The Spanish Inquisition : a history

Established by papal bull in 1478, the first task of the Spanish Inquisition was to question Jewish converts to Christianity and to expose and execute those found guilty of reversion.

It then turned on Spanish Jews in general, sending three hundred thousand into exile.

Next in line were humanists and Lutherans. Children informed on their parents, merchants on their rivals and priests upon their bishops - nobody was safe.

The denounced were assumed to be guilty unless they could prove their innocence, and punishments were brutal - 31,913 people were led to the stake at public displays, the last a mad witch in 1781.

Joseph Perez tells the whole story of the Spanish Inquisition, from its medieval beginnings to its nineteenth-century ending, and discusses its impact on Spanish culture, economy and intellectual life.