[Transcriber's Note: This project uses utf-8 encoded characters. If some characters are not readable, check your settings of your browser to ensure you have a default font installed that can display utf-8 characters. Characters preceded by a caret {^} are superscript. If more than one character is superscript, characters will be enclosed in curly braces. Italics delimited by underscores.] TORQUEMADA _UNIFORM CHEAPER EDITIONS OF_ RAFAEL SABATINI’S _WONDERFUL ROMANCES_ _In Crown 8vo, Cloth, Coloured Wrappers, 3s. 6d. net each._ THE STROLLING SAINT “No man writes historical romances so well as Mr. Sabatini.”--_Pall Mall Gazelle._ THE LION’S SKIN “A brilliantly clever story.”--_Evening Standard._ THE JUSTICE OF THE DUKE “Wonderfully effective.”--_Westminster Gazette._ BARDELYS THE MAGNIFICENT “Mr. Sabatini has no equal.”--_Newcastle Daily Chronicle._ THE GATES OF DOOM “A clever story, well and amusingly told.”--_The Times._ _HISTORIES_ TORQUEMADA AND THE SPANISH INQUISITION _Demy 8vo, 12s. 6d. net._ “Not only an extremely graphic and fascinating account of the Inquisition, but also a serious contribution to the literature of the subject. Holds us until the last page is turned of a book full of enthralling interest.”--_Pall Mall Gazette._ THE LIFE OF CESARE BORGIA _Demy 8vo, 12s. 6d. net._ “Mr. Sabatini has a lively and vigorous style.... As entertaining as it is informing.”--_Daily Telegraph._ LONDON: STANLEY PAUL & CO [Illustration: _Photo by Lacoste._ FREY TOMÁS DE TORQUEMADA. From a Painting attributed to Miguel Zittoz. [_Frontispiece._] TORQUEMADA AND THE SPANISH INQUISITION A HISTORY BY RAFAEL SABATINI _Author of “The Life of Cesare Borgia,” “The Strolling Saint,” etc._ ‘El fuego está encendido; quemará fasta que falle cabo al seco de la leña’ ANDRÉS BERNALDEZ, _Historia de los Reyes Católicos, cap._ XIV. _With Sixteen Illustrations in Half-tone, including a Map_ LONDON STANLEY PAUL & CO 8 ENDSLEIGH GARDENS UPPER WOBURN PLACE, W.C.1 _Printed in Great Britain by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury._ PREFACE The history of Frey Tómas de Torquemada is the history of the establishment of the Modern Inquisition. It is not so much the history of a man as of an abstract genius presiding over a gigantic and cruel engine of its own perfecting. Of this engine we may examine for ourselves to-day the details of the complex machinery. Through the records that survive we may observe its cold, smooth action, and trace in this the awful intelligence of its architect. But of that architect himself we are permitted to catch no more than an occasional and fleeting glimpse. It is only in the rarest and briefest moments that he stands clearly before us, revealed as a man of flesh and blood.