Tomás de Torquemada

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tomás de Torquemada
Detail from the painting La Virgen de los Reyes Católicos

Tomás de Torquemada, OP ( Latin Thome de Turrecremata, Ordinis Fratrum Predicatorum ) (* 1420 in Valladolid or Torquemada (Palencia); † September 16, 1498 in Ávila ) was a Castilian Dominican . He was inquisitor general in the kingdoms of the Crown of Castile and the kingdoms of the Crown of Aragon . As chairman of the Consejo de la Suprema y General Inquisición , he organized this newly created state authority. Through the guidelines (instrucciones) he wrote, he shaped the work of the Spanish Inquisition.

origin

Thomás de Torquemada came from a noble family respected in Valladolid. His father was the regidor Pedro Fernández de Torquemada, his mother Mencía Ortega. Cardinal Juan de Torquemada was his uncle. He probably grew up in Valladolid and received his first lessons in the monastery of San Pablo.

Professional career until 1482

Tomás de Torquemada entered the Dominican order in the monastery of San Pablo de Valladolid. He finished his studies, presumably at the University of Valladolid, as "bachiller en teología". In 1455 he became prior of the Santa Cruz de Real monastery in Segovia . This office, in the oldest monastery of the Dominican Order in Spain, founded in 1218, had a great social and political reputation.

In the period before 1475 he was at times confessor of the then Princess of Asturias , later Queen Isabella . Although there is no exact date, almost all authors agree that Torquemada became Isabella's confessor when she was still a princess. The title of confessor of kings was generally retained, even if the activity was no longer exercised.

Appointment as Inquisitor and Inquisitor General

In 1478 Pope Sixtus IV approved the Castilian ruling couple Isabella and Ferdinand to appoint inquisitors for Castile. In 1480 two inquisitors were appointed to Seville. The Sevillian people and clergy protested to the Pope against the nature of their approach. He criticized the Sevillian inquisitors, but did not remove them.

In a bull of February 1482, the Pope appointed eight Dominican monks to be inquisitors. When listing the names, “Thome de Turrecremata, Baccalaurio” was mentioned in the seventh position. Nothing is known about trials that Tomás de Torquemada himself carried out as the inquisitor. In the first half of 1483 Sixtus IV appointed Tomás de Torquemada as Inquisitor General for Castile. The exact date of his appointment is unknown. The document for this could not be found. When Sixtus IV appointed him General Inquisitor of Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia on October 17, 1483, the appointment as General Inquisitor of Castile must have already been made. In a bull dated February 3, 1485, Innocent VIII confirmed Tomás de Torquemada as Inquisitor General in all kingdoms, countries and possessions of the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon. After the death of Archbishop of Seville Íñigo Manrique de Lara, appointed by the Pope in 1483 to be the judge of appeal for all decisions of the Spanish Inquisition , Tomás de Torquemada was appointed judge of the highest instance for all proceedings of the Spanish by a brief from Pope Innocent VIII on September 25, 1487 Called Inquisition.

Creation of the Spanish Inquisition

The medieval inquisition tribunals did their job independently and were then disbanded. The post of general inquisitor in a particular territory conferred by the Pope was not linked to the existence of an administrative organization. In the years 1483 to 1488 Tomás de Torquemada created the Consejo de la Suprema y General Inquisición (short: "La Suprema") an organization that guaranteed the conditions for a permanent, effective activity of the newly created Spanish Inquisition. The establishment of the local tribunals, their equipment and financing was organized by this state body. The Suprema was a political administrative organ of the monarchy and accordingly its establishment did not require the approval of the Pope, even if the Inquisitor General appointed by the Pope was chairman of this authority. With the support of the royal couple Isabella and Ferdinand, Torquemada created the final structure of the Suprema. Tribunals were set up in Ciudad Real , Jaén , Valencia , Teruel and, in the following years, in Zaragoza , Barcelona and other cities on the Iberian Peninsula. Each tribunal was provided with the appropriate personnel and the necessary inventory in appropriate buildings at the expense of the Crown.

Instrucciones

The first inquisitors in Seville in 1480 passed their judgments on the basis of general canon law and the literature available at the time. These were z. B. The work "Practica officii inquisitionis heretice pravitatis" created by Bernard Gui 1323–1324 and the "Directorium inquisitorum", also written in the 14th century, by the Dominican Nicolás Aymerich from Catalonia . However, both works hardly deal with the main problem of the Spanish Inquisition at the end of the 15th century, the conversos .

In order to find a uniform line in the procedure, the assessment of the deeds and the determination of the penalties at all tribunals of the Spanish Inquisition, Tomás de Torquemada developed the first four "Instucciones Generales" (General Guidelines). The Instrucciones addressed not only the inquisitors, but also the staff such as the prison guards, notaries and financial administrators of the regional tribunals. The Instrucciones published by Tomás de Torquemada between 1484 and 1498 were later known as “Instrucciones antiguas”, in contrast to the “Instrucciones nuevas” of his successors in the 16th century. By order of the Inquisitor General Alonso Manrique de Lara y Solís, the texts were published in print for the first time in 1536. Further editions followed along with the Instrucciones nuevas in the centuries to come.

The first "Instrucción general" was presented in November 1484 during a meeting in Seville attended by the royal couple, Torquemada and the inquisitors of the tribunals of Seville, Cordoba, Ciudad Real and Jaén. They dealt primarily with confiscation, confiscation of goods, fines, dishonorable punishments, torture, etc. The following instrucciones specified the procedure for pardons, arrests, trials, confiscations, convictions, sanbenitos and the holding of auto-dafe .

Restriction of activity

Out of consideration for his age and health, Tomás de Torquemadas appointed Pope Alexander VI. on July 23, 1494 Martín Pons or Ponce de León, Archbishop of Messina, lñigo Manrique de Lara, Bishop of Córdoba, Francisco Sánchez de la Fuente, Bishop of Avila and Alfonso de la Fuente de Salce, Bishop of Mondoñedo to become Inquisitors General who together to trade with Tomás de Torquemada. In 1496 he retired to the monastery of St. Tomás in Avila. He died there on September 16, 1498.

Historical evaluation

Tomás de Torquemada is one of the central figures of the Spanish Leyenda negra . The Instrucciones (guidelines) and the Visitaciones (controls by representatives of the Suprema) worked out by him restricted arbitrary action by the inquisitors. The prescribed procedure, including torture, in the conduct of the trials led to the relevant, ruthless work of the local tribunals.

There is no information about the trials in which Tomás de Torquemada himself worked as the inquisitor. During his time as Inquisitor General, he oversaw the Spanish Inquisition. Therefore, the judgments of all inquisition tribunals in the territories of the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon are often referred to as his judgments.

In the 19th century it was assumed that 8,800 people were sentenced to death at the stake for the time when the Inquisition was under the direction of Torquemada. 6,500 people are said to have been burned as dolls as they were already dead or fled, and 90,000 accused were sentenced to various fines and fines and reconciled with the church. Exact numbers are only known from individual Inquisition districts up to 1530. However, due to the different conditions, these numbers cannot be extrapolated to the other districts. Historical science today assumes around 2,000 death sentences between 1481 and 1504.

literature

  • José Antonio Escudero López: Los orígenes del Consejo de la Suprema Inquisición . In: Anuario de historia del derecho español . No. 53 , 1983, ISSN  0304-4319 , pp. 238–289 (Spanish, [15] [accessed September 15, 2019]).
  • Leandro Martínez Peñas: Fray Tomás de Torquemada y los Reyes Católicos . In: El confesor del rey en el antiguo régimen . Editorial Complutense, SA, Madrid 2007, ISBN 84-7491-851-0 , p. 166-177 (Spanish).
  • Joseph Pérez: La inquisición y la expulsion de los judíos . In: Los judíos en España . Marcial Pons Ediciones de Historia, Madrid 2005, ISBN 978-84-96467-03-3 , pp. 195–212 (Spanish, 360 pp., [16] [accessed September 15, 2019]).
  • Gerd Schwerhoff: The Inquisition - Persecution of Heretics in the Middle Ages and Modern Times . 3. Edition. Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2009, ISBN 3-406-50840-5 (129 pages).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Álvaro Huerga Teruelo: Tomás de Torquemada. Real Academia de la Historia, 2018, accessed September 15, 2019 (Spanish).
  2. ↑ Álvaro Huerga Teruelo: Tomás de Torquemada. Real Academia de la Historia, 2018, accessed September 15, 2019 (Spanish).
  3. ↑ José Antonio Escudero López: Los orígenes del Consejo de la Suprema Inquisición . In: Anuario de historia del derecho español . No. 53 , 1983, ISSN  0304-4319 , pp. 250 (Spanish, [1] [accessed September 15, 2019]).
  4. ↑ Miguel Larrañaga Zulueta: El convento dominico de Santa Cruz la Real de Segovia durante las épocas medieval y moderna . S. 5 (Spanish, academia.edu [accessed December 1, 2019]).
  5. ↑ Leandro Martínez Peñas: Fray Tomás de Torquemada y los Reyes Católicos . In: El confesor del rey en el antiguo régimen . Editorial Complutense, SA, Madrid 2007, ISBN 84-7491-851-0 , p. 167 (Spanish).
  6. ↑ Leandro Martínez Peñas: Fray Tomás de Torquemada y los Reyes Católicos . In: El confesor del rey en el antiguo régimen . Editorial Complutense, SA, Madrid 2007, ISBN 84-7491-851-0 , p. 169 (Spanish).
  7. ↑ José Antonio Escudero López: Los orígenes del Consejo de la Suprema Inquisición . In: Anuario de historia del derecho español . No. 53 , 1983, ISSN  0304-4319 , pp. 250 (Spanish, [2] [accessed September 15, 2019]).
  8. ↑ César Olivera Serrano: La Inquisición de los Reyes Católicos . In: Clío & Crímen: Revista del Centro de Historia del Crimen de Durango . No. 2 , 2005, ISSN  1698-4374 , p. 175–205 (Spanish, [3] [accessed September 15, 2019]).
  9. ↑ José Antonio Escudero López: Los orígenes del Consejo de la Suprema Inquisición . In: Anuario de historia del derecho español . No. 53 , 1983, ISSN  0304-4319 , pp. 258 (Spanish, [4] [accessed September 15, 2019]).
  10. ^ Joseph Pérez: Crónica de la inquisición en España . Ediciones Martínez Roca, Barcelona 2002, ISBN 84-270-2773-7 , p. 84 ff . (Spanish).
  11. ↑ P. Bernardino Llorca SJ (ed.): Bulario pontificio de la Inquisición española en su período constitucional (1478-1525) . Pontificia Universita Gregoriana, Rome 1949, p. 137 (Spanish, [5] [accessed October 1, 2019]).
  12. ↑ José Antonio Escudero López: Los orígenes del Consejo de la Suprema Inquisición . In: Anuario de historia del derecho español . No. 53 , 1983, ISSN  0304-4319 , pp. 245 (Spanish, [6] [accessed September 15, 2019]).
  13. ↑ Bernardus Guidonis: The Book of the Inquisition . The original manual of the Inquisitor Bernardus Guidonis. Ed .: Petra Seifert. Pattloch, Augsburg 1999, ISBN 978-3-629-00855-8 (278 pages, Latin: Practica officii inquisitionis . 1324. Translated by Manfred Pawlik).
  14. ↑ César Olivera Serrano: La Inquisición de los Reyes Católicos . In: Clío & Crímen: Revista del Centro de Historia del Crimen de Durango . No. 2 , 2005, ISSN  1698-4374 , p. 191 (Spanish, [7] [accessed September 15, 2019]).
  15. ↑ Tomás de Torquemada et al .: Compilacion de las Instrucciones del Oficio de la Santa Inquisicion . Ed .: Tribunal del Santo Oficio. Diego Diaz de la Carrera, Madrid 1667 (Spanish, [8] [accessed November 1, 2019]).
  16. ^ José Antonio Escudero López: La Inquisición española . In: Francisco J. Mateos Ascacibar, Felipe Lorenzana de la Puente (ed.): Actas de la II Jornada de historia de Llerena . Llerena 2001, ISBN 84-95251-59-0 , p. 26 (Spanish, [9] [accessed September 15, 2019]).
  17. ↑ Tomás de Torquemada et al .: Compilacion de las Instrucciones del Oficio de la Santa Inquisicion . Ed .: Tribunal del Santo Oficio. Diego Diaz de la Carrera, Madrid 1667 (Spanish, [10] [accessed November 1, 2019]).
  18. ↑ César Olivera Serrano: La Inquisición de los Reyes Católicos . In: Clío & Crímen: Revista del Centro de Historia del Crimen de Durango . No. 2 , 2005, ISSN  1698-4374 , p. 191 (Spanish, [11] [accessed September 15, 2019]).
  19. ↑ P. Bernardino Llorca SJ (ed.): Bulario pontificio de la Inquisición española en su período constitucional (1478-1525) . Pontificia Universita Gregoriana, Rome 1949, p. 179 (Spanish, [12] [accessed October 1, 2019]).
  20. ↑ César Olivera Serrano: La Inquisición de los Reyes Católicos . In: Clío & Crímen: Revista del Centro de Historia del Crimen de Durango . No. 2 , 2005, ISSN  1698-4374 , p. 199 (Spanish, [13] [accessed September 15, 2019]).
  21. ↑ Leandro Martínez Peñas: Fray Tomás de Torquemada y los Reyes Católicos . In: El confesor del rey en el antiguo régimen . Editorial Complutense, SA, Madrid 2007, ISBN 84-7491-851-0 , p. 176 (Spanish).
  22. ^ Juan Antonio Llorente: Historica critica de la inquisición de España . tape 2 . Juan Pons, Barcelona 1870, p. 55 (Spanish, [14] [accessed October 1, 2019]).
  23. ^ Joseph Pérez: Crónica de la inquisición en España . Ediciones Martínez Roca, Barcelona 2002, ISBN 84-270-2773-7 , p. 418 (Spanish).
  24. ^ Joseph Pérez: Crónica de la inquisición en España . Ediciones Martínez Roca, Barcelona 2002, ISBN 84-270-2773-7 , p. 419 (Spanish).
personal data
SURNAME Torquemada, Tomás de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Turrecremata, Thome de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish Grand Inquisitor
DATE OF BIRTH 1420
PLACE OF BIRTH Valladolid
DATE OF DEATH September 16, 1498
Place of death Ávila