The Inquisition (Paperback, New Ed)

Torture in custody, faking evidence, enforced betrayal of family and neighbours, and mass execution - such things are the tools of murderous dictators and police states. But for hundreds of years they were also the tools of the Inquisitors of the Roman Catholic Church, used by them against heretics, Protestants and witches - indeed, any group that appeared to threaten the papacy. Here, from bestselling authors Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, is the truth about one of the most horrifying and sinister organizations ever. Covering the entire history of the Inquisition - from its beginnings in thirteenth-century France to its present-day incarnation as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - it details both the Roman and Spanish inquisitions, covering, among other subjects, the career of the notorious Tomás de Torquemada, the mania of witchfinding, the Inquisition as censor, and the shift in the Inquisition's role from 'purifying' the faith to protecting papal power.