I read with interest John Guillaumier’s letter (January 14) regarding Christians having in bygone times persecuted pagans and Christians.

Hypatia of Alexandria was killed in the most gruesome way. Christian monks threw her out of her carriage and dragged her to the church called Caesarion. They stripped off her clothes and then killed her with broken bits of pottery. When they had torn her body limb from limb, they took it to a place called Cinarion and burned it (this according to Socrates Scholasticus).

Priscillian, a follower of Sabellius, was executed as a heretic in 385.

Thanks to Calvin, Servetus of Spain was burned alive in 1553.

In 1600, Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake in Rome.

In America, the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay colony persecuted (whipping and branding) Baptists and Quakers.

There were then the famous Salem witchcraft trials (1691-92) that led to the execution of 32 persons: they were pressed to death under heavy weights.

In some religions, apostasy is a capital crime.