the victims of the Spanish Inquisition outnumber those of heathen Rome, and that more Protestants
were executed by the Spaniards in a single reign, and in a single province of Holland, than Christians
in the Roman empire during the first three centuries.^800 Jews and heathens have persecuted Christians,
Christians have persecuted Jews and heathens, Romanists have persecuted Protestants, Protestants
have persecuted Romanists, and every state-church has more or less persecuted dissenters and sects.
It is only within a recent period that the sacred rights of conscience have been properly appreciated,
and that the line is clearly and sharply drawn between church and state, religious and civil offenses,
heresy and crime, spiritual and temporal punishments.
The persecution of Protestants began at the Diet of Worms in 1521. Charles V. issued from
that city the first of a series of cruel enactments, or "placards," for the extermination of the Lutheran
heresy in his hereditary dominion of the Netherlands. In 1523 two Augustinian monks, Henry Voes
and John Esch, were publicly burnt, as adherents of Luther, at the, stake in Brussels. After the fires
were kindled, they repeated the Apostles’ Creed, sang the "Te Deum laudamus," and prayed in the
flames, "Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy upon us." The heroic death of these Protestant
proto-martyrs inspired Luther’s first poem, which begins, —
"Ein neues Lied wir heben an."^801
The prior of their convents Lampert Thorn, was suffocated in prison. The martyrdom of
Henry of Zütphen has already been noticed.^802 Adolph Klarenbach and Peter Flysteden suffered at
the stake in Cologne with constancy and triumphant joy, Sept. 28, 1529.^803
George Winkler, a preacher in Halle, was cited by the Archbishop of Cologne to
Aschaffenburg for distributing the communion in both kinds, and released, but murdered by unknown
hands on his return, May, 1527.^804
Duke George of Saxony persecuted the Lutherans, not by death, but by imprisonment and
exile. John Herrgott, a traveling book-peddler, was beheaded (1527) for revolutionary political
opinions, rather than for selling Lutheran books.^805
In Southern Germany the Edict of Worms was more rigidly executed. Many executions by
fire and sword, accompanied by barbarous mutilations, took place in Austria and Bavaria. In Vienna
a citizen, Caspar Tauber, was beheaded and burnt, because he denied purgatory and
transubstantiation, Sept. 17, 1524.^806 In Salzburg a priest was secretly beheaded without a trial, by
order of the archbishop, for Lutheran heresy.^807 George Wagner, a minister at Munich, was burnt
Feb. 8, 1527. Leonard Käser (or Kaiser) shared the same fate, Aug. 18, 1527, by order of the bishop
of Passau. Luther wrote him, while in prison, a letter of comfort.^808(^800) See Schaff, Church Hist. II. 78.
(^801) See above, p. 505, and Ranke, II. 119.
(^802) § 96, p. 574, sq.
(^803) See their biography in Piper’s Evang. Kalender, VII. 408, and article "Klarenbach" by C. Krafft, in Herzog2, VIII. 20-33.
(^804) Luther wrote a letter of comfort to the Christians at Halle on the death of their minister. Walch, X. 2260. See also his letter, April
28, 1528, in De Wette, III. 305.
(^805) See § 93, p. 567, note.
(^806) Ranke, II. 117 sq.
(^807) Ibid. p. 117.
(^808) Letter dated May 20, 1527, in De Wette, III. 179 sq. But Käser seems to have been an Anabaptist, which Luther did not know. See
Cornelius, Gesch. des Münsterschen Aufruhrs, II. 56.