"Upon this declaration, having been admonished to repent, and three days allowed them for that purpose, they were seized by the people, in their excess of zeal, _and committed to the flames_! and, what is most astonishing, they came to the stake and endured the torment not only with patience, but even with joy. In this case, O holy father, were I present with you, I should be glad to ask you, how these members of Satan could persist in their heresy with such constancy and courage as is rarely to be found among the most religious in the faith of Christ?" He then proceeds: "Their heresy is this: They say that the church (of Christ) is only among themselves, because they alone follow the ways of Christ, and imitate the apostles, not seeking secular gains.... Whereas they say to us, 'Ye join house to house, and field to field, seeking the things of this world.'... They represent themselves as the poor of Christ's flock, who have no certain abode, fleeing from one city to another, like sheep in the midst of wolves, enduring persecution with the apostles and martyrs: though strict in their manner of life--_abstemious, laborious, devoted, and holy_ ... living as men who are not of the world. But you, say they, lovers of the world, have peace with the world, because ye are in it. False apostles, who adulterate the word of God, seeking their own things, have misled you and your ancestors. Whereas, we and our fathers, having been born and brought up in the apostolic doctrine, have continued in the grace of Christ, and shall continue so to the end.... They affirm that the apostolic dignity is corrupted by indulging itself in secular affairs, while it sits [professedly] in St Peter's chair. They do not hold with the baptism of infants, alleging that passage of the gospel, 'He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.' They place no confidence in the intercession of saints and all things observed in the church, which have not been established by Christ himself, or his apostles, they pronounce to be superstitious. They do not admit of any purgatory fire after death, contending, that the souls of men, as soon as they depart out of the bodies, do enter into rest or punishment ... by which means they make void all the prayers and oblations of the faithful for the deceased.... I must inform you also, that those of them who have returned to our church, tell us that they had great numbers of their persuasion, scattered almost everywhere.... And as for those who were burnt, they, in defense they made of themselves, told us that this heresy had been _concealed from the time of the martyrs_ [by which is meant the early period of Christianity] and that it had existed in Greece and other countries."