[graemep]

> criminalise (up to capital punishment) things like apostasy and blasphemy, which are decidedly mediaeval attitudes.

Another HN post today motivated me to look up the history of British blasphemy law and it turns out it was not medieval. Criminal blasphemy laws appeared right at the end of the Middle Ages (at least in England and Wales) so are mostly modern. Before that the punishment for blasphemy was excommunication.