VALDÉS, FERNANDO de. - Spanish Grand Inquisitor, born at Salas (Asturias) in 1483, died at Madrid on 9 Dec. 1568.
He studied at the Colegio Mayor of S. Bartolomeo at Salamanca, where he graduated in law (1512). In 1516 he became a member of the Council of the Inquisition. He was a canon of Alcalá, visitor of the Inquisition of Cuenca, and governor of the Council of Navarre. He went to Flanders with Emperor Carlo V and was subsequently sent on a mission to Portugal. Upon his return to Spain he held the episcopal sees of Elne (1524), Orense (1529), Oviedo (1533), and Siguenza (1539); he became Archbishop of Seville (1546), president of Castile, member of the Royal Council, and inquisitor general. As inquisitor he conducted Carranza (v.), in which, according to some, personal rivalries were not absent; and on three occasions (1551, 1554, 1559) he published the Index of prohibited books, without taking account of that commissioned by Paolo IV. Wealthy and munificent, he left numerous endowments for pious works; he founded colleges at Oviedo and Salamanca and had a large church erected in his native town, in which he is buried.