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Francisco de Quiñones, (Latin:Franciscus Cardinalis Quignonius) (alsoFrancisco de los Ángeles) (ca. 1482 inKingdom of León – 5 November 1540 inVeroli,Papal States) was aSpanishFranciscanfriar and latercardinal who was responsible for some reforms in the Catholic Church in Spain.
He was the son ofDiego Fernandez de Quiñones [es], Count ofLuna and was educated as a page ofFrancisco Jiménez de Cisneros. At the age of sixteen he entered theOrder of Friars Minor at thefriary of St. Mary of the Angels inAlcalá de Henares, taking the religious name Francis of the Angels (1498).
Having completed his studies, he successively discharged various important offices of his Order asCustos,Commissary General, andVicar General of the Observant branch of the Order. In 1521 he had obtained special permission and faculties fromPope Leo X to go to the missions in the Americas, together with Jean Glapion,[1]confessor ofEmperor Charles V. Glapion died in the same year, however, and Quiñones was elected Commissary General (1521–23) of the Franciscans north of the Alps ('Ultramontanes'). At theGeneral Chapter of the Order held inBurgos in 1523, he was elected itsMinister General, serving in the office until 1527.
As Minister General, he undertook a visitation of the friaries in Spain (1523–25), as well as those of a great part ofItaly and theSpanish Netherlands (1525–27). He promoted studies, maintained general discipline, and was active in promotion of the missions. In 1524 he sent twelve missionaries to Mexico, among themJuan Juárez, who later became the first bishop within the present territory of the United States.
After thesack of Rome in 1527 and the imprisonment ofPope Clement VII (May, 1527), Quiñones, who was distantly related to the Emperor, and was also his confidant, seemed the man best able to obtain the pope's release and ensure and a full reconciliation between pope and emperor. Quiñones was sent to the emperor for this purpose on three occasions, and his efforts were crowned with success when Pope Clement was freed (December, 1527), subsequently the Treaties ofBarcelona (1528) andCambrai (1529) were signed.
As these activities rendered it impossible for Quiñones to govern the Order effectively, he renounced the office of Minister General in December 1527, and in September of the following year was created cardinal of the title ofS. Croce in Gerusalemme, hence the name "Cardinal of the Holy Cross" by which he was sometimes called. From 1530 to 1533 he was alsoBishop of Coria, in Spain, and for a short time, in 1539, held the post of administrator of the diocese ofthe diocese of Acerno, close toNaples in southernItaly, but he was never Cardinal Bishop ofPalestrina, as some authors claim.
As a cardinal, Quiñones always occupied a distinguished position in theSacred College and closely followed the movement of theReformation inGermany. WhenPope Paul III contemplated assembling a general Council atMantua, in 1536 he sent Quiñones toEmperor Ferdinand I, King of the Romans and of Hungary, to promote the idea. However, Quiñones did not live to see the opening in 1545 of what became theCouncil of Trent. He died in 1540 atVeroli and his body was brought from there toRome and buried in histitular church,Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, in a tomb which he himself had had prepared.
Quiñones left some legislative compilations for his Order, but is best known for his attempted reform of theRoman Breviary undertaken by the order of Pope Clement. This he began in 1535 and it was issued in that year by Pope Paul III.[2] A second recension followed in 1536.[3] It was primarily intended for private use but (with permission) it began to be used in many religious houses and more than 100 editions were printed between 1536 and 1566. However, it was subject to much criticism for its disregard of tradition andPope Paul IV banned its use in 1558.[4][5]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Francis Quiñones".Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
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