 He was the son of , Count of Luna, was educated as a page of Cardinal Ximenes, and at the age of sixteen entered the Order of Friars Minor in the friary of St. Mary of the Angels in Alcalá de Henares, taking the name of Francis of the Angels (1498).Having completed his studies, he successively discharged all the various offices of his Order as Custos, Commissary General, and Vicar General of the Observant branch of the Order.In 1521 he had obtained special permission and faculties from Pope Leo X to go to the missions in the Americas, together with Friar Jean Glapion, confessor of Emperor Charles V. Glapion died in the same year, however, and Quiñones was elected Commissary General of the Ultramontane Franciscans—those north of the Alps (1521–23).