Inquisition: The Reign of Fear
For this historical exploration of Catholicism’s Inquisition, Green focuses on Spain, Portugal, and their empires. Considerable archival research lies behind the author’s treatment, which is especially evident in his narratives of specific cases and of Inquisitorial vigilance against heretics. This creates an episodic effect, in which the chronology of the Inquisition in Iberia (1478–1834) relaxes before aspects of the Inquisition that Green emphasizes. He grounds the institution in the context of its establishment, the Christian reconquest of Spain and the associated conversion or expulsion of Jews and Muslims. Details of specific investigations prompt Green’s interpretations that factors in addition to theological enforcement brought suspects before the Inquisition: local politics, vengeance, or avarice could doom a victim to an auto-da-fé. This approach accords a social and political complexity to the Inquisition that informs readers of the popular support it received and how its power emanated through the means of fear. A readable choice for those in need of a general history of the Spanish Inquisition. --Gilbert Taylor