Tommaso Torquemada. The man who became a symbol of the terrible era
Tommaso Torquemada is a symbolic person not only for Spain, but 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 some lines Henry Wadsworth Longfellow dedicated to him:
Ferdinand and Isabella reigned
But ruled with an iron hand
The great inquisitor over the country.
He was cruel as the lord of hell
The Grand Inquisitor of Torquemada.
"Catholic Kings" Isabella and Ferdinand. Shot from the film “Christopher Columbus. The Conquest of America ”(Great Britain, Spain, USA, 1992)
Tommaso de Torquemada
Longfellow's attitude to the hero is quite understandable and unambiguous. Impressive readers face a black figure of a gloomy ascetic, turning a cheerful Spain warmed by the southern sun into a dull country of obscurantists and religious fanatics covered in smoke of the Inquisition bonfires.
In a different incarnation, Torquemada appears in the drama of Victor Hugo. This author is trying to understand the inner motives of his hero:
I want to help. Not that - total hell
Absorb everything and everything. I am treating poor children
Bloody hand. Saving, I torture
And terrible pity for the saved I feed.
Great love is formidable, faithful, firm.
... in the darkness of my night
Christ tells me: “Go! Go bold!
"The goal will justify everything if you reach the goal!"
Also a fanatic, but not 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 the emerging new country, which he, like a puzzle, assembled from diverse and not very similar parts. But the Inquisition was only a means: if Torquemada would be a secular duke, the methods would be different, but cruelty would not go away. F. Tyutchev wrote about this (about another person and for another reason) in 1870:
Perhaps soldered with iron and blood only ...
Beautiful lines, but actually “iron and blood”, alas, very often prove to be stronger than love.
Traditional assessment of the identity 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, having died at the age of 78 years - September 16, 1498.
Few of his contemporaries managed to leave such a significant mark in storiesbut the trace turned out to be bloody.
The French writer Alfons Rabb, in his Resume de l'hist oire d'Espagne, called Torquemada “terrible,” his compatriot Jean Marie Fleurio “the monster,” Manuel de Maliani “the insatiable executioner,” Louis Viardot, “the merciless executioner, the bloody the outrages of which were even reproved by Rome. ” G. K. Chesterton in the book "St. Thomas Aquinas" put him on a par with Dominic Gusman, writing:
In general, as Daniel Kluger wrote:
He spread his wings over the city
Bonfires are his joy and delight.
And even his last name, originating from the name of the town in which the future Grand Inquisitor was born (a combination of the words “torre” and “quemada” - “The Burning Tower”), seems to be speaking.
Burning heretics, medieval drawing. Illustration from the book of the XNUMXth century Russian historian Mikhail Barro
Alternative point of view
However, as often happens, in the united kingdoms the activities of Torquemada were assessed ambiguously, and there were people quite pleased with him. In Spain of those years, one can notice a certain sympathy and sympathy for the Tribunal of the Inquisition and for Torquemada. Many quite seriously believed that the church and teachings of Christ were in serious danger and needed protection. These apocalyptic sentiments are reflected in the XNUMXth century miniature Fortress of Faith below:
The Fortress of Faith besieged by heretics is defended by the pope, bishops, monks and church doctors
A contemporary of events, the chronicler Sebastian de Olmedo quite sincerely calls Torquemada "the hammer of heretics, the light of Spain, the savior of his country, the honor of his order (Dominicans)."
As early as 1588, Prescott wrote in Commentarii rerum Aragonensium:
The French historian of the twentieth century, Fernand Braudel, believed that the Inquisition embodied the "deep desire of the crowd."
There were other reasons for the popularity of Torquemada. The restriction of the rights of Jews and Morisks opened up new opportunities for Spanish Christians. Jews and descendants of the Moors who left for emigration were often forced to sell their property for nothing, the house was sometimes sold at the price of a donkey, the vineyard for a piece of canvas, which also could not but rejoice their neighbors. In addition, their genoese competitors were vitally interested in the fall of influential merchant and bankers' houses of descendants of baptized Jews: they quickly mastered a promising new market for 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 aimed at denigrating the Catholic Church. And then the great French philosophers of the Enlightenment and revolutionary writers joined the Protestants. In the XVIII volume of the famous "Encyclopedia" there are such lines:
The authors of the modern British Encyclopedia share this point of view; Torquemada says:
Victims of Tommaso Torquemada
Jean Baptiste Delisle de Salle in the book "Philosophy of Nature" (1778) writes:
Antonio Lopez de Fonseca in the book "Politics Cleared of Liberal Illusions" (1838) reports:
Maximilian Schell in 1831:
A small clarification: in fact, the “inquisitorial rule” of Torquemada lasted 15 years.
Friedrich Schiller, in History of the Uprising in the Netherlands Against Spanish Government, says:
Juan Anetonio Llorente, who himself was the secretary of the Inquisition Tribunal in Madrid at the end of the 8th century, and then became the first serious historian of the Inquisition, cites other data: under Torquemada, 800 people were burnt alive, instead of the other 6 convicted in absentia, their straw effigies were burnt. , 500 people were arrested and tortured.
Juan Antonio Llorente, portrait
To many, these numbers seem overstated. Pierre Chaunoux, for example, believed that the figures of Llorente "must be divided by at least two."
Abbot Elfezh Wakandar in the book "Inquisition" (1907) writes:
Modern scholars estimate the number of autodafe under Torquemada at 2200, about half of them were "symbolic" - which, of course, is also a lot.
Among those who were positive about the activities of the Spanish Inquisitors and Torquemada, there was a famous freemason, Catholic philosopher and diplomat Joseph de Mestre.
At the beginning of the XNUMXth century, while fulfilling the duties of the Sardinian envoy in St. Petersburg at that time, 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.
Juan Antonio Llorente already mentioned by us wrote:
Meanwhile, Adeline Ryukua in the book "Medieval Spain" indicates that
That is, a person who does not follow the commandments of the holy books of the country where he lives was considered a criminal by medieval standards.
The Wakandar already quoted by us writes:
The Catholic Encyclopedia, published by the Vatican, states:
Here is the opinion of the French historian and anthropologist Christian Duverger:
Spanish historian Jean Seville on the persecution of Jews in Spain writes:
And here is his view of the “Muslim problem”:
True, in another place, Jean Sevilla admits that
Indeed, back in the Code of Laws of Alfonso X it was said:
Alfonso X of Castile (1221-1284)
And yet, according to Seville, Torquemada played rather a positive role in the history of the country: in particular, he notes his merits in the unification of Castile and Aragon, and the deliverance of the new state from excessive dependence on the Vatican.
The contemporary Russian philosopher-theologian Andrei Kuraev also opposes the "demonization" of the inquisitors, arguing that "no other court in history has passed so many acquittals."
The British historian Henry Cayman in his book The Spanish Inquisition (1997) reports that in only 1,9% of the 49 cases investigated by him, the accused was transferred to secular authorities for execution of the death sentence. In other cases, the defendants either received another punishment (fine, penance, obligation of pilgrimage), or were acquitted.
In the following articles we will see that even relatively “soft” punishments imposed by the tribunals of the Holy Inquisition should not be underestimated. Speaking about the sentences that they passed, the word "mercy" can be safely "put in quotation marks." In the meantime, back to the hero of our article.
Conversos, marranos and tornadidos
According to Fernando del Pulgar (secretary and “chronicler” Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon), Tommaso de Torquemada, who became the head of the Tribunal of the Holy Chancellery 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 conversos families (“converts”), and 5 officials of the highest rank came from their midst in Aragon. The descendants of Castilian conversos were, for example, Chancellor Luis de Santanel, chief treasurer Gabriel Sanchez, author of the Chronicle of the Catholic Kings Diego de Valera, valet of Isabella Juan Cabrero and Fernando del Pulgar mentioned by us. Moreover, of Jewish origin was the venerable saint Teresa of Avila (assigned to the Teachers of the Church): it is known that her grandfather in 1485 (just at the time of the Grand Inquisitor Tommaso Torquemada) was accused of secret observance of Jewish rites, for which he was imposed penance.
Statue of St. Theresa of Avila, San Juan Capistrano Monastery, California
And in Aragon at that time the descendants of the “new Christians” were Felipe de Clemente, chief secretary of the high court, Luis González, royal secretary, Gabriel Sanchez, chief treasurer and Aragon's vice chancellor don Alfonso de la Cavalieria.
The nickname conversos in those days was neutral, unlike others that appeared in the middle of the XVI century (after the adoption of the law on blood purity - limpieza de sangre): marranos ("marranos") and tornadidos ("tornadidos").
Most likely the origin of the nickname marranos is from the old Spanish expression "dirty pigs". Other versions (from the Jewish "maran atha" - "Our Lord came" and from the Arabic word "forbidden") are less likely, since the word "marranas" was not used by Jews or Muslims, namely purebred Spaniards, and it carried a pronounced negative semantic load.
Moses Maimon. "Marranes (The Secret Seder in Spain during the Inquisition)", 1893. Sedah Passover is a ritual family meal held at the beginning of Passover (Jewish Passover)
And tornadidos are "shifters."
The baptism of Jews at the end of the fourteenth century (a century before the events described) was far from peaceful. In Seville in 1391, about 4 thousand people died during the Jewish pogroms, the rest were forced to be baptized, their synagogues were turned into churches. Similar events occurred then 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 neighborhoods surrounded by walls with only one gate. They were forbidden a number of professions, including medical and pharmaceutical business, credit operations. Could not be worn weapon, called "don", keep a Christian servant and trade with Christians. Moreover, they were forbidden to leave Castile. These measures dramatically increased the number of baptized Jews, but now this “conversion” has often been hypocritical. And therefore, in the future, the Edicts of Mercy were published, which indicated signs of people who secretly profess Judaism. For example, such:
The paradox was that, over time, for the descendants of baptized Jews who did not remember the precepts of their religion, the Edicts of Mercy began to serve as a kind of guide to action - an indicator of what needs to be done (or not done) in order to remain a Jew.
And it was proposed to reveal secret Muslims by observing how often a person washes his face, hands and feet.
But among the descendants of conversos, there were many who surpassed purebred Castilians in religious zeal and fanaticism.
The next article will talk about the identity of Tommaso Torquemada and his path to the post of Grand Inquisitor.
- Ryzhov V.A.
- Ryzhov V.A. The Holy Inquisition
Ryzhov V.A. Dominic Guzman and Francis of Assisi. “Not the world, but the sword”: two faces of the Catholic Church
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