato") from the pope, probably a reference the church of valencia being exempted from any metropolitan authority and being subject only to the pope. the charter implies that jerome was not elevated to the bishopric until after the consecration of the new cathedral, but historian bernard reilly has argued that jerome's trip to rome must be placed in the first half of 1098.