ABSTRACT
The Roman inquisitors of the early modern period were not – as a historiography wholly concentrated on the trials leads us to imagine – obscure, cloistered, theologians who, from time to time, slipped briefly from the dim cells of their convents to punish crimes of faith cruelly, returning immediately to a life of erudition and contemplation as they waited for a further occasion to persecute a new victim. The judges of the Holy Office were, instead, constantly immersed in the vital stream of political and social relationships; managing economic activities requiring prosaic, detailed and continuing attention.
