An inquisitor was an

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

(usually with

judicial The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...

or investigative functions) in an

inquisition 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 med ...

– an organization or program intended to eliminate

heresy Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, particularly the accepted beliefs or religious law of a religious organization. A heretic is a proponent of heresy. Heresy in Heresy in Christian ...

and other things contrary to the

doctrine Doctrine (from , meaning 'teaching, instruction') is a codification (law), codification of beliefs or a body of teacher, teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the essence of teachings in a given branch of knowledge or in a ...

or teachings of the

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

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

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

''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 The Albigensian Crusade (), also known as the Cathar Crusade (1209–1229), was a military and ideological campaign initiated by Pope Innocent III to eliminate Catharism in Languedoc, what is now southern France. The Crusade was prosecuted pri ...

a second-hand story arose that inquisitor and general

Arnaud Amalric Arnaud Amalric (; died 1225), also known as Arnaud Amaury, was a Cistercians, Cistercian abbot who played a prominent role in the Albigensian Crusade. It is purported that prior to the Massacre at Béziers, massacre of Béziers, Amalric, when aske ...

at the storming of

Béziers Béziers (; ) is a city in southern France. It is a Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Hérault Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region. Every August Béziers ho ...

advocated general slaughter, saying “Kill them. For God knows who are his.” Amalric's own report to the Pope was that his troops jumped the gun and took over the town violently before he was aware.

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 Pedro is a masculine given name. Pedro is the Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician name for ''Peter''. Its French equivalent is Pierre while its English and Germanic form is Peter. The counterpart patronymic surname of the name Pedro, meaning ...

Nicolau Aymerich Nicholas Eymerich () (Girona, ''c.'' 1316 – Girona, 4 January 1399) was a Roman Catholic theologian in Medieval Catalonia and Inquisitor General of the Inquisition in the Crown of Aragon in the later half of the 14th century. He is best known ...

author of '' Directorium Inquisitorum'' *

Stephen of Bourbon Stephen of Bourbon (French: ''Étienne de Bourbon''; Latin: ''Stephanus de Borbone''; 1180 – 1261) was a preacher of the Dominican Order, author of the largest collection of preaching ''exempla'' of the thirteenth century, a historian of medieva ...

* Arnaut Catalan * Fabio Chigi (later

Pope Alexander VII Pope Alexander 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, and he held various d ...

) * Diego Deza *

Bernard Gui Bernard Gui (), also known as Bernardo Gui or Bernardus Guidonis (c. 1261/62 – 30 December 1331), was a Limousin Dominican friar, Bishop of Lodève, and a papal inquisitor during the later stages of the Medieval Inquisition. Biography ...

* Heinrich Institoris, author of ''

Malleus Maleficarum The ''Malleus Maleficarum'', usually translated as the ''Hammer of Witches'', is the best known treatise about witchcraft. It was written by the German Catholic Church, Catholic clergyman Heinrich Kramer (under his Latinisation of names, Latini ...

'' * Francisco Jimenez de Cisneros * Konrad von Marburg * Sebastien Michaelis * Giovanni Pietro Carafa (later

Pope Paul IV Pope Paul IV (; ; 28 June 1476 – 18 August 1559), born Gian Pietro Carafa, 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 papal nuncio in Spain, he developed ...

) *

Jacob Sprenger Jacob Sprenger (1436/1438 – 6 December 1495) was a Dominican inquisitor and theologian principally known for his association with an infamous book on witch-hunting ''Malleus Maleficarum'' (1486). He was born in Rheinfelden, Further Austria, t ...

, 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 Ele ...

* Hentenius (1540s-1566) * Vincenza Matilde Testaferrata, female inquisitor

From fiction

References

{{Authority control Inquisition I Ecclesiastical titles

Controversies

Prominent inquisitors

From fiction

See also

References