1543 J. Bale Yet Course at Romyshe Foxe sig. Ev Thys cruell persecutynge, thys murtherynge of innocentes.

a1618 W. Raleigh Life & Death Mahomet (1637) 17 God was displeased with the Meccans for the rigorous persecuting of him and his Sectuaries.

1687 W. Penn Good Advice to Church of Eng. 61 The end of Testing and Persecuting.

1717 D. Defoe Mem. Church of Scotl. i. 16 She countenanced the Priests to go on with all the persecuting Methods they could.

a1722 J. Lauder Hist. Observes (1840) 141 The curates and souldiers would not give over the persecuting..of them [sc. the Whigs].

1818 W. Scott Heart of Mid-Lothian x, in Tales of my Landlord 2nd Ser. III. 271 Your gudesire and his father, laid down their lives on the scaffold in the persecuting time.

1896 H. Spencer Princ. of Sociol. (new ed.) III. viii. xxii. 586 More recently still, have come the blackmailing revelations—the persecuting of people, even to the death, to obtain money by threatened disclosures or false charges.

1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 472/1 Alaric..greatly mitigated the persecuting policy of his father Euric towards the Catholics and authorized them to hold in 506 the Council of Agde.

2003 Sunday Tasmanian (Nexis) 6 Apr. (Letters) Erik might..enjoy re-imagining World War II so that..Hitler condemns cross-border aggression and persecuting of minorities as un-Nazi misconduct.

1573 in T. Cartwright Replye to Answere Whitgifte (new ed.) Printer to Rdr. sig. A.j ^v For the profite..of the godly and their instruction, haue we..as it were cast our selues into suche daungers and troubles as shalbe layed upon us if we come into ye hands of the persecuting Bishops.

1588 ‘M. Marprelate’ Oh read ouer D. Iohn Bridges: Epist. 1 Right poysond, persecuting & terrible priests.

1660 W. Secker in C. H. Spurgeon Treasury of David (1871) II. Ps. xliv. 17–19 Neither the persecuting hand of men, nor the chastising hand of God, relaxed ancient singular saints.

1709 G. Stanhope Paraphr. Epist. & Gospels IV. 119 The blaspheming, the persecuting Saul.

1855 E. B. Pusey Doctr. Real Presence Note R. 267 The new-made Christian was taken to the persecuting Emperor Diocletian.

1916 C. E. Long tr. C. G. Jung Coll. Papers Analyt. Psychol. iii. 174 Sarah..has turned the obsessive force of her father's attraction into the persecuting demon Asmondi.

1939 G. Catlin Anglo-Saxony & its Trad. 60 Dolfuss pursued the policy of persecuting the persecuting—of sending both the factions of physical violence into concentration camps.

1996 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 28 Nov. 57/3 Catholics were reacting to..the de-catholicizing of Spain by a persecuting state.