Editing Franciscans (section)

===Franciscans and the Inquisition===
{{Main|Inquisition|Medieval Inquisition#Papal inquisition}}
In about 1236 during the time of [[Elias of Cortona]], [[Pope Gregory IX]] appointed the Franciscans, along with the [[Dominican Order|Dominicans]], as Inquisitors.<ref name="auto">{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08026a.htm|title=Catholic Encyclopedia – Inquisition|website=New Advent|access-date=October 1, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071026132112/http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08026a.htm|archive-date=October 26, 2007|url-status=live}}</ref> The Franciscans had been involved in anti-heretical activities from the beginning simply by preaching and acting as living examples of the Gospel life.<ref>Prudlo, Donald S., ''The Origin, Development, and Refinement of Medieval Religious Mendicancies'' (Brill, 2011) p. 144</ref> As official Inquisitors, they were authorized to use torture to extract confessions, as approved by [[Pope Innocent IV]] in 1252 while [[John of Parma]] was General Minister.<ref name="auto"/> The Franciscans were involved in the torture and trials of Jews, Muslims, and other heretics<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~legneref/bronze/witches.htm#franciscan|title=Witches in Religion|website=New Advent|access-date=October 1, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180812154823/http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~legneref/bronze/witches.htm#franciscan|archive-date=August 12, 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref> throughout the Middle Ages and wrote their own manuals to guide Inquisitors, such as the 14th century ''Codex Casanatensis'' for use by Inquisitors in Tuscany.<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Clement |first=Geoffrey Ward |title=A Franciscan Inquisitor's Manual and its Compositional Context: 'Codex Casanatensis' 1730 |pages=1–372 |date=2013 |type=PhD dissertation |publisher=Fordham University|url=https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI3564858/ |access-date=12 November 2022 |id={{ProQuest|1410824809}} }}</ref> 

As well as acting as prosecutors, many friars, particularly those associated with the [[Spiritual Franciscans]] and even some [[Order of Friars Minor|Observants]], were also subject to interrogation and prosecution by the Inquisition at various stages in the 13th and 14th centuries. Notable cases from the Spirituals include [[Angelo da Clareno]] and [[Bernard Délicieux]]. Notable examples of Observants include the four burned during the suppression of the Observant houses in 1318 mentioned above. 

{{citation needed span|date=August 2024|Some 300,000 Jews, up to a quarter of the Spanish population, had to convert to Catholicism or flee Spain, or were killed in the [[Spanish Inquisition]].}} The Inquisition spread to the new world during the [[Age of Discovery]] to root out heretics, leading further persecution and execution (e.g., [[Mexican Inquisition]]).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/history/articles/auto-da-fe-mexico-city|title=The Auto-da-fé of Mexico City |website=Tablet Magazine}}</ref>