Tomas de Torquemada died on this day 525 years ago, aged 77.
- A friar of the Dominican order from a young age, Torquemada would become the religious advisor to King Ferdinand II and Isabella I of Spain in the 1470s.
- Fearful of the increasing influence of Spanish Jews and Muslims, Torquemada successfully lobbied the monarchs to get Pope Sixtus IV to allow the establishment of a Holy Office for the Propagation of the Faith in 1478, thus beginning...
- Torquemada would become the Grand Inquisitor of Spain in 1483, a position he would hold for the last 15 years of his life. As Grand Inquisitor, Torquemada would establish over 20 tribunal offices in the country.
- Torquemada was known for his cruel punishments towards those accused of not being Catholic in order to get their confessions (even if they were Christians)- these included waterboarding and burning people alive. Torquemada was personally responsible for the deaths of around 2,000 people, and complaints were sent to the pope from other inquisitors criticizing his ruthlessness.
- By 1494, Torquemada was in failing health, which led Pope Alexander VI to send people to help him run the Spanish Inquisition. He would soon retire to a monastery, where he would be interred; his bones were reportedly stolen in 1832.