Remembering that only a few years ago men, women, and even children, were imprisoned, tortured and burned, for having expressed in an exceedingly mild and gentle way, the ideas entertained by me, I congratulate myself that calumny is now the pulpit’s last resort. The old instruments of torture are kept only to gratify curiosity; the chains are rusting away, and the demolition of time has allowed even the dungeons of the Inquisition to be visited by light. The church, impotent and malicious, regrets, not the abuse, but the loss of her power, and seeks to hold by falsehood what she gained by cruelty and force, by fire and fear. Christianity cannot live in peace with any other form of faith. If that religion be true, there is but one savior, one inspired book, and but one little narrow grass-grown path that leads to heaven. Such a religion is necessarily uncompromising, unreasoning, aggressive and insolent. Christianity has held all other creeds and forms in infinite contempt, divided the world into enemies and friends, and verified the awful declaration of its founder – a declaration that wet with blood the sword he came to bring, and made the horizon of a thousand years lurid with the fagots’ flames. Robert G Ingersoll, Some Mistakes of Moses
To be fair to the Inquisition, they only used confessions extracted after the torture had ended, which let them claim that admissions had been freely given; the fact that the torture would have started again if they hadn’t confessed was a minor detail. Simon Hoggart
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! Monty Python s2e2: The Spanish Inquisition, BBC 1970
In an attempt to rout out the pagan idols and their heretical ringleaders, [Manuel] de Landa unleashed a new weapon here in Yucatan – the Inquisition. Thousands of Mayans were systematically bounded up and tortured. Kwame Kwei-Armah, Christianity: A History: Dark Continents, Channel 4 2009
Lamport and Pinto make good their escape. Lamport uses his escape to broadcast corruption at the heart of the Inquisition. Mystery Files: Zorro, National Geographic 2011
His name was Galileo Galilei and he would come face to face with the most terrifying weapon of the age – the Roman Inquisition. Empires Special: Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance IV: Power v Truth, PBS 2004
The Inquisition was set up to enforce the doctrines of the Church. Simon Sebag Montefiore, Rome: A History of the Eternal City III: The Rebirth of God’s City, BBC 2012