Bye Paths in Baptist History JJ Goadby Part 5

Bye Paths in Baptist History JJ Goadby Part 5

‎Jim Curran‎ toBaptist Church HistoryJanuary 20 at 10:30 AM

Bye Paths in Baptist History JJ Goadby Part 5

The sixth trace of Baptists in England is found in Gerhard and his Companions. We are entirely indebted for our information about these thirty men and women to the pens of monkish historians. It is well to remember this fact, since two important advantages are thereby gained: first, we are better able to test the actual value of their opinions of these so-called heretics; and, secondly, we are forced to the conclusion, since such obviously prejudiced observers could find so little evil in them, that Gerard and his companions were very exemplary Christians. Their story, as it has come down to us, is sadly too brief. In substance it is this. Henry the Second, King of England, showed, according to Boger de Hovendon, remarkable leniency to the Waldenses of Aquitaine, Poitou, Gascoigne, and Normandy. The Dutch and Flemish, on the other hand, treated them with the utmost rigour, and burnt many at the stake. Owing to some sudden outburst of persecution in Holland, a number of Waldenses, or as some think them, disciples of Arnold of Brescia, fled to England, hoping thereby to obtain a secure asylum from their cruel persecutors. In this, they were grievously disappointed. Henry was at this period in open rupture with Thomas a Beckett, but was still anxious to stand well with the Pope and the ecclesiastics generally. The poor fugitives, in avoiding Scylla, had fallen into Charybdis. They were presently made the convenient pretext for illustrating the soundness of the King’s faith, and his devotion in all matters of doctrine to the “Holy Roman Apostolic Church.” No very flattering picture of Gerard and his companions is given by the monks. “They were a company of ignorant rustics” which means, that they were persons in very humble life. “Their understandings were very gross and unimproved;” although the very reverse seems to be nearer the truth, judging from their general behaviour. “Their obstinacy and self-opinion were such, that the convincing of them by argument, and the retrieving them of their mistake, was next to an impossibility.” In other words, they held firmly the opinions they had already received. Bat what were their opinions? Strange to say, these “ignorant rustics” did not believe in the Romish doctrine of purgatory. They rejected prayers for the dead. They regarded the invocation of saints as useless. On some points they held orthodox views; but when they came to be examined on the seven sacraments of the Church, to the horror and confusion of their priestly questioners, they were grievously unsound. Marriage, said these men, was no sacrament. The sacrifice of the mass was an abomination. But worse still remained behind; they rejected the baptism of infants! What farther proof was needed of their “gross and unimproved understandings?'” “0n their first landing in England,” so the monks assure us, ”they concealed their heterodoxy, and pretended other business.” But there is no proof from any quarter that they were other than quiet and inoffensive foreigners, who went on with such work as they could obtain. The singularity of their religious opinions, however (for Borne was now in the ascendant), soon became known. The King, prompted by the clergy, whom he was anxious to conciliate, orders their arrest and imprisonment. After some time had elapsed, they are all brought before a synod of priests at Oxford. Gerard was their chief spokesman. ” The rest,” say the monks, ” were altogether unlettered, and perfect boors in knowledge and conversation. Their language was high Dutch.” We may perhaps discover in this last circumstance the one secret of their contempt for Gerard’s companions. He alone of the whole party was able to converse freely in English. Gerard was asked, “What were the opinions of himself and his friends?” To which he promptly replied, “We are Christians, and the doctrines of the Apostles are our only rule of faith.” This was esteemed but a lame and insufficient answer by the Romish priests; and again they return to the charge. It then came out, one by one, that they held the opinions already stated. ” While they were sufficiently orthodox” say the monks, ” about the Trinity and the Incarnation, on many other material points they were dangerously mistaken.” The priests, seeing the respect paid by ^Gerard and his friends to the Scriptures, sought to convince them by ingeniously suggested texts, or ”old odd ends stolen out of Holy Writ;” but they remained unshaken in their opinions. They were reasoned with. They were admonished. They were threatened. All was in vain. Again and again they were reminded by their priestly judges that ” they would be punished for their incorrigibleness;” and at last, say the monks, ”they were so unhappy as to misapply that text of our Saviour’s to their own case, ‘ Blessed are they that suffer persecution for righteousness’ sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The end was now near. To prevent the spread of “the contagion of their opinions,” the priests pronounced them incorrigible heretics, and delivered them over to the secular magistrate. Instigated by the priests, the King ordered them to be branded in the forehead with a red-hot iron; to be whipped through the streets of Oxford; and, after their clothes were cut short at their girdles, to be turned into the open fields, although it was the depth of winter. The inhumanity of this treatment was heightened by the fact that all persons, under the heaviest penalties, were forbidden to offer them any relief. Gerard and his friends were nothing daunted by this severity, but went forth through the city streets, singing as they went, ” Blessed are ye when men shall hate you.” There could be, however, but one end to their story. The whole company of men and women, with their faithful leader and guide, perished with cold and hunger. It came out on their trial that only one convert had been won to their faith, a poor woman of humble life. No time was lost by the priests in hunting her out. She was put to the torture; her strength failed her; and, in the anguish of her body, she hastily recanted.

Joseph Jackson Goadby. Bye-paths in Baptist history (Kindle Locations 280-329).