I rated this as high as 7 because it does cover a lot of ground in its brief 90 or so minutes.
For more in-depth look, with slightly less bias, consider the miniseries "Secret Files of the Inquisition" (2006).
Back to this episode. It covers (briefly) some things the miniseries does not, such as the Inquisition in Portugal, Joan of Arc, and even some material from America (although not truly Inquisition, since it was determined that the native inhabitants did not have the capacity to convert).
One thing that bothered me was that (except for one terse statement at the end) every act had to be justified or minimized by one or another speaker. Sure, the Catholic Church sent thousands of people to their deaths, but they didn't actually kill them personally. Or government authorities (they use the term "secular" forgetting that church and state were not separate) killed more people for their own reasons. Or the Catholic Church didn't cause as many people to be killed as initially thought. They actually go so far as to suggest that some people DID deserve to be burned at the stake for heresy, and others were mistakenly caught up in it. People who think this way are dangerously nuts and need padded living quarters, if you ask me.
The final pathetic attempt to make it all look OK is to include at the end a video sampling of other crimes against humanity, including Hitler, but they fail to mention that Hitler was Catholic, by his own words, and the Vatican sent representatives annually to celebrate his birthday (even today he has not been excommunicated). In a way, the Holocaust was an expansion of the Inquisition, under different management.
So, if you watch it, I think you'll learn things maybe you didn't know before. Just keep a bucket handy in case you need to throw up from all the attempts to justify the burning of living human beings.
For more in-depth look, with slightly less bias, consider the miniseries "Secret Files of the Inquisition" (2006).
Back to this episode. It covers (briefly) some things the miniseries does not, such as the Inquisition in Portugal, Joan of Arc, and even some material from America (although not truly Inquisition, since it was determined that the native inhabitants did not have the capacity to convert).
One thing that bothered me was that (except for one terse statement at the end) every act had to be justified or minimized by one or another speaker. Sure, the Catholic Church sent thousands of people to their deaths, but they didn't actually kill them personally. Or government authorities (they use the term "secular" forgetting that church and state were not separate) killed more people for their own reasons. Or the Catholic Church didn't cause as many people to be killed as initially thought. They actually go so far as to suggest that some people DID deserve to be burned at the stake for heresy, and others were mistakenly caught up in it. People who think this way are dangerously nuts and need padded living quarters, if you ask me.
The final pathetic attempt to make it all look OK is to include at the end a video sampling of other crimes against humanity, including Hitler, but they fail to mention that Hitler was Catholic, by his own words, and the Vatican sent representatives annually to celebrate his birthday (even today he has not been excommunicated). In a way, the Holocaust was an expansion of the Inquisition, under different management.
So, if you watch it, I think you'll learn things maybe you didn't know before. Just keep a bucket handy in case you need to throw up from all the attempts to justify the burning of living human beings.
