The Inquisition is established by Pope Gregory IX in 1231 as a special court to curb the spread of heresy.

Pope Gregory IX's response to the failures of the episcopal inquisition with a series of papal bulls becomes the papal inquisition.

The papal inquisition is staffed by trained inquisitors or judges recruited almost exclusively from the Franciscan and Dominican orders.

As mendicants, they are accustomed to travel.

Unlike the haphazard episcopal methods, the papal inquisition is thorough and systematic, keeping detailed records.

Some documents from the Middle Ages involving first-person speech by medieval peasants come from papal inquisition records.

This tribunal or court functions in France, Italy and parts of Germany and largely ceases operation by the early fourteenth century.