The leading motif of Torquemada's monumental history – elaborated by him in many places, especially in the general prologue to the entire work – can be characterised as the merciful action of Divine Providence in choosing the Spanish to liberate the Indians from their subjection to the Devil who had deceived these innocent peoples into practising a religion marred by errors and polluted by abominations such as human sacrifice. On this interpretation the fall of the Aztec monarchy was a Divine chastisement and Spain the rod. But, for all that, Torquemada was sympathetic to the positive achievements of the Indians, and, by situating their history and culture within the framework of the Old Testament and of the former glories of the empires of Egypt, Greece and Rome, he encouraged the educated elite of the Old World to recognise the indigenous nations of the New World as their peers. His history was, of set purpose, a laborious inquiry into the truth of things, requiring (as he says in his general prologue) diligence, maturation, and the exercise of prudence in adjudicating among conflicting testimonies. It was not written as an entertainment or to satisfy mere curiosity, but with a serious didactic purpose and to edify, for he believed that the record of the events of the past constitute not only an antidote to human mortality and the brevity of life, but also a hermeneutic key to understanding the present, thereby offering man an opportunity to progress.