Cattalian Inquisition

The Cattalian Inquisition was a failed attempt by the Holy See to prosecute individuals accused of crimes related to religious doctrine and alternate religious beliefs during the late 16th century. The Cattalian Inquisition was, at first, simply a localised version of the Roman Inquisition which was widespread across Italy and Malta at the time.

In 1616, the Bishop of Celestine, Bishop Ferdinand Rodrigo, refused to enforce an excommunication of a leading Cattalian priest who had been a member of the cloth for more than forty years. This deeply angered the tribunal in Celestine, who wrote to the King and ordered him to either instruct the Bishop to follow their instructions or both the Bishop and the King would face retribution in Rome for supporting a heretic. The King refused to get involved, and the Bishop was thrown out of office by the Pope. This led to an outcry in Cattala and the King was forced to intervene, by reinstating the bishop. The monarchy was excommunicated by Pope Clement VIII and King Philip IV and Bishop Rodrigo formally separated from the Catholic Church and withdrew all cardinals and officials from the Roman Catholic faith.

Initial Objectives
In its early phase, the Cattalian Inquisition was simply an extension of the Roman Inquisition from mainland Italy to the kingdom off the southern coast. Individuals accused of committing heretic offences, such as sorcery, immorality, blasphemy, Judaizing, Protestantism and witchcraft were put on trial and made an example of.

At the time of the Cattalian Inqusition, the Crown and the newly-created Parliament were becoming increasingly detached from the Catholic Church, which continued to try and use its religious strength within court to influence the King. With the balance of power in Celestine moving away from the devoutly Catholic aristocracy to an elected system of government, the Church attempted to use the Inquisition to force the general public to recognise the strength of God and his papacy, and to reassert it's authority over the upper classes and the House of Celestine.

Function
The Pope appointed cardinals to serve in the Holy Office in Cattala alongside assistants and a prelate from the Dominican Order, who were advised by international scholars and lawyers to take decisions about the accused. Presiding over the rulings of the national Congregation was the Bishop of Celestine, then the most powerful cardinal in Cattala.

As the Inquisition became more controversial and the Parliament rejected it's authority, a direct Crown lawyer took over the position of the Dominican assistants and scholars. This weakened charges further and after the government and monarchy took a direct role in the Inquisition, convictions became almost impossible to achieve.

Controversy
Twenty years into the Inquisition, the number of trials and convictions rose substantially as the Roman Church sent out missionaries to Cattala to raise the conviction rate, since the Bishop of Celestine had been using his power to reduce the number of guilty verdicts, and was employing Crown lawyers to ensure charges complied fully with Cattalian laws as well as religious laws. These missionaries served within the Dominican Order, who operated the Inquisition, and also infiltrated parishes where members of the clergy were known to support or harbour religious criminals.

By 1615, the Papal missionaries were commanding senior positions within the tribunal systems and the Bishop was unable to influence verdicts in cases. The number of priests arrested tripled in a two-year period and he was forced to excommunicate dozens of Cattalian clergymen who had been found guilty on weak grounds. In 1616, a leading priest within the Bishop's own diocese in Amosseri was charged with heresy and blasphemy and the Bishop refused to condemn the man and excommunicate him.

The Bishop's rejection of the Inquisition's legal authority had been anticipated by the Papal lawyers, who wrote to the King and threatened to punish both the Bishop and the Crown itself for supporting a heretic. The King refused to get involved and the Bishop of Celestine was excommunicated by the court he had refused to recognise because he had supported the priest, who had served God for forty years. Outrage spread quickly across the capital and to other major cities in the realm, as people heard of the treatment of both the priest and the Bishop, who was replaced by a Papal friar on a temporary basis.

Schism with Rome
King Philip IV refused to get involved, and the Bishop was thrown out of office by the Pope. This led to an outcry in Cattala and the King was forced to intervene, by reinstating the bishop. The monarchy was excommunicated by Pope Clement VIII and the King and Bishop formally separated from the Catholic Church and withdrew all cardinals and officials from the Roman Catholic faith.

The Bishop became an unwilling leader of an anti-Roman movement within Cattala, which quickly garnered public support and the aristocracy, recognising the strength of public support, disassociated themselves with the Dominican Order and other pro-Papal organisations. By June 1617, three months after the crisis began, Churches and cathedrals were forced to close as protests spread in the cities, whilst in the capital Celestine Cathedral had to be protected by Papal guards as crowds of angry protesters gathered en masse outside in the Church Square.

King Philip was under pressure from the demonstrators as well, and his palaces in Celestine saw some violent outbreaks before army troops regained order. Despite many of his (pro-Papal) advisers urging him to reject the deposed Bishop, Philip issued a declaration recognising the authority of Bishop Ferdinand Rodrigo as Bishop of Celestine, and ordered the immediate end of the Inquisition courts.

Within two days of Philips's announcement reaching Rome, Pope Clement VIII denounced the Kingdom of Cattala and restated the excommunication of the Bishop, and took the unprecedented step of excommunicating a King and he threatened to condemn any member of the clergy or the laity who supported the "heretic King". Philip IV rebuked the Pope, and instead announced that he would form his own Catholic faith for Cattalians.

Aftermath
As a result of the schism between the Cattalian faithful and the Catholic Church, the Pope of Rome lost any potential alliance for the Papal States with House Celestine, and the triarch of rule that had existed for centuries between the Church, the Monarch and the aristocracy was first broken. The Bishop of Celestine, despite his restoration, was a deeply scarred member of the new Church and King Philip spent the rest of his reign establishing the Church of Cattala.

Since 1617, the Cattalian faith has been led by the Divina Anima Della Chiesa, the spiritual successor to the Bishop of Calora, and a position created by King Philip. It became a more liberal alternative to the Catholic Church and the support of the newly-formed Magisterium of Cattala from all bishops and priests across the kingdom meant that the Catholic faith rapidly became a minority within Cattala. Today, 3.7 million Cattalians are members of the national Church and it has been the dominant religion for four centuries, taking on the political and moral influence that was once held by the Roman Catholic Church in Cattala.