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THE INQUISITION (Lat. inquisitio, an ...

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Originally appearing in Volume V14, Page 597 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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THE See also:

INQUISITION (See also:Lat. inquisitio, an inquiry)  , the name given to the ecclesiastical See also:jurisdiction dealing both in the See also:middle ages and in See also:modern times with the detection and See also:punishment of heretics and all persons guilty of any offence against See also:Catholic orthodoxy . It is incorrect to say that the See also:Inquisition made its See also:appearance in the 13th See also:century See also:complete in all its principles and See also:organs . It was the result of, or rather one step in, a See also:process of See also:evolution, the beginnings of which are to be traced back to the origins of See also:Christianity . St See also:Paul (1 Tim Punishment of See also:heresy in the See also:Roman See also:Empire . i . 2o) " delivered unto Satan " Hymenaeus and See also:Alexander, heretics were burnt after ecclesiastical See also:judgment had been " that they might learn not to blaspheme." The See also:penalty of pronounced by the See also:abbot and several bishops . From 1183 to See also:death by stoning inflicted by the See also:book of See also:Deuteronomy upon 1206 See also:Hugh, See also:bishop of See also:Auxerre, took upon himself the discrethose who deserted the true faith (Dent. xiii . 6-9, xvii . 1-6) is tionary See also:power of exiling, dispossessing or burning heretics, thus reduced to a purely spiritual See also:excommunication . During while about the same See also:time See also:William of the See also:White Hands, See also:arch-the first three centuries of the See also:Church there is no trace of any bishop of See also:Reims, in See also:concert with See also:Philip, See also:count of See also:Flanders, persecution, and the earlier Fathers, especially See also:Origen and stamped out heresy from his See also:diocese by See also:fire . There was a Lactantius, reject the See also:idea of it . See also:Constantine, by the See also:edict similar unanimity between the See also:lay and ecclesiastical authorities of See also:Milan (313), inaugurated an era of See also:official tolerance, but from in the famous condemnation of the disciples of See also:Amalric of Bena, the time of Valentinian I. and See also:Theodosius I. onwards, lawsagainst who were burnt at See also:Paris in 1209 by See also:order of Philip See also:Augustus heretics began to appear, and increased with astonishing regularity after an ecclesiastical inquiry and judgment .

The theory in and rapidity . We can count sixty-eight distributed over these matters was at first as uncertain as the practice; fifty-two years; heretics are subjected to See also:

exile or See also:confiscation, in the 11th century one bishop only, Theodwin of Conflict-disqualified from inheriting See also:property, and even, in the See also:case See also:Liege (d . 1075), affirmsthenecessityforthepunishment See also:ing views of a few See also:groups of Manichaeans and See also:Donatists, condemned to of heretics by the See also:secular See also:arm (io5o) . His predecessor, as to the death; but it should be noticed that these penalties apply only Wazo, bishop of Liege from 1041 to 1044, had expressly punish- to the outward manifestations of heresy, and not, as in the middle condemned any See also:capital punishment and advised the See also:meat of ages, to crimes of See also:conscience . Within the Church, bishop of Chalons to resort to peaceful See also:conversion. heresy . Opinions St Optatus alone (De sclzismate Donatistarum See also:lib. iii . In the 12th century See also:Peter the Cantors protested against the of the Fathers. cap. iii.) approved of this violent repression of the death penalty, admitting at the most imprisonment . It was Donatist heresy; St See also:Augustine only admitted a imprisonment again, or exile, but not death, which the See also:German temperata severitas, such as scourging, fines or exile, and at the abbot Gerhoh of Reichersperg (1oo3–1169) demanded in the end of the 4th century the condemnation of the See also:Spanish heretic case of See also:Arnold of See also:Brescia, and in dealing with the heretics of See also:Priscillian, who was put to death in 385 by order of the See also:emperor See also:Cologne, St See also:Bernard, who cannot be accused of leniency where See also:Maximus, gave rise to a keen controversy . St See also:Martin of See also:Tours, heterodoxy was concerned, recommended pacific refutation, St See also:Ambrose and St See also:Leo vigorously attacked the Spanish bishops followed by excommunication or See also:prison, but never the death who had obtained the condemnation of Priscillian . St See also:John penalty (see BERNARD, ST, of See also:Clairvaux) . In the See also:councils, too, See also:Chrysostom considered that a heretic should be deprived of the it is clear that the See also:appeal to the secular arm was See also:liberty of speech and that assemblies organized by heretics equally guarded: at Reims excommunication The (1049) Church should be dissolved, but declared that " to put a heretic to death alone is decreed against heretics; and when, as at councils. would be to introduce upon See also:earth an inexpiable See also:crime." From See also:Toulouse (1119) and the Lateran See also:council (1139), it in the the 6th to the 9th century the heterodox, with the is laid down that heretics, in addition to excommunication, See also:early exception of the Manichaean sects in certain places, should be dealt with per potestates exteras, or when, as at the Middle were hardly subjected to persecution . They were, council.of Reims (1148), the secular princes are forbidden to ages. moreover, rare and generally isolated, for groups support or See also:harbour heretics, there is never any See also:suggestion of of sectaries only began to appear to any extent at the capital punishment .

But it must be noticed that from the time of the earliest appearances of Catharism . However, at opening years of the 12th century date the beginnings See also:

Influence the end of the loth century, the disciples of Vilgard, a heretic of a decided evolution in the See also:canon See also:law, continuing up of the of See also:Ravenna, were destroyed in See also:Italy and See also:Sardinia, according to the time of See also:Innocent III., which substituted for canon to Glaber, ferro et incendio, probably by assimilation to the arbitrary decisions according to circumstances an Law-Manichaeans . Perhaps this was the precedent for the punish- organized and particularized legislation, in which judgment was ment of the thirteen Cathari who were burnt at See also:Orleans in 1022 given secundum canonicas et legitimas sanctiones . See also:Anselm of by order of See also:King See also:Robert, a See also:sentence which has been commonly See also:Lucca and the Panormia attributed to No of See also:Chartres reproduced quoted as the first See also:action of the " secular arm " (or lay power) word for word under the See also:rubric De edicto See also:im.peratorum in dampnaagainst heresy in the See also:Nest during the middle ages . However tioneln hoereticorum, law 5 of the See also:title De hereticis of Justinian's that may be, after 1022 there were numerous cases of the execu- See also:code, which pronounces the sentence of death against the tion of heretics, either by burning or strangling, in See also:France, Italy, Manichaeans; and we should remember that the Cathari, and the Empire and See also:England . Up till about 1200 it is not quite in See also:general all heretics in the See also:West in the 11th and 12th centuries easy to determine what See also:part was taken by the Church and its were considered by contemporary theologians as Manichaeans. bishops and doctors in this See also:series of executions . At Orleans See also:Gratian in the Decretum proclaims the views of St Augustine the See also:people. supported by the See also:Crown, were responsible for the (exile and fines) . Certain of his commentators (2° pars Calls. death of the heretics; the historians give only the faintest indica- See also:xxiii.), and notably See also:Rufinus Johannes Teutonicus, and the tions of any See also:direct intervention of the See also:clergy, except perhaps for See also:anonymous glossator (in Uguccio's See also:Great Summa of The the examination of See also:doctrine . At See also:Goslar (1051–1052) the See also:pro- the Decretzm) declare that impenitent heretics may, Council ceedings were the same . At See also:Asti (10J4) the bishop's name or even should, be punished by death . As early as of Tours, appears See also:side by side with those of the other lords who attacked 1163, the council of Tours suggested to the ecclesiastical 116,3. the Cathari, but it seems clear that it was not he who had the See also:chief authorities definite penalties to be inflicted on heretics, namely, See also:voice in their See also:execution; at Milan, it was again the See also:civil magis- imprisonment and loss of all their property . See also:Pope Alexander trates, and this time against the wish of the See also:archbishop—who III., who had attended the council of Tours of 1163, re-gave the heretics the choice between the See also:adoration of the See also:cross newed at the Lateran council (1179) the decisions which and death .

At See also:

Soissons (1114) the See also:mob, distrusting the weakness had already been made with regard to the heterodox of the clergy, took See also:advantage of their bishop's See also:absence to See also:burn in the See also:south of France, and at See also:Verona in 1184 heretics at the stake . It was also the mob who, infuriated at Pope See also:Lucius III., in concert with the emperor seeing him destroy and burn crosses, burnt the hwesiarch Peter See also:Frederick See also:Barbarossa, took still more severe See also:measures: of Bruis (c . 1140) . At Liege (1144) the bishop saved from the obstinate heretics were to be excommunicated, and flames certain persons whom the faithful were attempting to then handed over to the secular arm, which would burn . At Cologne (1163) the archbishop was less successful, and the mob put the heretics to death without even a trial . The condemnation of Arnold of Brescia was entirely See also:political, though he was denounced as a heretic to the secular arm by Bernard of Clairvaux, and his execution was the See also:act of t he See also:prefect of See also:Rome (1155) . At Vezclay, on the contrary (1167). the See also:Definition of the See also:procedure under Lucius IIi and the Emperor Frederick 1 . inflict a suitable penalty . The emperor, on his side, laid them under the imperial See also:ban (exile, confiscation, demolition of their houses, infamia, loss of civil rights, disqualification from 1 See also:Pierre de Beauvoisis (?), See also:choir-See also:master (See also:grand-chantre) of the university of Paris (1184), bishop of See also:Tournai (1191), of Paris (1;96) ; died as_• a Cistercian in 1197 . [le was beatified . public offices, &c.) . The usage, then, was already quite clear; but the death penalty had not as yet been demanded The death or inflicted .

Possibly it was Count See also:

Raymond V. of penalty . Toulouse, in whose territories heretics abounded, who in 1194 enacted a law threatening them with the penalty of death; but the authenticity of this act has been questioned . It was more probably Peter II. of See also:Aragon who was the first to See also:decree, in 1197, the punishment of death by burning against the heretics who should not have See also:left his See also:kingdom within a given time . But it was Innocent III. who gave the most powerful impetus to the See also:anti-heretical See also:movement Innocent ui. in the secular See also:world by his frequent exhortations (beginning in 1198) to the secular princes (letters of See also:March 25th, 119o, and See also:September 22nd, 1207) . As a jurist he henceforward assimilated the crime of high See also:treason against See also:God to that of high treason against temporal rulers, and admitted all the terrible consequences of this assimilation . It is therefore incorrect to believe that the Inquisition arose out of, and at the time of, the crusade against the Albigenses . These executions en masse certainly created a definitive precedent for violent repression, but there was still sign crusade. no See also:regular organization: the council of Toulouse, No regu- held in See also:November 1229 by the Roman See also:legate after the Mr In- treaty of See also:peace, attempted to organize one, and qulsuion. constituted itself the tribunal . But the procedure was still uncertain; in the See also:north, from 1200 to 1222, at Paris (execution of the disciples of Amalric of Bena), at See also:Strassburg, See also:Cambrai, See also:Troyes and See also:Besancon executions took See also:place, after trials in which the bishops were the See also:judges, the exercise of the secular power being based on vague phrases in the decrees of See also:Louis VIII . (that heretics be punished animadversione debita), or in those of Louis IX., ordering his baillis or barons to do to them quod debebunt . The emperor Frederick II. defined his See also:jurisprudence The more clearly: from 1220 to 1239, supported by Pope Emperor See also:Honorius III., and above all by See also:Gregory IX., he Frederick established against the heretics of the Empire in ll general a legislation in which the penalties of death, banishment and confiscation of property were formulated so clearly as to be henceforth incontestable . Gregory IX. See also:felt his influence, and also that of the Dominican Guala, bishop of Brescia, who had subjected his episcopal See also:town to the full rigour of the imperial See also:laws . The pope no longer hesitated as to the principle or the degree of repression; but introduced new methods of inquiry and judgment: he created out of the material furnished him by the mendicant orders, and especially the See also:Dominicans, who were more disciplined than the See also:rest and better theologians, the monastic inquisition, which was more elastic, from place to place .

On arriving in a See also:

district they addressed its inhabitants, called upon them to confess, if they were heretics, or to denounce those whom they knew to be heretics: a " time of See also:grace " was opened, during which those who freely confessed were dispensed from all penalties, or only given a See also:secret and very See also:light See also:penance; while those whose heresy had been openly manifested were exempted from the penalties of death and perpetual imprisonment . But this time could not exceed one See also:month . After that began the inquisition . As soon as their See also:mission was at an end, and heresy was considered to be stamped out, the inquisitors left the See also:country . Later, inquisitorial districts were formed . The seat of the Inquisition in each district was the monastery of /torla/ tl~~lsl- the order (Dominican or Franciscan) to which the districts. inquisitors for that part belonged . There was never any See also:special See also:court or prison: the mucus (prison) was See also:lent to the Inquisition by the ecclesiastical or secular authorities . The See also:maintenance of the prisoners and the See also:duty of providing the prison See also:fell in principle upon the bishops (council of Toulouse, 1229), but they tried to evade it . The See also:kings of France, and in particular Louis VIII., granted subsidies to the The See also:lima. inquisitors . For each district the inquisitors were sitorsand chosen by the provincials of their order, approved their or rejected by the pope, and removable by him only. auxill-Their discretionary See also:powers were See also:absolute . They axles. conducted their interrogations before two persons (laymen or ecclesiastics) and only pronounced their sentence after consultation with leading men in the district (communicato bonorum virorum consilio) . This was the only See also:protection for the accused .

It was in vain that the civil lawyers tried to prove that the secular authorities had a right to see the documents bearing on the case; the Inquisition always succeeded in setting aside these claims . The See also:

share taken in the proceedings by the bishops, the accused or their representatives, though admitted in principle, was as a See also:rule merely illusory . The Inquisition had in addition to these See also:boni viii certain other lay assistant officials, its sworn notaries, messengers and familiars, all of whom were closely See also:bound to it . Bernard See also:Guy (Bernardus Guidonis),i one of the earliest and most complete exponents of the theory of the Inquisition, admits distinctly that in its procedure multa sunt procedure specialia . The procedure was secret and in the of the highest degree arbitrary, proceeding sine sire See also:pint et /nqulsifigura judicii, its See also:object being to ascertain not so tion. much particular offences as tendencies: the murderers of the inquisitor Peter See also:Martyr 2 were tried, not as assassins, but as guilty of heresy and adversaries of the Inquisition; and on the other See also:hand, See also:external acts of piety and verbal professions of faith were held of no value . Moreover the Inquisition was not bound by the See also:ordinary rules of procedure in its inquiries: the accused was surprised by a sudden See also:summons, and as a rule imprisoned on suspicion . All the accused were presumed to be guilty, the See also:judge being at the same time the accuser . Absence was naturally considered as See also:contumacy, and only increased the presumption of See also:guilt by seeming to admit it . The accused had the right to demand a written See also:account of the offences attributed to him (capitula accusations), but the names of the witnesses were withheld from him (Innocent IV.; bulls Cum negocium and Licet sieut accepimus), he did not know who had denounced him, nor what See also:weight was attached by the judges to the denunciations made against him . The utmost that was allowed him was the unsatisfactory See also:privilege of the recusationes divinatrices, i.e. at his first examination he was asked for the names of any enemies of whom he knew, and the causes of their enmity . Heretics or persons deprived of civil rights (infames) were admitted as witnesses in cases of heresy . See also:Women, See also:children or slaves could be witnesses for the See also:prosecution, but not for the See also:defence, and cases are even to be found in which the witnesses were only ten years of See also:age .

Langhino Ugolini states that a See also:

witness who should retract his hostile See also:evidence should be punished for false witness; but that his evidence should be retained, and have its full effect on the sentence . No witness might refuse to give evidence, under See also:pain of being considered guilty of heresy . The prosecution went on in the utmost secrecy . The accused swore that he would tell the whole truth, and was bound to denounce all those 1 He was See also:born c . 1261, was a Dominican at See also:Limoges in 1279, successively See also:prior of See also:Albi (1294), See also:Carcassonne (1297), See also:Castres (1301) and Limoges (1305), inquisitor at Toulouse (1307), bishop of See also:Tuy (1323) and of See also:Lodeve (1325) . He died in 1331 . 2 Peter, a Dominican, born at Verona, was murdered near Milan in 1252 and canonized in 1253 . Gregory IX. creates the monistic Inquisition . The Domi- nicans. more See also:constant in its activities and more numerous than the inquisition by legate, and better disciplined than the episcopal inquisition . In November 1232 the Dominican Alberic went See also:round See also:Lombardy with the title of Inquisitor haereticae pravitatis . In 1231 a similar See also:commission was given to the Dominicans of Friesach and to the terrible See also:Conrad of See also:Marburg, whose zeal in See also:Germany even exceeded the pope's wishes . In 1233 Gregory IX. addressed a See also:letter to the bishops in the south of France, in which he announced his intention of employing the See also:preaching friars in future for the See also:discovery and repression of heresy .

The inquisition was now regularly instituted, but its See also:

juris- prudence was elaborated by successive additions or limitations, by the force of See also:custom and the detailed prescriptions Beginnings added by the papal constitutions . The pope's See also:corn- of the -a- missioners " in the See also:matter of heresy " at first travelled quisition . who were partners of his heresy, or whom he knew or suspected to be heretics . If he confessed, and denounced his accomplices, relatives or See also:friends, he was " reconciled " with the Church, and had to suffer only the humiliating penalties prescribed by the canon law . If further examination proved necessary, it was continued by various methods . Bernardus Guidonis enumerates many ways of obtaining confessions, sometimes by means of moral subterfuges, but sometimes also by a process of weakening the See also:physical strength . And as a last expedient See also:torture was resorted to . The Church was originally opposed to torture, and the canon law did not admit confessions extorted by that means; but by the See also:bull Ad extir- See also:panda (1252) Innocent IV. approved its use for the discovery of heresy, and See also:Urban IV. confirmed this usage, which had its origin in secular legislation (cf. the Veronese Code of 1228, and Sicilian Constitution of Frederick II. in 1231) . In 1312 excessive See also:cruelty had to be suppressed by the council of See also:Vienna . Canonic- ally the torture could only be applied once, but it might be " continued." The next step was the torture of witnesses, a practice which was left to the discretion of the inquisitors . Moreover, all confessions or depositions extorted in the torture- chamber had subsequently to be " freely " confirmed . The See also:confession was always considered as voluntary .

The procedure was of course not litigious; any lawyer defending the accused would have been held guilty of heresy . The inquiry might last a See also:

long time, for it was interrupted or resumed according to the discretion of the judges, who disposed matters so as to obtain as many confessions or denunciations as possible . After the different phases of the examination, the accused were divided into two categories: (1) those who had confessed and abjured, (2) those who had not confessed and were consequently convicted of heresy . There was a third class, by no means the least numerous, namely, those who having previously confessed and abjured had relapsed into See also:error . Next came the moment of the sentence: " there was never any case of an acquittal pure and See also:simple " (H . C . See also:Lea) . The See also:formula for full and complete acquittal given by Bernardus Guidonis in his Practica, should, he says, never or very rarely be employed . The sentences were solemnly pronounced on a See also:Sunday, in a church or public place, in the presence of the inquisitors, their auxiliaries, the This was the sermo generalis (see AUTO DA xi) . The accused who had confessed were reconciled, and the penalties were then pronounced; these were, in order of severity, penances, See also:fasting, prayers, pilgrimages (See also:Palestine, St See also:James of Compostella, See also:Canterbury, &c.), public scourging, the compulsory wearing on the See also:breast or back of crosses of yellow felt sewn on to the clothes or sometimes of See also:tongues of red, letters, &c . These were the poenaeconfusibiles (humiliating) . The inquisitors eventually acquired the right of inflicting fines at discretion .

In 1244 and 1251 Innocent IV. reproved them for their exactions . All these See also:

minor penalties could be commuted for payments in See also:money in the same way as See also:absolution from the crusader's See also:vow, and the council of Vienna tried to put an end to these extortions . Beyond these minor penalties came the severer ones of imprisonment for a See also:period of time, perpetual imprisonment and imprisonment of various degrees of severity (murus See also:largus, murus strictus vel strictissimus) . The murus strictus consisted in the deepest See also:dungeon, with single or See also:double fetters, and " the See also:bread and See also:water of affliction "; but the severity of the prison regime varied very much . The murus largus, especially for a See also:rich prisoner, amounted to a fairly mild imprisonment, but the mortality among those confined in the murus strictus became so high that See also:Clement V. ordered an inquiry to be made into the prison regime in See also:Languedoc, in spite of Bernard Guy's protest against the investigation as likely to diminish the See also: