Christianity, Divisions, Fear Manipulation, and Post Modernist Theories

[Minimalist]

No I think it was quite intentional. There's no denying those horrors. There was a lot of progress in the middle aged despite it being referred to as the dark ages. The Enlightenment being one example. You could say that the horror bore that but I think you'd be doing the people a disservice.

The church was perfectly willing to burn heretics until it couldn't get away with it anymore.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch-hunt

The classical period of witchhunts in Europe and North America falls into the Early Modern period or about 1480 to 1750, spanning the upheavals of the Reformation and the Thirty Years' War, resulting in an estimated 40,000 to 60,000 executions.[3]

The last executions of people convicted as witches in Europe took place in the 18th century. In the Kingdom of Great Britain, witchcraft ceased to be an act punishable by law with the Witchcraft Act of 1735. In Germany, sorcery remained punishable by law into the late 18th century.

Renaissance scholars had to look over their shoulders at the robed morons who clung to dogma.

"To assert that the earth revolves around the sun is as erroneous as to claim that Jesus was not born of a virgin."

~ Cardinal Bellarmine