CARRANZA, BARTOLOMÉ

Theologian; b. Miranda de Arga (Navarra), Spain, about 1503; d. Rome, May 2, 1576. Because of his place of birth, Carranza was called Fray Bartolomé de Miranda. He studied at Alcalá (1515–20) and entered the Dominican Order. He continued his studies at Valladolid, taught the liberal arts and theology in the same city (1530), and was promoted to master of theology at Rome (1539). He was present at the Council of Trent as the imperial theologian (1545–47; 1551–52) and served as a consultant during the Inquisition. He was named prior of Palencia (1549) and provincial of Castile (1550). He worked actively for the Catholic restoration in England (1554–57) and in Flanders. Offered the bishoprics of Cusco, Peru (1542) and the Canary Islands (1549), he refused them both, but Philip II constrained him to accept the arch-bishropic of Toledo (1557). In his life and works he showed himself a zealous reformer; he put his reforms into practice in his archdiocese until August of 1559 when his apostolic activities were interrupted by his imprisonment by the Inquisition.

From prison he exercised great influence against a strong anti-Protestant reaction in Spain, the hatred and scheming of the Grand Inquisitor, Don Fernando de Valdes, and the theological formalism and passion of Melchior Cano. His trial began with the approval of Philip II and under the authority of Paul IV; it continued during the reign of Pius IV, who succeeded in naming special legates. His refusal to accept the presence of the Grand Inquisitor was honored (1560), and he was defended by Martin de Azpilicueta, an eminent jurist. He was accused of teaching Lutheran doctrine in his books and sermons, and hundreds of propositions, allegedly heretical, were extracted from his works. Pius V ordered the prisoner to be brought to Rome (1566), but died as he was about to pronounce an acquittal (1572) after which Philip II and the Inquisition worked harder to obtain his condemnation. Gregory XIII made him retract 16 theological propositions as "vehemently suspicious of heresy" in April 1576. On his tomb in Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Gregory XIII ordered a laudatory inscription: "Viro genere, vita, doctrina, contione atque elemosinis claro."

Carranza's published works are: De necessaria residentia episcoporum (Venice 1547), Summa Conciliorum … Quatuor Controversiae (Venice 1546), and Commentarios sobre el Catechismo Christiano (Antwerp 1558; critical edition by José I. Tellechea Idígoras [Madrid 1972]).

Bibliography: j. i. tellechea idÍgoras, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiberg 1957–65) 2:957; Fray Bartolomé Carranza: Documentos Históricos, 2 v. (Archivo Documental Español 18.19; Madrid 1962–63); Bartolomé Carranza, Arzobispo … de Toledo (San Sebastián 1958); "Los prolegómenos jurídicos del proceso de Carranza," Anthologica Annua 7 (Rome 1959) 215–336; "Censura de Fray J. de la Peña sobre proposiciones de C.," ibid. 10 (1962) 399–449; "Melchor Cano y Bartolomé Carranza," Hispania Sacra 15 (1962) 5–93.

[j. i. tellechea idÍgoras]