Rodrigo Sánchez de Arévalo ( la, Rodericus Zamorensis;
Santa María la Real de Nieva
Santa María la Real de Nieva is a municipality located in the Segovia (province), province of Segovia, Castile and León, Spain, about 30 km (18 mi) northwest of Segovia town. According to the 2010 census (Instituto Nacional de Estadís ...
, diocese of
Segovia
Segovia ( , , ) is a city in the autonomous community of Castile and León, Spain. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the Province of Segovia.
Segovia is in the Inner Plateau (''Meseta central''), near the northern slopes of th ...
, 1404 – 4 October 1470) was a Spanish churchman, historian and political theorist.
A learned Spanish bishop, after studying law at
Salamanca
Salamanca () is a city in western Spain and is the capital of the Province of Salamanca in the autonomous community of Castile and León. The city lies on several rolling hills by the Tormes River. Its Old City was declared a UNESCO World Heritag ...
for ten years and there graduating as Doctor, he became secretary to
John II of Castile
John II of Castile ( es, link=no, Juan; 6 March 1405 – 20 July 1454) was King of Castile and León from 1406 to 1454. He succeeded his older sister, Maria of Castile, Queen of Aragon, as Prince of Asturias in 1405.
Regency
John was the ...
, and
Henry IV of Castile
Henry IV of Castile ( Castilian: ''Enrique IV''; 5 January 1425 – 11 December 1474), King of Castile and León, nicknamed the Impotent, was the last of the weak late-medieval kings of Castile and León. During Henry's reign, the nobles became ...
. They employed him as envoy on various missions, notably to the
Holy See
The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of Rome ...
apropos of the
Council of Basle
The Council of Florence is the seventeenth ecumenical council recognized by the Catholic Church, held between 1431 and 1449. It was convoked as the Council of Basel by Pope Martin V shortly before his death in February 1431 and took place in ...
, whose conciliarist theories he opposed. While on a mission to the Holy Roman Empire, he was addressed in a letter by
Nicholas of Cusa
Nicholas of Cusa (1401 – 11 August 1464), also referred to as Nicholas of Kues and Nicolaus Cusanus (), was a German Catholic cardinal, philosopher, theologian, jurist, mathematician, and astronomer. One of the first German proponents of Renai ...
setting forth the latter's theory of ''explicatio Petri'', the unfolding of the Church from Peter.
In 1450 Arévalo gave the annual encomium in honor of
St. Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest who was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known ...
at the Church of
Santa Maria sopra Minerva to the academic community of the College of St. Thomas, the forerunner of the
Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, ''Angelicum''.
After the elevation of
Calixtus III
Pope Callixtus III ( it, Callisto III, va, Calixt III, es, Calixto III; 31 December 1378 – 6 August 1458), born Alfonso de Borgia ( va, Alfons de Borja), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 8 April 1455 to his ...
, he remained at Rome, became
Bishop of Oviedo
The Archdiocese of Oviedo ( la, Oveten(sis), links=no) is an Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Spain. in Spain, and later commander of the papal fortress, the
Castel Sant'Angelo
The Mausoleum of Hadrian, usually known as Castel Sant'Angelo (; English: ''Castle of the Holy Angel''), is a towering cylindrical building in Parco Adriano, Rome, Italy. It was initially commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a mausol ...
, under
Paul II, who transferred him successively to the Spanish sees of
Zamora,
Calahorra
Calahorra [] ( an, Calagorra, la, Calagurris) is a municipality in the comarca of Rioja Baja, near the border with Navarre on the right bank of the Ebro. During Ancient Rome, Ancient Roman times, Calahorra was a municipium known as ''Calagurris ...
, and
Palencia
Palencia () is a city of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the province of Palencia.
Located in the Northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, in the northern half o ...
. Rodrigo was the jailer of
Julius Pomponius Laetus
Julius Pomponius Laetus (1428 – 9 June 1498), also known as Giulio Pomponio Leto, was an Italian humanist.
Background
Laetus was born at Teggiano, near Salerno, the illegitimate scion of the princely house of Sanseverino, the German historian L ...
(Giulio Pomponio Leto),
Bartolomeo Platina
Bartolomeo Sacchi (; 1421 – 21 September 1481), known as Platina (in Italian ''il Platina'' ) after his birthplace (Piadena), and commonly referred to in English as Bartolomeo Platina, was an Italian Renaissance humanist writer and gastro ...
and other members of the
Academia Romana (Roman Academy) suspected of conspiracy by Pope Paul.
Works
His writings, mostly unedited, are in the Vatican and at Padua, and deal with ecclesiastical and political matters. The following have been printed: "Speculum Vitae Humanae" (Rome, 1468), a popular work, frequently reprinted in the next two centuries; it treats of the lights and shadows of the various estates of life; "Historia Hispanica," from the earliest times to 1469 (Rome, 1470), reprinted in the first volume of
Andreas Schott
Andreas Schott (latinised as ''Andreas Schottus'' and ''Andreas Scottus''; 12 September 1552 – 23 January 1629) was an academic, linguist, translator, editor and a Jesuit priest from Antwerp in the Habsburg Netherlands. He was mainly known f ...
's ''Hispania Illustrata''. In addition to his Latin works, Arévalo also penned works in the vernacular. One of these treatises, ''Suma de la política'', demonstrates the influence that Renaissance Humanism was beginning to have on the political and literary works in the kingdom of Castile in the fifteenth century.
[Peters Jr.]
In "De Monarchia Orbis et de origine et differentiâ principatus imperialis et regalis" (Rome, 1521), he asserts for the pope the sole right to punish kings. His bold reproofs of certain ecclesiastical dignitaries caused
Matthias Flacius
Matthias Flacius Illyricus (Latin; hr, Matija Vlačić Ilirik) or Francovich ( hr, Franković) (3 March 1520 – 11 March 1575) was a Lutheran reformer from Istria, present-day Croatia. He was notable as a theologian, sometimes dissenting strong ...
to put him down as a forerunner of
Martin Luther
Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Reformation, Protestant Refo ...
, but quite unjustly, as
Nicolás Antonio
Nicolás Antonio (31 July 1617 – 13 April 1684) was a Spanish bibliographer born in Seville.
Biography
After taking his degree in Salamanca (1636–1639), he returned to his native city, wrote his treatise ''De Exilio'' (which was not printe ...
has shown in his ''Bibliotheca Hispanica Vetus'' (II, 397, 608, 614).
*''De arte, disciplina et modo aliendi et erudiendi filios, pueros et juvenes'' (1453)
*''Suma de la política'' (1454/5), edited by Juan Beneyto Perez (1944), as well as Mario Penna (1959).
*''Vergel de príncipes'' (1456/7)
*''Speculum vitae humanae'' (1468) as ''Espejo de la vida humana'' (Zaragoza, 1491)
*''Compendiosa historia Hispanica'' (c. 1470
title page
References
* Stanonick in Wetzer and Welte's ''Kirchenlexicon'', I, 1272
*
Ludwig von Pastor
Ludwig Pastor, later Ludwig von Pastor, Freiherr von Campersfelden (31 January 1854 – 30 September 1928), was a German historian and a diplomat for Austria. He became one of the most important Roman Catholic historians of his time and is most no ...
, ''Geschichte der Paepste'', I, 392, and II, 333, 342.
* Juan Marâia Laboa, ''Rodrigo Sanchez De Arevalo: Alcaide De Sant'Angelo, Fundaciâon Universitaria Espaänola, Seminario Nebrija, 1973.
* Richard H. Trame, ''Rodrigo Sanchez de Arevalo 1404-1470: Spanish Diplomat and Champion of the Papacy '', Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1958.
*
External links
*Peters Jr. Michael F., 2021. "Renaissance Humanism and Politics in Rodrigo Sánchez de Arévalo's ''Suma de la política'' (1454/55)", 2021 Annual Conference at the Renaissance Society of America
* Sánchez de Arévalo, Rodrigo
''Compendiosa historia Hispanica'' digitized codex, made in Italy between 1475 and 1499, a
SomniSpeculum vitae humanae. ugsburg Günther Zainer, 1475-1478 From th
Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection at the Library of Congress
Bibliography
Sánchez de Arévalo, Rodrigo, 1959. ''Suma de la política'', in ''Prosistas castellanos del siglo XV'', I, ed. by Mario Penna, Biblioteca de Autores Españoles 116 (Madrid: Atlas), p. 249-309.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanchez de Arevalo, Rodrigo
1404 births
1470 deaths
People from the Province of Segovia
Bishops of Oviedo
Spanish Christian theologians
15th-century Spanish historians
15th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Castile
University of Salamanca alumni
Medieval Spanish theologians