The Pit and the Pendulum The Pit and the Pendulum "The Pit and the Pendulum" is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe and first published in 1842 in the literary annual "The Gift: A Christmas and New Year's Present for 1843". The story is about the torments endured by a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition, though Poe skews historical facts. The narrator of the story describes his experience of being tortured. The story is especially effective at inspiring fear in the reader because of its heavy focus on the senses, such as sound, emphasizing its reality, unlike many of Poe's stories which are
Black Legend of the Spanish Inquisition violation of natural law. Del Corro supported the initial purpose of the Inquisition which was to persecute false converts and he had not foreseen that his book would be used to support the Black Legend in a similar manner to that of Bartolomé de las Casas. He was convinced that the Dominican friars had converted the Inquisition into something execrable, that Philip II was not aware of the true proceedings and that the Spanish people were opposed to the sinister organization. Spanish Bourbons brought French absolutism and centralization to a largely decentralized and relatively liberal nation. The reaction was one