Alonso Tostado

Most Reverend Alonso Fernández de Madrigal
Bishop of Ávila
Church	Catholic Church
Diocese	Diocese of Ávila
In office	1454-1455
Predecessor	Alonso de Fonseca y Ulloa
Successor	Martín Fernández de Vilches
Personal details
Born	1400
Died	3 September 1455 (age 55)
Nationality	Spanish

Alonso Tostado known in Latin as Tostatus Abulensis ("Tostado from Ávila"), Dominus Abulensis ("the Master from Avila"), or simply Abulensis (ca. 1400 – 3 September 1455) was a Spanish exegete and bishop of Ávila, whose real name was Alonso Fernández de Madrigal.

After a course of grammar under the Franciscans he entered the University of Salamanca, where, besides philosophy and theology, he studied civil and canon law, Greek, Hebrew, and the other branches then comprised in the curriculum of a university. By great application joined to an unusually brilliant mind and an extraordinarily retentive memory, he accumulated such a vast store of knowledge that his contemporaries styled him a wonder of the world. At 22 he began to lecture on a wide variety of subjects to large audiences attracted by his learning. Later he assisted with distinction at the Council of Basle.

During a visit to the papal court at Siena in 1443, he was denounced to Pope Eugene IV as having publicly defended a heretic and some rash propositions, but in an explanatory letter he assured the pontiff of his orthodoxy.

On his return to Spain he was appointed Grand Chancellor of Castile, and in 1449, Bishop of Ávila, whence his title Abulensis.

In Spanish, saber más que el Tostado ("to know more than Tostado") is still a proverbial phrase pondering somebody's deep knowledge.

His sepulcher in Avila was carved by Vasco de la Zarza in 1518.

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