Gerhardt was the chief spokesman. To the questions asked he replied that they were Christians, and "revered the doctrine of the Apostles," but he expressed abhorrence of certain Romish tenets--_e.g._, Purgatory, prayers for the dead, and the invocation of saints. He is said to have shown detestation for the sacraments and for marriage: which, compared with similar accusations brought against the Albigenses, and their replies thereto, almost certainly means that he objected to the corrupt view of these institutions taken by Rome. If Gerhardt denied consubstantiation, baptismal regeneration, and the sacramental character of matrimony, the priests were sure to assert that he denied the sacraments and marriage. The Albigenses were similarly accused, and almost in the same sentence we are told that they had their wives with them. When "the Scriptures were urged against them," the Germans declined disputation. They probably saw that it would be of no avail. Indeed, what good could be gained by disputing with men who confessed that they received Scripture only on the authority of the Church (which they held superior to the Word of God), and who allowed no explanation of it save their own private interpretation?--who were so illogical as to urge that the Church existed before the Scriptures as a reason for her superiority, and so ignorant as to maintain that _pulai adou_ signified the power of Satan! Asked if they would do penance, the Germans refused: threatened with penalties, they held firm. Their punishment was terrible. They were, of course, by Rome's cruel fiction that the Church punishes no man, delivered over to the secular power; and the sentence upon them was that of branding on the forehead, their garments being cut down to the girdle, and being turned into the open fields. Proclamation was made that none should presume to receive them under his roof, nor "to administer consolation." The sentence was carried out with even more barbarity than it was issued, for Gerhardt was twice branded, on forehead and chin, all were scourged, and were then beaten with rods out of the city. No compassion was shown even to the women. Not a creature dared to open his door to the "heretics." Their solitary convert recanted in terror. But the Germans went patiently and heroically to their death, singing, as they passed on, the last beatitude--"Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you, falsely, for My sake." Their suffering did not last long. It was in the depth of winter that they were cast out, and they soon lay down in the snow and yielded up their martyr-souls to God.