FERRER, BONIFACIO. — Carthusian, brother of St. Vincenzo, born at Valencia in 1355, died in holiness at the Charterhouse of Vall de Cristo on April 29, 1417. He studied law at Perugia and Lérida, where he received his doctorate « in utroque ».
Having been widowed, he took the habit at the Charterhouse of Porta-Coeli, Valencia, in 1398; there he completed his theological studies before priestly ordination. Of uncommon virtue and learning, he was appointed procurator and then prior (1400), and elected prior of the Grande Chartreuse and minister general of the Order (1402). He supported the antipope Pedro de Luna (Benedict XIII), who entrusted him with important missions: legate to the king of France (1401); envoy to the Council of Perpignan (1408) and that of Pisa (1509). The Carthusian Order invited the generals of the two obediences to resign, in order to elect a third by common agreement. Stefano Maconi and B. F. resigned (1410). Compelled by Benedict XIII, F. resumed the office of General, residing at Vall de Cristo (Segorbe) and convoking general Chapters of his adherents. In 1416 he abandoned Pedro de Luna.
He wrote several short treatises: Volumen epistolorum; De caeremonis quibusdam Ordinis Cartusiani; Quare Ordo Cartusianorum non habeas multas sanctas canonizatos; De approbatione et confirmatione Ordinis eiusdem a Romana Sede and, above all, the Tractatus pro deference Benedicti XIII, ed. by Ed. Martène, Theosaurus novus anecdotorum, II, Paris 1717, pp. 1435–1528. His major work was the translation of the Bible into the Valencian language; printed at Valencia in 1478, it was destroyed by the Inquisition before 1500 because of the prohibition against reading the Bible in the vernacular.