The Bloody Theatre, or Martyrs Mirror of the Defenseless Christians / who baptized only upon confession of faith, and who suffered and died for the testimony of Jesus, their savior, from the time of Christ to the year A.D. 1660

by Thieleman J. van Braght

P. J. Twisck, having finished his account of the twelfth century, concludes as follows, with which we will also conclude our account: “As regards the state and condition of ecclesiastical affairs in the preceding hundred years, we find no special change, nor reformation, except that in this century we have many praiseworthy men who opposed popery with the holy Scriptures, rejecting images, pilgrimages, masses, and other papal superstitions, and also infant baptism; concerning which you may consult the years 1145, 1159, 1168, 1182, 1198. Thus the Baptists and many others (who had better views than the papists), and their followers or fellow-believers lived for a long period, or even to this time, in various countries and places, under many severe persecutions.” Chron., 12th book, page 511.

AN ACCOUNT OF THOSE WHO SUFFERED IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY.

SUMMARY OF THE MARTYRS IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY.

[In the beginning mention is made of this salutary, but bloody century, in which the pious witnesses of the Lord come in multitudes to receive the crown of martyrdom on the battle field of Christ.

Four persons, having no good opinion of infant baptism and transubstantiation banished from the bishopric of Treves, A. D. 1105.

Some of the followers of Berengarius, in the same bishopric, follow their fellow-companions, and are not only banished, but also expelled, one year after, namely, A. D. 1106.

The persecutions increase in violence; some who maintained the doctrine of Berengarius, burnt alive at Treves and Utrecht, in the year 1135.

Arnald, a lector at Brescia, opposes infant baptism and the mass; on account of which he is persecuted, and, finally, having come to Rome, deprived of his life by fire, A. D. 1145.

The teacher of said Arnald, namely, Peter Abelard, follows, in the persecution, in the footsteps of his disciple, and is, by order of the Pope, imprisoned in the dungeon of a monastery, where he ends his life, same year as above.

Peter Bruis, burnt at St. Giles; Henry of Toulouse, apprehended and put out of the way by the Pope’s Legate; also many other persons put to death at Paris, for the true evangelical doctrine, about the years 1145, 1147.