Cardinal-Infante Afonso (23 April 1509–21 April 1540; ; ) was a

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

infante ''Infante'' (, ; f. ''infanta''), also anglicised as Infant or translated as Prince, is the title and rank given in the Iberian kingdoms of Spain (including the predecessor kingdoms of Aragon, Castile, Navarre, and León) and Portugal to t ...

'' (prince), son of

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Manuel I of Portugal Manuel I (; 31 May 146913 December 1521), known as the Fortunate ( pt, O Venturoso), was King of Portugal from 1495 to 1521. A member of the House of Aviz, Manuel was Duke of Beja and Viseu prior to succeeding his cousin, John II of Portugal, a ...

and his wife Maria of Aragon. Because he was the fourth son, after the infantes

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

, Luís, and

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, he was assigned by his father to religious life, and he accumulated numerous ecclesiastical benefits even though he did not have the canonical age required to exercise these dignities. He was successively bishop of Guarda, cardinal, bishop of Viseu, bishop of Évora and finally archbishop of Lisbon.

Life

Afonso was born in

Évora Évora ( , ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. It has 53,591 inhabitants (2021), in an area of 1307.08 km2. It is the historic capital of the Alentejo and serves as the seat of the Évora District. Due to its well-preserved old to ...

on 23 April 1509. He was educated at the Portuguese court; he studied humanities, Greek and Latin directed by two masters Aires de Figueiredo Barbosa and André de Resende. At only three years of age, in 1512, his father Manuel I tried to make him a cardinal;

Pope Julius II Pope Julius II ( la, Iulius II; it, Giulio II; born Giuliano della Rovere; 5 December 144321 February 1513) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 1503 to his death in February 1513. Nicknamed the Warrior Pope or th ...

refused because it was not in accordance with canonical laws, according to which one could not be created a cardinal under 30 years of age. He succeeded in having the pope appoint the young infante as

apostolic protonotary In the Roman Catholic Church, protonotary apostolic (PA; Latin: ''protonotarius apostolicus'') is the title for a member of the highest non-episcopal college of prelates in the Roman Curia or, outside Rome, an honorary prelate on whom the pop ...

in the kingdom of Portugal. Manuel also succeeded in elevating him to bishop of Guarda, at only seven years of age, on September 9, 1516; he obtained papal dispensation for the exercise of the office because he did not yet have the canonical age for the prelature. Even if he did not carry out any pastoral work, he received the income of the bishopric.

Cardinal

After the embassy led by Tristão da Cunha which Manuel I sent to Pope Leo X in 1514, and which left the Roman Curia very impressed, the Portuguese king again proposed his son for the cardinalship. The pope finally agreed to the request of the Portuguese monarch and created a cardinal Alfonso on July 1, 1517, with the title of cardinal-deacon of Santa Lucia in Septisolio. The title was granted on the condition that the cardinal's chapel would not be given to the young infante until the age of eighteen; however, in Portugal he was always treated and revered as a cardinal, before his title had been made official. Meanwhile Alfonso was appointed by the monarch as abbot of Alcobaça, and abbot commendatory of the Monastery of Santa Cruz de Coimbra and of the Convent of San Juan de Tarouca.

Archbishop

On February 23, 1519, he resigned from the seat of Guarda and on the same day was transferred to the diocese of Viseu, again with a dispensation because he was not yet of canonical age. On February 20, 1523, at the age of just fourteen, due to the death of Archbishop Martinho da Costa, he was promoted to Archbishop of Lisbon by

Pope Adrian VI Pope Adrian VI ( la, Hadrianus VI; it, Adriano VI; nl, Adrianus/Adriaan VI), born Adriaan Florensz Boeyens (2 March 1459 – 14 September 1523), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 January 1522 until his d ...

thanks to the supplications of John III, his brother; in the same way, he was offered the government of the bishopric of Évora (in a seat vacant since the previous year). Once again he was granted a special dispensation for not having the canonical age to preside over a diocese. He appointed as his vicar in the Lisbon archdiocese the dean of the cathedral, Fernão Gonçalves, who conducted pastoral affairs during his minority. He established his habitual residence in the city of Évora, just as his younger brother, also dedicated to the ecclesiastical career, the cardinal-infante Don Enrique, would later do. He died on 21 April 1540, in

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

and was buried in

Lisbon Cathedral The Cathedral of Saint Mary Major ( pt, Santa Maria Maior de Lisboa or ''Metropolitan Cathedral of St. Mary Major''), often called Lisbon Cathedral or simply the Sé ('), is a Roman Catholic cathedral located in Lisbon, Portugal. The oldest churc ...

before he was moved to the

Jerónimos Monastery The Jerónimos Monastery or Hieronymites Monastery ( pt, Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, ) is a former monastery of the Order of Saint Jerome near the Tagus river in the parish of Belém, in the Lisbon Municipality, Portugal. It became the necropolis o ...

Ancestry

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Afonso, Infante Of Portugal, Cardinal 1509 births 1540 deaths 16th-century Portuguese cardinals Portuguese infantes Archbishops of Lisbon House of Aviz People from Évora Bishops of Évora Portuguese people of British descent Bishops of Viseu Sons of kings

Life

Cardinal

Archbishop

See also

Ancestry

References