John Torquemada

Abstract

John Torquemada (1388–1468) was the leading papal apologist of the mid-fifteenth century. Torquemada, a Dominican friar trained as a Thomist, attended the Council of Basel (1431–1449) to represent his order and the king of Castile. There he became concerned that conciliarism would harm the church, the papacy, and his order. He became the pope’s defender. Eugenius IV (1431–1447) made him Master of the Sacred Palace and then a cardinal. As a member of the Roman curia he promoted orthodoxy, defended the conversos of Castile, and promoted a crusade against the Ottoman Turks. He also promoted reform of religious houses. Most notably, he wrote a massive Summa de ecclesia (1453), which defended the institutional church against the Hussite heresy and the Roman see against conciliarism. It became a source for later defenders of Rome, including Cajetan and Robert Bellarmine.