CARTHAGENA, DON ALFONSO DE:
Convert to Christianity; son of Paul of Burgos; diedat Burgos in 1456. He was baptized when quite young by his father, and became archdeacon of Compostella. Being equally distinguished as states-man and as priest, he succeeded his father in the bishopric of Burgos. In 1431 he was the representative of Castile at the Council of Basel. Pope Pius II., in his memoirs, called him "an ornament to the prelacy." Pope Eugenius IV., learning that the bishop of Burgos was about to visit Rome, declared in full conclave that "in the presence of such a man he felt ashamed to be seated in St. Peter's chair."
Grätz ascribes to the influence exercised by Carthagena over Eugenius IV. the latter's sudden change of attitude toward the Jews. Carthagena alone, says Grätz, could have been the author of the complaints against the pride and arrogance of the Castilian Jews, which induced the pope to issue the bull of 1442, withdrawing the privileges granted to them by former popes. Among Carthagena's writings on history, morals, and other subjects, there is a commentary on the twenty-sixth Psalm.
- Da Costa, Israel and the Gentiles, pp. 323 et seq.;
- Jöcher, Allg. Gelehrten-Lexikon, s.v.;
- Grätz, Gesch. der Juden, viii. 144 et seq.
