Inquisition Flashcards
Inquisition
A method used by the Catholic Church to suppress heresy, which involved interrogation, torture, and sometimes execution of those suspected of holding heretical beliefs.
Three strands to Innocent’s approach against Heresy
A) attempt to accommodate dissenters back into the ecclesiastical and doctrinal of the Church, B) use the blunt instrument of Crusade, or C) use inquisition to suppress Heresy.
Early attempts at Inquisition in Languedoc
They were largely ineffective. Cathars and Catholics had been living with each other for almost a century, and their beliefs were tangled and engrained. Perfecti had protection from those who sympathized with them, like Raymond of Cremona. Around 1229, each parish had a commission of a priest and one or two laymen, who were tasked with making inquisition for Heresy – but locals were unwilling to give their neighbors up to the bishop.
Robert ‘le bougre’
He was an inquisitor tasked by Pope Gregory IX to make inquisition at Charité-sur-Loire. He alienated local bishops through his confrontational approach in which Cathars who repented had to perform public penance, and those who refused were handed over to the secular authorities to be burnt. At Mont-Aime in 1239, Robert convicted and burnt 183 Cathar Perfecti.
Conrad of Marburg
He was empowered by Gregory IX to make inquisition in Germany in 1227. However, Conrad was “stern in temper”, “narrow in mind”, with “bigotry ardent to the pitch of insanity”. He raised mobs and rounded up suspects, forcing them to repent and if they refused, handed over to authorities to be burnt. Conrad focused his efforts on “Luciferian” Heresy, ie. devil-worshippers.
Inquisitors in Italy
They were loyal to the Empire but were dominated by communes, self-governing city-states, and could either be loyal or opposed to the emperor. Whether pro- or anti-imperial, the communes were often unwilling to enforce papal directive against Heresy.
Peter of Verona
He was a Dominican Friar appointed by Gregory IX as an inquisitor in parts of Lombardy, Italy in 1232. He settled on a simple solution, which involved creating a lay society that could challenge Cathars at a local level. He was murdered by Cathar supporters in Lombardy in 1252.
Raynier Sacconi
In 1257, the converted Cathar Raynier Sacconi was made inquisitor-general in Lombardy by Pope Alexander IV. He believed there were 2,550 perfecti in Lombardy and Tuscany, and only 200 in Languedoc and southern France.
