Grand Inquisitor | |
---|---|
Inquisitor Generalis | |
Appointer | Monarch |
Inaugural holder | Tomás de Torquemada |
Formation | 1483 |
Final holder | Jerónimo Castillón y Salas |
Abolished | 1820 |
Grand Inquisitor (Latin : Inquisitor Generalis, literally Inquisitor General or General Inquisitor) was the lead official of the Inquisition. The title usually refers to the chief inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition, even after the reunification of the inquisitions. Secretaries-general of the Roman Inquisition were often styled as Grand Inquisitor but the role and functions were different.
The Portuguese Inquisition was headed by a Grand Inquisitor, or General Inquisitor, named by the Pope but selected by the king, always from within the royal family.
The most famous Inquisitor General was the Spanish Dominican Tomás de Torquemada, who spearheaded the Spanish Inquisition.
From | To | Grand Inquisitor [1] | Other positions held |
---|---|---|---|
1483 | 1498 | Tomás de Torquemada | Prior of the Dominican Convent of Santa Cruz, Segovia, 1477–1498 |
1499 | 1506 | Diego de Deza Tavera | Archbishop of Seville |
1506 | 1507 | Diego Ramírez de Guzmán | Bishop of Catania, Bishop of Lugo |
From | To | Grand Inquisitor | Other positions held |
---|---|---|---|
1507 | 1517 | Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros | Cardinal, Archbishop of Toledo |
From | To | Grand Inquisitor | Other positions held |
---|---|---|---|
1507 | 1513 | Juan Enguera | Bishop of Vich, Bishop of Lleida, Bishop of Tortosa |
1513 | 1516 | Luis Mercader Escolano | Bishop of Tortosa |
1516 | 1517 | Adrian of Utrecht | Cardinal priest of Ss. Giovanni e Paolo, Bishop of Tortosa |
This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in Portuguese. (April 2019)Click [show] for important translation instructions.
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The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy, conducting trials of suspected heretics. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of penances, but convictions of unrepentant heresy were handed over to the secular courts, which generally resulted in execution or life imprisonment. The Inquisition had its start in the 12th-century Kingdom of France, with the aim of combating religious deviation, particularly among the Cathars and the Waldensians. The inquisitorial courts from this time until the mid-15th century are together known as the Medieval Inquisition. Other groups investigated during the Medieval Inquisition, which primarily took place in France and Italy, include the Spiritual Franciscans, the Hussites, and the Beguines. Beginning in the 1250s, inquisitors were generally chosen from members of the Dominican Order, replacing the earlier practice of using local clergy as judges.
The Roman Inquisition, formally the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition, was a system of partisan tribunals developed by the Holy See of the Roman Catholic Church, during the second half of the 16th century, responsible for prosecuting individuals accused of a wide array of crimes according to Roman Catholic law and doctrine, relating to catholic religious life or alternative religious or secular beliefs. It was established in 1542 by the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Paul III. In the period after the Medieval Inquisition, it was one of three different manifestations of the wider Catholic Inquisition along with the Spanish Inquisition and Portuguese Inquisition.
Tomás de Torquemada, also anglicized as Thomas of Torquemada, was a Castilian Dominican friar and first Grand Inquisitor of the Tribunal of the Holy Office. The Spanish Inquisition was a group of ecclesiastical prelates that was created in 1478, and which was charged with the somewhat ill-defined task of "upholding Catholic religious orthodoxy" within the lands of the newly formed union of the crowns of Castile and Aragon. The lands of this newly formed royal union are now known as the Kingdom of Spain.
Pedro de Arbués, also known as Peter of Arbués was a Spanish Roman Catholic priest and a professed Augustinian canon. He served as an official of the Spanish Inquisition until he was assassinated in the La Seo Cathedral in Zaragoza in 1485 by Jews and conversos. The veneration of him came swiftly through popular acclaim. His death greatly assisted the Inquisitor-General Tomás de Torquemada's campaign against heretics and crypto-Jews. His canonization was celebrated on 29 June 1867.
An inquisitor was an official 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". Inquisitors sought out the social networks that people used to spread heresy. There were accounts where the Inquisition could not tell who was a heretic or devout, and they were killed anyway. One of these accounts was Arnaud Amalric at the storming of Béziers. The abbot was recorded as saying “Kill them. For God knows who are his.” This brought up concern about the role the Inquisition was playing and whether or not it was a truly righteous cause.
The Portuguese Inquisition, officially known as the General Council of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in Portugal, was formally established in Portugal in 1536 at the request of its king, John III. Although Manuel I had asked for the installation of the Inquisition in 1515 to fulfill the commitment of his marriage with Maria of Aragon, it was only after his death that Pope Paul III acquiesced. In the period after the Medieval Inquisition, it was one of three different manifestations of the wider Christian Inquisition, along with the Spanish Inquisition and Roman Inquisition. The Goa Inquisition was an extension of the Portuguese Inquisition in colonial-era Portuguese India.
The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition, commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition, was established in 1478 by the Catholic Monarchs, King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile. It began toward the end of the Reconquista and was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms and to replace the Medieval Inquisition, which was under Papal control. It became the most substantive of the three different manifestations of the wider Catholic Inquisition along with the Roman Inquisition and Portuguese Inquisition. The "Spanish Inquisition" may be defined broadly as operating in Spain and in all Spanish colonies and territories, which included the Canary Islands, the Kingdom of Naples, and all Spanish possessions in North America and South America. According to modern estimates, around 150,000 people were prosecuted for various offences during the three-century duration of the Spanish Inquisition, of whom between 3,000 and 5,000 were executed, approximately 2.7% of all cases. The Inquisition, however, since the creation of the American courts, never had jurisdiction over the Indians. The King of Spain ordered "that the inquisitors should never proceed against the Indians, but against the old Christians and their descendants and other persons against whom in these kingdoms of Spain it is customary to proceed".
Sanbenito was a penitential garment that was used especially during the Spanish Inquisition. It was similar to a scapular, either yellow with red saltires for penitent heretics or black and decorated with devils and flames for impenitent heretics to wear at an auto-da-fé.
The Basque Witch Trials of the seventeenth century represent the last attempt at rooting out supposed witchcraft from Navarre by the Spanish Inquisition, after a series of episodes erupted during the sixteenth century following the end of military operations in the conquest of Iberian Navarre, until 1524.
Jerónimo Manrique de Lara, O. de M. was a church leader in Spain, a General Inquisitor.
Alonso de Salazar Frías has been given the epithet "The Witches’ Advocate" by historians, for his role in establishing the conviction, within the Spanish Inquisition, that accusations against supposed witches were more often rooted in dreams and fantasy than in reality, and the inquisitorial policy that witch accusations and confessions should only be given credence where there was firm, independent, corroborating evidence. He was probably the most influential figure in ensuring that those accused of witchcraft were generally not put to death in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Spain. The Spanish Inquisition was one of the first institutions in Europe to rule against the death penalty for supposed witches. Its Instructions of 1614, which embodied Salazar's ideas, were influential throughout Catholic Europe.
Fernando de Valdés y Salas, was a Spanish churchman and jurist, professor of canon law at the University of Salamanca, and later its chancellor.
Diego de Astorga y Céspedes was a Spanish Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He also served as Bishop of Barcelona, Archbishop of Toledo and Grand Inquisitor.
Fernando Niño de Guevara was a Spanish cardinal who was also Archbishop of Seville and Grand Inquisitor of Spain.
Antonio Ibáñez de la Riva Herrera (1635–1710) was a Spanish bishop who was Grand Inquisitor of Spain from 1709 to 1710.
Francesco del Giudice was a Roman Catholic cardinal from 1690 to 1725 who also held a variety of other ecclesiastical and governmental offices.
An auto-da-fé was the ritual of public penance carried out between the 15th and 19th centuries of condemned heretics and apostates imposed by the Spanish, Portuguese, or Mexican Inquisition as punishment and enforced by civil authorities. Its most extreme form was death by burning.
Pedro de Deza (1520–1600) was a Spanish Roman Catholic cardinal and bishop.
Diego Rodríguez de Lucero was a priest and inquisitor of the Kingdom of Castile based in Córdoba between 1499 and 1507. His harsh and unjust persecutions created a reign of terror, and eventually he was removed from office.
Vidal Marín Fernández was a Spanish bishop who was Bishop of Ceuta from 1694, and later Grand Inquisitor of Spain in 1705, until his death in 1709.