LOL, how does your saying they weren’t the only ones, demonstrate a weakness in my accurate history that I described.
It was considered unchristian to permit non-Catholics to continue to practice their non-Catholic religions. It was believed that you condemned them to Hell in doing so. It was also believed that you endangered that community be permitting non-Catholic influences to spread.
When the Puritans came to the New World to escape religious persecution they did not leave religious persecution behind, they became the persecutors.
Religious persecution was the way of the world before and after the Enlightenment. Religious persecution is nearly as common today as it was 400 years ago. It is becoming more common in the United States today. You see a thread on FR nearly every day of how some kid in some school is told that he can not pray or read the Bible in school.
So why should you wonder that Catholics persecuted non-Catholics in the past?