# Of The True Baptism.

13th century (source section) · Historical source

Source: Martyrs’ Mirror. Original heading: OF THE TRUE BAPTISM.

Century of containing source section; exact event date not assigned

Nevertheless, in the midst of these storms and
billows of antichrist, God preserved the ark of his
church, so that many persons still remained, who,
notwithstanding the manifold troubles and persecutions
that came upon them on this account, practiced
and maintained the true worship of God, particularly
in opposition to infant baptism, the office of
criminal authority, the swearing of oaths, and almost
all other superstitions of the Roman church.

A. D. 1206.—In the beginning, yea, before the
beginning of this century, and so through a number
of years, the doctrine of the ancient Anabaptists increased
not a little, which appeared more particularly
in the year 1206, when they had so increased
in many countries, that the wiles and power
of the Roman church were not sufficient to bring
them to apostatize, much less to exterminate them.

Concerning this, P. J. Twisck gives the following
description: “The adherents of the doctrine of
Peter de Bruis and Henry of Toulouse, Anabaptists,
mentioned for the year 1135, which doctrine
afterwards was also followed by the Waldenses (see
the year 1159), multiplied so greatly about this
time, namely, A. D. 1206, that few were found
in the provinces of Albi, Languedoc, Narbonne,
Gascony, Rouergue, and Toulouse, who did not
adhere to said doctrine, notwithstanding Pope Innocent
III. very cruelly opposed it. See account for
the year 1198.

The principal points of their doctrine, besides
others, were these: 1. That the Roman church
was the whore of Babylon. 2. That her polity
was impure and corrupted. 3. That the mass was
a work replete with wickedness, and instituted
neither by Christ nor by his disciples. Chron. p. 523,
col. 1 and 2, from Chron. Nicol. Gill., fol. 286.
Guil. Merul., fol. 798, Henr. Boxh., fol. 22.

A. D. 1218.—For this year mention is made by
Sebastian Franck, of the ancient Waldenses, whom
he calls by three different names, The Poor, Insabbatati
and Waldenses. However, that they together
were but one people, has already been proved.
Said author writes thus concerning them: “These
originated A. D. 1218, under Emperor Louis IV.
They are also excommunicated in the bull of the
Lord’s Supper, and hold:

1. “That men ought not to swear at all, not even
to the truth.

2. “That no Judge, who would be a Christian,
may put to death any one, not even a malefactor.

3. “That the pious person who holds to the faith
of the Roman church, can not be saved.

4. “That an ungodly priest can not consecrate.

5. “That the church perished at the time of Sylvester.

6. “That they are not subject, neither intend to
be, to the Pope or to other prelates.”

Then follow several other articles of their doctrine,
which, for the sake of brevity, we will pass over; for
instance, that they held: “That outside of their
church there was no sacrament nor baptism (which
completely overthrows the infant baptism of the
Roman church); that they denied purgatory; that
they counted the mass, alms, and prayers for the
dead of no value, yea, that they regarded them
as the inventions of priestcraft; that honoring the
saints had not the slightest merit, and that they
do not hear our prayers in heaven.”

These and similar articles are adduced there, from
Aeneas, Sylvius and other writers, as charges against
the Waldenses; of which the intelligent may judge.
Seb. Fr. Chron. der Rom. Kett., fol. 119, col. 4,
letter P.

A. D. 1230.—It is stated that the Waldenses,
whose good confession we have already shown,
declared at this time in the proceedings which it
seems they had against the Pope, that their numbers
were so great in Germany, France and Italy, and
especially in Lombardy—where their teachers lived,
to whom they annually sent sustenance from other
countries—that any one of them traveling from his
country to Milan, could lodge every night with one
of his own persuasion, whom they recognized by
by certain marks on the door or upon the roof.
P. J. Twisck, Chron., p. 546, col. 2, from Henr.
Boxh., fol. 25.

A. D. 1238.—Or about 1239, the Waldenses had
thus increased in France and Flanders, that a certain
Dominican monk, Robert Boulgre, sent as inquisitor
by Pope Gregory IX., put to death a countless
multitude of them; of which more will be said
hereafter. P. J. Twisck, Chron., p. 554, col. 1.

A. D. 1242.—At this time, said people had
to suffer much from popery, on account of their faith
291
and religion, which in the bishopric of Toulouse
alone, appeared in the case of about two hundred
persons, who held said belief, and were called
Waldenses; of whose imprisonment and death we
shall speak in the future. P. J. Twisck, Chron.,
p. 557, col. 1.

A. D. 1259.—At this time, or thereabouts,
Gerard Sagarellas, an Italian, but a doctor of Paris,
wrote a book against the Franciscans, whereupon
Bonaventura, General of the Franciscan order,
replied; however, of this Gerard and his belief,
as also of that of the Waldenses, we shall speak
more fully hereafter. We would only stop to say
that from this time on, his disciples, the Fratricelli,
or Little Brothers, after the year 1285, called
Dulcinists, began secretly (from fear of persecution)
to hold their meetings in the mountains of
Piedmont, and Novara, in Lombardy, professing
the doctrine of the Waldenses. However, from the
different places where they lived, they received
different names; but the appellation Fratricelli or
Frerots, was especially given them, because they
called each other brethren in Christ; nevertheless the
mouths of the scorners thus spoke only the truth,
since Christ himself so called his disciples, saying:
“All ye are brethren,” Matt. 23:8; and “I will
declare thy name (O God) unto my brethren; in the
midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee,”
Hebr. 2:12.

A. D. 1262.—At this time the Waldenses are
again mentioned, who lived in Lombardy, and in the
country of Genoa, and professed a sound profession,
though they were called heretics by the
papists, and were oppressed and persecuted by open
decrees of the Roman see; which shall be spoken of
more fully elsewhere. Compare Bzov., A. D. 1262.
Art. 3, ex Decret. Epist. Alexand. IV., with
A. Mell., Hist., fol. 470, col. 2.

A. D. 1280.—In this year it is recorded that
said people professing the above profession (namely,
the Waldenses, then called Waldois, after Waldo
and his adherents, were expelled from Lyons), so
multiplied in Lombardy that their doctrine, having
spread in Italy, penetrated even into Sicily; as is
attested by the open letters emitted against them by
the Emperor Frederick II.

As regards their faith, the following articles, over
and above what has already been mentioned, respecting
their views against infant baptism, the office
of criminal authority, the swearing of oaths, etc.,
were laid to their charge, as can be gleaned from
the writings of Reinerius, the priest: That in the
matter of salvation we must believe only the holy
Scriptures, and in no wise depend on men. That
said Scriptures contain everything that is necessary
to salvation; and that nothing is to be received but
what is commanded of God. That there is but one
Mediator (Christ), and, consequently, that the
saints ought not to be invoked. That there is no
purgatory, but that all who are justified in Christ,
enter into life everlasting, and those who do not
believe, shall be cast into eternal death; thus denying
that there is still besides a third or fourth place.

They accepted and admitted but two sacraments,
namely, holy baptism and the holy Supper. They
said that all masses, particularly those for the dead,
should be rejected; likewise all human institutions,
and that they ought not to be considered necessary
to salvation. They also taught that the chanting,
the hours, the fasting connected with certain days,
superfluous feast-days, distinction of food, the many
degrees and orders of priests, monks, and nuns, the
benedictions and consecrations of creatures, vows,
pilgrimages, in short, the vast medley of ceremonies
which in the times past had been brought into
vogue, ought to be abolished. They denied the
supremacy of the Pope, especially as exercised by
him over secular government, and admitted no
other degrees in church offices than bishops, teachers
(then called priests), and deacons. They said
that the Roman see is the true Babylon, and the
Pope the fountain of all misery; that the marriage of
the priests (or teachers) is good, and necessary
in the church; that those who hear and rightly
understand the word of God, are the true church, to
which Christ has given the keys, to let the sheep in,
and to drive away the wolves. “Behold here,”
says the writer, “the sum of the doctrine of the
Waldoes (or Waldenses), which was oppugned by
the enemies of truth, and on account of which they,
according to the testimony of their opponents, were
persecuted.” P. J. Twisck, Chron., p. 605, col. 2,
and p. 606, col. 1, from the Staet der Kerchen, Jan.
Cresp., fol. 314, 315, 316. Merul., fol. 843. Henr.
Boxh., fol. 19, 25.

A. D. 1284.—At this time the Waldenses, according
to Twisck, multiplied more and more in
France and other countries of Christendom, though
they were sought with craftiness and cruelly persecuted,
and even previously every means and all
diligence had been employed to utterly extirpate
them; which greatly astonished certain bishops of
that time, and also certain lawyers of Avignon, in
certain consultations held against them, and still extant.
P. J. Twisck, Chron., p. 611, col. 2.

Concerning the form or mode of baptism, Alexander165
(p. 4, q. 11, m. 1), in this century, says:
“Baptism shall be administered in confession of
faith in the Holy Trinity.” Jac. Mehr., Bapt. Hist.,
p. 726.

Centuria 13, of the Madgeburg Centuriators,
cap. 5, fol. 216, 217, from Cesarius, states “That the
Waldenses and Albigenses rejected baptism at this
time, saying that it was inefficacious and useless;
which they, as Jacob Mehrning writes, understood
of infant baptism, which is administered without instruction
and faith; for the Waldenses had a very
high regard for the baptism of Christ, as administered
according to his ordinance.” Bapt. Hist., pp.
733, 734.

Note.—A. D. 1287.—Probus, Bishop of Tullo,
was at this time so enlightened of God that he not
only opposed Pope Honorius IV., but also delivered
an excellent oration, in which he freely exposed
the errors of the papists. Compare Catal. Test.
fol. 654, with the 13th book van den Ondergang,
p. 614, col. 1.

292

A. D., 1299.—In the year 1299 certain Albigenses
and Waldenses, called Fratricelli, or Little
Brothers (of whose faith and life we have spoken
elsewhere), became so odious to Boniface VIII.,
Pope of Rome, on account of their uprightness,
which the papists called falseness, that he declared
them heretics; but as we intend elsewhere to speak
more fully of their belief and walk among men,
we will content ourselves here with merely mentioning
them; it being sufficient for us that these people
and their doctrine existed until the very close of this
century. See in the large Christen Martelaersboeck,
edition 1619, fol. 471, from Trithem. Chron.
Hirsaug.

Proceeding to the close of the century, we will
close with the conclusion of Jacob Mehrning, which
is a reply to A. Mellinus, who did his best to show
that the Waldenses did not well accord with the
Anabaptists in the article of baptism. Mehrning
replies to him as follows: “Abraham Mellinus (in
his large Nederlandtsch Martelaers book) dared
to say: ‘The Waldenses would not agree with the
so-called Anabaptists in the article of infant baptism.’
But the good man forgets that he himself has adduced
testimonies from Bernard, Peter Cluniacensis,
and from the Madgeburg Centuries,166 which refute
and condemn this supposed error of the ancient
Waldenses, namely, that they should have believed
in infant baptism.” Bapt. Hist, p. 736.





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