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RICHARD GRAY 419 · considered by his native Valencians to be a person of some influence in the Roman Curia, being entrusted by them with various petit:ions and causes. In 1591 Vives took minor orders as a subdeacon, and in the same year he opened a modest school for training missionaries in his residence in Piazza del Popoh. This was to be a forerunner of far greater things, for he was to be the founder of Propaganda's famous Collegio, but we do not know the origins of his interest in foreign missions. Possibly it was nurtured by his act:ivit:ies for the cause of the Dominican Pray Luis Bertran, Apostle of New Granada or Columbia, with which the Valencians had entrusted Vives in 1586. Probably Vives had also been influenced byJ ean de Vendeville, a professor at Louvain and subsequently Bishop ofTournai, who in 1589 had suggested to Sixtus V the foundation of a missionary seminary. Certainly Juan Bautista's missionary interest and activity was strengthened by his friendship with the Carmelite J er6nimo Gracian, who had so actively responded in 1580 to Philip II's invitation to send the Carme– lites to Kongo, and to whom Vives was introduced in 1595 by Cardinal Deza, Generai Inquisitor and Protector ofSpain 36 • When the ambassador from Kongo reached Rome in January 1608, Vives was deeply involved in discussing missionary strategy with St John Leonardi and Martin Funes, a Spanish J esuit who had been sent to Rome ftom Colombia to attend the sixth generai congregation of the Jesuits. Together the three men drew up a memorandum for Paul V proposing the creation ofmissionary semi– naries in various parts of the world and the creation of a new pontifical congre– gation working in the Indies "tam Orirntis quam Occidentis" as a direct chal– lenge to Spanish and Portuguese patrona! rights. This initiat:ive was frustrateci by Aquaviva, the Jesuit Generai, who wishing to respect Spanish rights and work for reforms through the royal council in Madrid, summarily ordered Fu– nes to leave Rome 37 • With these ideas and contacts, Vives must have been brought quickly into contact with the strategists who, after the deaths of the 36 R. Robres, Vives y lvla,ja, ]t1an Bat1tista, in Diccionario de historia eclesiastica de Espaiia, IV, Madrid 1975. See also Juan de Unzalu, El Prelado &n1a110, Mo111elior Jt1a11 Bat1tista Vives, in 'Agenda Fides, 1.VI.1946, n.770, and 15.VI.1946, n.772. A. Castellucci, Mom. Giambattista Vives, in Alma Mater, II, Rome 1920, 18-41. N. Kowalsky, Juan BafllÌSla Vives, in Enc. Cat. XII, Città del Vaticano 1954, 1566-1568. F. Bontinck,Jean-Baptiste Vives, Ambassadeur des Rois de Congo auprès du Saint-Siège, in Re1JJ1e du Clerge Africain, VII, 1952, 258-264. Gracian in the prologue to his Zelo de la propagacion de la Fee, Madrid 1616, saluted Vives and on p. 281 praised him for his missionaxy work. 37 G. Piras, La Co11gregazjone e il Collegio di Propaganda Fide di J B. Vives, G. Leo11ardi eM. de Ft1nes (Documenta Missionalia, 10), Rome 1976.