MOSHEIM says of the persecutions of this people in the sixteenth century, "Vast numbers of these people, in nearly all the countries of Europe, would rather perish miserably by drowning, hanging, burning, or decapitation, than renounce the opinions they had embraced." And their innocency he vindicates thus: "It is indeed true that many Anabaptists were put to death, not as being bad citizens, or injurious members of civil society, but as being incurable _heretics,_ who were condemned by the old canon laws. For the error of _adult baptism_ was in that age looked upon as a horrible offense." That was their only crime. _Eccl. Hist., Cent. 16, Sec. 3. Part 2, Ch. iii. Fuller's Ch. Hist., B. 4._ This testimony is all the more welcome, because it comes from those who have no ecclesiastical sympathies with Baptists, but who, in fidelity to history, bear honest testimony to the truth which history teaches. The circumstances under which their evidence was produced give it additional force. CARDINAL HOSSIUS, chairman of the council at Trent, says: "If the truth of religion were to be judged of by the readiness and cheerfulness which a man of any sect shows in suffering, then the opinions and persuasions of no sect can be truer or surer, than those of the _Anabaptists;_ since there have been none, for these _twelve hundred years past,_ that have been more grievously punished." _Orchard's Hist. Bap., Sec. 12, part 30, p. 364._ Many thousands of the Dutch Baptists, called Anabaptists, and Mennonites, miserably perished by the hands of their cruel persecutors, for no crime but their refusal to conform to established churches.[2] THE ENGLISH BAPTISTS At what time the Baptists appeared in England in definite denominational form, it is impossible to say. But from the _twelfth_ to the _seventeenth_ century, many of them suffered cruel persecutions, and death by burning, drowning, and beheading, besides many other, and sometimes most inhuman tortures. And this they suffered both from Papists and Protestants, condemned by both civil and ecclesiastical tribunals, only because they persisted in worshiping God, according to the dictates of their consciences, and because they would not submit their religious faith and worship to the dictates of popes and princes.[3] In 1538, royal edicts were issued against them, and several were burnt at the stake in Smithfield. BRANDE writes that: "In the year 1538, thirty-one Baptists, that fled from England, were put to death at Delft, in Holland; the men were beheaded, the women were drowned." _Hist. Reformers._ See _Benedict's Hist. Bap., p. 303. Neal's Hist. Puritans, Vol. I., p. 138. Note, Vol. II, p. 355, Sup._ What crime had they committed to merit such treatment as this? BISHOP LATIMER declares that, "The Baptists that were burnt in different parts of the kingdom went to death intrepidly, and without any fear, during the time of Henry VIII." _Lent Sermons. Neal's Hist. Purit., Vol. II, p. 356._