“New Vatican Study Sets the Record Straight” (June 27-July 3), regarding a reappraisal of the Inquisition, is good news indeed.
Your readers may be interested to know that the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) produced a scholarly TV documentary, “The Myth of the Spanish Inquisition,” in 1994. The findings of the historians featured in the documentary appear to support the conclusions of the Vatican's six-year study mentioned in the Register article, i.e., that the Spanish Inquisition's alleged barbarities have been grossly exaggerated by contemporary Protestants.
The fact that the Inquisition is still regarded as synonymous with fiendish cruelty is evidence of one of the most successful smear campaigns in history.
Given the BBC's anti-Catholic bias, its 1994 documentary may well have been something of an aberration. I have a hunch that its producer was severely reprimanded, because seven years later, the BBC returned to form with yet another Inquisition documentary - this one unequalled for its mean-spirited bigotry.
KEVIN TIGHE
Los Angeles