Wikipedia Investigation
In early 2005, Carpinelli conducted an online investigation into the source of allegations that in the aftermath of an earthquake in Lisbon, Portugal Catholic priests roamed city streets, hanging those they thought responsible for the quake. She summarized her findings in a four-part article published on Catholic website, concluding that Wikipedia was the likely source of the information which then spread to other information outlets.
In the first incarnation of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake article, written in 2003, appears the unsourced sentence
Priests of the inquisition roamed the city, rounding up "heretics" and hanging them on the spot for angering God
Other versions of the phrase appear elsewhere, such as
priests roved around the ruins, selecting at random those they believed guilty of heresy and thus to blame for annoying the Divine, who in turn had ordered up the disaster. The priests had them hanged on the spot.
The event is discussed at the Wikipedia Signpost.
Read more about this topic: Theresa Carpinelli