Islam is not bad, too many of you are ignorant of history.

[Booh!]

mrstickball said:

Booh! said:

Catholic Church never held a theocratic rule over Europe or elsewhere: one of the main achievements of the medieval Europe was in fact the separation of the temporal power (i.e. the Holy Roman Empire) from the religious power (the Church). The balance and the separation of these two powers was the cultural basis of modern Europe.

Pretty sure the church held a great deal of power in medieval Europe. Look at the crusades: Who sanctioned and got the people to go to war with the Turks? It wasn't the kings, it was Pope Urban II.

Who sanctioned and enforced the inquisitions? If the Vatican had no power, then how did it undertake the torture of other faiths?

The Church had great powers, but they were just diplomatic, cultural and social powers: the Church never had the power to enforce its will on the european states by brute force. For example, the first crusade was promoted by the Church on request by the Byzantine emperor while the European leaders took part in the crusade by their own will and by their own interests (glory, richness, vengeance, title of nobility, piety and so on...). The same goes for the Inquisition, while it was instituted by the Church, it was enforced by local political powers (e.g. the Spanish Inquisition, the trial of Joan of Arc  etc.).