[181] Wilhelmina.
A. D. 1299, the _Fratricelli_, that is, the Albi-Waldenses, who were called _Little Brothers_, were declared heretics, by Pope Boniface VIII., because their belief was contrary to the Roman church, as we have already shown. Said Pope caused these Fratricelli (or Albigenses) to be persecuted with so much violence that he not only spared not the living, but not even the dead; for he caused one Herman, who had been one of their principal teachers, to be exhumed twenty years after his death, and his bones burnt to ashes, notwithstanding the papists, who were his enemies, had, in his life time, regarded him as a holy man. Thus they did also with the dead bodies of one Andrew, and of his wife Guillemette, who were also greatly noted for their remarkable godliness.
The Fratricelli (or Albi-Waldenses) were nevertheless, though unjustly, accused of many and abominable crimes. Hence, many of the ancients presume that these slanders were invented against them for the express purpose of making them the objects of the hatred and envy of the people; since they [the slanders] were utterly antagonistic to the doctrine which they professed, and with their life. For it is recorded of them, that they called themselves true followers of the apostles, and the true church of Christ, and that they on their part reproved the corrupt morals of the prelates. There were also ascribed to them all the opinions, or articles of faith, of the Waldenses who, as already shown, also rejected infant baptism, the swearing of oaths, revenge towards enemies, the mass, and almost all the superstitions of the Roman church; hence it is probable, that they were of their persuasion and had only given themselves different names, according to the different places where they resided. In the second book of the _Hist. of the Persecutions, fol. 471, col. 2_, from _Trithem., Chron., Hirsaug., A. D. 1299_. Also, _Vignier, A. D. 1298. Hist. Eccl., ex Platina, Sabellico, Mari. Hist. Antonino Bernhardo de Lutzenb. Bal. Cent. 4, Script. Brittan. Append. 2, ad Joan Rufum, page 384_.