Thus it happened that this pious man Dulcinus and his wife, refusing to depart from the faith, were torn limb from limb by them, burnt to ashes, and the ashes scattered to the winds. The principal members of the church, one hundred and forty in number, loving Jesus Christ, whom they had confessed, more than this temporal life, were all, as they steadfastly adhered to the accepted truth burnt alive, and thus, having commended their souls to God, offered up a living sacrifice acceptable unto God, about the year 1308.
Note.—These were the people of whom Leonhard Krentzheim has written in his Chronicle, as already noted, saying: “Dulcinus and Margaret founded a new sect or heresy (thus speak the papists) alike in every respect to the Anabaptists, which continued until, etc.”
Touching their martyrdom, A. Mellinus writes, from some ancient books of history, that they were first torn limb from limb, and then, as we stated above, burnt to ashes. This martyrdom, the papistic historians themselves confess, not only the men, but also the women, endured very steadfastly unto death, in the city of Novaria, in Lombardy. In the second book of the Persecutions, fol. 477, col. 4, fol. 478, col. 1, from Prat. de Haeres Tit. Dulcin. ex Bernhardo Lutzenburgh.
FURTHER OBSERVATION—WHAT P. J. TWISCK HAS WRITTEN CONCERNING IT.
“This year,” he writes, “many pious people were cruelly destroyed for their religion, by order of Pope Clement V. Over four hundred persons were killed by hunger, cold, and the sword (of these, however, we do not speak here), and one hundred and forty were burned (these are the ones of whom we speak), the principal teacher of whom, together with his wife, very steadfastly endured death.” Chron., page 649. A. from Henr. Boxh., fol. 26.
Note.—The reader should observe here, that said hundred and forty martyrs, who at Novaria were put to death by fire, are called special followers of the doctrine of Dulcinus, are to be clearly distinguished from a certain other number of about four hundred persons who, having been surrounded on the mountains, by the Pope’s crusade, lost their lives by hunger, cold, and the sword; for not the latter, but the former, are the ones whom we would notice here.
TOUCHING THEIR FAITH, ACCORDING TO THE ACCOUNT OF A. MELLINUS.
Concerning their faith, A. Mellinus says: “From this it can be clearly inferred, that Dulcinus and his wife, and many other martyrs with them, died for the true confession of the doctrine of the Waldenses; because they opposed the Pope of Rome, and the Roman church, maintaining him to be the antichrist, and her the Babylonian whore prophesied of in John’s Revelation.” Second book, fol. 478, A.
VERY MANY PERSONS BURNT FOR THE FAITH, AT CREMA, IN AUSTRIA, A. D. 1315.
A. D. 1315, very many orthodox Christians were sought, found, and burnt as heretics, by the Dominicans, or inquisitors, in the city of Crema, (probably Krems), under the bishopric of Passau, in the archduchy of Austria. In the second book of the Persecutions, fol. 479, col. 1, ex Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug., A. D. 1315, p. 211, edit. Freheri.