In the Qin dictatorship, all Confucian books are burnt (except those of any practical use) and 460 Confucian scholars are executed

The complete destruction of the Jewish Temple follows the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans

On the order of Marcus Aurelius, Christians in Lyons are tortured to death - an instance of persecution unusual at this time

Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, is one of many Christians martyred for refusing to sacrifice to the Roman gods

The emperor Diocletian initiates a sustained persecution of Christians in the Roman empire

Justinian closes down the schools of Athens, famous for their tradition of pagan philosophy

On the orders of the T'ang emperor, 4000 Buddhist monasteries are destroyed in China and 250,000 monks and nuns are forced into secular life

The German crusade begins with a massacre of Jews in many of the region's cities

Resentment of western merchants results in a massacre of Roman Catholics by fellow Christians in Constantinople

The murder of the pope's legate to Toulouse provokes the Albigensian crusade, which aims to wipe out the Catharist heresy

Gregory IX sends Dominican friars to root out the remains of the Catharist heresy in France, thus launching the Inquisition

The siege of the Catharist stronghold of Montségur ends when 200 heretics are herded into a wooden stockade and are burnt

The Jews in England are driven out of the country, soon to be followed by those in France

Dante, a member of the White faction in Florence, is sentenced to death by the Blacks - and never returns to his native city

Fifty-four Knights Templars are burned at the stake, during the campaign of the French king to destroy the order

Massacres of Jews, rumoured to have caused the Black Death by poisoning wells, begin in southern France and spread through much of Europe

John Huss, invited to Constance under a promise of safe conduct, is arrested, tried and burnt at the stake as a heretic

Torquemada persuades Ferdinand and Isabella to expel from Spain all Jews (about 160,000) who will not convert to Christianity

The original ghetto is established as a district to which the Jews of Venice are confined

Luther's writings are burnt in Rome by order of the pope

Eighty distinguished Swedish citizens are executed together on the main square, in what becomes known as the Stockholm Bloodbath

Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther after he has refused to recant

Outlawed by the Edict of Worms, Luther lives secretly in the Wartburg as Junker Georg

Muslims throughout Spain are ordered to convert to Christianity or to leave the kingdom

3000 Waldenses are massacred as heretics in the villages of Provence