The Bloody Oppression of the Believers, in the Year 498

It appears that at this time the persecution and martyrdom of those who were baptized according to the ordinance of Christ was still going on; of which the God-fearing teacher Fulgentius makes mention to his contemporaries. Bapt. Hist., part 2, page 464, number 12, from D. Vicec., book 3, chapter 3, from Fulgentius, book De Fide ad Petrum, chapter 30.

"Rest assured of this," he writes, "and do not doubt that those who, for the name of Christ, are baptized in their blood, without which no one will receive eternal life, that is, who has not previously been converted from his sins through repentance and faith, and redeemed through the sacrament of faith and repentance, that is, through baptism."

When Fulgentius here speaks of those who, for the name of Christ, are baptized in the blood, and so on, he plainly shows by this that blood was shed at that time, since people were, as it were, baptized with it, that is, such people as he speaks of further on, namely, "who are converted through repentance and faith, and redeemed through the sacrament of faith and repentance, that is, through baptism," and so on.

However, if to anyone the above words of Fulgentius seem rather too obscure for the purpose in view, we leave him to the free and unrestrained enjoyment of his own judgment.

NOTE. At this time, namely about the close of this century, those who opposed infant baptism were so hated by the Roman church, that in a certain council of Carthage two persons, whose names we omit for certain reasons, were condemned, because they had denied infant baptism. Bapt. Hist., part 2, page 436, taken from the 9th chapter van de Doop gebruyken der Roomsche Kerke, folio 460. [n304-1]