The Inquisition (Civ3)/Civilopedia

The Catholic Church has had to deal with heresies during most of its existence. However, 
dissent termed "heresy" often had as much to do with political factors as with religious differences. 
In France, the Albigensian heresy attacked the impurity of the Church and the clergy. The Cathars, another 
heretical sect, went much further, claiming that the forces of evil were just as powerful as God and hence that the 
outcome of the final battle in the Book of Revelation was not certain. They also denied the humanity of Jesus, since 
they considered humanity to be an inherently evil and fallen state, and this was incompatible with Jesus' moral 
perfection.
Elements of these messages resonated with the common people in France and northern Spain and Italy, and when 
peaceful attempts to reconcile these divergent beliefs with Church orthodoxy failed, Pope Gregory IX created the Holy 
Inquisition. The Inquisition's mission was to root out heresy and save the heretics' souls, by inducing confession and penance. 
Relapsed or unrepentant heretics could, however, be executed. Torture was not used by the Inquisition until 1251, when Pope 
Innocent IV deemed it acceptable.
After extinguishing the Albigensian and Catharist heresies, the Inquisition lay quiet, but when the Muslims were 
ejected from Spain, at the conclusion of the Reconquista, the Spanish crown requested special authority from the Pope to create a new, 
independent Spanish Inquisition. The Spanish Inquisition lasted until well after the Napoleonic era; it provided some organized resistance to 
Napoleon's rule. The medieval Inquisition still technically exists today, under a different name (the "Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith")
and with a more circumscribed mission.