An inquisitor was an

official An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority, (either their own or that of their ...

(usually with judicial or investigative functions) in an

inquisition The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy, conducting trials of suspected heretics. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of penances, ...

– an organization or program intended to eliminate

heresy Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...

and other things contrary to the doctrine or teachings of the

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

faith. Literally, an inquisitor is one who "searches out" or "inquires" (

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''inquirere'' < ''quaerere'', 'to seek'). Inquisitors sought out the social networks that people used to spread heresy. There were accounts where the Inquisition could not tell who was a heretic or devout, and they were killed anyway. One of these accounts was

Arnaud Amalric Arnaud Amalric ( la, Arnoldus Amalricus; died 1225) was a Cistercian abbot who played a prominent role in the Albigensian Crusade. It is reported that prior to the massacre of Béziers, Amalric, when asked how to distinguish Cathars from Catholi ...

at the storming of

Béziers Béziers (; oc, Besièrs) is a Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Hérault Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region of Southern France. Every August Béziers hos ...

. The abbot was recorded as saying “Kill them. For God knows who are his.” This brought up concern about the role the Inquisition was playing and whether or not it was a truly righteous cause. The role of the Inquisitor was further questioned by " The Grand Inquisitor", a work of satire by author Dostoyevsky. In this prose poem, Christ came back to earth and was imprisoned by the Grand Inquisitor. The Grand Inquisitor argued that Christ could not be free because his work would directly oppose the church, because free will was a burden to humanity. Dostoyevsky ends the poem by saying that the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...

secretly followed the work of Satan instead of Christ, due to Satan allowing the best form of order for Humankind. In this story, the

used religion as a way to control the average population. This made the Inquisition out to be a war on ideology and free will, as opposed to a suppression of heresy.

Prominent inquisitors

Some of the better-known 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 Arnaut Catalan ( fl. 1219–1253) was a troubadour active in the Languedoc, Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by ...

* Fabio Chigi (later

Pope Alexander VII Pope Alexander VII ( it, Alessandro VII; 13 February 159922 May 1667), born Fabio Chigi, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 7 April 1655 to his death in May 1667. He began his career as a vice- papal legate, an ...

) * Diego Deza * Bernard Gui * Heinrich Institoris, author of ''

Malleus Maleficarum The ''Malleus Maleficarum'', usually translated as the ''Hammer of Witches'', is the best known treatise on witchcraft. It was written by the German Catholic clergyman Heinrich Kramer (under his Latinized name ''Henricus Institor'') and first ...

'' *

Francisco Jimenez de Cisneros Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name '' Franciscus''. Nicknames In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed " Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Comunitatis'' (father o ...

Konrad von Marburg Konrad von Marburg (sometimes anglicised as Conrad of Marburg) (1180 – 30 July 1233) was a medieval German priest and nobleman. Life Konrad's early life is not well known, he may be of aristocratic descent, and he was described by contemporar ...

* Sebastien Michaelis *

Giovanni Pietro Carafa Pope Paul IV, born Gian Pietro Carafa, C.R. ( la, Paulus IV; it, Paolo IV; 28 June 1476 – 18 August 1559) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 23 May 1555 to his death in August 1559. While serving as pap ...

(later

Pope Paul IV Pope Paul IV, born Gian Pietro Carafa, C.R. ( la, Paulus IV; it, Paolo IV; 28 June 1476 – 18 August 1559) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 23 May 1555 to his death in August 1559. While serving as pap ...

) * Jacob Sprenger, purported co-author of ''

'' * Tomás de Torquemada *

Martín García Ceniceros Martín García Ceniceros (''also Martín García Gómez de Ceniceros'')(died Oct 1632) was a Roman Catholic prelate who served as Inquisitor of Canarias, Valencia, Cartagena, and Valladolid. He was appointed and briefly served as Bishop Elec ...

Hentenius Hentenius (John Henten, born 1499 at Nalinnes, now in Belgium; died 10 October 1566, at Leuven) was a Flemish Dominican Biblical exegete. He is well known for his edition of the Vulgate in 1547. Life When quite young he took the vows of rel ...

(1540s-1566)

References

{{Christianity-stub

Prominent inquisitors

See also

References