The Spanish Inquisition: Its rise, growth, and end

By Jean Plaidy

Book Overview

HC and DJ This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1566194075
• ISBN13: 9781566194075
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Barnes & Noble Books
• Length: 180 Pages
• Weight: 1.89 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Best Book on the Inquisition

As stated in a previous review this volume contains three books, containing 548 pages, covering the rise, growth and end of the Spanish Inquisition. The book begins with an excellent history of the origins of the inquisition. In the Twelfth Century, the Catholic church had a problem it had become so corrupt its congregation had lost faith. At first the church tried reforming itself, which the clergy at all levels rejected. Poverty, humility, and reform, did not go well with the church which had just assumed power over the secular states of Europe. The people who were looking for a less secular form of worship were branded as heretics and the catholic church formed the Inquisition to deal with them. Things of course went down hill from there. The Inquisition was instituted by a Bull that instituted: 1. Torture as the means of obtaining confession 2. penalty up to death at the stake 3.A police force to serve only the Inquisition and subject only to their law, not subject to civil courts 4. Confiscation of goods and property of heretics distributed by Inquisition 5. The accused is guilty, if they confess they may be shown mercy, if they maintain there innocence even under torture they are to be burned as unrepentant heretics 6. The accused could not be represented by a lawyer 7. All proceedings were to be secret What an incredible system to prove that absolute power corrupts absolutely. After showing how other countries dealt with the Inquisition, the book turns to Spain. How Isabella and Ferdinand, invited the Inquisition into Spain, and used it to their own advantage, reserving the right to appoint the inquisitors their first choice was Torquemada, after him they chose Ximenes. Under these Inquisitors-General the Inquisition was fine tuned as a instrument of terror and repression, not rivaled until the killing fields of Cambodia. This book covers the entire history of the Spanish Inquisition 1483 to 1834. Great detail is given to the exact methods and procedures the Inquisition. This is made possible because the Inquisition like all bureaucracy's kept detailed records, many of which survive today, much to the dismay of the Catholic church and others who would like to minimize or obscure the facts. I have read several books on the Inquisition, but this is by far the best.