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Gaspar de Quiroga y Vela

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Gaspar de Quiroga y Vela
Cardinal, Archbishop of Toledo
Primate of Spain
Gaspar de Quiroga y Vela
ChurchRoman Catholic
Appointed6 September 1577
Term ended12 November 1594
PredecessorBartolomé Carranza
SuccessorAlbert of Austria
Other post(s)Cardinal-Priest of Santa Balbina (1578–94)
Previous post(s)Bishop of Cuenca (1571–77)
Orders
Consecration15 April 1572
by Diego de Espinosa
Created cardinal15 December 1578
by Pope Gregory XIII
RankCardinal-Priest
Personal details
Born13 January 1512
Died20 November 1594 (aged 82)
Madrid, Spain
Coat of arms's coat of arms

Gaspar de Quiroga y Vela (13 January 1512 – 20 November 1594) was a prominent Spanish churchman who rose to become General Inquisitor of Spain, from 1573 to 1594, and Archbishop of Toledo from 1577 to 1594. He was named a Cardinal by Pope Gregory XIII in 1578. He was the nephew of the 1st Bishop of Michoacán in Mexico, Vasco de Quiroga (died 1565).

Biography

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Born in Madrigal de las Altas Torres, he studied at the Colegio de San Salvador de Oviedo of the University of Salamanca, of which he was later a professor, and the Colegio Mayor Santa Cruz in Valladolid. He obtained a licentiate in canon law in 1537 and a doctorate in canon law in 1538. He was named vicar general and a canon of Toledo.[1]

He went to Rome in 1554 as an auditor of the Roman Rota. While in Rome he befriended Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus. In 1559, he was sent by King Philip II as an envoy to Naples and to the Spanish-administered territories in the Italian peninsula.[1]

He served as a member of the Spanish High Council of Justice since 1563 and as Bishop of Cuenca, (1561–77), being then promoted to Archbishop of Toledo, to replace Bartolomé de Carranza who had been under arrest in Spain and Rome for the last 17 years, charged with heresy. Quiroga was also active as President of the Council of Italy (1567–71; 1586–94), and became a member of the Spanish Council of State.[2]

He was a patron in Toledo of the Greek-Spanish painter Doménikos Theotokópoulos, usually known as El Greco (1541–1614). It is claimed[who?] that Quiroga portrait is found in the face of Saint Augustine in the famous Greco painting The Burial of the Count of Orgaz.

Quiroga liberated from the Inquisition's prisons the mystical poet Fray Luis de León (1527–91), who had been imprisoned for over 4 years at Valladolid, from March 1572 until December 1576, for publishing, amongst other things, a Spanish translation of the Song of Solomon, both of his parents having Jewish ancestry albeit being himself an Augustinian friar expert in Greek, Latin and Hebrew.

Around 1584, Quiroga built at the other side of the River Tagus, in the area known as the "Cigarrales", a summer house now occupied by a hotel.

Episcopal succession

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church - Biographical Dictionary - Consistory of December 15, 1578". cardinals.fiu.edu. Retrieved 2025-03-28.
  2. ^ Real Academia de la Historia
  3. ^ "Gaspar Cardinal de Quiroga y Vela" Catholic-Hierarchy.org. David M. Cheney. Retrieved September 19, 2016
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Catholic Church titles
Preceded by
Bishop of Cuenca

1561–1577
Succeeded by
Preceded by
Archbishop of Toledo

1577–1594
Succeeded by
Preceded by Grand Inquisitor of Spain
1573–1594
Succeeded by
Preceded by
Cardinal-Priest of S. Balbina

1578–1594
Succeeded by
Records
Preceded by Oldest living Member of the Sacred College
15 April 1591 - 12 November 1594
Succeeded by