Primary sources persecution of the protestants and Catholics?

Answer 1

To get a reasonable answer to your question, you would have to be a lot more specific. Catholics were persecuted relentlessly for the first three centuries by the Roman government and by their neighbors, after the governments became mostly Catholic, persecution mainly came to an end until the protestant heresy came into being 1,200 years later. At that time, some governments became protestant and relentlessly persecuted Catholics, England was a prime example of this, as King Henry VIII turned monks and nuns into the streets, confiscating their property and homes, making their religion illigial and executing those who tried to remain true to their faith. The blood of martyrs, though, as always been the seed of the faith, and this was no less true throughout history. The Creed says that there are four marks by which the true faith is always know: it is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. However, Pope Pius XII, in addressing a group of seminarians, insisted that there was a fifth sign, the following is an extract from Cardinal Kung's homily at this first Mass after being made a Cardinal:

Jesus Christ built His Church on St. Peter, the Rock. The gates of hell cannot prevail against it. This rock is nothing else but our strong faith in Jesus Christ, our great love for Jesus Christ, a love which will lead us not to hesitate to shed our blood and accept execution. Yesterday, we celebrated the great feast of the martyrdom of Saints Peter and Paul. Today, we celebrate the first martyrs of the first three centuries of the Church. However, we must not make the mistake of thinking that the persecution of the Church is an event of past history. No! Never! The Church, from the time of its foundation by Jesus Christ, throughout these two thousand years up to the present time, has always grown and developed amidst persecution. Persecutions began and ended but they never ceased to be a mark of the Church's life.

So we must not be surprised when persecution comes because it is a normal event for the Church to suffer persecution. Once, when Pope Pius XII received a group of seminarians in audience, he asked them how many special signs distinguished the true Church of God. They answered immediately without further thinking, "It is one, holy, catholic and apostolic." The Pope said, "There is still a fifth sign." The seminarians did not know how to answer. The Pope said, "Persecution." So, if the Church enjoyed peace all the time without any persecution, it would be very abnormal. It would be a reason for us to worry and examine ourselves lest anything was going wrong. Perhaps we were not living as faithful disciples of Christ? As persecution must be expected, it comes as a special sign of the Church and we should not try to make compromises or concessions of any kind in order to bring the persecution to an end quickly. We ourselves cannot take the initiative to create or arouse persecution. But if it comes to us one day, not only should we accept it readily from the hand of God but we should even rejoice and be glad. As the Acts of the Apostles records, ."... after they were beaten, the apostles left the Council, full of joy that God had considered them worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus." (Acts 1:41)