Inquisitor

This article is about the religious office in historic Christianity. For other uses, see Inquisitor (disambiguation).

Tomás de Torquemada, 15th-century Spanish Dominican friar and Grand Inquisitor.

An inquisitor was an official (usually with judicial or investigative functions) in an Inquisition; an organization or program intended to eliminate heresy and other things contrary to the doctrine or teachings of the Catholic faith. Literally, an inquisitor is one who "searches out" or "inquires" (Latin inquirere < quaerere, "to seek").

Description

Inquisitors were agents of the Medieval Inquisition established by the Roman Catholic Church, and of the subsequent Spanish Inquisition, Portuguese Inquisition and Roman Inquisition.

The chief inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition was the Grand Inquisitor, though the Roman Inquisition had a Secretary-General who was sometimes styled with the same title.

Prominent inquisitors

Some of the more well-known inquisitors throughout history include:

• Peter of Verona (also known as Saint Peter Martyr), whose canonization was the fastest in history
• Pedro de Arbués
• Nicolau Aymerich author of Directorium Inquisitorum
• Stephen of Bourbon
• Arnaut Catalan
• Fabio Chigi (later Pope Alexander VII)
• Diego Deza
• Bernard Gui
• Hentenius
• Heinrich Institoris, author of Malleus Maleficarum
• Francisco Jimenez de Cisneros
• Konrad von Marburg
• Sebastien Michaelis
• Giovanni Pietro Carafa (later Pope Paul IV)
• James Sprenger, purported co-author of Malleus Maleficarum
• Tomás de Torquemada

See also

• Medieval Inquisition
• Spanish Inquisition
• Portuguese Inquisition
• Roman Inquisition
• Inquisitorial system, a type of legal system