Absolutely every sin of the Catholic Church has an equal or greater sin in the Protestant Reformation.
Catholics were also persecuted.
Catholic Bibles were also outlawed.
Catholic Priests were tortured and killed.
King Henry the 8th founded the Anglican Church. Later, the Anglican Church authorized the King James version of the Bible. Do you REALLY think that Henry the VIII is a role model as the head of ANY religion? Henry, and the Kings after him, persecuted Catholics relentlessly.
Your Pious, one sided view of history is appalling.
The Salem Witch Trials were not done by Catholics.
This does not mean that the Puritans had no positive contributions, but -— you must understand one point: EVERY SIN OF EVERY FAITH IS A HUMAN SIN!
We are all Human.
Every faith is made up of Humans.
Every single denomination, of every faith, Christian and non-Christian, has countless human sins to answer for.
However, the theology of the Catholic Church is sound. Individuals HAVE misused and abused their power, within the Church, and that is an entirely separate issue.
There were heretics at the time of the Inquisition. There were many who wanted to bring down the Christian faith. Unfortunately, human weakness took over and we all know the rest.
However, it is absolutely wrong to judge any Religion by the acts of a few.
Judge a religion by its entire record, and its total impact on the world.
There would be NO Christian religion at all, if not for the organizational leadership and the absolute protection of that faith, by the Catholic Church.
Protestants would have nothing to protest against, if not for the Mother Church, the Church of Rome, which was the FIRST Christian Faith. Do you discount the teaching authority of pre-Christian Judaism? Why not? Did not the Jews frequently make mistakes? Did not the Jews frequently fall to Idolatry and, in the case of King David, a few other sins as well? You are a pious, judgmental person with very little understanding of human nature, far too much pride in yourself, and no understanding of history.
The Salem Witch Trials are now being thought to be more a matter of physical causes than spiritual.
The rye crop of that year was infected with a fungus called ergot.
Ergot is a vasco-constrictor and can cause some very bizarre symptoms, including hallucinations, irrational behavior, and convulsions.
Subjecting ergot to moderate levels of heat, as in bread baking, produces a mild, weal form of LSD.
There's current speculation that the whole issue had physiological causes.
(as related to me by someone taking forensics at a local university)
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/previous_seasons/case_salem/index.html
Coulda happened to anybody. Just a thought....