2 of 4 Persecution and the 30-Year War

The Catholics had lost considerable power as thousands of people left their faith and joined the Protestants. This caused a great uproar among the European countries. The Catholics tried in vain to demolish the new faith by persecutions, and had sent out large armies to capture the chief leaders of church organizations, or any one being suspicioned as members of their faith. They dealt with them in the most cruel inhuman manner that they possibly could, such as burning at stake, drowning and throwing them into dens with wild beasts. In 1572 in France alone 80,000 persons were slaughtered. Small children were taken away from their parents, were baptized and put in Catholic homes.

A large part of "Martyrs Mirror" is written on the occurrences of the sixteenth century.

The Bible had up to now not only been a secret book but also a scarce book. They were greatly handicapped in printing and distributing scriptural literature. If anyone was suspicious of owning any of these writings, it was sought to be destroyed by Catholicism.

Even though Luther had translated the Bible in their own tongue, many people didn't have the ability to read it. On many occasions the Word of God could only be obtained by speech. This could be the reason for much misunderstanding and misrepresentation which caused differences in opinions and great confusion. The people as a whole were very confused over which is right or which is wrong. Many different denominations sprang up and each claimed to be the true followers of the Apostolic Church.

In the latter part of the 16th century a few of the Protestant churches had agreed in bearing arms in times of war. This had caused much bloodshed and it evidently turned into a revolt, the Protestants against their Catholic Government.

In 1610 the King of France was killed (Henry IV). In 1618 the whole continent of Europe was engaged in war. This war is called the Thirty Years War. It could also be called "A Religious War." By 1648 the Protestants now held the reins of Government of most of the European nations.

Not all the Protestant churches had agreed in bearing arms or supporting a state church. The Mormons, Huttrians, Mennonites and others had not agreed. For that reason they were not only persecuted by their mother church, the Catholics, but also by their neighbor churches, the Protestants, in such ways as being banished from their country, sold as galley slaves and forced to do heavy work with little food. At one time there had been several thousands of these people living in France. Those who had survived through persecutions were all driven from their country to other unoccupied areas. They found refuge in Netherlands and Northern Germany. There they suffered severe cold winters and lack of food so that many people died from starvation. These poor people were called peasants.

After the long and dreadful rebellion, the European countries suffered one of the greatest famines of all times. Their industries had been at a standstill, their farming land out of production. For example, if one party had sowed their crops and hoped to harvest them, they found them being destroyed by other parties and in that way neither one had food for themselves. This continued year after year so that many died from starvation. It is estimated that over two-thirds of the population of Europe had perished either through wars, persecutions, starvations, plagues, and diseases.