Background
He was born in Herrera, Palencia, the nephew of Doctor Torres, Bishop of the Canaries.
He was born in Herrera, Palencia, the nephew of Doctor Torres, Bishop of the Canaries.
He studied at Salamanca and lived in Rome with Cardinal Salviati and Seripando.
He was professor at the Roman College, took part in the revision of the Sixtine Vulgate, and had Hosius and Baronius for literary associates. His contemporaries called him helluo librorum (glutton of books) for the rapidity with which he examined the principal libraries. He remained in Rome, where he died.
He defended the doctrines of the Immaculate Conception, the authority of the sovereign pontiff over the council, the Divinely appointed authority of bishops, Communion under one kind for the laity, the authenticity of the Apostolic Canons and the Pseudo-Isidorian decretals, and pleading the antiquity of the feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin, which Pius V had suppressed, worked for its reinstatement.