Als die Kirche Gott verriet. Die Schreckensherrschaft der Inquisition

by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, Andrea Kamphuis

After the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars of south-west France in 1208, a Spanish monk - later canonized as St Dominic - took up the cudgels by establishing a kind of secret police to ferret out heresy - thus began the infamous Inquisition. Baigent and Leigh tell the whole extraordinary story, taking it on into the nineteenth century and showing how after the Doctrine of Papal Infallibility in 1870, the Vatican attempted to establish new authorities that were an intellectual equivalent of the Inquisition. "The Inquisition" offers a fascinating narrative account of one of the most influential and horrifying movements in the history of western Europe.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Religion, Politics, Medieval History, Christianity, Catholic

397 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Michael Baigent was born in New Zealand in 1948. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in psychology from Canterbury University, Christchurch, and holds a master's degree in mysticism and religious experience from the University of Kent in England. Since 1976 he has lived in England with his wife and children.

Baigent is a Freemason and a Grand Officer of the United Grand Lodge of England. He has also been an editor of Freemasonry Today since 1991. As an author and speculative historian, he has been published in 35 languages; he is the author of From the Omens of Babylon, Ancient Traces, and the New York Times bestseller The Jesus Papers; he is the coauthor of the international bestsellers Holy Blood, Holy Grail and The Messianic Legacy (with Henry Lincoln and Richard Leigh); and the coauthor of The Temples and the Lodge, The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception, Secret Germany, The Elixir and the Stone, and The Inquisition (with Richard Leigh).

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading Lewis M. Weinstein's novel "The Heritic" which takes place in a dark era of European history and tells about the changes in catholic Spain and the faith and persecution of the conversos I found myself looking for some books to enlarge my knowledge about the Inquisition. This book is perhaps not the best book when it comes to the complete facts surrounding the Inquisition but it gave an interesting insight in the whole process of the inquisition and showed it to be part of much larger movement within the Catholic Church and it still operates as such today.

The inquisition has it roots in the need of the Catholic church to keep their doctrine the only one and the pure one. Which essentially started with the creation of the Dominican order who were intellectual well trained priests who were capable to answer the questions that were raised by the Cathars who followed a more back to basic Christian religion and started to get serious grip on the societies of Northern Italy and southern France. The Albigensian Crusade ended the attempts of conversions by Saint Dominic and his order and wiped the Cathars essentially out of existence and the Dominicans rooted out the rest of them and made sure they were taken for their worth and property. Inquisitors were generally chosen from members of the Dominican Order, and they made sure that the Church was safeguarded from heresy. Which was essentially anything that was opposed to the opinion of the Church. [Knights Templar, Waldensians , Hussites, spiritual Franciscans, and later protestants]
The Spanish Inquisition is the best known of them all and is in essence the precursor of the Nazi practices. The Spanish inquisition did start when the last remnant of Muslim occupation on the Iberian plains had been send packing and it killed, disowned and drove away mostly Jews and any conversos [Jews converted to Christians of "free"will of force] where never accepted and felt the death grip of an institute like the Inquisition most and were the victims of a murderous regime that was in essence run by the Royalty of Spain which objected to the Pope when he found the excesses a bit too much. If you want to read a splendid novel about Spain and how the Inquisition started I advise you to read "the Heritic" by Lewis M. Weinstein.
The writers continue to show that the institute of the Inquisition did continue this regime of antisemitism to their most current form the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The book tells the story of witchcraft through the eyes of the Inquisition which took on the other enemy of the church, women and their role in society. B
By the time they reacted to the real schism in the church the reformation they were too late and could do too little but managed to keep up a steady amount of victims, in Europe or in the colonies.
The institute is shown as a way of the Catholic church to keep their way of thinking and their properties rich and healthy.

This is a book in which you occasionally wonder about the motivations of the writers but it is weel researched and does cover a lot of ground from the beginning to the current days. The whole story is shocking and while it does give great insight it will take single books on the various chapters of the Church history that involved this department of Inquisition to learn more of its details. With the church losing more power and grip on Europe and the rest of the world we finally can read some of the darker episodes of our own religious history and development even if the church would rather we didn't.

Four stars for covering so much ground and three stars for the sometimes shaky motivation of the writers in writing this highly readable book on the subject. Great as a starting position and I did order some more books on the inquisition more specialized as well. A decent and popular book to read when you know a little about the Inquisition and want to learn more. A great starting point to look into our history and our human rights which were not always in place to defend us against influences by institutions and governments that have a stake in our lives.

Well worth your while.

[Julian Worker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very interesting book about the cruel and sinister Roman Catholic organisation of the title that lasted many hundreds of years. The Inquisition started at about the same time as The Albigensian Crusade began to eradicate The Cathars in southern France in the early 13th Century and finished its open persecutions when Napoleon took over the Iberian Peninsula in the first decade of the 1800s. However, its purpose continues to flourish to this day.

The book covers the Inquisition's role in the reconquest of Spain, its role in the Spanish colonies in the New World, and the fights against mystics, witchcraft, Protestantism, Rosicrucians / Freemasons, and ultimately anyone who could be regarded as an opponent of The Pope. This evolution is truly horrifying and no more so when you realise The Inquisition was in effect renamed in 1965 as The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Just like The Spanish Inquisition of 500 years earlier, The Congregation still accept anonymous accusations, hardly ever deals with the person accused directly, demands retractions, imposes silences, and continues to employ third-rate theologians as its 'assessors'.

[Alessandro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! Oh boy! Do you remember those days when the Papal Estates went completely batshit insane and started burning people all over the world to preserve the real faith? Ah! Those were the good old days. How about that time when they excommunicated all who would argue with them and even prohibited every good christian of reading a shitload of books? Those were rather fine days also. Oh wait! Do you remember those really awesome times when the church denied adopting more reasonable instance regarding important issues such as birth control and sexual orientation? They sure screwed that one up, eh?

Funny thing. They never admitted they were wrong for doing any of it.

[Jim McIntosh · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the first 13 chapters, a nice explication of the Roman and Spanish inquisitions. But, then, in chapter 14, when trying to explain the evolution into the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, the authors head into a weird rant against Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Ratzinger (the book was written before Ratzinger's election to pope). Frankly, these last three chapters seem like they belong in another book. Chapters 1-13: Four stars; Chapters 14-17: Two stars or less.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

No-one expects the Spanish Inquisition...

Sorry, couldn't resist. Any more than I could resist picking up this book when I saw it at a local opportunity shop.

It's an interesting look at the history of the Inquisition. A little out of date, because John Paul II was pope when it was published, but it doesn't detract from the early history of this disgusting instrument of oppression.

Well researched and well written.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. The Inquisition is probably the first time that I had read a book that solely focuses on the history of the Inquisition. It was so interesting to get an insight into a history of brutality and violence that I had otherwise not been exposed too. More interesting for me was to understand the beginning of modern institutions that were created as a result of the Inquisition, to really see the impact that this period of hyper religion had on the modern age, about 200 years after its official disbanding.

Michael has an interesting way of writing which was very helpful towards understanding how society functioned throughout the period of the Inquisition. He made sure to not just focus on the church but also on its opposing cultures, such as the quenching of Paganism and the rise of Lutherism. Such rising or dispersing groups are fundamental to an understanding of the Inquisition and it was really great for Michael to focus on them with just as much emphasis as on the main group of the Catholic Church. I think it was also good that he didn't shy away from the brutality of the time, nor did he necessarily condemn it. He presented it as it was and made sure to show that it wasn't just the church which allowed this but also the very people who were ultimately condemned.

An interesting part of the book was Michel's focus on the way that the Inquisition operates in today's society. It was actually very shocking to see that the Holy Office which operated under the Grand Inquisitor, actually operates today, only under a different name. In fact, the Congregation For the Doctrine Of The Faith was run by the current pope and, while not responsible for the burnings of unfaithful, has certainly been responsible for the deaths of thousands of AIDS victims and for the excommunication of many more 'unfaithful' or inquisitive theologians.

However, I didn't give the book a five star rating because, in my opinion, I think Michael focused too much on the modern part of the Inquisition. By doing so, he tended to focus on issues that, while related to the current operation of the modern Inquisition, were not vital to an understanding of it and, by a result, started to become quite 'preachy' about how it operates. As I am not religious, I wasn't personally offended but by blurring the lines between a historical analysis and a modern review, he started to become more judgemental until even the last line was an examination of what he believes it's future to be. Don't get me wrong, I think it was still great but I would have preferred maybe just two chapters on the current Catholic Church, not five or so.

I would definitely suggest this book to any historical nut or anyone who really just wants to get to know the Catholic Church.

[Ashish Jaituni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Baigent and Leigh have written a very good, immensely readable and a quite accurate book on a topic where everyone had differing views.

The writers claim to give a full history of the Inquisition, starting with the events leading to the establishment of the Inquisition in 1234 straight to the present day. It seems to me they have reached their goal. The best thing of this book is that in totality it is chronological, but the subjects are dealt with separately.

It is written in a lucid manner, humorous at times, witty, quite accurate and a very good read! I recommend it to the layman who wants to read something on the Inquisition.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

I never realized that the inquisition was a wide spread event that carried on for centuries. I had always thought it was only in Spain. This book tried to cover the entire inquisition movement. To much info for a book this size. The info was so scattered it made the book seem very unorganized and hard to follow, in my opinion. I will probably try another book that solely covers the Spanish Inquisition since that was what original captured my interest. But for me, this book was hard to finish and I didn't really absorb ANY of the info.

[Russ Spence · Rating 3 out of 5]

a bit polemical, this book is by part of the team behind the mass selling Holy Blood & the Holy Grail. This is an account of the history of the Catholic churches Holy Inquisition. Probably only worth a look if you're a fan of the first book. If you've been updated on the inaccuracies in that, then you tend to find yourself taking this all with a pinch of salt...

[Pam Baddeley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have read other books about the Inquisition, but this differed in covering not just the period up to the end of the burnings of heretics and 'witches', but went on to discuss its later history through the C18th - C20th centuries, under a couple of name changes.

Although it was interesting, I did start to question the historical accuracy in the chapter on witchcraft. It uncritically trots out the old idea, begun by Margaret Mead and discredited for decades, that there was a real persistence of pagan beliefs in Europe into early modern times. If they got that wrong, I wonder how much else can be depended upon.

The book ends oddly with a diatribe against the-then Pope (this was published in 1999) and Cardinal Ratzinger who subsequently became Pope. This followed on from a chapter on how the Church had suppressed the Dead Sea Scrolls for decades and only allowed limited access to them for fear of what might be revealed contradictory to the origin of Christianity. I discovered after finishing the book that the authors had previously published a book devoted to this apparent conspiracy. Not only that, they were responsible for 'The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail' which, from what I've heard previously, was more or less a work of fiction even if the authors didn't succeed in suing Dan Brown for plagiarism. I hadn't recognised their names because the only one of the joint authors of that book whose name I recall is Henry Lincoln, who co-wrote three 1960s Doctor Who stories. If I 'd known that when I first encountered this book on a charity shop shelf, I probably would have left it there, but its Penguin imprint convinced me it was a bonafide history book. Anyway, given my reservations about its accuracy, I can only award 2 stars.

[Marc · Rating 2 out of 5]

You know, for a book titled "The Inquisition", it's quite strange to have 2/3 of the book not about the inquisitions. What is there on the inquisitions of Europe and Spain is quite interesting, though put together in a bit of an awkward way, each topic is presented chronologically, but there is significant overlap, so it ends up treading over the same ground in quite a lot of points, and tends to restate points over and over, as if the reader was unable to understand the previous chapters. The rest of the book is talking about witchcraft, freemasonry, and then goes way in to the 20th century. Of course it's stupid not to think that there would be talk of what happened after the period of the 13th century to ~the 17th century, but that period is the most well known just in the general public consciousness for the religious inquisitions, and is a minority in this book.

They also reference Dostoevsky's 'The Grand Inquisitor' section of The Brothers Karamazov at least once per chapter. We get it, dudes, it's the introduction, and we GET IT.

[Seb R · Rating 3 out of 5]

very good history of the catholic church, masonic lodge and the happening of the middle ages with the way dissenting ideas, esoterics, mystics, pagans, heretics, and scientists were treated, and even to the modern day censorship of the dead sea scrolls by the congregation of the doctrine of the faith.

I do like the way that the Author presents facts in this book and makes it quite easy to read, but it seems like some of the things presented by the Author are contested for historical accuracy, a minor example of this is the Templars and the lodge, Marian Apparitions and others which he has a whole other book on.

The accounts of real people, such as John Coustos, Saint Theresa and others is some of the most fascinating things you can find in this book other than the general history of the church itself, the crusades and everything else.

This book does scratch a kind of Medieval itch that makes me want to go back for more.

All in all I enjoyed this book, also Kiwi Author - 03 represent!

[Ivan Kvesic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting towards the middle of the book.
The ending was a bit vague.

[George Hodgson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good history of the Inquisitions. Towards the end, it becomes more of an editorial than a history. Well worth reading though.

[Glen D · Rating 4 out of 5]

very interesting book. well written. A solid read.

[Dr.J.G.]

The history of church is replete with murders and massacres, of those that in any way threatened its hold of total power, either with independent will or with knowledge of any realms at all whether intellect or mind or thought or discoveries of the universe, and all the more so about anything spiritual.

Massacres of Cathars and murders of Merovingians, inquisition resulting in burning of people branded merely for the reason of not being completely subservient, including thinkers and those with any knowledge - all that is assumed gone, to be forgotten.

The writers of this work point at the obvious, with the papal infallibility being made into a doctrine in 1870 the whole thing is kept alive at a level where it can be brought to physical tortures and burning of infidels any time and place where the level of power suits such an event from not being rightly interpreted into evil that all this has been.

That all this is no different from the taliban etc. terrorism that they call jihad, or from the KGB era of Siberian gulags for huge numbers of those that were suspected of not being loyal, or from the fascists and nazis and their genocides, can be seen clearly unless one is already blinkered by bringing up or some other reason (personal gain or power is generally a strong motive) blinkered or blinded, or pretending to be so.

[Jodi Moran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ratzinger became the frikkin' POPE?!?!

That was my reaction a few years back when Benedict was named. Wow! I own the hardback of this book. Picked it up in an English language bookstore in Istanbul just because I was in the mood for non-fiction. Boy, was I in for a treat! I've used it in my Humanities classes and wound up reading the damned thing 3 times. There's just so much cool information, not to mention the tone used, which is tip-of-tongue-touches-molar rather than tongue-firmly-in-cheek, but it was enough of a sense of irony to keep me entertained for 3 whole reads! HIGHLY recommend if you're into non-fiction historical stuff.

[Malcolm Frawley · Rating 3 out of 5]

The misogyny displayed by the Catholic Church over the centuries spanned by the Inquisition is harrowing. But the hypocrisy runs it a close second. One day it is heresy to believe in witchcraft, the next it is heresy NOT to believe in witchcraft. One day the Pope is fallible, the next day he is INfallible. And so many victims consigned to the stake were incriminated only by their enemies, or happened to possess an enviable amount of property. Even if an accused was eventually acquitted their possessions were never returned. While the Church's property portfolio continued to expand. If this is God's work, you can keep it.

[Reza Amiri Praramadhan · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is rather embarrassing that I was drawn to this book by a comedic sketch from Monty Python: the Spanish Inquisition sketch. Although I must admit that the real Inquisition is more terrifying than Palin, Jones and Gilliam. The Inquisition, was indeed the thought police of the Catholic Church. Supposedly made to combat heresies, the Inquisitions jailed, tortured and burned numerous people based on suspicions only. These people were branded as witch, being a protestant, a mystic, or whatever the inquisition suspected. Seem funny in this era of information, but without the inquisition, we would not reach where we are now.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book covers the Inquisition from its inception in southern France through its challenges and changes up to the end of the 20th century.

Easy to read, with chapters logically assembled. Great bibliography at the end of the book.

This is not an apologetic, nor is it a detailed compendium of specific tortures used by the Inquisition. The book approaches the subject from the angle of the underlying ideas, both political and spiritual, of why the Inquisition was born, grew, and how it faces the challenges presented to it over the centuries.

[Neil Breeze · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this a factually interesting book, chronicalling the days of the Spanish Inquisition from start to finish. It was hard to read at points as the story it tells fits with the chaos and occasional monotony of reality. Boring at times, gripping at others; it is a grim representation of just one product of religious fanatasicm in history.

[Jules · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a compelling historical work that explores the many facets of the inquisition and how a priori reason did nothing to dissuade mass murders, even though according to the church, murder was wrong. This is about the economy, politics and power.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Way better paced than holy blood holy grail. I struggled with this book because I think I needed a lot more background reading historical figures would be mentioned like the reader knew what passed deeds they had done this was interlay my fault and lack of educating myself.

[Marty · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was a well researched and a somewhat unique view of the inquisition and esp its relevance in todays church. Easy reading....except of course the overall topic.

[Eder Ribeiro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deus se torna mais distante qdo vc precisa da mão humana para alcanç-Lo

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ambitious, pointed, concise...everything you could possibly want from a work of history. An effortless read.

[Kathleen McRae · Rating 3 out of 5]

very informative and certainly has not been censored by the church

[Bianca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Voor de leek is het een interessant boek. Voor mensen die de diepte in willen is dit boek echter totaal ongeschikt. Geen fatsoenlijke annotatie en er blijven teveel vragen onbeantwoord.

[Linda · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a load of tosh! A book that covers the Spanish Inquisition in 21 pages and spends more time on the talking about the European witch craft trials, should really reconsider it's title!

[Gianni · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good account of how the Catholic Church used to run the business of religion.