A Great Number of Christians Called Waldenses, in the Year 1421

Now, when the children of light, who confessed the doctrine of the Waldenses in the midst of the darkness of popery,* began to lift up their hands more and more in the Flemish countries, and to fight the errors of the Roman church with the power of the Word of God, and to reject above all papal authority, the mass, transubstantiation, pilgrimages, the invocation of saints, purgatory, infant baptism, the swearing of oaths, revenge on enemies, and so on, as we stated concerning the belief of the Waldenses in the account for the eleventh century; the prince and king of darkness, through his underlings, laid his hands on them, and finally brought the matter so far that very many who would in no way, neither for life nor for death, apostatize, were condemned to be burnt alive, which was also done to them. And so they endured the trial of their faith with great steadfastness, in the fire, at Donau, in Flanders, in the year 1421. Therefore the captain of the faith, Jesus Christ, will hereafter eternally crown them, as pious champions, with the unfading crown of honor, according to His promise: "Be faithful until death, and I will give you a crown of life" (Revelation 2, verse 10).

Of the sacrifice of these friends, mention is also made in the second book of the History of the Persecutions, page 577, column 4, where it says: [n504-1]

"At Donau, in Flanders, in the year 1421, a great number was discovered who professed the doctrine of the Waldenses, many of whom, remaining steadfast, were burnt alive." Also, Vignier, Hist. Eccl., in the year 1421, ex Monstrelets. [n504-2]

NOTE. Whether the people of Dort, in Holland, were also guilty at this time of the blood of the saints, we have not been able to determine; nevertheless, the Lord severely chastised them in this year, 1421, so that, through heavy floods, the city became an island, and was deprived of seventy-two villages that lay round about it, and were all swallowed up in the water.

Hence the following inscription is found carved on the outside of the Speuy Gate of that city, over the arch, in blue stone:

"All land and water which here you see, Were seventy-two parishes, chronicles state, Swallowed by water's resistless power; Thousand four hundred seventy-one by date." [n504-3]

This event is so generally known, and has been described by so many authors, that I consider it unnecessary to add anything by way of confirmation. A sad thing for the place of our birth.

NOTE. In the year 1423. At this time, writes P. J. Twisck, Henry Gruenfelder was burnt for the truth in the city of Regensburg, in Germany; and shortly after, in the same city, Henry Rathgeber. Chron., page 787, column 1, compared with Georg. Pac., chapter 11.

In the year 1425. About this time Peter Torea was executed at Speyer, in Germany, and others in Roman countries, because they confessed the truth and opposed the Roman superstitions. Compare the last mentioned Chron., page 788, column 2, with Georg. Pac., chapter 11.

In the year 1427. At this time Jerome Savonarola, of Ferrara, preached throughout Italy that the pope was the antichrist, for which he was burnt at Florence. He wrote some meditations on the fifty-first and eightieth Psalms, in which he reproves the tyranny of the pope and his clergy, saying that they are the boars and wild beasts of the field, which, according to the words of David, have devoured and utterly destroyed the Lord's vineyard, and wholly subverted the church of God. In the last mentioned Chron., page 762, column 2, compared with Georg. Pac., chapter 11. [n504-4]