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Inquisition

Religious procedure in the ancient régime to persecute those not aligned with Catholic teachings of the Catholic Church

Entityreligious organization tribunal legal systemQ43173

Also known as Holy Office

Instance of: religious organization
, tribunal
, legal system
+2 more
Part of: Catholic Church

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

An inquisition was a Catholic judicial procedure in which ecclesiastical judges could initiate, investigate and try cases in their jurisdiction. Popularly, the Inquisition became the name for various medieval and Reformation-era state-organized tribunals whose aim was to combat heresy, apostasy, blasphemy, witchcraft, and customs considered to be deviant, using this judicial procedure. Violence, isolation, certain torture or the threat of its application, have been used by inquisitions to extract confessions and denunciations. Inquisitions with the aim of combatting religious sedition had their start in the 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 and Italy, include the 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.

Overview

All data

67 statements · 18% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Different from: inquisitorial system
Members / parts: Episcopal Inquisition
Papal Inquisition
Roman Inquisition
Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office
Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith
Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith
Industry: religious congregations and associations
Started: 1184
Depicted by: Valenza Gradenigo faints in front of her father, the Inquisitor
Valenza Gradenigo before the Inquisition

On other databases

47 identifiers linking Inquisition across the web's reference databases

Data quality

statements

18%

externally sourced

Source last edited September 25, 2026. AIDB refreshes this page daily.

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AIDB. (2026). Inquisition (Q43173). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/inquisition-Q43173