Inquisition

The Inquisition was a office of the Catholic Church charged with suppressing heresy?. Heresy is only a problem for religions that have centrally defined doctrines and dogma. In the first two centuries after Jesus Christ, many sects with wildly differing beliefs could call themselves Christian, and no one could authoritatively contradict them. However, after Emperor Constantine I legalized Christianity and the various local administrations were subordinated to the hierarchy centered in Rome, arguments could be resolved by Church Councils. The first such council, which had the most extensive effects, was the [Council of Nicea]?, which formulated the [Nicean Creed]? in 325. Those whose beliefs or practices deviated sufficiently from the orthodoxy of that Creed and other rulings of the councils could now be made "brought back to the fold" by the shepherd of the Church. Resistance was usually futile.

There have been three different Inquisitions.

The first, known as the Medieval Inquisition, was established in 1184? in response to the Catharist? heresy in southern France and faded in power with that heresy.

The infamous Spanish Inquisition was not an ecclesiastical operation at all. It was established in 1481 by Ferdinand and Isabella to investigate and punish the Jews and Moors? who had publically converted to Christianity but had privately continued to practice their prior religion and were thus, by definition, heretics. Jews or Muslims who did not become Christians were never subjected to the powers of the Inquisition.

The Roman Inquisition, begun in 1542, was quite distinct from either of these. It was the least active and most benign of the three variations.

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