INQUISITION (Latin inquisitio = a seeking or searching for), in the history of the Roman Catholic Church, a tri bunal for searching out, inquiring into, and condemning offenses against the Canon Law, especially heresy, and taking means to have the offenders punished by the Civil Power. Inquisitors and the Inquisition did not come in together; the former preceded the latter (see INQuIsi Tose). The institution was resolved on at a synod held at Toulouse, in 1229, under Gregory IX., after the Albigensian crusade, and was formally established by him in 1233. The synod ordered that in every parish a priest and several re spectable laymen should be appointed to search for offenders, and bring them be fore the bishops. Ere long the bishop handed over the invidious task to the Dominican order. Gregory appointed none but Dominicans, Innocent III. oc casionally Franciscans, and Clement III. sent into Portugal a prior of the order of Minims. The tribunal was called the Holy Office, or the Holy In quisition. Its judges, in unqualifiedly perfectly fair accordance with contem poraneous ecclesiastical procedure, en couraged informers, concealing their names from the person accused, who was urged to make a complete confes sion. Torture was also used to extract evidence. It was established in France in consequence of the decrees of the Syn od of Toulouse. Philip the Fair con verted its tribunals into State Courts, by means of which he crushed the Tem plars. In 1538 the Grand Inquisitor, Louis de Rochelle, was convicted of Cal vinism, and burnt. The power of these courts was soon after transferred to the Parliament, and finally, in 1560, to the bishops.
Nowhere in the world did the Inquisi tion find a more congenial soil than in Spain. In 1481 the Inquisition was es tablished at Seville, by Ferdinand and Isabella, two Dominicans being the first judges. Torquemada, another Domini can, who became Grand Inquisitor in 1483, and held office for 15 years, ex tended it to various other towns. It was introduced into Peru and Mexico in 1571. Llorente, the historian of the In quisition, was its secretary at Madrid from 1790 to 1792. Napoleon I. sup pressed it on Dec. 4, 1808, and it was abolished on Feb. 12, 1813, by the Cortes. Ferdinand VII. having re-established it in 1814, the Cortes in 1820 abolished it again. (See AUTO DA FL) In 1526 it was set up in Portugal; in 1815 its acts were burned at Goa. The Congregation of the Cardinals of the Holy Inquisition was instituted by Pope Paul III., in 1542, and remodeled by Sixtus V. about 40 years later. The attempted introduction of the Inquisition into the United Prov inces caused the loss of that fertile terri tory to Spain. No inquisitor, under that name, seems to have ever been commis sioned to England; and when, in the 13th century, Conrad of Marburg at tempted to establish the "Holy Office" in Germany, he was assassinated.
In law: (1) A judicial inquiry, inves tigation, or examination; an inquest. (2) The verdict of a petty jury under a Writ of Inquiry; also where the court requires a particular fact certified, or requires the sheriff to do certain acts in furtherance of its judgment.