FURTHER OBSERVATIONS TOUCHING THE ORIGIN AND FAITH OF THESE MARTYRS.

“For further explanation of this history,” writes Mellinus, “which has been written by a bitter papist, the reader must be reminded to imitate the bee—which extracts honey from the same flower out of which the toad draws poison—and, contemning the bitterness of the words of our adversaries, to pay regard only to the matter itself.

That he (the papistic writer) says, that these Christians, whom he calls Publicans, had their origin from an unknown author,162 leads Vignierius to suppose, that they may have sprung from Peter Bruis, or from his companion, Henry of Toulouse. Guido of Perpigna, however, thinks they belonged to the Poor Men of Lyons, that is, the Waldenses. In lib. de Haeresib. Bal. Centur. 2, in Append. ad Gervasium Giestrensum. See also Abr. Mell., 2d book, fol. 440, col. 1.

Note.—In regard to what was the belief of Peter Bruis and his companion, Henry of Toulouse, as well as of the Poor Men of Lyons, that is, the Waldenses, we have already shown, that it is not at variance with the belief of the Anabaptists, but much rather accords with it; and hence it is evident that these thirty persons, who made said confession, were true martyrs, since they suffered for the true faith, and the truth of Jesus Christ. Concerning these martyrs, see also five years later, Mart. Paris, lib. 5.