The burning and torture of Witches the numbers have been exaggerated greatly over the years - the best estimates figure that during the time from the 1400s to the 1700s 30 to 50 thousand "witches" probably 20% of them male were burned at the stake for some reason that implicated witchcraft.

The 10 years of the Inquisition had a total of around 3,000 death sentences - we know this because although they were ultimately under secular authority they did keep scrupulous records.

that is about 100 a year in either case. But where as the inquisition managed that in 10 years the protestant witch hunters at the LOWEST estimates maintained that average for 400 years.

That does not include the New World which although they got the publicity never reached the numbers of Europe - but as a percentage of the population it was probably worse.

If the true numbers really are 100 - 300,000 and not 30 to 50,000 then it is 250 to 750 or more like 500 a year that are burned - and I used the lower numbers just to show how inconceivable the amount of deaths at the hands of the so called "Witchfinder General" and his ilk really were.

I am sure most of the preachers responsible for this thought they were doing God's work and no doubt a few of the people involved got rid of someone that was a rival and got caught up in the programme and could not extricate themselves without also becoming suspect.

That could make a movie plot --- oh wait -- is it too similar to "The Scarlet Letter"

Since we are still talking about the inquisitions here, I'll just point out one thing: you are performing the part-to-whole fallacy here. Just because catholic officials had only nominal official power in the Spanish inquisition (if that is indeed the case, which it isn't), that does nothing to forgive the direct power held in all the other inquisitions.

And you've missed a detail, Dan. The Spanish Inquisition is cited as an example, but the statement above actually pertains to historical inquisitions in general.

Then let me clarify: it is my contention that the Spanish Inquisition was the exception, not the norm.

It is possible that it was an exception, to be sure, if in fact it was uniquely harsh and brutal on a scale unmatched both by other Inquisitions or various Protestant-initiated persecutions.

But equally, there's a lot of other baggage caught up in the discussion of the Spanish Inquisition, and we are only now beginning to learn that the historical accounts of it may not have been...er...accurate, or may have been conflated with polemic to some degree.