The Spanish Inquisition: The History and Legacy of the Catholic Church’s Notorious Persecution of Heretics Kindle Edition

Not that what happened was good, but this book was a fine recounting of the history of the Inquisition. These guys were so over-the-top they were almost funny. I pictured Monty Python in the roles of these inquisitors. I recommend this book to any one interested in this historical act of mayhem.

Obviously written by enemies of the Roman Catholic Church. Recent scholarship that reveals that it has been greatly exaggerated over time is only mentioned in passing. There are no shortages of atrocities in history where religion is used by civil authorities to justify what is really political punitive acts. The King & Queen of Spain are really the bad actors here regardless of what faith they claimed to adhere to.

The e-book the Spanish Inquisition: The History and Legacy of the Catholic Church’s Notorious Persecution of Heretics starts out by describing the history of inquisitions. The first inquisition was started in 1184 by Pope Lucius III. The objective of the Inquisition, at that time, was to eliminate heretics especially the Cathars and Waldensian movements. Pope Gregory IX created the formal Papal inquisition in 1231. I'm having a lot of difficulty understanding why the popes felt it necessary to execute those that had a view of God that conflict did with Catholic Church dogma. The book indicated that the creation of the Spanish Inquisition was related to the desires of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to centralize their power through religious unity. The torture was the method of choice used by the Spanish Inquisition to force confessions of heresy. By the time that the Inquisition period ended Jews and Moslems were eliminated or had left Spain. The book describes in detail some of the tortures used against the heretics and the book further describes the principal actors involved in the Spanish Inquisition. The book as a pretty good bibliography for those looking for more information about the Inquisition and the Spanish Inquisition.

If you are a novice on Spanish history, Catholic History, Hebrew history, or the Holocaust this a good quick read on those histories and a glimpse into Anti-Semitic thoughts that may be a contributor to the thought processes of the Holocaust.

The books in the Charles River Editors series are too short to be of much use to any student of history.

This vividly describes just how horrific the Inquisition was, and what a travesty of justice it was against literally everyone the Church targeted.

Please remember, the highest I give is four stars unless the book is truely exceptional. This book does just as it says, it gives a small amount of information to truely condem the catholic church

This book is so small, its like a pamphlet. It has a few pictures with a half page of information for each. This is not a comprehensive book about the Spanish Inquisition. It is not worth buying at all. If you want to learn about the Spanish Inquisition buy "Dogs of God" which is Excellent.