Torquemada, the dour Dominican Friar, was responsible for one of the cruellest examples of religious persecution the world has ever known. Driven by his own warped genius, and against the express wishes of his king and queen, he single-handedly engineered torture and fear to a staggering degree. For Torquemada was the original President of the Spanish Inquisition. All you might ever want to know about Torquemada is here, the background to his inquisition, many extracts from trials conducted by Torquemada and a fair handed assessment of this bloody period of persecution in Spain. Unlike many sources on the Spanish Inquisition, Sabatini doesn't seem to have any particular axe to grind and therefore his book is much more objective and factual than others I've come across. (Goodreads)