Europeans were just as brutal. A lot better at toning down descriptions of their brutality though, since there weren’t outside observers recording the atrocities, but only fellow Europeans:
Esch, Voes, and Thorn, still held in custody, were questioned again by the ecclesiastical inquisition court, but they refused to recant. They were then handed over to the secular court and sentenced to death. They were taken to Brussels and held until the appointed day of execution on 1523 July 1. New attempts were made meanwhile to get them to renounce. Voes was brought first to the inquisitors, but he refused to recant. Esch also refused to renounce Lutheranism. Thorn asked for an additional four-day period to study the scriptures with respect to his views, and thus he was not executed then with Esch and Voes. Esch and Voes were summarily delivered to the executioner, brought to the marketplace in Brussels, and burned alive.
Even in modern times. Socialism is a modern European religion that takes brutality to an industrial scale, killing by the millions and tens of millions.
A “simple” European burning at the stake was a walk in the park compared to how you’d be treated by an Iroquois mob out for vengeance. The latter is the stuff of nightmares...and they would actually try to keep you alive as long as possible. Also, burning at the stake came after a trial and conviction of a capital crime...it wasn’t practiced on those captured in war as it was among the Iroquois.
I am not sure why people think we are automatically favoring Europeans by bringing this stuff up. We tell the stories of the Roman martyrs in the same way, and for the same reason—to fortify ourselves against persecution. And to show what happens to *any* group of people if they let the devil have sway over their culture.
Your example doesn’t even compare to the cruelty of the original story. Also, there’s no evidence those inquisitors enjoyed condemning the heretics. The indians enjoyed their cruelty and made it last as long as possible.