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Who burnt more at stake: church or secular?

rocala

rocala

Well-Known Member
The matter can become more comlex. For example the Pendle witches of Lancashire, England were tried at the 'assizes'. From Wikipedia: The courts of assize, or assizes (/əˈsaɪzɪz/), were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes exercised both civil and criminal jurisdiction, though most of their work was on the criminal side.[1] The assizes heard the most serious cases, which were committed to it by the quarter sessions (local county courts held four times per year), while the more minor offences were dealt with summarily by justices of the peace in petty sessions (also known as magistrates' courts).
ie they were secular.

Some of those accused were found guilty on the testimony of a child, Edmund Robinson. The judges did not pass the death sentence but referred the matter to King Charles the first. Under cross examination the boy confessed to lying. No executions took place in this particular case but the prisoners were kept in prison and are believed to have died there. I do not know if these poor people are in any statistics but it was not all about burning.
 
Robert.Evans

Robert.Evans

You will be assimilated; it is His Will.
dust1n said:
Can you first please elucidate me to which Medieval European government could be described as secular?


And:

"While the witch trials only really began in the 15th century, with the start of the early modern period, many of their causes had been developing during the previous centuries, with the persecution of heresy by the Medieval Inquisition during the late twelfth and the thirteenth centuries, and during the Late Medieval period, during which the idea of witchcraft or sorcery gradually changed and adapted. The inquisition had the office of protecting Christian orthodoxy against the "internal" threat of heresy (as opposed to "external" military threats such as those of the Vikings, the Mongols, and the Saracens orTurks).

During the High Middle Ages, a number of heretical Christian groups, such as the Cathars and the Knights Templar had been accused of performing such anti-Christian activities as Satanism, sodomy and malevolent sorcery in France. While the nucleus of the early modern "witch craze" would turn out to be popular superstition in the Western Alps, reinforced by theological rationale developed at or following the Council of Basel of the 1430s, what has been called "the first real witch trial in Europe",[32] the accusation of Alice Kyteler in 1324, occurred in 14th-century Ireland, during the turmoils associated with the decline of Norman control.[33]

Thurston (2001) speaks of a shift in Christian society from a "relatively open and tolerant" attitude to that of a "persecuting society" taking an aggressive stance towards minorities characterized as Jews, heretics (such as Cathars and Waldensians),lepers or homosexuals, often associated with conspiracy theories assuming a concerted effort on the part of diabolical forces to weaken and destroy Christianity, indeed "the idea became popular that one or more vast conspiracies were trying to destroy Christianity from within."[34] An important turning-point was the Black Death of 1348–1350, which killed a large percentage of the European population, and which many Christians believed had been caused by their enemies. The catalog of typical charges that would later be leveled at witches, of spreading diseases, committing orgies (sometimes incestuous),cannibalizing children, and following Satanism, emerged during the 14th century as crimes attributed to heretics and Jews.

Witchcraft had not been considered a heresy during the High Medieval period. Indeed, since the Council of Paderborn of 785, the belief in the possibility of witchcraft itself was considered heretical. While witch-hunts only became common after 1400, an important legal step that would make this development possible occurred in 1326, when Pope John XXII authorized the inquisition to persecute witchcraft as a type of heresy.[35]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_trials_in_the_early_modern_period
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What is your point?
 
9-10ths_Penguin

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
Jumi said:
If it helps you any, you are not responsible for any witch burnings any more than I am for what Soviets did. As far as I know you don't believe people should be killed for heresy.
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I don't know about the OP, but there are plenty of Christians who believe that the Bible is the literal word of God, and the Bible does include instructions to kill witches.

I trust that you don't proclaim some document that praises Stalin as true.
 
s13ep

s13ep

42
History is written by the winners, OP.

It's likely any 'credible source' is coveted in propaganda. It's best to think for yourself; it may be frowned upon but then again, take a good look at who is doing the frowning.
 
Revoltingest

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
Robert.Evans said:
From what little I have read, I think the secular courts had to find some sort of stability with the fighting and bickering christians...... so decided to burn a few.
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It sounds so cavalier.
Were I to burn anyone alive, I'd have to really hate them.
 
Robert.Evans

Robert.Evans

You will be assimilated; it is His Will.
dust1n said:
Um, that your claim that "secular governments" are somehow more responsible or contributed more to witch hunts than organized churches, or just human nature in general, is poorly evidenced.
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Merely going off many reports that state it. I shall try and find something else tomorrow.
 
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