ÁLVARO, Pelayo (Pelagio). - Bishop of Silves, author of various politico-religious works, born in Spain around 1275-80. He taught canon law in Bologna and Perugia until, in 1304, at Assisi, he donned the Franciscan habit. He later lived in Umbria and in Rome at the convent of Santa Maria in Aracoeli (1327-29), then served as papal penitentiary in Avignon (1330-32). Appointed Bishop of Corone (Greece) in 1332, he was transferred the following year to the diocese of Silves (Portugal), where he encountered many difficulties. He died in Seville at the end of 1349 (the last date in his will is 4 December) or at the beginning of 1350.
Of his writings, all of a compilatory nature and mostly without indication of sources, the most famous is the *De statu et planctu Ecclesiae* (1330-32), published under the title *De planctu Ecclesiae* (Ulm 1474, Lyon 1517, Venice 1560 [only Book I also in Rocaberti, *Bibliotheca maxima pontificia*, III, Rome 1698, pp. 223-66]). In Book I he extols spiritual power over temporal power, while in Book II he rails against the failings of ecclesiastics. He also includes anecdotes and curious tidbits, some of them autobiographical. The *Speculum Regum* (1340-44), dedicated to Alfonso XI of Castile, is partly edited by R. Scholz (*Unbekannte kirchenpolitische Streitschriften*, II, Rome 1914, pp. 514-29). Of the *Collyrium fidei adversus haereses novas*, written after 1344, some passages are edited by J. Döllinger (*Beiträge zur Sektengeschichte*, 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, pp. 156 ff.). The Bodleian Library in Oxford (Canon. MS 529) preserves a *Quinquagesilogium* on the Franciscan rule. A sermon on the beatific vision seems to have been lost.