Cardinal Juan de Torquemada (1388 – 26 September 1468), or rather Johannes de Turrecremata, Spanish ecclesiastic, was born at Valladolid, and was educated in that city.

Juan de Torquemada was an uncle to the Inquisitor, Tomás de Torquemada. The latter's fear of "crypto-Jews" might derive from his uncle's defense of the converso community of Toledo, which was attacked by the "Old Christian" majority in the period around 1450.

At an early age he joined the Dominican Order, and soon distinguished himself for learning and devotion. In 1415 he accompanied the general of his order to the Council of Constance, whence he proceeded to Paris for study, and took his doctor's degree in 1423. After teaching for some time in Paris he became prior of the Dominican house first in Valladolid and then in Toledo.

Torquemada attended the Council of Basel (1431–1449) as a representative of his order and of the King of Castile. At the Council of Basel he was one of the ablest supporters of the viewpoint of pope Eugene IV and the Roman curia. He was rewarded with the office of Master of the Sacred Palace and later with a cardinal's hat in 1439. Torquemada participated in the Council of Florence, speaking on theological issues involving the eastern churches and defending papal primacy in a debate with Cardinal Giuliano Cesarini. He also worked on behalf of Pope Eugene on missions to Germany and France before settling in the Roman Curia.

Torquemada supported papal Crusade policy in opposition to the Ottoman Turks. Torquemada promoted reform of religious houses and wrote extensively on behalf of papal primacy. He participated in four papal elections, casting the deciding vote in the election of Pope Nicholas V (1447–1455).

In 1456, the new Pope Callixtus III, aka Alfonso de Borja, gave him, in commendam, the position of Abbott of the monastery of Santa Scolastica in Subiaco. He died at Rome and was buried at Santa Maria sopra Minerva. A painting by Antoniazzo Romano showing the Annunciation has in its background Torquemada presenting girls who received dowry funds from a guild he founded to the Virgin Mary. At an earlier age he was painted by Fra Angelico in a Crucifixion scene now at Harvard University's Fogg Museum.

His principal works are:

• In Gratiani Decretum commentarii (4 vols., Venice, 1578)
• Expositio brevis et utilis super toto psalterio (Mainz, 1474)
• Quaestiones spirituales super evangelia totius anni (Brixen, 1498)
• Summa ecclesiastica (Salamanca, 1550) [or Summa de ecclesiastica potestate] or "Summa de ecclesia (Summa de Ecclesia una cum eiusdem apparatu nunc primum in lucem edito, super decreto Papae Eugenii IIII in concilio Florentino de Unione Graecorum - Venetiis [Venice]: apud Michaelem Tramezinum, 1561).
• Symbolum pro informatione Manichaeorum (El bogomilismo en Bosnia) (Publicaciones del Seminario Metropolitano de Burgos. Serie B)[2][3]

The last-named work has the following topics:

• De universa ecclesia
• De Ecclesia romana et pontificis primatu
• De universalibus conciliis
• De schismaticis et haereticis - divided into two parts, on schism & on heresy.
• His De conceptione deiparae Mariae, libri viii. (Rome, 1547), was edited with preface and notes by EB Pusey (London, 1869 seq.) in opposition to Pope Pius IX's definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.

Other works include polemical tracts and sermons.

Torquemada's Meditationes was the first illustrated book published in Italy.

References

• Izbicki, Thomas M., Protector of the Faith: Cardinal Johannes de Turrecremata and the Defense of the Institutional Church, Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1981.
• Juan de Torquemada, A Disputation on the Power of Pope and Council, Oxford: Blackfriars Publications, 1988.
• Izbicki, Thomas M., "Juan de Torquemada's Defense of the Conversos," Catholic Historical Review, 1999 85(2): 195-207
• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
• ^ J. Roll, “A Crayfish in Subiaco: A Hint of Nicholas of Cusa’s Involvement in Early Printing?, ,Oxford Journals, Humanities, Library Volumes6-16, Issue2Pp. 135-140
• ^ http://www.worldcat.org/title/symbolum-pro-informatione-manichaeoru...
• ^ http://www.amazon.com/informatione-Manichaeorum-bogomilismo-Publica...
• ^ Meditationes [von] Johannes de Turrecremata, ed. Heinz Zirnbauer, Wiesbaden: O. Harassowitz, 1968.
• https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_de_Torquemada_(cardenal)
• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/De_Torquemada-2 cites

1. Martínez, Ángel, "Juan de Torquemada", Real Academia de Historia, Diccionario Biográfico Electrónico
2. FIND A GRAVE: Juan de Torquemada on 26 Sep 1468
3. WIKIPEDIA: Juan de Torquemada, descargado 27 septiembre 2018
4. Roth, Norman, "Conversos, Inquisition, and the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain", 1995.
5. WIKIPEDIA: Tomás de Torquemada, accessed 25 September 2018
6. ABC (Newspaper): Cervera, César, "Tomás de Torquemada, the bloody Inquisitor General who had Jewish origins", updated 27 Jan 2015.
7. Huerga, Álvaro (OP, Dominican Order), "Tomas de Torquemada", Real Academia de Historia, Diccionario Biográfico Electrónico
8. Fundación Larramendí: "Juan de Torquemada, 1388-1468"
9. España es Cultura (Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte): "Juan de Torquemada"

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• Catholic Church titles
• Preceded by
• Pietro Barbo Camerlengo of the Sacred College of Cardinals
• 1446 Succeeded by
• Giorgio Fieschi