Inquisition

The term Inquisition refers to a development in European Christianity (particularly in the Middle [Page 562]Ages) during which both secular authorities and members of the Roman Catholic hierarchy cooperated to suppress heresy and punish heretics. The Inquisition developed within the context of the various cultures with which Christianity came into contact as it spread throughout the western part of the Roman Empire. Beginning as a small and persecuted sect within the Roman Empire, Christianity grew as a result of persuasion by word and example. The role of Christianity changed dramatically in the fourth century as the church began to merge with the state after Constantine legalized Christianity (ca. 314) and, later, Theodosius made it the official religion of the empire (380). The church absorbed much of the Roman legal tradition as well as the customs of Germanic tribes as these formalized during the Middle Ages. The notion of the church as societas perfecta (“perfect society”) served as the sacred canopy under which people lived, recognizing little distinction between the sacred and secular authorities. As a result, challenges to the faith were also seen as grave threats to what was perceived as universal order.

Beginning as early as the 11th century, Catharism and Waldensianism were two early, prominent heretical movements that challenged the societas perfecta and that were variously challenged by ecclesiastical and secular authorities. Drawing on a variety of sources, including Roman law and other legal traditions in the areas of what would become France and England, Alexander III at the Council of Tours in 1163 issued the first general legislation against heresy by the Holy See.

The term inquisition itself comes from the Latin verb inquirere (“to inquire”) and inquisitio, which referred to a legal procedure in classical Roman law. Pope Innocent III (1198–1216) formalized the procedure of the Inquisition by drawing on this Roman legal tradition. Especially important was his decretal Vergentis in senium, issued in 1199, in which he equated heresy with the doctrine of treason in Roman law, arguing that treason against God was a far greater offense than treason against the emperor, which was punishable by death. Those convicted of heresy, he later decreed, were to be turned over to secular authority for punishment. Eventually, torture was ruled to be an acceptable means for extracting confessions. Varying according to place and time, punishment could include excommunication, loss of property, and even death. There was no universal, centrally organized Inquisition; inquisitions took shape in particular places at particular times, extending into France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, and Italy. The brutal Spanish Inquisition is perhaps the most famous, extending as it did to their territory in the Americas. Ferdinand and Isabella, with the approval of Pope Sixtus IV, sought out and persecuted Jewish converts, or conversos, who were the principal target, and later Muslim and eventually Protestant inhabitants of Spain. Both groups were ultimately driven out of Ferdinand's domain. The Spanish Inquisition was not abolished until 1834. The Inquisition started in Italy in 1542 and was formalized in 1588 as the Congregation of the Holy Roman and Universal Inquisition, or Holy Office, in response to the Protestant Reformation and the rise of modern science, famously trying and convicting Galileo Galilei. The Roman Inquisition underwent several modifications over the centuries, most recently in 1965 when Pope Paul VI renamed the office The Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

...