Pedro de Soto

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Pedro de Soto OP (* between 1494 and 1500 in Salamanca ; † April 20, 1563 in Trento ) was a Spanish Dominican theologian , council theologian in Trento and imperial advisor on all religious and ecclesiastical issues.

Live and act

Pedro de Soto studied philosophy and theology at the University of Salamanca , one of the most important universities of its time, where he entered the Dominican order there on March 30, 1518 and made his profession on April 1, 1519 . After receiving his ordination in Toledo , he was in strict observance in the Talavera convent in 1526/27 and was elected subprior there in 1530 . In 1532 Pedro de Soto was prior in Ocaña and in 1533 general preacher of the provincial chapter there. From 1535 he was prior in Talavera and from 1538 again in Ocaña, where the provincial chapter proposed him in 1541 together with Melchior Cano as a master of theology .

In April 1542 he and others founded a convent of strict observance in Aranda de Duero and on June 1, 1542, Emperor Charles V appointed him his confessor and religious advisor. In this role he managed, among other things, the arrest of the Spanish humanist and Protestant Francisco de Enzinas ' in the Netherlands , who had the first translation of the New Testament into Spanish printed in Antwerp in 1543 . As the emperor's confessor, Pedro de Soto was appointed master of theology at the provincial chapter in 1543 and, thanks to his diplomatic skills, was able to achieve the Peace of Crépy with his colleague Father Gabriel de Guzmán, who was in French service .

His main work was to promote the Catholic renewal by the Jesuits and to restore their own religious studies and convents. In 1548 he was instrumental in the drafting and adoption of the interim at the Reichstag in Augsburg .

Due to his rejection of harsher sentences against Lutheran preachers, he finally resigned his advisory post with the emperor on August 15, 1548 and a year later, in 1549, he was commissioned by the Augsburg prince-bishop Otto von Waldburg to found the University of Dillingen . As the founding rector, he was able to publish important theological works in Dillingen, such as his German and Latin catechism from 1549.

In 1552 Pedro de Soto had to flee from the Lutheran troops of Moritz von Sachsen to Friesach and was only able to reopen the university on May 21, 1554 after a long reconstruction. During the reconstruction in Dillingen de Soto met Reginald Pole in 1553 , who brought him to England in 1555 to support the Counter-Reformation under Queen Maria I Tudor . Pedro de Soto became a professor at Oxford University and took care of the restoration of monasteries. All in all, he only stayed in Oxford for a short time and already in 1556 followed a call from Emperor Charles V to Brussels, where he rejected the bishopric and cardinal dignity proposed to him.

In 1558 Pedro de Soto returned to Spain and was again prior in his convent in Talavera. On August 22, 1558 he refused the appointment of Vicar General for the Spanish Colonies in America , which took the appointment as Vicar of the Spanish Order Province in 1559 however, he. However, he lost this position a year later to Melchior Cano . On May 9, 1561 he was finally appointed papal theologian for the last session of the Council of Trent and set off for Rome in July 1561, and died in 1563 during the council in Trent .

literature

personal data
SURNAME Soto, Pedro de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Soto, Petrus de; Soto, Petrus à; Soto, Peter from
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish Dominican and theologian
DATE OF BIRTH between 1494 and 1500
PLACE OF BIRTH Salamanca
DATE OF DEATH April 20, 1563
Place of death Trent