Joaquín Lorenzo Villanueva

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Joaquín Lorenzo Villanueva.

Joaquín Lorenzo Villanueva (born August 10, 1757 in Xàtiva ( Valencia Province ), † March 25, 1837 in Dublin ) was a Spanish clergyman, politician and writer.

Life

Joaquín Lorenzo Villanueva studied theology at the University of Valencia and devoted himself to the clergy. He made his residence in the Spanish capital and performed at the court of Charles III. also emerged as a man of letters. However, he found little approval from other clerics with the thesis that the jurisdiction of the Inquisition tribunals is incompatible with Spanish law. Nevertheless, he was court preacher and first confessor of the royal court orchestra when the Spanish war of independence against the French broke out in 1808 , which he joined. From the province of Valencia he was elected Deputy for the Extraordinary Cortes of 1810 and Substitute for those of 1813. He advocated constitutional principles.

After the return of King Ferdinand VII , Villanueva, suspected of being too liberal, was arrested together with his most respected like-minded comrades on the night of May 10th, 1814 and sentenced by the decree of December 15th, 1815 to several years imprisonment in the monastery of Salceda . He did not regain his freedom until 1820, when Spain temporarily entered a more liberal phase of government. In the same year again elected as deputy of the Cortes, he belonged to the party committed to the principles of the constitution of 1812 and persistently and courageously defended the freedom of the people. He was also sent to Rome by the Cortes in 1822 to negotiate the rights of the Spanish Church with Pope Pius VII , but he had to return without having achieved anything. After the Restoration in 1823, he fled first to England and then to Ireland . Even in exile, in deep poverty and at an advanced age, he continued to fight for the cause of civil and ecclesiastical freedom in his fatherland. He died in Dublin in 1837 at the age of 79.

Literary work

Villanueva wrote political, theological and philological writings, all of which are distinguished by their excellent writing style. His numerous works also show his versatile and thorough education. He described his busy life in his autobiography Vida literaria de Joaquín Lorenzo Villanueva (2 vols., London 1825), which is remarkable for its masterful presentation and as an important contribution to contemporary history in Spain. His theological writings include the work Año Cristiano de España (19 vols., Madrid 1791–1803), which has been published several times , which describes the feasts of the Spanish Church and the lives of its saints and martyrs . Another of his theological works, De la lección de la Sagrada Escritura en lenguas vulgares (Valencia 1791), was viewed with displeasure by many clergymen.

Through his treatise Las angelicas fuentes ó el tomista en las Cortes (Cádiz 1811-1813) Villanueva contributed a lot to the spread of constitutionalism in Spain in 1812, for the legitimation of which he relied on the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas . He published two other writings relating to his political career under the titles Dictamen… acerca de la segunda proposición preliminar de decreto sobre los tribunales protectores de la religious, leido en las sesiones del 20 y 21 de Enero (Cádiz 1813) and Apuntes sobre et arresto de los vocales de Cortes, ejecutado en mayo de 1814, escritos en la carcel de la Corona (Madrid 1820).

Villanueva finally proved his philological and antiquarian knowledge through the writing Ibernia Phoenicea, seu Phoenicum in Ibernia incolatus, ex ejus priscarum coloniarum nominibus, et earum idolatrico cultu demonstratio (Dublin 1831; English by Henry O'Brien , Phoenician Ireland , 1837), in which he sought to prove an ancient Phoenician colonization of Ireland. He also made himself well known as a poet through his Poesias escogidas (London 1833; printed in the 67th volume of the Biblioteca de autores españoles ).

Villanueva's younger brother Jaime (* 1765; † 1824) was also a learned Spanish theologian. He shared the exile of his brother Joaquín Lorenzo.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Villanueva, Joaquín Lorenzo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish clergyman, politician and writer
DATE OF BIRTH August 10, 1757
PLACE OF BIRTH Xàtiva
DATE OF DEATH March 25, 1837
Place of death Dublin