Church and civic rulers supported consistency and order in society and in the church. Moral misbehaviour and heresy, by the folk and by clerics, were prosecuted in inquisitorial courts that were composed of both church and civil authorities. The Medieval Inquisition includes the Episcopal Inquisition (1184–1230) and the Papal Inquisition (1230s–1240s), and though these courts had no actual joint leadership nor joint organization, the Dominicans were the religious order with the primary responsibility for conducting inquisitions. Created as needed, these courts were impermanent. The Medieval Inquisition brought somewhere between 8,000 and 40,000 people to interrogation and sentence, and death sentences were relatively rare. The penalty imposed most often was an act of penance which might include public confession.
Church and civic rulers supported consistency and order in society and in the church. Moral misbehaviour and heresy, by the folk and by clerics, were prosecuted in inquisitorial courts that were composed of both church and civil authorities. The Medieval Inquisition includes the Episcopal Inquisition (1184–1230) and the Papal Inquisition (1230s–1240s), and though these courts had no actual joint leadership nor joint organization, the Dominicans were the religious order with the primary responsibility for conducting inquisitions. Created as needed, these court.s were impermanent. The Medieval Inquisition brought somewhere between 8,000 and 40,000 people to interrogation and sentence, and death sentences were relatively rare. The penalty imposed most often. was an act of penance which might include public confession.