Concept

Inquisition

Overview

An inquisition was a Catholic judicial procedure in which ecclesiastical judges could initiate, investigate and try cases in their jurisdiction. Popularly, the Inquisition became the name for various medieval and Reformation-era state-organized tribunals whose aim was to combat heresy, apostasy, blasphemy, witchcraft, and customs considered to be deviant, using this judicial procedure. Violence, isolation, certain torture or the threat of its application, have been used by inquisitions to extract confessions and denunciations. Inquisitions with the aim of combatting religious sedition (e.g. apostasy or heresy) had their start in the 12th-century Kingdom of France, 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 banned groups investigated by medieval inquisitions, which primarily took place in France and Italy, include 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.

Inquisitions also expanded to other European countries, resulting in the Spanish Inquisition and the Portuguese Inquisition. The Spanish and Portuguese inquisitions often focused on the New Christians or Conversos (former Jews who converted to Christianity to avoid antisemitic regulations and persecution), the Marranos (people who were forced to abandon Judaism against their will by violence and threats of expulsion), and on the Moriscos (Muslims who had been forced to convert to Catholicism), as a result of suspicions that they had secretly maintained or reverted to their previous religions, as well as the fear of possible rebellions, as had occurred in previous times (such as the First and Second Morisco Rebellions). Spain and Portugal also operated inquisitorial courts not only in Europe, but also throughout their empires: the Goa Inquisition, the Peruvian Inquisition, and the Mexican Inquisition, among others. Inquisitions conducted in the Papal States were known as the Roman Inquisition.

The scope of the inquisitions grew significantly in response to the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation. In 1542, a putative governing institution, the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition was created. With the exception of the Papal States, ecclessiastical inquisition courts were abolished in the early 19th century, after the Napoleonic Wars in Europe and the Spanish American wars of independence in the Americas. The papal institution survived as part of the Roman Curia, although it underwent a series of name and focus changes, now part of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

Possible passages

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And this custom, coming, I suppose, from apostolical tradition (like many other things which are held to have been handed down under their actual sanction, because they are preserved throughout the whole Church, though they are not found either in their letters, or in the Councils of their successors),--this most wholesome custom, I say, according to the holy Cyprian, began to be what is called amended by his…
of Hippo Augustine, Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy
States what Inquisition is; the author is tied to Inquisition in the knowledge graph.
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Think of the fanaticism, of the endless persecutions, the religious wars, that sanguinary frenzy of which the ancients had no idea; then, think of the Crusades, a massacre lasting two hundred years, and perfectly unwarrantable, with its war-cry, _It is God's will_, so that it might get into its possession the grave of one who had preached love and endurance; think of the cruel expulsion and extermination of the…
Arthur Schopenhauer, Essays of Schopenhauer
Names Inquisition twice; opens on Inquisition.
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1. Heretics, all who favor them, and all who read their books. 2. Pirates, especially such as dare to cruise on the seas belonging to the sovereign pontiff. 3. Those who impose fresh tolls on their lands. 10. Those who, in any way whatsoever, prevent the execution of the apostolical letters, whether they grant pardons or inflict penalties. 11. All lay judges who judge ecclesiastics, and bring them before their…
Voltaire, A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 02
States what Inquisition is.
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Philosophers who discussed Inquisition

Joseph Kleutgen

Related ideas

Place in the tradition

Part of Atheism.

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