ÁLVAREZ, DIEGO

Theologian; b. Medina del Rio Secco (Diocese of Palencia), date unknown; d. Trani, 1631 (and not in 1635). He entered the Dominican Order at Medina, and taught theology at Burgos, Palencia, Toto, and Valladolid. On Nov. 7, 1596, he arrived at Rome where his superiors had sent him to defend the Thomist school in the controversies on grace and free will. While serving as regent of theological studies at the Minerva, he participated in the work of the congregatio de auxiliis with Tomás de lemos. He was named bishop of Trani (Southern Italy) in 1606, where he remained until his death. His main works deal with the controversies on grace: Commentarii in Isaiam (Rome 1599), De auxiliis divinae gratiae et humani arbitrii viribus et libertate (Rome 1610), Responsiones ad objectiones adversus concordiam liberi arbitrii cum divina praescientia (Trani 1622), De origine pelagianae haeresis et eius progressu (Trani 1629). All these works were edited several times in the 17th century. Álvarez also published his courses on theology, on the third part of the Summa theologica of St. Thomas, De incarnatione divini verbi (Lyons 1614), and on the second part, Disputationes theologicae in primam secundae S. Thomae (Trani 1617). His Manuale concionatorum (Rome 1622) deals more directly with his episcopal activity. There are many texts and documents at the archives of the order in Rome that remain unedited.

Bibliography: j. quÉtif and j. Échard, Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum, 5 v. (Paris 1719–23) 2.1:481–482. p. mandonnet, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, ed. a. vacant et al., 15 v. (Paris 1903–50) 1.1:926–927. r. coulon, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, ed. a. baudrillart et al. (Paris 1912—) 2:872–873.

[a. duval]