Before the U.S. Constitution, almost all countries had an established religion (well maybe not Holland and Switzerland.) Countries did this because religions were often the means of maintaining law-abidance. So anyone going against the established religion was looked upon as a traitor... and traitors were summarily gotten rid of in one way or another, especially given that kings were never sure that some dude wasnt plotting against him. Christianity got mixed up in all this because it was the established religion in most of the European countries. All the burnings for heresy were performed by the state. The Church authorities noticed that often enough people were being burned for positions that were not heretical. So in the 1300s the popes set up tribunals (inquisitions) where people accused of heresy could be questioned, and often enough were dismissed as not being heretics at all.
Posted on: Sat, 19 Oct 2013 18:05:58 +0000
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