Ramón José de Arce

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Ramón José de Arce y Rebollar (1757–1844) was a Spanish church leader who held several high positions. He was born in Selaya, Cantabria, and studied at the Colegio Mayor de Cuenca, University of Salamanca. He worked in the Finance Ministry and later in the Council of Castile. He was named Archbishop of Burgos on December 18, 1797, and on the same day became Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition; he was consecrated as a bishop on March 4, 1798. He was moved to become Archbishop of Zaragoza on July 20, 1801, and was named Patriarch of the West Indies on August 26, 1806. During the 1808 French invasion, some of his sermons were seen as pro-French. After Spain regained independence in 1814, he resigned both the archbishopric and the patriarchate on July 15, 1816. He lived in exile in Paris and died there on February 16, 1844.