Touching the Cruelties Instituted by the Danish Tyrant Regnerus Against the…, in the Year 818

Four years after the admonition of the aforementioned teacher, namely, in the year 818, mention is made of a certain Danish tyrant, called Regnerus, the sixty-second king of Denmark. In military affairs he was greatly praised by the champions of war, but in his cruelty and tyranny towards the Christian believers he deserves to be utterly despised, indeed, counted a tyrant and a bloodthirsty monster.

Concerning this, P. J. Twisck (from various other writers) has left the following as a summary of his wickedness, and of how he was punished for it, as a warning to all tyrants. "King Regnerus was a prodigy in matters of war, but a great enemy and persecutor of the Christians. He was conquered by Hella, king of the Britons, and thrown into a pool of snakes, to be killed in this manner." Chron. 9th book, page 280.

NOTE. We have not been able to learn in particular how the said tyrant showed his enmity against the Christians, or how he persecuted them; nor the countries and places where those persecutions occurred; nor the names of the persons who suffered then; nor how long these persecutions and martyrdoms lasted; therefore we cannot speak more fully of these things.

In the meantime, it is our firm conviction that not a few upright professors of Jesus Christ laid down their lives for the truth of the holy Gospel, which they had grasped and accepted, and were offered up as steadfast martyrs for their love to their Savior, and for the working out of their own salvation. But for want of their particular confessions and names, we are compelled to break off, as we have had to do in several places in preceding centuries; and these things can be compared with the account we have given here; which we commit to the intelligent and impartial reader.

About the year 826, the Saracens invaded the islands of the Romans, and took possession of Crete

(where Paul had ordained his beloved spiritual son Titus bishop and shepherd of the church), and put to death Cyril, the bishop of the church of Gortina, for confessing Christ. Compare A. Mell., 2nd book, folio 306, column 2, with Zonar., volume 3, in Michaele Balbo Cedren.