Shortly after his return to England Helwys published a little book entitled The mistery of Iniquity , which set forth for the first time in England the concept of complete religious freedom. With rare courage the former country squire of Broxtowe Hall sent a copy of his new book with an inscription to King James I. In words as eloquent as they are bold, Helwys admonished the king to heed a principle that must have been strange to one of James's background.

His agony of soul became intolerable with a tragedy at the Old Cloister. Some three hundred Anabaptists, who had sought refuge there from persecution, were put to death. Among the dead was Menno's own brother. This event more than any other intensified the inner conflict of his soul, which had been raging for at least four years. He wrote:

Balthasar Hubmaier:

Klaus von Gravneck, an eyewitness, wrote of Sattler's conduct, "All this I saw myself. May God grant us also to testify of Him so bravely and patiently." The events recorded above took place over a two-day period. The sentence was read on May 18. Two days later, on May 20, Sattler was executed.

Martyrdom of Anabaptist Felix Manz:

Louis de Coutes: "As far as I was in a position to know, Joan was a very good and honest woman, living in Catholic fashion. She very readily heard mass and never missed going to hear it if that was possible for her. She waxed very wrath when she heard the name of God blasphemed, or if she heard someone swear. Several times, I heard, when the lord Duke of Alencon swore or spoke some blasphemy, that she reprimanded him, and in general nobody in the army dared, before her, swear

From the vantage point of 1789, the year in which government began under the U.S. Constitution, it would have been difficult to anticipate the picture Tocqueville was to draw fifty years later. To be sure, Christians had contributed a great deal to the War for Independence, both practically and ideologically. In addition, the Christian faith enjoyed a considerable reservoir of support among the population. Where religious assumptions, presuppositions, convictions, or conventi

3. Other writers of history record the victories of war and trophies won from enemies, the skill of generals, and the manly bravery of soldiers, defiled with blood and with innumerable slaughters for the sake of children and country and other possessions.

Trajan forbids the Christians to be sought after.

4. "But (they say that) Cerinthus, who founded the sect which was called, after him, the Cerinthian, desiring reputable authority for his fiction, prefixed the name. For the doctrine which he taught was this: that the kingdom of Christ will be an earthly one.

The Divine Scriptures that are accepted and those that are not.

The Relatives of our Saviour.

The Epistles of the Apostles.

The Parts of the World in which the Apostles preached Christ.

The Persecution under Nero in which Paul and Peter were honored at Rome with Martyrdom in Behalf of Religion.

The manner of James' death has been already indicated by the above-quoted words of Clement, who records that he was thrown from the pinnacle of the temple, and was beaten to death with a club. But Hegesippus, who lived immediately after the apostles, gives the most accurate account in the fifth book of his Memoirs.

He like a noble commander of God, clad in divine armor, carried the costly merchandise of the light of the understanding from the East to those who dwelt in the West, proclaiming the light itself, and the word which brings salvation souls, and preaching the kingdom of heaven.

Wherefore neither the conspiracy of Simon nor that of any of the others who arose at that period could accomplish anything in those apostolic times. For everything was conquered and subdued by the splendors of the truth and by the divine word itself which had but lately begun to shine from heaven upon men, and which was then flourishing upon earth, and dwelling in the apostles themselves.

Agrippa, who was also called Herod, having persecuted the Apostles, immediately experienced the Divine Vengence .

Pilate's Suicide.

How Tiberius was affected when informed by Pilate concerning Christ.

Eusebius uses Daniel 9 and the prophecy of the Seventy Sevens as a proof for Christ: