PERSECUTION OF THE BELIEVERS CALLED WALDENSES, BY POPE JOHN XXII., A. D. 1319.
A. D. 1319, Pope John XXII. again began to persecute the Waldenses in France, through his inquisitors, the Jacobine, or Dominican, monks; who, having convicted many of them, as papistic writers say, of their belief (namely, that they were Waldenses), delivered them to the princes and secular authorities for punishment. Bzov. Annal. A. D. 1319, Art. 10, from a manuscript in the Vatican library. Also, in the second book of the Hist. of the Persecutions, fol. 480, col. 3.
Touching the names of these people, as also the manner of their martyrdom, suffering and death, I have not been able to ascertain anything, except that, professing the belief of the Waldenses (as we have already stated), they were therefore subjected to persecution and suffering.
Note.—A. D. 1328. At this time Marsilius de Padua enjoyed distinction; he wrote against the Pope, and also various things against the Roman church, but his work was condemned as heresy, and the reading of it strictly prohibited. Merul., fol. 870, Georg. Pac. cap. 11, compared with P. J. Twisck, Chron., page 685, col. 1.
PERSECUTION UNTO DEATH AGAINST THE BELIEVING WALDENSES, IN BOHEMIA AND POLAND; IN WHICH ALSO ONE ECKHARD WAS BURNT FOR THE SAME FAITH, A. D. 1330.
A. D. 1330, the aforementioned persecution against the Waldensian brethren rose to its highest point in Bohemia and Poland; concerning which the following account is found in ancient histories: “In that year, A. D. 1330, very many of those who adhered to the doctrine of the Waldenses, were persecuted unto death and executed, by the inquisitors, in the kingdoms of Bohemia and Poland. In the large Book of Christian Martyrs, 2d part, fol. 483.
TOUCHING SAID PERSECUTION; ALSO ABOUT ECKHARD, ACCORDING TO THE ACCOUNT OF P. J. TWISCK.
Richard, also called Eckhard, formerly a Dominican monk, was condemned as a heretic, because he fearlessly preached the Gospel, and reproved the abuses of the papists. And in the kingdom of Bohemia and Poland many were put to death for their religion or faith. Chron., page 685, col. 2, extracted from Hist. Adri., fol. 64, Herm. Mod. fol. 271, Henr. Boxh. fol. 27.
Note.—John Aston, a well learned man of Oxford, for teaching that the bread of the holy Supper remained unchanged, was apprehended as a heretic, A. D. 1330, by the archbishop of Canterbury, and died in prison. See the authors referred to above in connection with Eckhard.
Others add here, says Nicholas Vignier, that in said year (A. D. 1330) a certain Jacobine monk, Eckhard by name, whom others, though erroneously, call Richard, was publicly burnt, because he steadfastly maintained said opinions of the Waldenses. Nich. Vign., Hist. Eccl., A. D. 1330. Also in the second book of the Hist. of the Persecutions, fol. 483.