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To: Alamo-Girl

You wrote:

“The low estimate for all inquisitions from line 36 is 251,000 - middle estimate is 350,000 and the high is 477,000.”

And yet the correct number is less than 15,000. That is simply a fact according to all reputable historians who actually examined the original sources.

“The sources are given on the right hand side.”

None of them are original sources and many of them have no reputable attribution for where they are getting their numbers. There has been a ton of records on the inquisition published in the last century and he’s relying on works by people like Lecky (died around 1900) and Durant (who was publishing in the 1950s) and other who are also simply not reputable scholars?

“Rummel is the most exhaustive researcher known to me in all areas of government sanctioned murder.”

That probably means you haven’t examined better works or authors. What about Laffont? Have you even heard of him? The simple fact is that Rummel was a political scientist pushing an agenda - one I often agree with by the way - and not a careful historian. He simply looked for numbers, the bigger the better. That’s what worked for his theories.

“If you have better sources than the ones he used, I’m certain he would appreciate your contacting him.”

Peters, Kamen, Rawlings and many others are better historians now than Rummel ever will be. Besides, Rummel is retired, almost 79 years old. Most likely the closest he’ll get to publishing historical works will be a follow up to his “alternative history” novels which he gives away for free on the internet.


2,713 posted on 09/10/2011 10:03:47 PM PDT by vladimir998
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To: vladimir998; CynicalBear
Rummel includes 114,401 who were starved or tortured to death while waiting in prison. His theory of democide includes all such indirect deaths not just the ones who were directly murdered - or in this case, burned.

The holocaust numbers, for instance, would include people who died in the death camps due to the poor conditions, starvation, etc.

The inquisition was brutal and should not be dismissed with a hand wave.

Send your source information to Rummel.


2,714 posted on 09/10/2011 10:13:13 PM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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To: vladimir998; Alamo-Girl
One of the interesting sub-fields of the study of inquisitions is the study of how the slanders got started, spread, and accepted. My doctoral student friend doesn't know, since he's focussed on the actual Spanish Inquisition.

The conjectures seem to focus on the Spanish/English strife of the 15th and following centuries, and Protestant northern Europe's understandable desire to paint Catholic Spain in the most damaging light.

2,740 posted on 09/11/2011 4:11:55 AM PDT by Mad Dawg (Oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.)
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