Diego Álvarez was born at
Medina de Rioseco,
Old Castile, about 1555. He entered the
Dominican Order in his native city, and taught theology for twenty years in the Spanish cities of
Burgos, Trianos,
Plasencia, and
Valladolid, and for ten years (1596-1606) at the Dominican convent of
Santa Maria sopra Minerva, in Rome. From 1603 to 1606 he was elected Regent of the
Collegium Divi Thomae of the Dominicans in Rome. Shortly after his arrival in Rome (7 November 1596) he presented to
Pope Clement VIII a memorial requesting him to examine the work
Concordia liberi Arbitrii, by
Luis de Molina,
S.J., which, upon its publication in 1588, had given rise to bitter controversy, known as
Molinism, on the extent of knowledge of God in the
Divine providence. Before the Congregation (
Congregatio de Auxiliis), appointed by the Pope to settle the dispute, he defended the
Thomistic doctrines of grace, predestination, etc., alone for three years, and, thereafter, conjointly with his confrere
Tomas de Lemos, to whom he gave the first place, until the suspension of the Congregation (1606). He was appointed on 19 March 1607, by
Pope Paul V, to the
Archbishopric of Trani. The
episcopal consecration followed on 1 April in the Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva by the hands of
Girolamo Bernerio. He passed the remainder of his life in
Trani where he died on 10 May 1632. He was buried in that
cathedral. ==Works==