Torquemada, Thomas (Torquemada Toms de)

(1420-1498)
Born c.. 1420 in Torquemada (near Valladolid). He was the nephew of Cardinal Juan de Torquemada, and possibly came from a Jewish family. At an early age entered the Dominican monastery at Valladolid, and ca. 1451 became prior of the Dominican monastery of Santa Cruz, near Segovia. Rumor celebrated his mercy and extreme asceticism, and Isabella of Castile chose him as their confessor. His attention was early attracted by the problem of conversos - Jews who accepted Christianity and took place from the baptism of the parents.
The Spanish know boast purity of origin and orthodoxy of faith. Isabella, who ruled together with Ferdinand of Aragon in 1474, gave himself to be persuaded that the Spanish Jews represent a threat to the Church and State. To solve this problem, the authorities took advantage of the Inquisition, restored and improved its mechanism. The Spanish Inquisition was established by papal bull of November 1, 1478; active interrogations began in 1480, and in February 1481 held its first Auto de fe.

In August 1483 Pope Sixtus IV appointed Torquemada, chief inquisitor of Castile and Leon, and in October extended its authority to Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia. To coordinate the activities of the Holy Inquisition, the work of the royal police establish the Supreme Council, headed by himself Torquemada. In 1486 Pope Innocent VIII, and then, in 1494, Pope Alexander VI further increased the powers of Torquemada. This activity Torquemada spent the rest of his life

. For the establishment of the Inquisition followed by a number directly from the Grand Inquisitor special instructions (1484, . 1485 and 1498), . which regulate the use of torture (to ensure their greater efficiency and uniformity), . installed equipment and procedure of appeal against conviction, . which leaves little hope of salvation for the accused,
. Torquemada as the head of the Inquisition earned reputation extremely cruel pursuer 'enemies of the faith': an estimated most historians, in the period between 1481 and 1504 the Inquisition burned at the stake about two thousand people.

With the seizure of Granada in January 1492 completed the unification of Spain under the rule of Ferdinand and Isabella. This was followed by an edict of March 1492, . which all Jews were ordered to leave Spain, on this course felt strongly Torquemada, . and it accelerated the 'revelation' imaginary fact some Jewish ritual murder of Christian children - 'the holy child of LaGuardia',
. Some of Benito Garcia, a baptized Jew, in 1490 was subjected to robbery, and his his knapsack were found stolen SW. Grants; story about the crucifixion of the child was obtained from him under torture. The court decided that the Jews performed magic rituals, which used the baby's heart and CB. Gifts.

Spanish crown and the church profited at the expense of large seizures of property and appropriation of heretics and Jews were forced to flee the country. Torquemada himself, failing in an attempt to prosecute a number of bishops and losing the struggle to achieve greater independence from Rome, died in Avila on Sept. 16, 1498.