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Roman Inquisition

Type Object Region Rome Time 1542

The Roman Inquisition (Sacra Congregatio Romanae et Universalis Inquisitionis), also called the Holy Office, was established by Pope Paul III in 1542…

Timeline

  1. 1542Rome · ItalyPope Paul III established the 'Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition' by the bull Licet ab initio, appointing six cardinals to head it, aiming to respond uniformly to the Protestant Reformation and the spread of heresy, bringing dispersed local religious tribunals under Roman central authority.
  2. 1600Campo de' Fiori · RomeThe philosopher and cosmological thinker Giordano Bruno, after eight years of trial by the Roman Inquisition, was burned alive in the Campo de' Fiori on charges of 'persisting in multiple heretical opinions,' becoming one of the most representative events of early modern religious authority suppressing freedom of thought.
  3. 1601–1610Rome · ItalyBetween 1601 and 1610 the Roman Inquisition continuously updated the Index of Forbidden Books, censored Protestant works and literature related to Copernicus's heliocentrism, and maintained surveillance networks across Italy, laying the institutional groundwork for the formal banning of Copernican doctrine in 1616 and the trial of Galileo in 1633.

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