Rodrigo Sánchez de Arévalo (
Rodericus Zamorensis) (diocese of
SegoviaSegovia is a city in Spain, the capital of the province of Segovia in Castile and Leon. It is situated north of Madrid, and can be reached by bullet train in 35 minutes from Madrid at . 55,586 people live in the municipality of Segovia.-Name:...
, 1404-4 October1470) was a Spanish churchman, historian and political theorist.
A learned Spanish bishop, after studying law at
SalamancaSalamanca is a city in western Spain, the capital of the province of Salamanca, which belongs to the autonomous community of Castile and Leon...
for ten years and there graduating as Doctor, he became secretary to
John II of CastileJohn II was King of Castile from 1406 to 1454. He was the son of Henry III of Castile and his wife Katherine of Lancaster, daughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster by Constance of Castile, daughter of King Pedro of Castile...
, and
Henry IV of CastileHenry IV , King of Castile, nicknamed the Impotent , was the last of the weak late medieval kings of Castile. During Enrique's reign the nobles increased in power and the nation became less centralised...
. They employed him as envoy on various missions, notably to the
Holy SeeThe Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, commonly known as the Pope, and is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and speaks for the whole Catholic...
apropos of the Council of Basle, whose parliamentary theories he opposed.
After the elevation of Calixtus III, he remained at Rome, became Bishop of Oviedo in Spain, and later commander of the papal fortress, the
Castel Sant'AngeloThe Mausoleum of Hadrian, usually known as the Castel Sant'Angelo, is a towering cylindrical building in Rome, initially commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family...
, under Paul II, who transferred him successively to the Spanish sees of
Zamora-Geography:Ecuador* Zamora, Ecuador* Zamora-Chinchipe Province** Zamora RiverMexico* Zamora, Michoacán* Gutiérrez Zamora, VeracruzSpain* Zamora, Spain* Zamora United States* Zamora, CaliforniaVenezuela...
,
CalahorraCalahorra, La Rioja, Spain is located in the comarca of La Rioja Baja, near the border with Navarre on the right bank of the Ebro.The city is located on a hill at an altitude of 358 metres at the confluence of the Ebro and Cidacos rivers, and has an area of 91.41 km². Calahorra is the...
, and
PalenciaPalencia is a city south of Tierra de Campos, in north-northwest Spain, the capital of the province of Palencia in the autonomous community of Castile-Leon. The municipality had a population of 82,626 in 2008....
.
His writings, mostly unedited, are in the Vatican and at Padua, and deal with ecclesiastical and political matters.
Rodrigo Sánchez de Arévalo (
Rodericus Zamorensis) (diocese of
SegoviaSegovia is a city in Spain, the capital of the province of Segovia in Castile and Leon. It is situated north of Madrid, and can be reached by bullet train in 35 minutes from Madrid at . 55,586 people live in the municipality of Segovia.-Name:...
, 1404-4 October1470) was a Spanish churchman, historian and political theorist.
A learned Spanish bishop, after studying law at
SalamancaSalamanca is a city in western Spain, the capital of the province of Salamanca, which belongs to the autonomous community of Castile and Leon...
for ten years and there graduating as Doctor, he became secretary to
John II of CastileJohn II was King of Castile from 1406 to 1454. He was the son of Henry III of Castile and his wife Katherine of Lancaster, daughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster by Constance of Castile, daughter of King Pedro of Castile...
, and
Henry IV of CastileHenry IV , King of Castile, nicknamed the Impotent , was the last of the weak late medieval kings of Castile. During Enrique's reign the nobles increased in power and the nation became less centralised...
. They employed him as envoy on various missions, notably to the
Holy SeeThe Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, commonly known as the Pope, and is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and speaks for the whole Catholic...
apropos of the Council of Basle, whose parliamentary theories he opposed.
After the elevation of Calixtus III, he remained at Rome, became Bishop of Oviedo in Spain, and later commander of the papal fortress, the
Castel Sant'AngeloThe Mausoleum of Hadrian, usually known as the Castel Sant'Angelo, is a towering cylindrical building in Rome, initially commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family...
, under Paul II, who transferred him successively to the Spanish sees of
Zamora-Geography:Ecuador* Zamora, Ecuador* Zamora-Chinchipe Province** Zamora RiverMexico* Zamora, Michoacán* Gutiérrez Zamora, VeracruzSpain* Zamora, Spain* Zamora United States* Zamora, CaliforniaVenezuela...
,
CalahorraCalahorra, La Rioja, Spain is located in the comarca of La Rioja Baja, near the border with Navarre on the right bank of the Ebro.The city is located on a hill at an altitude of 358 metres at the confluence of the Ebro and Cidacos rivers, and has an area of 91.41 km². Calahorra is the...
, and
PalenciaPalencia is a city south of Tierra de Campos, in north-northwest Spain, the capital of the province of Palencia in the autonomous community of Castile-Leon. The municipality had a population of 82,626 in 2008....
.
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's
Hispania Illustrata.
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 Matthaeus Flaccus to put him down as a forerunner of
Martin LutherMartin Luther changed the course of Western civilization by initiating the Protestant Reformation. As a priest and theology professor, he confronted indulgence salesmen with his The Ninety-Five Theses in 1517. Luther strongly disputed their claim that freedom from God's punishment of sin could...
, but quite unjustly, as
Nicolás AntonioNicolás Antonio was a Spanish bibliographer born in Seville. After taking his degree in Salamanca , he returned to his native city, wrote his treatise De Exilio , and began his monumental register of Spanish writers...
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)
- Vergel de príncipes (1456/7)
- Speculum vitae humanae (1468) as Espejo de la vida humana (Zaragoza, 1491)
- Compendiosa historia Hispanica (c.1470,title page)
External links