The "Great Inquisition" of 1245-46 and the Origins of Inquisition

MS 609 Folio 1r
Toulouse, BM, ms. 609, folio 1r

de Heresi is home to the digital edition of MS 609 of the Bibliothèque municipale de Toulouse, the oldest extant original document from the first generation of inquisition (inquisitio heretice pravitatis, or “inquisition into heretical depravity”). This massive manuscript contains the registry of the so-called “Great Inquisition” of 1245-46, and features the statements from the interrogations of over 5,500 people from over 100 villages around Toulouse. The depositions cover a wide range of subjects, from heresy to quotidian life in the thirteenth century.

The personal, social and political lives of those people found in MS 609 can be traced in other documents from the same period, sometimes radically changing our understanding of the nature of the inquisition. de Heresi contains the digital edition of selections from other archives to help researchers understand more fully the social context of the people subject to the earliest heresy inquisitions.

The architecture of this site permits researchers to trace people, events, and ideas across different documents. Those documents include:

All documents are presented as critical editions in their original language (Latin, sometimes Occitan), as well as translations, with high-resolution images of the original documents.

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Data © Jean-Paul Rehr
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