ÁLVARO, PELAYO (PELAGIO). — Bishop of Silves and author of various politico-religious works, born in Spain around 1275–80. He taught canon law at Bologna and Perugia, until in 1304, at Assisi, he donned the Franciscan habit. He subsequently lived in Umbria and in Rome at the convent of S. Maria in Aracaeli (1327–29), and was then an apostolic penitentiary at Avignon (1330–32). Appointed bishop of Corone (Greece) in 1332, the following year he was transferred to the diocese of Silves (Portugal), where he encountered many difficulties. He died at Seville toward the end of 1349 (the last date in the testament is 4 December) or at the beginning of 1350.
Of his writings, all compilatory in character and for the most part without indication of sources, the best known is the De statu et planctu Ecclesiae (1330–32), published under the title De planctu Ecclesiae (Ulm 1474, Lyon 1517, Venice 1560 [book I alone also in Roccaberto, Bibliotheca maxima pontificia, III, Rome 1698, pp. 223–66]). In book I he exalts spiritual power over civil power, while in book II he inveighs against the defects of ecclesiastics. He also inserts anecdotes and curious information, sometimes autobiographical. The Speculum Regum (1340–44), dedicated to Alfonso XI of Castile, was partly edited by R. Scholz (Unbehaunte hirchenpolitische Streitschriften, II, Rome 1914, pp. 514–29). Of the Collyrium fidei adversus haereses novas, later than 1344, passages have been published by J. Döllinger (Beiträge zur Sलीसgeschichte, II, Munich 1890, pp. 615–17), by Scholz (op. cit., II, pp. 497–514), by M. Menéndez y Pelayo (Historia de los heterodoxos españoles, III, 2nd ed., Madrid 1917, pp. cxxx–cxxxii), and by L. Oliger (De secta Spiritus libertatis, Rome 1942, p. 156 ff.). The Bodleian Library in Oxford (Canonicus manuscript, 529) preserves a Quinquagesilogium concerning the Franciscan rule. A sermon on the beatific vision seems to have been lost.