VARGAS, Alfonso (Tolentanus). — Augustinian philosopher and theologian, b. in Toledo c. 1300, d. in Seville on 26 Dec. 1366.
At Paris he lectured on the *Sentences* between 1343 and 1345. In 1353 he was named bishop of Badajoz, on 24 Oct. 1354 transferred to Osma, and on 18 June 1361 to the metropolitan see of Seville. He had spent most of his life in Italy, collaborating with Cardinal Albornoz in the governance of the Papal States. By 18 Nov. 1362 he was certainly in Seville, where he zealously devoted himself to the conversion of Muslims. He ranks among the most celebrated scholastics of the 14th century, belonging to the school of Giles of Rome and closely following Thomas of Strasbourg, who was probably his master at Paris. Though of eclectic tendencies, V. was a resolute opponent of nominalism. His *Lectura* on Book I of the *Sentences* (Venice 1490) remains a reliable guide to the doctrinal currents of scholasticism.
He wrote: *Quaestiones in tres libros de anima* (Florence 1477); *De potentiis animae* (still unidentified, though listed in the catalogue of Ambrogio da Cori); *Tractatus contra iudaeos*, cited by Jaime Pérez of Valencia (cf. *Opere*, Venice 1586, p. 1260). Some also attribute to him *Commentaria in III-IV Sent.*, but no manuscripts are known.