Age of DiscoveryIdeas & Belief Paul III creates the Roman Inquisition 1542Major The bull Licet ab initio sets up a commission of cardinals to pursue heresy across Catholic lands. It later tried Giordano Bruno and Galileo. ▲ MattersSaveShareTrace roots Longest chain: The Big Bang → First stars ignite → Supernovae seed heavy elements → The Sun forms → Earth forms → First oceans → First life → Photosynthesis evolves → Great Oxidation Event → Complex cells (eukaryotes) → Multicellular life → First animals → Cambrian Explosion → First vertebrates → Jawed fish → Fish walk onto land → The amniotic egg → The Great Dying → Dinosaurs appear → Asteroid ends the dinosaurs → Early primates → Apes split from monkeys → Human line splits from chimpanzees → Walking upright → First stone tools → Genus Homo appears → Homo erectus → Control of fire → Habitual fire and cooking → Homo sapiens appears → Complex language → Natufian villages → Oldest known bread → Agriculture begins → Irrigation → Uruk and the first cities → Cylinder seals → Writing (cuneiform) → Babylonian mathematics → Babylonian astronomical diaries → Thales and natural philosophy → Trial and death of Socrates → Plato's Academy → Aristotle's Lyceum → Alexander's conquests → Death of Alexander and the Hellenistic kingdoms → Seleucid Empire founded → Parthian Empire founded → Sasanian Empire → Crisis of the Third Century → Diocletian's Tetrarchy → Diocletian's Great Persecution → Edict of Milan → Constantinople founded → Roman Empire permanently divides → Visigoths sack Rome → Fall of the Western Roman Empire → Clovis unites the Franks → Stephen II anoints Pepin and seeks Frankish aid → Donation of Pepin founds the Papal States → Cadaver Synod tries Pope Formosus → Roman nobles dominate the papacy (saeculum obscurum) → Synod of Sutri deposes rival popes → Papal election decree gives cardinals the vote → Third Lateran Council sets the two-thirds rule → Innocent III elected pope → Francis of Assisi and the Franciscans → Giotto paints the Scrovegni Chapel → Italian Renaissance → Julius II elected pope → Foundation stone of new St. Peter's laid → Leo X's St. Peter's indulgence → Protestant Reformation → Paul III creates the Roman Inquisition Community notesLoading notes… Learn more ranked by votesDocumentbritannica.comPaul III (Britannica) ↗Editor's pickBookChristopher F. BlackThe Italian Inquisition ↗Editor's pickBookThomas F. MayerThe Roman Inquisition: Trying Galileo ↗Editor's pickVideoSearch on YouTubeRoman Inquisition history ↗Editor's pickVideoSearch on YouTubeHoly Office Roman Inquisition 1542 ↗Editor's pick