The Medieval Inquisitions (Research Paper Sample)

Research Topic: Tomas de Torquemada
Research Question: What legacy did Tomas de Torquemada leave and what power or influence did he have in the church and Spanish state?
Introduction
Many individuals may not be aware of who Tomas de Torquemada was or what he did. However, many during his time either feared or respected him depending on which side they were during the Spanish inquisition. Much of the knowledge about Torquemada’s legacy comes from literature sources particularly the work by Inquisition historian, Henry C. Lea, owing to the fact that there are no popular films or art projects on the man because of his controversial nature. History certainly remembers the troublesome years of the Inquisition and the controversies that surrounded Tomas. However, what legacy did Tomas de Torquemada leave and what power or influence did he have in the church and Spanish state? The legacy is a varied one: those on Torquemada’s side think he was a hero, a true champion of faith and a protector of Spanish interests against Jewish influences; to the Moslems, Jews and Conversos he was a persecutor, a man to be avoided at all costs and a monster; to the pope and the monarchs he was a "necessary evil”.[Lea, Henry Charles. 2010. The Inquisition In The Spanish Dependencies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.]
Background
Tomas de Torquemada was born in the city of Torquemada, in Valladolid in the year 1420. Following his uncle’s (Cardinal Juan de Torquemada) footsteps he joined the Dominican Order and quickly rose through the ranks to become the prior of Segovia’s Santa Cruz monastery; a position which he held for more than two decades. During his time as the prior of Segovia’s only monastery he met Catholic monarch Princess Isabel I of Castile and became her confessor a few years before she became ruler 1474. Both modern and medieval historians depict Torquemada as extremely frugal without any desire for personal wealth and no proclivity for high positions within the Roman Catholic Church. Despite not having any fondness for higher ecclesiastical positions and even turning down an offer by Isabel to become the archbishopric of Seville, he was one of the most respected church figures during his time. What he asked for was rarely denied or even postponed1.
The Spanish Inquisition, Torquemada and the Catholic Monarchs of the Spanish Empire
The Spanish Inquisition fully known as the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition was established by catholic monarchs Isabel I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon. The inquisition was established for the purpose of ensuring orthodoxy/compliance from Muslims and Judaists who had converted to Christianity. However, different scholars have cited other motives such as increasing political control, profiteering from the properties and monies confiscated from those accused, suppressing the rising influence of the converts and protecting the kingdom from the "threat" of Jewish influence. The pretext for fully establishing the Inquisition was in 1480 when the ruler of the only standing Muslim Kingdom in the Iberian peninsula (the Muslim Kingdom of Granada), made an ill-advised raid into the kingdom of Castile; a raid which gave the Fernando (Ferdinand II) and Isabel the pretext to start a long war that ended in the surrender of the Kingdom of Granada in early 1492. However, the war required a lot of money and soldiers to fight which Torquemada was able to provide in huge amounts to the Spanish crown. What was his motivation? The man was a Catholic fanatic who wanted nothing more than the strict adherence to the doctrines of the Christian church. This is how his early supporters viewed him. This is also how the monarchs viewed Tomas de Torquemada.[Larouchepub.com,. 2015. 'Torquemada, The Inquisition, And The Expulsion Of The Jews'. /other/2005/3213torquemada.html.]
However, in spite of Torquemada’s seemingly Christian nature exemplified by his lack of love for world desires, he was a very harsh man. He was known for his dislike of both Muslims and Jews. He criticized Jews and planned to destroy all Conversos (Jews converted to Christianity) or to at least severely weaken them for their alleged covert judaizing (this is the act of adopting principles and practices of Judaism in spite of being Christian).
Torquemada’s influence grew when he came to the aid of the monarchs in 1492 in the closing phases of the eight hundred years long conflict between Muslims and Christians in the Iberian Peninsula. These conditions were perfect for claiming that Jews and other converts presented a security threat – an allegation that could allow the utilization of "extraordinary measures”. And some of the extraordinary measures that he would later undertake with the blessing of the monarchs include use of torture, burning individuals to death, public humiliation and using red hot pincers to remove body pieces. However, this did not begin early on during the inquisition. But later on after Torquemada had gained influence with the Vatican and the state2.
One of the other actions that also further endeared him to the monarchs occurred during one of the battles in the war against Granada, which was known as the siege of Malaga, whereby Torquemada gave not only funds but also assigned himself as a chaplain to the crown’s army for 4 months. This made him and Fernando valuable allies who could occasionally use each other’s power to further their own interests. In one of his most controversial moments during the entire war Torquemada urged Fernando, upon breaching the city walls to kill all the Muslims who were surrendering. However, Fernando, being a statesman only enslaved them but did not put them to the sword. This shows the kind of relationship Torquemada had with the Catholic monarchs. He obviously had influence and power and could have audience with the monarchs when he wanted to but they only thought of him as an instrument to use when it pleased them2.
Torquemada and the early phases of the Inquisition
Torquemada was not one of the members of the Dominican Order that agitated for the establishment of an inquisition in Seville, he however had an interest and acted from afar in his Santa Cruz Priory. However, he later got involved in the matter when he went to Seville in 1481. In that year he came up with a rough guide for inquisitors to spot Judaizers. In the next year the Pope named Tomas Torquemada as one of the first 7 inquisitors in an expanded structure that the Church had come up with that month for the newly formed Spanish Inquisition. In the course of the 1483, he gained a lot of power in the Castilian Inquisition and in the October of that that year he was named by the crown with permission from the Pope as the head inquisitor of Aragon. Later in 1483, the Suprema structure was established and he was given the role of the Grand Inquisitor. In his role as a Grand Inquisitor, he had the role of commending inquisitors and setting procedure, for instance, the minimum age somebody could be tried for different crimes.
To understand deeply the role that Torquemada played at the inquisition, a case is presented by one of the most widely known inquisition historians, Henry Lea. In the case Lea writes about a record of an inquisition at Medina. The inquisition had 3 inquisitors, a fiscal and assessor and other church officials who were assisted by Medina’s Abbot who acted as Ordinary. In the inquisition some of the culprits were reconciled while others were burnt alive and others were acquitted allegedly without the cases being referred to Torquemada. However, when the tribunal thought it wise to acquit some of the accused they also thought it necessary to involve Torquemada for confirmation. But Torquemada did not like this and referred the cases back to the tribunal asking it to retry the cases. Upon the cases being retried some of the accused were tortured, 2 of them reconciled and others acquitted and the verdicts were regarded as final. However, upon learning that some of the accused were acquitted Torquemada had them apprehended and had them tried away from their home districts where he ended up having them burned. This shows his harsh legacy, the fact that he could go to any lengths to have his way.
Torquemada’s legacy as a defender of Spanish Interests
More tribunals were organized by Torquemada throughout the realm. He came up with a huge propaganda machine, alleging that Inquisition was required to effectively stop a threat that faced the entire joint kingdom of Aragon and Castile which had united to form the Spanish Empire. One of the "evidences" that Torquemada spread about Jews was the letters between Constantinople Jews and Spanish Jews in which the Spanish Jews were asking their counterparts in Constantinople about what to do when faced with the threat of conversion. In the correspondence the Jews of Constantinople tell their counterparts to dissimulate and strike back when they have won the confidence of the Spanish people. Another publication that had been widely spread earlier was resurrected by Torquemada. The text which was known as Alborayco compared the Jewish converts to Al-buraq, Prophet Muhammad’s famous horse that was neither male nor female, horse nor mule in attempt to paint the Jews as Christians who could not be trusted and hence a threat to the empire.
During the latter parts of Spanish Inquisition, Torquemada realized that to really break the Converso factor in Iberia he needed to actually remove from influence the Converso who were in high positions in the Church and in the state. This is owing to the power and the wealth that these individuals had to appeal to the pope to reverse verdicts issued in Spain. One of the other issues that Torquemada’s Inquisition fac...