Manuel Arias y Porres

Frey Manuel Arias y Porres (Alaejos, 1 November 1638 - Seville, 16 November 1717) was a Spanish Catholic prelate and statesman, Knight of the Order of Malta, Hieronymite monk, president of the Council of Castile during the reigns of Charles II and Philip V, Archbishop of Seville and Cardinal.

Biography Knight of Malta At the age of 14 he went to Malta, where serving as a Knight of the Order of Saint John, he studied philosophy, theology and law. With the support of the Grand Master, Rafael Cotoner, in 1662 he was appointed vice-chancellor of the Order, and later Pope Innocent XI granted him the rank of Grand Bailiff. During his militancy in the Order, he was granted the encomiendas of Benavente (1668), El Viso (1674), Los Yébenes (1676) and Quiroga (1683).

President of Castile in the service of Charles II In 1689 he returned to Spain, where King Charles II appointed him Ambassador to Portugal, a position that Arias declined, citing his newly acquired religious status, as he had just entered the Order of Saint Jerome. He received the Presidency of the Council of Castile between December 1692 and January 1696, when he resigned and retired to El Viso. In April 1699, as a result of a popular revolt that occurred in Madrid, known as the Mutiny of the cats (Los Gatos), in which the Count of Oropesa was deposed from the presidency of Castile, Arias was recalled to replace him.

He died in Seville at the age of 79 and was buried in the Church of the Sagrario in this same city.