| Grim Reader |
When comparing Pathfinder Inquisitors to Inquisitors in real world history, I think there are two things to keep in mind:
1) Real-world Inquisitors tended to torture, execute and terrorize for reasons that turned out to be totally imaginary.
The Pathfinder Inquisitors world has things like vampires, malevolent spellcasters, evil shapeshifters, demons, devils, possessing fiends, sundry undead and abominations. Seemingly in some density. It seems that any nation, tribe or other group is going to need some kind of body like the Inquisitors unless they want to be taken over quite quickly.
2) The real-world Inquisitors generally targeted social outsiders, or fairly randomly. Pathfinder Inquisitors have things like Detect Magic, Evil, Chaos, Thoughts and Zone of Truth to ensure fairly accurate targeting.
I dare say this would have consequences for how Inquisitors are regarded by the common man as well.