Is a claim of 50,000,000 Baptist martyrs accurate?

At the fall of the western Roman empire triggered by a Roman naval revolt in south east Spain opened the Mediterranean and it's north Africa bread basket to cutting by pirates caused famine in Rome, adding to plague, revolt in the army over devalued payment high taxes to support a large bureaucracy caused the fall of Rome in to smaller states, the population of the western empire was approximately 50 million by the time of Luther it had climbed to approximately 78 million, there was three waves of the black plague which killed 1/3 of the population of Europe, the ripples of these deaths cause a demand for labor freeing the serf from his Lord, the opening of market towns with charters given by the ruling class to replace lost revenue. Technology advances in water power for making steel, fabric etc..The death of scribes who had been trained by the church caused the printing by Gutenberg to break the guilds. The ripples run throughout present history. There are no ripples of the 50-168 million killed by the Catholic Church, none. It didn't happen, what did happen was Luther Zwingli Calvin and Elizabeth I of the house of Tudor and the war with the Catholic Spanish empire. And propaganda myths and slander happened.

The History of Romanism by John Dowling published in 1845 is where the statistic probably comes from as it's pretty much a verbatim claim.

Unfortunately, the footnotes on page 542 say that:

No amount of computation can reach the number

-History of Romanism Page 542 - footnote#1

It does seem unlikely, that number is supposed to be representative of a period of about 1,200 years, but even over that period of time you'd still have to kill at least 114 baptists a day to reach that number. There's always a high estimate and a low estimate when calculating casualties, my initial assumption is that 50 million is the high estimate, and may not be exclusive of Baptists. The number certainty isn't unrealistic, the Soviet Union Communists alone killed 20 million christians in a period of 60 years.

I get my numbers based off of this interesting (and heavily sourced) study:

Estimates of the “number killed” by the papacy in the middle ages and later.

The study linked above includes sourced estimates of how many souls have been martyred in the past two millennia by the Catholic Church. They are careful to exclude casualties of war and plague from their numbers, so their conclusion is based on martyrs only. They are also sensitive enough to emphasize at the beginning of the study that it is not their intention to show hostility towards the Roman Catholic Church today because of the sins of their past.

The same study linked above concludes with this:

CHAPTER 3. THE 50 MILLION FIGURE:

It is often claimed by HISTORIC PROTESTANT WRITERS that 50 MILLION OR MORE PEOPLE have been killed by the Papacy. For example, Buck [Buck, Charles, A Theological Dictionary, containing Definitions of All Religious Terms; ... Philadelphia, Thomas Cowperthwait & Co., 1838, Article “Persecution”, p. 335] writes, “It has been computed that Fifty Millions of PROTESTANTS have, at different times, been the VICTIMS of the PERSECUTIONS OF THE PAPISTS, and put to death for their Religious Opinions.” However, most people today HAVE NO IDEA how this figure of 50 million was originally computed. Some persons today are claiming that this figure of 50 million has no basis in fact and is an exaggeration based on ANTI-CATHOLIC sentiment. Therefore, it is of interest to find out how this figure was originally computed in order to evaluate its reliability. This study reveals some aspects of History that are being NEGLECTED TODAY and also gives us an insight into the extent to which the TRUE HISTORY of religion is being lost. This study also shows how some of the other figures were computed.

There were MANY ATTEMPTS to calculate the NUMBER KILLED by the Papacy. Albert Barnes, in his Commentary on Revelation 11:14, states, “Calculations, more or less accurate, have been made of the numbers Popery has slain….” We give one plausible method of computation for the often quoted figure of 50 MILLION KILLED by the Papacy in Europe. As a starting point, JOHN WESLEY speaks of “the whole number of victims who have been offered up in Europe since the Beginning of the REFORMATION? Partly by war, partly by the Inquisition, and a thousand other methods of Romish cruelty? No less within forty years, if the computation of an eminent writer be just, than FIVE AND FORTY MILLIONS!” Also, Halley’s Bible Handbook, 1965 Edition, Page 726, referencing many older works on Church History states “Historians estimate that, in the MIDDLE AGES and EARLY REFORMATION ERA, more than 50,000,000 MARTYRS perished.” Furthermore, speaking of Innocent III, Halley writes [p. 776], “More Blood was Shed under his direction, and that of his immediate successors, than at any other period of Church History, except in the Papacy’s Effort to CRUSH THE REFORMATION in the 16th and 17th Centuries.” In his introduction to [Berg, Lectures on Romanism, D. Weidner, Philadelphia, 1840, p. 6], Brownlee writes, “Rome has been ‘drunk with THE BLOOD’ OF FIFTY MILLIONS of Martyred Culdees, Waldenses, Albigenses, Bohemian Brethren, Wicklifites, and Protestants!” This at least gives a listing of those included in one of the computations of FIFTY MILLION KILLED. Voltaire wrote [Traite sur la Tolerance, 1763, Chapter XVII] This shows that one of these computations of 50 million killed was ACCEPTED BY VOLTAIRE and approximately covered the Period from 350 A.D. to 1750 A.D.

In response to doubts about the reliability of the document I have linked in this answer, I've taken the liberty to compile a list of some of the citations attached to the statements supporting the figures, it looks like a fairly well researched study to me:

• "History of Romanism," pp. 541, 542. New York: 1871

• "History of Romanism" (Book VIII, Chapter 1, Footnote 1).

• J.P. Callender, Illustrations of Popery, 1838, p. 400

• Bourne, George, The American Textbook of Popery, Griffith & Simon, Philadelphia, 1846, pp. 402-403

• Cushing B. Hassell, HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF GOD, Chapter XIV

• "History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe," Vol. II, p. 32. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1910

• Citing Dr. Brownlee’s “Popery An Enemy to Civil Liberty”, p. 105

• Cushing B. Hassell, History of the Church of God, Chapter XVII

• “Plea for the West” by Lyman Beecher (Cincinnati, Truman and Smith, 1835), pp. 130-131.

• Popery An Enemy to Civil Liberty, 1836, pp. 104-105

• The Roman Catholic Religion Viewed in the Light of Prophecy and History, New York, Charles K. Moore, 1843, Page 60

• Cushing B. Hassell, History of the Church of God, Chapter XV

• A Debate on the Roman Catholic Religion, Christian Publishing Co., 1837, p. 327

• Walter M. Montano, Behind the Purple Curtain, Cowman Publications, 1950, Page 91.) -- The Shadow of Rome, by John B. Wilder; Zondervan Publishing Co., 1960, Page 87

• Bunch, Taylor, The Book of Daniel, 1950, p. 170

• Bunch, Taylor, Studies in the Revelation, 1933?, p. 105

• [Buck, Charles, A Theological Dictionary, containing Definitions of All Religious Terms; ... Philadelphia, Thomas Cowperthwait & Co., 1838, Article “Persecution”, p. 335]

http://arcticbeacon.com/books/Plaisted-Estimates_Number_Killed_by_the_Papacy-2006.pdf

http://teachinghearts.org/dre04historynotes.html