AmericanPapist Comments
showing for example that more women accused of witchcraft died in Protestant than in Catholic countries.
Oh man. Grab some popcorn, grab a chair and get ready for the fireworks.
If I'm not mistaken, these are the secret documents that PBS based its series on the Inquisition on, convienently forgetting to include almost anything from the new documents that contradicted all of the commonplace myths.
If someone actually made a documentry about the truth of the Inquisition, it wouldn't even make air time
The only real problem with the Inquisition is that it has/had a name. Other things in history past and present like it have no name and therefore are not noticed.
As far as witch hunts are concerned, the majority of witchmania in the Christian European past was in 17th century Germany. It is associated with collapse of central authority, social religious conflict, and personnal envy. However, even this can not account for the magnitude of the problem. Something was happening and historians are now quite sure it was widespread rye ergot poisoning in the rural areas; which caused hallucinatory reactions - as it did in 1620 in Puritan Salem, Mass. In areas with no rye- no witches.
Usually the higher clergy tried to temper the shrillness of witch hunting. Typical accusations were by women against other women who were thought to have the evil (envy) eye. In only a few notable situations did prince-bishops advocate witch hunts.
Ergot causes effects similar to LSD, for those wondering.
Commenting by HaloScan
