The Dominican Inquisitors

Inquisitors were typically Dominican friars — educated, methodical, and terrifyingly patient. They would arrive in a town, announce a "grace period" for confessions, then start investigating anyone who didn't come forward. Your neighbors became your greatest threat.

Dominicans earned a cruel nickname — Domini canes, "the Lord's dogs." Their interrogation manuals were detailed enough to survive as legal textbooks for centuries. The 1376 Directorium Inquisitorum by Nicholas Eymerich ran to nearly 800 pages of psychological technique disguised as theology.