Tomás de Torquemada

For other uses, see Torquemada (disambiguation).

Tomás de Torquemada
Tomás de Torquemada
Born	1420 Valladolid, Spain
Died	September 16, 1498 (aged 77–78) Ávila, Spain
Nationality	Spanish/Dominican
Occupation	Grand Inquisitor
Relatives	Juan de Torquemada (cardinal) (uncle)

Tomás de Torquemada, (Thomas of Torquemada), O.P. (1420 – September 16, 1498) was a 15th-century Spanish Dominican friar and the first Grand Inquisitor in Spain's movement to restore Christianity among its populace in the late 15th century. He was one of the chief supporters of the Alhambra Decree, which expelled the Jews from Spain in 1492.

Torquemáda's manual of instructions to the Inquisition (Copilación de las Instruciónes del Offico de la Sancta Inquisición) did not appear in print publicly until 1576, when it was published in Madrid.

Biography

Early life

Torquemada was born in Valladolid, Castile-León, Spain. He was the nephew of a celebrated theologian and cardinal, Juan de Torquemada, himself a descendant (his grandmother) of a converso (someone who had converted to Christianity from Islam or Judaism); the contemporary historian Hernando del Pulgar (himself a converso ) recorded that his uncle, Juan de Torquemada, had an ancestor Álvar Fernández de Torquemada married to a first-generation Jewish conversa:

"Sus abuelos fueron de linage de los convertidos a nuestra santa fe católica" (translates as "His grandparents were among those converted to our Holy Catholic faith").

Tomás entered the local San Pablo Dominican monastery at a very young age. As a zealous advocate of church orthodoxy, he earned a solid reputation for the triple virtues of learning, piety and austerity. As a result, he was promoted to prior of the monastery of Santa Cruz at Segovia. Around this time, he met the young Princess Isabella I and the two immediately established religious and ideological rapport. For a number of years, Torquemáda served as her regular confessor and personal advisor. He was present at Isabella’s coronation in 1474, and remained her closest ally and supporter. He had even advised her to marry King Ferdinand of Aragon in 1469, in order to consolidate their kingdoms and form a power base he could draw on for his own purposes.

Establishment of the Holy Office of the Inquisition

Torquemada's concern towards Spanish Jews grew as he perceived them as gaining increasing religious influence on, and economic domination of, Spain; he became convinced they were trying to undermine the sovereign couple’s power and, even more importantly, Roman Catholicism. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella concurred, and soon after their accession to power petitioned the Pope to grant their request for a Holy Office to administer an inquisition in Spain. The pope granted their request, and established the Holy Office for the Propagation of the Faith in late 1478.

Grand Inquisitor

File:Main Door IE University.jpg

The Gothic entry way of IE University, Segovia, was formerly at the Dominican convent of la Santa Cruz (the Holy Cross), where de Torquemada served as a prior.

The Pope went on to appoint a number of inquisitors for the Spanish Kingdoms in early 1482, including Torquemada. A year later he was named Grand Inquisitor of Spain, which he remained until his death in 1498. In the fifteen years under his direction, the Spanish Inquisition grew from the single tribunal at Seville to a network of two dozen 'Holy Offices'. As Grand Inquisitor, Torquemada reorganized the Spanish Inquisition (originally based in Castile in 1478), establishing tribunals in Sevilla, Jaén, Córdoba, Ciudad Real and (later) Saragossa. His quest was to rid Spain of all heresy. The Spanish chronicler Sebastián de Olmedo called him "the hammer of heretics, the light of Spain, the savior of his country, the honor of his order".

Under the edict of March 31, 1492, known as the Alhambra Decree, approximately 200,000 Jews left Spain. Following the Alhambra decree of 1492, approximately 50,000 Jews took baptism so as to remain in Spain; however, many of these—known as "Maranos" from Corinthians II, a contraction of anathema—were "crypto-jews" and secretly kept some of their Jewish traditions.

Torquemada made the procedures of prior inquisitions somewhat less brutal by moderating the use of torture, limiting its use to suspects denounced by two or more "persons of good nature."; and by cleaning up the Inquisitorial prisons. The condemned were made to wear a sanbenito, a penitential garment worn over clothes and of a design that specified the type of penitence. One type, worn by those sentenced to death, had designs of hell’s flames or sometimes demons, dragons and/or snakes engraved on it. Another type had a cross, and was worn instead of imprisonment, then hung in the parish church.

Forced conversions by large numbers, often ordered by Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros, took place under significant government pressure. The Treaty of Granada (1491), as negotiated at the final surrender of the Muslim state of Al-Andalus, clearly mandated protection of religious rights, but this was reversed by the Alhambra Decree of 1492.

Although the Inquisition is often viewed as being directed against all Jews and only Jews, it actually had no jurisdiction or authority over unconverted Jews or Muslims and never claimed to have any; only baptized Christians — in other words, persons claiming to be Catholics — faced possible investigation. Furthermore, of those called to appear before the Holy Office, most were released after an initial hearing without any further incident.

There is some disagreement as to the number of victims of the Spanish Inquisition during Torquemada's reign as Grand Inquisitor. Some scholars believe that he was responsible for the death of 2,000 people. Hernando del Pulgar, Queen Isabella’s secretary, wrote that 2,000 executions took place throughout the entirety of her reign, which extended well beyond Torquemada's death.

Death

During his final years, Torquemáda's failing health, coupled with widespread complaints, caused Pope Alexander VI to appoint four assistant inquisitors in June 1494 to restrain the Spanish Inquisition. After fifteen years as Spain's Grand Inquisitor, Torquemáda died in the monastery of St. Thomas Aquinas in Ávila in 1498 and was interred there. His tomb was ransacked in 1832—two years before the Inquisition was disbanded—by rioters, his bones stolen and ritually incinerated as though an auto-da-fé took place.

Torquemada in fiction

• Torquemada, a historical novel by Howard Fast.
• Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov features a famous parable involving Christ coming back to Seville in the days of the Spanish Inquisition, and being confronted by Torquemada as the Grand Inquisitor.
• Torquemada, a play by Victor Hugo.
• Torquemada, an opera by Zoltan Demme based on the above play by Victor Hugo.
• Torquemada, an opera by Nino Rota based on a libretto by Ernesto Trucchi.
• "Torquemada", The Theologian's Tale from Part One of Tales of a Wayside Inn, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
• In Stuart Gordon's 1990 film adaptation of The Pit and the Pendulum, Lance Henriksen portrays Torquemada.
• Marlon Brando portrayed Torquemada in the 1992 film Christopher Columbus: The Discovery.
• Tomás de Torquemada is one of the main protagonists of Jerzy Andrzejewski's novel And Darkness Covered the Earth (also translated as The Inquisitors).
• Tomás de Torquemada is one of the main characters of Gilbert Sinoué's novel Le livre de saphir.
• Mel Brooks portrayed Torquemada in the musical song "The Inquisition" in the 1981 comedy movie History of the World, Part I. During the scene about the Spanish Inquisition, an inquisitor introduces Torquemada by saying, "Torquemada – do not implore him for compassion. Torquemada – do not beg him for forgiveness. Torquemada – do not ask him for mercy. Let's face it, you can't Torquemada ('talk him out of') anything!"
• Torquemada is the name of the primary antagonist in the comic series Nemesis the Warlock by Pat Mills. This future Torquemada is later revealed to be an incarnation of the original Torquemada.
• In one of the Glyphs in the game Assassin's Creed II there is a map listing numerous Templar Targets over the course of history. Torquemada is listed as one of them
• Torquemada Coteaz is a famous, feared and respected Inquisitor of the Ordo Malleus, titled "Lord Inquisitor" and "High Protector of the Formosa Sector" in the Warhammer 40 000 universe, and an obvious reference to the Spanish Inquisitor General Tomás de Torquemada - who, like Coteaz, is known for being zealous as well as incorruptible.
• In the graphic novel series Requiem Chevliere Vampire Requiem Chevalier Vampire, Torquemada is a werewolf condemned to Hell (Called Resurrection in the series) for his earthly crimes as an inquisitor.

Bibliography

• Duran, Alphonsus Maria, Why Apologize for the Spanish Inquisition?, (Eric Gladkowski, Ed., 2000). ISBN 0-9702235-0-1.

• Goldberg, Enid A. & Itzkowitz, Norman, "Tomas de Torquemada" (A Wicked History), (Scholastic Books, 2008) ISBN 1-4351-0322-X

• Kamen, Henry, The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision, (Yale University Press, 1999). ISBN 0-300-07880-3.

• Lea, Henry Charles, The history of the Inquisition of Spain, (Macmillan, 1906–07) Wikisource:A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages/Volume I

• Ott, Michael. "Tomás de Torquemada." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 23 Sept. 2013 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14783a.htm>.

• Sabatini, Rafael, Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition, (Bretano's 1913; reprinted BiblioLife, 2009). # Paperback: 304 pages, Publisher: House of Stratus; New edition (31 May 2001) # Language English # ISBN 1-84232-834-4 # ISBN 978-1-84232-834-7

• Walsh, William Thomas, Characters of the Inquisition, (Tan Books and Publishers, 1987). ISBN 0-89555-326-0 .