Juan de Torquemada

Juan de Torquemada , 1388-1468, Spanish churchman, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church; an uncle of Tomás de Torquemada. He entered (1403) the Dominican order and later participated in the councils of Constance and Basel, where he strenuously defended the supreme papal authority against the conciliar theory. He was made a cardinal by Pope Eugene IV in 1439 and was sent on diplomatic missions. He wrote several theological works.

Torquemada, Juan de (1388–1468), Spanish Dominican theologian. From 1432 to 1437 he attended the Council of Basle and he took an active part in the negotiations with the Bohemians and the Greeks. He was created cardinal in 1439, and for the rest of his life had a large share in ecclesiastical Papal policy. He wrote on canon law and on the nature of the Church.

Torquemada a ruthless inquisitor; from the name of the Spanish cleric and Grand Inquisitor Tomás de Torquemada (c.1420–98). A Dominican monk, he became confessor to Ferdinand and Isabella, whom he persuaded to institute the Inquisition in 1478, and was also the prime mover behind the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in and after 1492.