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Scienze della comunicazione Università degli Studi di TeramoPhD Program in Historical studies
Scienze della comunicazione Università degli Studi di TeramoPhD Program in Historical studies

Francisco Villanueva

Francisco Villanueva was born in 1509 in Plasencia and entered in the newly founded Society of Jesus in the city of Coimbra, in Portugal. After a short time he went to Alcalá de Henares to study. Together with a group of Jesuits he set out to build the first Jesuit college of the province of Toledo. Ignatius charged him with the opening of a number of colleges, such as those of Córdoba and Plasencia. The struggle which pitted Villanueva against the archbishop of Toledo, Juan Martínez Silíceo, who used the Inquisition to prosecute members of the Society is worthy of note. They were accused of being open to philosophical alternatives to classic medieval scholasticism. He died at Alcalá de Henares in 1557.

Read more:

  • C.Mª. Abad, Un centro de ejercicios espirituales en la antigua Compañía: el colegio de Alcalá, in «Manresa», 20 (1948), pp. 156-180.
  • J. Martínez de la Escalera S.J., Fundación Complutense de la Compañía de Jesús, in La Compañía de Jesús en Alcalá de Henares, Alcalá 1989, pp. 15-24.