Nevertheless, in the midst of these storms and billows of antichrist, God preserved the ark of His church, so that many persons still remained, who, notwithstanding the manifold troubles and persecutions that came upon them on this account, practiced and maintained the true worship of God, particularly in opposition to infant baptism, the office of criminal authority, the swearing of oaths, and almost all other superstitions of the Roman church.
A. D. 1206.-In the beginning, yea, before the beginning of this century, and so through a number of years, the doctrine of the ancient Anabaptists increased not a little, which appeared more particularly in the year 1206, when they had so increased in many countries, that the wiles and power of the Roman church were not sufficient to bring them to apostatize, much less to exterminate them.
Concerning this, P. J. Twisek gives the following description, "The adherents of the doctrine of Peter de Bruis and Henry of Toulouse, Anabaptists, mentioned for the year 1135, which doctrine afterwards was also followed by the Waldenses (see the year 1159), multiplied so greatly about this time, namely, A. D. 1206, that few were found in the provinces of Albi, Languedoc, Narbonne, Gascony, Rouergue, and Toulouse, who did not adhere to said doctrine, notwithstanding Pope Innocent III very cruelly opposed it. See account for the year 1198.
The principal points of their doctrine, besides others, were these: 1. That the Roman church was the whore of Babylon. 2. That her polity was impure and corrupted. 3. That the mass was
