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In the 13th century, the Church established the Inquisition to persecute those who held dissenting beliefs. Groups such as the Cathars and Waldensians were branded heretics and were arrested and executed. The system soon professionalised, with covert investigations, witness interviews, confessions used as evidence and extensive archives; a system of surveillance whose methods continue to have an impact to this day.

At the start of the Inquisition, the envoys of the Catholic Church still acted independently of one another in the territories to which the Pope had appointed them. Towards the end of the 15th century, this changed: Spain, Portugal and Italy established centralised and hierarchically organised administrative structures. And the list of people persecuted grew ever longer.