In the year 1528. Hans Shaeffer and Leonard Freck, for opposing Infants-Baptism, were beheaded at Schwas in Germany, and Leopold Snyder at Ausburg for the same; and eighteen persons of the same Faith, burnt at Slatzburg. Woolfgang Ulmah, and ten Christians more, were for the same burnt at Walisen. Hans Prette and thirteen more were sometimes after burnt at the same place.

      In the year 1529, were twenty persons put to death in the Palatinate, the men for the most part beheaded, and women drowned.

      In the same year at Altze in Germany, 350 persons were by the Emperor's Edict put to death for asserting the Waldensian Doctrine, the men by beheading, the women by drowning.

      Anno. 1553, Hugh Crane and Margaret his Wife, with two more, were Martyred at Harlem, the woman was drowned, the three men were chained to a Post, and roasted by a fire at a distance till they died. p. 122.

      Algerius, a Learned man of Padus, for opposing Infants-Baptism, had scalding Oyl cast upon his Body, and burnt to ashes at Rome, Anno 1557.

      The first Placaet [manifesto] we find, was made by them of Zurick, in the year 1525, which was but five years after Zwinflius began the Reformation, after their own departure from Rome. Which said Edict

      Commands all of all sorts to baptize their children, and to forbear Rebaptization upon the penalty of Pecuniary Mulcts and Imprisonment.

      The other was in the year 1530, that rose higher; viz. to Banishment, Confiscation, and Death (the year after which Zwinglius himself was slain, and his Body burnt by the Papists).

      Another Placaet also came forth by them in the year 1639. only for Confiscation of goods, Imprisonment and Banishment; that of Death

      Anno 1530. One Jurian Groenwalt, and one Alda, two of the baptized Brethren were burnt. p. 112.

      Anno 1531. Martin de Schildeer, Wolfgang Elmsger, Pain Melch, and three more of the Congregation of Baptists, were Martyred in the same place. p. 112.

      Anno 1533. Lodwick Teft, and Katherine Harngen were burnt also in the same place. And Anno 1537, twelve of the Baptists were imprisoned at Zurick.

      In the Placaet they set forth 1639, they did expostulate with the Anabaptists about the Schism they made from the Christian Church, the error of their Doctrine, and what prejudice it was to Reformation, and how disturbing to the Civil Peace, and Contempt of Authority, p. 864.

      In Answer whereto the Anabaptists did deliberate with them in each particular.

      And first, As to that of Error in Doctrines, in their baptizing professing Believers only;

      And that Oecolampadius confest the same in a Letter he wrote Dr. Hubmer, in these words, which they had to produce under his hand, viz. That we do not to this present find any place of the Scripture commanding to baptize any Children. And in his Treatise upon Romans 6, saith, That every Christian should first confess Christ, and after to be baptized with the Baptism of Water.

      And that Sebastin Hofnesster, Minister of Schafhuisen, in a Letter to the said Hubmor, saith
      That they had publickly confest to the Council of Schafhuisen, that if our B. Zwinglius will by any means have the Children baptized, that he eers from the Mark, and doth not according to the truth of the Gospel; and that for his part, he could not let his little Son Zachary be baptized; and therefore that he did very well and Christian-like, to bring to light, and assert the Baptism of Christians, which had been so long by Popery supprest; and assuring that they would also endeavour the same.

      And that one Christopher Hagendorf, another Minister and Learned man, upon 1 Peter 3.

      And that Cellarius also in his Letter to Hubmor, writeth thus, That it is a horrible thing that young Children are baptized, which is neither witnessed in the Holy Scriptures, nor by any example of the Apostles.

      And that the Ministers of Strasburg, viz. Wolfgang Capito, Cester Hedio, Meth. Pell, Symphones Polio, Theobold Niger, John Latonius, Ant. Fern, Martin Hack, and Martin Butzar [?], in their Book called The Grounds and Reasons, &c. p. 1. say,

      That in the beginning of the Church none were baptized or received into Church fellowship, but Believers in Christ, that did voluntarily give up themselves to him.

      And the Reason thereof, they say, is clear from Scripture and Experience; because the beginning of our Lives are so sinful, necessitating Repentance in every one; and that therefore John Baptist, Christ Jesus and the Apostles, preach'd the necessity of Repentance in the first place. And that in the Examples of the Baptized, Repentance did always precede, where the Adult, not Infants, were the Subjects. And again, in p. 2 & 3, they say, That without the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, the Baptism of Water profits not.

      And that Pomeran, Brentius, and others have in the year 1530, written against Paedobaptism.

      These were given to the Lord of Zurick in Answer to their Manifesto aforesaid; which, notwithstanding, did not asswage their cruel Persecutions. For,

      In the year 1640. Two Christians, viz. Werner Phister, and his Son's wife were cruelly imprisoned, and starved to death in Zurick, p. 873.

      Also in the same year two faithful Servants of Christ, viz. Gallus Schinder was carried Prisoner to Zurick, and after 16 weeks cruel bondage in Chains, perished there; and Radolf Backer also in the same prison died the same year. P. 874.

      Ulrich Mister, a faithful Minister of the gospel, died also in Prison the same year. p. 874.

      Anno 1640. Faelix Laudis is the son of Hans Laudis, formerly beheaded at Zurick for the profession of the Gospel, was starved in prison at Zurick, the Magistrates seizing and confiscating his Goods to the value of 5000 Gilders. p. 875.

      In the year 1642. The Magistrates of Amsterdam interceded with them of Zurick for the relief of their oppressed Countreymen. To which they made a slight and unfriendly Answer.

      Anno 1644. Hen. Boller perished in prison at Zurick.

      Anno 1654. One Uli. Wagman, a faithful Minister of the Gospel died in the prison in Zurick. Several others remaining in their Prisons.

      A Placaet or Manifesto was set forth by those of Schafhuisen, Anno 1650. against the Anabaptists, upon penalty of Imprisonment and Banishment. p. 878.

      A Placaet also was set forth by them of Berne, Anno 1659. upon penalty of confiscation of Goods, Imprisonment and Banishment. And that upon it,
      In the same year there were seven Ministers of the Baptists in cruel Bonds in that place. p. 880.

      Insomuch as the next year the States General of the Low Countries, upon intimation [?] of the Persecution there, did write their Letters to the Canton of Berne, to relax their said Persecution; and wrote also Letters to the neighboring Princes to receive such as should be banished out of Berne, into their Protection; witnessing to the peaceable Behaviours and good Lives of those of their way in the Provinces. p. 881.

      The Duke of Newburg, anno 1653. banishes all the Anabaptists out of his Countrey; who thereupon disperse themselves into the Dukedom of Cleve and Brandenburgh, &c. p. 878.

      Clopppenburg, in his Epistle to his Gangrene, saith, The Troops of Anabaptists that dwell in Friezland, although they trouble not the Commonwealth, yet they suffer not the pure Reformed Churches to be edified, without daily conflicts.

      Cassander, in his Epistle to the Duke of Cleve, tells us, That the Anabaptists of the Belgick and Lower Germany, followers of Menuo Simmons and Theodoricus, have in them Tokens of a Godly mind, seeming to err more out of ignorance than malice; and therefore, saith he, more worthy of amendment than Persecution and Perdition.

      Beza, in his Epistle to the Gaqllo-Belgick Churches at Embden, saith, Many of the Anabaptists are good men, Servants of God, Martyrs of Christ, and our most dear Brethren. Hornbeck. p. 364.

      And that they were considerable in all these Parts may appear by the many Edicts against them, and their gret Sufferings in all Quarters.

      Commanding all persons to renounce those persevasions [perversions?] and practices, and to refrain the publishing the same, by Preaching or otherwise, upon penalty of the forfeiture of Life and Goods, without mercy; the men to be burnt, the women to be drowned, and all that conceal, harbor, and do not, in their places. Prosecute the Law against them, to suffer the same Penalty. And that those that discover them, to have the third part fo their Estates; forbidding all Mediation or Intercession, upon severe punishment; because they shall neither partake of Mercy, nor that Judgment and Execution be delayed. Dutch Martyrol. l. 2. p. 113.

      Upon which these Sufferings followed.

      Peter Rester, a Baptist-Teacher of Sardam in North-Holland, was apprehended in Amsterdam, and put to death there, Anno 1535.

      The same year, at Horne in West Friezland, three men and two womenm, by the Emperour's Placaet, [manifesto] were executed; the men by beheading, and their Bodies put upon the Wheel, and the women by drowning, putting stones about their Necks, p. 116.

      Anno 1536. at Gosdam seven men was martyred, and three men and two women at Zieterchze.

      Anno 1537. one Jurian Vaser a Baptist-Teacher, was executed, with two men more of the same perswasion, p. 11. in North-Holland.

      Anno 1538. Twelve persons burnt at the Buss, whose Names, and Conditions, and Circumstances at large you have, p. 120.

      Anno 1539. One Anakain a gracious woman, was executed at Roterdam, p. 128. A man at Leeworden, and a man and his wife, and son drowned in North-Holland. p. 130.

      Annno 1541. Four persons put to death at Enchusen in North-Holland; and a man and his wife in Waterland; and at Worms eleven more. p. 141.

      Anno 1544. Three put to death at Amsterdam. P. 149.

      Anno 1545. Three more put to death at Amsterdam. P. 153.

      Anno 1546. Nine men more suffered at Amsterdam. P. 155, 157.

      Anno 1547. Six men and two women burnt at the same place.

      In the year 1556. Philip the Second, King of Span, renewed and enlarged that Bloody Placaet that his Father Charles the 5th had before enacted [in] 1535. And upon which these after-Sufferings followed amongst the Anabaptists in the 17 Provnces, viz. in Flanders,

      At Ghant, from 1559, to 1592, were 70 men and women of the same perswasion cruelly martyred in like manner.

      At Cortick from 1558, to 1572, were ten men and women of the same perswasion burnt and drowned.

      At Brussels, in the year 1574, were four persons burnt, &c.

      At Bruges, from 1562 to 1568, were ten Anabaptists burnt, &c.

      At Collen 1562, &c. were six Anabaptist burnt and drowned.

      At Armentier from 1563, to 1567, were seven burnt.

      At Hanchela, 1562, were thirteen more burnt and drowned.

      At Rizal, 1563, were twelve more burnt and drowned.

      At Berhold, 1566, were forty two more so martyred.

      At Triers, 1561, was one person burnt.

      In Juliers, 1532, one scalded with Oil, and burnt after.

      In Holland were the following Martyrdoms.
      At Dort, 1558, to 1570, were 26 Christians in like manner cruelly martyred.

      In Zealand, from 1560, to 1569, were nine in the same sort executed.

      At the Hague, from 1564, to 1568, were four persons also martyred.

      At Amsterdam, from 1569, to 1573, nine were cruelly martyred.

      At the Buss, 1569, one was burnt.

      At the Brill, 1569, one more was burnt.

      At Harlem, 1570, three Christians were martyred.

      At Daventure, 1570, were twelve persons burnt.

      At Groningen, anno 1601, was a Placaet made against the Anabaptists, upon the penalty of pecuniary Mulcts and Banishments, and that the unbaptized Children should not inherit. p. 856. Which the States General afterwards remitted.

      At Ardenburg was made a sever Placaet against Anabaptists by Fines and Banishment, an. 1615. Which the States General reversed, May 1, 1615.

      At Daventer was a Manifesto Fining and Banishing the Anabaptists, anno 1620. Upon which the Anabaptists in those Provinces, made a publick Declaration of their Faith and Practice, and addressed it to the States General by Messengers chosen out of all the Churches; upon which, they by publick Edict granted them their free Liberties, and remitted the former Laws to their prejudice.

      All which, with many hundred Martyrs and Confessors more (sealing to the truth of Believers, and against Infants-Baptism, with

      In the next place, we find (as P. Perin tells us) That the Waldenses of old were dispersed, and their Doctrines taught in Bohemia, Moravia and Austria, and continued there till expelled thence by the Emperour about fifty years since.

      1. In the year 1330. One Eckbardus with many others, were burnt in Bohemia for the profession of the Waldensian Faith.

      2. Sculietus in his annals upon 1528, tells us, That the Brethren in Bohemia, and many Godly men in that time, were re-baptized; not that they did favour the many Errors charged upon the Anabaptists; but the saw not (they say) how otherwise to separate themselves from the pollutions of the world; not owning a Re-baptization, because they esteem the former a meer Nullity, and unlawful: And that one of their Sufferers, being ask'd whether he was Re-baptized? answered, he knew no Anabaptist; for God's Word required no Re-baptism.

      4. In the year 1536. Three Bohemian Baptists, being betrayee by their Host in their journeying through Tyrel, were burnt in Viennna at Shrovetide.

      But that which is most considerable in the Account we have given of Bohemia, is what we meet with in the History of Bohemia, writ by Comenius, p. 134. Who giving an account of the distresses that befell them upon the defeat of Frederick, by the Emperor's Forces at Prague, tells us, That when the Enemy resolved to exercise their cruelty against us, they began the year after the victory with the Anabaptists in Moravia, who possessing about 45 Houses or Colledges (many Families dwelling together in them) having all things managed in partnership, in a publick Stock or in common, according to their Custom, lived peaceably under their own Discipline, troublesome or grievous to none, but beneficial to all by their Trades and Callings.

      They banished, saith he, these first in the year 1622. about Autumn, being forced to leave their Houses, Lands and Vineyards was at hand, and carrying the weaker sort with them in some Hundreds of

      In which way, upon good information, I find they continue together in Hungaria, Transylvania, Poland, and some parts of Germany, to this day.

      Concerning whom, an Hungarian Scholar, that about five or six years since, came from those parts, and had lived amongst them, gave me, within a few dayes, this particular Account; That he himself Knew four Colledges of them in those Parts, viz. two in the Lower Hungary, one at a place called Cosolna, and another at Turkas Hida; and in the upper Hungary, another famous Colledge in a place called Saras Patack, in which town he himself lived (as he told me) and knew the People very well, and that there were near 100 Families in that Colledge, who are reputed a

      In Transylvania, he saith he knows another, at a place called Alvinez. All which, he saith, are the remains of those that came out of Moravia and Bohemia about 50 years since. I understand that near Heidlberg in the Palatinate; there is another great Colledge, consisting of near 100 Families; and that in Prussia there are others of them also.

      Vossius in his Book De Baptismo, p. 77. tells us, That the Ministers in Transylvania do reject Infants-Baptism, and baptize only upon profession; but he withal saith, That many of them are infected with Socianism; though this Hungarian Gentleman tells me, That the Colledges are very free from that infection.

      And farther, that this Truth was spread in Poland, (where the Waldenses, as you’l afterwards find, had much to do) appears from what we find out of John a Laseo, the Polo niun__on, in his book, De Sacramentis; when he tells, That the Anabaptists do refuse to baptize their Children, because they neither do believe nor understand the Spiritual Mystery thereof, and say there is no ground from circumcising Children under the Law, to baptize

      Crantzy, in his History Vand. l. 8. tells us of many Christians of the Waldensian saith, that were put to death at Zuidentze in Poland.

      And lastly, it doth appear that in England it self the Waldenses and their Disciples out of France, Germany and Holland, had their frequent Recourse, Residence and Succession throughout many Ages, as our Chronciles make manifest, viz.

      In the time of William the Conqueror, and his Son William Rusus, it appears they did abound in England, as Bishop Usher tells us in the State and Succession of the Church, p. 242. out of Matthew Paris of Westminister, that the Beringarian (or Waldensian) heresie (as

      In the time of Hen[ry] 1. and K[ing]. Stephen, the said Bishop Usher tells us out of Popliner's History of France, fol. 7. That the Waldenses of Aquitain did, about the year 1100, spread themselves and their Doctrines all Europe over; and whereof he mentions England in particular.

      In the time of Hen. 2. about the year 1158, as saith Mr. Fox out of Robert Guisburne, those two eminent Preachers, and Waldensian Barbs, Gerardus and Dulcinus came into England to propagate the gospel. And Bishop Usher tells us, p. 290. out of Thomas Walden, that several Waldenses that came out of France, were apprehended, and by the King’s command marked in the Foreheads with a Key or hot Iron. Which Sect, as saith William of Newbury, in his History of England, l. 2. c. 13. were called the Publicans, whose Original, saith he was from Gascoyne; and who being as numerous as the Sand of the Sea, they did forcly [sic] infest both France, Italy, Spain and England

      Though, as the same Historian Hovenden tells us, he was by the Popes influence, more severe in those parts. For at the influence of the Popes Legate, he proclaimed that eminent man Roger de Bedres, then Governor of Gascoyn, a Traytor and an Excommunicated person for being too great a Friend and Favourer of those Hereticks; being indeed, as the Story saith, one of them himself, as well as Wife, Children, Servants and Souldiers; and that he had taken into his Custody, and made his Prisoner the Bishop of the Diocess of Albi; for which the Pope was so much incensed against him. Hov. Annals, Ann. 1178, fol. 331.

      In the time of Richard 1, and K. John, we read of no opposition made against them, being times of great Trouble; what by Richard's absence in the Holy Wars, and his Imprisonment by the Emperor at his Return, and the grievous Wars both Foreign and Domestick, that Attended K. John, and the great Contests he had with the Pope, who interdicted his Kingdom,

      Pope Innocentium the Third did, the better to suppress the Waldensian Sect, set up the Dominican and Franciscan Orders of the Mendicant and Preaching Friars, in imitation of the Waldensian Brethren, who with so great diligence inimitation of the Apostles (as you'l hear) did propagate the Gospel in an Itinerate manner; and therefore (saith Greseius) did they design to expel that Heretical Darkness, by the setting up these two great Lights of those Orders. Usher, State of the Church, p. 352, 353.

      In the time of Henry 3. about the year 1235, as saith Bishop Usher out of Matthew Paris, p. 404, 405. The Orders of the Friers Ministers came into England to suppress this Waldensian Heresie.

      In the time of Edward the Second, about the year 1315 (as Fuller tells us in his Ecclesiastical History, out of Trichemius's Chron. upon that year) That Walter Lollard, that German Preacher, or as P. Perin in the History of the Waldenses, one of their Barbs, came into England, a man of great Renown amongst them;

      In the Time of Edward the Third, the Lollards did very much increase, being much countenance both by the king and Courtiers; and therefore Caxon in his Chron. as saith Mr. Fox, tell us, that Edward 3. was against the Popes Clergy, that he willingly gave ear to the Voyes and Tales of Hereticks, with certain of his Council, conceiving sinister Opinions against the Clergy, forbidding the Pope to intermeddle in his Kingdom, touching the dispose of Benefices; and who bore so good will to the Christians, that he employed john Wickliff himself as one his Ambassadors, into Italy, to treat with the Popes Legate, touching his Usurpations.

In Whose Reign it was that that eminent and worthy Witness and Confessor, Mr. Jo. Wickliff, was raised up, so learnedly and successfully to oppose the Church of Rome, both in Doctrine and Discipline, a man of great Prudence and Piety, endowed with great Learning and Eloquence, as the whole University of Oxford did (as you'l hear) so unanimously and affectionately testifie; but especially one who was mighty in the Scriptures, a painful and faithful Preacher, an excellent Disputant, a laborious Writer, who wrote no less, as Balous tells us Aeneas Sylvas, than 200 Volumes; though for the most part of them extinguished and burnt in their Manuscripts at Prague in Bobemia; so that so very little, saith Fuller, remains