The Office of Inquisition and Medieval Heresy

The Transaction from Personal to Institutional Jurisdiction

Bibliographic Data

ID7209119
AuthorsRichard Kieckhefer (Institute of Religious Studies, corresponding author)
Year1995
Volume46
Issue1
Pages36-61
Publication date1995-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Ecclesiastical History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-0469 • E-ISSN: 1469-7637
PublisherCambridge University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1017/s0022046900012537
OpenAlexW1965229140
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited26

In 1979, in a study of the ‘inquisitors of heretical depravity” and their work against heresy in medieval Germany, I urged rethinking of the term ‘the Inquisition” and the concept behind it. There is no clear evidence, I argued, that people in medieval Europe used either inquisitio or officium inquisitionis with reference to an agency or institution. The former term was used for specific trials following inquisitorial procedure, while the latter was essentially parallel to officium predicationis , and referred to the office or function of an individual inquisitor, not to an institutional structure. Furthermore, I argued that there is no reason to suppose there actually was an institution in medieval Europe to which the term ‘the Inquisition” might meaningfully be assigned. Heresy inquisitors during the Middle Ages were not held together by a structure of inquisitorial authority, which could ensure vigorous action, procedural regularity, or interaction of members. ‘In these circumstances”, I tentatively concluded, ‘it would perhaps be advisable to avoid speaking of even papal inquisitors as if they formed a suprapersonal agency, or an Inquisition

Agency (philosophy · Ancient history · Heresy · Institution · Jurisdiction · Middle Ages · Political science · Social science · Sociology · Classics · Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies · History · Law · Medieval Literature and History · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity