Religious persecution
Violence, expulsion and legal repression of people for their faith, of any religion.
Category: Society
- 1407 – 1409England restricts unlicensed Bible translation
In 1407–1409 Archbishop Thomas Arundel's constitutions, issued at Oxford, require church approval for any new English translation of Scripture and bar the public reading of Wycliffe's writings.
- November 16, 1414 – April 22, 1418The Council of Constance meets to end the Western Schism
Convened in 1414, when three men claimed to be pope, the council sidelines all three and elects Martin V in 1417. It also has the Czech reformer Jan Hus burned for heresy on 6 July 1415.
- 1478Ferdinand and Isabella obtain papal approval for a Spanish Inquisition
In 1478 the Catholic Monarchs request, and Pope Sixtus IV approves, an Inquisition in Castile under royal control, aimed at conversos suspected of secretly practising Judaism. Sources date its start to 1478, 1480 or 1483.
- March 31, 1492Alhambra Decree expels the Jews from Castile and Aragon
Ferdinand and Isabella order all Jews who will not convert to Christianity to leave Castile and Aragon, in a decree dated 31 March 1492, less than three months after the fall of Granada.
- May 23, 1498Savonarola is hanged and burned in Florence
Excommunicated by Alexander VI in May 1497 and arrested after a failed trial by fire in April 1498, Girolamo Savonarola and two fellow friars are hanged and burned in Florence's main square on 23 May 1498.
- April 23, 1523Charles V names the first inquisitor general of the Netherlands
On 23 April 1523 Charles V appoints Frans van der Hulst inquisitor general of the Seventeen Provinces, after edicts in 1521 banned Reformed worship. More than 1,300 people are executed as heretics there between 1523 and 1566.
- 1526Tyndale's English New Testament is printed at Worms
The first complete printed English New Testament, translated by William Tyndale, appears at Worms in 1526. Bishop Tunstall has copies bought and burned; Tyndale is arrested at Antwerp in 1535 and burned near Vilvoorde in October 1536.
- February 1534 – June 24, 1535Anabaptists seize Münster and set up a short-lived kingdom
Anabaptists take control of Münster in February 1534, and John of Leiden later takes royal regalia and absolute power. The prince-bishop's forces retake the city on 24 June 1535, and its leaders are executed in January 1536.
- July 6, 1535Thomas More is beheaded for refusing the Oath of Supremacy
Thomas More, the humanist author of Utopia, is beheaded on Tower Hill on 6 July 1535. He had refused the Oath of Supremacy, which recognised Henry VIII as Supreme Head of the Church of England.
- October 1536William Tyndale is strangled and burned at Vilvoorde
In early October 1536 (traditionally 6 October) the English translator William Tyndale is executed for heresy near Brussels. Much of his wording later survives in the King James Bible.
- 1542Paul III founds the Roman Inquisition
In 1542 Paul III founds the Roman Inquisition to prosecute heresy, at the urging of Giovanni Pietro Carafa, later Paul IV, after the failed Regensburg Colloquy of 1541. It targets Protestantism in Italy and later tries Giordano Bruno and Galileo.
- October 27, 1553Michael Servetus is burned for heresy at Geneva
Geneva's council burns Michael Servetus for anti-Trinitarian views on 27 October 1553, after Calvin denounced him. Catholic authorities at Vienne had already condemned him in absentia in June.
- February 4, 1555 – 1558Mary I's government burns Protestants as heretics
From 4 February 1555, when John Rogers is burned, Mary I's government burns Protestants under revived heresy laws. At least 280 people are executed by the end of her reign in 1558, which earns her the name 'Bloody Mary'.
- July 1555Paul IV's bull Cum nimis absurdum creates the Roman Ghetto
In July 1555 Paul IV's bull Cum nimis absurdum requires Rome's roughly 2,000 Jews to live in a walled ghetto locked at night, wear yellow hats and accept limits on trades and property. Sources date it 14 or 17 July.
- March 21, 1556Thomas Cranmer is burned at the stake at Oxford
Thomas Cranmer, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, withdraws his recantations and is burned at Oxford on 21 March 1556. The principal editor of the Book of Common Prayer is later honoured as a martyr by the Church of England.
- 1562 – 1598The French Wars of Religion begin between Catholics and Huguenots
Conflict between Catholic and Protestant (Huguenot) factions, entangled with noble rivalries and a weakened Valois crown, broke into open civil war in 1562 and continued intermittently until 1598.
- April 5, 1566 – April 8, 1566Dutch nobles petition Margaret of Parma and are called "Beggars"
On 5 April 1566 about 300 nobles march through Brussels to petition the regent Margaret of Parma against the heresy laws. At a banquet on 8 April they toast themselves as "beggars", a name the rebels keep.
- August 22, 1567The Duke of Alba arrives in Brussels and sets up the Council of Troubles
Philip II sends the Duke of Alba to crush the unrest. He enters Brussels on 22 August 1567, takes over as governor and sets up the Council of Troubles, which Dutch people call the Council of Blood, to punish heresy and rebellion.
- August 24, 1572St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of Huguenots in Paris
During the wedding celebrations of Henry of Navarre, King Charles IX ordered the killing of Huguenot leaders, and mobs in Paris and other cities then massacred thousands of Protestants. It began the night of 23-24 August 1572.
- 1598Ferdinand of Styria begins a strict Counter-Reformation in Inner Austria
From 1598 Archduke Ferdinand, later Emperor Ferdinand II and a Jesuit-educated Catholic, expels Protestant pastors and teachers from Inner Austria, with Graz as his base, and installs Catholic priests.
- November 5, 1605The Gunpowder Plot against James I is foiled in London
On the night of 4–5 November 1605 Guy Fawkes is caught guarding 36 barrels of gunpowder under the House of Lords. English Catholics led by Robert Catesby had plotted to kill James I, and harsher anti-Catholic laws follow.
- August 29, 1618 – May 13, 1619Johan van Oldenbarnevelt is arrested and later beheaded in the Dutch Republic
Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, chief architect of the Twelve Years' Truce and protector of the Remonstrants, is imprisoned on 29 August 1618 and beheaded on 13 May 1619, four days after the Synod of Dort closes. Hugo Grotius gets a life sentence.
- June 21, 1621Twenty-seven Bohemian rebel leaders are executed in Prague's Old Town Square
On 21 June 1621 twenty-seven leaders of the Bohemian Revolt, nobles, knights and burghers, are executed in Old Town Square. Twelve heads hang from the Old Town Bridge Tower until the Saxon invasion of 1631.
- 1627Ferdinand II issues the Renewed Land Ordinance, making Catholicism Bohemia's only religion
In 1627 Ferdinand II's Renewed Land Ordinance makes the Bohemian lands hereditary Habsburg possessions, strips the Estates of their powers and allows only Catholicism, except for Jews. It stays in force, modified, until 1848.
- May 20, 1631Imperial and League troops storm and burn Magdeburg
On 20 May 1631, after a two-month siege, Tilly's and Pappenheim's troops storm Magdeburg. Fire destroys about 1,700 of 1,900 buildings and some 20,000 people die. Gustavus Adolphus does not relieve it, and "Magdeburg mercy" becomes a byword.
- October 18, 1685Louis XIV revokes the Edict of Nantes (Edict of Fontainebleau)
Louis XIV ended legal toleration of Protestants, ordering their churches destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of Huguenots fled France over the following years, taking skills and capital abroad.