Alonso de Cartagena
Alonso de Cartagena · Philosophy & Social Sciences
Bishop of Burgos, humanist and diplomat, author of the great defense of the conversos
vers 1384, Burgos, Castille (Espagne) — 1456, Villasandino (Burgos), Espagne
Burgos, Bâle
Alonso de Cartagena is recognized among Jewish contributors to Philosophy & Social Sciences — Bishop of Burgos, humanist and diplomat, author of the great defense of the conversos
Origins and early life
Alonso de Cartagena was born around 1384 in Burgos, the son of the rabbi Solomon ha-Levi — one of the most learned Jews of Castile, who converted in 1390 and became, as Pablo de Santa María, bishop of Burgos.
Work and career
The boy was baptized the same day as his father; this fiche says so plainly, and he figures here by his Jewish-born father. He became one of the greatest humanists and diplomats of fifteenth-century Castile: translator of Cicero and Seneca into Castilian, head of the Castilian delegation at the Council of Basel, where he won for his king precedence over England, and from 1435 bishop of Burgos in his father's seat. His most personal work answered the crisis of his own people: when Toledo passed the first purity-of-blood statute against the conversos in 1449, he wrote the Defensorium unitatis christianae — the Defense of Christian Unity — arguing with all his learning that faith, not blood, made a Christian, and that the converted Jews were the equals of any other. Under his patronage the towers of Burgos cathedral rose. He died in 1456 at Villasandino, returning from pilgrimage.
Verify and go deeper with these external references.
Source: https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/portales/alfonso_de_cartagena/biografia/
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Bishop of Burgos, humanist and diplomat, author of the great defense of the conversos
Source: https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/portales/alfonso_de_cartagena/biografia/
