[In the beginning of this century, the decree _Statutum ex Officio_, of King Henry IV., of England, published against the Wickliffites, is mentioned.
Thereupon follows a recital of fifteen articles of said Wickliffites, which by the inquisition were laid before them, for recantation; the twelfth article of which declares, that a child, though it die unbaptized, will be saved; and the thirteenth article, that neither the Pope, nor the prelates, nor any ordinary, can compel any one 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 wise.
A notice concerning the followers of John Huss; also, the article 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 resided in Austria, A. D. 1471, and in the bishopric of Eichstædt, A. D. 1475.
The edict of King Matthias against the Moravians, or Moravian Brethren, who are called _Old Waldenses_, as also Baptists (Anabaptists), is shown for the year 1481.
Conclusion to the fifteenth century; in which it is shown by different 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.]
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In this following century we find some persons 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.
_A. D. 1401._--A certain celebrated writer relates, from _John Fox’s English History of the Persecutions_, that then, in the month of January, King Henry IV. held a parliament at London, in which a decree or bloody edict was issued against the Wickliffites, of whose belief against infant baptism and oaths we have already written, in speaking of their leader John Wickliffe; and who at that time, after the English custom, were called Lollards. This decree or edict was called: _Statutum ex Officio_, or Edict of King Henry IV. against the disciples of Wickliffe, in England. See _2d book of the History of the Persecutions, fol. 514_, and _fol. 515_, from _John Fox’s Angl., fol. 481_.
TOUCHING THE ARTICLES OF THEIR FAITH, LAID BEFORE THEM BY THE INQUISITION, FOR RECANTATION.
Continuing, said author relates, from Fox, some articles drawn up by the inquisition, with or besides the abovementioned edict; containing the principal tenets of the Wickliffites, which the inquisition placed before them for renunciation, or abjuration. They read as follows:
1. “That the mass or the worship which is performed before the holy cross, and is ordained by the whole church, is idolatry.
2. “That all who worship before the cross, commit idolatry, and are to be regarded as idolaters.
3. “That the real flesh and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ are not in the sacrament of the altar after the priest has pronounced the words of consecration over them.
4. “That the sacrament of the altar is sacramental bread, without life, and only instituted in remembrance of the suffering of Christ.
5. “That the body of Christ, so-called, which is taken from the altar, is a figure of Christ’s body, as long as we see the bread and the wine.
6. “That the decrees and ecclesiastical ordinances of the prelates and the clergy, in the province of Canterbury, in their last assembly, held, with the consent of the King and the nobles, in the last parliament, against him who was recently burnt alive in the city of London, were not powerful enough to change the purpose of that martyr; because the substance of the material bread, in the sacrament of the altar, is the same as it was before, and no change is made, in the nature of the bread by consecration.