Juan de Quintana (c.1482–1534) was an imperial theologian and

Confessor Confessor is a title used within Christianity in several ways. Confessor of the Faith Its oldest use is to indicate a saint who has suffered persecution and torture for the faith but not to the point of death.Habsburg The House of Habsburg (), alternatively spelled Hapsburg in Englishgerman: Haus Habsburg, ; es, Casa de Habsburgo; hu, Habsburg család, it, Casa di Asburgo, nl, Huis van Habsburg, pl, dom Habsburgów, pt, Casa de Habsburgo, la, Domus Hab ...

emperor

Charles V Charles V may refer to: * Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500–1558) * Charles V of Naples (1661–1700), better known as Charles II of Spain * Charles V of France (1338–1380), called the Wise * Charles V, Duke of Lorraine (1643–1690) * Infan ...

First years

Though it is unclear if he was born in

Vic Vic (; es, Vic or Pancracio Celdrán (2004). Diccionario de topónimos españoles y sus gentilicios (5ª edición). Madrid: Espasa Calpe. p. 843. ISBN 978-84-670-3054-9. «Vic o Vich (viquense, vigitano, vigatán, ausense, ausetano, ausonense): ...

(

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...

) or

Sariñena Sariñena is a municipality in the province of Huesca, Aragon, Spain. It is located in the Monegros comarca, near the Sierra de Alcubierre range. The Baroque monastery of Nuestra Señora de las Fuentes is located in the municipal term. Villages ...

(

Huesca Huesca (; an, Uesca) is a city in north-eastern Spain, within the autonomous community of Aragon. It is also the capital of the Spanish province of the same name and of the comarca of Hoya de Huesca. In 2009 it had a population of 52,059, almo ...

), Juan de Quintana was the son of Pedro de Quintana ''alias'' Navarro, a merchant who descended from the Quintanas, a family of butchers from the town of

, in the

Principality of Catalonia The Principality of Catalonia ( ca, Principat de Catalunya, la, Principatus Cathaloniæ, oc, Principat de Catalonha, es, Principado de Cataluña) was a Middle Ages, medieval and early modern state (polity), state in the northeastern Iberian P ...

. This family had apparently taken the name from a square called , where butchers used to work in the same town. Pedro Quintana moved to the village of Sariñena in the last quarter of the 15th century, and Juan had at least two brothers, Sebastián and Pedro Quintana.

Education and first royal assignments

By 1495 Juan Quintana was already a student, most likely in the Studium Generale of Arts in

Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...

, and he later continued his education at the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

. During his studies in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

Juan Quintana interceded in favor of Llulism, along with professors Antonio and Luis Coronel. He later obtained his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

Theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

at this university in May 1520. At some point afterwards, and before 1522, Quintana became the

Chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a Minister (Christianity), minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a laity, lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secularity, secular institution (such as a hosp ...

in King

's retinue, and he started participating as a theologian in special royal assignments, such as the trials against the

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

Probst and Grapheus. Quintana kept traveling with the royal retinue, and during the 1630s he kept being assigned to take part in additional royal religious decisions, clearly aimed at containing (and also repressing) theological ideas that would not be in agreement with the

Catholic faith The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a p ...

, which King Charles wanted to be preeminent: in 1525 he participated in the Edict against the

Alumbrados The (, ''Illuminated'') was a term used to loosely describe practitioners of a mystical form of Christianity in Spain during the 15th-16th centuries. Some were only mildly heterodox, but others held views that were clearly heretical, according to ...

, in 1526 in the Edict against the

morisco Moriscos (, ; pt, mouriscos ; Spanish for "Moorish") were former Muslims and their descendants whom the Roman Catholic church and the Spanish Crown commanded to convert to Christianity or face compulsory exile after Spain outlawed the open p ...

s from

Granada Granada (,, DIN 31635, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the fo ...

, and in 1527 was one of the experts who attended the Conference of

Valladolid Valladolid () is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and de facto capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the province o ...

, in order to judge Erasmus's theological ideas.

Contact with Michael Servetus

Some authors think that Dr. Juan de Quintana was an Erasmian, but others think otherwise, especially due to how extensively Quintana attacked

Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' wa ...

and his ideas during the Conference of Valladolid, saying that his ideas were false,

heretic Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...

al, deceiving, erroneous, or incredibly dangerous. One of the reasons for some authors to consider him a follower of Erasmus was that the famous

polymath A polymath ( el, πολυμαθής, , "having learned much"; la, homo universalis, "universal human") is an individual whose knowledge spans a substantial number of subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific pro ...

Michael Servetus Michael Servetus (; es, Miguel Serveto as real name; french: Michel Servet; also known as ''Miguel Servet'', ''Miguel de Villanueva'', ''Revés'', or ''Michel de Villeneuve''; 29 September 1509 or 1511 – 27 October 1553) was a Spanish th ...

claimed that he had been working in the service of Juan de Quintana, and as Servetus was an Erasmian, it was taken for granted that he learned those ideas from the royal chaplain, while they were in the royal retinue, in which there were some Erasmians. It seems clear that Quintana knew Servetus's family in

Villanueva de Sigena Villanueva de Sigena or Villanueva de Sijena is a town in the county of Los Monegros, in the northern province of Huesca, in Aragon (Spain). Located near the Alcanadre river, the local economy is primarily agricultural-based. The Royal Monaster ...

, for his family was neighbor of the Conesas, the maternal family. And it also seems Quintana could have known the young Servetus while he was a studying in the

Latin Grammar Latin is a heavily inflected languages, inflected language with largely free word order. Nouns are inflected for grammatical number, number and grammatical case, case; pronouns and adjectives (including participles) are inflected for number, cas ...

Studium of

near 1520, whose head was mosén Domingo Manobel. But it also seems that Servetus—whose name was not known in the royal retinue—learned Erasmus's ideas from the Studium Generale of Arts in

, in which several of Erasmus's works were read to the students, and in which Servetus had been living from 1520 to 1527, first as a student and then as one of the four "Masters of Arts" (professors of Arts), while Quintana was traveling with the retinue.

Last years

In 1530, shortly after

Pope Clement VII Pope Clement VII ( la, Clemens VII; it, Clemente VII; born Giulio de' Medici; 26 May 1478 – 25 September 1534) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 November 1523 to his death on 25 September 1534. Deemed "the ...

crowned

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

, Dr. Juan de Quintana became the Emperor's

Confessor Confessor is a title used within Christianity in several ways. Confessor of the Faith Its oldest use is to indicate a saint who has suffered persecution and torture for the faith but not to the point of death.Diet of Augsburg The Diet of Augsburg were the meetings of the Imperial Diet of the Holy Roman Empire held in the German city of Augsburg. Both an Imperial City and the residence of the Augsburg prince-bishops, the town had hosted the Estates in many such sess ...

, where he met and discussed theological issues with

Philip Melanchthon Philip Melanchthon. (born Philipp Schwartzerdt; 16 February 1497 – 19 April 1560) was a German Lutheran reformer, collaborator with Martin Luther, the first systematic theologian of the Protestant Reformation, intellectual leader of the Lu ...

. In 1532, from

Regensburg Regensburg or is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the Danube, Naab and Regen rivers. It is capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the state in the south of Germany. With more than 150,000 inhabitants, Regensburg is the f ...

, the emperor appointed him Abbot of Montearagon (with an income of 64,000 ), which his nephews from Vic took possession of. Juan de Quintana was also named Lord of the village of Sipán (Huesca), and came back to Spain with the emperor in 1533, for the celebration of the Corts of

Monzón Monzón is a small city and municipality in the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. Its population was 17,176 as of 2014. It is in the northeast (specifically the Cinca Medio district of the province of Huesca) and adjoins the rivers Cinca and ...

. He then visited the Castle of Montearagón, where he made several appointments. He remained with the imperial court until his death in

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 ...

at the end of 1534.González Ancín, Miguel & Towns, Otis. (2017
''Miguel Servet en España (1506-1527). Edición ampliada''
pp,346-354.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quintana, Juan de Spanish Franciscans University of Paris alumni Academic staff of the University of Zaragoza 1534 deaths Year of birth unknown Year of birth uncertain 1480s births