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When did Pope Innocent IV authorize inquisitors to permit torture?
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inquisition
St. Dominic Presiding at an Auto-da-Fé, panel by Pedro Berruguete, c. 1503; in the Prado, Madrid.
In 1252, Pope Innocent IV issued a license that authorized inquisitors to permit the use of torture on obdurate heretics by lay henchmen.1
It is important to note that the use of such violence is fundamentally contrary to the ethical principles of human dignity and the sanctity of the person. The Inquisition was a judicial procedure established by the papacy to combat heresy, and while this specific authorization marked a formal shift in inquisitorial practice, the extent to which torture was employed in the 13th century remains a subject of historical study.21