Sigüenza
Encyclopedia
Sigüenza is a city in the province of Guadalajara in Spain
.
Arevaci
, now called Villavieja (“old town”), is half a league
distant from the present Sigüenza. Livy
mentions the town in his discussion of the wars of Cato
with the Celtiberians.
The city fell under Roman
, Visigothic, Moorish and Castilian
rule.
Around 1123 it was taken by Bernard of Agen, its first bishop.
Sigüenza played a large part in the civil wars of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries
. The fortress palace of the bishops, an earlier Moorish qasbah, was captured in 1297 by the partisans of the Infantes de la Cerda, and in 1355 it was the prison of Blanche of Bourbon, consort of Peter of Castile. In 1465 Diego López
of Madrid, having usurped the miter, fortified himself there.
The last bishop-lord, known as the "mason-bishop", built a neighborhood below the level of the old town in a Neo-Classical style, before renouncing to the temporal lordship.
During the Spanish Civil War
, the Francoist Civil Guard
fortified the upper castle, while the Republican forces took to the lower cathedral.
After the war, the city limits have increased with the incorporation of 28 pedanías (hamlets).
The cathedral
is a very large Gothic
edifice of ashlar
stone, though the lower levels show that it was built onto an earlier Romanesque
cathedral. Its façade
has three doors, with a railed court in front. At the sides rise two square towers, 164 feet high, built at different times, with merlon
s topped with large balls; these towers are connected by a balustrade which crowns the facade, the work of Bishop Herrera in the eighteenth century. The interior is divided into a nave
and two aisles, in Gothic style.
The main choir begins in the transept
with a Renaissance
altar
built by order of Bishop Mateo de Burgos. In the transept is the Chapel of Saint Liberata (Librada), the female patron saint
of the city, with a reredos
and the relics of the saint, all constructed at the expense of Bishop Fadrique of Portugal, who is buried there.
What is now the Chapel of St. Catherine was dedicated to St. Thomas of Canterbury by the English Bishop Jocelin. The chapel hoses the sepulchre of Martín Vázquez de Arce (Martin Vasques de Arze in the spelling of the time).
Vázquez died in 1486 during the conquest of Granada
and his brother Fernando, bishop of the Canary Islands
, ordered a portrait in alabaster
where he lies on his side while reading, in one of the finest examples of Spanish funerary art
. It contrasts with the lying figures of his parents in the same chapel.
The authors of the Spanish Generation of 1898 (Ortega y Gasset) drew attention to this statue naming him el doncel de Sigüenza, "the boy of Sigüenza", but Vázquez left a widow and children.
Cardinal Mendoza is interred in the main choir. Beyond the choir proper, which is situated in the centre, there is the altar of Nuestra Señora la Mayor, in black marble from Calatorao
and red marble, featuring spiral Solomonic column
s.
The main sacristy
is also named as "of the heads".
It was designed in 1532 by Alonso de Covarrubias and built by Francisco de Baeza and Martín de Vandoma.
The portal is Renaissance, Plateresque
, of 1573, in stone, the nuttree door has also Plateresque carvings and was damaged by a cat door and the Napoleonic troops.
The half cannon vault features 304 big heads, all different, and 2000 smaller ones, hence the nickname of the room.
The ceiling and the vitrals of the cathedral were damaged in the Spanish Civil War, with the reconstruction ending in 1947.
Connected with the cathedral is a Florid Gothic cloister
, the work of Bernardino de Carvajal. The rich tabernacle
, with its golden monstrance
, was given by Cardinal Mendoza. The chapter house
contains many excellent paintings. It is not known with any certainty at what period this church was begun, though it appears to date from the end of the twelfth century. The image of Nuestra Señora la Mayor, to whom the church is dedicated, dates from the end of the twelfth century; it was taken to the retro-choir in the fifteenth century, the Assumption
being substituted for it on the high altar.
, and a college. The College of San Antonio el Grande is a beautiful building. It was formerly a university (see below), founded in 1476 by the wealthy Juan López de Medina, archdeacon
of Almazán
, but its prosperity was hindered by the foundation of the University of Alcalá
; in 1770 it was reduced to a few chairs of philosophy
and theology
, until it was suppressed in 1837.
The castle is now a Parador
, a state-run luxury hotel.
Other buildings include the ancient hermitage
of Nuestra Señora, which according to tradition was originally the pro-cathedral
; the Humilladero, a small Gothic hermitage, now a tourism office; the Churrigueresque
convent of the Franciscans; the modern convent of the Ursulines
, which was formerly the home of the choir boys; the hospital of the military barracks
; and the Hieronymite college.
of Almazán
, canon
of Toledo
and vicar-general of Sigüenza. The Papal Bull
ratifying the foundation, approving the benefice
s, etc., was granted by Sixtus IV in 1483, and courses were opened in theology
, canon law
and the liberal arts
. By a Bull of Innocent VIII in 1489, the university was created, with powers to confer the degrees of bachelor
, licentiate
and doctor
; the college was thus transformed into a university. A Bull issued by pope Paul III
extended the course in theology, and during the rectorate of Maestro Velosillo the chairs of physics
were created, while a Bull of Pope Julius II
established the faculties of secular law and of medicine
.
Among the professors were the mathematician and theologian Pedro Ciruelo, who enhanced the prestige of the university as a center of learning; Don Francisco Delgado, Bishop of Lugo and rector
, under whom the university reached its period of greatest splendor; Don Fernando Velosillo, rector and professor, who was sent by king Philip II of Spain
to the Council of Trent
; also present at that council were, as theologians, Don Antonio Torres
, first Bishop of the Canary Islands, and Señor Torro, both professors of this university; Don Pedro Guerrero, Archbishop of Granada; the famous Cuesta
; Tricio
and Francisco Alvárez
, Bishop of Sigüenza. Thus evidently the influence of the University of Sigüenza in the Spanish Catholic church and kingdom was considerable in the last years of the fifteenth century and the first years of the sixteenth; thereafter it fell into decay. It was suppressed in 1837.
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
.
History
The site of the ancient Segontia ("dominating over the valley") of the CeltiberianCeltiberians
The Celtiberians were Celtic-speaking people of the Iberian Peninsula in the final centuries BC. The group used the Celtic Celtiberian language.Archaeologically, the Celtiberians participated in the Hallstatt culture in what is now north-central Spain...
Arevaci
Arevaci
The Arevaci or ‘Aravaci’ , were a pre-Roman Celtic people who settled in the Meseta Central of northern Hispania and which dominated most of Celtiberia from the 4th to late 2nd centuries BC...
, now called Villavieja (“old town”), is half a league
League (unit)
A league is a unit of length . It was long common in Europe and Latin America, but it is no longer an official unit in any nation. The league originally referred to the distance a person or a horse could walk in an hour...
distant from the present Sigüenza. Livy
Livy
Titus Livius — known as Livy in English — was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people. Ab Urbe Condita Libri, "Chapters from the Foundation of the City," covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome well before the traditional foundation in 753 BC...
mentions the town in his discussion of the wars of Cato
Cato the Elder
Marcus Porcius Cato was a Roman statesman, commonly referred to as Censorius , Sapiens , Priscus , or Major, Cato the Elder, or Cato the Censor, to distinguish him from his great-grandson, Cato the Younger.He came of an ancient Plebeian family who all were noted for some...
with the Celtiberians.
The city fell under Roman
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, Visigothic, Moorish and Castilian
Kingdom of Castile
Kingdom of Castile was one of the medieval kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula. It emerged as a political autonomous entity in the 9th century. It was called County of Castile and was held in vassalage from the Kingdom of León. Its name comes from the host of castles constructed in the region...
rule.
Around 1123 it was taken by Bernard of Agen, its first bishop.
Sigüenza played a large part in the civil wars of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries
Castilian Civil War
The Castilian Civil War lasted three years from 1366 to 1369. It became part of the larger conflict then raging between the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of France: the Hundred Years' War...
. The fortress palace of the bishops, an earlier Moorish qasbah, was captured in 1297 by the partisans of the Infantes de la Cerda, and in 1355 it was the prison of Blanche of Bourbon, consort of Peter of Castile. In 1465 Diego López
Diego López
Diego López may refer to:*Diego López , Spanish Renaissance painter*Diego López Garrido, Spanish politician*Diego López Rodríguez, Spanish football goalkeeper*Luis Diego López, Uruguayan football defender...
of Madrid, having usurped the miter, fortified himself there.
The last bishop-lord, known as the "mason-bishop", built a neighborhood below the level of the old town in a Neo-Classical style, before renouncing to the temporal lordship.
During the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
, the Francoist Civil Guard
Civil Guard (Spain)
The Civil Guard is the Spanish gendarmerie. It has foreign peace-keeping missions and maintains military status and is the equivalent of a federal military-status police force. As a police force, the Guardia Civil is comparable today to the French Gendarmerie, the Italian Carabinieri and the...
fortified the upper castle, while the Republican forces took to the lower cathedral.
After the war, the city limits have increased with the incorporation of 28 pedanías (hamlets).
Cathedral
Cathedral
A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...
is a very large Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
edifice of ashlar
Ashlar
Ashlar is prepared stone work of any type of stone. Masonry using such stones laid in parallel courses is known as ashlar masonry, whereas masonry using irregularly shaped stones is known as rubble masonry. Ashlar blocks are rectangular cuboid blocks that are masonry sculpted to have square edges...
stone, though the lower levels show that it was built onto an earlier Romanesque
Romanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...
cathedral. Its façade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
has three doors, with a railed court in front. At the sides rise two square towers, 164 feet high, built at different times, with merlon
Merlon
In architecture, a merlon forms the solid part of an embattled parapet, sometimes pierced by embrasures. The space between two merlons is usually called a crenel, although those later designed and used for cannons were called embrasures.-Etymology:...
s topped with large balls; these towers are connected by a balustrade which crowns the facade, the work of Bishop Herrera in the eighteenth century. The interior is divided into a nave
Nave
In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...
and two aisles, in Gothic style.
The main choir begins in the transept
Transept
For the periodical go to The Transept.A transept is a transverse section, of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In Christian churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform building in Romanesque and Gothic Christian church architecture...
with a Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
altar
Altar
An altar is any structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices are made for religious purposes. Altars are usually found at shrines, and they can be located in temples, churches and other places of worship...
built by order of Bishop Mateo de Burgos. In the transept is the Chapel of Saint Liberata (Librada), the female patron saint
Patron saint
A patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or person...
of the city, with a reredos
Reredos
thumb|300px|right|An altar and reredos from [[St. Josaphat's Roman Catholic Church|St. Josaphat Catholic Church]] in [[Detroit]], [[Michigan]]. This would be called a [[retable]] in many other languages and countries....
and the relics of the saint, all constructed at the expense of Bishop Fadrique of Portugal, who is buried there.
What is now the Chapel of St. Catherine was dedicated to St. Thomas of Canterbury by the English Bishop Jocelin. The chapel hoses the sepulchre of Martín Vázquez de Arce (Martin Vasques de Arze in the spelling of the time).
Vázquez died in 1486 during the conquest of Granada
Granada
Granada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, the Beiro, the Darro and the Genil. It sits at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...
and his brother Fernando, bishop of the Canary Islands
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
, ordered a portrait in alabaster
Alabaster
Alabaster is a name applied to varieties of two distinct minerals, when used as a material: gypsum and calcite . The former is the alabaster of the present day; generally, the latter is the alabaster of the ancients...
where he lies on his side while reading, in one of the finest examples of Spanish funerary art
Funerary art
Funerary art is any work of art forming, or placed in, a repository for the remains of the dead. Tomb is a general term for the repository, while grave goods are objects—other than the primary human remains—which have been placed inside...
. It contrasts with the lying figures of his parents in the same chapel.
The authors of the Spanish Generation of 1898 (Ortega y Gasset) drew attention to this statue naming him el doncel de Sigüenza, "the boy of Sigüenza", but Vázquez left a widow and children.
Cardinal Mendoza is interred in the main choir. Beyond the choir proper, which is situated in the centre, there is the altar of Nuestra Señora la Mayor, in black marble from Calatorao
Calatorao
Calatorao is a municipality located in the province of Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain. According to the 2004 census , the municipality has a population of 3,013 inhabitants....
and red marble, featuring spiral Solomonic column
Solomonic column
The Solomonic column, also called Barley-sugar column, is a helical column, characterized by a spiraling twisting shaft like a corkscrew...
s.
The main sacristy
Sacristy
A sacristy is a room for keeping vestments and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, and parish records.The sacristy is usually located inside the church, but in some cases it is an annex or separate building...
is also named as "of the heads".
It was designed in 1532 by Alonso de Covarrubias and built by Francisco de Baeza and Martín de Vandoma.
The portal is Renaissance, Plateresque
Plateresque
Plateresque, meaning "in the manner of a silversmith" , was an artistic movement, especially architectural, traditionally held to be exclusive to Spain and its territories, which appeared between the late Gothic and early Renaissance in the late 15th century, and spread over the next two centuries...
, of 1573, in stone, the nuttree door has also Plateresque carvings and was damaged by a cat door and the Napoleonic troops.
The half cannon vault features 304 big heads, all different, and 2000 smaller ones, hence the nickname of the room.
The ceiling and the vitrals of the cathedral were damaged in the Spanish Civil War, with the reconstruction ending in 1947.
Connected with the cathedral is a Florid Gothic cloister
Cloister
A cloister is a rectangular open space surrounded by covered walks or open galleries, with open arcades on the inner side, running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth...
, the work of Bernardino de Carvajal. The rich tabernacle
Church tabernacle
A tabernacle is the fixed, locked box in which, in some Christian churches, the Eucharist is "reserved" . A less obvious container, set into the wall, is called an aumbry....
, with its golden monstrance
Monstrance
A monstrance is the vessel used in the Roman Catholic, Old Catholic, and Anglican churches to display the consecrated Eucharistic host, during Eucharistic adoration or Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. Created in the medieval period for the public display of relics, the monstrance today is...
, was given by Cardinal Mendoza. The chapter house
Chapter house
A chapter house or chapterhouse is a building or room attached to a cathedral or collegiate church in which meetings are held. They can also be found in medieval monasteries....
contains many excellent paintings. It is not known with any certainty at what period this church was begun, though it appears to date from the end of the twelfth century. The image of Nuestra Señora la Mayor, to whom the church is dedicated, dates from the end of the twelfth century; it was taken to the retro-choir in the fifteenth century, the Assumption
Assumption of Mary
According to the belief of Christians of the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, and parts of the Anglican Communion and Continuing Anglicanism, the Assumption of Mary was the bodily taking up of the Virgin Mary into Heaven at the end of her life...
being substituted for it on the high altar.
Other buildings
The Conciliar Seminary of San Bartolomé is the work of Bishop Bartolomé Santos de Risoba (1651). There is a smaller seminary, that of the Immaculate ConceptionImmaculate Conception
The Immaculate Conception of Mary is a dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, according to which the Virgin Mary was conceived without any stain of original sin. It is one of the four dogmata in Roman Catholic Mariology...
, and a college. The College of San Antonio el Grande is a beautiful building. It was formerly a university (see below), founded in 1476 by the wealthy Juan López de Medina, archdeacon
Archdeacon
An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in Anglicanism, Syrian Malabar Nasrani, Chaldean Catholic, and some other Christian denominations, above that of most clergy and below a bishop. In the High Middle Ages it was the most senior diocesan position below a bishop in the Roman Catholic Church...
of Almazán
Almazán
Almazán is a municipality located in the province of Soria, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2004 census , the municipality has a population of 5,755 inhabitants.- External links :*...
, but its prosperity was hindered by the foundation of the University of Alcalá
University of Alcalá
The University of Alcalá is a public university located in Alcalá de Henares, a city 35 km northeast of Madrid in Spain. Founded in 1499, it was moved in 1836 to Madrid. In 1977, the University was reopened in its same historical buildings...
; in 1770 it was reduced to a few chairs of philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
and theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
, until it was suppressed in 1837.
The castle is now a Parador
Parador
A parador , in Spain and other Spanish-speaking countries, is a kind of luxury hotel, usually located in a historic building such as a monastery or castle. Parar means to stop, halt or stay.- Paradores de Turismo de España :...
, a state-run luxury hotel.
Other buildings include the ancient hermitage
Hermitage (religious retreat)
Although today's meaning is usually a place where a hermit lives in seclusion from the world, hermitage was more commonly used to mean a settlement where a person or a group of people lived religiously, in seclusion.-Western Christian Tradition:...
of Nuestra Señora, which according to tradition was originally the pro-cathedral
Pro-cathedral
A pro-cathedral is a parish church that is temporarily serving as the cathedral or co-cathedral of a diocese.-Usage:In Ireland, the term is used to specifically refer to St Mary's Pro-Cathedral in Dublin, the seat of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin since the Reformation, when Christ Church...
; the Humilladero, a small Gothic hermitage, now a tourism office; the Churrigueresque
Churrigueresque
Churrigueresque refers to a Spanish Baroque style of elaborate sculptural architectural ornament which emerged as a manner of stucco decoration in Spain in the late 17th century and was used up to about 1750, marked by extreme, expressive and florid decorative detailing, normally found above the...
convent of the Franciscans; the modern convent of the Ursulines
Ursulines
The Ursulines are a Roman Catholic religious order for women founded at Brescia, Italy, by Saint Angela de Merici in November 1535, primarily for the education of girls and the care of the sick and needy. Their patron saint is Saint Ursula.-History:St Angela de Merici spent 17 years leading a...
, which was formerly the home of the choir boys; the hospital of the military barracks
Barracks
Barracks are specialised buildings for permanent military accommodation; the word may apply to separate housing blocks or to complete complexes. Their main object is to separate soldiers from the civilian population and reinforce discipline, training and esprit de corps. They were sometimes called...
; and the Hieronymite college.
University of Sigüenza
The building of the College of San Antonio Portaceli of Sigüenza, Spain, which was later transformed into a university, was begun in 1476. Its founder was Don Juan López de Medina, archdeaconArchdeacon
An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in Anglicanism, Syrian Malabar Nasrani, Chaldean Catholic, and some other Christian denominations, above that of most clergy and below a bishop. In the High Middle Ages it was the most senior diocesan position below a bishop in the Roman Catholic Church...
of Almazán
Almazán
Almazán is a municipality located in the province of Soria, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2004 census , the municipality has a population of 5,755 inhabitants.- External links :*...
, canon
Canon (priest)
A canon is a priest or minister who is a member of certain bodies of the Christian clergy subject to an ecclesiastical rule ....
of Toledo
Toledo, Spain
Toledo's Alcázar became renowned in the 19th and 20th centuries as a military academy. At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 its garrison was famously besieged by Republican forces.-Economy:...
and vicar-general of Sigüenza. The Papal Bull
Papal bull
A Papal bull is a particular type of letters patent or charter issued by a Pope of the Catholic Church. It is named after the bulla that was appended to the end in order to authenticate it....
ratifying the foundation, approving the benefice
Benefice
A benefice is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The term is now almost obsolete.-Church of England:...
s, etc., was granted by Sixtus IV in 1483, and courses were opened in theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
, canon law
Canon law
Canon law is the body of laws & regulations made or adopted by ecclesiastical authority, for the government of the Christian organization and its members. It is the internal ecclesiastical law governing the Catholic Church , the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches, and the Anglican Communion of...
and the liberal arts
Liberal arts
The term liberal arts refers to those subjects which in classical antiquity were considered essential for a free citizen to study. Grammar, Rhetoric and Logic were the core liberal arts. In medieval times these subjects were extended to include mathematics, geometry, music and astronomy...
. By a Bull of Innocent VIII in 1489, the university was created, with powers to confer the degrees of bachelor
Bachelor
A bachelor is a man above the age of majority who has never been married . Unlike his female counterpart, the spinster, a bachelor may have had children...
, licentiate
Licentiate
Licentiate is the title of a person who holds an academic degree called a licence. The term may derive from the Latin licentia docendi, meaning permission to teach. The term may also derive from the Latin licentia ad practicandum, which signified someone who held a certificate of competence to...
and doctor
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
; the college was thus transformed into a university. A Bull issued by pope Paul III
Pope Paul III
Pope Paul III , born Alessandro Farnese, was Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from 1534 to his death in 1549. He came to the papal throne in an era following the sack of Rome in 1527 and rife with uncertainties in the Catholic Church following the Protestant Reformation...
extended the course in theology, and during the rectorate of Maestro Velosillo the chairs of physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
were created, while a Bull of Pope Julius II
Pope Julius II
Pope Julius II , nicknamed "The Fearsome Pope" and "The Warrior Pope" , born Giuliano della Rovere, was Pope from 1503 to 1513...
established the faculties of secular law and of medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
.
Among the professors were the mathematician and theologian Pedro Ciruelo, who enhanced the prestige of the university as a center of learning; Don Francisco Delgado, Bishop of Lugo and rector
Rector
The word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...
, under whom the university reached its period of greatest splendor; Don Fernando Velosillo, rector and professor, who was sent by king Philip II of Spain
Philip II of Spain
Philip II was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as duke or count....
to the Council of Trent
Council of Trent
The Council of Trent was the 16th-century Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. It is considered to be one of the Church's most important councils. It convened in Trent between December 13, 1545, and December 4, 1563 in twenty-five sessions for three periods...
; also present at that council were, as theologians, Don Antonio Torres
Antonio Torres
Father Antonio Torres was a fictional character in the American soap opera Sunset Beach. The character was portrayed by American actor Nick Kiriazis from February 6, 1998 to the show's end on December 31, 1999.-Character history:...
, first Bishop of the Canary Islands, and Señor Torro, both professors of this university; Don Pedro Guerrero, Archbishop of Granada; the famous Cuesta
Cuesta
In structural geology and geomorphology, a cuesta is a ridge formed by gently tilted sedimentary rock strata in a homoclinal structure. Cuestas have a steep slope, where the rock layers are exposed on their edges, called an escarpment or, if more steep, a cliff...
; Tricio
Tricio
Tricio is a village in the province and autonomous community of La Rioja, Spain.-References:...
and Francisco Alvárez
Francisco Álvarez
Francisco Álvarez was an Argentine film and theatre actor of the classic era of Argentine cinema....
, Bishop of Sigüenza. Thus evidently the influence of the University of Sigüenza in the Spanish Catholic church and kingdom was considerable in the last years of the fifteenth century and the first years of the sixteenth; thereafter it fell into decay. It was suppressed in 1837.