Inquisition of Catholic Church

The first step toward the establishment of courts of inquisition would seem to have been taken in 1179 when the third Council of the Lateran issued a decree of excommunication against the adherents of the heretical sects of southern France, who are charged not only with holding abominable heretical tenets but also with practising “unheard-of cruelties against the Catholics,” demolishing the churches and massacring widows and orphans.