Carranza, Bartolomé dE

Carranza, Bartolomé De, an eminent Spanish theologian and prelate, was born at Miranda. Navarre, in 1503, of noble parents. Having studied theology at Alcala, he entered the order of Dominicans in 1520. He afterward was professor of theology at Valladolid. In 1546 Charles V sent him to the Council of Trent, where he vindicated the rights of bishops, jure divino, against the papal pretensions. Philip of Spain took him (1554) to England, where queen Mary appointed him her confessor, and charged him with the reestablishment of the Roman Church. This office he discharged "with a zeal more worthy of a Spanish inquisitor than of a minister of Jesus Christ," and was rewarded with the archbishopric of Toledo in 1558. On entering his diocese he put forth a catechism, which his enemies made a subject of attack. It was censured by the Inquisitions but sanctioned by the commission of the Council of Trent. A more heavy charge awaited him. A report was circulated that Charles V had not died in the "faith of the Church," and that this was owing to the archbishop of Toledo, who had instilled into his mind "heretical opinions." Carranza was seized by the Inquisition and imprisoned in 1559. After eight years' duress in Spain he was transferred to Rome, where Pius V kept him ten years longer immured in the castle of St. Angelo. In 1576 he was finally acquitted, but was suspended from his episcopal functions for five years, and was compelled to reside in the Dominican cloister of Della Minerva at Rome. He lived only seventeen days afterward, dying May 2, 1576. He wrote,

(1.) Commentarios sobre el Catechismo Christiano (Antwerp, 1558, fol.)

(2.) Summa Conciliorum (Venice, 1546, 8vo): —

(3.) De necessaria residentiâ Episc. et alior. pastorum (Venice, 1547); and several practical treatises. — Biog. Univ. 7:199; Burnet, Hist. of Engl. Reformiatio, 3:381; Bayle, Dictionary, s.v.; Echard, Script. ord. Prapdicatornm, s.v.; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, 8:854; Dupin, Ecclesiastes Writers, cent. 16.