Tomás de Torquemada
- "You dare to lecture me? I am the hammer of heretics, the light of España, the honor of my order. I follow none but God's command."
- ―Torquemada to Ezio Auditore da Firenze, 1492.[src]
Tomás de Torquemada (1420 – 1498) was a Spanish Dominican friar, the first Inquisitor General of Spain, confessor to Isabella I of Castile, and a member of the Templar Order.
Under influence of Rodrigo Borgia, Grand Master of the Italian Templars and Papal candidate, Torquemada opposed the Spanish Assassin Brotherhood, persecuting them as part of the Spanish Inquisition.
Biography
In 1491, Tomás de Torquemada served Rodrigo Borgia, whom he greatly admired, so much so that Rodrigo provided him with a list of names of people who had to be executed. Believing them to be heretics, Tomás had his men capture and prepare them for execution; Torquemada was not aware of the fact that Rodrigo Borgia had used him as a tool to kill the Spanish Assassins.[2]
However, the Assassins Ezio Auditore da Firenze and Raphael Sánchez attempted to prevent the executions and killed Gaspar Martínez, who was to oversee the first of such on an Assassin in Barcelona.[2]
Sometime later, Torquemada visited Pedro Llorente, the Inquisition's Calficador, in Zaragoza; here, the two men oversaw the execution of another of the Assassins. However, Ezio Auditore overheard their conversation and discovered that the names had been provided by Rodrigo Borgia, causing him to decide on assassinating Pedro Llorente as soon as Torquemada had left.[2]
In the aftermath of the fall of Granada to the Spanish, Torquemada acted swiftly in dispatching an Inquisitor, Juan de Marillo, to round up all heretics in the city. This operation failed when Ezio rescued many of these condemned citizens before proceeding to assassinate Juan in the city's sewers without anyone noticing.[2]
Soon after Christopher Columbus set sail for his voyage, the Inquisitors, under the manipulation of the Templars, sent soldiers to kill the Assassins Luis de Santángel and Raphael Sánchez in retaliation for foiling their plans to stall the expedition.[2]
For this outrage, Santángel ordered Ezio to eliminate Torquemada once and for all, retracting a previous command against it. Despite this, Sanchez advised Ezio to make sure to figure out the extent of Torquemada's association with the Templar Order before going for the kill, and whether or not he was a Templar himself. Accordingly, when Ezio infiltrated Torquemada's heavily-guarded estate and at last reached the Grand Inquisitor, he confronted him directly, hoping to goad him into divulging his allegiances.[2]
Torquemada boasted of his glory in the eyes of God, and jeered at the prospect that Rodrigo Borgia, whom he admired, was actually an atheist. Through this, Ezio concluded that like Pedro Llorente before him, Torquemada lacked any knowledge of a Templar conspiracy and was merely an extreme, religious fanatic possessed by self-delusion. In spite of this, the Assassin remained keen on neutralizing him and charged in for a swift kill, but Torquemada had been well prepared. He immediately lowered a portcullis between them to obstruct Ezio's approach and managed to escape unscathed.[2]
After his encounter with Ezio, Torquemada was officially inducted into the Templar Order. He used the Inquisition to root out those manipulating the faith for their own gain. He favored the auto-de-fe, a public execution by burning alive for those who crossed the Inquisition. Despite the threat of violence, he would be challenged by Aguilar de Nerha and the Spanish Assassins.[3]
Torquemada was nonetheless eventually killed by the Assassins on 16 September 1498.[4]
Trivia
- Crawford Starrick, Grand Master of the British Templars around 1868, owned a portrait of Tomás de Torquemada.[5]
- Torquemada is played by Javier Gutiérrez in the Assassin's Creed movie.
Gallery
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A painting of Torquemada -
Torquemada in Assassin's Creed II: Discovery
References
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