In this work, great Britain's prison administrator, Arthur Griffiths, claimed that Spain has been slow in the progress of prison reform. He separated fact from fiction, explaining in simple terms the country's nearly hesitant progress towards a modern penal system.

This book contains the whole text of an Inquisition trial of a Morisco (converted Muslim) of Toledo, Spain, condemned to burn at the stake. It is preceded by an introduction which studies the trial and shows the multifaceted aspects of the text and its protagonists.