Juan de Torquemada

Juan de Torquemada (b. 1388–d. 1468) was a Dominican cardinal, Thomist theologian, canon lawyer, and a polemicist. Born in Castile, his family possibly included converted Jews. Torquemada joined the Dominicans Order and attended the Council of Constance (1414–1418). After the council, he was sent to the University of Paris to study theology. Having concluded his studies, Torquemada returned to Castile, where he became prior in Valladolid and then Toledo. Torquemada entered public life when both his province and Juan II of Castile dispatched him to the Council of Basel (1431–1449). Upon arriving, he took the oath of incorporation and joined the deputation on reform. The council was resisting efforts of Pope Eugenius IV to move it to Italy to meet the Greeks, and it was trying to impose reforms on the Roman curia. Torquemada, fearing the council might curtail the privileges of the friars, wrote in opposition to Basel’s proposed reforms. To reward the friar for this opposition, Eugenius made Torquemada Master of the Sacred Palace, his theological adviser. When Eugenius tried to move the council to Ferrara, Torquemada joined him. The Basel assembly declared Eugenius deposed and elected its own pope, Felix V (Amadeus VIII of Savoy). Eugenius waged a diplomatic war against Basel with Torquemada as an envoy. He was in Florence, the new site of the council, for discussions leading to a brief-lived union of churches. He also debated papal supremacy with Cardinal Giuliano Cesarini, former president of Basel, being rewarded with promotion to cardinal. Cardinal Torquemada dressed as a friar but took part in curial business. The cardinal was involved in reforming religious houses in Rome and Castile. He also participated in four papal elections. These roles did not prevent Torquemada from writing devotional texts and polemics, including tracts attacking Islam and defending Jewish converts in Castile. One of the devotional texts is the Meditationes, one of the earliest printed texts in Italy. It was published in 1467 with woodcut illustrations based on frescos by Fra Angelico. Torquemada’s most important writing was the Summa de ecclesia (1453), dedicated to Pope Nicholas V. It addressed four subjects: the visible church; the papacy; general councils; heresy and schism. Torquemada was a papalist but no absolutist. He believed a pope could lose his office for heresy or endangering the church. Torquemada complemented his Summa with a commentary on Gratian’s Decretum, which was used by conciliarists to back conciliar supremacy. His thought on the church influenced Thomas de Vio (Cajetan), Robert Bellarmine, and the School of Salamanca.