CASTRO, RODRIGO DE

Rodrigo de CASTRO. — Cardinal, born in Valladolid in 1523 to the noble family of the C., branch of the counts of Lemos (or Lemus), died in Seville in 1600. He studied at the University of Salamanca, and in 1559 became a member of the Spanish Inquisition. In January 1565 he went to Rome, sent by Philip II, to obtain from Pope Pius V that the sentence in the trial of the archbishop of Toledo, B. Carranza (q.v.), be transferred to the Spanish Inquisition; he only managed, however, to have a legate sent to Spain (Ugo Boncompagni, later Pope Gregory XIII). He was later bishop of Zamora and Cuenca, and then archbishop of Seville, where in 1586 he convened a diocesan synod. On the proposal of Philip II he was created cardinal on 12 December 1583, with the title of the Holy Apostles. He was praised by his contemporaries for his virtue and magnificence. He founded the college of Monforte de Lemos (1594), which he entrusted to the Jesuits.