ALBORNOZ, Gil (Egidio) Álvarez Carrillo de. - Cardinal, statesman, and warrior of Spain, born at Cuenca in 1310 from a most noble family, descended from the kings of Castile on his father’s side and from those of Aragon on his mother’s, died at Viterbo on 23 August 1367. Having early entered the ecclesiastical state, he studied for a time at the University of Toulouse, but soon his sovereign Alfonso XI summoned him to the royal court as chaplain and counsellor, and in 1338 had him appointed archbishop-primate of Toledo. In that see he distinguished himself by his virtue and pastoral zeal, as evidenced by the councils held at Toledo in 1339 and at Alcalá in 1347. Considering, however, that at that time the paramount interest of both fatherland and religion lay in the war against the Saracens, who still held part of the Iberian peninsula and constantly threatened the Christian monarchies, the A. as primate of Spain had to take part in the various battles which King Alfonso waged against them. He distinguished himself particularly at the battle of Tarifa, where the splendid victory was won 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, surnamed the Cruel, the situation of the A. changed completely. Falling into disfavour with the despotic and furious Castilian monarch, he was obliged to abandon his native land forever and take refuge at the papal court of Avignon. Well aware of the talents of the persecuted Spanish archbishop, Clement VI on 17 December of the same year 1350 created him cardinal with the title of S. Clemente. Six years later he exchanged this for the suburbicarian see of Sabina, having first resigned that of Toledo.
When Innocent VI was elected pope in Avignon in 1352, immediate thought was given to the reconquest of the Papal States, which had fallen under the sway of a series of petty tyrants who had practically made themselves independent. In Rome the rule of the popular tribune Cola di Rienzo (q.v.) had been overthrown, but in 1353 a new tyrant, Francesco Baroncelli, had seized the city. The task of restoring papal authority in the States of the Church appeared supremely difficult, since the rebels had not neglected to secure support from other Italian states. Innocent VI entrusted this mission in 1353 to the A. Named papal legate and commander of the small army raised by the Holy See in Italy, he soon managed through negotiations to win the powerful governments of Milan and Tuscany to his side, thus securing his rear for the march into the Papal States. By adroitly exploiting the mutual jealousies of the Signori, he succeeded in reducing to obedience all Umbria and Latium. Knowing the sympathy which much of the Roman populace still felt for the fugitive Cola di Rienzo, he recalled him from imprisonment in Avignon and appointed him senator of the Urbe; but the tribune’s second government ended soon and tragically.
By 1357 the A. had fully restored papal authority in the Marches and much of Romagna after defeating Malatesta of Rimini, Gentile da Mogliano at Fermo, and Francesco Ordelaffi at Cesena, and was on the point of concluding his enterprise victoriously when he was relieved of his command and ordered to hand over his powers to Andron de la Roche, abbot of Cluny, a pious and just man but inexperienced in the art of war. The A. returned to Avignon, where he was received by the Pope and the Curia with the greatest honours; but the following year he had to go back to Italy, for under the abbot of Cluny’s rule some of the powerful rebels already defeated by the A. had raised their heads again. Thus the Ordelaffi had recovered power at Forlì; Spoleto and Perugia had followed their example, and even in Latium Giovanni di Vico was rampant. The A. succeeded in a short time in quelling the rebellion and retaking Bologna as well, which was 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, much swayed by the suggestions of the French cardinals, appointed the noted abbot of Cluny as legate for Upper Italy, who arrived with orders to make peace with Visconti. This was in fact accomplished in 1364, much to the A.’s chagrin, for although Bologna had been restored to the Holy See the terms were little honourable to papal authority. It is certain, however, that without the A.’s victories Visconti would never have yielded. Once papal sovereignty had been re-established throughout the State of the Church by the Spanish cardinal, Urban V in 1366 was able to announce the return of the Holy See to Rome and arrived there the following year, after being greeted at Tarquinia by the worthy cardinal, who died a few months later. The body of the A., first buried at Assisi, was later transferred to the cathedral of Toledo, where it still rests in a sumptuous mausoleum.
Cardinal A., besides his outstanding virtues and his political and military genius, had a great love for learning, as shown by his library in Toledo and the distinguished College of S. Clemente, which he founded and enriched in Bologna for Spanish law students, and which still exists. His qualities as an excellent ruler are chiefly manifested in the Liber Constitutionum Sanctae Matris Ecclesiae, known by his name as the Egidian Constitutions (q.V. below).
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 more were issued by the same A. in 1363, in addition to the first six; 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 revised compilation of them. In any case, the Constitutions of Egidio, also called Constitutiones Marchiae Anconitanae, remained substantially in force, despite the inevitable changes wrought by the passage of centuries, until almost the dissolution of the Papal States, to which they gave that juridical-administrative physiognomy which distinguished it from the other states of Italy (ed. P. Sella, Rome 1912).
The text of the Constitutions is divided into six books. The first reproduces the letters of commission granted to the A. by the Pope, relating to the powers of the vicariate and legation; the second contains the constitutions concerning the powers and jurisdiction of the rector, officials, and magistrates of the provinces; the third deals with the specific duties of the rector and the spiritual judge, as well as the preservation and legal protection of the rights of the Church; the fourth collects the norms of criminal law; the fifth and sixth treat of procedure. There are in all 193 chapters, several of which comprise various constitutions.
The A.’s primary aim was to create a central government that would guarantee the minimum indispensable for the unity and life of the State, while respecting and tolerating wide autonomies for cities or powerful families, to whom in some places viceregal power was left. Another purpose of the constitutions was to strengthen and unify judicial power, in order to save the State from grave disorder and