Peter Cerbuna

Pedro Cerbuna del Negro (Fonz, Huesca, February 27, 1538 - Calatayud, March 5, 1597) was a Spanish religious, bishop of Tarazona and founder of the University of Zaragoza.

Biography

His parents were Juan Nadal Cerbuna, bailiff of the Aragonese Inquisition and Bayle de Fonz, and Isabel del Negro y de Ejea.

He studied at the universities of Huesca, Valencia, Lérida and Salamanca, where he received a doctorate in Theology in 1563. The following year he was ordained a priest in Lérida. Subsequently, he held various ecclesiastical positions (professor of Theology and vicar general of the diocese of Lleida; prison canon and visitor of Huesca; and canon and vicar general of the Archbishopric of Zaragoza from 1583 to 1585).

He dedicated the income from the vacant seat of the Archbishopric of Zaragoza to the creation of the University of Zaragoza, which allowed its opening on May 24, 1583 (despite the fact that it had been founded by a privilege granted by Carlos I in the Courts of Monzón on September 10, 1542).

On November 24, 1585, he was consecrated bishop of Tarazona, a city where he founded a Jesuit college dedicated to San Vicente Mártir and the San Gaudioso Council Seminary. Sixtus V also named him apostolic administrator of the diocese of Calahorra. He died in 1597. His remains rest in the Collegiate Church of Santa María la Mayor de Calatayud.