Answer:
The first effort to stop the spread of protestantism was to declare the effort to reform the Catholic Church a heresy. People who supported the protests of the sale of indulgences and other practice perceived by the protesters as unbiblical were excommunicated.The Christian church dealt with many heresies. .In the 12th and 13th centuries, however, the Inquisition was established by the church to combat heresy; heretics who refused to recant after being tried by the church were handed over to the civil authorities for punishment, usually execution. So far, however, the Roman Catholic Church is holding the line on Giordano Bruno, a rationalist philosopher who was burned at the stake for heresy 400 years ago today. The pope has marked this Holy Year as a time for the church to apologize for past errors and excesses, from the Inquisition to the persecution of Jews.