INQUISITION • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Inquisition

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/ˌɪnkwəzˈɪʃən/ Listen

noun

Inquisition n.

The act of inquiring; inquiry; search; examination; inspection; investigation. "As I could learn through earnest inquisition." "Let not search and inquisition quail To bring again these foolish runaways."

(Law)

(a)

Judicial inquiry; official examination; inquest.

(b)

The finding of a jury, especially such a finding under a writ of inquiry. "The justices in eyre had it formerly in charge to make inquisition concerning them by a jury of the county."

(R. C. Ch.) A court or tribunal for the examination and punishment of heretics, fully established by Pope Gregory IX. in 1235. Its operations were chiefly confined to Spain, Portugal, and their dependencies, and a part of Italy.

verb

Inquisition v. t. To make inquisition concerning; to inquire into. (Obs.)

See images of 'Inquisition'

Etymology of 'Inquisition'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Inquisition" Quotes from Famous Books

... was certain to be made a sacrifice, what necessity or what accident soever brought him thither; and that I had rather be delivered up to the savages, and be devoured alive, than fall into the merciless claws of the priests, and be carried into the Inquisition. I added that, otherwise, I was persuaded, if they were all here, we might, with so many hands, build a barque large enough to carry us all away, either to the Brazils southward, or to the islands or Spanish ...

— Robinson Crusoe • Daniel Defoe

... persecution to perform their religions rites with the utmost secrecy. On the singular position of this fated race in the most Catholic land of Europe, the interest of the tale mainly depends; whilst a few glimpses of the horrors of the terrible Inquisition are afforded the reader, and heighten the ...

— The Days of Bruce Vol 1 - A Story from Scottish History • Grace Aguilar

... number of their sacred hymns, translated them into Spanish, and inserted them into the Appendix to the Second Book of his History of New Spain; but this portion of his work was destroyed by order of the Inquisition, as a note in the ...

— Ancient Nahuatl Poetry - Brinton's Library of Aboriginal American Literature Number VII. • Daniel G. Brinton

... my religious tenets to the public; because it would countenance the presumption of those who have endeavored to draw them before that tribunal, and to seduce public opinion to erect itself into that inquisition over the rights of conscience, which the laws have so justly proscribed. It behoves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others; or their case may, by change ...

— Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson - Volume I • Thomas Jefferson

... of alkali dust. The Mormon religion has sent a thin arm up into that country, and the keeper of the log building he called a hotel was of that faith. The history of our brief stay there belongs properly to the old torture days of the Inquisition, for the Mormon's possessions of living creatures were many, and his wives and children ...

— A Woman Tenderfoot • Grace Gallatin Seton-Thompson

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