The horrid conduct of this Holy Office [Inquisition] weakened the power and diminished the population of Spain by arresting the progress of arts, sciences, industry and commerce, and by compelling multitudes of families to abandon the kingdom; by instigating the expulsion of the Jews and the Moors, and by immolating on its flaming shambles more than three hundred thousand victims.
—Jean Antoine Llorente
Secretary to the Spanish Inquisition, 1790-921
The Inquisition is, in its very nature, good, mild, and preservative. It is the universal, indelible character of every ecclesiastical institution; you see it in Rome, and you can see it wherever the true Church has power.
—Comte Le Maistre, 18152
It would be better to be an atheist than believe in the God of the Inquisition.
—Anonymous Catholic3
RIDES THE BEAST