TORQUEMADA, JUAN DE

Dominican cardinal, illustrious theologian, defender of papal authority against the conciliarists at Basel; b. Valladolid, Spain, 1388; d. Rome, Sept. 26, 1468. With Louis of Valladolid, UP, he attended the Council of constance (1417–18). After studies at Paris he taught in Spain and was successively prior of Valladolid and of Toledo. From 1432 to 1437 he attended the Council of basel as orator for King John II of Castile, as procurator of the Dominican Order, and as theologian for Pope eugene iv. There he vindicated papal rights in a series of treatises. As a consultor, he reported favorably on the revelations of St. bridget (1433) and censured some propositions of Augustine of Rome (1435). Against the hussites, he wrote a treatise on the Eucharist. He made a collection of passages from the works of Thomas Aquinas in favor of papal authority. He was opposed to the doctrine of the immaculate conception, a fact reflected in his De veritate conceptionis B.V.M. (1437), first printed at Rome in 1547, and reissued in London (1869) by the Anglican E. B. Pusey 15 years after the definition of the doctrine. For his services to the papacy Torquemada was appointed master of the Sacred Palace in 1434.

When Eugene IV transferred the Council from Basel to Ferrara (Sept. 18, 1437) he sent Torquemada to King John of Castile to enlist the King's support for this move. At Ferrara Torquemada was active in discussions with the Greeks, especially on the question of purgatory. From there he was sent to Germany on a papal mission, for which he composed two treatises intended for delivery at the Diet of Nuremberg (October–November 1438) and the Congress of Mainz (March–April 1439). These works contain the first complete and systematic statement of the papal primacy of jurisdiction over the whole Church, even when the Church is assembled in a general council. [see conciliarism (history of).] In January 1439, the Council was transferred from Ferrara to florence, and Torquemada took part in the final redaction of the decree of union with the Greeks, which was signed on July 4, 1439. Some three months later, at the request of Pope Eugene IV, he undertook a public disputation in defense of the primacy of the pope against Cardinal G. cesarini, a former adherent of the conciliarists, of whom a remnant still held out in opposition at Basel. The resounding success of Torquemada's Oratio synodalis de primatu won him the title of Defender of the Faith.

He was created cardinal Dec. 18, 1439, and led a papal mission to Bourges to assist in the negotiations for peace between France and England. In 1441 he composed his magisterial Apparatus super decretum Florentinum unionis Graecorum, a historical and doctrinal commentary defending the decree of union with the Greeks. In 1448–49 he wrote his chief work, Summa de ecclesia (no modern edition), defending the Church against both heretics and conciliarists. He was appointed bishop of Palestrina by Callistus III in 1455, and of Sabina by Pius II in 1463. He was universally venerated for his learning and probity of life. He was buried in the Church of the Minerva, Rome.

Bibliography: Critical editions and bibliog. j. de torquemada, Apparatus super decretum Florentinum unionis Graecorum, ed. e. candal, v.2.1 of Concilium florentinum: Documenta et scriptores (Rome 1940–); Oratio synodalis de primatu, ed. e. candal, v.4.2 ibid. j. quÉtif and j. Échard, Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum. (Paris 1719–23) 1.2:837–843. j. f. stockmann, Joannis de Turrecremata, O.P., vitam ejusque doctrinam de Corpore Christi mystico … (Bologna 1952). j. gill, The Council of Florence (Cambridge, Eng. 1959).

[f. courtney]