I recently bought this book from a second hand shop as well as being fleeced out of $60 for other books by my 2 grandchildren (well at least they're reading). It was only when I got home I realised it was by Baigent. I am aware he might be a slightly dodgy religion writer. I googled him and wikipedia suggests he might be suspect. Plus I found out, like me he is a New Zealander, born in Nelson. Nelson in case you go on "The Chase" (a quiz show) was made a city in 1858 although it only had a population of 5000 because Queen Vic made it a Bishop's see." The only city in NZ to be thusly made. My general question is what do you make of Baigent and this book if you are familiar with it?
I haven't read it, but I wonder which of the camps it fits into, seeing that modern writing on the Inquisition is largely divided into two camps: One camp thinks it was literally another instance of the holocaust, where millions of people were killed and burned. The other (composed of scholars) points out that it was a distasteful but largely benign institution which over the course of 300-400 years, caused a few thousand people to be persecuted (unjustly we can all agree). So if you have an ax to grind, you will try to equate the 'horrors of Christendom' with the horrors of atheist/secular society, as if people killed equal amounts of people, in all cultures. They didn't, you were lucky to live in a Christian culture and would almost certainly flourish there, whereas you have been quite certain to die in most atheistic/secular cultures of the 20th century.
I don't have any ax axe to grind. As I say I just happened to espy this book in a second hand book shop and the Inquisition looked like an interesting topic. I realise the Inquisition is a polemical and emotional subject which is why I asked about Baigent. And yes I realise Atheist ratbags are just as bad as Christian ratbags.