Medieval Inquisition. Pope Gregory IX The Medieval Inquisition was a series of Inquisitions (Catholic Church bodies charged with suppressing heresy) from around 1184, including the Episcopal Inquisition (1184-1230s) and later the Papal Inquisition (1230s).
The Medieval Inquisition was established in response to movements considered apostate or heretical to Christianity, in particular Catharism and Waldensians in southern France and northern Italy. These were the first inquisition movements of many that would follow. The Cathars were first noted in the 1140s in southern France, and the Waldensians around 1170 in northern Italy. Catharism. Christian dualist movement that thrived in some areas of Southern Europe Catharism (; from the Greek: καθαροί, katharoi, "the pure [ones]")[2] was a Christian dualist or Gnostic movement between the 12th and 14th centuries which thrived in Southern Europe, particularly what is now northern Italy and southern France.
Followers were known as Cathars, or Good Christians, and are now mainly remembered for a prolonged period of persecution by the Catholic Church, which did not recognise their unorthodox Christianity. Catharism arrived in Western Europe in the Languedoc region of France in the 11th century, where their name first appeared. The adherents were sometimes known as Albigensians, after the city Albi in southern France where the movement first took hold.[3] The belief may have originated in the Byzantine Empire. Catharism was initially taught by ascetic leaders who set few guidelines and so some Catharist practices and beliefs varied by region and over time.