On the death of Cardinal Siliceo, Archbishop of Toledo, the king appointed Carranza to succeed him; he however refused to accept the dignity, and named Don Gaspard de Zuñiga y Avellanada, Bishop of Segovia, Don Francis de Navarra, Bishop of Badajoz, and Don Alphonso de Castro, a Franciscan, as more worthy of the king's choice than himself. He persisted in his refusal, until the king commanded him on his allegiance to accept the archbishopric: the original of this royal order was also found among the papers of Carranza. Paul IV. dispensed with the usual formalities; he was _preconised_ in a full consistory on the 16th December, 1557, and his bulls were expedited. Pedro de Merida, canon of Palencia, administrated until the arrival of the archbishop. The Inquisition of Valladolid afterwards prosecuted him for some letters which he had written to Carranza, and which were found among his papers; he was also implicated by Fray Dominic de Roxas, and by other accomplices of Dr. Cazalla. The Archbishop Carranza was consecrated at Brussels on the 27th of February in the same year, by the Cardinal Granville, afterwards first archbishop of Malines. He published at Antwerp his Catechism in Spanish, under the title of _Commentaries of the very Reverend Fray Bartholomew Carranza de Miranda, Archbishop of Toledo, on the Christian Catechism, in four parts_[65]. He afterwards returned to Spain, and assisted several times at the Councils of Castile and the Inquisition. About the middle of September he went to the monastery of St. Juste, to make a report to Charles V. of some affairs confided to him by Philip II., and to pay his respects to the emperor, who was then ill, and died two days after. An account has been given in the eighteenth chapter of what passed at this visit. He then repaired to his archbishopric, where he remained six months, and then went to Alcala de Henares, with the intention of visiting his diocese. During the six months that he passed in the capital, his conduct was exemplary, passing his time in preaching, distributing alms, visiting the prisoners and the sick, and in causing prayers to be said for the dead. He employed himself in the same manner in all the places he passed through, until he arrived at Torrelaguna, where he was arrested by the Inquisition on the 22nd of August. He was taken back to Valladolid, and imprisoned in a house belonging to the eldest branch of the family of Don Pedro Gonzalez de Leon, where Don Diego Gonzalez, an inquisitor, was appointed to guard him.