The Dispatch

The Inquisitor who wouldn’t burn witches

October 28, 2023 Sandra Miesel 4

“… only ‘the wisdom and firmness of the Inquisition’ made the witch craze ‘comparatively harmless’ in Spain.” — William Monter, quoting Henry Charles Leai Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. And nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition […]

Features

When Harlots Ruled the Church

August 27, 2023 Sandra Miesel 64

Here a scandal, there a scandal, and pretty soon you’re talking real depravity. As the Church shudders almost daily from new stories of corruption, the faithful wonder if this is the worst ecclesiastical era ever. […]

The Dispatch

The blessings and example of St. Benedict

July 9, 2023 Sandra Miesel 1

Western civilization is “waiting for another Benedict,” according to philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre. But why single out St. Benedict of Nursia (480-547) as a model for treating the ills of modern society? As the father of […]

Features

Who Burned the Witches (Part 2)

November 1, 2022 Sandra Miesel 19

Editor’s note: Part One of this essay was published on October 30, 2022. (Editor’s note: A different version of this article ran in CRISIS magazine in October 2001. Witches Everywhere How many people died in […]

Features

Who Burned the Witches? (Part 1)

October 30, 2022 Sandra Miesel 13

The stench of their burning is with us yet. The stakes and gibbets where witches perished by the tens of thousands during Earl Modern times still stand in popular imagination. For historians, the Great European […]

The Dispatch

Hildegard of Bingen: Voice of the Living Light

September 17, 2022 Sandra Miesel 3

Among the other female Doctors of the Church—Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Siena, and Therese of Lisieux—Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) blazes in colors all her own. Medievalist Peter Dronke describes her as “an overpowering, electrifying […]