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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 petitions 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 de! Popo!o. This was to be a forerunner of far greater things, for he was to be the founder of Propaganda's famous Co!!egio, but we do not know the origins of his interest in foreign missions. Possibly it was nurtured by his activities for the cause of the Dominican Fray Luis Bertran, Apostle of New Granada or Columbia, with which the Valencians had entrusted Vives in 1586. Probably Vives had also been influenced by Jean de Vendeville, a professor at Louvain and subsequently Bishop of Toumai, 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, General Inquisitor and Protector of Spain 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 Jesuit who had been sent to Rome from Colombia to attend the sixth general congregation of the Jesuits. Together the three men drew up a memorandum for Paul V proposing the creation of missionary semi– naries in various parts of the world and the creation of a new pontifical congre– gation working in the Indies "tarn Orirntis quam Occidentis" as a direct chal– lenge to Spanish and Portuguese patronal rights. This initiative was frustrated by Aquaviva, the Jesuit General, 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, Vivesy Marja, Juan Bautista, in Diccionario de historia ec!esiastica de Espana, IV, Madrid 1975. See also Juan de Unzalu, El Pre/ado Romano, Monseflor Juan Bautista Vives, in Agencia Fides, 1.VI.1946, n.770, and 15.VI.1946, n.772. A. Castellucci, Mons. Giambattista Vives, in Alma Mater, II, Rome 1920, 18-41. N. Kowalsky, Juan Bautista Vives, in Enc. Cat. XII, Citta del Vaticano 1954, 1566-1568. F. Bontinck, Jean-Baptiste Vives, Ambassadeur des Rois de Congo aupres du Saint-Siege, in Revue du C!erge Afiicain, VII, 1952, 258-264. Gracian in the prologue to his Ze/o de la propagacirfn de la Fee, Madrid 1616, saluted Vives and on p. 281 praised him for his missionary work. 37 G. Piras, La Congregazj,one e ii Collegio di Propaganda Fide di J B. Vives, G. Leonardi e M. de Funes (Documenta Missionalia, 10), Rome 1976.