> In article supernews.com>,
>
> PV pobox.com> wrote:

>>Jerry Kraus yahoo.com> writes:

>>>Not exactly.  But, any chance that institutions like the the Spanish
>>>Inquisition might actually have had some social utility?

>

>>From the one word answer dept: "No."

>
> <http://www.faculty.umb.edu/gary_zabel/Courses/Phil%%20281b/Philosophy%%...>
> "Recent Developments in the Study of The Great European Witch Hunt" by
> Jenny Gibbons, has a section on the Inquisition, including
>
>     Moreover most of the killing was done by secular courts.  Church
>     courts tried many witches but they usually imposed non-lethal
>     penalties.  A witch might be excommunicated, given penance, or
>     imprisoned, but she was rarely killed.  The Inquisition almost
>     invariably pardoned any witch who confessed and repented.  ...
>
>     The vast majority of witches were condemned by secular courts.
>     Ironically, the worst courts were local courts. ...
>
>     In fact, in Spain the Inquisition worked diligently to keep witch
>     trials to a minimum.  Around 1609, a French witch-craze triggered
>     a panic in the Basque regions of Spain.  Gustav Henningsen (The
>     Witches' Advocate) documented the Inquisition's work in brilliant
>     detail.  Although several inquisitors believed the charges, one
>     skeptic convinced La Suprema (the ruling body of the Spanish
>     Inquisition) that this was groundless hysteria.  La Suprema
>     responded by issuing an "Edict of Silence" forbidding all
>     discussion of witchcraft.  For, as the skeptical inquisitor noted,
>     "There were neither witches nor bewitched until they were talked
>     and written about."
>
>     The Edict worked, quickly dissipating the panic and accusations.
>     And until the end of the Great Hunt, the Spanish Inquisition
>     insisted that it alone had the right to condemn witches -- which
>     it refused to do.  Another craze broke out in Vizcaya, in 1616.
>     When the Inquisition re-issued the Edict of Silence, the secular
>     authorities went over their head and petitioned the king for the
>     right to try witches themselves.  The king granted the request,
>     and 289 people were quickly sentenced.  Fortunately the
>     Inquisition managed to re-assert its monopoly on trials and
>     dismissed all the charges.  The "witches" of Cataluna were not so
>     lucky.  Secular authorities managed to execute 300 people before
>     the Inquisition could stop the trials.
>
> It's well worth reading the whole article if you're interested in how
> witchcraft was treated in the Middle Ages.  It explodes a lot of
> mistaken notions.
>
> --
> Tim McDaniel, t...@panix.com