INQUISITION (Lat. inquisitio, inquiry, from nein irerc, to investigate, from in, in qua.rere, to seek), THE ( itqu isit io pra rita t is), called also the Holy Office. A tribunal in the Roman Catholic church for the discovery, repression, and punishment of heresy, unbelief, and other offenses against re ligion. From the very earliest times Christians looked with horror upon all heresy. As ',OM as the Council of Nie•a I:3231 had formulated its creed, Constantine attempted to repress all dis sent, but it was not until 355 that any one was for heresy. From this time, in the East. persistence in heresy was legally punish able with death. In the West. however, among the tolerant tiermans there was no tendency for several centuries to inflict the capital sentence for heresy. In the twelfth century there were some executions, but the Church in general pre ferred milder measures. Peter IL of Aragon. in 1197, was the first 1Vestern ruler to decree that heretics should be burned at the stake. This became the common rule in Italy, Germany, France. and Spaiu in the following century. The ecclesiastical cognizance of heresy, and its pun ishment by spiritual censures, belonged to the bishop or episcopal synod; but the bishops seldom fulfilled this duty, because they were too fully occupied. No special machinery for the pur pose was devised. however. until the spread. in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, of certain sects reputed dangerous alike to the State and to the Church—the Cathari, Waldenses, and Al bigenses—excited the alarm of the civil as well as of the ecclesiastical authorities. At that time heresy was regarded as a crime against the State no less than against the Church. An extraor dinary commission was sent by Pope Innocent III. into the south of France to aid the local authorities in checking the spread of the Albi gensian heresy, and a council held at Avignon in 1209 directed that in each parish the priest and two or three laymen in good repute should be ap pointed to examine and report to the bishop all such offenses discovered within the district. The fourth Lateran Council ( 1215) earnestly- im pressed, both on bishops and magistrates, the necessity of increased vigilance against heresy.
So far. however, there was no permanent court distinct from those of the bishops; but by suc cessive edicts. from 1227 on. a special tribunal for the purpose was instituted, the direction of which was confided chiefly to members of the Dominican Order (12321. The Inquisition thus
constituted became a general. instead of, as pre viousl•. a local trihunal ; and it was introduced into Italy. Spain. and the southern provinces of France.
The procedure of the Inquisition deserves a brief notice. A person suspected of heresy, or de nounced as guilty, was liable to be arrested and detained in prison. to be brought to trial only when it might seem fitting to his judges. The proceedings were conducted secretly. Ile was not vonfronted with his accusers. nor were their names even then revealed to him, but the sus peet could make known his enemies. whose evi dence would thereupon be excluded. The evidence of an aecomplice was admissible. and the accused himself was liable to he put to the torture in order to extort a confession of his guilt. Any such confession, however, had to be repeated afterwards without torture in order to be ae tided. But if the accused refused to repeat his confession he might be tortured again. A, a punishment the condemned were senteneed to I lake pilgrimages, to wear signs 441 infamy such at, the yellow cross, or to imprisonment, and in extreme cases were emalemned to death. This extreme penalty. however, could be inflicted only by the Stall', 41 lid out of GU persons ((undimmed between 1308 and 1322 only 41) were turned over to the State. The State was required to enforce the lam, of the Church a part of the ruler's duty as a Christian. If the rider refused he might he excommunicated or in extreme instances deposed. The Papal Inquisition had no standing iu England and the northern countries, where sueh nuttters were attended to either by the Bishops' Inquisition. or. as in England, by the royal power. In Languedoc the Inquisition was very active for about a century, but, by the end ot the first quarter of the fourteenth century it had practically spent its force. In Northern Franee the history of the Inquisition is more ohscure, hut by the end of the fourteenth century it is certain that it was decadent. Philip the Fair, however, made use of the Inquisition against the and in 1312 made it. a State tribunal. In most of the Italian cities except Venice it was very powerful. In Germany it had a very slight influence.