Pedro Suárez de Deza (died 1206) was a Spanish prelate, the

bishop of Salamanca The Roman Catholic Diocese of Salamanca ( la, Dioecesis Salmantina) is a diocese located in the city of Salamanca in the Ecclesiastical province of Valladolid in Spain.archbishopric of Santiago de Compostela in 1173, where he remained until his death. In 1183 he served as

chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

of the

kingdom of León The Kingdom of León; es, Reino de León; gl, Reino de León; pt, Reino de Leão; la, Regnum Legionense; mwl, Reino de Lhion was an independent kingdom situated in the northwest region of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded in 910 when t ...

. Of his stature in the Leonese kingdom, Roger Wright claims that he "would probably be now ... widely celebrated ... if he had only had a biographer", like his predecessor,

Diego Gelmírez Diego Gelmírez or Xelmírez ( la, Didacus Gelmirici; c. 1069 – c. 1140) was the second bishop (from 1100) and first archbishop (from 1120) of the Catholic Archdiocese of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, modern Spain. He is a prominent fig ...

, did.

T%C3%ADmpano_del_p%C3%B3rtico_de_la_gloria

A native of Galicia, Pedro was probably educated at the

University of Paris , image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of Arms , latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis , motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin) , mottoeng = Here and a ...

, where he earned the title of '' magister''. Letters he later received from

Pope Innocent III Pope Innocent III ( la, Innocentius III; 1160 or 1161 – 16 July 1216), born Lotario dei Conti di Segni (anglicized as Lothar of Segni), was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 8 January 1198 to his death in 16 J ...

indicate that he had studied and taught theology at some point. He is in fact the only Leonese bishop of the twelfth century known to have studied theology. He introduced reformed

medieval Latin Medieval Latin was the form of Literary Latin used in Roman Catholic Western Europe during the Middle Ages. In this region it served as the primary written language, though local languages were also written to varying degrees. Latin functioned ...

orthography to the see of Salamanca and may also have introduced in the Leonese chancery. Perhaps also in

canon law Canon law (from grc, κανών, , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its members. It is th ...

, at Compostela he patronised canon lawyers like Bernardus Compostellanus Antiquus. By August 1162, Pedro had returned from Paris to Compostela and was probably a

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western ca ...

there. He was appointed a chancellor by King Ferdinand II in 1165. By 1166 he had become an

archdeacon An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, St Thomas Christians, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denominations, above that o ...

at Compostela and was working in the household of Archbishop Martín Martínez. He was consecrated to the see of Salamanca by

Pope Alexander III Pope Alexander III (c. 1100/1105 – 30 August 1181), born Roland ( it, Rolando), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 7 September 1159 until his death in 1181. A native of Siena, Alexander became pope after a con ...

in Rome. As bishop of Salamanca, Pedro worked to achieve harmony with his fellow bishops. He negotiated an agreement of confraternity between the

cathedral chapter According to both Catholic and Anglican canon law, a cathedral chapter is a college of clerics ( chapter) formed to advise a bishop and, in the case of a vacancy of the episcopal see in some countries, to govern the diocese during the vacancy. In ...

s of Salamanca and the neighbouring diocese of Ávila across the border in Castile. He negotiated settlements to boundary disputes with the diocese of Ciudad Rodrigo, drew the diocese of Salamanca into closer relations with the papacy and supported the new Spanish military orders, the

Order of Santiago The Order of Santiago (; es, Orden de Santiago ), is a religious and military order founded in the 12th century. It owes its name to the Patron Saint of Spain, "Santiago" ( St. James the Greater). Its initial objective was to protect the pilgr ...

and

Order of Alcántara The Order of Alcántara ( Leonese: ''Orde de Alcántara'', es, Orden de Alcántara), also called the Knights of St. Julian, was originally a military order of León, founded in 1166 and confirmed by Pope Alexander III in 1177. Alcántara Alc ...

. So far as was possible, he maintained good relations with both his own king and the king of Castile,

Alfonso VIII Alfonso VIII (11 November 11555 October 1214), called the Noble (''El Noble'') or the one of Las Navas (''el de las Navas''), was King of Castile from 1158 to his death and King of Toledo. After having suffered a great defeat with his own army at ...

, who were often at odds. It is probable, although contemporary evidence does not survive, that intellectual life first flourished at Salamanca under him. In 1173, he was translated to the see of Santiago. His successor at Salamanca, Vitalis, had perhaps been his protégé. The bishop of Zamora from 1193 to 1217, Martín Arias, was likely also a protégé of Pedro. The sources for Pedro's long 33-year tenure of the archdiocese of Santiago are surprisingly meagre. He came to the see of decades of disruption, which culminated in the dispute with the king in 1160–61. Much of the diocese's

temporalities Temporalities or temporal goods are the secular properties and possessions of the church. The term is most often used to describe those properties (a ''Stift'' in German or ''sticht'' in Dutch) that were used to support a bishop or other religious ...

had been annexed by the crown or usurped by the Galician aristocracy, and the

suffragan A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Anglican Communion, a suffragan bishop is a bishop who is subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or diocesan bishop (bishop ordinary) and so is not normally jurisdictiona ...

dioceses did not acknowledge the archbishop's authority. Pedro nonetheless maintained good relations with the Ferdinand II and

Alfonso IX Alphons (Latinized ''Alphonsus'', ''Adelphonsus'', or ''Adefonsus'') is a male given name recorded from the 8th century (Alfonso I of Asturias, r. 739–757) in the Christian successor states of the Visigothic kingdom in the Iberian peninsula. ...

, even when the kingdom came under papal interdict because of Alfonso's incestuous marriage. He also settled many disputes with the nobility. In 1176, Pedro accompanied the king on his expedition against

Jerez Jerez de la Frontera (), or simply Jerez (), is a Spanish city and municipality in the province of Cádiz in the autonomous community of Andalusia, in southwestern Spain, located midway between the Atlantic Ocean and the Cádiz Mountains. , the c ...

. Pedro reformed the administration of the archdiocese and enacted regulations for the cathedral chapter. He secured a steady revenue through the '' votos de Santiago'', regular donations to the Saint James in gratitude for his military assistance. The construction of the cathedral of Saint James, suspended between 1140 and 1173, he resumed. During his episcopate the

Portico of Glory The Portico of Glory ( gl, Pórtico da Gloria) of Santiago de Compostela Cathedral is a Romanesque portico and the cathedral's main gate created by Master Mateo and his workshop, on the orders of King Ferdinand II of León. The king donated to ...

was added. At Compostela, Pedro maintained a close relationship with the papacy as he had done in Salamanca. He received papal support for his reforms, and he attended the

Third Lateran Council The Third Council of the Lateran met in Rome in March 1179. Pope Alexander III presided and 302 bishops attended. The Catholic Church regards it as the eleventh ecumenical council. By agreement reached at the Peace of Venice in 1177 the bitter ...

in 1179. From Innocent III he got rulings that the dioceses of

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 ...

, Idanha,

Lamego Lamego (; cel-x-proto, Lamecum) is a city and municipality in the Viseu District, in the Norte Region of the Douro in northern Portugal. Located on the shores of the Balsemão River, the municipality has a population of 26,691, in an area of 165 ...

and

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 ...

were his suffragans, but he had to give up claims on

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of . The fourth-largest urban area in Portugal after Lisbon, Porto Metropolitan Area, Porto, and Bra ...

and

Viseu Viseu () is a city and municipality in the Centro Region of Portugal and the capital of the district of the same name, with a population of 100,000 inhabitants, and center of the Viseu Dão Lafões intermunipical community, with 267,633 inhabi ...

. He did not receive a ruling on Zamora.

Notes

Sources

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pedro Suarez de Deza 1206 deaths Bishops of Salamanca Archbishops of Santiago de Compostela