Excuse me - it might be that I'm tipsy but did you just call appeasing gods ridiculous while presenting the execution of witches as something less ridiculous?
the inquisition &etc were as much about cultural conformity and control than about espousing a culture of violence. while ridiculous the question is not to compare ridiculousness levels but to compare the _reasons_ that people were doing the ridiculous things they did.
killing people for the express and explicit purpose of killing people is bad mojo.
They shouldn't have done it...
..at least by our standards today. It is always difficult to judge historical people because we are, even from an early age, in possession of more facts than they were.