I am not a “protestant”.
I am a Christian.
I abhor Luther’s hatred of the Jews and Zwingli’s burning of “heretics” as much as the unspeakable slaughter of the Huegonots and Mennonites at the hands of the Roman Church and the brutal persecution of Christians and Jews at the hands of the Borgia popes and their infamous henchman Torquemada.
Erasmus said, after reading a Greek Bible, “Either this is not the Bible, or we are not Christians.”
“Borgia popes and their infamous henchman Torquemada”
The Borgia popes were in Italy. Torquemada was Spanish - and not in Italy. Torquemada became grand inquisitor in 1483. Only ONE of the Borgia popes was pope while Torquemada was head of the Spanish Inquisition - Alexander VI who was pope for 11 years - five of those years being after Torquemada died! And Alexander VI actually appointed other people to the inquisition in Spain in an effort to restrain the excesses that had developed under Torquemada.
“Erasmus said, after reading a Greek Bible, “Either this is not the Bible, or we are not Christians.”
Erasmus also said: “There is nothing I congratulate myself on more heartily than on never having joined a sect.” That leaves your sect out.
The brutality of the inquisition has become the stuff of legends and been blown far out of proportion. Henningsen, Cárcel and Contreras, using preserved inquisition records, have placed the number of investigations over the course of the Inquisition (which was administered by the Spanish government, btw, not the Church), at between 100,000 and 150,000. Of that number only a small percentage faced torture or execution. And bear in mind, the primary reason the inquisition was established was to combat Islamic subversion. The number of non-Catholic Christians who faced the inquisition was certainly fewer than the number of Catholics executed by the English, for example.