Alonso de Montúfar
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This page has few or no links to other articles. (Tagged since June 2008). You can improve this article by adding links to related material, within the existing text. For some link suggestions, you can try Can We Link It tool. (You can help!) |
Alonso de Montúfar Born in Loja, Andalusia, Spain c. 1489, died in Mexico City, March 7, 1572. Archbishop of Mexico 1551-1572.
Following the chronicler Gil González Dávila some authors give the year 1498 as Montúfar's year of birth, however, González Dávila contradicts himself stating that the archbishop was eighty years old when he, erroneously, stated that Montúfar died in 1569. He was born in Loja in Spanish Andalusia just after the conquest of the town from the Muslims. Apart from this, there is another interesting note concerning Montúfar’s date of birth; when his good friend and assistant Bartolomé de Ledesma, in a eulogy to the Archbishop, writes that Montúfar had accepted the archbishopric in 1551, though he was over sixty years old. This note, together with the other evidence, indicates that Montúfar was born as early as 1489 or at least around that date
Contents |
[edit] Dominican friar
Montúfar entered the Dominican order and professed in the monastery of Santa Cruz la Real in Granada in 1512. By 1517 Montúfar was summoned to Seville. The reason for his transferal was that the Dominican Archbishop Diego de Deza wanted him as one of the first fellows (colegiales) of the newly founded college of Santo Tomás de Aquino. In the college Montúfar was granted the degree of Master of Theology.
In 1524 he returned to his own college, Santa Cruz la Real in Granada after seven years in Seville. At Santa Cruz la Real, he continued his educational efforts. In 1530, the General Chapter of the Dominican Order installed him as Bachelor of Theology at the monastery for two years and then conferred to him the degree of Master of Theology. Following these years of teaching, Montúfar was elected prior of Santa Cruz la Real in 1536. At the end of his priory he went to Lyon, France to attend the General Chapter of the Order.
Coming back to Spain, in 1538 he was prior of Santo Domingo el Real in Almería and from 1541 he was prior for two years in Santo Domingo in Murcia. 1546, however, he was back in his old monastery in Granada, where he was elected prior for yet another term.
Apart from the appointments within the Dominican order, Montúfar served for a long time as a theological consultant of the Inquisition tribunals of Granada, Murcia, Toledo and Seville.
[edit] Archbishop of Mexico
After the death of the first archbishop of Mexico, Juan de Zumárraga, Montúfar was presented as new archbishop by Emperor Charles V. The recommendation of Montúfar as a candidate to the Mexican see seems to have come from the marquis of Mondejár, Luis Hurtado Mendoza, who at the time was president of the Council of the Indies. According to the chroniclers the marquis knew Montúfar personally, since he had been his confessor for some time.
Alonso de Montúfar was consecrated in 1553 and finally arrived as archbishop to his see in Mexico City in June 1554, six years after the death of his predecessor Zumárraga.
[edit] Provincial Councils
In 1546, the Holy See erected the archdioceses of Santo Domingo, Mexico City, and Lima. Consequently, the dioceses in the Indies ceased to be suffragan to the Archbishop of Seville and formed three new church provinces. This event marked the beginning of the golden age of the provincial councils. As Archbishop of Mexico, Alonso de Montúfar summoned the bishops of the province to two such provincial council.
The first provincial council of Mexico was held in 1555.
The second provincial council of Mexico was held in 1565. At the council the bishops of the Mexican church province swore an oath of obedience to the decrees of the recently concluded General Council of Trent (1545-1563).
[edit] Sources
Magnus Lundberg, Unification and Conflict: The Church Politics of Alonso de Montúfar OP, Archbishop of Mexico, 1554-1572. Uppsala: Swedish Institute of Mission Research 2002.
