TORQUEMADA (TURRECREMATA), JUAN de
Theologian of the Dominican Order, cardinal, b. at Valladolid in 1388, d. at Rome on 26 Sept. 1468.
He entered the religious life c. 1403, accompanied Ludovico of Valladolid to the Council of Constance (1417), studied and took his degree at Paris (1424). Prior at Valladolid and at Toledo, in 1435 he was named Master of the Sacred Palace. As theologian to Eugenius IV at the Council of Basle (1432), he defended the supremacy of the Pope over the Council. He worked extensively for the conversion of the Bohemians.
At the Council of Florence (1439-43) he played an important part in the discussions with the Greeks. On 18 Dec. 1439 he was created cardinal of the title of S. Sisto, then bishop of Palestrina (1455) and finally of Sabina (1463); at the same time he held the bishoprics of Cadiz (1440-42), then of Orense (1442-60) and of León (1460-64). He accompanied Pius II to the Congress of Mantua (1459). At the Pope’s wish he instructed three exponents of Manichaean heresy, sent by the King of Bohemia to Rome, and converted them to the faith (1461). At the church of the Minerva in Rome he founded the pious Association of the Annunciation to provide dowries for poor girls, and there he was buried.
For his attachment to the Apostolic See and his energetic defence of papal authority he earned from Eugenius IV the coveted title of *defensor fidei*. He left works on various subjects: *Tractatus contra errores Mahumetis* (Paris 1455, Rome 1606); *Expositio brevis et utilis super totum Psalterium* (Rome 1470, Mainz 1474); *Tractatus de corpore Christi adversus Boemos* (Lyons 1478); *Summa de Ecclesia* (Cologne 1480), the most important, which was much used by the defenders of papal authority against every form of conciliarism; *Flores sententiarum divi Thomae Aquinatis de auctoritate Summi Pontificis* (Augsburg 1496); *Commentarii in Decretum Gratiani* (6 vols., Lyons 1516); *Tractatus de veritate conceptionis b. Mariae Virginis* (presented to the Council of Basle; Rome 1517); *Apparatus super Decretum Florentinum unionis Graecorum* (Venice 1561; critical ed. E. Candal, Rome 1942); *Contra decreta Concilii Constantiensis* in favour of Eugenius IV (Venice 1563 and in Mansi, XXX, cols. 550-90); *Orationes seu dissertationes duae in Concilio Florentino latae* (against the Greeks, on unleavened bread and on the form of Transubstantiation; ed. Mansi, XXXI, cols. 1671 ff., 1863 ff.). Various other works on the Mass, holy water, the revelations of St Bridget, the Rule of St Benedict, on Holy Scripture, besides some twenty unpublished works.
TORQUEMADA JUAN — TORRES ACOSTA MARIA SOLEDAD
V. TORQUEMADA (TURRECREMATA), JUAN de