What does the word inquisition mean?

Usage examples for inquisition

  1. It's the doings of the Inquisition that have driven them to despair. – By Pike and Dyke: A Tale of the Rise of the Dutch Republic by G.A. Henty
  2. It is not you that they aim at, but it is me, upon whom they make inquisition. – A History of England Principally in the Seventeenth Century, Volume I (of 6) by Leopold von Ranke
  3. It was " the secret determined policy of Spain to destroy the English fleet, pilots, masters, and sailors, by means of the Inquisition." – The Life of Froude by Herbert Paul