ALVA Y ASTORGA, PEDRO de. — Spanish Franciscan theologian, born at Carbajales (Compostella), died at Brussels in 1667. Of extraordinary learning and activity, he was a retired lector and procurator general of his Order. In Rome he compiled an unpublished Franciscan Bullarium in ten volumes. A fierce defender of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, he is the author who wrote most extensively on this subject; because of the violence of the controversies aroused, he was obliged to leave Spain in 1661 and take refuge in the Netherlands. His most notable work was entitled *Armanentarium seraphicum pro tuendo Immaculatae Conceptionis titulo* (Madrid 1648). A large part of his writings, which would fill about forty folio volumes, remains unpublished.
However, one of his works was placed on the Index (decree of 6 July 1665): *Naturae prodigium, gratiae portentum. Hoc est seraphici P. N. Francisci vitae acta ad Christi D. N. vitam et mortem regulata et coaptata* (Madrid 1651), in which he finds no fewer than 4000 similarities between St Francis and Jesus Christ (H. Reusch, *Der Index der verbotenen Bücher*, II, Bonn 1885, p. 263).
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