A brief history of the Inquisition -- THE BEGINNING OF THE INQUISITION: The rise of heresies in the Middle Ages / Walter L. Wakefield -- The Cathar Heresy and the Albigensian Crusade / Bernard Hamilton -- The formation of the Inquisition against the Cathars / Jacques Madaule -- The spread of the Inquisition / Arthur S. Turberville -- TRIALS AND PUNISHMENTS: The procedure of the Inquisition / Zoe Oldenbourg -- Extracting confessions / Alexander G. Cardew -- The Inquisitional manuals / James B. Given -- The minor penalties / A. L. Maycock -- The confiscation policy / John A. O'Brien --Execution / Henry Charles Lea -- THE SPANISH INQUISITION: The origins of the Spanish Inquisition / Edwards Peters -- Thomas de Torquemada: the architect of the Spanish Inquisition / Thomas Hope -- The spectacle of the auto de fe / Miguel Aviles -- The expulsion of the Jews from Spain / Jane S. Gerber -- The spread of the Spanish Inquisition to the new world / Seymour B. Liebman -- THE AFTERMATH OF THE SPANISH INQUISTION: The harm to the Spanish economy / John Lynch -- The decline in intellectual achievement and scholarship / Cecil Roth -- The role of the Inquisition in Spain's decline has been exaggerated / Henry Kamen -- Christopher Columbus and the Spanish Jews / Jane Frances Amler -- The survival of the Conversas / Joachim Prinz -- THE INQUISITION'S GRADUAL END: The collapse of the Spanish Inquisition / Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh -- The impact of Anti-Inquisition propaganda / Henry Kamen -- The failure of the Mexican Inquisition among the native peoples / J. Jorge Klor de Alva -- The return of the Jews to Spain / Simon Wiesenthal.