VARGAS Y MEXIA, FRANCISCO. - Jurist and diplomat, born in Madrid or Toledo toward the end of the 15th century (1484?), died in 1566 in the monastery of the Girolamini of Cisla near Toledo.
Fiscal of the Council of Castile, he stood beside the Spanish ambassador Mendoza at the Council of Trent in the autumn of 1545 and remained there even after its transfer to Bologna; on 16 Jan. 1548 he presented to the Council the celebrated protest of Charles V. He returned to Trent during the second period of the Council (1551) and was then Spanish ambassador to Venice from 1552 to Sept. 1558. From Antwerp Philip II sent him as ambassador to Rome, where he arrived on 25 Sept. 1559. A truly learned man and a sincere lover of the faith and of reform, zealous for the interests of his King, he was nevertheless a quarrelsome, obstinate ambassador, lacking the necessary consideration, as he showed during the Conclave by interfering with the electors; Pius IV was elected without his approval. Favourable to the Carafa, he subsequently came into open conflict with the Pope, who desired his recall; but Philip II kept him in Rome as a person experienced in the affairs of the Council. He left Rome on 12 Oct. 1563, went to Barcelona, and withdrew into private life.