QUEVEDO Y QUINTANO, PEDRO. — Cardinal, born 12 January 1736 at Villanueva del Fresno (diocese of Badajoz), died 28 March 1818 at Orense. At Salamanca he obtained degrees in law and theology; on 15 April 1776 Pius VI appointed him bishop of Orense, and he retained this see until his death, although the archbishopric of Seville was offered to him several times.
Particularly zealous in his ministry, in 1790 he gave refuge to French priests fleeing the Revolution. In May 1808 he was appointed by the governing Junta of Madrid as a member of the national Junta that was to meet at Baiona to approve Napoleon’s usurpation of the throne. On 29 May, pleading advanced age (he was by then 73) and poor health, he refused to attend that Assembly, but at the same time declared that he could not accept the policy pursued by the Emperor toward Spain. On 29 January 1810 Q. was elected to the Regency, but, having arrived in Cadiz in May, he refused to recognize the sovereign authority of the Cortes and resigned both as regent and as deputy. Since he was unwilling to swear the Constitution, he was deprived of Spanish citizenship on 17 August 1812, and consequently withdrew to Portugal. In 1818 Pius VII created him a cardinal. In his diocese he earned distinction through the foundation of a hospice, a home for foundlings, and the Conciliar Seminary of S. Ferdinando.