1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Torquemada, Juan de

TORQUEMADA, JUAN DE (1388–1468), or rather Johannes de Turrecremata, Spanish ecclesiastic, was born at Valladolid, in 1388, and was educated in that city. At an early age he joined the Dominican order, and soon distinguished himself for learning and devotion. In 1415 he accompanied the general of his order to the Council of Constance, whence he proceeded to Paris for study, and took his doctor’s degree in 1423. After teaching for some time in Paris he became prior of the Dominican house first in Valladolid and then in Toledo. In 1431 Pope Eugenius IV. called him to Rome and made him “magister sancti palatii.” At the Council of Basel he was one of the ablest supporters of the view of the Roman curia, and he was rewarded with a cardinal’s hat in 1439. He died at Rome on the 26th of September 1468.

His principal works are In Gratiani Decretum commentarii (4 vols., Venice, 1578); Expositio brevis et utilis super toto psalterio (Mainz, 1474); Quaestiones spirituales super evangelia totius anni (Brixen, 1498); Summa ecclesiastica (Salamanca, 1550). The last-named work has the following topics: (1) De universa ecclesia; (2) De Ecclesia romana et pontificis primatu; (3) De universalibus conciliis; (4) De schismaticis et hacreticis. His De conceptione deiparae Mariae, libri viii. (Rome, 1547), was edited with preface and notes by E. B. Pusey (London, 1869 seq.).