Tomás de Torquemada
Tomás de Torquemada | |
---|---|
Grand Inquisitor | |
In office 1483 – 16 September 1498 | |
Preceded by | Position established |
Succeeded by | Diego de Deza |
Personal details | |
Born | 14 October 1420 Torquemada or Valladolid, Kingdom of Castile |
Died | 16 September 1498 Ávila, Kingdom of Castile | (aged 77)
Relatives | Juan de Torquemada (uncle) |
Alma mater | University of Salamanca |
Occupation | Friar |
Tomás de Torquemada
In part because of persecution, Muslims and Jews in Castile and Aragon at that time found it socially, politically, and economically advantageous to convert to Catholicism (see
Owing to the use of torture to extract confessions, and his advocacy of burning at the stake for those declared guilty, Torquemada's name has become synonymous with cruelty, religious intolerance, and fanaticism.[5] The number of burnings at the stake during Torquemada’s tenure has been estimated at about 2,000.[6]
Biography
Early life
Torquemada was born on 14 October 1420 either in Valladolid, in the Kingdom of Castile,[7] or in the nearby village of Torquemada.[8][9] The 15th century chronicler Hernando del Pulgar, a contemporary to de Torquemada and himself a converso, recorded that Tomás de Torquemada's uncle, Juan de Torquemada, a celebrated theologian and cardinal,[10] was of converso descent.[11] As a converso, Pulgar is considered to have made this assertion out of hate for Juan de Torquemada’s nephew, Tomás de Torquemada.[12] However, a 2020 study of all of Juan de Torquemada’s ancestors found no Jewish converts in his family.[13]
Torquemada 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 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, Torquemada served as her regular confessor and personal advisor. He was present at Isabella's coronation in 1474, remained her closest ally and supporter, and even advised her to marry King Ferdinand of Aragon in 1469 to consolidate their kingdoms and form a power base he could draw on for his own purposes.[11] Torquemada subdued Ferdinand's own ambitions and became his confessor also.[14]
Establishment of the Holy Office of the Inquisition
Torquemada deeply suspected the
The papal bull gave the sovereigns full powers to name inquisitors. Rome retained the right to formally appoint the royal nominees. Henry Charles Lea observed that the Spanish Inquisition in both Castile and Aragon remained firmly under Ferdinand's direction throughout the joint reign.[16]
Grand Inquisitor
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 1484, Torquemada relinquished his role as royal confessor to
In the fifteen years under his direction, the Spanish Inquisition grew from a single
Under the Alhambra Decree of March 31, 1492, approximately 40,000 Jews were expelled from Spain with only their personal possessions. Approximately 50,000 other Jews received Christian baptism to remain in Spain. Many of them, derogatorily dubbed "Marranos" by the Old Christian majority, secretly kept some of their Jewish traditions.[19] They were among the chief targets of the Inquisition, but it also pursued anyone who criticized it.
So many clemency petitions were sent to Rome that the Pope became aware of Torquemada's severity, and he called the Inquisition's representatives to Rome three times. In addition, Isabella and Ferdinand were so concerned at the quantity of money that was being diverted to the Holy Office that they too protested to the Pope. But Torquemada's power kept him in his position until at least 1494.[17]
There are various estimates of the number of victims of the Spanish Inquisition during Torquemada's reign as Grand Inquisitor. 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.[20]
Death
During his final years, Torquemada's failing health caused
Notes
- ^ English: /ˌtɔːrkɪˈmɑːdə/ TOR-kim-AH-də, Spanish: [toˈmas ðe toɾkeˈmaða].
See also
References
Footnotes
- ^ "Definition of MARRANO". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2019-12-01.
- ^ "Crypto-Jews", My Jewish Learning Archived 2014-10-29 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Ott, Michael (1912). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company. . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).
- ^ "Tomas De Torquemada". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2019-12-01.
- ^ "Tomás de Torquemada | Spanish inquisitor". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2020-10-11.
- ^ "Tomás de Torquemada | Spanish inquisitor | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2023-01-11.
- ISBN 9781135951023.
- ISBN 9781136771620.
- ISBN 9781840681055.
- ^ "Meditations, or the Contemplations of the Most Devout". World Digital Library. 1479. Retrieved 2013-09-02.
- ^ a b Fernando del Pulgar (1789). Claros varones de Castilla. G. Ortega.
- ^ A.G. 1940, p. 140.
- ^ Domínguez Casas 2020.
- ^ Taunton 1911, p. 58.
- ISBN 0838636608
- ^ Lea, Henry Charles. A History of the Inquisition of Spain, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1906-07), 1:27-28
- ^ a b Taunton 1911, p. 59.
- ^ The Age of Torquemada, by John Edward Longhurst (1962), from vlib.iue.it (European University Institute)
- ^ Wolf, A (1909). Life of Spinoza (Spinoza's Short Treatise on God, Man and his Well Being). London: Adam and Charles Black. pp. 4–5.
- ^ Henry Kamen, The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1997), 60
- ^ "The Unfathomable Cruelty Of Tomás de Torquemada". All That's Interesting. 2018-02-02. Retrieved 2021-05-18.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: date and year (link) Complaints about Torquemada reaching the Pope may have had to do with Torquemada's semi-retirement at the end of his life. - ^ Taunton 1911, p. 60.
- ISBN 9780547607825.
Bibliography
- A.G. (1940). "Review: Torquemada: Scourge of the Jews by Thomas Hope". Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review. 29 (113): 139–141. JSTOR 30097833.
- Caldwell Ames, Christine, Righteous Persecution: Inquisition, Dominicans, and Christianity in the Middle Ages, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013) [1]
- Domínguez Casas, Rafael (2020). "El linaje del cardenal don Juan de Torquemada: poder económico y promoción artística". BSAA Arte (in Spanish). 86: 41–94. . Retrieved 14 February 2022.
- Duran, Alphonsus Maria, Why Apologize for the Spanish Inquisition?, (Eric Gladkowski, Ed., 2000). ISBN 0-9702235-0-1.
- Goldberg, Enid A. & ISBN 1-4351-0322-X
- 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
- Sabatini, Rafael, Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition (revised edition, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1930)
- Taunton, Ethelred Luke (1911). . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 58–60.
- ISBN 0-89555-326-0.