16
September 1498 A.D. Torquemada Croaks—the Spanish Reprobate,
Dominican, Inquisitor & Torturer
Graves, Dan. “Torquemada the Torturer.” Christianity.com. Apr 2007.
http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1201-1500/torquemada-the-torturer-11629905.html. Accessed 22 May 2014.
Torquemada. To English ears, the very name sounds
tortured and cruel. And Tomás de Torquemada was that. He was a most intolerant
man in an age of intolerant men. A Jew, born into a family of converts, he
turned most of his fury against his own people.
With energy and connections, it
was inevitable that Torquemada should rise to power. After studying theology at the Dominican convent of San Pablo in Valladolid, he became prior of
Santa Cruz convent in Segovia. He also became confessor to the royal court.
There he whispered in the ears of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella that many
Jewish converts were secretly practicing Judaic rites while outwardly
pretending to be Christians.
He helped the royal couple draft
a request for an inquisition into this matter. The request was granted. In
1483, Torquemada was made grand inquisitor.
Torquemada developed an
oppressive network of spies and secret police. His courts summoned thousands of
individuals. Most of them were completely at a loss as to what they were
supposed to have done. One third were tortured. The three most common tortures
were to be hung by the arms until they were pulled from their sockets; to be
forced to swallow gallons of water; and to be racked.
The inquisition kept records of
interrogations, and these show people begging to be told what to admit so they
could escape their agony. "I have said that I did all that the witnesses
say. Señores, release me, for I do not remember it. . . . for God's sake have
mercy on me," pleaded one woman. A man undergoing the torture insisted he
was a good Catholic. If they wanted him to say he was a heretic, he would
because of the torture. "Señor Inquisidor, what does your lordship want me
to say?" Another: "I don't know what to say. . . . Oh God, Oh God
there's no mercy, Oh God help me, help me!"
Worse than the tortures was the
fear of immolation. Torquemada burned over 2,000 "guilty" victims.
Naturally, with such a record he was loathed. He found it necessary to go about
with bodyguards. Even the Pope could not stop his cruel work. When Sixtus IV in
a bull absolved all the Conversos of any wrong they might have done, Ferdinand
refused to be bound by the bull. Torquemada continued the persecution and
Sixtus backed down. Torquemada extended his reach. He had all unconverted Jews
expelled from Spain.
Paradoxically and tragically,
this brutal business was done in the name of Christ, who never raised a finger
to hurt anybody but willingly gave his own life for others. However, death
reaches us all. On this date, September 16, 1498,
at the stout age of 78, Torquemada died. If Spain hoped with his death for a
cessation of brutality, they hoped in vain. His apparatus lived on after him,
crushing new victims long after he was gone.
Bibliography:
1. Ott, Michael. "Tomas de Torquemada." The Catholic
Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton, 1914.
2. Kamen, Henry. The Spanish Inquisition. London: White
Lion Publishers, 1976.
3. Sabatini, Rafael. Torquemada. Boston: Houghton Mifflin,
1924.
4. Various encyclopedia articles.
Last updated April,
2007.
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