Inquisition

I

Introduction

Inquisition, judicial institution, established by the papacy in the Middle Ages, charged with seeking out, trying, and sentencing people guilty of heresy. In the early Church the usual penalty for heresy was excommunication. With the establishment of Christianity as the state religion by the Roman emperors in the 4th century, heretics came to be considered enemies of the state, especially when violence and the disturbance of public order were involved. St Augustine gave a somewhat reluctant approval to action by the state against heretics, but the Church generally disapproved of coercion and physical penalties.

II

Origins

During the 12th century opinion began to change, in reaction to a resurgence of heresy in an organized form, especially the Albigenses of southern France. Albigensian doctrine and practice seemed destructive of matrimony and other institutions of society, and after less vigorous efforts by his predecessors, Pope Innocent III organized a Crusade against the group. He issued punitive legislation against them and sent preachers to the area. The various efforts to control heresy were, however, still uncoordinated and relatively ineffective.

The Inquisition properly so called did not come into existence until 1231, with the constitution Excommunicamus of Pope Gregory IX. By his action the pope lessened the bishops' responsibility for orthodoxy, placed inquisitors under the special jurisdiction of the papacy, and established severe penalties. The office of inquisitor was entrusted almost exclusively to the Franciscans and, especially, the Dominicans, because of their superior training in theology and their supposed freedom from worldly ambition. In putting the prosecution of heretics under papal direction, Gregory IX acted at least in part out of fear that Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II intended to pursue the task himself and turn it to political purposes. Restricted at first to Germany and Aragón, the new institution was soon extended in effect to the whole Church, although it functioned not at all, or in an extremely limited way, in many parts of Europe.

Two inquisitors with equal authority—bestowed directly by the pope—were in charge of each tribunal, aided by assistants, notaries, police, and counsellors. Because they could excommunicate even princes, the inquisitors were formidable figures. Under these circumstances it is surprising that among their contemporaries the inquisitors generally had a reputation for justice and mercy. Some, nevertheless, were accused of excessive cruelty and other abuses.

III

Procedures

The inquisitors established themselves for a definite period of weeks or months at some central place, from which they issued orders demanding that all guilty of heresy present themselves. The inquisitors could themselves bring suit against any suspect person. Lesser penalties were imposed on those who came forward and confessed their heresy than on those who had to be tried and convicted. A period of grace of about a month was allowed for this spontaneous confession; after that, the actual trials began.

If the inquisitors decided to try a person suspected of heresy, the suspect's pastor delivered the summons. Inquisitorial police sought out those people who refused to obey a summons, and the right of asylum did not apply to heretics. The accused were given a statement of charges against them. For some years the names of accusers were withheld from suspects, but Pope Boniface VIII abrogated that practice. The accused were compelled under oath, however, to answer all charges against them, thus becoming their own accusers. The testimony of two witnesses was generally considered proof of guilt.

The inquisitors usually had a kind of jury, composed of both clergy and laity, to assist them in arriving at a verdict. They were permitted to imprison suspects who were thought to be lying. In 1252 Pope Innocent IV, under the influence of the revival of Roman law, officially sanctioned the use of torture to extract the truth from suspects. Until then, this procedure was alien to the canonical tradition.

The penances and sentences for those who confessed or were found guilty were pronounced together in a public ceremony at the end of all the processes. This was the sermo generalis or auto-da-fé. Penances might consist of a pilgrimage, a public scourging, a fine, or the wearing of a cross. The wearing of two tongues of red cloth, sewn on to an outer garment, marked those who had made false accusations. The penalties in serious cases were confiscation of property or imprisonment. The most severe penalty the inquisitors could themselves impose was life imprisonment. Thus, when the inquisitors handed a guilty person over to civil authorities, it was tantamount to a demand for that person's execution.

Although the Inquisition in the beginning directed most attention to the Albigenses and, to a lesser degree, the Waldenses, it later extended its activities to other heterodox groups, such as the Fraticelli, and then to witches and diviners. Once the Albigenses were under control, however, the pace of the Inquisition decidedly slackened, and in the late 14th and 15th centuries relatively little was heard of it. In the later Middle Ages, however, secular princes employed a pattern of repression corresponding to the Inquisition.

IV

The Holy Office

Alarmed by the spread of Protestantism and especially by its penetration into Italy, Pope Paul III in 1542 heeded reformers such as Cardinal Gian Pietro Carafa and established in Rome the Congregation of the Inquisition, also known as the Roman Inquisition and the Holy Office. Six cardinals, including Carafa, constituted the original commission, whose powers extended to the whole Church. The Holy Office was really a new institution, related to the medieval Inquisition only by vague precedents. Freer from episcopal control than its predecessor, it also conceived of its function differently. Whereas the medieval Inquisition focused on popular misbeliefs that resulted in the disturbance of public order, the Holy Office was generally concerned with orthodoxy of a more academic nature, especially as it appeared in the writings of theologians and high Churchmen.

In the first dozen years or so, the activities of the Roman Inquisition were relatively modest, restricted almost exclusively to Italy. When Carafa became Pope Paul IV in 1555, he urged a vigorous pursuit of suspects, not sparing bishops or even cardinals (such as the English prelate Reginald Pole). He meanwhile charged the Congregation to draw up a list of books that offended faith or morals, and as a result he approved and published the first Index of Forbidden Books in 1559. Although later popes tempered the zeal of the Roman Inquisition, they began to see it as the customary instrument of papal government for regulating Church order and doctrinal orthodoxy; for example, it tried and condemned Galileo in 1633. In 1965 Pope Paul VI, responding to many complaints, reorganized the Holy Office and renamed it the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.