Fun fact: Most witch trials happened outside of the scope of the church as a centralized institution, and where instead pursued by town councils or mobs instead.
Oftentimes an inquisitor's job was exonerating Innocents. The most famous case would be Joan of Arc.
That said, there's a difference between early cases and late cases and the church as an institution did burn people, but in most cases it was mob "justice".
In fact:
"Pope Gregory VII, in 1080, wrote to King Harald III of Denmark forbidding witches to be put to death upon being suspected of having caused storms or failure of crops or pestilence."
That said, Heresy was super punished in the most extreme ways (see the Cathars).
So in reality it wasn't religion itself but people that are super duper shitty.
BroBot9000@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Almost like it’s a patriarchal cult used to oppress and control people.