How Those were Delivered who Seemingly Had Returned to the Roman Church

Martyrs Mirror in Modern English

Fifteenth Century

How Those were Delivered who Seemingly Had Returned to the Roman Church

But when the inquisitors have condemned anyone to the fire, on account of so-called heresy, and he, from fear or for some other reason, returns to the Roman belief, they deliver him to the secular judges with these words: "Whereas the holy Tribunal of the Inquisition cannot believe that this man's conversion is sincere, and fears to admit a wolf in sheep's clothing (notwithstanding his supposed conversion), we deliver him to the secular judges, earnestly entreating them to deal in all mercy with this (accused) one, without breaking a limb or bone, or shedding a drop of his blood."

As to the persecution that came upon the believers under this new charge of the inquisition, we have not been able to learn the particulars relating to it. Doubtless not a few perished by those means, since it is certain that no one who had a good conscience, and was accused of heresy, could escape with his life. The contents of the above record inform us that many had to suffer on this account, although we have not learned their names. We commend them to God, who will judge their cause hereafter. May His mercy be gracious to us and to them all.

REMARK. From the time of Peter Waldo, about the year 1170, we have throughout followed, in the account of the martyrs, mostly the line of the Waldenses proper, without digressing materially to other sects, though some of them came very close to the belief of the Waldenses. Hence it has come about that the number of those whom we have noted as true martyrs is not as large as it might have been, if we had not purposed to follow the unmixed, pure line of the Waldenses. However, in notes we have placed some who came very close to this belief, and we shall add a few more here.

NOTE. In the year 1494. In the fourth year of Henry the Seventh, on the 28th of April, a very old and honorable widow of over eighty years was arrested for holding eight of Wickliffe's articles (whose belief against infant baptism and the swearing of oaths we have already shown), and since she would not apostatize, she was burned alive in Smithfield, at London. She said that God and His angels loved her so much that she was not afraid of the fire. When she stood in the midst of the fire, she cried aloud: "Lord, receive my soul into Your holy hands;" and with that she died. Compare the account in the second book of the Hist. of the Persecutions, folio 599, column 3, with Joh. Fox Angl., page 671. A. Bal., in Append. Al., page 627.

In the year 1498. Jerome Savonarola now most zealously rejected, in his teaching, the institutions of men, and maintained salvation in Christ alone. He defended the partaking of the holy Supper (called the Sacrament) under two forms, that is, with bread and wine, in opposition to the practice of the papists, who gave the common people only a consecrated wafer. He also rejected letters of indulgence, saying, moreover, that the pope did not follow the doctrine and life of Christ, and that he was the antichrist, because he attributed to human institutions more than to the merits of Christ. For all these reasons he was strangled and then burnt to ashes, at Florence, by order of Pope Alexander the Sixth. Compare Chron. van den Ond., page 910, column 2, with Joh. Munst., folio 201. Guil. Meru., folio 950. Hist. Andr., folio 36. Also, A. Mell., folio 600, column 3, to folio 606, where it is stated that two others died with him for the same belief, and were likewise, on the 23rd of May, in the marketplace at Florence, after preceding strangulation, burnt to ashes, and the ashes thrown into the river Arnus flowing by.

In the year 1499. Paul Scriptoris taught at this time against transubstantiation (or the essential change) of the bread into the body of Christ, and also that all that is taught must be tried by the touchstone of the Word of God, adding that all who teach otherwise teach falsely. Hence, he said, a change in the (Roman) religion would soon come. For this reason he was driven into banishment by the Minorite monks, and, having lived full three years in exile, he died in the beginning of the year 1504. Compare P. J. Twisck, Chron., page 912, with Joh. Munst. Tract., folio 199. With this we conclude the fifteenth century, and, consequently, also the account of the martyrs who then suffered.