Inquisition

The Inquisition was the legal agent of the Roman Catholic Church against heresy in the Middle Ages. Its full name was the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (Latin: Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide) of the Catholic Church.

Pedro Berruguete, Saint Dominic Presides over an Auto da Fe (c. 1495) (Portuguese for "Act of Faith").^[1]

The word Inquisition comes from the Latin word quaerere, which means to turn or to ask a question.

Purposes

The Inquisition issued a list of banned books called The Index. The Church had decided these books contained heresy and forbade the faithful to read them. The Inquisition also prosecuted individuals who were accused of heresy.

Later versions of the Inquisition had the power to use torture (or the threat of torture) to get confessions and force people to convert to Catholicism. It also had the power to order executions, which civil authorities carried out. Usually heretics were burned alive or strangled in public.

History

The Inquisition developed in stages. The first permanent Inquisition was established in Rome in 1229. It was run by the Dominican Order.^[2]

In 1478, Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile set up the Spanish Inquisition. It played an important role in European history.

The burning of heretics at stakes (auto-da-fé) in a marketplace during the Spanish Inquisition.

In 1542 Pope Paul III established the Congregation of the Holy Office of the Inquisition as a tribunal staffed with cardinals and other officials. This version supervised the local Inquisitions in other countries, and also investigated important cases from Italy. The most famous person it tried was Galileo Galilei in 1633.

Related pages

• Antisemitism
• Spanish Inquisition
• Index Librorum Prohibitorum