Inquisition The Inquisition was a permanent institution in the Catholic Church charged with the eradication of heresies. Unlike many other religions (e.g., Buddhism, Judaism), the Catholic Church has a hierarchical structure with a central bureaucracy. In the early years of the church, there were several competing sects that called themselves Christian. But after the Emperor Constantine I (280?-337 CE) made Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire and the local administrative structures were …
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…r a frank Catholic discussion of the Inquisition and its problems, see John A. O'Brien, The Inquisition (New York: Macmillan; London: Collier Macmillan, 1973). For a more historiographical approach, see Edward Peters, Inquisition (New York: Free Press; London: Collier Macmillan, 1988). For the Inquisition and its procedures in Italy during Galileo's time, see John Tedeschi, The Prosecution of Heresy: Collected Studies on the Inquisition in Early Modern Italy (Binghamton, NY: Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, 1991).