Customer Reviews

Flesh Inferno: Atrocities of Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition. (The Blood History Series)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Mr. Arthur Sippo apparently would suppress the awful truth about the Inquisition and its methods. It is hardly 'religious or political prejudice', nor does it 'misrepresent the facts': Whitechapel quotes from historical sources. For those doe-eyed Christians the truth may be painful, but not nearly as painful as the tortures meeted out under the Inquisition.

Must reading!

Really interesting book. Tells us lots of stuff about the Spanish Inquisition that we haven't heard before. I was pleasantly surprised that such a relatively short book could be so interesting and informative.

Mr. Whitechapel has written several books on atrocities and serial killers. He obviously has an unhealthy interest in pain and torture. This is a book written to pander to that kind of prurience.

There has been a great deal of negative press given to the Inquisition over the centuries, most of which was motivated by religious or political prejudice. As a result there is a large body of literature that misrepresents the facts. This book is just a rehash of these allegations done uncritically. There are much better works by Peters and Kamen among others who used modern historical methods which created books that are truly academic and which demonstrate the serious flaws in many previous works done on this subject.

If I could, I would give it "Zero" stars. Pass this one by. It is not worth the money.

If you want to read both sides of the Spanish Inquisition,
(yes, there were some "pros" as well as "cons"), two excellent
books are "Characters of the Inquisition" by William T. Walsh,
and "Inquisition" by Edward Peters.

...

The Peters book is especially insightful (and delightful) because
in the first half of the book he gives balanced history of the various
inquisitions, and in the second half gives the history of how the history
was exaggerated and falsified into our popular view of the Inquisition
in the English speaking world.

Read this book is excellent! It's a shame that these techniques can't be implemented today in the U.S. State penitentiaries; I can guarantee you that crime would drastically be reduced. And all the tax payers would overwhelmingly support the system without any reservation. Other countries have a similar system and the criminals think twice before committing crimes, such as rape and murder of small children and terrorist acts.