God's Jury
The Inquisition and the Making of the Modern World

Murray's book is a brief, impressionistic survey of the various Inquisitions pursued by the Catholic Church: the Medieval (mid-13th century to roughly the mid-14th)), the Spanish (late 15th Century to mid-19th), and the Roman (mid-sixteenth century to the present). The Medieval was waged against the......more

Persecution is old as man, but as Cullen Murphy notes what distinguishes Inquisitions are communications, bureaucracy, and singled-mindedness. With this as his guiding principle, Murphy weaves an entangled history of the Medieval, Spanish, and Roman Inquisition that demonstrates how the mindset and......more

Excellent overview of the history of the Inquisition and the parallels to modern inquisitions and government security apparatus. An enlightening read for historical context on the development of bureaucracy, institutionalized torture, censorship, surveillance and the modern world. 4/5 stars.......more

I went into the book expecting to read about the Spanish Inquisition. Like most people I don't know a great deal about the actual Inquisition, but I do have a great many references from popular sources. This book isn't about the Spanish Inquisition though, or more to the point it is about so much mo......more

This is an exceptional and important vision of the Inquisition that illustrates the relationship between the justifications being offered for torture in the modern United States. What is so appalling, is that the Spanish Inquisition, after its initial fury under Tomas Torquemada, became significantl......more