Lyrics:

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Spanish Inquisition, the defenders of
medieval orthodoxy. The word ‘Inquisition’ has its roots in the Latin word
'inquisito' which means inquiry. The Romans used the inquisitorial
process as a form of legal procedure employed in the search for evidence.
Once Rome's religion changed to Christianity under Constantine, it
retained the inquisitorial trial method but also developed brutal means of
dealing with heretics who went against the doctrines of the new religion.
Efforts to suppress religious freedom were initially ad hoc until the
establishment of an Office of Inquisition in the Middle Ages, founded in
response to the growing Catharist heresy in South West France. The
Spanish Inquisition set up in 1478 surpassed all Inquisitorial activity that
had preceded it in terms of its reach and length. For 350 years under
Papal Decree, Jews, then Muslims and Protestants were put through the
Inquisitional Court and condemned to torture, imprisonment, exile and
death. How did the early origins of the Inquisition in Medieval Europe
spread to Spain? What were the motivations behind the systematic
persecution of Jews, Muslims and Protestants? And what finally brought
about an end to the Spanish Inquisition 350 years after it had first been
decreed? With John Edwards, Research Fellow in Spanish at the University
of Oxford; Alexander Murray, Emeritus Fellow in History at University
College, Oxford;Michael Alpert, Emeritus Professor in Modern and
Contemporary History of Spain at the University of Westminster