Jarrel - Baptist Church Perpetuity - Landmark Baptist

the Bohemian brethren, etc., of Bohemia, and the names of Wickliff and Huss
were known and honored.” f682 :
“Matthias Flacius Illyricus, who, in the sixteenth century, surpassed all his
contemporaries in scientific historical investigation and who studied the
mediaeval sects to more purpose than any of his successors until the present
century, on the basis of manuscript sources, some of which are lost and some
of which are still available, reached the conclusion that the entire evangelical
movement in Bohemia, including the work of the well-known precursors of
Huss (such as Conrad of Waldhansen, Miltz of Kremsier, Matthias of Janow,
etc.,) the Hussite movement, the Taborite movement, the Unitas Fratrum, etc.,
was deeply indebted to the earlier Waldensian movement.” f683
“It is interesting to know that the old evangelical party, represented by the
Waldenses and the Bohemian brethren, were not only the first to prepare a
good German version of the Scriptures, but that they were, after the invention
of printing, among the first to utilize this art in the dissemination of
evangelical views, through versions of the Scriptures and through religious
works, of their own composing.” f684
Turning more directly to the subject, that the Ana-baptists are the continuation
of the Waldenses and of others which were Waldenses under other names, H.
Haupt, just referred to, says Dr. A.H. Newman:
“Has incidentally shown that the relation between the Romanic and the
German Waldenses was more intimate than has been supposed by Herzog,
Dieckhoff and Preger, and that they were practically identical in faith and
practice. … Haupt has also demonstrated the fact that all German Bibles
printed before the reformation were derived from this Waldensian version,
three of the editions having been completely Waldensian, and the fourth a
Catholic recension of the Waldensian version. Even this Catholic recension,
and its successors, had no Episcopal authorization and were probably set forth
by those who were under Waldensian influence. To the Waldenses, therefore,
Germany was indebted for the translation and the circulation of the Scriptures,
and so for the great religious movement which the so-called Reformation
probably hindered more than it forwarded.” f685
“Herzog compares the track of the Waldensian history to that of a mole,
emerging now and then from the hidden recesses of the earth into the light,
but incapable of being continuously traced.” f686
This Herzog illustration of Baptist history may well be accepted, remembering
that the “mole” has made so many upheavals and they so near together that we
can readily follow its course. Says Prof. Geo. P. Fisher, D.D.:
“There had been opposition to infant baptism in.earlier days among the
Waldenses and other sects, as well as from individuals like Peter of Bruges,
and Henry of Clugny.”