Tomás de Torquemada (Thomas of Torquemada), O.P. (/ˌtɔrkəˈmɑːdə/ Spanish: [toɾkeˈmaða]; 1420 – September 16, 1498) was a Spanish Dominican friar and the first Grand Inquisitor in Spain's movement to force Roman Catholicism upon its populace in the late 15th century, otherwise known as "The Spanish Inquisition"

The existence of many superficial converts among the Moriscos and Marranos (i.e. Crypto-Jews), who had found it more socially, politically and economically expedient to join the Catholic fold, was perceived by the Spanish monarchs of that time, principally King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, as a threat to the religious and social life of Spain. This led Torquemada, who himself had converso ancestors, to be one of the chief supporters of the Alhambra Decree that expelled the Jews from Spain in 1492.

Biography

Early life

Torquemada was born in 1420, either in Valladolid, Castile-León, Spain, or in the nearby small village of Torquemada. He came from a family of conversos (converts from Judaism); his uncle Juan de Torquemada was a celebrated theologian and cardinal, whose grandmother was also a conversa; 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.

Hernando del Pulgar, in his book Claros varones de Castilla, says of Torquemada, «sus aguelos fueron de linage de los Judios convertidos á nuestra Santa Fé Católica» ("His grandparents were of the lineage of the Jews converted to our Holy Catholic faith").

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 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, Torquemada 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 deeply feared the Marranos and Moriscos as a menace to Spain's welfare by their increasing religious influence on, and economic domination of Spain. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella concurred, and soon after their accession to power petitioned Pope Sixtus IV 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

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 "Marranos" 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.

Coerced conversions, 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.

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. His bones were allegedly stolen and ritually incinerated as though an auto-da-fé took place.

In fiction

• Torquemada, a historical novel by Howard Fast.
• Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov features a 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.
• 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.
• 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. Mills also featured Torquemada in the graphic novel series Requiem Chevalier Vampire
• Lance Henriksen portrays a fictionalized Torquemada in the 1991 horror film The Pit and the Pendulum.
• Torquemada appears on chapter 4 of Spanish historical fiction series El Ministerio del Tiempo