people because some of the best-known protagonists
in Middle High German literature would provide them
with models of ideal behavior. The Welsche Gast proved
to be an enormously popular didactic treatise and has
come down to us in some two dozen manuscripts (thir-
teen complete, eleven as fragments), of which almost
all are illustrated.
See also Gregory VII, Pope;
Walther von der Vogelweide
Further Reading
Huber, Christoph. “Höfi scher Roman als Integumentum? Das
Votum Thomasîns von Zerclaere.” Zeitschrift für deutsches
Altertum 115 (1986): 79–100.
Neumann, Friedrich. “Einführung,” in Der Welsche Gast des
Thomasîn von Zerclaere. Cod. Pa l. Germ. 389 der Univer-
sitätsbibliothek Heidelberg. Wiesbaden: Reichert, 1974,
Kommentarband, pp. 1–65.
Röcke, Werner. Feudale Anarchie und Landesherrschaft:
Wirkungsmöglichkeiten didaktischer Literatur. Thomasîns von
Zerclaere “Der Welsche Gast.” Bern: Lang, 1978.
Ruff, E. J. F. “Der Welsche Gast” des Thomasîn von Zerclaere:
Untersuchung zu Gehalt und Bedeutung einer mhd. Mor-
allehre. Erlangen: Palm und Enke, 1982.
Thomasîn von Zerclaria. Der Welsche Gast, ed., Heinrich Rück-
ert. Quedlinburg: Basse, 1852; rpt. ed. Friedrich Neumann.
Berlin: de Gruyter, 1965.
Albrecht Classen
TORQUEMADA, TOMÁS DE (1420–1498)
Born in the town from which he drew his surname, in
the province of Palencia, in 1420. He was nephew to the
no less famous Cardinal Juan de Torquemada, author of
the Tractatus contra Midianitas, written in defense of
the Jewish conversos (Christian converts) from whom
he, and correspondingly Tomás, were said to have been
descended. As a young man, Tomás entered the Order
of St. Dominic in the priory of San Pablo in Valladolid,
and resided as a friar in the convent at Piedrahita. He
was later appointed prior of the convent of Santa Cruz
in Segovia, a title he retained throughout his career; and
at about the same time was chosen to be a confessor of
Queen Isabel and King Fernando: it is in this role that
he appears in the only painting that is believed to depict
him faithfully, Berruguete’s Virgin of the Catholic Kings,
in the Prado.
On 11 February 1482 he was appointed by papal
bull as one of seven new inquisitors to continue the
work of the recently founded Inquisition (the fi rst two
inquisitors had been appointed in 1480). In 1483 a new
central council, the Consejo de la Suprema y General
Inquisición, was set up by the king and queen to govern
the inquisition, and Torquemada was chosen to head it
as inquisitor general. On 17 October 1483 another papal
bull, which conceded control of the inquisitions of the
Iberian Peninsula to the crown, also appointed Torque-
mada as joint inquisitor general of the three realms of
Aragón, Catalonia, and Valencia. In this role, he was
empowered to intervene in any part of the peninsula
in a way that not even the crown was always able to.
Torquemada subsequently played a key role in forcing
through the introduction of the new inquisition in the
realms of the Crown of Aragón, which still retained
their old inquisitors from the medieval inquisition. In
May 1484 Torquemada appointed new inquisitors for
the eastern kingdoms, but faced enormous opposition,
fundamentally because the new appointees were all
Castilians and their tribunal was not subject to the laws
of the kingdoms; in Aragón one of the appointees, Pedro
Arbués, was murdered in 1485. To fi nd a way out of the
impasse, in February 1486 pope Innocent VII sacked all
the existing papal inquisitors in the Crown of Aragón,
and secured the simultaneous withdrawal of the Castil-
ian nominees. This left the way open for Torquemada
to start again with new appointees.
The important contribution made by Torquemada to
the new inquisition is confi rmed by the fact that he wrote
its fi rst rule book, the Instrucciones, fi rst drawn up in
November 1484 and then later amplifi ed in versions of
1485,1488, and 1498. Together with additions made in
1500, these early rules were known as the Instrucciones
Antiguas, and laid down all the procedures of the tribunal
in its early period. Torquemada must not, however, be
viewed as all-powerful. As inquisitor general he was
no more than chairman of the Suprema and could be
overruled by it; moreover, his commission, which came
from the pope, could be revoked at any time. In 1491 and
again in 1494, while Torquemada was still functioning,
additional and temporary (until 1504) inquisitor generals
were appointed to aid the work of the inquisition, proof
that he did not hold unquestioned power.
No documentary proof whatsoever exists for at-
tributing to Torquemada the evidently anti-Semitic
philosophy of the early inquisition, or responsibility
for the bloody excesses of the tribunal; but neither is
there any reason to question the traditional view that
sees him as the driving spirit behind its early years. It
is unquestionable that he was a major force behind the
expulsion of the Jews in 1492: King Fernando stated
expressly, in a letter that he sent to several nobles, that
“the Holy Offi ce of the Inquisition has provided that
the Jews be expelled from all our realms.” A story of
uncertain origin states that when the Jews tried to buy
their way out of the expulsion, Torquemada burst into the
presence of the king and queen and threw thirty pieces
of silver on the table, demanding to know for what price
Christ was to be sold again.
A strong supporter of religious reform, Torquemada
in 1482 founded the beautiful monastery of Santo Tomás
in Avila, where he died on 16 September 1498.THOMASÎN VON ZERCLAERE