Editing Inquisition (section)

==Definition and goals==
[[File:Inquisitor Palace Birgu 2012 n27.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Tribunal at the [[Inquisitor's Palace]] in [[Birgu]], [[Malta]]. Eymeric's  manual recommends that the accused be seated on a backless low bench.{{sfnp|Saraiva|2001|p=69-70}}]]

{{Further |Medieval Inquisition}}
{{Further |Inquisitorial system#History}}

Today, the English term "Inquisition" is popularly applied to any one of the regional tribunals or later national institutions that worked against [[Christian heresy|heretics]] or other offenders against 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 {{Lang|la-x-medieval|inquisitio}}, which described a court process based on [[Roman law]], which came back into use during the [[Late Middle Ages]].{{sfnp|Peters|1989|pp=12–13}} It was a new, less arbitrary form of trial that replaced the {{Lang|la-x-medieval|denunciatio}} and {{Lang|la-x-medieval|accussatio}} process<ref name=hakelly>{{cite journal |last1=Kelly |first1=Henry Ansgar |title=Inquisition and the Prosecution of Heresy: Misconceptions and Abuses |journal=Church History |date=1989 |volume=58 |issue=4 |pages=439–451 |doi=10.2307/3168207 |jstor=3168207 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3168207 |issn=0009-6407}}</ref> which required a denouncer or used an adversarial process, the most unjust being [[trial by ordeal]] and the secular Germanic [[trial by combat]]. [[Henry A. Kelly]] concludes that inquisition was "a brilliant and much-needed innovation in trial procedure, instituted by the greatest lawyer-pope of the Middle Ages" and that later "abusive practices" should be identified as a perversion of the original inquisitorial process.<ref name="hakelly">{{cite journal |last1=Kelly |first1=Henry Ansgar |title=Inquisition and the Prosecution of Heresy: Misconceptions and Abuses |journal=Church History |date=1989 |volume=58 |issue=4 |pages=439–451 |doi=10.2307/3168207 |jstor=3168207 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3168207 |issn=0009-6407}}</ref>

Theoretically, the Inquisition, as a church court, had no jurisdiction over Muslims and Jews as such. Despite several exceptions, like the infamous example of the [[Holy Child of La Guardia]]{{sfnp|Sabatini|1930|pp=296–383}}the Inquisition was concerned mainly with the heretical behaviour of Catholic adherents or converts (including forced converts).<ref>Salomon, H. P. and Sassoon, I. S. D., and Saraiva, Antonio José. ''The Marrano Factory. The Portuguese Inquisition and Its New Christians, 1536–1765'' (Brill, 2001), Introduction pp. XXX.</ref>

Inquisitors 'were called such because they applied 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 of England|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."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/source/inquisition1.asp|title=Internet History Sourcebooks Project|website=Fordham.edu|access-date=13 October 2017|archive-date=14 August 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140814165846/http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/inquisition1.asp|url-status=live}}</ref> "The Inquisition" usually refers to specific regional tribunals authorized to concern themselves with the heretical behaviour of Catholic adherents or converts (including forced converts).<ref>Salomon, H. P. and Sassoon, I. S. D., and Saraiva, Antonio José. ''The Marrano Factory. The Portuguese Inquisition and Its New Christians, 1536–1765'' (Brill, 2001), Introduction pp. XXX.</ref> 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 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.<ref name="hakelly" /> However, many inquisitors did not followed these rules scrupulously, notably from the late 1300s: many inquisitors had theological not legal training.<ref name="hakelly" />{{rp|448}}

===Controversy and revisionism===
{{main|Historical revision of the Inquisition}}
The opening of Spanish and Roman archives over the last 50 years has caused some historians to [[Historical_revision_of_the_Inquisition|revise their understanding]] of the Inquisition, some to the extent of viewing previous views as "a body of legends and myths".<ref>{{cite book | last = Iarocci | first = Michael P. | title = Properties of Modernity | publisher = Vanderbilt University Press | date = 1 March 2006 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=CuliwYNyvSUC&pg=PA218 | isbn = 0-8265-1522-3 | page = 218 }}</ref> This may mean that some older historical commentary, and sources relying on them, are not reliable sources to that extent.