I need a fairly brief explanation of the Inquisition. All I know is that it has something to do with killing "heretics" whatever they are.
Try typing it into Wikipedia. The first paragraph in the article should give you a brief explanation of the Inquisition.
Of my knowledge of the Inquisition, it indeed did kill heretics. Heresy was basically anything that the Church condemned. (For a fuller definition, consult m-w . com.) The Knights Templar was convicted of heresy. The Pope sent the Inquisition after the Knights Templar.
These sites will have the information you need on that.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08026a.htm
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/inquisition1.html
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Inquisition.html
Perfect, thanks. Any ideas for a good closing sentence for a paragraph on the Middle ages?
Going global is always a good choice for a closing sentence. If you don't know what going global is, it's when you say how the subject applies to the reader. For instance, I did a paper on proper dining etiquette, and my last sentence in the paper was: Whether you're sipping tea with the Queen of England, or eating chilli dogs with your homies, proper dining etiquette is important. Because you are writing about history (the Middle Ages), you could say how (to some extent) because history repeats itself, you may want to consider what happened in the Middle Ages.
If there are more paragraphs, as in, if you're writing a paper, you might rather just summarize the main point of the paragraph. It really depends on where you are going with your paragraph.