TORQUEMADA (TURRECREMATA), JUAN de. - Dominican theologian, cardinal, b. at Valladolid in 1388, d. at Rome on 26 Sept. 1468.

Having entered religious life around 1403, he 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 appointed Master of the Sacred Palace. Theologian of Eugene IV at the Council of Basel (1432), he defended the supremacy of the Pope over the Council. He worked hard 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 St. Sixtus, then bishop of Palestrina (1455) and finally of Sabina (1463); at the same time he held the bishoprics of Cadiz (1440-44), 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 undertook the instruction of three exponents of the Manichaean heresy, sent from the King of Bohemia to Rome, and converted them to the faith (1461). Near the church of the Minerva in Rome he founded the pious Association of the Annunziata to provide dowries for poor girls, and there he was buried.

For his attachment to the Apostolic See and his energetic defense of the pontifical authority he merited from Eugene 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 toto Psalterio (Rome 1470, Mainz 1474); Tractatus de corpore Christi adversus Boemos (Lyons 1478); Summa de Ecclesia (Cologne 1480), the most important, which was much exploited by the defenders of pontifical 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 Basel; Rome 1517); Apparatus super Decretum Florentinum unionis Graecorum (Venice 1561; critical ed. by E. Candal, Rome 1942); Contra decreta Concilii Constantineis in favore di Eugenio IV (Venice 1563 and in Mansi, XXX, coll. 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, coll. 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.

Bibliography10 works

BIBL.: Quétif-Echard, I, pp. 837-43; S. Lederer, Der spanische Card. J. de T., Friburgo 1879; Pastor, I-II, passim; E. Dublanchy, T. et le pouvoir du pape dans les questions temporelles, in Revue thomiste, 28 (1923), pp. 74-101; J. Garrastachu, Los manuscritos del card. T. en la Bibl. Vaticana, in La ciencia tomista, 41 (1930), pp. 188-217, 291-322; V. Beltran de Heredia, Colección de docum. inéd. para ilustrar la vida del card. J. de T., in Arch. Fr. Praed., 7 (1937), pp. 210-45; A. Walz, I cardin. domenicani, in Mem. domenic., 37 (1940), pp. 32-33; R. Creytens, Raphaël de Pornaxio auteur du « De potestate papae et concilii generalis » faussement attribué à J. de T., in Arch. Fr. Praed., 13 (1943), pp. 108-37; A. Michel, s. v. in DThC, XV, coll. 1235-39; J. Stockmann, Johannes a Turrecrematu de corpore mystico, Haarlem 1953.

Alfonso D'Amato

TORQUEMADA, JUAN de - The Virgin Annunciate offers the purse with the dowry to three poor maidens, presented by Card. T. Painting on panel by Antoniazzo Romano (15th cent.) to commemorate the foundation of the Pious Association of the Annunziata - Rome, church of S. Maria sopra Minerva, chapel of the Annunziata.(phot. Alinari)

One of some 20,000 entries brought back from the twelve printed volumes (1948–54). Spotted something? Help us improve it.

Torquemada (Turrecremata), Juan de

About this entry