Not that one expects people to let history or facts get in the way of an emotionally driven response. That said, it's worth noting that the Inquisitions for which the Church is so often lambasted were duly and properly constrained in regard to the imposition of sentences:
... during the medieval Inquisitions, the Catholic Church was forbidden to perform any sentences on heretics - that was done by the state. In fact, the worst of all the inquisitions was the Spanish Inquisition, which was set up by the ruling monarchs, and not the church.
Just so we're clear. Compare this with something like Calvin's Geneva or Luther's...wherever, where there was no distinction at all between the state and the religious overseers.