Inquisition of the Spanish Dependencies (1908)

The scope of Mr. Lea’s history of the Spanish inquisition precluded a detailed investigation into the careers of individual tribunals. Such an investigation, however, is not without interest, especially with respect to the outlying ones, which were subjected to varying influences and reacted in various ways on the peoples among whom they were established. Moreover, in some cases, this affords us an inside view of inquisitorial life, of the characters of those to whom were confided the awful irresponsible powers of the Holy Office and of the abuse of those powers by officials whom distance removed from the immediate supervision of the central authority, suggesting a capacity for evil even greater than that manifested in the peninsula. Found within is the record of the inquisition in Sicily, Naples, Sardinia, Milan, the Canaries, Mexico, Peru, and New Granada.