I'm not Reformed, but I was asking questions about it in a Facebook group and lo and behold this one (Reformed) person said that Reformed tradition put heretics to death. I asked if they themselves supported the death penalty for heretics, and they said they did.
I know there are lots of Reformed people on this forum. What do you think of this?
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The idea of religious freedom is a recent one and very radical. Ever since Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 3:1-7) rulers have believed that it is important that everyone in their country should have the same religion as they do. This is still the case in most Moslem countries, Mianmar, North Korea and, in more recent times, in India. In medieval times, the countries of Christendom were Roman Catholic and dissent from that was often punished by death. Infant 'baptism' was very important to this, because it ensured that everyone was doing things 'properly.' If someone did not submit a new-born child for 'baptism,' that was a sign that he was a dissenter and could be dealt with accordingly.
At the time of the Reformation, many kingdoms or principalities threw out Romanism, but did not allow their subjects to choose what belief they would follow. So some Sates were Lutheran, some Zwinglian and some Reformed. according to the dictate of the ruler. The ordinary citizen had no say. It was the Anabaptists who were the first to advocate freedom of religion and gathered churches, but that did not go down well with the rulers, especially after the debacle of Munster, and the Anabaptists were persecuted both by Rome and by the Protestant princes.
But persecution was not a purely 'Reformed' thing. When the Arminians gained control of the Church of England under Archbishop laud, they persecuted the Calvinists and the other dissenters as hard as they could go. It was not until the 'Act of Settlement in 1688 that there was a degree of toleration for Dissenters in England.
I hope that's helpful for you.
