ALBORNOZ, GIL ÁLVAREZ CARRILLO DE

Archbishop of Toledo, cardinal legate, restorer of the Papal States; b. Cuenca, Spain, c. 1295; d. near Viterbo, Italy, Aug. 23, 1367. He studied Canon Law in Toulouse and rose in the service of Alfonso XI to succeed his uncle as archbishop of Toledo in 1338. As royal chancellor and ecclesiastical primate, he pursued reforms in his diocese, crusaded against the Muslims, and played an important part in the unification of Castile. When Peter I (1350–69) reversed the policies of Alfonso, Albornoz in June 1350 left a vicar in his see and went to Avignon, where clement vi made him a cardinal in December 1350. In June 1353 innocent vi gave him extensive powers as legate in Italy to prepare the Papal States for the return of the popes. By mid-1357 Albornoz had defeated the petty tyrants and modernized the government of the states of the church, centralizing authority territorially and favoring parliaments and communal rights against individual privileges. Innocent then yielded to the Visconti of Milan, to whom Albornoz would not cede Bologna, and replaced him. Albornoz, however, returned to Italy in October 1358 to regain the papal position. His second mission was made difficult as foreign powers became involved in the dispute over Bologna and the return of the popes to Rome. In November 1363 urban v replaced Albornoz a second time. The cardinal remained in the Papal States as legate to Naples; he died escorting Urban to Rome. The Constitutiones Aegidianae, which Albornoz promulgated for the Marches of Ancona in 1357, were later extended to all the Papal States and lasted until 1816. He bequeathed his enormous wealth in four countries to a multitude of pious causes. In 1365 he founded a college for Spanish students in Bologna where many of his papers remain to be studied.

Bibliography: p. sella, Costituzioni Egidiane dell' anno 1357 (Rome 1912). g. mollat, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géograhpie ecclésiastiques 1:1717–25; 2:1770–73. f. filippini, Il cardinale Egidio Albornoz (Bologna 1933). j. beneyto perez, El cardenal Albornoz (Madrid 1950). g. mollat, Popes at Avignon 1305–1378 (Camden, N.J. 1963).

[e. p. colbert]