Roman Inquisition

Dictionary of Heretics, Dissidents, and Inquisitors in the Mediterranean World
Edizioni CLORI | Firenze | ISBN 978-8894241600 | DOI 10.5281/zenodo.1309444
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The Roman Inquisition or Holy Office of the Inquisition was the network of tribunals which, following the reorganization decreed by the bull Licet ab initio (21 July 1542) of Paul III, dealt with the repression of heresy and the control of orthodoxy, operating mainly in the territories of the central-northern Italian states. The action of the Roman Inquisition was limited almost exclusively to these areas of the Italian peninsula, since at the time of its establishment Spain (from 1478) and Portugal (from 1536) already had “national” Inquisitions, structured, efficient, and integrated within their respective monarchical systems. In France, by contrast, the “modern” Inquisition was never introduced, since the persecution of heresy was entrusted to a special commission called the Chambre ardente, instituted by Francis I in 1535 (the survival of the inquisitorial tribunals of Toulouse, Carcassonne, and Besançon was purely nominal, while that of Avignon—the only one truly active on French soil—stood on territory formally belonging to the Papal States and governed by a papal legate). In the Kingdom of Naples and in the Republic of Lucca inquisitorial competence was entrusted to the bishops, while Sicily and Sardinia fell under the jurisdiction of the Spanish Inquisition.

History and geography of the Roman Inquisition

The start of the “new” Inquisition and the repression of Protestantism in Italy

Antecedents under Clement VII

In October 1532 Gian Pietro Carafa sent from Venice to Clement VII a famous memorandum urging the pope to act with the utmost severity in the face of an untenable situation marked by a broad penetration of new religious ideas into the peninsula. On 4 January of that same year Clement VII—who did not hold Carafa in high regard but was increasingly concerned about the situation—had appointed the Augustinian Callisto Fornari, a trusted associate, as apostolic preacher and “inquisitorem generalem… haeresis lutheranae tantum per totam Italiam.” This appointment, however, was not particularly effective and could not suffice to address the grave state of affairs.

The institution of the Congregation of the Holy Office by Paul III and the progressive ascendancy of the intransigent line

In 1542 Paul III yielded to the pressing demands of Cardinal Gian Pietro Carafa for a reorganization and strengthening of the Inquisition, made urgent by the spread of the Protestant Reformation and heretical movements in Italy. Already the previous year (consistory of 15 July 1541) Paul III had put Carafa himself and Girolamo Aleandro in charge of reorganizing the Inquisition. A cardinal congregation of the Holy Office was now established, tasked with coordinating repression and the activity of local tribunals, which since their medieval beginnings had been staffed mainly by Franciscan and Dominican friars, and were themselves destined to be reorganized and strengthened. The initial composition of this cardinal congregation reflected the need to balance rigor and repression with more conciliatory tendencies, for at that time the contest within the Roman Curia between irenic currents (not opposed to an agreement with Protestants) and intransigents (advocates of the harshest repression) was still open. Besides Cardinal Carafa, placed at the head of the Congregation, its members were the canonist Pietro Paolo Parisio (d. 1545), a trusted man of Paul III; Dionisio Laurerio (d. September 1542, shortly after the congregation’s establishment), vicar general of the Servites and another Farnese loyalist; the intransigent Lucchese cardinal Bartolomeo Guidiccioni (d. 1549); the “moderate” Tommaso Badia, Master of the Sacred Palace; and Juan Álvarez de Toledo, brother of the viceroy of Naples Pedro de Toledo and a man of Charles V. The first immediate and sensational effect of the new body’s institution was the flight abroad of Bernardino Ochino, the Capuchin general, accused of heresy and summoned to Rome to clear himself.

Despite the flowering of studies on the Inquisition in Italy since the 1990s, neither the dynamics of inclusion/exclusion of Holy Office members nor possible internal debates within the Congregation have been thoroughly explored. Important advances have come from very recent studies by Massimo Firpo and Chiara Quaranta. One may say that the Congregation was gradually dominated by the most intransigent men loyal to Cardinal Carafa. In the original 1542 cohort, the dyed-in-the-wool intransigents numbered only two out of six (Carafa and Guidiccioni). In 1545 another figure close to the “spirituali,” the Benedictine cardinal Gregorio Cortese, was added. At the same time, Francesco Sfondrati—a Milanese jurist turned churchman—was also included. From the late 1540s, two new intransigent members, Marcello Cervini and Rodolfo Pio di Carpi (d. 1564), gained ever greater weight within the congregation. Moreover, the two “moderate” members, Badia and Cortese, died in 1547 and 1548 respectively and were not replaced. In 1549 the intransigent Guidiccioni also died, and in 1550 Francesco Sfondrati. To compensate, under the pontificate of Julius III, Girolamo Verallo (d. October 1555) and Giacomo Puteo—very intransigent and close to Carafa—were brought into the Congregation. More episodic, again under Julius III, was the participation in Holy Office meetings of the legates to the Council of Trent, Marcello Crescenzi and Sebastiano Pighini.
Once he had secured control of the congregation, Carafa and his associates used it to assert their hegemony within the Roman Curia itself: the Holy Office, in short, increasingly became a tool in Carafa’s hands, which he deployed against his internal Curial enemies; in 1549, suspicions of heresy prevented the papal election—seemingly a foregone conclusion—of Reginald Pole.
At the same time, the issue arose of installing local seats of the “new” Inquisition, to be negotiated case by case with various civil authorities, often jealous of their jurisdictional autonomy. In two cases “mixed” systems were created, in which civil authorities ensured that lay magistrates were appointed alongside the ecclesiastical Inquisition. In Lucca, where inquisitorial power remained in the bishop’s hands, the magistracy of the “Offizio sopra la religione” was instituted in 1545. In Venice, inquisitorial power was divided among the nuncio, the inquisitor appointed by the pope, the city’s patriarch, and the magistracy of the three “Savi sopra l’eresia,” instituted in 1547.

The decisive battle in the years of Pope Julius III

A decisive battle took place during the pontificate of Julius III, who deeply hated Cardinal Carafa, yet could scarcely manage to moderate his inquisitorial zeal. Julius III launched a policy favoring indulgence and denunciation. Don Pietro Manelfi promptly took advantage of it: his 1551 denunciation enabled the dismantling of Venetian Anabaptism. Julius III also tried to rein in the intransigence and lust for power of the cardinal inquisitors: it was precisely during his pontificate that the Holy Office initiated the inquiry against Cardinal Morone; Julius III ordered the case dismissed, but Carafa refused to obey. In addition, the Holy Office arrested and put on trial the bishop of Bergamo, Vittore Soranzo—protected by Cardinals Pole and Morone—and once again papal intervention proved providential in saving the accused. But the battle was eventually won by the inquisitors, so much so that shortly thereafter, in 1555, they themselves became popes: first Marcello Cervini (Marcello II), then Carafa (Paolo IV).

The pontificate of Paul IV: the explosion of the fight against heresy

At the end of Julius III’s pontificate, the Congregation of the Holy Office consisted of Cardinals Carafa, Carpi, Toledo, Verallo, Cervini, and Puteo. The “intransigents” had by then “captured” the Congregation. The next step would be the “capture” of the papacy and of the entire Roman Curia—fully achieved under Paul IV, during whose reign the Holy Office vastly expanded its power and competencies. The cardinal members of the Holy Office, reduced to four (with Cervini’s election to the papal throne—followed by his premature death—and then Carafa’s), were soon increased to fifteen with the entry of fierce intransigents loyal to Paul IV: for example, Michele Ghislieri, already Commissary-General of the Holy Office, created cardinal for the occasion and inquisitor magnus et perpetuus, and the newly created cardinals Giovanni Antonio Capizuchi, Bernardino Scotti, Scipione Rebiba, Virgilio Rosario.
The “spirituali” party suffered a violent frontal assault with the arrest and trial of Cardinal Morone, the revocation of Pole’s English legation and his summons to Rome for examination (the English cardinal, protected by Queen Mary Tudor, wisely refrained from obeying the pontiff’s order), the renewed trial in absentia of Soranzo, and various other arrests, trials, and executions. From Rome the impulse to intensify the fight against heretics across Italy was very strong; accordingly, the pontificate of Paul IV marked a significant turning point.

The pontificate of Pius IV: the Holy Office loses ground

Under Pius IV, however, the page briefly turned, returning to orientations akin to those of Julius III: Cardinal Morone was acquitted and sent to preside over the Council of Trent; Paul IV’s nephews, Carlo and Giovanni Carafa, were put to death; and the Holy Office was downsized in the number of cardinals and especially in its competencies and influence. The congregation retained only Michele Ghislieri, Rodolfo Pio di Carpi (d. 1564), Pedro Pacheco (d. March 1560), Giacomo Puteo, and Bernardino Scotti. Pius IV subsequently revised the commission’s composition several times; among the new inclusions were Gian Battista Cicala (hostile to Paul IV and absent from Rome during his pontificate, residing in his native Genoa) and the humanist cardinal Marcantonio Da Mula, both trusted men of Pius IV. Although Cardinal Ghislieri formally remained at the head of the Holy Office, he suffered a harsh policy of isolation under Pius IV. His time for revenge, however, finally came with his election to the papacy in 1566, which marked the definitive triumph of the Inquisition and the ruin of all orientations hostile to it.

From Pius V to Sixtus V: the triumph of the Inquisition

Pius V reorganized the Holy Office once more, entrusting it to Cardinals Scipione Rebiba, Bernardino Scotti (d. 1568), Francisco Pacheco, and Gian Francesco Gambara. Outstanding among the inquisitorial ranks were Bernardino Scotti—an early Theatine and collaborator of Paul IV—and, in a position of preeminence, the Sicilian Rebiba, likewise a loyal follower of Paul IV and harshly persecuted by Pius IV for his ties to the Carafa family. Another figure whose influence began to assert itself was Giulio Antonio Santori, already a consultor to the congregation since 1566, who entered fully into the inquisitorial ranks upon being made cardinal in 1570. At the same time another professional inquisitor, Felice Peretti (the future Sixtus V), was also rewarded with the cardinalate. Under Pius V the Holy Office completed the crushing of the “spirituali” faction with the trial and execution of Pietro Carnesecchi. It asserted its preeminence over the other Roman congregations established following the application of the Tridentine decrees (including the Congregation of the Index, founded by Pius V himself in 1571, which absorbed part of the Holy Office’s competencies), a preeminence confirmed by his successor Gregory XIII and finally ratified by Sixtus V in 1588 with the bull Immensa aeterni. The Holy Office reached its apogee during the secretariat of Giulio Antonio Santori (from 1586 to 1602).

From the repression of Protestantism to the control of orthodoxy and social behaviors

Expansion of competencies

The 1560s and 1570s were years of intense inquisitorial persecution, during which what remained of the Italian Protestant movement—already hard-hit in the previous two decades—was definitively annihilated. From this point onward, much of the Holy Office’s attention shifted to demonic magic and witchcraft. An important turning point was the bull Coeli et terræ (1586), with which Sixtus V unequivocally condemned astrology and learned magic, with which the Renaissance Church had coexisted. Popular superstitions were also targeted. Demonic magic and witchcraft traditionally fell under the competence of episcopal courts, but the Inquisition gradually wrested this competence from diocesan delegates. This formed part of a process by which the new Inquisition expanded its competencies at the expense of the traditional organs of the secular and regular clergy.
The Holy Office’s remit progressively extended also to blasphemy and offenses connected to the sexual sphere (sodomy, bigamy, etc.). It also obtained competence over the crime of solicitation in confession, the so-called sollicitatio ad turpia, a matter defined by Gregory XV in the bull Universi dominici gregis (1622).
In the repression of ideas—once the Protestant threat in Italy had been crushed—attention focused on the control of religious minorities (Waldensians, Orthodox Christians, Jews), of intellectuals (the burning of Giordano Bruno in 1600 is notorious, as is the case of Tommaso Campanella, subjected to torture and long imprisonment), and on the clash with the new scientific culture (with the sensational case of the trial of Galileo), as well as on press censorship in cooperation with the Congregation of the Index. Particular attention was also paid to popular culture and phenomena of spontaneous sanctity.

Organization and consolidation of the tribunal network

In the last decades of the sixteenth century the network of local tribunals was consolidated and took on the form that would characterize it until the eighteenth-century abolitions. Around 1580 a process was completed by which the appointment of local inquisitors passed from their respective orders to the Congregation of the Holy Office. The cardinal inquisitors instructed and trained local delegates by correspondence (inquisitors’ manuals also circulated, but played a lesser role). Local inquisitorial seats increased their autonomy vis-à-vis civil authorities, and relations between local seats and the Congregation of the Holy Office were well regulated. Local delegates, resident in cities, appointed vicars in rural areas—the true glue between town and countryside in the administration of repression—whose appointment was not decided autonomously but placed under the control of the Congregation of the Holy Office. This created a centralized and efficient system, albeit not free of a certain paternalism in the dialogue between cardinal inquisitors and local delegates, as the correspondence amply shows.
This was the case in all areas of the peninsula where the new Inquisition had been installed—except in the Kingdom of Naples, where inquisitorial jurisdiction remained firmly in the hands of episcopal vicars. The sole concession came in 1585 with the establishment in Naples of ministers of the Holy Office with competence over the entire Kingdom, but their role was in practice always very limited, even in the capital, where inquisitorial power remained stably in the hands of the archiepiscopal curia.
Elsewhere, inquisitorial tribunals gained ever greater autonomy from civil authorities, at times managing to heavily influence their policies. To be sure, the alliance between State and Church was grounded in shared interests, and the control of behavior and preservation of orthodoxy constituted, for civil authorities, significant issues of public order—explaining the acquiescence often shown by the latter toward inquisitorial prerogatives.

Procedural aspects

The primary objective of the Holy Office was not the indiscriminate shedding of blood but the preservation of orthodoxy.
The procedure of the inquisitorial trial took its definitive form at the Holy Office’s high-water mark, around the turn of the sixteenth to the seventeenth century. Investigations generally began following a denunciation or written complaint, rarely ex officio. Evidence against the accused was then gathered. If insufficient, the case was dismissed; otherwise, imprisonment and interrogations followed. This phase was called the offensive process: the accused had to defend himself unaided, and the inquisitors could make use of torture, although its use was progressively regulated. From 1591, in fact, it could no longer be applied autonomously by local delegates but had to be mandatorily approved by the cardinal inquisitors.
The next phase was the defensive one: the charges were formalized and defense attorneys were admitted if the accused chose to avail himself of them. Interrogations resumed, and finally sentence was passed.
The death penalty was generally imposed on the impenitent and on the relapsi; the execution could be horrific and accompanied by brutal forms of torment if the condemned showed no sign of repentance (a rare occurrence: such was the case, for example, of Pomponio Algieri in 1556, of Giordano Bruno in 1600, and of Giulio Cesare Vanini in 1619, whose executions were particularly atrocious). Otherwise, as an act of clemency, the condemned was generally beheaded, after which the body was burned. In Venice—a special case—the civil authorities imposed drowning in the lagoon as the prescribed form of capital punishment for heretics.
In less serious cases, the penalties provided as alternatives to the death sentence were immuration
(i.e., confinement in a tiny, windowless cell) or forced rowing service on the galleys.
Special procedures and favorable treatment were provided for those who cooperated and presented themselves voluntarily, in continuity with the policy of indulgence inaugurated already under Julius III.

The slow decline of the Roman Inquisition up to the abolition of the tribunals

The continuation of repressive activity

In the second half of the seventeenth century and still at the beginning of the eighteenth, the tribunal network was fully efficient. In this phase the phenomenon of forced conversions and baptisms of Jews in the Papal States spread; the offensive against witchcraft and magic continued (the cases of Friuli and Siena are particularly significant), as did the repression of spontaneous and mystical sanctity (notably the repression of the Pelagino movement in Valcamonica; the condemnation of Quietism also goes in the same direction). Jansenism was harshly repressed, as were jurisdictionalist theories: in this latter field, the most sensational case was the imprisonment of Pietro Giannone. The Inquisition also tried philosophers (the trial against the Neapolitan atheists of 1688–1697 is famous) and Freemasons (noteworthy was the offensive against Florentine Freemasons, whose most illustrious victim was Tommaso Crudeli, arrested in 1739).

The clash with reforming governments: toward the abolition of the tribunals

From the mid-eighteenth century onward the Roman Church increasingly bore the brunt of Enlightenment criticism, and the Inquisition paid the price: the activity of peripheral seats was restricted by reforming governments and then suppressed one after another. In 1765–68 the Inquisition was abolished in the Duchy of Parma; in 1775 Maria Theresa of Austria decreed that local delegates of the Inquisition in the State of Milan would no longer be replaced upon their death; in 1782 the Holy Office was abolished in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany; in 1785 it was Modena’s turn, where in the last decades of its history the tribunal’s activity had still been intense (as in Siena and Malta, while elsewhere it was in inexorable decline). In the 1790s the activity of the Inquisition in the Republics of Genoa and Venice was, in fact, exhausted. Napoleon, during his Italian campaigns, did the rest.

The Napoleonic “rupture”

The Napoleonic period represented a significant break. By its end nothing remained of the once efficient and fearsome network of tribunals of the Roman Inquisition. The Holy Office remained operative only within the Papal States. In Latium, moreover, the Inquisition had never operated through local judges, since from Rome the Congregation of the Holy Office could easily govern the situation.

Italian unification and the closure of the last peripheral seats

At the end of the Napoleonic era, the only peripheral seats of the Holy Office still in being were those in the Papal States outside Latium. These ceased to exist in 1860 with the annexation of papal territories—Latium excepted—to the newborn Kingdom of Italy. In 1870, with the annexation of Rome and Latium to Italy and the end of the Papal States, the Congregation of the Holy Office definitively lost its territorial judicial network.

Bibliography

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Article written by Daniele Santarelli | Ereticopedia.org © 2013–2017 | English version 2025

et tamen e summo, quasi fulmen, deicit ictos
invidia inter dum contemptim in Tartara taetra
invidia quoniam ceu fulmine summa vaporant
plerumque et quae sunt aliis magis edita cumque
[Lucretius, "De rerum natura", lib. V]

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