Holy Inquisition

The Holy Inquisition was an institution in the Catholic Church that was created to investigate and eliminate heresy—words and beliefs that contradicted the official doctrine of the Church. The height of the Holy Inquisition lasted between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries as inquisitors—the judges who investigated heresies—interrogated and punished people accused of heresy. While investigations of heresy ended in the nineteenth century, the institution of the Inquisition survived until the twentieth century when it was renamed. Punishments for those accused of heresy varied from wearing robes that indicated heretical beliefs to torture and execution. Theses executions were carried out by civil authorities and not the Catholic Church. The Holy Inquisition is often broken down into the Portuguese, Spanish, and Roman (or Italian) Inquisitions, though investigations took place throughout Europe and in the Americas. Protestants, Jews, and Muslims who converted to Catholicism were some of the major targets of the Inquisition. In the 1990s, the Catholic Church apologized for the actions taken by the Church and the clergy during the Inquisition.

Background

The purposes of the Holy Inquisition was to investigate and eliminate heresy. The word originates from the Latin haeresis, meaning “school of thought.” During the medieval period, the Catholic Church identified specific heresies, or schools of thought, that challenged its teachings. After Emperor Constantine I converted to Christianity in 313 CE and Emperor Theodosius made Christianity the state religion of Rome in 380 CE, the Church began to organize into a more hierarchical structure. Disagreements about doctrine were decided with Church councils, such as the Council of Nicea in 325. Beliefs that strayed from the doctrines decided by these councils were consider heretical. The Church believed that people who spread heresy would eventually weaken the Church by making other believers question or misunderstand Church teachings. To the leaders of the Church, followers who questioned or misunderstood its doctrine would most likely suffer in hell. Therefore, they believed that confronting and ending heresy was an important function of the Church. Before the Holy Inquisition, the Church attempted to stop heresies on an as-needed basis.

In the late twelfth century, a sect called the Cathars claimed to have discovered the one true faith and tried to convert Catholics to their way of thinking. The Catholic Church identified the group as heretical. Pope Lucius III viewed the Cathars as a threat to the Church and asked bishops and clergy from northern France to travel to the Cathars stronghold in southern France. Eventually, the Cathars were exterminated during the Albigensian Crusade, a Papal military effort that led to the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Cathars.

In the thirteenth century, another rogue Christian sect called the Waldensians operated in parts of Italy and France. In 1231, Pope Gregory IX asked a group of Dominican clergy members to track down and punish these heretics. The pope believed that members of the Dominican Order were especially suited for the job because they were used to traveling and teaching as part of their ministry. The pope named the clergy that he appointed Inquisitionis haereticae pravitatis, or Inquisitors of heretical depravity. This appointment of the Dominican clergy marked the beginning of the Holy Inquisition.

Overview

The term inquisition comes from the Latin root word inquirere, which means “investigation.” The Holy Inquisition was an effort to investigate accusations of heresy. Pope Gregory IX issued a decree stating that the punishment for confessed and repentant heretics was life imprisonment, and the punishment for unrepentant heretics was death, although the executions were carried out by civil authorities and not by the Catholic clergy. The life sentences of those convicted were often commuted, with the most common outcomes of a guilty verdict being that the convicted heretic would have to complete an act of penance. One common act of penance was the wearing of a robe adorned with a yellow cross, which signified that the wearer was a heretic. Convicted heretics had to wear the robes outside their clothes at all times when in public. Those who wore the robes were often shunned by others in the community. Families also often had all their possessions and land taken away if a member of the family was convicted of heresy. During the medieval period, those who were executed were usually burned alive at the stake. This form of execution was especially torturous and could take hours. Wealthy individuals or those who had power in the community sometimes were able to persuade the authorities to include fresh, wet wood in the pile. When burned, this wood created a great deal of smoke. Smoke inhalation and asphyxiation were considered less painful than dying by burning.

At the height of the Holy Inquisition, inquisitors traveled throughout Spain, southern France, and other parts of Europe. When they stopped in villages to begin investigations, they talked to local clergy and members of the community in the hope of finding information on any potential heretics in the area. An inquisitor started an investigation by giving the members of the community a period of grace during which they could confess their own heresies and receive a milder punishment. However, after the period of grace ended, the inquisitors tried to find heretics using the accusations of other people. If a person was accused of heresy by at least two witnesses, that person became the target of an investigation. The investigation was supposed to determine whether the person was a heretic, but it relied only on interviews of individuals and not hard evidence. People who were being investigated were often imprisoned during the investigation. The authorities questioned them and sometimes tortured them during the questioning. Torture was a common tactic used at the time to determine whether people were telling the truth. Yet, people would often admit to heresy during torture to make it stop. The Church had specific rules about torture that stated blood could not be drawn, and no children could be subject to torture. Historical records indicate that the clergy mostly followed the rules, but thousands of people were tortured during the process. If a person was found guilty of heresy, and the person was contrite, they would most likely be given penance and allowed to go back to their homes. People who were later found to have gone back to the heretical beliefs were sentenced to death and executed.

By the late thirteenth century, the Holy Inquisition exercised power throughout the lands where Christianity was the main religion. By that time, no more than ten inquisitors were active in all of France, but despite the small number of inquisitors, thousands of the Knights Templar and other French citizens, including Saint Joan of Arc, had been executed for heresy. However, in the late thirteenth, inquisitors in Spain became more active. The Spanish monarchs King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella were devout Catholics, and they believed that Spain was being corrupted by heretics. One group who received much scorn in Spain were the conversos—Catholics who had converted to the faith from Judaism. Many conversos had converted so they could escape judgment and violence. However, when conversos became more powerful in Spain, they drew more criticism. Some Catholic clergy claimed that conversos were still practicing Judaism, which would have been heretical. Ferdinand pushed for an inquisition in Spain in part because the crown could confiscate the conversos’ land and wealth.

Tomas de Torquemada, a Dominican clergyman, further influenced Ferdinand and Isabella to create a tribunal that would officially investigate the Spanish conversos. Torquemada became a Grand Inquisitor and helped run the tribunal. The Spanish inquisitors were infamous because of their investigations and tactics, which included systematic torture and public sentencing events called an auto-da-fé. Some conversos fought back against the Inquisition, including one instance when an inquisitor was stabbed to death by a group of conversos.

The Church realized that the events in Spain had spiraled out of control when Torquemada began investigating members of the clergy. Pope Alexander VI assigned four more inquisitors to share responsibilities with Torquemada and rein in his power. Despite the pope’s actions, the Spanish Inquisition is known as the most violent offshoot of the Holy Inquisition. Because of the events in Spain, many conversos fled to neighboring Portugal. Nevertheless, persecution followed them, with the Portuguese Inquisition beginning in 1536. Some conversos eventually returned to Spain, as the conditions in Portugal were not much better.

The Roman Inquisition is considered the mildest of the inquisitions. It began in 1542 by Pope Paul III. The institution, which was officially called the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition, was meant to combat the spread of Protestantism in Europe in the wake of the Reformation. Although the Roman Inquisition did not result in as many deaths as the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions, it targeted a number of famous scientists. The most famous was Galileo, who was put on trial in 1633. He was convicted of heresy and forced to live the rest of his life under house arrest. He would have most likely faced death if he had not confessed to and repented for heresy.

Although the Holy Inquisition did not investigate and punish heresies with the same vigor after the seventeenth century, the institution remained a part of the Church. In 1826, Cayetano Ripoll, a Spanish schoolmaster, was investigated for teaching principles of deism, the concept that God is a detached part of the natural world, and not the all-powerful being depicted by Church doctrine. Ripoll was found guilty of heresy and was hanged by the Spanish civil authority. He is considered the last victim of the Holy Inquisition.

In 1908, Pope Pius X renamed the Roman Inquisition the Congregation of the Holy Office. Pope Paul VI reorganized the office and later changed its name to the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which is today called the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. As of the twenty-first century, the office still exists, although its modern goal is to protect and spread the beliefs of the Church.

Some Catholics claim that the Holy Inquisition has been misunderstood by the modern world, where it is almost always viewed with negativity. Some Catholics argue that modern media, such as television shows and films, have misrepresented the Inquisition and unfairly influenced people’s perception of it. They claim that media portrayals make the Holy Inquisition seem as though it is a centralized, all-powerful organization acting on behalf of the pope. In reality, individual inquisitors had a great deal of power and influence over individual investigations. Furthermore, civil governments carried out the harshest sentences, as the clergy working on behalf of the Church were not permitted to kill or draw blood. Nevertheless, torture and execution were common during the investigations, and the Church itself has admitted wrongdoing. In 2000, Pope John Paul II asked for forgiveness for numerous offenses and mistakes committed by the Church. Chief among these were the actions of the Holy Inquisition. Then-cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI, stated that some of the actions of the Church were “sins committed in the service of truth.” In addition to apologizing for the Inquisition, the pope also apologized for actions taken during the Crusades, the forced conversion of Native Americans and Africans, and more.

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