This week in persecuted church history (May 24-30)

Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.
Hebrews 13:7b (ESV) 

May 24, 1689: Parliament passes England's Toleration Act, granting freedom of worship to Dissenters (non-Anglican Protestants) but not to Catholics and atheists.

May 24, 2008: Police raid a private home and jail 25 Christians who had gathered in Adi Kuala on Eritrea's Independence Day to pray for their nation.

May 25, 2007: Uzbek pastor Dmitry Shestakov transferred to a closed labour camp in the city of Navoi to serve the rest of his sentence for refusing to "repent for the crime he has committed."

May 26, 1521: The Edict of Worms formally condemns Martin Luther's teachings , and he is put under the ban of the Holy Roman Emperor. Those who fear for his life then kidnap Luther and hide him in Fredericks Wartbury castle.

May 26, 1647: Massachusetts enacts a law forbidding any Jesuit or Roman Catholic priest from entering Puritan jurisdictions. Second-time offenders could face execution.

May 28, 2004: Samuel Masih, a Pakistani Christian in jail accused of blasphemy, dies in hospital of injuries suffered from beatings at the hands of his guards.

May 29, 1660: England's King Charles II triumphantly enters London, marking the full restoration of the monarchy. Though he promised religious liberty, he cracked down on Dissenters (including John Bunyan) following a 1661 attempt by religious fanatics to overthrow him.

May 30, 339: Eusebius dies at age 74. Author of the 10-volume Ecclesiastical History, he is called the father of church history. His works are perhaps the leading source of information on persecution in the first three centuries of Christianity.

May 30, 1416: Jerome of Prague burns at the stake for heresy. When the Council of Constance arrested and tried his fellow Bohemian reformer Jan Hus, Jerome went to defend him, sealing his own fate.

May 30, 1934: The first synod of the Confessing Church at Barmen ends. Influenced by Karl Barth, the synod resisted the teachings of the Nazi German Christians.

(source: Christianity Today, The Voice of the Martyrs)