God's Hit Squad

The Inquisition was not one event — it was a centuries-long institution. Starting in 1184, the Catholic Church created a formal system to hunt, interrogate, and punish anyone who questioned its teachings. Heresy was not just a sin. It was a crime punishable by death.

That first body, the Medieval Inquisition, was only the beginning. It expanded into the infamous Spanish Inquisition in 1478 under Ferdinand and Isabella, and the Roman Inquisition of 1542. Each was bureaucratic, state-backed, and obsessed with documentation — some trial records still survive in perfect condition today.