Several Christians Burned for the Faith, in the Year 1215

About that time, Pope Innocent the Third had advised Dominic that by means of constant preaching and disputation he should carry out in a remarkable way the office of inquisition which he had entrusted to him, namely, against the so-called heretics; and that he should reconcile to the Roman church those who seemed converted, but should justly condemn those who remained refractory, that is, steadfast in their faith. Sixtus the Fifth, in Diplonn. instit. Festi S. Petri Mart. [n441-2]

Dominic carried out his inquisitorial office so energetically in the city of Toulouse, against the heretics mentioned, that is, the Christians called Waldenses, that several who had been cast into prison were, by his advice, delivered to the secular judge, to be burned. For when in those times people could not be overcome by way of argument, with the Word of God, they began to dispute with fire and sword against them; and then it was an easy matter to conquer them, not in regard to the truth, but in regard to their bodies and lives. This was also the case with these pious people of Toulouse, who would rather lose their lives than forsake the truth, which they confirmed in the flames by their death, having commended their souls into the hands of God, in the year of our Lord 1215.

The papist Theodoric, in his biography of Dominic, mentions these martyrs, saying:

“When he (Dominic) was preaching at this time in the parts of Toulouse, it happened that some heretics were arrested in that city and were convicted by him; and when they would not return to the Catholic church, he delivered them to the secular judge. When they had been condemned to be burned.” Theod. in vita Dominici, cited in Bzov. at the year 1215, articles 11, 12. Also, A. Mellinus, second book, folio 460, column 4.

NOTE. In the year 1220 lived the strong and celebrated theologian Almaricus; he reproved the invocation of saints as idolatry, and denied transubstantiation; for which reason he was burned at Paris. P. J. Twisck, page 537, column 1, from Hist. Andr., page 162.

In the year 1218. In a certain ancient history of the martyrs of this time I have found the following account, in which one of the orthodox believers gives a summary of the doctrine of the papists, as opposed to the true doctrine of the true church of God in those times; it reads as follows:

1. “They found their church upon the succession and derivation of the bishops (though erroneously) from the times of the apostles.

2. “They call those bishops who consecrate churches, chapels, and altars; who make mass priests and sanctuaries of the altars.

3. “They regard the pope as the supreme bishop, the head of their churches, who may be reproved by no one but God.

4. “They are divided into many contending sects; some are ecclesiastics, some seculars. The ecclesiastics have separated themselves from the common people, whom they call the laity, and are themselves variously divided. Some are called monks and nuns, who vow not to marry; to submit to voluntary poverty; to observe human institutions, such as to have nothing to do with money; to wear a gray, white, or black cap; to eat no meat; to be silent at times; and other similar false and invented forms of holiness. Others are called secular priests, who also may not marry, but who, like the others, have to do a great amount of muttering and reading.

5. “They have priests, who are consecrated by the bishops, to offer up sacrifice for the living and the dead.

6. “All these ecclesiastics hold themselves exempt from punishment by the civil authority, and bear no burdens with the citizens, since they are exempt.

7. “They seek their salvation outside of Christ, in their own works and merits, which they also sell to each other for money; such as masses, indulgences, pilgrimages, and the merits of departed saints, which they also sell to the dead, who, they say, are in purgatory.

8. “They have an idol or patron for every city, village, or hamlet.

9. “They divide the power and honor of God among the departed saints; so seamen call on Saint Nicholas, Saint Christopher, and Saint Anna; women in labor, Saint Mary; for gum boils, Saint Appollonia; against pestilence, Saint Rochus and Saint Anthony.

10. “They set up images in their churches; they light tapers, torches, and lamps before them; they clothe them in cloth, silk, velvet, silver, and gold; they carry them with great reverence on their shoulders; they visit them in different places, and offer gifts to them (to which practice the popes and bishops attach indulgence for sins); they kneel before them; they kiss them, and worship them.

11. “In their oaths they swear by God and all His saints, and so on.

12. “They pray to and call upon God without considering their need, and without thinking why they call upon Him; they give Him their prayers by the number, as apples are bought; they read, in the hours, rosaries, and so on.

13. “They create many sabbaths, which they call holidays, in honor of departed saints; on which days manual labor is forbidden on pain of punishment, while drinking to excess, bartering, and gambling go unpunished. On these days they generally commit shameful idolatry; the services are read in an unknown tongue; water is conjured; the organ is played; and the dead are called on for help and assistance.

14. “To the two sacraments, or signs of grace, instituted by Christ in His church, namely, holy baptism and the holy Supper, which they have shamefully corrupted, they have added five others, namely, confirmation, matrimony, ordination of mass priests, auricular confession, and extreme unction.

15. “In baptism they leave out the most important part, namely the preaching of the Gospel; and they add of their own, conjured salt, grease, spittle, and tapers, and exorcise the devil from the child, whom he never possessed.

16. “They also baptize bells, giving them names.

17. “They have changed the Lord’s Supper into an offering for the living and the dead; they conjure the bread with five words,* and persuade the people that the bread is changed into flesh, and the wine into blood. [n441-4]

18. “They withhold the wine from the laity, contrary to the command of Christ, who said: ‘Drink of it, all of you.’

19. “They worship the bread, and say that it is their God; they enclose it in coffers and ciboria; they carry it through the streets; they burn torches and tapers before it, even at noonday; they address and salute it; but it does not answer.

20. “In their churches they have altars draped with linen, upon which burning tapers are placed in the daytime, when mass is read.

21. “Mass is read by a mass priest, who is hired to do it for money, or for a yearly salary; he comes clothed in strange attire, after the Jewish fashion, with a drinking cup of silver or gold in his hand, and accompanied by an attendant. He then says his confession before the altar, in Latin (though the attendant does not understand it), and calls for the assistance of the dead saints. Then, having kept up his mummery for a considerable time, having spoken loud and low, turning himself this way and that, kissing and licking, he finally takes bread and wine, and at once offers them to God, for the redemption of souls, for the hope of salvation, and for the health of those present. Thus they reject Your sacrifice, O Christ Jesus, which You once made for our salvation. O God, says the writer, how can You allow this? He then calls the dead saints to the feasts, desiring to be helped by their merits. Over the bread he breathes these five words: Hoc est enim corpus meum, that is, for this is my body; supposing that by this the bread will be changed into flesh. He then holds it above his head, for the people to worship it. So he does also with the cup. Then he prays for all those who sleep in Christ, that they may obtain a place of refreshing. Thereupon he prays to the Father, to accept His Son, whom they believe to have there, as graciously as He accepted the offerings of Melchisedec and of Abel. Finally, he worships the bread, calling it the Lamb of God. Having worshiped the Lamb, he breaks it in pieces, and eats it up, also drinking down the wine, which he imagines to be the Lamb’s blood. This is the glorious mass of the papists, which, says our author, is a shameful corruption of the Supper of Christ, and has been rebuked by many godly men, who for this reason had shed their blood.

22. “Such masses they read in honor of dead saints, of the sacrament, of the cross, the spear, and the nails.

23. “They sell the same as a remedy against all sickness, against storm, thunder, lightning, hail, tempests at sea, and every calamity. Every man is served according to his money; those who give little have a dry mass, or a wet mass without singing; those who give much get a half sung mass, or one partly sung, according to how much they give.

24. “They teach that their invented sacrament of confirmation is of more importance than the sacrament of baptism, instituted by Christ; and that baptism is incomplete without confirmation.

25. “They dissolve marriage, in order that the husband or the wife may become spiritual, that is, a priest, monk, or nun, contrary to the command of Christ: What God has joined together, let no one separate.”

“Time would fail me,” writes this zealous man, “if I were to recount all the falsehoods of the papists, in life, doctrine, and sacraments; and still they can bear no admonition to reform, but persecute with fire and sword those who admonish and reprove them.” Ex Author. Tempor., in the year 1218, compared with the History of the Martyrs, by J. S., edition 1645, folio 32, columns 1 to 3. Gerard de la Motte, deacon of the Christians called Albi Waldenses, with some of his fellow believers, burned for the faith, at Borriens, in the year 1227.

When the believing, defenseless Albi Waldenses* had enjoyed rest for a season, and the lily of their true faith was beginning in some measure to grow and blossom, in all purity and beauty (as compared with former times), the thorns of persecution immediately rose up over it; for these pious and upright people were at once deprived of their liberty by the Romanists; so that as soon as it was noticed that they increased, here or there, though secretly, under the protection of their authorities, means were sought without delay to subdue, indeed utterly to exterminate, them. [n441-5]

This appeared in the year 1227, when, upon the mere report that a few of these people lived in the town of Borriens, the whole place (in order to arrest them) was besieged and enclosed by Humbert of Beaujeu, who, having made himself master of the place, and having entered it, arrested these people, and, as they would not give up their faith, had them burned alive; all of whom testified to the truth and uprightness of their faith, as gold in the furnace, by their steadfast death in the midst of the flames.

Certain papist writers say that there were some in Borriens who were said to be heretics, and who, as they would not give up their belief, were burned alive; among whom there is mentioned one Gerard de la Motte, who, it is said, was their deacon or minister. This is stated to have occurred in the year 1227, in the time of Humbert of Beaujeu, whom the king had left in Languedoc. Vignier, Hist. Eccles., from Vincentius and others already cited, and Chron. Montfortensi Hist. Adde Gaguin., book 7, and Paul. Aemil., book 7, de Gest. Franc. in Lud. 8. Also, Abr. Mell., second book, page 464, column 3. [n441-3]