Not the Way to Love One Another

◆ Introducing the first book of her trilogy on the Spanish Inquisition, Jean Plaidy writes, “It is important, I submit, to remember that Christianity and the Church do not always walk in step. In fact, the simple doctrines, founded on the teachings of Jesus Christ, have too rarely been followed. They are too simple to appeal to men who love power and wealth—but mostly power—and how can men acquire power by following the doctrines of Christ? What temporal glory could they find in taking staff and scrip, divesting themselves of their worldly goods, and going forth to preach the simple doctrine: ‘Love one another’?”

“Where in such a life were to be found the pomp and splendour, the ceremonial robes, the swaying censer, the fat incomes and the splendid palaces? Yet these were the signs of rank and importance necessary to induce that hypnotic state in which men might worship themselves whilst feigning to worship God.”

“Thousands were submitted to the cruellest torture these men could devise; the flesh of their victims was torn with red hot pincers, and molten lead poured into the wounds; many suffered the agonies of the hoist and the water torture; some were racked to death; some were burned at the stake; every means of dealing pain and indignity to the human body was explored; and all this was done in the name of One who had commanded his followers to love one another.”—The Rise of the Spanish Inquisition (Published by Robert Hale Limited, London, in 1959. It was followed by The Growth of the Spanish Inquisition and The End of the Spanish Inquisition.).