An Account of Those who Suffered in the Eleventh Century

[A simile of the moonlight and the stars, which shine most in the darkest nights, begins our account, and shows the condition of this time:

Fourteen people, the chief of whom was called Stephen, are burned as heretics, for the testimony of the truth, by the papists, in the year 1022, at Orleans in France.

Then follows a note concerning the accusations brought against the persons named above; and also further observations touching these same fourteen martyrs, according to the accounts of various papist and other writers, noted in the Second Book of the Persecutions, folio 437, columns 3 and 4.

The great craftiness of the papist Gretserus in altering the titles of the books of the ancients, to the harm of the belief of the Waldenses; some of their martyrs called firstlings, which is noted in detail in the margin.

Some devout Christians at Goslar, called Manicheans by the papists, hanged for the confession of the evangelical truth, in the year 1052. It is shown, 1. that they claimed to lead a true apostolic life; 2. that they would neither lie nor swear; 3. that they held that the sacrament of the altar was nothing but bread; 4. that they denied baptism, that is, infant baptism. One papist, as Thuan against Radulph, and so on, opposed to each other in their testimony against these people.

Henry and Alfuard, two good Christians, the first beheaded in the farthest parts of Sweden, the second killed among the Normans, for defending the evangelical doctrine, in the year 1067.

A marginal note explaining their belief.

Bruno, Bishop of Angiers, and Berengarius, his deacon, are condemned in different councils, through the Roman pope, because of their views against infant baptism, transubstantiation, the mass, and so on; the first time, in the year 1050, both together; the second time, in the year 1079, Berengarius alone. The unsteadiness of Berengarius in some matters is shown, but also his sorrow for it, and his perseverance to the end, on account of which he is counted among the martyrs.

Many of the followers of Berengarius, called Berengarians, are anathematized by order of the pope, at Piacenza, in Italy, in the year 1095, and afterwards persecuted to death, about the year 1100. Conclusion.]

Just as the shining moon and the glittering stars give the most light, and adorn the blue expanse of heaven most gloriously, in the darkest nights, so it was also after the year 1000, in spiritual matters, which concern the honor of God and the salvation of the souls of men. For about the year 1000, and for many years before and after, but especially then, the world lay sunken, as it were, in an arctic night six months long, through the thick and palpable darkness that had risen, with heavy vapors of superstitions, out of the Roman pit. Yet, in spite of the state of the times, some undefiled people, like bright signs in heaven, like stars, began to shine out the more, and to let their light of evangelical truth fall on the dark nights of papal error. Indeed, some, like the polar star, served as a sign to sail by; I mean, to make the journey to the heavenly fatherland safely and in a godly manner, through the turbulent waves of corrupted worship and human inventions. Others, like the morning star, or the lovely, blushing Aurora, announced the coming day; we mean, they pointed to the true day of the Christian and evangelical worship of God, and revealed it, as far as they were able, to those who sat in the darkness of error.

We will no longer speak by simile; what we mean is this: that there were men in those dark times who upheld God's truth, in various points, according to the needs of that time, and bore witness to it and sealed it not only with the mouth, but with the deed, indeed, with their blood and death.