ALBORNOZ, Gil (Egidio) Álvarez Carrillo de. - Spanish cardinal, politician and warrior, b. at Cuenca in 1310 into a most noble family, descended from the kings of Castile on his father's side and from those of Aragon in the maternal line, d. at Viterbo on 23 Aug. 1367. Having entered the ecclesiastical state early, he studied for some time at the University of Toulouse, but shortly afterwards his sovereign Alfonso XI wanted him at the royal court as chaplain and counsellor, having him appointed in 1338 archbishop primate of Toledo. In his see he distinguished himself by virtue and pastoral zeal, of which the councils held at Toledo in 1339 and at Alcalá in 1347 are proof. Since, however, at that time the war against the Saracens, who still possessed a part of the Iberian peninsula and constantly threatened the Christian monarchies, was considered a capital interest for the homeland and for religion, A., as primate of Spain, had to take part in the various battles that King Alfonso undertook against them. He distinguished himself particularly in that of Tarifa, where there was a splendid victory over the armies of the sultan of Morocco and the king of Granada.
With the death of Alfonso XI in 1350 and the immediate accession to the throne of his son Peter I, called the Cruel, A.'s situation changed completely, for, having fallen into disfavour with the despotic and furious Castilian monarch, he had to abandon his homeland forever and take refuge at the papal court of Avignon. Well acquainted with the qualities of the persecuted Spanish archbishop, Clement VI, on 17 Dec. of the same year 1350, created him cardinal of the title of St. Clement. Six years later he exchanged it for the suburbicarian see of Sabina, having first renounced that of Toledo.
When Innocent VI was elected pope in 1352, at Avignon, thought was at once given to the reconquest of the Papal State, dominated by a series of petty tyrants who had made themselves practically independent. In Rome the domination of the popular tribune Cola di Rienzo (v.) had been overthrown, but in 1353 a new tyrant, Francesco Baroncelli, had seized the city. The enterprise of restoring pontifical authority in the States of the Church presented itself as supremely difficult, since the rebels had no negligible support in other Italian states. Innocent VI entrusted it in 1353 to A. Appointed pontifical legate and head of the small army assembled by the Holy See in Italy, he began to win over, by means of negotiations, the powerful governments of Milan and Tuscany so as to have his flanks secure in the march towards the Papal State. Skilfully exploiting the mutual jealousies of the Lords, he succeeded in reducing all Umbria and Latium to obedience. Knowing the sympathy that a great part of the Roman people still nourished for the fugitive Cola di Rienzo, he recalled him from the prison of Avignon, appointing him senator of the City; but the tribune's second government ended very soon and in the most tragic manner.
In 1357 A. had fully re-established pontifical authority in the Marches and in a great part of Romagna, after the defeat of Malatesta of Rimini, of Gentile da Mogliano at Fermo, of Francesco Ordelaffi at Cesena, and was about to conclude his enterprise victoriously, when he was relieved of his mandate with the order to hand over his powers into the hands of Androin de la Roche, abbot of Cluny, a pious and just man, but inexperienced in the art of war. A. returned to Avignon, received by the Pontiff and the Curia with the greatest honours; but the following year he had to return to Italy again, because under the government of the Cluniac abbot certain potentates already defeated by A. had raised their rebellious heads again. Thus the Ordelaffi had retaken power at Forlì; Spoleto and Perugia had followed their example, and in Latium itself Giovanni di Vico was lording it. A. succeeded in a short time in quelling the rebellion and in retaking Bologna too, protected by the powerful Bernabò Visconti. He was already on the point of defeating the lord of Milan, when, in 1363, the new pope Urban V, very compliant with the suggestions of the French cardinals, appointed as legate for upper Italy the well-known abbot of Cluny, who arrived there with the order to conclude peace with Visconti. This in fact happened in 1364 to A.'s extreme displeasure, because, although Bologna was restored to the Holy See, the conditions were hardly honourable for pontifical authority. It is certain, in any case, that, without A.'s victories, Visconti would not have yielded to it. Once papal sovereignty had been re-established throughout the State of the Church through the work of the Spanish cardinal, Urban V in 1366 was able to announce the return of the pontifical See to Rome and to reach it the following year, after having been greeted at Tarquinia by the deserving cardinal who died a few months later. A.'s body, first buried at Assisi, was later transported to the cathedral of Toledo, where it still rests in a sumptuous mausoleum.
Cardinal A., besides his distinguished virtues and his political and military genius, had a great love for the sciences; his library at Toledo and the renowned College of St. Clement, founded and enriched by him at Bologna for Spanish students of law, still existing, are proof of this. His qualities as an excellent ruler are manifested principally in the Liber Constitutionnum Sanctae Matris Ecclesiae, called after his name the Egidian Constitutions (v. below).
Bibliography3 works
Giuseppe M. Pou y Marti
THE EGIDIAN CONSTITUTIONS
They were promulgated in the General Parliament of Fano on 29-30 April and 1 May 1357. Ten others were promulgated by the same A. in 1363, in addition to book VI; and various additions were made to the legislative text in subsequent times, until Cardinal Rodolfo Pio da Carpi, in 1542, gave a new edition or updated and revised compilation of it. In any case, the Constitutiones of Egidio, also called Constitutiones Marchiae Anconitanae, remained substantially in force, albeit with the inevitable changes due to the passage of the centuries, almost until the dissolution of the Papal State, to which they imparted that juridical-administrative physiognomy which served to distinguish it from the other States of Italy (Ed. by P. Sella, Rome 1912).
The text of the Constitutions is divided into six books. The first reproduces the letters of commission granted to A. by the Pontiff, relating to the faculties of the vicariate and the legation; the second contains the constitutions concerning the powers and jurisdiction of the rector, of the officials and of the magistrates of the provinces; the third treats of the specific attributions of the rector and of the spiritual judge, as well as of the preservation and juridical protection of the rights of the Church; the fourth gathers the norms of criminal law; the fifth and sixth deal with procedure. There are 193 chapters in all, several of which summarize different constitutions.
The first intent of A. was to create a central government that would guarantee the indispensable minimum for the unity and life of the State, while respecting and tolerating ample autonomies of cities or powerful families, to which in some places a viceregal power was left. Another aim of the constitutions was to give vigor and uniformity to the judicial power, in order to save the State from the grave disorder and the unbridled individualism that were compromising its fortunes. The territory was divided into provinces, at the head of each of which stood a rector, flanked by the judges of the general curia and by the judges of the presidiate. Each province furthermore had a treasurer, who collected what was owed to the Apostolic Chamber, a marshal with his armigers for executive measures, and a certain number of advocates, notaries and curials.
On the whole, the code of A. unites the characteristics of strength and moderation that were proper to its author. Without decisively breaking with the past and keeping to the golden mean, the Egidian constitutions assured the Papal State a life that was generally orderly and prosperous.
Bibliography3 works
Vittorio Bartoccetti
ALBRECHT, VON: EYB: V. EYB, ALBRECHT VON.