Quote Originally Posted by mikkele
Oh, yes you can. The favorite method of the day was paid informers and agents spreading false information and slander in public places, such as markets, inns, etc. As others have indicated, the Christian clergy did also participate in this as well (one of the most notorious being Saint Bernard of Clairvaux).
Indeed, besides the church, which had the perfect distributed infrastructure in place to disburse coordinated information - it would be a very poor (and soon dead or unemployed) spymaster that did not have his own network for disbursing rumors and innuendo to influence public/politics etc.

It is not only critical to have agents to gather "information" - it is necessary to have agents to disburse/influence/spread "information" - doctored, concocted, trutheful, or otherwise shaped to your needs

DE