ÁLVARO, PELAYO (PELAGIUS). - Bishop of Silves, author of various politico-religious works, b. in Spain around 1275-80. He taught canon law at Bologna and Perugia, until in 1304, at Assisi, he took the Franciscan habit. Afterwards he lived in Umbria, in Rome at the convent of S. Maria in Aracoeli (1327-29), and was then 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 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 character, for the most part without indication of sources, the De statu et planctu Ecclesiae (1330-32) is very well known, 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 failings of ecclesiastics. He also inserts anecdotes and curious pieces of information, sometimes autobiographical. The Speculum Regum (1340-44), dedicated to Alfonso XI of Castile, is in part published by R. Scholz (Unbehaunte hirchenpolitische Streitschriften, II, Rome 1914, pp. 514-29). Of the Collyrium fidei adversus haereses novas, later than 1344, some passages are 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 of Oxford (codex Canonic, 529) preserves a Quinquagesilogium, concerning the Franciscan rule. A sermon on the beatific vision seems to have been lost.