The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church

Biographical Dictionary
Pope Paul III (1534-1549)
Consistory of October 18, 1538 (IV)


(21) 1. SARMIENTO, Pedro (ca.1487/1490-1541)

Birth. Ca.1487/1490, Ribadeo, diocese of Lugo, Spain. Second of the five children of Diego Pérez de Sarmiento de Villadrande, count of Ribadeo and of Salinas, and María de Ulloa y Castilla. The other siblings were Diego Gómez, Alonso, María, and Ana. His last name is also listed as Gómez Sarmiento y de Ulloa; and as Gómez Sarmiento de Villandrando.

Education. Attended the University of Salamanca, and the University of Valladolid, where he studied civil and canon law.

Early life. It seems that he took possession of a canonship of the cathedral chapter of Compostela in 1496. Canon of the cathedral chapter of Tuy. Last abbot of the monastery of Santa Marta, diocese of Astorga.

Sacred orders. Received the diaconate. Perpetual beneficiary of the parish church of Fuentes de Duero. Chaplain of the Catholic Monarchs, Isabel and Fernando. Almoner of King Charles I of Spain and sacristan major of his royal chapel. .

Episcopate. Elected bishop of Tuy, March 4, 1523; never visited the diocese and governed it through officers. Transferred to the see of Badajoz, October 26, 1524; had not yet received the episcopal consecration. Transferred to the see of Palencia, July 3, 1525. Consecrated (no information found); entered the diocese, August 18, 1527. Witnessed at the signature of the Treaty of Madrid of January 14, 1526 that freed King François I of France. Accompanied the emperor in the journeys to Flanders, Italy and Germany and assisted him in the fight against the Turks. Attended the coronation of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in Bologna on February 24, 1530. Promoted to the metropolitan see of Compostela, June 8, 1534; entered the archdiocese, June 10, 1536. Accompanied the emperor to Italy in 1538. The emperor and his daughter, Margarita of Austria, who had married Ottavio Farnese, nephew of the pope, requested Archbishop Sarmiento's promotion to the cardinalate.

Cardinalate. Created cardinal priest in the consistory of October 18, 1538; received the red hat and the title of Ss. XII Apostoli, November 15, 1538. Administrator of the see of Anagni, January 28, 1541; resigned administration, April 6, 1541.

Death. October 13 (or 31), 1541, Lucca. Buried in the Dominican convent of Anagni; later, his close relative Juan Sarmiento, abbot of Benevivere in Palencia, president of Granada and the Indies, transferred his remains to the church of that convent and placed them in an honorífico sepulchre.

Bibliography. Cardella, Lorenzo. Memorie storiche de' cardinali della Santa Romana Chiesa. Rome : Stamperia Pagliarini, 1793, IV, 199; Chacón, Alfonso. Vitæ, et res gestæ Pontificvm Romanorum et S. R. E. Cardinalivm ab initio nascentis Ecclesiæ vsque ad Vrbanvm VIII. Pont. Max. 2 volumes. Romae : Typis Vaticanis, 1630, II, col. 1527; Eubel, Conradus and Gulik, Guglielmus van. Hierarchia Catholica Medii et Recentioris Aevi, Münich : Sumptibus et Typis Librariae Regensbergianae, 1935; reprint, Padua : Il Messagero di S. Antonio, 1960, III, 25, 60, 107, S173, 266, 267and 320; Goñi, J. "Sarmiento, Pedro." Diccionario de historia eclesiástica de España. 4 vols. Dirigido por Quintín Aldea Vaquero, Tomás Marín Martínez, José Vives Gatell. Madrid : Instituto Enrique Flórez, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1972-1975, IV, 2386-2387.

Webgraphy. Biography, in Spanish, Wikipedia; his genealogy, XOL, Xenealoxias do Ortegal.

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