A Lesson from the Inquisition

I have been reading Dogs of God: Columbus, the Inquisition, and the Defeat of the Moors by James Reston, Jr. Among other aspects of Spanish history at the end of the 15th century, it discusses the Spanish Inquisition. Notably, there was a manual for the inquisitors, which limited the use of torture and prohibited the spilling of blood (but not killing the condemned). The book makes clear that the inquisitors were not seeking information so much as confessions (where the right lies were more useful than the wrong truth) and implications of others as heretics. It also makes the reasonable case that the torture that was pervasive in the Inquisition was motivated largely by venal motives, such as sadism, ethnic prejudice and greed (for the worldly goods of those condemned).

Perhaps we should review that experience and reconsider the Bush administration's policies on the use of coercive means of interrogation.