Roman Inquisition

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The Roman Inquisition began in 1542 when Pope Paul III established the Holy Office as the final court of appeal in trials of heresy. It served as an important part of the Counter-Reformation. Pope Paul III established the Holy Office as a permanent congregation staffed with cardinals and other officials, whose task was to maintain and defend the integrity of the faith and to examine and proscribe errors and false doctrines. This body, more formally known as the Congregation of the Holy Office, now called the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, part of the Roman Curia, became the supervisory body of local Inquisitions. In reaction to the excesses of the Spanish Inquisition, it was tightly controlled by strict procedural rules under the administration of Francisco Peña.

The Pope appointed one cardinal to preside over the meetings. There were usually ten other cardinals on the Congregation, as well as a prelate and two assistants all chosen from the Dominican Order. The Holy Office also had an international group of consultants, experienced scholars of theology and canon law, who advise it on specific questions. In 1616 these consultants gave their assessment of the propositions that the Sun is immobile and at the center of the universe and that the Earth moves around it, judging both to be "foolish and absurd in philosophy," and the first to be "formally heretical" and the second "at least erroneous in faith" in theology. This assessment led to Copernicus's De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium to be placed on the Index of Forbidden Books, until revised and Galileo Galilei to be admonished about his Copernicanism. It was this same body in 1633 that tried Galileo, condemned him for a "grave suspicion of heresy", and banned all his works.

Not all prosecutions of alleged heretics, atheists and other deviations from the Catholic faith were prosecuted by the Inquisition. In some countries, such as France under the ancien régime, atheists and blasphemers could be prosecuted by civilian courts, with the possible penalty of death.

Among the subjects of this Inquisition were Francesco Patrizzi, Giordano Bruno, Tommaso Campanella, and Galileo Galilei. Of these, only Bruno was executed; Galileo died under house arrest and Campanella spent many years in prison.Template:RC-stub