1529: Jacob Kaiser, launching the First War of Kappel

ExecutedToday.com ^ | May 29, 2010 | Headsman

[CheshireTheCat]

On this date in 1529, Zwinglian missionary Jacob Kaiser was burnt at the stake in the Catholic Swiss canton of Schwyz.

His Protestant evangelizing was a violation of the unwritten Cuius regio, eius religio policy keeping peace among the cantons. (Later, it would become written.)

This otherwise routine Reformation martyrdom led Ulrich Zwingli, then Grossmünster of Zurich, to make war on the Catholic cantons, seeking to pry them open for further Protestant inroads.

Let us be firm and fear not to take up arms. This peace, which some desire so much, is not peace, but war; while the war that we call for, is not war, but peace. We thirst for no man’s blood, but we will cut the nerves of the oligarchy. If we shun it, the truth of the gospel and the ministers’ lives will never be secure among us.

–Zwingli, channeling Orwell

The short-lived Erster Kappelerkrieg — the First War of Kappel — was won within weeks, swiftly concluded by a truce favorable to Zwingli’s Protestant alliance...

[ConservativeMind]

The Catholic Church: Winning hearts and minds through death squads.

[Campion]

Oh, give it a rest. Here's the full list of European states who had freedom of religion in the 16th century: [].

That goes for Catholic states, Protestant states, and Orthodox states. Orthodox countries have never really had religious freedom; the Tsar was killing Greek Catholics right up until the revolution, and then the Communists took over and finished the job.

Appreciate the First Amendment. It's the exception to the rule, and probably won't last much longer.

By the way, my screen name is from an English Jesuit priest who was executed under Elizabeth I. His crime? He was an English Jesuit priest. They had nothing else on him.