Carthagena, Don Alfonso De

Carthagena, Don Alfonso De a Spanish prelate, was born a Jew. He was a son of Paulus Burgensis (q.v.), and was baptized, together with his three brothers, at the time when his father professed Christianity, in 1392. After his father's death he succeeded him in the bishopric; when the Council of Basle was convened, in 1431, he was a representative of Castile, and was treated with great honor, on account of his talents and distinguished excellence. Laeneas Sylvius, afterwards pope Pius II, called him, in his memoirs, "an ornament to the prelacy." Pope Eugenius IV, learning that the bishop of Burgos was about to visit Rome, declared in full conclave "that in the presence of such a mall he felt ashamed to be seated in St. Peter's chair." Spanish historians speak very highly of him. He died in 1456. Among his writings we notice, Chronicles of the Kings of Spain. — A Treatise on Christian Morality; or, Instruction for Knights, and Memorials of Virtue; both of the foregoing works were written in Latin and Spanish, and dedicated to prince Edward, afterwards king of Portugal: Commentary on the 26th Psalm: — Homily on Prayer. See Jocher, Allgemeines Gelehrten-Lexikon, s.v.; Da Costa, Israel and the Gentiles, p. 323 sq. (B. P.)