Tommaso Torquemada is an iconic personality not only for Spain, but also for the whole of Europe and even the New World. He was an outstanding person, and not only hundreds of scientific works were written about him - from articles to full-fledged monographs, but many plays, novels, and even poems. For example, here are the lines that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow dedicated to him:
In Spain, numb from fear, Ferdinand and Isabella reigned, But ruled with an iron hand
Grand inquisitor over the country.
He was cruel as the lord of hell
Grand Inquisitor Torquemada.
Longfellow's attitude towards the hero is quite understandable and unambiguous. Before impressionable readers, as if alive, the black figure of a gloomy ascetic rises, transforming the cheerful Spain, warmed by the southern sun, into a dull country of obscurantists and religious fanatics covered with the smoke of inquisitorial fires.
Torquemada appears in a slightly different incarnation in the drama of Victor Hugo. This author tries to understand the inner motives of his hero:
The one who does not help people does not serve God.
And I want to help. Not that - sheer hell
Will swallow everything and everyone. I treat poor children
With a bloody hand. Rescuing, I try
And I have a terrible pity for the saved.
Great love is formidable, faithful, firm.
… In the darkness of my night
Christ says to me: Go! Go boldly!
The goal will justify everything if you reach the goal!"
Also a fanatic, but no longer a narrow-minded sadist.
There is a third point of view, according to which Torquemada, like Richelieu in France, fought for unity in the throes of a new country being born, which he, like a puzzle, assembled from heterogeneous and not too similar parts. And the Inquisition became only a means: if Torquemada had been a secular duke, the methods would have been different, but the cruelty would not have gone anywhere. F. Tyutchev wrote about this (about another person and on another occasion) in 1870:
Unity, - announced the oracle of our day, -
It may be soldered with iron only and blood …
Beautiful lines, but in fact, "iron and blood", alas, very often turn out to be stronger than love.
Traditional assessment of the personality of Tommaso Torquemada and his activities
The hero of our article, Tommaso de Torquemada, was born in 1420 and lived a long life even by today's standards, dying at the age of 78 on September 16, 1498.
Few of his contemporaries managed to leave such a significant mark on history, but this mark turned out to be bloody.
French writer Alphonse Rabb in his work "Resume de l'hist oire d'Espagne" called Torquemada "terrible", his compatriot Jean Marie Fleurio - a "monster", Manuel de Maliani - "an insatiable executioner", Louis Viardot - "a ruthless executioner, whose atrocities were even condemned by Rome. " GK Chesterton in the book "St. Thomas Aquinas" put him on a par with Dominic Guzman, writing:
"Calling a child Dominic is almost the same as calling him Torquemada."
In general, as Daniel Kluger wrote:
Grand Inquisitor Torquemada
He spread his wings over the city, Bonfires are joy and delight to him.
And even his surname, derived from the name of the town where the future Grand Inquisitor was born (a combination of the words "torre" and "quemada" - "The Burning Tower"), seems to speak.
Alternative point of view
However, as often happens, in the united kingdoms, the activities of Torquemada were assessed ambiguously, and there were people who were quite pleased with him. In Spain of those years, one can notice a certain sympathy and sympathy for both the Inquisition Tribunal and Torquemada. Many believed quite seriously that the church and the teachings of Christ were in grave danger and needed protection. These apocalyptic moods are reflected in the following miniature of the 15th century "Fortress of Faith":
A contemporary of events, chronicler Sebastian de Olmedo quite sincerely calls Torquemada "the hammer of the heretics, the light of Spain, the savior of his country, the honor of his order (of the Dominicans)."
As early as 1588, Prescott wrote in the Commentarii rerum Aragonensium:
“Ferdinand and Isabella gave the greatest proof of mercy and wisdom, when, in order to save heretics and apostates from fatal mistakes, and also to crush their insolence, they created the Holy Inquisition, an institution whose usefulness and merits are recognized not only by Spain, but by the whole Christian world.
Twentieth-century French historian Fernand Braudel believed that the Inquisition embodied "the deep desire of the crowd."
There were other reasons for Torquemada's popularity as well. Restricting the rights of Jews and Moriscos opened up new jobs for Spanish Christians. Jews and descendants of the Moors who emigrated were often forced to sell their property for a pittance, the house was sometimes sold for the price of a donkey, the vineyard for a piece of linen, which also could not but delight their neighbors. In addition, their Genoese competitors were vitally interested in the fall of the influential merchant and banking houses of the descendants of baptized Jews: they quickly mastered a new promising market for the sale of goods and financial services.
Today, some historians criticize the "black legend" about both the Spanish Inquisition and Torquemada, believing that it was created for propaganda purposes during the Reformation, and was aimed at denigrating the Catholic Church. And then the great French philosophers of the Enlightenment and revolutionary writers joined the Protestants. The XVIII volume of the famous "Encyclopedia" contains the following lines:
"Torquemada, a Dominican who became a cardinal, gave the tribunal of the Spanish Inquisition the legal form that still exists and contradicts all the laws of mankind."
The authors of the modern Encyclopedia Britannica share this point of view, saying about Torquemada:
"His name has become a symbol of the horrors of the Inquisition, religious hypocrisy and cruel fanaticism."
Victims of Tommaso Torquemada
Jean Baptiste Delisle de Salle writes in his book Philosophy of Nature (1778):
"The Dominican, called Torquemada, boasted that he had condemned a hundred thousand people and burned six thousand at the stake: to reward this grand inquisitor for his zeal, he was made a cardinal."
Antonio Lopez de Fonseca, in Politics Cleared of Liberal Illusions (1838), reports:
“The Tribunal of the Inquisition at Torquemada, during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, from 1481 to 1498, exterminated 10,220 people at the stake; executed images of 6860 people, and also sentenced to galleys and imprisonment 97,371 people."
Maximilian Schöll in 1831:
“Torquemada died in 1498; it was estimated that over the eighteen years of his inquisitorial rule 8,800 people were burned, 6,500 were burned in the form of images or after their death, and 90,000 were punished by shame, confiscation of property, life imprisonment and dismissal."
A little clarification: in fact, Torquemada's "inquisitorial rule" lasted 15 years.
Friedrich Schiller, in A History of the Netherlands Uprising Against Spanish Rule, says:
"For thirteen or fourteen years, the Spanish Inquisition conducted 100,000 trials, sentenced 6,000 heretics to be burned to death and converted 50,000 people to Christianity."
Juan Anetonio Llorente, who himself at the end of the 18th century was the secretary of the Tribunal of the Inquisition in Madrid, and then became the first serious historian of the Inquisition, gives other data: under Torquemada, 8,800 people were burned alive, instead of the other 6,500 convicted in absentia, their straw effigies were burned, arrested and tortured 27,000 people.
“His abuse of his immeasurable powers should have forced him to abandon the idea of giving him a successor and even to destroy the bloody tribunal, so incompatible with evangelical meekness,” writes Llorente on this matter.
To many, these figures seem overstated. Pierre Chonu, for example, believed that Llorente's numbers "should be divided by at least two."
Abbot Elfezh Vakandar in the book "Inquisition" (1907) writes:
“The most moderate estimates show that during the time of Torquemada, about two thousand people were burned at the stake … During the same period of time, fifteen thousand heretics were reconciled to the Church through repentance. This gives a total of seventeen thousand processes."
Modern scholars estimate the number of auto-da-fe at Torquemada at 2,200, about half of them were "symbolic" - which, of course, is also a lot.
Among those who had a positive attitude towards the activities of the Spanish inquisitors and Torquevemada was the famous freemason, Catholic philosopher and diplomat Joseph de Maistre.
At the beginning of the 19th century, fulfilling at that time the duties of the Sardinian envoy in St. Petersburg, in "Letters to a Russian nobleman about the Inquisition," he argued that the creation of the Inquisition in Spain was a defensive reaction to the Jewish and Islamic threat, which, in his opinion, was quite real.
The already mentioned Juan Antonio Llorente wrote:
“A great many Moors adopted the Christian faith shamly or completely superficially; their conversion to a new religion was based on the desire to win the respect of the victors; after being baptized, they again began to profess Mohammedanism."
Meanwhile, Adelina Ryukua in the book "Medieval Spain" indicates that
"In the Middle Ages, religion was the equivalent of the law (people lived according to the laws of Mohammed, according to Jewish or Christian laws), it only became a cultural phenomenon in the 20th century."
That is, a person who does not observe the commandments of the sacred books of the country where he lives was considered a criminal according to medieval standards.
Wakandar, already quoted by us, writes:
"If we really want to justify the institution for which the Catholic Church took responsibility in the Middle Ages (the Inquisition), we must consider and judge it not only by its actions, but also by comparing it with the morality, justice and religious beliefs of that time."
The Vatican's Catholic Encyclopedia states:
“In modern times, researchers have severely judged the institution of the Inquisition and accused it of opposing freedom of conscience. But they forget that in the past this freedom was not recognized and that heresy caused horror among well-minded people, who, undoubtedly, constituted the overwhelming majority even in the countries most infected with heresy."
Here is the opinion of the French historian and anthropologist Christian Duverger:
“Ferdinand and Isabella were challenged to unite a country fragmented by a contradictory history and medieval political organization. Isabella made a simple decision: religion will become the cement of Spain's unity."
The Spanish historian Jean Sevilla writes about the persecution of Jews in Spain:
“Torquemada is not a product of Catholicism: it is a product of national history … The expulsion of the Jews - no matter how shocking it may seem to us - did not come from racist logic: it was an act aimed at completing the religious unification of Spain … Catholic kings acted like all European the rulers of that time, proceeding from the principle: "One faith, one law, one king."
And here is his view on the "Muslim problem":
“During the Reconquista, Muslims remained in Christian territory. There were 30 thousand of them in Aragon, 50 thousand - in the kingdom of Valencia (it depended on the Aragonese crown), 25 thousand - in Castile. In 1492, the fall of Granada increased to 200 thousand the number of Moors who fell under the jurisdiction of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand … in order to achieve the spiritual unity of Spain, with the support of the Church, the Catholic kings led a policy of conversion … conversion to Christianity failed with Muslims. It is impossible to force the mind: no one is forced to renounce their culture and their faith. This is a great lesson. However, to judge only Christian Spain for this is to make a big mistake. During that era, no Muslim country tolerated Christians on its territory. The situation is exactly the same in the 21st century in a large number of Muslim countries."
True, elsewhere Jean Sevilla admits that
“The Spanish Inquisition settled in Castile, a Catholic kingdom with a tradition of religious coexistence. Alfonso VII (1126-1157), king of Castile and Leon, was called the emperor of three religions … Mudejars and Muslims who lived in Christian territory were free in their religion. The same was true for the Jews."
Indeed, Alfonso X's Code of Laws said:
“Although the Jews reject Christ, nevertheless, they should be tolerated in Christian states, so that everyone will remember that they come from the tribe that crucified Christ. Since Jews are only tolerant, they should be quiet, not publicly preaching their faith and not trying to convert anyone to Judaism."
And yet, according to Seville, Torquemada played a rather positive role in the history of the country: in particular, he notes his merits in uniting Castile and Aragon, and ridding the new state of excessive dependence on the Vatican.
Contemporary Russian philosopher and theologian Andrei Kuraev also opposes the "demonization" of the inquisitors, arguing that "no other court in history has passed so many acquittals."
British historian Henry Kamen in his book "The Spanish Inquisition" (1997) reports that in only 1.9% of the 49,092 cases he investigated, the accused was transferred to the secular authorities for the execution of the death sentence. In other cases, the defendants either received a different punishment (fine, penance, obligation of pilgrimage), or were acquitted.
In the following articles, we will see that even the relatively “mild” punishments imposed by the tribunals of the Holy Inquisition should not be underestimated. Speaking about the sentences they passed, the word “mercy” can be safely “put in quotation marks”. For now, let's return to the hero of our article.
Conversos, marranos and tornadidos
According to Fernando del Pulgar (secretary and "chronicler" of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon), Tommaso de Torquemada, who stood at the head of the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in Spain and organized large-scale persecution of Jews and Moors, was himself a descendant of baptized Jews. This is not surprising, since at about the same time in Castile, 4 bishops came from the families of conversos ("converts"), and in Aragon 5 officials of the highest rank came from among them. The descendants of Castilian conversos were, for example, Chancellor Luis de Santanel, chief treasurer Gabriel Sanchez, author of The Chronicle of Catholic Kings Diego de Valera, Isabella's valet Juan Cabrero, and Fernando del Pulgara, whom we mentioned. Moreover, the highly revered Saint Teresa of Avila (attributed to the Teachers of the Church) was of Jewish origin: it is known that her grandfather in 1485 (just at the time of the Grand Inquisitor Tommaso Torquemada) was accused of secretly observing Jewish rites, for which he was imposed penance.
And in Aragon at that time, the descendants of the "new Christians" were the chief secretary of the high court Felipe de Clemente, the royal secretary Luis Gonzalez, the chief treasurer Gabriel Sanchez and the vice-chancellor of Aragon Don Alfonso de la Cavalieria.
The nickname conversos in those days was neutral, unlike others that appeared in the middle of the 16th century (after the adoption of the law on the purity of blood - limpieza de sangre): marranos ("marranas") and tornadidos ("tornadidos").
Most likely the origin of the nickname marranos is from the old Spanish expression "dirty pigs". Other versions (from the Hebrew "maran atha" - "Our Lord came" and from the Arabic word "forbidden") are less probable, since the word "marrana" was used not by Jews or Muslims, but by pure-blooded Spaniards, and it carried a pronounced negative semantic load.
And tornadidos are shape-shifters.
The baptism of Jews at the end of the XIV century (a century before the events described) was far from peaceful. In Seville in 1391, during the Jewish pogroms, about 4 thousand people were killed, the rest were forced to be baptized, their synagogues were turned into churches. Similar events then took place in Cordoba and other Spanish cities. In January 1412, even before the birth of Tommaso Torquemada, an "edict of intolerance" was adopted in Castile, which ordered Jews to live only in special quarters surrounded by walls with one gate. They were banned from a number of professions, including medical and pharmacy, credit operations. It was impossible to carry weapons, be called "don", keep a Christian servant and trade with Christians. Moreover, they were forbidden to leave Castile. These measures dramatically increased the number of Jews baptized, but now this "conversion" was often hypocritical. And therefore in the future, "Edicts of Mercy" were issued, which indicated the signs of people who secretly professed Judaism. For example, such:
“Sabbath observance (by) cooking, on Fridays … not eating pigs, hares, rabbits, strangled birds … neither eels, nor other fish without scales, as provided for by Jewish law … Or those who celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Passover), beginning with the use of lettuce, celery or other bitter herbs in those days.
The paradox was that, over time, for the descendants of baptized Jews who no longer remembered the prescriptions of their religion, the Edicts of Mercy began to serve as a kind of guide to action - an indicator of what to do (or not to do) in order to remain a Jew.
And it was proposed to identify secret Muslims by observing how often a person washes his face, hands and feet.
But among the descendants of the conversos there were many who surpassed the purebred Castilians in religious zeal and fanaticism.
