Not for effect and I will work on a short catalog of the church's major transgressions throughout history. But to whet your appetite, head on back to the inquisition or read up on the case of
Peter Stumpp:
Quote:
His execution is one of the most brutal on record: He was put to the wheel, where flesh was torn from his body, in ten places, with red-hot pincers, followed by his arms and legs. Then his limbs were broken with the blunt side of an axehead to prevent him from returning from the grave, before he was beheaded and burned on a pyre. His daughter and mistress had already been flayed, raped, and strangled and were burned alive along with Stumpp's body. As a warning against similar behavior, local authorities erected a pole with the torture wheel and the figure of a wolf on it, and at the very top they placed Peter Stumpp's severed head.
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There's plenty more where that came from, and it was all duplicity in service of cementing power under the guise holiness. The church has battled science and reason because frightened people are much easier to manipulate and control. Can you imagine what things would be like if people still believed in witches and werewolves?