Agustín, Antonio
AGUSTÍN, ANTONIO
Humanist, scholar, reform bishop; b. Saragossa, Feb. 26, 1517; d. Tarragona, May 31, 1586. He studied at Alcalá, Salamanca, Bologna (1536) and Padua (1537). In 1541 he became a doctor of laws at Bologna and three years later, at the request of Emperor Charles V, was appointed auditor of the Roman Rota. In 1555 Paul IV dispatched him to England as nuncio to Queen mary tudor and councilor to Cardinal Reginald pole. The following year he was appointed bishop of Alife, Kingdom of Naples, and in 1561 was made bishop of Lérida in his native Spain. His participation in and support of the Council of trent and its ecclesiastical reforms prompted Gregory XIII to create him archbishop of Tarragona (1576). Throughout his life Agustín was concerned with the history and study of Roman and canon law; his best-known work in Roman law is Emendationum et opinionum libri IV ad Modestinum. His critical work, De emendatione Gratiani, is noteworthy in canon law. Agustín was also a scholar of liturgical and catechetical theology, classical philology, and heraldry. His collected works were published in eight volumes at Lucca (1768–74).
Bibliography: j. f. von schulte, Die Geschichte der Quellen und der Literatur des kanonischen Rechts 3.1:723–28. l. serrano, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques 1: 1077–80. e. magnin, Dictionnaire de droit canonique 1:628–30.
[c. l. hohl, jr.]