Torquemada, Tomás de

Torquemada, Tomás de (tōmäs` dā tôrkāmä`thä), 1420–98, Spanish churchman and inquisitor. A Dominican, he became confessor to Ferdinand II and Isabella I and in 1483 was appointed inquisitor general of Castile and Aragón, charged with the centralization of the Spanish Inquisition. He was largely instrumental in bringing about the expulsion of the Jews in 1492. His great authority was contested by colleagues and was diminished in some measure by the pope, but he remained preeminent until his death. Torquemada owes his reputation for cruelty to the harsh rules of procedure that he devised for the Inquisition and to the rigor with which he had them enforced.

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Torquemada, Tomás de

Torquemada, lithograph

(credit: Courtesy of the Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid)

(born 1420, Valladolid, Castile—died Sept. 16, 1498, Ávila, Castile) First grand inquisitor in Spain (1487–98). A Dominican prior, he became confessor and adviser to Ferdinand V and Isabella I. He guided the Spanish Inquisition, directing its persecution of Jews, Moors, and others identified as heretics, sorcerers, or criminals. Torture was used to obtain evidence, and about 2,000 people were burned at the stake during Torquemada's tenure. He probably influenced Ferdinand and Isabella in their decision to expel the Jews from Spain (1492). His name has become synonymous with the cruel fanaticism of the Inquisition.

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Torquemada, Tomás de

(1420–1498) head of Spanish Inquisition; instrumental in expelling Jews from Spain (1492). [Span. Hist.: Wigoder, 600]

See : Anti-Semitism