No one defends the Spanish Inquisition — except this guy

Guest Post by Morbo

Under Republican rule, the quality of “experts” testifying at Congressional hearings has definitely taken a dive.

Case in point: On Wednesday the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights heard testimony on the Federal Marriage Amendment. One of the witnesses, who was called by Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), was Gerard Bradley, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame.

So far so good. It’s not unexpected that a conservative law prof at a prominent Catholic university would favor this amendment. Ho hum.

What makes Bradley interesting is that he once wrote an article defending the Inquisition — kind of. It’s called “One Cheer for Inquisitions” and it ran on a website called Catholic.net.

Bradley’s argument is somewhat obtuse, but he seems to be asserting that there was not one Inquisition and that the idea of a single, powerful Inquisition that ravaged Europe has been deliberately conjured up by people to — get ready — provide ammunition for the idea that church and state should be separate.