Editing Inquisitor

{{Short description|Official (usually with judicial or investigative functions) in an Inquisition}}
{{About|the religious office in historic Christianity|other uses|Inquisitor (disambiguation)}}
{{refimprove|date=December 2020}}
[[File:Torquemada.jpg|thumb|right|[[Tomás de Torquemada]], 15th-century Spanish Dominican friar and [[Grand Inquisitor]]]]
An '''inquisitor''' was an [[official]] (usually with [[judicial]] or investigative functions) in an [[inquisition]] – an organization or program intended to eliminate [[heresy]] and other things contrary to the [[doctrine]] or teachings of the [[Catholicism|Catholic]] faith. Literally, an inquisitor is one who "searches out" or "inquires" ([[Latin]] ''inquirere'' < ''quaerere'', 'to seek'). 

In some cases, inquisitors sought out the social networks that people used to spread heresy. 

There were multiple national inquisitions with different approaches and targets. 

==Controversies==
In the [[Albigensian Crusade]] a second-hand story arose that inquisitor and general [[Arnaud Amalric]] at the storming of [[Béziers]] advocated general slaughter, saying “Kill them. For God knows who are his.”<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Ormerod|first1=Paul|last2=Roach|first2=Andrew P|date=2004-08-15|title=The Medieval inquisition: scale-free networks and the suppression of heresy|url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378437104003048|journal=Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and Its Applications|language=en|volume=339|issue=3|pages=648|doi=10.1016/j.physa.2004.03.020|issn=0378-4371|arxiv=cond-mat/0306031|bibcode=2004PhyA..339..645O |s2cid=10947858 }}</ref> Amalric's own report to the Pope was that his troops jumped the gun and took over the town violently before he was aware. 

{{More|Massacre at Béziers}}
{{More|Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius.}}

==Prominent inquisitors==
Some of the better-known and notable inquisitors throughout history include:

*[[Peter of Verona]] (also known as Saint Peter Martyr), whose canonization was the fastest in history
* [[Pedro de Arbués]]
* [[Nicolau Aymerich]] author of ''[[Directorium Inquisitorum]]''
* [[Stephen of Bourbon]]
* [[Arnaut Catalan]]
* [[Fabio Chigi]] (later [[Pope Alexander VII]])
* [[Diego Deza]]
* [[Bernard Gui]]
* [[Heinrich Institoris]], author of ''[[Malleus Maleficarum]]''
* [[Francisco Jimenez de Cisneros]]
* [[Konrad von Marburg]]
* [[Sebastien Michaelis]]
* [[Giovanni Pietro Carafa]] (later [[Pope Paul IV]])
* [[Jacob Sprenger]], purported co-author of ''[[Malleus Maleficarum]]''
* [[Tomás de Torquemada]]
* [[Martín García Ceniceros]]
* [[Hentenius]] (1540s-1566)
* [[Vincenza Matilde Testaferrata]], female inquisitor

==From fiction==
{{See|Inquisitor (disambiguation)#Fictional characters}}

==See also==
* [[Grand Inquisitor]]
* [[Medieval Inquisition]]
* [[Spanish Inquisition]]
* [[Portuguese Inquisition]]
* [[Roman Inquisition]]
* [[Mexican Inquisition]]
* [[Inquisitorial system]], a type of legal system
==References==
{{reflist}}


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[[Category:Inquisition]]
[[Category:Inquisitors| I]]
[[Category:Ecclesiastical titles]]