As to the total whitewash within the above concerning the Inquisition, there is a book which tells quite a different story, though I'd bet that in the world of apologetic, there is bound to be some web page somewhere with an in-depth pack 'o lies ad hominem attack against the author D. Juan Antonio LLorente
Available in Google books;
Go read that and get back to us.
Even the "insistence of popes" finally putting an end to it, is overall misleading, as it neglects large portions of the history of it all (only about 1500 years all told).
In the book one can indeed find that popes at various times tried to reign in the worst of the abuses, but even those changes if enacted would still have left many to be burned alive at the stake, starved to death in some cases, tortured in many others.
The details are chilling, but not simply for the results. The methodology of accusation and trial was a great injustice. The author outlines how such came to be, how it grew, and how it finally ended.
I dare say I find the same "spirit" that brought us that horror, still lurking in the shadows of the "Catholic mind". We have seen on these pages previously, not only the horrors of it all excused, when those things could not be fully minimized or explained away, but from some of those same apologists has been expressed the desire to resume the proceedings.
The denials we find today, are exceedingly weak, and believed seemingly only by the RCC faithful whom cannot face the truth concerning those dark centuries of ignorance & fear which had such a nightmarish grip on the minds of people, and was such a real terror among them, for so many centuries. All done in the name of God, in the name of Jesus Christ.
It was the devils work, plain and simple. For those who cannot see that, there is little hope for understanding.
Simple. There is the universal Catholic Church anchored in sacred scripture, tradition, and revelation and the rest is all manure as history has shown.