Editing Inquisition (section)

===Assassinations===
In some cases, heretics and other targets did not hesitate to attempt to murder the inquisitors, or destroy its voluminous archives, because they had much to lose in the face of an inquisitorial investigation: their freedom, their property, their lives.{{sfnp|Peters|1980|pp=170–173}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Théry |first=Julien |url=https://www.academia.edu/32534765/_Exp%C3%A9rience_italienne_et_norme_inquisitoriale_chapitre_11_dans_Patrick_Gilli_Julien_Th%C3%A9ry_Le_gouvernement_pontifical_et_lItalie_des_villes_au_temps_de_la_th%C3%A9ocratie_fin_XIIe_mi_XIVe_si%C3%A8cle_Montpellier_Presses_universitaires_de_la_M%C3%A9diterran%C3%A9e_2010_p_547_592_texte_int%C3%A9gral_ |title=Le gouvernement pontifical et l'Italie des villes au temps de la théocratie (fin XIIe-mi-XIVe siècle) |date=2010 |pages=547-592 |language=fr |chapter=11 - Expérience italienne et norme inquisitoriale}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Gregorio IX |url=https://archive.org/details/voxinramapapagregorioix |title=Vox In Rama ( Papa Gregorio IX) |date=1232}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Pope Innocent IV |date=May 15, 1252 |title=Bulla 'Ad_Extirpanda' [AD 1252-05-15] |url=http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/01p/1252-05-15,_SS_Innocentius_IV,_Bulla_%27Ad_Extirpanda%27,_EN.pdf |website=Documenta Catholica Omnia}}</ref>    
[[File:Steyrer Waldenserdenkmal.jpg|thumb|Monument to the Waldensians burned by Petrus Zwicker,  in [[Steyr]], Austria]]
The much hated Inquisitor [[Konrad von Marburg]], who also initiated inquisition trials against nobles, was murdered in 1233 by six mounted men on an open country road on the way to [[Marburg]].

In 1242, a Cathar group armed with axes entered the castle of the town of Avignonet (southern France) and murdered the inquisitors [[William Arnaud (inquisitor)|Guillaume Arnaud]] and [[Étienne de Saint-Thibéry]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Clare Prophet|first=Elizabeth|title=Reincarnation: The Missing Link in Christianity|publisher=Summit Publications|year=1997|pages=240–243}}</ref>

In 1252, the inquisitor [[Peter of Verona]] was killed by Cathars. Eleven months after his assassination, he was made a Catholic saint, the quickest canonization in history. As [[Christine Caldwell Ames]] writes, "Inquisition changed what it meant to be a martyr, to be holy, and to be an imitator of Christ."<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Ames|first=Christine Caldwell|title=Righteous Persecution: Inquisition, Dominicans, and Christianity in the Middle Ages|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|year=2009|pages=62, 63, 67}}</ref>

In 1395 near [[Steyr]], where the inquisitor [[Petrus Zwicker]] was quartered with associates, an assassination attempt on him failed: someone had tried to set fire to the place and burn him alive.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Smelyansky|first=Eugene|title=Heresy and Citizenship: Persecution of Heresy in Late Medieval German Cities|publisher=Routledge|year=2021|pages=51, 73}}</ref>