Australian philosopher John Passmore, from his book Science and It’s Critics, quoted in Carl Sagan’s The Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle In the Dark (which has a wealth of great quotes like this one in it):
The Spanish Inquisition sought to avoid direct responsibility for the burning of heretics by handing them over to the secular arm; to burn them itself, it piously explained, would be wholly inconsistent with its Christian principles. Few of us would allow the Inquisition thus easily to wipe its hands clean of bloodshed; it knew quite well what would happen.