Editing Inquisition (section)

{{Short description|System of tribunals enforcing Catholic orthodoxy}}
{{About|the Inquisition within the Catholic Church}}
{{More citations needed|date=March 2025}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2024}}
[[File:Galileo before the Holy Office - Joseph-Nicolas Robert-Fleury, 1847.png|thumb|upright=1.7|A 19th-century depiction of [[Galileo Galilei]] before the Holy Office, by [[Joseph-Nicolas Robert-Fleury]]]]

The '''Inquisition''' was a Catholic [[Inquisitorial system#History|judicial procedure]] where the [[Ecclesiastical court|ecclesiastical judges]] could initiate, investigate and try cases in their jurisdiction. Popularly it became the name for various [[medieval]] and [[reformation]]-era state-organized tribunals whose aim was to combat [[Christian heresy|heresy]], [[apostasy]], [[blasphemy]], [[witchcraft]], and customs considered to be [[Deviance (sociology)|deviant]], using this procedure. [[Violence]], isolation, [[torture]]  or the threat of its application, have been used by the Inquisition to extract confessions and denunciations. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of [[penance]]s, but convictions of unrepentant heresy were handed over to the secular courts for the application of local law, which generally resulted in execution or [[life imprisonment]].<ref name="Burr">{{cite web|url=http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/source/inquisition1.asp|title=Internet History Sourcebooks Project|website=legacy.fordham.edu|access-date=13 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160320121109/http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/source/inquisition1.asp|archive-date=20 March 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>Peters, Edwards. "Inquisition", p. 67.</ref>{{sfnp|Lea|1887a|loc=[https://www.gutenberg.org/files/39451/39451-h/39451-h.htm#CHAPTER_VII Chapter VII. The Inquisition Founded]}}

Inquisitions with the aim of combatting religious [[sedition]] (e.g. [[apostasy]] or [[heresy]]) had their start in the [[Christianity in the 12th century|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 in the middle ages|France]] and [[Roman Inquisition|Italy]], include the [[Fraticelli|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.<ref>Peters, Edward. "Inquisition", p. 54.</ref>

Inquisitions also expanded to other European countries,{{sfnp|Lea|1887a|loc=[https://www.gutenberg.org/files/39451/39451-h/39451-h.htm#CHAPTER_VII Chapter VII. The Inquisition Founded]}} resulting in the [[Spanish Inquisition]] and the [[Portuguese Inquisition]]. The Spanish and Portuguese inquisitions often focused on the [[New Christians]] or [[Converso|''Conversos'']] (the 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 [[Morisco|''Moriscos'']] ([[Muslim]]s who had been [[Forced conversions of Muslims in Spain|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 [[Rebellion of the Alpujarras (1499–1501)|First]] and [[Rebellion of the Alpujarras (1568–1571)|Second Morisco Rebellions]]). [[Spanish Empire|Spain]] and [[Portuguese Empire|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.<ref name="Murphy">{{cite book|title=God's Jury|publisher=Mariner Books – Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt|author=Murphy, Cullen|year=2012|location=New York|page=150}}</ref> 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 [[Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith|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''.

The opening of Spanish and Roman archives over the last 50 years has caused some historians to [[Historical revision of the Inquisition|substantially revise their understanding]] of the Inquisition, some to the extent of characterizing previous views as "a body of legends and myths".<ref>{{cite book |last=Iarocci |first=Michael P. |title=Properties of Modernity |publisher=Vanderbilt University Press |date=1 March 2006 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CuliwYNyvSUC&pg=PA218 |isbn=0-8265-1522-3 |page=218}}</ref> {{Anchor|Historic Inquisition movements}} Many famous instruments of torture are now considered fakes and propaganda.