David Rabinovitch

A four-part history of the Inquisition, a 500-year campaign against heretics by the Roman Catholic Church initiated by Pope Gregory IX. The series benefits from the 1998 release of secret Vatican files.

In 1998, the Vatican opened its centuries-old archives of the Inquisition, the longest and most notorious suppression in religious history. Those documents inspired this four-part PBS documentary, which re-creates the true stories of victims. From medieval France to mid-19th-century Europe, the series gathers commentary from an esteemed cadre of experts, including Vatican official Rev. Joseph A. Di Noia and historian David Gitlitz.