The Inquisition

The Spanish Inquisition is now a byword for violence and religious intolerance. In 1478, at the instigation of the Catholic Ferdinand and Isabella, Torquemada led the Inquisition to root out heresy. There was no heresy to speak of in Spain, and in reality the Inquisition acted against converts from Judaism to Christianity who were suspected of retaining Jewish practice. This history is a catalog of terror and torture—2,000 people were burned at the stake, and hundreds more were subjected to horrific acts of abuse. John Edwards compellingly analyzes both the truths and the myths of this period along with the motivation behind it.