He said the Spanish Inquisition was explicable (explainable/understandable) because of the times - he did not excuse it.

If he does not take any responsibilty for his organised religion's part in largely shaping thise times - in my view his claim that these methods of suppressing heresy is explicable because of these times - is yet another excuse to support why some people think organised religions should be a special case.

Organised extortion rackets in 1930's Chicago could be blamed on the individuals concerned and the times but most of us would have little hesitation in blaming criminal organisations like the Mafia for these crimes and for largely shaping those times. I suggest that few of us would keep coming up with ingenious reasons why these criminal organisations should not accept the full responsibilty for the bad things done because of them and in their name.

Perhaps these organised gangs were not so bad and its members attended church, did good things for the community? And many of the bad things that were done in their name, were just bad folk using these organised gangs as cover and these organised gangs should not be blamed or expected to take the responsibility for this? As this would be an unfair attack?