THE ORIGIN OF THE BAPTISTS
By S. H. Ford
CHAPTER VII
Century Twelve
Henry of Lausanne
Peter de Bruis (Bruys)
Arnold of Brescia
HENRY OF LAUSANNE
In the beautiful city of Lausanne, surrounded by the towering Alps, the sheltering homes of God's hidden ones, an Italian hermit learned the simple truths of the gospel. The idleness of the hermit was at once exchanged for the armor and the toil of an embassador of Christ. To the dwellers in those valleys he broke the bread of life; and over those mountain peaks he passed, bringing glad tidings to beautiful, yet darkened France. >From Mans, from Poictiers, from Bordeaux, he was successively banished, after what victories or defeats we know not. Of martial valor, of deeds of chivalry performed on those same spots, we have many a glowing record. What would we not give to know the words and acts of this simple gospel preacher, as he passed through those proud old cities, with their grim castles and splendid cathedrals, and glorious recollections of heraldry and conquest looming up in the Gothic twilight of that age. But like the apostolic record, which notes the entrance of Paul into Philippi, where the beauties of Grecian art, column, and statue, and temple, robed in the autumnal charms of a vicious loveliness, surrounded him on every side, one fact only has importance sufficient for enduring record: "There they preached the Gospel." So of Henry. More than this we know not.