How Catholic was Torquemada?

[Jackalope]

The pope at the time (Sixtus IV) apparently thought so. Surely the Vicar of Christ would not appoint a heretic to root our heresy, yes?

[Mister Agenda]

If Torquemada was a real Catholic ™, he wouldn't have done bad thing!

[Minimalist]

He didn't do anything bad.  He hunted down jews.  The church always approved of that!

[Edwardo Piet]

I know right? And why? Jews 'cause they said so.

[Fake Messiah]

Well yeah Torquemada sucked so much cock that clearly wasn't Catholic, because he couldn't bare living in sin like that, burping cum and all.

[CatholicDefender]

He was a Catholic who just took it a bit too far, unlike that weird Hitler.

So much for them being Catholic. Hitler, Goebbels,Himmler and Goering ALL committed suicide in gross violation of Catholic morals

[Cyberman]

So basically, catholicism didn't do a whole lot to prevent their excesses.

[Jackalope]

He was a Catholic who just took it a bit too far

"a bit too far"?

So much for your Catholic morals.

[Jehanne]

He was a Catholic who just took it a bit too far, unlike that weird Hitler.

So much for them being Catholic. Hitler, Goebbels,Himmler and Goering ALL committed suicide in gross violation of Catholic morals

Just pure nonsense.  The various Inquisitions of the Catholic Church were viewed as being institutions of mercy during the Middle Ages; it was the secular power alone that carried out the death penalty, which in the case of heresy and witchcraft, was usually immolation at the stake.  It was the Church that stood between a poor sinner, the heretic, and the righteous arm of the One and Triune God, the King, or one of his vassals, his lord.  Saint Thomas Aquinas, the Church's principle theologian, was quite clear about this:

“With regard to heretics two points must be observed: one, on their own side; the other, on the side of the Church. On their own side there is the sin, whereby they deserve not only to be separated from the Church by excommunication, but also to be severed from the world by death. For it is a much graver matter to corrupt the faith which quickens the soul, than to forge money, which supports temporal life. Wherefore if forgers of money and other evil-doers are forthwith condemned to death by the secular authority, much more reason is there for heretics, as soon as they are convicted of heresy, to be not only excommunicated but even put to death.

On the part of the Church, however, there is mercy which looks to the conversion of the wanderer, wherefore she condemns not at once, but 'after the first and second admonition,' as the Apostle directs: after that, if he is yet stubborn, the Church no longer hoping for his conversion, looks to the salvation of others, by excommunicating him and separating him from the Church, and furthermore delivers him to the secular tribunal to be exterminated thereby from the world by death. For Jerome commenting on Gal. 5:9, 'A little leaven,' says: 'Cut off the decayed flesh, expel the mangy sheep from the fold, lest the whole house, the whole paste, the whole body, the whole flock, burn, perish, rot, die. Arius was but one spark in Alexandria, but as that spark was not at once put out, the whole earth was laid waste by its flame.'” (Summa Theologica, IIa IIae, q.11, a.3)

“According to Decret. (xxiv, qu. iii, can. Notandum), 'to be excommunicated is not to be uprooted.' A man is excommunicated, as the Apostle says (1 Cor. 5:5) that his 'spirit may be saved in the day of Our Lord.' Yet if heretics be altogether uprooted by death, this is not contrary to Our Lord’s command, which is to be understood as referring to the case when the cockle cannot be plucked up without plucking up the wheat, as we explained above (q. 10, a. 8, ad 1), when treating of unbelievers in general.” (Summa Theologica IIa IIae, q.11, a.3, ad 3)

“In God’s tribunal, those who return are always received, because God is a searcher of hearts, and knows those who return in sincerity. But the Church cannot imitate God in this, for she presumes that those who relapse after being once received, are not sincere in their return; hence she does not debar them from the way of salvation, but neither does she protect them from the sentence of death.” (Summa Theologica IIa IIae, q.11, a.4, ad 1)