Category: Academic Writing (Page 21 of 111)

Contemporaries use the word ‘inquisition’ as something to be avoided: the hot seat, the third degree, a challenging trial. Inquisition from the time of the Middle Ages into the Renaissance and beyond was of a different kind and a much harsher degree. Over 700 years, inquiries into personal orthodox beliefs by a variety of authorities led tens of thousands of people to be investigated before tribunals and punished, at times by death for beliefs that deviated from the accepted orthodox understanding at the time. Inquisitions grew from the soil of moral certainty and intolerance of heterodox (non-orthodox) views.