About two years after Pope Innocent III. had issued those three bloody letters, for the persecution and suppression of the true, defenseless Christians, who were commonly called Waldenses, but by their enemies or persecutors, Publicans and sinners, it came to pass, in the last year of the twelfth century, namely A. D. 1200, that in the city of Troyes, in Champagne, there were apprehended, by order of the Pope and the reigning authorities, eight persons, five men and three women, who made the same confession as was stated above with regard to the Waldenses, contradicting the authority of the Pope, infant baptism, the swearing of oaths, the office of criminal authority, and whom the papistic author of the large Chronicle of the Netherlands calls Popelitatnos.
However, these persons were not accused by the papists of any evil works, but simply on account of their faith; in which faith they desired to remain steadfast unto death, without, in any wise departing from it. Hence they were all sentenced to the fire, in said year, and offered up their bodies unto God as a burnt-sacrifice, having commended their souls into his hands.
THE EXPULSION OF THE CHRISTIANS FROM METZ, AND THE BURNING OF THEIR BOOKS.
At the same time, many Christians at Metz, who professed the same faith and were called Waldenses, were shamefully expelled from Metz, and their books burnt, because they had translated the Holy Scriptures into their mother tongue.
The papistic author of the large Belgic Chronicle, upon the authority of the ancient historian Albericus, calls them a Waldensian sect, and says: “That certain abbots were sent to preach against them; who burnt some books translated from the Latin into their mother tongue, and thus extirpated said sect. Mon. Nuciensis Magn. Chron. Belgicum, edit. Frankfort, A. D. 1607, page 189.
This serves to confirm the preceding narrative. We will now conclude our account of the persecutions which occurred in the twelfth century, and proceed to the thirteenth century.
AN ACCOUNT OF THE HOLY BAPTISM IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY.
SUMMARY OF BAPTISM IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY.
[The thirteenth century is commenced with the thirteenth and last Centuria, with which the Magdeburg Centuriators have concluded their Ecclesiastical History; which is, as it were, a mournful farewell air, on account of the lamentable desolation caused by the Pope of Rome, in the worship of God. Several Roman superstitions mentioned, which were commanded as solemnly as the word of God, and are called the baptism of necessity, the baptism by women, heretics, etc.; also, how to baptize a child that is in danger of death.
Some strange passages from Thomas Aquinas, touching infant baptism; added decree of the bishops of Nemansa, as to how to deal with a child, concerning which there may be doubt of its having been baptized aright; also the formula of words to be used by the priest over the child. Explanation that all this was done to gain respect for infant baptism, among the common people.