Inquisition

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This article is about the Inquisition within the Catholic Church. For other uses,
see Inquisition (disambiguation).

A 19th-century depiction of Galileo before the Holy Office, by Joseph-Nicolas

Robert-Fleury
The Inquisition, in historical ecclesiastical terminology also referred to as the
"Holy Inquisition", was a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose
aim was to combat heresy. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming
majority of sentences consisted of penances, but that cases of repeat unrepentant
heretics were handed over to the secular courts, which generally resulted in
execution or a life sentence.[1][2][3] The Inquisition had its start in 12th-
century France, with the aim of combating religious deviation (e.g. apostasy or
heresy), particularly among the Cathars and the Waldensians. The inquisitorial
courts from this time until the mid-15th century are together known as the Medieval
Inquisition. Other groups investigated during the Medieval Inquisition, which
primarily took place in France and Italy, including the Spiritual Franciscans, the
Hussites, and the Beguines. Beginning in the 1250s, inquisitors were generally
chosen from members of the Dominican Order, replacing the earlier practice of using
local clergy as judges.[4]

During the Late Middle Ages and the early Renaissance, the scope of the Inquisition
grew significantly in response to the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic
Counter-Reformation. During this period, the Inquisition conducted by the Holy See
was known as the Roman Inquisition. The Inquisition also expanded to other European
countries,[5] resulting in the Spanish Inquisition and the Portuguese Inquisition.
The Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions focused particularly on the anusim (people
who were forced to abandon Judaism against their will) and on Muslim converts to
Catholicism. The scale of the persecution of converted Muslims and converted Jews
in Spain and Portugal was the result of suspicions that they had secretly reverted
to their previous religions, although both religious minority groups were also more
numerous on the Iberian Peninsula than in other parts of Europe.

During this time, Spain and Portugal operated inquisitorial courts not only in
Europe, but also throughout their empires in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. This
resulted in the Goa Inquisition, the Peruvian Inquisition, and the Mexican
Inquisition, among others.[6]

With the exception of the Papal States, the institution of the Inquisition was
abolished in the early 19th century, after the Napoleonic Wars in Europe and the
Spanish American wars of independence in the Americas. The institution survived as
part of the Roman Curia, but in 1908 it was renamed the Supreme Sacred Congregation
of the Holy Office. In 1965, it became the Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith.[7]

Contents
1 Definition and purpose
2 Origin
3 Medieval Inquisition
4 Early Modern European history
4.1 Witch-trials
4.2 Spanish Inquisition
4.2.1 Inquisition in the Spanish overseas empire
4.3 Portuguese Inquisition
4.3.1 Inquisition in the Portuguese overseas empire
4.3.1.1 Goa Inquisition
4.3.1.2 Brazilian Inquisition
4.4 Roman Inquisition
5 Ending of the Inquisition in the 19th and 20th centuries
6 Statistics
7 Appearance in popular media
8 See also
8.1 Documents and works
8.2 Notable inquisitors
8.3 Notable cases
8.4 Repentance
9 References
10 Bibliography
11 External links
Definition and purpose

Tribunal at the Inquisitor's Palace in Birgu, Malta

The term "Inquisition" comes from the Medieval Latin word inquisitio, which
described any court process based on Roman law, which had gradually come back into
use during the Late Middle Ages.[8] Today, the English term "Inquisition" can apply
to any one of several institutions that worked against heretics (or other offenders
against canon law) within the judicial system of the Roman Catholic Church.
Although the term "Inquisition" is usually applied to ecclesiastical courts of the
Catholic Church, it refers to a judicial process, not an organization. Inquisitors
'...were called such because they applied a judicial technique known as inquisitio,
which could be translated as "inquiry" or "inquest".' In this process, which was
already widely used by secular rulers (Henry II used it extensively in England in
the twelfth century), an official inquirer called for information on a specific
subject from anyone who felt he or she had something to offer."[9]

The Inquisition, as a church-court, had no jurisdiction over Muslims and Jews as

such.[10] Generally, the Inquisition was concerned only with the heretical
behaviour of Catholic adherents or converts.[11]

The overwhelming majority of sentences seem to have consisted of penances like

wearing a cross sewn on one's clothes, going on pilgrimage, etc.[1] When a suspect
was convicted of unrepentant heresy, canon law required the inquisitorial tribunal
to hand the person over to secular authorities for final sentencing. A secular
magistrate, the "secular arm", would then determine the penalty based on local law.
[12][13] Those local laws included proscriptions against certain religious crimes
(heresy, etc.), and the punishments included death by burning, although the penalty
was more usually banishment or imprisonment for life, which was generally commuted
after a few years. Thus the inquisitors generally knew the fate which expected
anyone so remanded.[14]

The 1578 edition of the Directorium Inquisitorum (a standard Inquisitorial manual)

spelled out the purpose of inquisitorial penalties: ... quoniam punitio non
refertur primo & per se in correctionem & bonum eius qui punitur, sed in bonum
publicum ut alij terreantur, & a malis committendis avocentur (translation: "...
for punishment does not take place primarily and per se for the correction and good
of the person punished, but for the public good in order that others may become
terrified and weaned away from the evils they would commit").[15]

Origin
Before 1100, the Catholic Church suppressed what they believed to be heresy,
usually through a system of ecclesiastical proscription or imprisonment, but
without using torture,[5] and seldom resorting to executions.[16][17] Such
punishments were opposed by a number of clergymen and theologians, although some
countries punished heresy with the death penalty.[18][19] Pope Siricius, Ambrose of
Milan, and Martin of Tours protested against the execution of Priscillian, largely
as an undue interference in ecclesiastical discipline by a civil tribunal. Though
widely viewed as a heretic, Priscillian was executed as a sorcerer. Ambrose refused
to give any recognition to Ithacius of Ossonuba, "not wishing to have anything to
do with bishops who had sent heretics to their death".[20]

In the 12th century, to counter the spread of Catharism, prosecution of heretics

became more frequent. The Church charged councils composed of bishops and
archbishops with establishing inquisitions (the Episcopal Inquisition). The first
Inquisition was temporarily established in Languedoc (south of France) in 1184. The
murder of Pope Innocent's papal legate Pierre de Castelnau in 1208 sparked the
Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229). The Inquisition was permanently established in
1229 (Council of Toulouse), run largely by the Dominicans[21] in Rome and later at
Carcassonne in Languedoc.

Medieval Inquisition
Main articles: Medieval Inquisition and Ad extirpanda
Historians use the term "Medieval Inquisition" to describe the various inquisitions
that started around 1184, including the Episcopal Inquisition (1184–1230s) and
later the Papal Inquisition (1230s). These inquisitions responded to large popular
movements throughout Europe considered apostate or heretical to Christianity, in
particular the Cathars in southern France and the Waldensians in both southern
France and northern Italy. Other Inquisitions followed after these first
inquisition movements. The legal basis for some inquisitorial activity came from
Pope Innocent IV's papal bull Ad extirpanda of 1252, which explicitly authorized
(and defined the appropriate circumstances for) the use of torture by the
Inquisition for eliciting confessions from heretics.[22] However, Nicholas
Eymerich, the inquisitor who wrote the "Directorium Inquisitorum", stated:
'Quaestiones sunt fallaces et ineficaces' ("interrogations via torture are
misleading and futile"). By 1256 inquisitors were given absolution if they used
instruments of torture.[23]

In the 13th century, Pope Gregory IX (reigned 1227–1241) assigned the duty of
carrying out inquisitions to the Dominican Order and Franciscan Order. By the end
of the Middle Ages, England and Castile were the only large western nations without
a papal inquisition. Most inquisitors were friars who taught theology and/or law in
the universities. They used inquisitorial procedures, a common legal practice
adapted from the earlier Ancient Roman court procedures.[24] They judged heresy
along with bishops and groups of "assessors" (clergy serving in a role that was
roughly analogous to a jury or legal advisers), using the local authorities to
establish a tribunal and to prosecute heretics. After 1200, a Grand Inquisitor
headed each Inquisition. Grand Inquisitions persisted until the mid 19th century.
[25]

Early Modern European history

With the sharpening of debate and of conflict between the Protestant Reformation
and the Catholic Counter-Reformation, Protestant societies came to see/use the
Inquisition as a terrifying "Other",[26] while staunch Catholics regarded the Holy
Office as a necessary bulwark against the spread of reprehensible heresies.

Witch-trials
See also: Witch trials in the early modern period

Emblem of the Spanish Inquisition (1571)

While belief in witchcraft, and persecutions directed at or excused by it, were
widespread in pre-Christian Europe, and reflected in Germanic law, the influence of
the Church in the early medieval era resulted in the revocation of these laws in
many places, bringing an end to traditional pagan witch hunts.[27] Throughout the
medieval era, mainstream Christian teaching had denied the existence of witches and
witchcraft, condemning it as pagan superstition.[28] However, Christian influence
on popular beliefs in witches and maleficium (harm committed by magic) failed to
entirely eradicate folk belief in witches.

The fierce denunciation and persecution of supposed sorceresses that characterized

the cruel witchhunts of a later age were not generally found in the first thirteen
hundred years of the Christian era.[29] The medieval Church distinguished between
"white" and "black" magic.[citation needed] Local folk practice often mixed chants,
incantations, and prayers to the appropriate patron saint to ward off storms, to
protect cattle, or ensure a good harvest. Bonfires on Midsummer's Eve were intended
to deflect natural catastrophes or the influence of fairies, ghosts, and witches.
Plants, often harvested under particular conditions, were deemed effective in
healing.[30]

Black magic was that which was used for a malevolent purpose. This was generally
dealt with through confession, repentance, and charitable work assigned as penance.
[31] Early Irish canons treated sorcery as a crime to be visited with
excommunication until adequate penance had been performed. In 1258, Pope Alexander
IV ruled that inquisitors should limit their involvement to those cases in which
there was some clear presumption of heretical belief.

The prosecution of witchcraft generally became more prominent in the late medieval
and Renaissance era, perhaps driven partly by the upheavals of the era – the Black
Death, the Hundred Years War, and a gradual cooling of the climate that modern
scientists call the Little Ice Age (between about the 15th and 19th centuries).
Witches were sometimes blamed.[32][33] Since the years of most intense witch-
hunting largely coincide with the age of the Reformation, some historians point to
the influence of the Reformation on the European witch-hunt.[34]

Dominican priest Heinrich Kramer was assistant to the Archbishop of Salzburg. In

1484 Kramer requested that Pope Innocent VIII clarify his authority to prosecute
witchcraft in Germany, where he had been refused assistance by the local
ecclesiastical authorities. They maintained that Kramer could not legally function
in their areas.[35]

The papal bull Summis desiderantes affectibus sought to remedy this jurisdictional
dispute by specifically identifying the dioceses of Mainz, Köln, Trier, Salzburg,
and Bremen.[36] Some scholars view the bull as "clearly political".[37] The bull
failed to ensure that Kramer obtained the support he had hoped for. In fact he was
subsequently expelled from the city of Innsbruck by the local bishop, George
Golzer, who ordered Kramer to stop making false accusations. Golzer described
Kramer as senile in letters written shortly after the incident. This rebuke led
Kramer to write a justification of his views on witchcraft in his 1486 book Malleus
Maleficarum ("Hammer against witches"). In the book, Kramer stated his view that
witchcraft was to blame for bad weather. The book is also noted for its animus
against women.[29] Despite Kramer's claim that the book gained acceptance from the
clergy at the University of Cologne, it was in fact condemned by the clergy at
Cologne for advocating views that violated Catholic doctrine and standard
inquisitorial procedure. In 1538 the Spanish Inquisition cautioned its members not
to believe everything the Malleus said.[38]

Spanish Inquisition
Main articles: Spanish Inquisition and Tomás de Torquemada

Pedro Berruguete, Saint Dominic Guzmán presiding over an Auto da fe (c. 1495).[39]
Many artistic representations falsely depict torture and burning at the stake
during the auto-da-fé (Portuguese for "Act of Faith").[40]
Portugal and Spain in the late Middle Ages consisted largely of multicultural
territories of Muslim and Jewish influence, reconquered from Islamic control, and
the new Christian authorities could not assume that all their subjects would
suddenly become and remain orthodox Roman Catholics. So the Inquisition in Iberia,
in the lands of the Reconquista counties and kingdoms like León, Castile, and
Aragon, had a special socio-political basis as well as more fundamental religious
motives.[40]

In some parts of Spain towards the end of the 14th century, there was a wave of
violent anti-Judaism, encouraged by the preaching of Ferrand Martinez, Archdeacon
of Écija. In the pogroms of June 1391 in Seville, hundreds of Jews were killed, and
the synagogue was completely destroyed. The number of people killed was also high
in other cities, such as Córdoba, Valencia, and Barcelona.[41]

One of the consequences of these pogroms was the mass conversion of thousands of
surviving Jews. Forced baptism was contrary to the law of the Catholic Church, and
theoretically anybody who had been forcibly baptized could legally return to
Judaism. However, this was very narrowly interpreted. Legal definitions of the time
theoretically acknowledged that a forced baptism was not a valid sacrament, but
confined this to cases where it was literally administered by physical force. A
person who had consented to baptism under threat of death or serious injury was
still regarded as a voluntary convert, and accordingly forbidden to revert to
Judaism.[42] After the public violence, many of the converted "felt it safer to
remain in their new religion".[43] Thus, after 1391, a new social group appeared
and were referred to as conversos or New Christians.

King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile established the Spanish
Inquisition in 1478. In contrast to the previous inquisitions, it operated
completely under royal Christian authority, though staffed by clergy and orders,
and independently of the Holy See. It operated in Spain and in most[44] Spanish
colonies and territories, which included the Canary Islands, the Kingdom of Sicily,
[45] and all Spanish possessions in North, Central, and South America. It primarily
focused upon forced converts from Islam (Moriscos, Conversos and secret Moors) and
from Judaism (Conversos, Crypto-Jews and Marranos)—both groups still resided in
Spain after the end of the Islamic control of Spain—who came under suspicion of
either continuing to adhere to their old religion or of having fallen back into it.

In 1492 all Jews who had not converted were expelled from Spain; those who
converted became nominal Catholics and thus subject to the Inquisition.

Inquisition in the Spanish overseas empire

See also: Mexican Inquisition and Peruvian Inquisition
In the Americas, King Philip II set up three tribunals (each formally titled
Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición) in 1569, one in Mexico, Cartagena de
Indias (in modern-day Colombia) and Peru. The Mexican office administered Mexico
(central and southeastern Mexico), Nueva Galicia (northern and western Mexico), the
Audiencias of Guatemala (Guatemala, Chiapas, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua,
Costa Rica), and the Spanish East Indies. The Peruvian Inquisition, based in Lima,
administered all the Spanish territories in South America and Panama.[citation
needed]

Portuguese Inquisition
Main article: Portuguese Inquisition

A copper engraving from 1685: "Die Inquisition in Portugall"

The Portuguese Inquisition formally started in Portugal in 1536 at the request of
King João III. Manuel I had asked Pope Leo X for the installation of the
Inquisition in 1515, but only after his death in 1521 did Pope Paul III acquiesce.
At its head stood a Grande Inquisidor, or General Inquisitor, named by the Pope but
selected by the Crown, and always from within the royal family.[citation needed]
The Portuguese Inquisition principally focused upon the Sephardi Jews, whom the
state forced to convert to Christianity. Spain had expelled its Sephardi population
in 1492; many of these Spanish Jews left Spain for Portugal but eventually were
subject to inquisition there as well.

The Portuguese Inquisition held its first auto-da-fé in 1540. The Portuguese
inquisitors mostly focused upon the Jewish New Christians (i.e. conversos or
marranos). The Portuguese Inquisition expanded its scope of operations from
Portugal to its colonial possessions, including Brazil, Cape Verde, and Goa. In the
colonies, it continued as a religious court, investigating and trying cases of
breaches of the tenets of orthodox Roman Catholicism until 1821. King João III
(reigned 1521–57) extended the activity of the courts to cover censorship,
divination, witchcraft, and bigamy. Originally oriented for a religious action, the
Inquisition exerted an influence over almost every aspect of Portuguese society:
political, cultural, and social.

According to Henry Charles Lea, between 1540 and 1794, tribunals in Lisbon, Porto,
Coimbra, and Évora resulted in the burning of 1,175 persons, the burning of another
633 in effigy, and the penancing of 29,590.[46] But documentation of 15 out of 689
autos-da-fé has disappeared, so these numbers may slightly understate the activity.
[47]

Inquisition in the Portuguese overseas empire

Goa Inquisition
See also: Goa Inquisition
The Goa Inquisition began in 1560 at the order of John III of Portugal. It had
originally been requested in a letter in the 1540s by Jesuit priest Francis Xavier,
because of the New Christians who had arrived in Goa and then reverted to Judaism.
The Goa Inquisition also focused upon Catholic converts from Hinduism or Islam who
were thought to have returned to their original ways. In addition, this inquisition
prosecuted non-converts who broke prohibitions against the public observance of
Hindu or Muslim rites or interfered with Portuguese attempts to convert non-
Christians to Catholicism.[48] Aleixo Dias Falcão and Francisco Marques set it up
in the palace of the Sabaio Adil Khan.

Brazilian Inquisition
The inquisition was active in colonial Brazil. The religious mystic and formerly
enslaved prostitute, Rosa Egipcíaca was arrested, interrogated and imprisoned, both
in the colony and in Lisbon. Egipcíaca was the first black woman in Brazil to write
a book - this work detailed her visions and was entitled Sagrada Teologia do Amor
Divino das Almas Peregrinas.[49]

Roman Inquisition
Main article: Roman Inquisition
With the Protestant Reformation, Catholic authorities became much more ready to
suspect heresy in any new ideas,[50] including those of Renaissance humanism,[51]
previously strongly supported by many at the top of the Church hierarchy. The
extirpation of heretics became a much broader and more complex enterprise,
complicated by the politics of territorial Protestant powers, especially in
northern Europe. The Catholic Church could no longer exercise direct influence in
the politics and justice-systems of lands that officially adopted Protestantism.
Thus war (the French Wars of Religion, the Thirty Years' War), massacre (the St.
Bartholomew's Day massacre) and the missional[52] and propaganda work (by the Sacra
congregatio de propaganda fide)[53] of the Counter-Reformation came to play larger
roles in these circumstances, and the Roman law type of a "judicial" approach to
heresy represented by the Inquisition became less important overall. In 1542 Pope
Paul III established the Congregation of the Holy Office of the Inquisition as a
permanent congregation staffed with cardinals and other officials. It had the tasks
of maintaining and defending the integrity of the faith and of examining and
proscribing errors and false doctrines; it thus became the supervisory body of
local Inquisitions.[54] Arguably the most famous case tried by the Roman
Inquisition was that of Galileo Galilei in 1633.

The penances and sentences for those who confessed or were found guilty were
pronounced together in a public ceremony at the end of all the processes. This was
the sermo generalis or auto-da-fé.[55] Penances (not matters for the civil
authorities) might consist of a pilgrimage, a public scourging, a fine, or the
wearing of a cross. The wearing of two tongues of red or other brightly colored
cloth, sewn onto an outer garment in an "X" pattern, marked those who were under
investigation. The penalties in serious cases were confiscation of property by the
Inquisition or imprisonment. This led to the possibility of false charges to enable
confiscation being made against those over a certain income, particularly rich
marranos. Following the French invasion of 1798, the new authorities sent 3,000
chests containing over 100,000 Inquisition documents to France from Rome.

Ending of the Inquisition in the 19th and 20th centuries

By decree of Napoleon's government in 1797, the Inquisition in Venice was abolished
in 1806.[56]

In Portugal, in the wake of the Liberal Revolution of 1820, the "General

Extraordinary and Constituent Courts of the Portuguese Nation" abolished the
Portuguese inquisition in 1821.

The wars of independence of the former Spanish colonies in the Americas concluded
with the abolition of the Inquisition in every quarter of Hispanic America between
1813 and 1825.

The last execution of the Inquisition was in Spain in 1826.[57] This was the
execution by garroting of the school teacher Cayetano Ripoll for purportedly
teaching Deism in his school.[57] In Spain the practices of the Inquisition were
finally outlawed in 1834.[58]

In Italy, the restoration of the Pope as the ruler of the Papal States in 1814
brought back the Inquisition to the Papal States. It remained active there until
the late-19th century, notably in the well-publicised Mortara affair (1858–1870).
In 1908 the name of the Congregation became "The Sacred Congregation of the Holy
Office", which in 1965 further changed to "Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith", as retained to the present day.

Statistics
Beginning in the 19th century, historians have gradually compiled statistics drawn
from the surviving court records, from which estimates have been calculated by
adjusting the recorded number of convictions by the average rate of document loss
for each time period. Gustav Henningsen and Jaime Contreras studied the records of
the Spanish Inquisition, which list 44,674 cases of which 826 resulted in
executions in person and 778 in effigy (i.e. a straw dummy was burned in place of
the person).[59] William Monter estimated there were 1000 executions between 1530–
1630 and 250 between 1630 and 1730.[60] Jean-Pierre Dedieu studied the records of
Toledo's tribunal, which put 12,000 people on trial.[61] For the period prior to
1530, Henry Kamen estimated there were about 2,000 executions in all of Spain's
tribunals.[62] Italian Renaissance history professor and Inquisition expert Carlo
Ginzburg had his doubts about using statistics to reach a judgment about the
period. "In many cases, we don't have the evidence, the evidence has been lost,"
said Ginzburg.[63]