P. J. Twisck gives the following account in his _Chronijck_, for the year 1145: “About this time there were famous in France, Peter Bruis, formerly a priest, and his disciple, Henry of Toulouse; both had been monks, were learned men, and greatly censured the papal errors, sparing neither great nor small. They called the Pope the prince of Sodom, and the city of Rome the mother of all unrighteousness, abomination, and execration. They spoke against the mass, images, pilgrimages, and other institutions of the Roman church. They renounced infant baptism, saying that none but the believing were entitled to baptism.
When Peter had preached about twenty years, namely, from before the year 1126 until 1145, the people flocking to him in great numbers, he was finally publicly burnt in the city of St. Giles, also called St. Aegidius.
His disciple Henry, who followed him in the doctrine, was intercepted and apprehended some time after by the legate of the Pope, and put out of the way, so that his fate is not known. This is held to have occurred two years after the death of Peter Bruis, namely A. D. 1147.
After their death a cruel persecution arose against all those who had followed their doctrine, many of whom went joyfully to meet death. In short, however assiduously the popes with all their shaven heads aided by princes and secular magistrates, exerted themselves to exterminate them, first, by disputations, then by banishment and papal excommunications and anathemas, proclamation of crusades, indulgences, and pardons to all those who should do violence[157] to said people, and, finally, by all manner of torment, fire, gallows, and cruel bloodshedding, yea, so that the whole world was in commotion on account of it; yet, could they not prevent this persuasion from spreading everywhere, and going forth into every country and kingdom, holding their worship secretly as well as openly, with great or small numbers, according to the tyranny, cruelty or persuasion of the times, and continuing until the year 1304; of whom over a hundred persons were put to death, or burnt, at Paris; and thus their descendants, as history states, continued, though under much tribulation, until this time. _P. J. Twisck, Chron., page 450_, from _Philip Marnix Tafer, 3d part, cap. 12, fol. 141, 142_. _Merula, fol. 748, 853. Hist. Mart. Doopsg., fol. 15._ Also, _Introduction, page 49_.
[157] _War_, says the writer; but this signifies violence, vexation, etc.
CERTAIN PEASANTS, CALLED APOSTOLICS, PUT TO DEATH FOR MAINTAINING THE DOCTRINE OF THE APOSTLES, NEAR TOULOUSE, IN FRANCE, A. D. 1155.
It is stated, that about A. D. 1155 there were in the above part of France, certain simple but truth-loving peasants, who, pointing to no other author of their doctrine or belief, than to the apostles, called themselves Apostolics, as though they would say, that their doctrine and belief were derived from the apostles. Bernard,[158] abbot of Clairvaux, greatly inveighed against them in divers sermons, calling them a sort of despised, boorish rabble, ignorant and altogether weak. “They,” he says, “are boorish people, idiots, and completely sold; but they must not be dealt with imprudently.” “From this it appears,” writes Abraham Mellinus, “that they must not have been so very dull and ignorant after all.”
[158] “Zealous Bernard,” writes Mellinus, “allowed himself to be bribed, and dared to preach and write whatever he heard said.” _Second book, fol. 438, col. 2, in the margin._
In the mean time, Bernard continues to rail against them, after papistic fashion. “Inquire,” says he, “for their author; of what sect they are? They will not be able to name any one. But what heresy is there, that has not its author from among men? The Manicheans had Manes as their head and master; the Sabellians had Sabellicus; the Arians, Arium; the Eunomians, Eunomium; the Nestorians, Nestorius; likewise every other similar pest had its separate master among men, from which it derived both its origin and name; but what name or title shall be given or accorded to these? None at all,” he says, “because they received their heresy neither from nor by men; nevertheless, far be it from us to say that they received it through the revelation of Christ.”