Afonso de Alprão

Afonso de Alprão (died 1422) was a Portuguese Franciscan friar, writer, royal confessor and papal inquisitor.

Life Afonso was born in the neighbourhood of Alprão in Santarém, Portugal. He joined the Franciscan order in the province of Santiago de Compostela, which was loyal to Rome during the Western Schism. In 1396–1397, he was studying for his Bachelor of Theology at the Collegio di Spagna of the University of Bologna. He also obtained a licentiate. In 1397, he was a lecturer in the Franciscan convent of San Francesco in Bologna. In 1405, he graduated a Master of Theology from Bologna.

In 1407, Afonso was vicar general of the Franciscans. That same year, he was made procurator of the convent of Santa Clara. In 1412, he was made minister provincial of Santiago. In June 1413, Pope John XXIII named him the inquisitor for Portugal. From 1417 until 1422, he also served as a confessor to King John I of Portugal. He died in 1422.

Works

In 1397, while a student in Bologna, Afonso wrote a treatise in Latin on the art of preaching, the title of which varies in the two known manuscripts. It is known as or as . Both manuscripts spell his name Alphonsus Dalpran. In the manuscript Cracow, Biblioteka Jagiellońska, MS 471, copied in 1444, it accompanies related treatises by Francesc Eiximenis and Thomas de Tuderto. The other manuscript is Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Hamilton 44, copied in the first half of the 15th century. Albert Hauf has provided a published edition of Afonso's . There is also a published Spanish translation.

Although the first sentence of Afonso's declares that it is divided into two parts, only the first survives. It is itself divided into three unequal sections, the first being by far the longest. It deals with how to introduce a sermon's theme. The theme chosen for his examples in "on her head a crown" , taken from Revelation 12:1. Afonso gives ten different means of introduction, including an enthymeme, a quotation from a philosopher and a question. In justifying the length of the first section, he notes that "the introduction alone could suffice for the sermon, as it is done nowadays." The second and third sections deal with the division of the theme and the distinction of its parts, respectively.