This book reexamines the origins and growth of the medieval inquisition which provided a framework for the large-scale operations against religious dissidents. In the last quarter of the twelfth century, the papacy launched concerted efforts to hunt out heretics, mostly Cathars and Waldensians, and directed operations against them all across Latin Christendom. The bull of Pope Lucius III Ad abolendam of 1184 became a turning point in the formation of the inquisitorial system which made both the clergy and the laity responsible for suppressing any religious dissent. From a comparative perspective, the study analyzes political, social and religious developments which in the High Middle Ages gave birth to the mechanism of repression and religious violence supervised by the papacy and operated by bishops and, starting from the 1230s, papal inquisitors, extraordinary judges delegate staffed mostly by Dominican and Franciscan friars.
Heresy and religious dissent in medieval Christendom - the making of inquisition and religious violence - defining heresy and profiling medieval dissidents - the role of popes, bishops and Mendicant friars in the struggle against heretics - techniques of questioning heresy suspects - technology of producing records of heresy trials - types and functions of penalties imposed on heretics.
Pawel Kras, professor of medieval history at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin and the Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw; Vice-President of the Polish Group of the International Commission for the History and Study of Christianity (CIHEC), author of over 100 publications on religious dissent, tolerance, violence, and reforms of medieval Chrisitianity, including 3 books; editor-in-chief of The Correspondence of John of Capistrano related to Poland and Silesia, 1451-1456 (2018).
