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Characters of the Inquisition

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In this tremendously important book, Catholic historian William Thomas Walsh successfully destroys one of the greatest myths of history, that of the perfidy of the Inquisiton. He does this in remarkable fashion, starting with the venerable Moses as the first Inquisitor, then describing the papal Inquistions, and finally devoting the bulk of the corpus of his important work to the much maligned and little understood Spanish Inquisition.

In regard to the latter, Walsh provides insights that any truly objective student of history will find both compelling and enlightening. The Spanish Inquistion had nothing to do with persecution, as the popular myth holds. It had rather everything to do with maintaining the integrity of the Mystical Body of Christ, His Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. Here is a critically important point that uninformed critics of the Inquistion miss entirely. The Spanish Inquisition was focused entirely on those who claimed to be sincere Catholics, but who, in fact, were heretics. That Isabella chose to expel practicing Jews from Spain in 1492 is a fact ancillary to but not at all embodied in the Inquisition epic.

Walsh completes his masterful portrayal with an amazingly prophetic essay. Writing in the midst of the Second World War, Walsh clearly illustrates the commonality of the political philosophies of the socialist FDR, the communist Stalin, and their then antagonist, Hitler. Walsh observes that it is precisely this notion of the state trimphant over the rights of the individual, a notion equally embraced by FDR, Stalin, and Hitler, against which the Inquisiton inveighed. This is great history, beautifully written, and presented with a proper sense of awe and wonder. We heartily recommend this terribly important book to all seekers after the Truth.

If all you have ever read about the Inquisition has been from Protestant, Deist, agnostic, and other non-Catholic authors, you have heard only one side of the story. Walsh gives a completely different sense of the Inquisition, including Torquemada. If you have got an open mind, this is the book for you.

This famous historian has laid to rest the standard myths accepted by most people today. For example, the lie that the Inquisition was ruthless and unjust, that it sent thousands to merciless torture and undeserved death, and that it was administered by unbalanced and sinister minds. To settle this matter and to set forth the facts about the Inquisition, the author has drawn for us a detailed historical sketch of six prominent Inquisitors - "Characters of the Inquisition," as he calls them - and in the process has explained for the modern reader the background of the Inquisition, how it operated and the major historical lines of its progress. Within these pages the reader will see history unfold before his eyes in a manner refreshingly truthful and well substantiated, and in the process, he will witness the Catholic Church being vindicated of the mendacious claims laid against her by her enemies. Important knowledge to defend the Church.

In addition to the Walsh book, one should also read Edward Peters' "The Inquisition." Peters is a historian at Univ. Penn., and I believe not a Catholic. His book traces the actual Inquisitions for about half the book, and then the fun begins! He shows how over the centuries, the actual Inquistion became what he calls the Myth of the Inquisition, i.e., the exaggerations and falsehoods we commonly believe today. For more information, read the reviews of the Peters book on Amazon.com.

Trying to find a Catholic apology for the Inquisition in the English language, or even an objective work for that matter, is a difficult prospect. Hundreds of years of anti-Catholic scholarship, hyperbole and outright fabrication has left the world with a notion of the Inquisition that allows it to be mentioned along side Hitler's Holocaust and Stalin's Gulags as singular historical atrocities.

Though he himself admits that this book is inadequate as a comprehensive answer to the Inquisition myth-makers, William Thomas Walsh's book is indeed a good beginning. It traces the lives of several prominent figures of the Inquisition beginning, strangely enough, with Moses and proceeding to Pope Gregory IX, Bernard Gui, Nicholas Eymeric, Tomas Torquemada, Cardinal Ximenes, and finally Juan Antonio Llorente. Moses is included at the beginning as a way of demonstrating that the practices and techniques used by the Inquisition had their foundation in the Mosaic Law.

Each of the biographies places the individual in his historical context. Rather than judging them by modern standards, the men profiled are placed among their contemporaries and their actions are judged based upon the prevailing practices of the time. Walsh makes it very clear that those investigated by the Inquisition were not non-Catholics, but instead those who claimed to be Catholics for political or economic gain, but spoke and acted against Church teaching. Heresy was a civic crime in Spain, and those found guilty of claiming to be Catholics while holding heretical opinions were handed over to the secular authorities for punishment.

Though occasionally a bit jumbled and full of historical tangents, the biographies successfully paint the men named above not as bloodthirsty demons, but more often as reluctant prosecutors in a difficult situation. They were caught between the Spanish crown which wanted to seek out and destroy conspiratorial elements in society, both religious and political, and the Papacy which often demanded greater mercy in dealing with accused heretics.

The final section of the book is especially interesting as it deals with Walsh's view of history from the Inquisition up to the time when he was writing in 1940 during the darkest days of World War II. This section is full of memorable quotes. For example, regarding the Protestant reformation, Walsh writes: "Heretical movements have never reformed the Christian Church. All of them professed their intention to do so; but invariably their effect was to confuse and destroy Christian doctrine-to dissolve Christ, in the phrase of St. John the Evangelist-without removing the human frailties complained of." Walsh does go, perhaps, a bit overboard in this section in ascribing every evil the Church has experienced in recent centuries to a shadowy Masonic conspiracy. While I don't disagree with this idea entirely, the evidence he provides is simply not sufficient to make his case.

Overall, Characters of the Inquisition is great place to start for anyone wanting an explanation of the Spanish Inquisition from a Catholic perspective.

I really don't have a lot to add to what other reviewer's have written. The author gives a very reasonable account of the history of inquisitional methods since Old Testament times, and how the logic of the medieval Inquisition is derived from them.

Special attention is given to the cultural context and concerns facing the Church at the time, how abuses were curbed, and what certain figures did to make sure that the Inquisition did not become a means for clerical abuse and self-interest.

One of the best features of this book was the pointing out of errors by past Inquisition historians. Walsh reveals inherant bias in some writers, and outright ignorance of evidence in some cases. The chapter on Llorente was particularly helpful.

The problem I had with this book was that the author seemed to be a heretic himself, by Catholic standards. He went so far as denouncing salvation sola gratia. On page 222 we read, "Was not Luther's doctrine of salvation by grace alone a restatement, with a somewhat different emphasis, of the old despairing dogma of the Alumbrados, the Manichees, the Gnostics, the Buddhists?"

I don't know where he was trying to go here - perhaps he meant to say "faith alone", but salvation sola gratia has always been the infallible dogmatic teaching of the Church (See Council of Trent Canon 1).

For things such as this, I hesitate to give this to Protestants. Though it might help clarify the issues surrounding the Inquisition, it might unnecessarily "confirm" their worst fears regarding the Catholic doctrine of justificiation. I simply penned some notes into the margin of this page pointing this out.

Overall a good book, but it has its flaws.

When the topic of the Inquisitions are brought up, many people cringe and blame the Catholic Church for many horrible deeds done during this period. Thomas Walsh has done a tremendous amount of research to dispel all those false rumors and vindicate the names of many of the people involved with the Inqusitions. He has chosen 6 particular Inquisitors in this book and goes through their life and the truth behind their characters.

What one will find is not some ruthless killer, but men who truly loved God and the Catholic Church. If you have friends who continue the bash the Church because of the myths of the Inquistion, this is the book to give them. After reading this book, you will understand the reason behind the Inquisition and how the Inquistion saved Europe from many of the ruthless and violent sects which had taken root in Europe.

This book is filled with historical facts concerning many of the events and people of the Inquisition. The Faith was restored and this allowed the Church to prosper amongst the many heresies which had seduced so many people. If you really want to understand the historical facts behind the Inquisition, Thomas Walsh and his book are the place to start.

Without defending the approach of the Inquisition given our more developed understanding of religious liberty, the author deftly shows a far more researched, reasoned, and rational account of the people and methods and realities involved in this particular aspect of our history than those popularized those with axes to grind. Highly recommended as a needed balance on this sensitive subject.

This book is awesome. The hardcover edition has been long out of print until now. Take advantage of this great book at a great price. The Catholic Church is God's gift to us.

I wish to congratulate this seller. The book arrived in record time. It was in good condition indeed and the packing was appropriate

Thank you very much