tered the light of truth more extensively amongst the nations. The reformers of the sixteenth century maintained their cause under happier auspices; and protestants, freed by their exertions from spiritual bondage, are able now to look back upon those long protracted combats, to which, under God, they owe their present peace and security, and apportion to each of the parties its merited reward.

To fill up and verify this rapid sketch would embody all the principal circumstances of ecclesiastical history; whilst the object of the present essay is only to give such a view of the origin and character of the Albigenses, as may serve for an introduction to the following history. These have been the subject of many and voluminous controversies, the result of which is summed up by Venema, in his Historia Ecclesiastica, t. vi, § 115-126, with so much erudition, judgment, and candour, that it seems impossible to give the reader a juster view of the connexion between the Waldenses and Albigenses, their antiquity and opinions, than by a translation of that portion of Venema's history which refers to these sects. The passage is as follows:

Concerning the WALDENSES we may consult, amongst the ancient writers, although their bitterest enemies : 1. Bernard, Abbot of Clair-Vaux of the Præmonstratensian order, a writer of this age, who exhibits the heads of the disputations between Bernard, the archbishop of 7 These were edited by Gretzer, and published in the Bibl. Patrum.

8

Narbonne, and the Waldenses, in the year 1195. Gretzer edited, together with Ebrard a Fleming, and Ermengard, both unknown authors, a work against the Waldenses, which is contained in the 24th vol. of the Bibliotheca Patrum, but from which little can be learned. 2. Reinier, a monk of Placentia; first a leader of the sect, but who having deserted them was attached to the class of preachers, and became inquisitor-general in the 13th century. There is still extant a book of his against the Waldenses. Reinier's prolix account of the sentiments of the Waldenses, was recited 300 years after, in the catalogue of the witnesses of the truth, book xv, where also are exhibited other things pertaining to this subject from the history of Bohemia by Æneas Silvias, and from the collections concerning the city of Toulouse by James de Riberea. 3. Peter Pilichdorf in the 15th century, who wrote against the errors of the Waldenses, and against the poor men of Lyons. 4. The book of the judgments of the inquisition at Toulouse, published by Limborch, in his history of the inquisition. But besides these documents transmitted by their adversaries, there are others to be compared with them, and much more worthy of credit, from the Waldenses themselves; and also confessions, catechisms, dialogues, and other tracts in Leger's history of the Waldenses, booki: to which may be added the confessions both of the Waldenses and Albigenses, given by Flacius Illyricus in the 15th vol. of the Catalogus testium veritatis,―by the Centuriatores Magdeburgenses, centur. xii,-by B. Pictetus, in the continuation of Suerus Sec. ii, who recites the most ancient of all, composed in the year 1100. Bossuet indeed, in his History of the Variations, &c., contends that these monuments are not genuine; but they are vindicated by Leger, and by Basnage in his Hist. Eccl. tom. ii. Their antiquity is also confirmed by the language, and the immemorial tradition of the Waldenses, though it must be confessed that they are not all equal in that respect. Of the modern writers, besides Leger, Perrin, and Peter Gillis, amongst the protestants are to be consulted Usher de successione Ecclesiæ &c. and Limborch in the history of the inquisition, l. i, c. 8.

8 The work of Reinier was more fully edited by Gretzer, and republished in the 25th volume of the Biblioth. Patrum.

And, amongst the Roman Catholics, Thuanus Hist. 1. v, a. 1550, Bossuet Histoire des variations &c., Natalis Alexander, Hist. Eccles. hujus seculi, and others.

They bore various names, some derived from their teachers, some from their manner of life, some from the places where they dwelt, some from the fate they suffered, and some from the good pleasure of their neighbours: all these it would be too long and tedious to recapitulate. That I may just notice that of Waldenses, and some others by which they are principally known, I will, however, observe that they are considered to have been called so from Peter Valdo or Waldo, who is said to be either the founder or the principal promoter of the sect. Waldo was a citizen and rich merchant of Lyons who flourished in the middle of the 12th century about the year 1160. Whilst several of the principal citizens, among whom was Waldo, were conversing together, and one of them was struck with death before their eyes, he is said to have been so impressed with a sense of human frailty and of the divine wrath, that he renounced the world from that moment and gave himself up entirely to meditation upon the word of God, and to the propagation of piety. He first began with his own family, and then as his fame increased admitted and instructed others, and also translated the scriptures into the vernacular language of Gaul. That he was not destitute of erudition, as some maintain, Flacius Illyricus asserts from evidence derived from ancient writings. The clergy of Lyons, when these proceedings came to their knowledge, opposed, and prohibited his domestic instructions; but so far was this from proving an obstacle, that he inquired the more diligently into the opinions of the clergy, and into religious rites and customs, and opposed them the more openly and ardently. Since he taught for four or five years at Lyons, and made many disciples, some think they were from him called Waldenses; but others suppose that the name was derived from Christians of his sect, who had from ancient times inhabited the vallies of Piedmont. The vallies are called Vaux, whence Vaudois; and Peter is said to have borne the name of Waldo because he was a follower of that sect. That the name was used before his time appears from this, that it is found in a confession brought to light by Pictetus. The

other names, either proper to them, or common to them with the Albigenses, are principally the following. Leonistæ, or poor men of Lyons; this was given them from the place where they arose, and from the life of poverty which, in the beginning from their dependence on charity and various vexations, they were obliged to lead. As to what respects the name of Sabbatatorum, this came from their wooden shoes, which in the Gallic tongue were called Sabots. They are considered to have been called Patarini, on account of their sufferings, but more justly because they were esteemed heretics; and in a former century the Mediolani were so called who urged the celibacy of the clergy, from whom it was transferred to any other heretics. The same sort of derivation may be given to the epithet Cathari, but those of Picards, Lombards, Bohemians, Bulgarians, Albigenses, were given from the countries in which they dwelt. Finally they were principally called Turpelini or Turelupini in Flanders and Artois, because of the many miseries to which they were exposed, according to a proverb used in that country, by which children whose fate was unfortunate, were called Turelupins from one Turelupin the father of some children who perished miserably.1 But it may be well to consult Mosheim, who, in his history of the 13th century, contends that the Turlupini were the same as the brethren of the free spirit, fanatics and mystics, and imbued with the errors of the Pantheists.

I shall enumerate, from the monuments above cited, the chief articles of this heresy, before I shew its origin and fate; they were the following: 1. That the holy Scriptures are the only source of faith and religion, without regard to the authority of the Fathers and of tradition; and although they principally used the New Testament yet as Usher proves from Reinier and others, they regarded the Old also as canonical Scripture. From their greater use of the New Testament however their adversaries took occasion to charge them with despising the Old. 2. They held the entire faith, according to all the articles of the apostles' creed. 3. They rejected all the external rites of the dominant church, excepting baptism and the Lord's supper, as temples, vestures,

9 See Du Cange Gloss. Lat. Medii acvi in voce.

1 Vide Beausobre de Adamitis p. 2.

images, crosses, the religious worship of the holy relics, and the remaining sacraments; these they considered as inventions of satan and of the flesh, and full of superstition. 4. They rejected purgatory, with masses and prayers for the dead, acknowledging only two terminations of the present state, heaven and hell. 5. They admitted no indulgences nor confessions of sin with any of their consequences, excepting mutual confessions of the faithful for instruction and consolation. 6. They held the sacraments of baptism and the eucharist only as signs, denying the corporal presence of Christ in the eucharist; as we find in the book of this sect concerning antichrist, and as Ebrard de Bethunia accuses them in his book antihæresios. 7. They held only three ecclesiastical orders, bishops, priests, and deacons, and that the remainder were human figments; that monasticism was a putrid carcase, and vows the inventions of men; and that the marriage of the clergy was lawful and necessary. According to Reinier they had three or four orders. First the bishop, who had under him two presbyters, one the elder son the other the younger, who visited the faithful submitted to the bishop, and one deacon. 8. Finally, they asserted the Roman church to be the whore of Babylon, and denied obedience to the pope or bishops, and that the pope had any authority over other churches, or the power of either the civil or ecclesiastical sword.

Besides these articles, others are attributed to them, though not without controversy, since by some they are denied. 1. Reinier and the inquisition of Toulouse relate, that they reprobated judges and magistrates with all judgments against criminals; but that this can refer only to capital punishments, is clear from the testimonies themselves. Besides their ancient confessions of faith testify that they did not deny obedience to magistrates. But as in Perrin's Light and Treasure of Faith they do not absolutely condemn capital punishments, it is doubtful how long they had condemned them, and whether this was the opinion of all the Waldenses, or at all times. 2. Nor, as is imputed to them, did they reject infant-baptism, but only held it a thing not necessary as appears from Reinier himself, who only charges them with holding that the baptism of infants was useless.