Peter Menzies: In Our New Era of Surveillance, the Inquisition Is Back

Commentary It didn’t take long, once Johannes Gutenberg introduced the printing press, for those threatened by its power to react. Sure, a few eyebrows were raised when, in 1455, Mr. Gutenberg first used his invention to print the Bible, making it more available for people to read and interpret for themselves. But a generation later, after rogue priest Martin Luther stepped out of line with the Roman Catholic church’s orthodoxies and triggered the Reformation, the suppression of ideas that challenged the status quo really got rolling. First came the Roman Inquisition, dedicated to seeking out and destroying heresies such as the Protestant belief that people could form a personal relationship with God: that they didn’t need to work through their priest to ensure the sanctity of their immortal soul and their place in the world to come. Much of the Inquisition’s investigative work focused on Venice, which by the 16th century had established itself as the centre of Europe’s growing publishing industry....