Inquisition

From the beginning, the Church has sought to expose the heresies of its members, that is to say, the doctrinal errors that it discerns in the words of the faithful. The culprits were often punished by spiritual sanctions. From the twelfth century, in order to put a stop to the arbitrary violence of princes and populations on one hand, and to remedy the heresy of the Cathars and Waldensians on the other hand, the popes decided to implement an inquisitorial procedure (from the Latin inquisitio, enquiry) in the affairs of faith. First delivered to the bishops, the procedure of the Inquisition was entrusted from 1229 to delegates of the pope, usually religious of the mendicant Orders, Dominicans and Franciscans. The inquisitors formed itinerant tribunals who had authority to request the use of the public force of the place where they were located. After receiving denunciations, they summoned suspects to interrogate them in order to understand their real convictions. From 1252, this included the use of torture. The punishments imposed on perpetrators included pilgrimages, distinctive signs, fasts and prayers. They could even be condemned to death by burning. Among the famous victims of the inquisition we find Joan of Arc and Girolamo Savonarola in the fifteenth century, and Galileo at the beginning of the seventeenth century. The Inquisition which developed in Spain from the fifteenth century, was under the close control of the State and not of the Church. In the sixteenth century, the inquisition was reformed by the Roman authorities and centralized as the Holy Office.