1000 Years of Carnage & Barbarity in the name of Christ
16th Century Mayhem
Pogroms & civil wars in the name of Jesus
"My advice... is: First, that their synagogues be burned down, and that all who are able toss sulphur and pitch; it would be good if someone could also throw in some hellfire.."
Martin Luther ("On the Jews and their lies" 1543)
1517: Martin Luther posts 95 theses at Wittenberg. The Reformation will turn Europe into a battleground.
1517 A Dominican monk Johann Tetzel swells papal coffers by selling indulgences ('souls freed from purgatory'!)
1524: Luther – no friend of the downtrodden – encourages savagery of German princes in putting down the two-year Peasants’ Revolt.
Book Burners for Christ–
Dominican monks in the service of Ferdinand proudly consign the wisdom of Moorish Spain to the flames (Berruguete, Prado Museum, Madrid)
1553 John Calvin, the "Protestant Pope" of Geneva proves his Christian credentials by having Michael Servetus, the Spanish physician, burned at the stake for heresy. Servetus had opposed Trinitarianism and infant baptism.
( To be continued )
