Curriculum

He was the youngest child of Mr Rodrigo de Mendoza. After finishing his ecclesiastical studies in Salamanca, he travelled to Rome where he served the papal Curia for twelve years (1603-15). When he returned to Spain, he was an archdeacon in Carrión de los Condes and canon in Palencia. After a new stay in Rome for some time, he returned to Andalucía as an archdeacon in Écija and canon in Seville. He was elected bishop of Palencia in 1628 and Burgos in 1631. When the war against France broke out(1636), he was elected viceroy and field marshal in Navarra in 1628, filling this office until 1640. He was elected bishop of Sigüenza in 1640 and took up the archbishopric of Santiago de Compostela en 1645.