Could you please post a source document for this statement.
NYer,
You asked:
“Could you please post a source document for this statement.”
..in regard to: “The Catholics tried to suppress them through violence, and when that failed, have continued to try to lie about what these groups believed and practiced”
Don’t hold your breath. You’ll either be 1) stonewalled completely, 2) get some silly ramblings based on nothing or gross distortions from some amateur “historian” (who will happen to have been a Baptist by the way), or 3) your get some of the fanciful 17th century histories where medieval heretics are rehabilitated as “true Christians” despite all the evidence of their heterodox beliefs and practices (e.g. sodomy and ritual murder among the Albigensians are quietly overlooked).
Actually, there are TONS of "source documents" about the history of baptistic groups who existed completely outside Rome. A couple of sites with compendiums:
http://www.reformedreader.org/history/list.htm
http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/fbns-index/historyfbns.htm
http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/fbns-index/waldensianhistoryfbns.htm
I urge all readers to explore these. Some sources from the last two are not linked, being on a purchaseable CD, but for individual users (i.e. not mass mailing, hence, remaining within fair use), I will be happy to email the text of titles not linked.