personal bravery during the disastrous sally of Cortez from Mexico in July, 1520 (Noche Triste) and subsequently in the campaign and capture of the Indian stronghold (1521). In 1524 he conquered Guatemala, and became Governor of the Spanish province into which the territory was transformed. He soon undertook to fit out expeditions to the South Sea (with little result), and determined upon following Pizarro in the conquests of western South America. Sailing to the coast of Ecuador in 1534, with a well-equipped flotilla, and landing on the Ecuadorian coast, he pushed on to the plateau of Quito, to find it held by Belalcazar for Pizarro. Bloodshed appeared imminent between the rival parties. But the arrival of Almagro with instructions from Pizarro led to negotiations, as a result of which Alvarado returned to Guatemala, having bartered to Pizarro most of his ships, horses, and ammunition, as well as most of his men, against a comparatively modest sum of money. After his return to Guatemala, Alvarado turned his attention to northern Mexico. Constantly quarrelling with Cortez, he easily became the tool of the Viceroy Mendoza. He was in almost unceasing trouble with his neighbour Montejo about the boundaries of their respective territories. While pursuing the pacification of Guadalajara, as lieutenant of Mendoza, he was killed in an assault on the Indian camp, on the rocky height of Nochiztlan, 24 June, 1541. His wife, Doña Beatriz de la Cueva, lost her life in September of the same year, in the destruction of the city of Guatemala by the volcano called "de Agua". Alvarado was not a gifted administrator; in fact, he was more distinguished for chivalrous bravery than for intellectual gifts. Physically very prepossessing, brave to excess, he was mentally greatly inferior to Cortez and to Nuño de Guzman, while morally their superior. What is told of the outbursts of cruelty with which he is charged cannot surprise, when the methods of warfare prevailing in his time are taken into consideration. He acted under the pressure of military necessity, and it is always well to test such charges by inquiring into their possibility and into the spirit of their authors. In estimating his conduct in South America we must remember that Alvarado was utterly helpless in presence of the superiority of Pizarro.
Alvarado is so intimately connected with the Conquest of Mexico that older works on that important event must he referred to, beginning with the reports on Grijalva, Oviedo, the letters of Cortez, Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Andrés de Tapia Aguilar, Suárez Peralta, and others. A large number of valuable documents (perhaps more important than the "histories") are published in the Documentos inéditos de Indias and some in the Colección de documentos para la Historia de España. Much important material has also been accumulated in the Documentos para la historia de México, Joaquín Garcia Ycazbalceta (first series, II); Gomara and Herrera; Historia de México, by Antonio de Solis and others, like the Indian writers, Tezozomoc and Ixtlilxochitl, Diego Duran, and Juan de Tobar, also Torquemada, Monarchía Indiana; Veytia, Historia antigua de México. Modern writers on the conquest of Mexico are so numerous that it is not possible to enumerate them.
Alvarez, Balthzar, a Spanish mystic, who was the spiritual director of St. Teresa, b. at Cervera, in Spain, in 1533, of a noble family; d. at Belmonte, 25 July, 1580. He studied philosophy and theology in the University of Alcalá. When only eighteen years of age, he was remarkable for his extraordinary habit of prayer and piety. His inclination was first towards the Carthusians, because of their life of contemplation, but, finally, he entered the Society of Jesus, at Alcalá, in 1555, fifteen years after its foundation. The famous Father Bustamente was his master of novices and subjected him to the Alcalá trials. In the novitiate of Simancas he met St. Francis Borgia, and the strongest affection was established between them. He resumed his philosophical and theological studies at Alcalá and Avila, under the guidance of the Dominicans; for as yet the Society had no theologians of its own. The continual interruptions of his studies impeded his progress in scholastic theology, but he compensated for it by the eminence he achieved, through prayer, in mystical theology, which fitted him in a remarkable degree for the office he subsequently held as confessor, master of novices, rector, provincial, visitor, and as director of persons far advanced in the ways of holiness. He was made a priest in 1558, and, although only twenty-five years of age, was entrusted with the spiritual direction of St. Teresa, then belonging to the mitigated order of Carmel, but who was on the point of founding the Discalced Carmelites. Alvarez not only guided her in matters of the spirit, but defended her from her critics, encouraged her in her work of reform, and had much to do with framing the rules of the new Order. His direction continued for seven years. The Saint declared that it had been revealed to her that Father Balthazar had reached a very high degree of perfection. He followed the usual method of prayer for sixteen years. After that he received a special gift of contemplation. In 1574 he was made rector of Salamanca and visitor of the Province of Aragon, and, in 1579, was about to be sent as provincial to Peru but that project was never carried out. He was well on in life when his method of prayer was questioned. By some it was looked upon as a delusion of the devil. Alvarez was compelled to write an account of it to the General of the Society of Jesus, Everard Mercurian, who approved of it, but discountenanced it as a general practice. At the same time, he expressed his esteem for Father Alvarez and employed him in the most responsible offices. At his death, St. Teresa had a revelation of his glory in heaven.
Del Puente, Vida del P. Balthazar Alvares (tr. Bouix); Niremberg, Ideas de virtud, 348–97; Alcazar, Chrono. Hist. De la c. De J. en la prov. De Toledo, II, 623–34; De Backer, Bibliotheque de la c. De J., I, 107.
Alvarez, Diego, Spanish theologian, b. at Medina de Rio-Seco, Old Castile, about 1550; d. at Trani, Kingdom of Naples, 1635. He entered the Dominican Order in his native city, and taught theology for twenty years in the Spanish cities of Burgos, Trianos, Plasencia, and Valladolid, and for ten years (1596–1606) at the Minerva, in Rome. Shortly after his arrival in Rome (7 November, 1596) he presented to Clement VIII a memorial requesting him to examine the work "Concordia liberi Arbitrii", by Ludovicus Molina, S.J., which, upon it publication in 1588, had given rise to bitter controversy. Before the Congregation (Congregatio de Auxiliis), appointed by the Pope to settle the dispute, he defended the Thomistic doctrines of grace, predestination, etc., alone for three years, and, thereafter, conjointly with Thomas de Lemos, O.P., to whom he gave the first place, until the suspension of the Congregation (1606). He was appointed, 19 March, 1606, by Paul V, to the Archbishopric of Trani, where he passed the remainder of his life. Besides (1) a commentary on Isaias, and (2) a manual for preachers, he published: (3) "De auxiliis divinæ gratiæ et humani arbitrii viribus et libertate, ac legitimâ ejus cum efficaciâ eorumdem auxiliorum concordiâ libri XII" (Rome, 1610; Lyons, 1620; Douai, 1635); (4) "Responsionum ad objectiones adversus concordiam liberi arbitrii cum divinâ, præscientiâ, providentiâ, et prædestinatione, atque cum efficaciâ prævenientis gratiæ, prout a S. Thomâ et Thomistis defenditur et explicatur, Libri IV (Trani, 1622; Lyons, 1622); (5) "De origine Pelagianæ hæresis et ejus progressu et damnatione per plures summos pontifices et concilia factâ Historia ex annalibus Card. Baronii et aliis probatis auctoribus collecta" (Trani, 1629);
