An Account of the Holy Baptism in the Fifteenth Century

[At the beginning of this century, the decree Statutum ex Officio, of King Henry the Fourth of England, published against the Wickliffites, is mentioned.

Then follows a list of fifteen articles of these Wickliffites, laid before them by the inquisition for recantation; the twelfth article of which declares that a child, though it dies unbaptized, will be saved; and the thirteenth article, that neither the pope, nor the prelates, nor any ordinary can compel anyone to swear; the other articles are against the superstitions of the Roman church.

Another article charged against these people, namely, that if they had an infant, they would not have it baptized by the hands of a priest in church.

William Thorpe is charged with five articles, the last of which is: that he taught that one ought not to swear.

Thirteen articles, mostly against the Roman superstitions, are ascribed to John Huss, the thirteenth or last of which declares that one ought not to swear in any way.

A notice concerning the followers of John Huss; also the articles of holy baptism, as professed by the Taborites.

An account for the year 1455 of many Waldenses in the bishopric of Reichstadt, who had twelve teachers; also of some of them who lived in Austria in the year 1471, and in the bishopric of Eichstaedt in the year 1475.

The edict of King Matthias against the Moravians, or Moravian Brethren, who are called Old Waldenses, and also Baptists (Anabaptists), is shown for the year 1481.

Conclusion to the fifteenth century, in which it is shown by various reasons how it comes that there were so few public testimonies of the old continuous Waldenses. Here we take our leave, with the close of this century.]

In this following century we find some people who are opposed to oaths, some to war, some to infant baptism, and other articles in opposition to the Roman church; of which we will give a brief account.

In the year 1401. A certain famous writer relates, from John Fox's English History of the Persecutions, that then, in the month of January, King Henry the Fourth held a parliament at London, in which a decree or bloody edict was issued against the Wickliffites, whose belief against infant baptism and oaths we have already written of, in speaking of their leader John Wickliffe; and who at that time, by English custom, were called Lollards. This decree or edict was called: Statutum ex Officio, or Edict of King Henry the Fourth against the disciples of Wickliffe, in England. See the second book of the History of the Persecutions, folio 514, and folio 515, from John Fox's Angl., folio 481.