INQUISITION

in Roman Catholicism, a papal judicial institution that combatted heresy and such things as alchemy, witchcraft, and sorcery and wielded considerable power in medieval and early modern times. The name is derived from the Latin verb inquiro (inquire into), which emphasizes the fact that the inquisitors did not wait for complaints but sought out heretics and other offenders. After the Roman Church had consolidated its power in the early Middle Ages, heretics came to be looked upon as enemies of society. With the appearance of large-scale heresies in the 11th and 12th centuriesnotably among the Cathari and WaldensesPope Gregory IX in 1231 instituted the papal Inquisition for the apprehension and trial of heretics. The inquisitorial procedure was quite detailed; but, in general terms, it gave a person suspected of heresy time to confess and absolve himself, and, failing this, the accused was haled before the inquisitor and interrogated and tried, with the testimony of witnesses. The use of torture to obtain confessions and the names of other heretics was at first rejected but was authorized in 1252 by Innocent IV. On admission or conviction of guilt, a person could be sentenced publicly to any of a wide variety of penalties, ranging from simple prayer and fasting to confiscation of property and imprisonment, even life imprisonment. Condemned heretics who refused to recant, as well as those who relapsed after condemnation and repentance, were turned over to the secular arm, which alone could impose the death penalty. The medieval Inquisition functioned only in a limited way in northern Europe; it was most employed in northern Italy and southern France. During the Reconquista in Spain, the Catholic powers used it only occasionally; but, after the Muslims had been driven out, the Catholic monarchs of Aragon and Castile determined to enforce religious and political unity and requested a special institution to combat apostate former Jews and Muslims as well as such heretics as the Alumbrados. Thus in 1478 Pope Sixtus IV authorized the Spanish Inquisition. The first Spanish inquisitors, operating in Seville, proved so severe that Sixtus IV had to interfere. But the Spanish crown now had in its possession a weapon too precious to give up, and the efforts of the Pope to limit the powers of the Inquisition were without avail. In 1483 he was induced to authorize the naming by the Spanish government of a grand inquisitor for Castile, and during the same year Aragon, Valencia, and Catalonia were placed under the power of the Inquisition. The first grand inquisitor was the Dominican Toms de Torquemada, who has become the symbol of the inquisitor who uses torture and confiscation to terrorize his victims. The number of burnings at the stake during his tenure has been exaggerated, but it was probably about 2,000. In general, the procedure of the Spanish Inquisition was much like the medieval Inquisition. The auto-da-f, the public ceremony at which sentences were pronounced, became an elaborate celebration. Under the inquisitor general and his supreme council were 14 local tribunals in Spain and several in the colonies, including those in Mexico and Peru. The Spanish Inquisition was introduced into Sicily in 1517, but efforts to set it up in Naples and Milan failed. The emperor Charles V in 1522 introduced it into the Netherlands, where its efforts to wipe out Protestantism were unsuccessful. The Inquisition in Spain was suppressed by Joseph Bonaparte in 1808, restored by Ferdinand VII in 1814, suppressed in 1820, restored in 1823, and finally suppressed in 1834. A third variety of the Inquisition was the Roman Inquisition, established in 1542 by Pope Paul III to combat Protestantism. It was governed by a commission of six cardinals, the Congregation of the Inquisition, which was thoroughly independent and much freer from episcopal control than the medieval Inquisition had been. Its establishment has been seen by some as an attempt to counterbalance the severe Spanish Inquisition at a time when a great part of Italy was under Spanish rule. Under Paul III (153449) and Julius III (155055), the action of the Roman Inquisition was not rigorous, and Julius ruled that, although the tribunal had general authority, its action should be limited especially to Italy. The moderation of these popes was imitated by their successors with the exceptions of Paul IV (155559) and Pius V (156672). Under Paul IV the Inquisition functioned in such a way that it alienated nearly all parties. Although Pius V (a Dominican and himself formerly grand inquisitor) avoided the worst excesses of Paul IV, he nevertheless declared at the beginning of his reign that questions of faith took precedence over all other business and made it clear that his first care would be to see that heresy, false doctrine, and error were suppressed. He took part in many of the activities of the Inquisition. After Protestantism had been eliminated as a serious danger to Italian religious unity, the Roman Inquisition became more and more an ordinary organ of papal government concerned with maintaining good order and good customs as well as purity of faith among Catholics. In his reorganization of the Roman Curia in 1908, Pius X dropped the word Inquisition, and the congregation charged with maintaining purity of faith came to be known officially as the Holy Office. In 1965 Pope Paul VI reorganized the congregation along more democratic lines and renamed it the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.