Page:EB1911 - Volume 27.djvu/74

Rh of the Holy Office on horseback and two hundred more on foot. In 1487 he went with Ferdinand to Malaga and thence to Valladolid, where in the October of 1488 he held another general congregation of the Inquisition and promulgated new laws based on the experience already gained. He then hurried back to Andalusia where he joined the sovereigns, who were now besieging Granada, which he entered with the conquering army in January 1492 and built there a convent of his order.

The Moors being vanquished, now came the turn of the Jews. In 1490 had happened the case of El Santo niño de la Guardia—a child supposed to have been killed by the Jews. His existence had never been proved; and in the district of Guardia no child was reported as missing. The whole story was most probably the creation of imaginations stimulated by torture and despair, unless it was a deliberate fiction set forth for the purpose of provoking hostility against the Jews. For a long time Torquemada had tried to get the royal consent to a general expulsion; but the sovereigns hesitated, and, as the victims were the backbone of the commerce of the country, proposed a ransom of 300,000 ducats instead. The indignant friar would hear of no compromise: “Judas,” he cried, “sold Christ for 30 pence; and your highnesses wish to sell Him again for 300,000 ducats.” Unable to bear up against the Dominican’s fiery denunciations, the sovereigns, three months after the fall of Granada, issued a decree ordering every Jew either to embrace Christianity or to leave the country, four months being given to make up their minds; and those who refused to become Christians to order had leave to sell their property and carry off their effects. But this was not enough for the inquisitor-general, who in the following month (April) issued orders to forbid Christians, under severe penalties, having any communication with the Jews or, after the period of grace, to supply them even with the necessaries of life. The former prohibition made it impossible for the unfortunate people to sell their goods which hence fell to the Inquisition. The numbers of Jewish families driven out of the country by Torquemada is variously stated from Mariana’s 1,700,000 to the more probable 800,000 of later historians. The loss to Spain was enormous, and from this act of the Dominican the commercial decay of Spain dates.

Age was now creeping on Torquemada, who, however, never would allow his misdirected zeal to rest. At another general assembly, his fourth, he gave new and more stringent rules, which are found in the Compilación de las instrucciones del officio de la Santa Inquisición. He took up his residence in Avila, where he had built a convent; and here he resumed the common life of a friar, leaving his cell in October 1497 to visit, at Salamanca, the dying infante, Don Juan, and to comfort the sovereigns in their parental distress. They often used to visit him at Avila, where in 1498, still in office as inquisitor-general, he held his last general assembly to complete his life’s work. Soon afterwards he died, on the 16th of September 1498, “full of years and merit” says his biographer. He was buried in the chapel of the convent of St Thomas in Avila.

The name of Torquemada stands for all that is intolerant and narrow, despotic and cruel. He was no real statesman or minister of the Gospel, but a blind fanatic, who failed to see that faith, which is the gift of God, cannot be imposed on any conscience by force.

TORRE ANNUNZIATA, a seaport of Campania, Italy, in the province of Naples, on the east of the Bay of Naples, and at the south foot of Mt Vesuvius, 14 m. S.E. of Naples by rail. Pop. (1901), 28,070 (town); 28,084 (commune). It is on the main line to Battipaglia, at the point of junction of a branch line from Cancello round the east of Vesuvius, and of the branch to Castellammare di Stabia and Gragnano. It has a royal arms factory established by Charles IV., and other ironworks, considerable manufacture of macaroni, paper, breeding of silkworms, and some fishing and shipping. The harbour is protected by moles. Remains attributed to the Roman post-station of Oplontis were discovered in making the railway between Torre del Greco and Torre Annunziata, a little west of the latter, in 1842.

TORRE DEL GRECO, a seaport of Campania, Italy, in the province of Naples, 7 m. S.E. of that city by rail. Pop. (1901), 35,328. It lies at the south-west foot of Vesuvius, on the shore of the Bay of Naples. It is built chiefly of lava, and stands on the lava stream of 1631, which destroyed two-thirds of the older town. Great damage was done by the eruptions of 1737 and 1794; the earthquake of 1857 and the eruption of the 8th of December 1861 were even more destructive. After each disaster the people returned, the advantage of the rich volcanic land overcoming apprehensions of danger. In the outskirts are many beautiful villas and gardens. The town has shipbuilding yards and lava quarries. The inhabitants take part in the coral and sponge fishing off the African and Sicilian coasts, and coral is worked in the town. There is also fishing for tunny, sardines and oysters; hemp is woven, and the neighbourhood is famed for its fruit and wine. In June the great popular festival “Dei Quattro Altari” is annually celebrated here in commemoration of the abolition of the feudal dominion in 1700. Remains of ancient villas and baths have been found here.

TORRENS, ROBERT (1780–1864), English soldier and economist, was born in Ireland in 1780. He entered the Marines in 1797, became a captain in 1806, and major in 1811 for bravery in Anhalt during the Walcheren expedition. He fought in the Peninsula, becoming lieutenant-colonel in 1835 and retiring as colonel in 1837. After abortive attempts to enter parliament in 1818 and 1826, he was returned in 1831 as member for Ashburton. He was a prolific writer, principally on financial and commercial policy. Almost the whole of the programme which was carried out in legislation by Sir Robert Peel had been laid down in his economic writings. He was an early and earnest advocate of the repeal of the corn laws, but was not in favour of a general system of absolute free trade, maintaining that it is expedient to impose retaliatory duties to countervail similar duties imposed by foreign countries, and a lowering of import duties on the productions of countries retaining their hostile tariffs would occasion a decline in prices, profits and wages.

TORRENS, SIR ROBERT RICHARD (1814–1884), British colonial statesman, was born at Cork, Ireland, in 1814, and educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He went to South Australia in 1840, and was appointed collector of customs. He was an official member of the first legislative council and in 1852 was treasurer and registrar-general. When responsible government was established he was elected as a representative for Adelaide and became a member of the first ministry. In 1857 he introduced his famous Real Property Act, the principle of which consists of conveyance By registration and certificate instead of deeds. The system was rapidly adopted in the other colonies and elsewhere, and was expounded by the author during a visit to the United Kingdom in 1862–1864. After leaving South Australia, Sir R. R. Torrens represented Cambridge in the House of Commons from 1868 to 1874; in 1872 he was knighted. He was the author of works on the effect of the gold discoveries on the currency, and other subjects. He died on the 31st of August 1884.

TORRENS, WILLIAM TORRENS M‘CULLAGH (1813–1894), English politician and social reformer, son of James M‘Cullagh (whose wife’s maiden name, Torrens, he assumed in 1863), was born near Dublin on the 13th of October 1813. He was called to the bar, and in 1835 became assistant commissioner on the special commission on Irish poor-relief, which resulted in the extension of the workhouse system in Ireland in 1838. In the ’forties he joined the Anti-Corn Law League,