The Catholic Church was worried about the path their people were taking. Questions that plagued the church, was the devil stealing peoples souls? If so, how would you know? As a way to fight the devil the church founded a court system. The Inquisition is also known as Church Courts. Priests job was to find and punish anyone who was against the church or "working with the devil." The Inquisition was also tasked with stamping out heresy. They called people who worked against the church a heretic, and any action or speech against the church was called heresy. The Inquisition could place people under arrest and question them using torture to get them to confess to heresy, going against the teachings of God. If you confessed right away, before torture, you would be punished but you could ask for "forgiveness." If you didn't confess, you could be tortured until death or execution. How could a person win? Well, you couldn't
The Inquisition started out as a way to fight against evil, but very quickly became another tool to control people.