1. The first medieval inquisition was established in 1184 by Pope Lucius III. It was a response to the growing Catharist movement in southern France.

2. The Cathars believed in dualism: that an evil God created the materialistic world and a good God created the spiritual world.

3. Cathars preached poverty, chastity, and modesty. They tried to separate themselves from materialism. Adherents of Catharism met on hillsides, and in caves and fortresses

4. Other movements spread as people reacted against the moral corruption of the clergy. Cathars in the south Waldensians in the north

5. The Waldensians were mostly in Germany and Northern Italy. They began as a group of orthodox laymen concerned about the increasing wealth of the Church. Waldensians praying in a cave

6. They believed in only one God, but they did not believe in having priests. They also objected to the veneration of saints and martyrs, which were part of the Church's orthodoxy. The first Waldensian martyr was a woman who suffered burning at Pinerolo in 1297.

7. The Massacre of the Waldensians of Mérindol in 1545, by Gustave Dore Francis I of France ordered the Waldensians of Mérindol to be punished for their dissident religious views.

8. Pope Gregory wanted to bring order to the process of dealing with heresy. Inquisitors were thorough and systematic. They kept detailed records.

9. Gregory hoped that heretics would see the falsity of their opinions and return to the Church.

10. Over centuries the tribunals took different forms, investigating and stamping out various forms of heresy, including witchcraft. Hanging of a farm woman declared by the inquisition to be possessed by demons

11. Inquisitions were meant to be seen.

12. Each accused heretic was put on trial publicly.

13. Confessing and implicating others was the best hope of receiving a lighter punishment. Galileo was put on trial for his heretical scientific observations.

14. Inquisitors provided some rights to accused heretics. They tried to avoid being involved in local grudges.

15. Pope Innocent IV authorized the use of torture by inquisitors.

16. Torture was meant to extract a confession. It was not a punishment.

17. Robert le Bougre, the “Hammer of Heretics,” was a Dominican friar who became an inquisitor known for his cruelty and violence. Robert le Bougre burning Cathar heretics at Montwimer

18. Torture was done discretely. It was not conducted in public.

19. Trials and other kinds of humiliation were conducted publicly, to shame heretics, and as a warning to others.

20. The most extreme penalties were reserved for relapsed or stubborn heretics. The woodcut at the left shows several of those penalties.

21. If accused heretics persisted in their heresy, inquisitors would hand them over to civil authorities for punishment.

22. The Church did not execute heretics. Secular authorities to be punished, and that punishment could be death.

23. Burning at the stake made an impression on crowds, and so was a common secular penalty for heresy.

24. In the spring of 1429 during the Hundred Years' War, Joan of Arc led French armies in a series of stunning military victories against the English.

25. In 1430 she was captured by the Burgundians, who were allied with the English.

26. She was put on trial for witchcraft. She confessed, but was burned at the stake when her inquisitors determined that she had relapsed into her heretical ways.

27. Joan was made a saint in 1920 by Pope Benedict XV.

28. Pope John Paul II: “The Inquisition belongs to a tormented phase in the history of the Church, which... Christians [should] examine in a spirit of sincerity and open- mindedness.”