Since 96% of US catholics are apparently heretics, time for a related thread:
THE ROMAN INQUISITION, WITCHES AND PAGANS: A THREAD NO ONE EXPECTED

(First boring note: I mean roman as "of the roman church", operating in Italy. The Roman Empire was long gone by then, even in the East. Also, it's *not* the medieval inquisition. The witch-hunts were a 1500-600 thing!)

How people imagine the Inquisition:
Inquisitors: "WE'LL BURN ALL THE WITCHES AND THEIR BOOKS! IN THE NAME OF THE LORD SINNERS WILL BE FOUND AND DESTROYED!"
local people: "No! Please spare us from your rage! We'll be good christians!"

How it actually went:
Local people: "WE'LL BURN ALL THE WITCHES AND THEIR BOOKS! IN THE NAME OF THE LORD SINNERS WILL BE FOUND AND DESTROYED!"
Inquisitors: "guys, chill, she's probably just a herbalist or sth..."

Locals: "SHE READS FORBIDDEN BOOKS ABOUT NECROMANCY! SHE GIVES THE EVIL EYE!"
Inquisitors: "Bad, really bad, she'll have to say fifty paternosters. Now if we're done with it..."
(this one is almost verbatim from a historical source I swear)

Point is, the roman Inquisition didn't care much about witches. High level clergymen were educated, and mostly didn't believe in witchcraft.
Also they didn't really like mob trials - not out of any sense of justice, they just didn't like the masses having any say on anything.

See, the whole witches story - the specific "cult of women having sex with satan" - was kind of a moral panic in the 1500s. It went pretty much like the "D&D satanic cult" thing tbh. Some guy published a book about witches, describing them as a secret pan-european satanic cult.

(that sounds awesome btw, but there's zero indication it actually existed - AT FIRST. Quite hilariously, some sabbas were ACTUALLY HELD once the persecution began - people were like "I never thought about dancing naked for satan, but I LOVE the idea!")

Anyway, people worried about it, blamed everything on witches, and there *were* witch hunts. But in Italy, the Church was mostly telling people to calm the fuck down.

However, the Church cared *a lot* about jurisdisction over anything religious, including withchcraft, as a matter of principle. So when the locals started crying "witch!", it often went like this:

Secular judge: "The imputee stands accused of witchcraft-"
Inquisitor, slamming the door open: "WITCHCRAFT? CURSES? THAT'S MY JURISDICTION!"
Secular judge: "but people said you didn't care and..."

Inquisitor: "I'LL RUIN YOU! I'LL EXCOMMUNICATE YOU! YOUR VERY SOUL WILL SOCCUMB TO THE FIRES OF HELL! THIS IS MY TRIAL NOW!"
Secular judge: *groan* "ok, your trial then. So, what about this witch who..."
Inquisitor, shrugging: "Witchcraft is bad. Say 50 paternosters. Bye!"

There were comparatively few italian witch hunts. One of the most important was the Triora witch trial - my lovely partner did a thread about it, where you can see these weird dynamics at work: https://twitter.com/jackdaw_writes/status/1326601206026956802

To be clear, the Church wasn't *always* so lenient. I wouldn't want you to think it enlightened! About 250 witches executions are recorded in Italy.
(some might be unrecorded, but the church is *good* at keeping records. If there were more, they were by angry mobs)

Surprisingly, the inquisition was somewhat more concerned with *witch fighters*. Benandanti (good-goers) were traditional benevolent magic-users in north-east Italy, who supposedly healed people, "fought witches in stormy nights" and other cool stuff.

Basically like this:
Locals: "SHE DANCES NAKED WITH SATAN!"
Inq, yawning: "sounds like hallucinogens tbh"
locals: "but luckily that other guy protects us from her evil mag..."
Inq: "WHO? WHERE'S THE HERETIC?"

Because you know, supernatural protection was the church's own brand. So the benandanti were competitors! Some were interrogated and sentenced (but none to death IIRC.) The church, however, made enough of a demonization campaign to end their positive reputation.

Because the roman Inquisition cared mostly about that: brand protection. Their aim, regarding the supernatural stuff, was convincing people that Jesus works better than any shitty homebrew sorcerer. To help with the message, the cult of the saints was greatly encouraged.

Picture the priests like used car salesmen, except they sell Jesus.
peasant: sacrifices he-goat to the ever-burning skull god
inquisitor: "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"
peasant: "err... see, I just found this altar lying around and..."

inquisitor: "HOW YOU DARE SACRIFICE TO THE EVER BURNING SKULL GOD... when you could sacrifice to Saint [checks notes] skullgoddus! For half the price in he-goats!"
Peasant: "I love christianism! All praise saint skullgoddus!"

To be clear I made up that god. But there are fun examples. Again from my partner - xe loves folklore - the ancient goddess of snakes, Angitia, was reskinned as Saint Dominic. Pictured: an absolutely legit catholic celebration. Yep those are snakes.
https://twitter.com/jackdaw_writes/status/1245652585870061570

This policy, more than repression, worked well in Italy. After one thousand years of quiet survival in rural areas, paganism was... well, not quite rooted out, but hidden under the carpet.
And if some "catholic" ritual involves a few snakes, well, what can you do about it.

Note that while the Inquisition honestly wasn't that bad on this count, they did their damn best to persecute jews, muslims, and most of all heretics (which mostly meant protestant preachers). The last time they persecuted a jew family was in 1850ish!

Also, this is the *roman* inquisition. The Spanish Inquisition (answering to the kings of Spain, not to the papacy!) was bloodier - even if mostly toward jews and muslims. They didn't care that much about witches, either.

However, most of known executions for witchcraft were in the Holy Roman Empire (no relation with the more famous roman empire). More than 10 000 witch executions are recorded there, and many more are probably unrecorded.

Why? I don't know much about HRE history but I seem to understand it was another brand competition issue. Protestants and catholics were trying to outdo each other in protecting people from witches!
Pic: a map of witch-hunts in Europe

So... what's the moral?
Catholics actually worship thinly disguised pagan gods.
The inquisition was evil (duh), but not in the way most people think.
Don't be a heretic, have a satanic orgy instead.
If you're accused of being a witch, call your local inquisitor ASAP.

Bonus fact. What happened to the Roman Inquisition? It was disbanded by Napoleon... except in the Papal State. There, it was renamed Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Guess who was part of it? The last Pope!
Evil old Benedict XVI used to be head of the inquisition.

Sorry for the long-ass thread, but I didn't want to simplify so much the Inquisition looked nice. If you enjoyed this, I have more useless information here! https://twitter.com/MalvagioMarco/status/1323041047388311558

Also, I'm a terrible person and go 90% from memory so I can't really credit sources properly. However, I took that map from this (nice) article: https://qz.com/1183992/why-europe-was-overrun-by-witch-hunts-in-early-modern-history/