ABSTRACT
The Birth and Development of the Holy Office THE Inquisition was a court of justice or tribunal founded by the Roman Catholic Church for the express purpose of suppressing and eradicating heresy. The war on heresy antedated the Inquisition by a thousand years, and, as we have seen, heretics were hounded without mercy from the time when Christianity was born. In the year of grace 3~b an Act was passed by which anyone convicted of heresy was to be executed. Then, with Christianity firmly established, for some centuries the persecution of the heretics by the Church itself was not so blatant, so thorough or so merciless. Anyone guilty of the crime, for it continued to rank as a crime, was excommunicated, and in most cases the Church was content to let it go at that. Sometimes, probably as a result of sporadic campaigns, heretics were much more severely handled, and even on occasion condemned to death.
