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131-469: The Inquisition was a medieval Catholic judicial procedure where the ecclesiastical judges could initiate, investigate and try cases, and later a name for various State-organized tribunals whose aim was to combat heresy , apostasy , blasphemy , witchcraft , and other dangers, using this procedure. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of penances , but convictions of unrepentant heresy were handed over to

262-591: A 4th-century antinomian sect from Macedonia held that the Threefold God transformed himself into a single hypostasis in order to unite with the souls of the perfect. They were anti-clerical and rejected baptism and the sacraments, believing that the passions could be overcome and perfection achieved through prayer. Many groups held dualistic beliefs , maintaining that reality was composed into two radically opposing parts: matter, usually seen as evil, and spirit, seen as good. Docetism held that Jesus' humanity

393-503: A Christian apologist, Bauer's theory does not show an equality between the established church and outsiders including Simon Magus . According to Mitchell et al., each early Christian community was unique, but the tenets of the mainstream or catholic Church insured that each early Christian community did not remain isolated. The Ante-Nicene period (2nd–3rd century) saw the rise of a great number of Christian sects , cults and movements with strong unifying characteristics lacking in

524-413: A committal order. If the examining judge decides there is a valid case against a suspect, the accused is sent for adversarial trial by jury. The examining judge does not sit on the trial court which tries the case and is prohibited from sitting for future cases involving the same defendant. The case is tried before the court in a manner similar to that of adversarial courts: the prosecution (and on occasion

655-677: A competitive court to the Bishop's courts. Historians use the term "Medieval Inquisition" to describe the various inquisitions that started around 1184, including the Episcopal Inquisitions (1184–1230s) and later the Papal Inquisitions (1230s). These inquisitions responded to large popular movements throughout Europe considered apostate or heretical to Christianity , in particular the Cathars in southern France and

786-475: A confessed witch. I suspect these two men of being warlocks. What do you say? Another turn of the rack, executioners." "No, no!" screamed the woman. "You are quite right. I have often seen .. . They can turn themselves into goats, wolves, and other animals. ... Several witches have had children by them. ... The children had heads like toads and legs like spiders." The Duke then asked the Jesuits. "Shall I put you to

917-545: A core doctrine of the Christian faith as defined by one or more of the Christian churches . It is distinguished from both apostasy and schism , apostasy being nearly always total abandonment of the Christian faith after it has been freely accepted, and schism being a formal and deliberate breach of Christian unity and an offense against charity without being based essentially on doctrine. The development of doctrine,

1048-495: A dismissal or re-trial . In some adversarial jurisdictions (e.g., the United States , and England and Wales), a prosecutor cannot appeal a "not guilty" verdict (absent corruption or gross malfeasance by the court). In adversarial systems, the defendant may plead " guilty " or " no contest ," in exchange for reduced sentences, a practice known as plea bargaining , or a plea deal, which is an extremely common practice in

1179-410: A forced baptism was not a valid sacrament, but confined this to cases where it was literally administered by physical force. A person who had consented to baptism under threat of death or serious injury was still regarded as a voluntary convert, and accordingly forbidden to revert to Judaism. After the public violence, many of the converted "felt it safer to remain in their new religion". Thus, after 1391,

1310-492: A historian the overwhelmingly dominant view that for the period of Christian origins, ecclesiastical doctrine already represented what is primary, while heresies, on the other hand somehow are a deviation from the genuine (Bauer, "Introduction"). Scholars such as Pagels and Ehrman have built on Bauer's original thesis. Drawing upon distinctions between Jewish Christians , Gentile Christians, and other groups such as Gnostics and Marcionites , they argue that early Christianity

1441-509: A judicial technique known as inquisitio , which could be translated as "inquiry" or "inquest".' In this process, which was already widely used by secular rulers ( Henry II used it extensively in England in the 12th century), an official inquirer called for information on a specific subject from anyone who felt he or she had something to offer." "The Inquisition" usually refers to specific regional tribunals authorized to concern themselves with

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1572-676: A necessary bulwark against the spread of reprehensible heresies. Since the beginning of the most serious heretic groups, like the Cathars or the Waldensians , they were soon accused of the most fantastic behavior, like having wild sexual orgies, eating babies, copulating with demons, worshipping the Devil. Inquisitorial system#History Inquisitorial systems are used primarily in countries with civil legal systems , such as France and Italy , or legal systems based on Islamic law like Saudi Arabia, rather than in common law systems. It

1703-405: A new social group appeared and were referred to as conversos or New Christians . Over the centuries that it lasted, several procedure manuals for inquisitors were produced for dealing with different types of heresy. The primordial text was Pope Innocent IV's bull, Ad Extirpanda , from 1252, which in its thirty-eight laws details in detail what must be done and authorizes the use of torture. Of

1834-403: A plaintiff) seeks the conviction of accused criminals, the defense attempts to rebut the prosecution claims, and the judge and jury draw their conclusions from the evidence presented at trial. As a result of judicial investigation and defendants being able to have judicial proceedings dismissed on procedural grounds during the examining phase, cases where the evidence is weak tend not to reach

1965-558: A similar requirement under the name corpus delicti . Until the development of the Catholic Medieval Inquisition in the 12th century, the legal systems used in medieval Europe generally relied on the adversarial system to determine whether someone should be tried and whether a person was guilty or innocent. Under this system, unless people were caught in the act of committing crimes, they could not be tried until they had been formally accused by their victim,

2096-462: A special socio-political basis as well as more fundamental religious motives. In some parts of Spain towards the end of the 14th century, there was a wave of violent anti-Judaism , encouraged by the preaching of Ferrand Martínez , Archdeacon of Écija . In the pogroms of June 1391 in Seville , hundreds of Jews were killed, and the synagogue was completely destroyed. The number of people killed

2227-462: A theory of justice as applied differently in various legal cultures. In an adversarial system , judges focus on the issues of law and procedure and act as a referee in the contest between the defense and the prosecution . Juries decide matters of fact, and sometimes matters of the law . Neither judge nor jury can initiate an inquiry, and judges rarely ask witnesses questions directly during trial . In some United States jurisdictions, it

2358-470: A total of four people in various Baltic cities in 1402–1403. In the last decade of the 14th century, episcopal inquisitors carried out large-scale operations against heretics in eastern Germany, Pomerania, Austria, and Hungary. In Pomerania, of 443 sentenced in the years 1392–1394 by the inquisitor Peter Zwicker, the provincial of the Celestinians, none went to the stake, because they all submitted to

2489-616: A visit to Rome. The letters of Ignatius of Antioch and Polycarp of Smyrna to various churches warned against false teachers, and the Epistle of Barnabas accepted by many Christians as part of Scripture in the 2nd century, warned about mixing Judaism with Christianity , as did other writers, leading to decisions reached in the first ecumenical council , which was convoked by the Emperor Constantine at Nicaea in 325, in response to further disruptive polemical controversy within

2620-693: Is at stake. Between 1237 and 1279, at least 507 convictions were passed in Toulouse (most in absentia or posthumously) resulting in the confiscation of property; in Albi between 1240 and 1252 there were 60 sentences of this type. The activities of Bernard Gui, inquisitor of Toulouse from 1307 to 1323, are better documented, as a complete record of his trials has been preserved. During the entire period of his inquisitorial activity, he handed down 633 sentences against 602 people (31 repeat offenders), including: In addition, Bernard Gui issued 274 more sentences involving

2751-449: Is common practice for jurors to submit questions to the court that they believe were not resolved in direct or cross-examination . After testimony and other evidence are presented and summarized in arguments, the jury will declare a verdict (literally true statement ) and in some jurisdictions the reasoning behind the verdict; however, discussions among jurors cannot be made public except in extraordinary circumstances. Appeals on

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2882-411: Is disputed by Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy . Present-day nontrinitarians , such as Unitarians , Latter-day Saints and other Mormons , and Jehovah's Witnesses , reject all seven Councils. Some Eastern Orthodox consider the following council to be ecumenical, although this is not universally agreed upon: Some individual examples of the execution of Eastern Orthodox heretics do exist, such as

3013-583: Is not known how many of them were actually carried out, only six people captured in 1382 are confirmed to be executed. In the 15th and 16th centuries, major trials took place only sporadically, e.g. against the Waldensians in Delphinate in 1430–1432 (no numerical data) and 1532–1533 (7 executed out of about 150 tried) or the aforementioned trial in Arras 1459–1460 . In the 16th century, the jurisdiction of

3144-758: Is the Hussite movement in the Czech lands in the early 15th century. The last person to be burned alive at the stake on orders from Rome was Giordano Bruno , executed in 1600 for a collection of heretical beliefs including Copernicanism , belief of an unlimited universe with innumerable inhabited worlds, opinions contrary to the Catholic faith about the Trinity, divinity of Christ, and Incarnation. Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon , who played an instrumental part in

3275-547: Is the prevalent legal system in Continental Europe , Latin America , African countries not formerly under British rule, East Asia (except Hong Kong ), Indochina , Thailand , and Indonesia . Most countries with an inquisitorial system also have some form of civil code as their main source of law. Countries using common law, including the United States , may use an inquisitorial system for summary hearings in

3406-570: The Marranos (people who were forced to abandon Judaism against their will by violence and threats of expulsion) and on Muslim converts to Catholicism , as a result of suspicions that they had secretly reverted to their previous religions, as well as the fear of possible rebellions and armed uprisings , as had occurred in previous times. Spain and Portugal also operated inquisitorial courts not only in Europe , but also throughout their empires:

3537-707: The Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229). The Inquisition was permanently established in 1229 ( Council of Toulouse ), run largely by the Dominicans in Rome and later at Carcassonne in Languedoc. In 1252, the Papal Bull Ad extirpanda , following another assassination by Cathars, charged the head of state with funding and selecting inquisitors from monastic orders; this caused friction by establishing

3668-609: The Bishop of Brescia , Paolo Zane, sent some 70 witches from Val Camonica to the stake. The Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229) a crusade proclaimed by the Catholic Church against heresy, mainly Catharism , with many thousands of victims (men, women and children, some of them Catholics), had already paved the way for the later Inquisition. France has the best preserved archives of medieval inquisitions (13th–14th centuries), although they are still very incomplete. The activity of

3799-716: 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

3930-614: The Catholic Church has convened numerous other councils which it deems as having the same authority, making a total of twenty-one Ecumenical Councils recognised by the Catholic Church. The Assyrian Church of the East accepts only the first two, and Oriental Orthodoxy only three. Pope Sergius I rejected the Quinisext Council of 692 (see also Pentarchy ). The Fourth Council of Constantinople of 869–870 and 879–880

4061-468: The Code of criminal procedure of 1808 on 16 November 1808, that the classical procedures of inquisition were ended in all German territories. In the development of modern legal institutions that took place in the 19th century, for the most part jurisdictions codified their private law and criminal law , and reviewed and codified the rules of civil procedure as well. It was through this development that

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4192-484: The Conseil d'État , litigation proceedings are markedly more inquisitorial. Most of the procedure is conducted in writing; the plaintiff writes to the court, which asks explanations from the administration or public service concerned; when answered, the court may then ask further detail from the plaintiff, etc. When the case is sufficiently complete, the lawsuit opens in court; however, the parties are not required to attend

4323-681: The Dominican Order , replacing the earlier practice of using local clergy as judges. Inquisitions also expanded to other European countries, resulting in the Spanish Inquisition and the Portuguese Inquisition . The Spanish and Portuguese inquisitions often focused on the New Christians or Conversos (the former Jews who converted to Christianity to avoid antisemitic regulations and persecution),

4454-1046: The Goa Inquisition , the Peruvian Inquisition , and the Mexican Inquisition , among others. Inquisitions conducted in the Papal States were known as the Roman Inquisition . With the exception of the Papal States, ecclessiastical inquisition courts were abolished in the early 19th century, after the Napoleonic Wars in Europe and the Spanish American wars of independence in the Americas. The scope of

4585-668: The New York City Traffic Violations Bureau are held before an adjudicator, who also functions as a prosecutor. They question witnesses before rendering judgements and setting fines. These types of tribunals or boards function as an expedited form of justice, in which the state agents conduct an initial investigation and the adjudicator's job is to confirm these preliminary findings through a simplified form of procedure that grants some basic amount of due process or fundamental justice . The accused party has an opportunity to place his or her objections on

4716-622: The Trinity are co-equal and co-eternal. It was only after the legalisation of Christianity, which began under Constantine I in AD ;313 that the various beliefs of the proto-orthodox Church began to be made uniform and formulated as dogma, through the canons promulgated by the General Councils . The first known usage of the term 'heresy' in a civil legal context was in 380 by the " Edict of Thessalonica " of Theodosius I. Prior to

4847-435: The Waldensians in both southern France and northern Italy. Other inquisitions followed after these first inquisition movements. The legal basis for some inquisitorial activity came from Pope Innocent IV 's papal bull Ad extirpanda of 1252, which authorized the use of tortures in certain circumstances by inquisitors for eliciting confessions and denunciations from heretics. By 1256 Alexander IV's Ut negotium allowed

4978-607: The canon law of the Catholic Church . Although the term "Inquisition" is usually applied to ecclesiastical courts of the Catholic Church, in the Middle Ages it properly referred to a judicial process, not any organization. The term "Inquisition" comes from the Medieval Latin word inquisitio , which described a court process based on Roman law , which came back into use during the Late Middle Ages . It

5109-428: The "infamy" of the defendant (rather than a formal denunciation or accusation) to prevent fishing, or charging for private opinions. However, such inquisitions could proceed with minimal distraction by lawyers, the identity of witnesses was protected, tainted witness were allowed, and once found guilty of heresy there was no right to a lawyer. However, many inquisitors did not followed these rules scrupulously, notably from

5240-426: The "secular arm", would then determine the penalty based on local law. Those local laws included proscriptions against certain religious crimes, and the punishments included death by burning in regions where the secular law equated persistent heresy with sedition, although the penalty was more usually banishment or imprisonment for life, which was generally commuted after a few years. Thus the inquisitors generally knew

5371-479: The "worst of all heresies". He taught that Christian believers are bound to follow the moral law for their sanctification . Methodist Christians thus teach the necessity of following the moral law as contained in the Ten Commandments, citing Jesus' teaching, "If ye love me, keep my commandments" (cf. Saint John 14:15). In the 17th century, Jansenism , which taught the doctrine of predestination ,

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5502-526: The (possibly secret) testimony of those witnesses accused a person of a crime, that person could be summoned and tried. In 1215, the Fourth Council of the Lateran affirmed the use of the inquisitional system. The council forbade clergy from conducting trials by ordeal or combat. As a result, in parts of continental Europe, the ecclesiastical courts operating under the inquisitional procedure became

5633-616: The 15th to 18th centuries. Portugal and Spain in the late Middle Ages consisted largely of multicultural territories of Muslim and Jewish influence, reconquered from Islamic control , and the new Christian authorities could not assume that all their subjects would suddenly become and remain orthodox Catholics. So the Inquisition in Iberia , in the lands of the Reconquista counties and kingdoms like León , Castile , and Aragon , had

5764-576: The Christ that there would be false prophets or false teachers. Irenaeus' opponents also claimed that the wellsprings of divine inspiration were not dried up, which is the doctrine of continuing revelation . The earliest controversies in Late Antiquity were generally Christological in nature, concerning the interpretation of Jesus' (eternal) divinity and humanity. In the 4th century, Arius and Arianism held that Jesus, while not merely mortal,

5895-479: The Christian community, in that case Arianist disputes over the nature of the Trinity. Irenaeus ( c.  130  – c.  202 ) was the first to argue that his orthodox position was the same faith that Jesus gave to the apostles , and that the identity of the apostles, their successors, and the teachings of the same were all well-known public knowledge. This was therefore an early argument supported by apostolic succession . Irenaeus first established

6026-566: The Church. Bloodier were the trials of the Waldensians in Austria in 1397, where more than a hundred Waldensians were burned at the stake. However, it seems that in these trials the death sentences represented only a small percentage of all the sentences, because according to the account of one of the inquisitors involved in these repressions, the number of heretics reconciled with the Church from Thuringia to Hungary amounted to about 2,000. In 1414,

6157-679: The Dominican inquisitor Andrew reconciled many heretics with the Church in the town of Skradin, but precise figures are unknown. The border areas with Bohemia and Austria were under major inquisitorial action against the Waldensians in the early 15th century. In addition, in the years 1436–1440 in the Kingdom of Hungary, the Franciscan Jacobo de la Marcha acted as an inquisitor... his mission was mixed, preaching and inquisitorial. The correspondence preserved between James, his collaborators,

6288-500: The Empire. The inquisitorial tribunal in papal Avignon, established in 1541, passed 855 death sentences, almost all of them (818) in the years 1566–1574, but the vast majority of them were pronounced in absentia. The Rhineland and Thuringia in the years 1231–1233 were the field of activity of the notorious inquisitor Konrad of Marburg. Unfortunately, the documentation of his trials has not been preserved, making it impossible to determine

6419-541: The English adversarial system. The main feature of the inquisitorial system in criminal justice in France , and other countries functioning along the same lines, is the function of the examining or investigating judge ( juge d'instruction ), also called a magistrate judge. The examining judge conducts investigations into serious crimes or complex inquiries. As a member of the judiciary , they are independent and outside

6550-523: The Hungarian bishops and Pope Eugene IV shows that he reconciled up to 25,000 people with the Church. This correspondence also shows that he punished recalcitrant heretics with death, and in 1437 numerous executions were carried out in the diocese of Sirmium, although the number of those executed is also unknown. In Bohemia and Poland, the inquisition was established permanently in 1318, although anti-heretical repressions were carried out as early as 1315 in

6681-465: The Middle Ages whose teachings were deemed heretical by the established church, such as: At the beginning of the 13th century, the Catholic Church instituted the papal or monastic Inquisition , an official body charged with the suppression of heresy. This began as an extension and more rigorous enforcement of pre-existing episcopal powers (possessed, but little used, by bishops in the early Middle Ages) to inquire about and suppress heresy, but later became

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6812-536: The United States. In theory, the defendant must allocute or "voice" his or her crimes in open court, and the judge must believe the defendant is telling the truth about his or her guilt. In an inquisitorial system, a confession of guilt would not be regarded as ground for a guilty verdict. The prosecutor is required to provide evidence supporting a guilty verdict. But this requirement is not unique to inquisitorial systems, as many or most adversarial systems impose

6943-508: The adult inhabitants (5,471 people) were questioned, of whom 207 were found guilty of heresy. Of these 207, no one was sentenced to death, 23 were sentenced to prison and 184 to penance. Between 1246 and 1248, the inquisitors Bernard de Caux and Jean de Saint-Pierre handed down 192 sentences in Toulouse, of which 43 were sentences in absentia and 149 were prison sentences. In Pamiers in 1246/1247 there were 7 prison sentences [201] and in Limoux in

7074-472: The adversarial system. The adversarial principle that a person could not be tried until formally accused continued to apply for most criminal cases. In 1215 this principle became enshrined as article 38 of the Magna Carta : "No bailiff for the future shall, upon his own unsupported complaint, put anyone to his law, without credible witnesses brought for this purposes." The first territory to wholly adopt

7205-470: The apostolic period. They had different interpretations of Scripture , particularly the divinity of Jesus and the nature of the Trinity . Some of the major sects , cults and movements with different interpretations of Scripture from those of the Proto-Orthodox church were: Before AD 313, the heretical nature of some beliefs was a matter of much debate within the churches , and there

7336-575: The armed assistance of local secular authorities (e.g. military expeditions in 1338–1339 and 1366). In the years 1375–1393 (with some breaks), the Dauphiné was the scene of the activities of the inquisitor Francois Borel, who gained an extremely gloomy reputation among the locals. It is known that on July 1, 1380, he pronounced death sentences in absentia against 169 people, including 108 from the Valpute valley, 32 from Argentiere and 29 from Freyssiniere. It

7467-482: The basis of factual issues, such as sufficiency of the sum total of evidence that was properly admitted, are subject to a standard of review that is in most jurisdictions deferential to the judgment of the fact-finder at trial, be that a judge or a jury. The failure of a prosecutor to disclose evidence to the defense, for example, or a violation of the defendant's constitutional rights ( legal representation , right to remain silent , an open and public trial ) can trigger

7598-631: The bull Ad Abolendam (1184), which condemned heresy as contumacy toward ecclesiastical authority. The bull Vergentis in Senium in 1199 stipulated that heresy would be considered, in terms of punishment, equal to treason ( Lèse-majesté ) , and the punishment would be imposed also on the descendants of the condemned. The first Inquisition was temporarily established in Languedoc (south of France) in 1184. The murder of Pope Innocent III's papal legate Pierre de Castelnau by Cathars in 1208 sparked

7729-522: The case of misdemeanors or infractions , such as minor traffic violations. The distinction between an adversarial and inquisitorial system is theoretically unrelated to the distinction between a civil legal and common-law system. Some legal scholars consider inquisitorial misleading, and prefer the word nonadversarial . The function is often vested in the office of the public procurator , as in China , Japan , and Germany . In an inquisitorial system,

7860-491: The civil law is purely inquisitorial and the common law adversarial. The ancient Roman custom of arbitration has now been adapted in many common-law jurisdictions to a more inquisitorial form. In some mixed civil law systems, such as those in Scotland , Quebec , and Louisiana , while the substantive law is civil in nature and evolution, the procedural codes that have developed over the last few hundred years are based upon

7991-461: The county of Foix 156 people were sentenced to carry crosses. Between 1249 and 1257, in Toulouse, the inquisitors handed down 306 sentences, without counting the penitential sentences imposed during "times of grace". 21 people were sentenced to death, 239 to prison, in addition, 30 people were sentenced in absentia and 11 posthumously; In another five cases the type of sanction is unknown, but since they all involve repeat offenders, only prison or burning

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8122-411: The court appearance. This method reflects the fact that administrative lawsuits are for the most part about matters of formal procedure and technicalities. Certain administrative proceedings within some common-law jurisdictions in the United States may be similar to their civil law counterparts but are conducted on a more inquisitorial model. For instance tribunals dealing with minor traffic violations at

8253-490: The difficulties in deciding cases, procedures such as trial by ordeal or combat were accepted. Beginning in 1198, Pope Innocent III issued a series of decretals that reformed the ecclesiastical court system. Under the new processus per inquisitionem (inquisitional procedure), an ecclesiastical magistrate no longer required a formal accusation to summon and try a defendant. Instead, an ecclesiastical court could summon and interrogate witnesses of its own initiative. If

8384-483: The doctrine of four gospels and no more, with the synoptic gospels interpreted in the light of the Gospel of John . Irenaeus' opponents, however, claimed to have received secret teachings from Jesus via other apostles which were not publicly known. Gnosticism is predicated on the existence of such hidden knowledge, but brief references to private teachings of Jesus have also survived in the canonic Scripture as did warning by

8515-461: The domain of selected Dominicans and Franciscans under the direct power of the Pope. The use of torture to extract confessions was authorized by Innocent IV in 1252. The Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229) was part of the Catholic Church 's efforts to crush the Cathars . It is linked to the movement now known as the Medieval Inquisition . Another example of a medieval movement condemend as heretic

8646-409: The dominant method by which disputes were adjudicated. In France, the parlements — lay courts — also employed inquisitorial proceedings. In England, however, King Henry II had established separate secular courts during the 1160s. While the ecclesiastical courts of England, like those on the continent, adopted the inquisitional system, the secular common law courts continued to operate under

8777-465: The episcopal inquisition, when more than 50 Waldensians were burned in various Silesian cities. The fragmentary surviving protocols of the investigations carried out by the Prague inquisitor Gallus de Neuhaus in the years 1335 to around 1353 mention 14 heretics burned out of almost 300 interrogated, but it is estimated that the actual number executed could have been even more than 200, and the entire process

8908-476: The evils they would commit"). Before the 12th century , the Catholic Church suppressed what they believed to be heresy , usually through a system of ecclesiastical proscription or imprisonment, but without using torture, and seldom resorting to executions. Such punishments were opposed by a number of clergymen and theologians, although some countries punished heresy with the death penalty . Pope Siricius , Ambrose of Milan , and Martin of Tours protested against

9039-607: The execution of Avvakum in 1682. From the late 11th century onward, heresy once again came to be a concern for Catholic authorities, as reports became increasingly common. The reasons for this are still not fully understood, but the causes for this new period of heresy include popular response to the 11th-century clerical reform movement, greater lay familiarity with the Bible , exclusion of lay people from sacramental activity, and more rigorous definition and supervision of Catholic dogma . The question of how heresy should be suppressed

9170-621: The execution of Priscillian , largely as an undue interference in ecclesiastical discipline by a civil tribunal. Though widely viewed as a heretic, Priscillian was executed as a sorcerer. Ambrose refused to give any recognition to Ithacius of Ossonuba, "not wishing to have anything to do with bishops who had sent heretics to their death". In the 12th century, to counter the spread of Catharism , and other heresies, prosecution of heretics became more frequent. The Church charged councils composed of bishops and archbishops with establishing inquisitions (the Episcopal Inquisition ). Pope Lucius III issued

9301-431: The expected fate of anyone so remanded. The "secular arm" didn't have access to the trial record of the defendants, only declared and executed the sentences and was obliged to do so on pain of heresy and excommunication. While the notational purpose of the trial itself was for the salvation of the individual by persuasion, according to the 1578 edition of the Directorium Inquisitorum (a standard manual for inquisitions)

9432-439: The extolling of natural over supernatural virtues, the preference of active over passive virtues, the rejection of religious vows as not compatible with Christian liberty, and the adoption of a new method of apologetics and approach to non-Catholics." Cardinal James Gibbons responded to Pope Leo XIII that no educated Catholic Christian in the United States subscribed to these condemned doctrines. The last case of an execution by

9563-486: The fall of Montsegur and the seizure of power in Toulouse by Count Alfonso de Poitiers , the percentage of death sentences increased to around 7% and remained at this level until the end of the Languedoc Inquisition around from 1330. Between 1245 and 1246, the inquisitor Bernard de Caux carried out a large-scale investigation in the area of Lauragais and Lavaur . He covered 39 villages, and probably all

9694-789: The fall of the fortress of Montsegur (1244), probably accounted for no more than 1% of all sentences. In addition to the cremation of the remains of the dead, a large percentage were also sentences in absentia and penances imposed on heretics who voluntarily confessed their faults (for example, in the years 1241–1242 the inquisitor Pierre Ceila reconciled 724 heretics with the Church). Inquisitor Ferrier of Catalonia, investigating Montauban between 1242 and 1244, questioned about 800 people, of whom he sentenced 6 to death and 20 to prison. Between 1243 and 1245, Bernard de Caux handed down 25 sentences of imprisonment and confiscation of property in Agen and Cahors. After

9825-474: The first few years, it was not very intense. France's first Dominican inquisitor, Robert le Bougre , working in the years 1233–1244, earned a particularly grim reputation. In 1236, Robert burned about 50 people in the area of Champagne and Flanders, and on May 13, 1239, in Montwimer, he burned 183 Cathars. Following Robert's removal from office, Inquisition activity in northern France remained very low. One of

9956-600: The formation of the Lutheran Churches condemned Johannes Agricola and his doctrine of antinomianism —the belief that Christians were free from the moral law contained in the Ten Commandments —as a heresy. Traditional Lutheranism, espoused by Luther himself, teaches that after justification, "the Law of God continued to guide people in how they were to live before God". Among the positions in violation of

10087-418: The heretical behaviour of Catholic adherents or converts (including forced converts). As with sedition inquisitions, heresy inquisitions were supposed to use the standard inquisition procedures: these included that the defendant must be informed of the charges, has a right to a lawyer, and a right of appeal (to the Pope.) The inquisitor could only start a heresy proceeding if there was some broad public opinion of

10218-575: The initiative of bishops. In the years 1311–1315, numerous trials were held against the Waldensians in Austria, resulting in the burning of at least 39 people, according to incomplete records. In 1336, in Angermünde , in the diocese of Brandenburg, another 14 heretics were burned. The number of those convicted by the papal inquisitors was smaller. Walter Kerlinger burned 10 begards in Erfurt and Nordhausen in 1368–1369. In turn, Eylard Schöneveld burned

10349-491: The inquisition in this country was very diverse, both in terms of time and territory. In the first period (1233 to c. 1330), the courts of Languedoc ( Toulouse , Carcassonne ) are the most active. After 1330 the center of the persecution of heretics shifted to the Alpine regions , while in Languedoc they ceased almost entirely. In northern France, the activity of the inquisitors was irregular throughout this period and, except for

10480-578: The inquisition was that of the schoolmaster Cayetano Ripoll , accused of deism by the waning Spanish Inquisition and hanged on 26 July 1826 in Valencia after a two-year trial. Some of the doctrines of Protestantism that the Catholic Church considers heretical are the belief that the Bible is the only supremely authoritative source and rule of faith and practice in Christianity ( sola scriptura ), that only by faith alone can anyone ever accept

10611-717: The inquisitional system was the Holy Roman Empire . The new German legal process was introduced as part of the Wormser Reformation of 1498 and then the Constitutio Criminalis Bambergensis of 1507. The adoption of the Constitutio Criminalis Carolina ( peinliche Gerichtsordnung of Charles V ) in 1532 made inquisitional procedures empirical law. It was not until Napoleon introduced

10742-765: The inquisitions grew significantly in response to the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation . In 1542, a putative governing institution, the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition was created. The papal institution survived as part of the Roman Curia , although it underwent a series of name and focus changes. The opening of Spanish and Roman archives over

10873-527: The inquisitor Heinrich von Schöneveld arrested 84 flagellants in Sangerhausen , of whom he burned 3 leaders, and imposed penitential sentences on the rest. However, since this sect was associated with the peasant revolts in Thuringia from 1412, after the departure of the inquisitor, the local authorities organized a mass hunt for flagellants and, regardless of their previous verdicts, sent at least 168 to

11004-491: The inquisitors in the kingdom of France was effectively limited to clergymen, while local parliaments took over the jurisdiction of the laity. Between 1500 and 1560, 62 people were burned for heresy in the Languedoc, all of whom were convicted by the Parliament of Toulouse. Between 1657 and 1659, twenty-two alleged witches were burned on the orders of the inquisitor Pierre Symard in the province of Franche-Comté, then part of

11135-417: The inquisitors to absolve each other if they used instruments of torture. In the 13th century, Pope Gregory IX (reigned 1227–1241) assigned the duty of carrying out inquisitions to the Dominican Order and Franciscan Order . By the end of the Middle Ages, England and Castile were the only large western nations without a papal inquisition. Most inquisitors were friars who taught theology and/or law in

11266-529: The instructions of the office of the Holy Inquisitio n). Later additions would be made, based on experience, many by the canonist Francisco Peña. With the sharpening of debate and of conflict between the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation , Protestant societies came to see/use the Inquisition as a terrifying " other ", while staunch Catholics regarded the Holy Office as

11397-566: The investigation of a case, often assessing material by police and consulting with the prosecutor. The inquisitorial system applies to questions of criminal procedure at trial, not substantive law ; that is, it determines how criminal inquiries and trials are conducted, not the kind of crimes for which one can be prosecuted or the sentences that they carry. It is most readily used in some civil legal systems . However, some jurists do not recognize this dichotomy, and see procedure and substantive legal relationships as being interconnected and part of

11528-565: The issuance of this edict, the Church had no state-sponsored support for any particular legal mechanism to counter what it perceived as 'heresy'. By this edict, in some senses, the line between the Christian Church's spiritual authority and the Roman State's jurisdiction was blurred . One of the outcomes of this blurring of Church and State was a sharing of State powers of legal enforcement between Church and State authorities, with

11659-419: The judge to act, and may appeal the judge's decisions before an appellate court. The scope of the inquiry is limited by the mandate given by the prosecutor's office: the examining judge cannot open a criminal investigation sua sponte . In the past the examining judge could order committal of the accused, this power being subject to appeal. However, this is no longer authorized, and other judges have to approve

11790-489: The largest trials in the area took place in 1459–1460 at Arras ; 34 people were then accused of witchcraft and satanism, 12 of them were burned at the stake. The main center of the medieval inquisition was undoubtedly the Languedoc. The first inquisitors were appointed there in 1233, but due to strong resistance from local communities in the early years, most sentences concerned dead heretics, whose bodies were exhumed and burned. Actual executions occurred sporadically and, until

11921-449: The last 50 years has caused historians to substantially revise their understanding of the Inquisition, some to the extent of viewing previous views as "a body of legends and myths". Many famous instruments of torture are now considered fakes and propaganda. Today, the English term "Inquisition" is popularly applied to any one of the regional tribunals or later national institutions that worked against heretics or other offenders against

12052-440: The late 1300s: many inquisitors had theological not legal training. The overwhelming majority of guilty sentences with repentance seem to have consisted of penances like wearing a cross sewn on one's clothes or going on pilgrimage . When a suspect was convicted of major, wilful, unrepentant heresy, canon law required the inquisitorial tribunal to hand the person over to secular authorities for final sentencing. A secular magistrate,

12183-528: The mid 19th century. Only fragmentary data is available for the period before the Roman Inquisition of 1542. In 1276, some 170 Cathars were captured in Sirmione , who were then imprisoned in Verona , and there, after a two-year trial, on February 13 from 1278, more than a hundred of them were burned. In Orvieto , at the end of 1268/1269, 85 heretics were sentenced, none of whom were executed, but in 18 cases

12314-473: The mitigation of sentences already served to convicted heretics; in 139 cases he exchanged prison for carrying crosses, and in 135 cases, carrying crosses for pilgrimage. To the full statistics, there are 22 orders to demolish houses used by heretics as meeting places and one condemnation and burning of Jewish writings (including commentaries on the Torah). The episcopal inquisition was also active in Languedoc. In

12445-559: The number of his victims. The chronicles only mention "many" heretics that he burned. The only concrete information is about the burning of four people in Erfurt in May 1232. After the murder of Konrad of Marburg, burning at the stake in Germany was virtually unknown for the next 80 years. It was not until the early fourteenth century that stronger measures were taken against heretics, largely at

12576-471: The party spirit. The word appears in the New Testament , usually translated as sect , and was appropriated by the Church to mean a sect or division that threatened the unity of Christians. Heresy eventually became regarded as a departure from orthodoxy , a sense in which heterodoxy was already in Christian use soon after the year 100. Heresy is used today to denote the formal denial or doubt of

12707-454: The penalties themselves were preventative not retributive: ... quoniam punitio non refertur primo & per se in correctionem & bonum eius qui punitur, sed in bonum publicum ut alij terreantur, & a malis committendis avocentur (translation: "... for punishment does not take place primarily and per se for the correction and good of the person punished, but for the public good in order that others may become terrified and weaned away from

12838-515: The position of orthodoxy , and the relationship between the early Church and early heretical groups is a matter of academic debate. Walter Bauer , in his Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity (1934/1971), proposed that in earliest Christianity, orthodoxy and heresy did not stand in relation to one another as primary to secondary, but in many regions heresy was the original manifestation of Christianity. Bauer reassessed as

12969-493: The process of self-definition for centuries, defining itself in terms of its faith by clarifying beliefs in opposition to people or doctrines that are perceived as incorrect. The word heresy comes from haeresis , a Latin transliteration of the Greek word αἵρεσις originally meaning choosing, choice, course of action, or in an extended sense a sect or school of thought, which by the first century came to denote warring factions and

13100-674: The province of the executive branch, and therefore separate from the Office of Public Prosecutions, which is supervised by the Minister of Justice . Despite high media attention and frequent portrayals in TV series, examining judges are active in a small minority of cases. In 2005, there were 1.1 million criminal rulings in France, while only 33,000 new cases were investigated by judges. The vast majority of cases are therefore investigated directly by law enforcement agencies ( police , gendarmerie ) under

13231-409: The public prosecutor rules the charges to be insufficient). The judge questions witnesses, interrogates suspects, and orders searches for other investigations. Their role is not to prosecute the accused, but to gather facts, and as such their duty is to look for any and all evidence , whether incriminating or exculpatory ( à charge et à décharge ). Both the prosecution and the defense may request

13362-428: The record. Christian heresy Heresy in Christianity denotes the formal denial or doubt of a core doctrine of the Christian faith as defined by one or more of the Christian churches . The study of heresy requires an understanding of the development of orthodoxy and the role of creeds in the definition of orthodox beliefs, since heresy is always defined in relation to orthodoxy. Orthodoxy has been in

13493-416: The role of an inquisitorial system became enshrined in most European civilian legal systems. However, there exist significant differences of operating methods and procedures between 18th century ancien régime courts and 19th-century courts. In particular, limits on the powers of investigators were typically added, as well as increased rights of the defense. It is too much of a generalization to say that

13624-409: The secular courts for the application of local law, which generally resulted in execution or life imprisonment . If the accused was known to be lying, a single short application of non-maiming torture was allowed, to corroborate evidence. Inquisitions with the aim of combating religious sedition (e.g. apostasy or heresy ) had their start in the 12th-century Kingdom of France , particularly among

13755-526: The sentence concerned people who had already died. In Tuscany , the inquisitor Ruggiero burned at least 11 people in about a year (1244/1245). Excluding the executions of the heretics at Sirmione in 1278, 36 Inquisition executions are documented in the March of Treviso between 1260 and 1308. Ten people were executed in Bologna between 1291 and 1310. In Piedmont , 22 heretics (mainly Waldensians ) were burned in

13886-586: The stake (possibly up to 300) people. Inquisitor Friedrich Müller (d. 1460) sentenced to death 12 of the 13 heretics he had tried in 1446 at Nordhausen. In 1453 the same inquisitor burned 2 heretics in Göttingen . Inquisitor Heinrich Kramer , author of the Malleus Maleficarum , in his own words, sentenced 48 people to the stake in five years (1481–1486). Jacob Hoogstraten, inquisitor of Cologne from 1508 to 1527, sentenced four people to be burned at

14017-535: The stake. A duke of Brunswick in German was so shocked by the methods used by Inquisitors in his realm that he asked two famous Jesuit scholars to supervise. After careful study, the two 'told the Duke, "The Inquisitors are doing their duty. They are arresting only people who have been implicated by the confession of other witches."' The Duke then led the Jesuits to a woman being stretched on the rack and asked her, "You are

14148-810: The state enforcing what it determined to be orthodox teaching. Within five years of the official criminalization of heresy by the emperor, the first Christian heretic, Priscillian , was executed in 385 by Roman officials. For some years after the Protestant Reformation , Protestant denominations were also known to execute those whom they considered heretics. The edict of Theodosius II (435) provided severe punishments for those who had or spread writings of Nestorius. Those who possessed writings of Arius were sentenced to death. Seven councils considered by main Christian denominations as ecumenical were convened between 325 and 787. These were mostly concerned with Christological disputes: Not all of these Councils have been universally recognised as ecumenical . In addition,

14279-415: The supervision of the Office of Public Prosecutions ( procureurs ). Examining judges are used for serious crimes, e.g., murder and rape , and for crimes involving complexity, such as embezzlement , misuse of public funds, and corruption . The case may be brought before the examining judge either by the public prosecutor ( procureur ) or, more rarely, by the victim (who may compel an instruction even if

14410-500: The torture until you confess, my friends?" One of the Jesuits was Friedrich Spee , who thanked God he had been led to this insight by a friend, not an enemy. Very little is known about the activities of inquisitors in Hungary and the countries under its influence (Bosnia, Croatia), as there are few sources about this activity. Numerous conversions and executions of Bosnian Cathars are known to have taken place around 1239/40, and in 1268

14541-478: The trial judges (mostly plural in serious crimes) are inquisitors who actively participate in fact-finding public inquiry by questioning defense lawyers, prosecutors, and witnesses. They could even order certain pieces of evidence to be examined if they find presentation by the defense or prosecution to be inadequate. Prior to the case getting to trial, magistrate judges ( juges d'instruction in France) participate in

14672-464: The trial stage. Conversely, the guilty plea and plea bargaining were until recently unknown to French law. They are accepted only for crimes for which the prosecution seeks a sentence not exceeding one year imprisonment. Therefore, most cases go to trial, including cases where the prosecution is almost sure to gain a conviction. In countries such as the United States, the latter cases would be settled by plea bargain. In administrative courts , such as

14803-485: The universities. They used inquisitorial procedures , a common legal practice adapted from the earlier Ancient Roman court procedures. They judged heresy along with bishops and groups of "assessors" (clergy serving in a role that was roughly analogous to a jury or legal advisers), using the local authorities to establish a tribunal and to prosecute heretics. After 1200, a Grand Inquisitor headed but did not control each regional Inquisition. Grand Inquisitions persisted until

14934-744: The use of the inquisitors, the first in 1552 at the behest of the inquisitor Cardinal D. Henrique and the last in 1774, this sponsored by the Marquis of Pombal . The Portuguese 1640 Regiment determined that each court of the Holy Office should have a Bible, a compendium of canon and civil law, Eymerich's Directorium Inquisitorum, and Diego de Simancas ' Catholicis institutionibus . In 1484, Spanish inquisitor Torquemada, based in Nicholas Eymerich's Directorium Inquisitorum , wrote his twenty eight articles code, Compilación de las instrucciones del oficio de la Santa Inquisición (i.e. Compilation of

15065-421: The various manuals produced later, some stand out: by Nicholas Eymerich, Directorium Inquisitorum, written in 1376; by Bernardo Gui, Practica inquisitionis heretice pravitatis, written between 1319 and 1323. Witches were not forgotten: the book Malleus Maleficarum ("the witches' hammer"), written in 1486, by Heinrich Kramer, deals with the subject. In Portugal, several "Regimentos" (four) were written for

15196-599: The views of the Catholic Church that Luther had taken when he was a Catholic priest were, " Haereticos comburi est contra voluntatem Spiritus " (It is contrary to the Spirit to burn heretics). This phrase was the name given to summarized version of his comments that were included in Exsurge Domine , a 1520 papal bull that listed his anti-heretic killing sympathies along with 40 other positions Luther had taken in his writings that were allegedly heretical, and which he

15327-449: The voluntary accusations of a sufficient number of witnesses, or by an inquest (an early form of grand jury ) convened specifically for that purpose. A weakness of this system was that, because it relied on the voluntary accusations of witnesses, and because the penalties for making a false accusation were severe, victims and would-be witnesses could be hesitant to make accusations to the court, for fear of implicating themselves. Because of

15458-589: The years 1232–1234, the Bishop of Toulouse, Raymond, sentenced several dozen Cathars to death. In turn, Bishop Jacques Fournier of Pamiers (he was later Pope Benedict XII) in the years 1318–1325 conducted an investigation against 89 people, of whom 64 were found guilty and 5 were sentenced to death. After 1330, the center of activity of the French inquisitions moved east, to the Alpine regions, where there were numerous Waldensian communities. The repression against them

15589-544: The years 1312–1395 out of 213 convicted. 22 Waldensians were burned in Cuneo around 1440 and another five in the Marquisate of Saluzzo in 1510. There are also fragmentary records of a good number of executions of people suspected of witchcraft in northern Italy in the 15th and early 16th centuries. Wolfgang Behringer estimates that there could have been as many as two thousand executions. This large number of witches executed

15720-419: Was a new, less arbitrary form of trial that replaced the denunciatio and accussatio process which required a denouncer or used an adversarial process, the most unjust being trial by ordeal and the secular Germanic trial by combat . These inquisitions, as church courts, had no jurisdiction over Muslims and Jews as such, to try or to protect them. Inquisitors 'were called such because they applied

15851-435: Was also high in other cities, such as Córdoba , Valencia , and Barcelona. One of the consequences of these pogroms was the mass conversion of thousands of surviving Jews. Forced baptism was contrary to the law of the Catholic Church, and theoretically anybody who had been forcibly baptized could legally return to Judaism. However, this was very narrowly interpreted. Legal definitions of the time theoretically acknowledged that

15982-539: Was covered to varying degrees by some 4,400 people. In the lands belonging to the Kingdom of Poland little is known of the activities of the Inquisition until the appearance of the Hussite heresy in the 15th century. Polish courts of the inquisition in the fight against this heresy issued at least 8 death sentences for some 200 trials carried out. There are 558 court cases finished with conviction researched in Poland from

16113-486: Was fragmented, and with contemporaneous competing orthodoxies. Ehrman's view is that while the specifics of Bauer's demonstration were later rejected, his intuitions are broadly accepted by scholars and were confirmed beyond what Bauer might have guessed. According to H. E. W. Turner , responding to Bauer's thesis in 1954, "what became official orthodoxy was taught early on by the majority of church teachers, albeit not in fully developed form." According to Darrell Bock ,

16244-418: Was merely an illusion, thus denying the incarnation. Others held that both the material and spiritual worlds were created by God and were therefore both good, and that this was represented in the unified divine and human natures of Christ. The orthodox teaching, as it developed in response to these interpretations, is that Christ was fully divine and at the same time fully human, and that the three persons of

16375-551: Was no true mechanism in place to resolve the various differences of beliefs. Heresy was to be approached by the leader of the church according to Eusebius , author of the Church History . Early attacks upon alleged heresies formed the matter of Tertullian 's Prescription Against Heretics (in 44 chapters, written from Rome), and of Irenaeus' Against Heresies (c. 180, in five volumes), written in Lyon after his return from

16506-531: Was not continuous and was very ineffective. Data on sentences issued by inquisitors are fragmentary. In 1348, 12 Waldensians were burned in Embrun , and in 1353/1354 as many as 168 received penances. In general, however, few Waldensians fell into the hands of the inquisitors, for they took refuge in hard-to-reach mountainous regions, where they formed close-knit communities. Inquisitors operating in this region, in order to be able to conduct trials, often had to resort to

16637-648: Was not eternally divine and was, therefore, of lesser status than God the Father . Arianism was condemned at the Council of Nicea (325), but nevertheless dominated most of the church for the greater part of the 4th century, often with the aid of Roman emperors who favoured them. Trinitarianism held that God the Father , God the Son , and the Holy Spirit were all strictly one being with three hypostases . The Euchites ,

16768-405: Was not resolved, and there was initially substantial clerical resistance to the use of physical force by secular authorities to correct spiritual deviance. As heresy was viewed with increasing concern by the papacy , however, the secular arm was used more frequently and freely during the 12th century and afterward. There were many Christian sects , cults , movements and individuals throughout

16899-703: Was ordered to recant. When Luther failed to accept the bull and give a broad recantation of his writings, he was excommunicated in the subsequent 1521 papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem . The Thirty-nine Articles of the Anglican Communion and the Twenty-five Articles of the Methodist Churches condemn Pelagianism . John Wesley , the founder of the Methodist tradition, harshly criticized antinomianism, considering it

17030-464: Was probably because some inquisitors took the view that the crime of witchcraft was exceptional, which meant that the usual rules for heresy trials did not apply to its perpetrators. Many alleged witches were executed even though they were first tried and pleaded guilty, which under normal rules would have meant only canonical sanctions, not death sentences. The episcopal inquisition was also active in suppressing alleged witches: in 1518, judges delegated by

17161-508: Was regarded by the Catholic Church as a heresy; the Jesuits were particularly strong opponents of Jansenism. The text Augustinus , which propagated Jansenist beliefs, was repudiated by the Holy See . In Testem benevolentiae nostrae , issued on 22 January 1899, Pope Leo XIII condemned as heresy, Americanism , "the rejection of external spiritual direction as no longer necessary,

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