It appears also from their Spiritual Calendar, that infants were by them washed in the sacred font. But as their pastors were frequently absent, they rather chose to omit, baptism than to commit their children to the priests, esteeming pædobaptism not of so much necessity; whence might easily arise the suspicion that they rejected the baptism of infants. 3. Reinier asserts that they refused to take even lawful oaths, but he adds that this properly relates only to the perfect, who rather chose death than to take an oath; to the others therefore swearing was not prohibited. The Waldenses also testify in their Spiritual Calendar, that oaths were esteemed lawful amongst them.

In relating the rise and progress of this sect, regard must be had to the singular testimony of Reinier, in which he affirms this sect to be more pernicious than all the rest for three reasons. 1. Because it is more ancient and of longer standing; adding that some have traced it to the time of Silvester in the 4th century, and others to the times of the apostles. Reinier in summing up, towards the end of his work, gives it as their opinion, "that the church of Christ," these are his own words, "remained with the bishops and other prelates until B. Silvester, and then fell off until they restored it: however they affirm that there were always some who feared God and were saved." 2. Because it is more general; "For indeed," says he, "there is scarcely any country where this sect is not found." 3. Because it has a pure faith in God, and in the articles of the creed, and a great appearance of piety. This testimony proceeding from their adversary, who lived not far from their times, in the middle of the 13th century, is agreable to truth, and worthy of observation. Some of the pontiffs have accused them of various lusts, and other crimes, but this has been done merely from calumny, and according to their accustomed method of charging those who withdraw from their communion with licentiousness as the cause of that separation; and this the more foolishly, because as every kind of licentiousness abounded in the pontifical society, there was not the least cause for withdrawing on this account. Neither the inquisition of Toulouse, nor Reinier have any charges of this kind against the Waldenses, but, as we have seen, quite the contrary.

2

The anonymous author, who wrote a treatise concerning the heresy of the poor of Lyons, openly says, "as to what is affirmed of them, that they kiss cats and rats, and see the devil; or that having extinguished the lights, they commit promiscuous fornication; I do not think it belongs to this sect, because the Cathari are said to do this, nor have I learned any of these things in such a way as that I could believe them." That the testimony given respecting their antiquity and increase, is perfectly just, will appear from the history of their rise and progress which I am about to relate.

Concerning the antiquity of this sect, although the testimony of Reinier is sufficient of itself, there are not wanting other documents. That there were persons of this sect before the time of Waldo, is clear from the ancient treatise concerning Antichrist against the Romanists, an. 1120, published by Perrin, in his history of the Waldenses; and also from an epistle of a certain provost, named Steneld, to Bernard, written before the death of Waldo, a fragment of which is exhibited by Usher from Driedo; where it is related, amongst other things, that some of these men were seized by the excessive zeal of the populace, and thrown into the fire, and that they bore the torment not only with patience but joy. They are also described as persons "who do not trust in the intercessions of the dead, or the prayers of the saints, and who maintain that fasts and other afflictions which are practised on account of sin, are not necessary for the righteous; and who do not allow the fire of purgatory after death; nor believe that the body of Christ is present on the altar; and who affirm that the church of Christ is with them, though destitute of lands and possessions." That the sect is more ancient than Waldo, is proved by Harenberg in Otiis sacris observ. 10, from Bernard de Clairvaux; but it cannot with certainty be affirmed, how great that antiquity is. Some writers, quoted by Usher, refer them to the times of Berengarius, others, as Leger l. i, c. 11, to Claude of Turin, who under Louis the pious, opposed himself to images, and the dominion of the popes. To these times belong also some pious meditations on particular psalms,

2 See Martineti Thesaurum Novum, vol. 5.

breathing a spirit of purity and sound doctrine, and agreeing with the state of a separated church. These appear in Biblioth. Bremen. 1. ii. From that time, it is

asserted that persons of this description resided, and were concealed, in the Rhetian and Cottian Alps, and in the vallies of those mountains, who were thence called Waldenses, as I have mentioned above.

The progress of this sect was rapid and extensive, since Reinier testifies, that in his time there was no country free from them. He gives (c. 3,) the following causes of their increase. 1. Vain-glory, they wishing to be honored like the catholic doctors. 2. Their great zeal, since all of them, men and women, by night and by day, never cease from teaching and learning. He adds what I would wish to be particularly noticed, that, amongst their first instructions, they taught their disciples to shun slanders and oaths. 3. Because they translated the old and new testament into the vulgar tongues, and spake and taught according to them. He adds, “I have heard and seen a certain unlearned rustic, who recited the book of Job, word by word, and many who perfectly knew the New Testament." 4. Because they communicated their instruction in secret places and times, nor permitted any to be present except believers. 5. The scandal arising from the bad example of certain catholics. 6. The insufficient teaching of others, who preach sometimes frivolously and sometimes falsely. "Hence, whatever a doctor of the church teaches," says he, "which he does not prove from the New Testament, they consider it as entirely fabulous, contrary to the authority of the church." 7. The want of reverence with which certain ministers perform the sacraments. 8. The hatred which they have against the church. "I have heard," he proceeds, "from the mouth of the heretics, that they intended to reduce the clergy and the monks to the state of labourers, by taking away their tithes and possessions." He afterwards adds, that in all the cities. of Lombardy, and in Provence, and in other kingdoms and nations, there were more schools of heretics than of theologians, and more auditors. They disputed publicly, and summoned the people to those solemn disputations; besides preaching in the markets, the fields, and the houses, &c. "I was frequently present," he adds,

3

"at the inquisition and examination of the heretics, and their schools are reckoned in the diocese of Pavia to amount to forty-one." He reckons up also the churches belonging to the heretics. Having enumerated the errors of the Albigensian Manicheans, the author of the great Belgian chronicle from Cæsarius, A. D. 1208, thus proceeds. "The error of the Albigenses prevailed to that degree, that it had infested as much as a thousand cities, and if it had not been repressed by the swords of the faithful, I think that it would have corrupted the whole of Europe." It happened indeed that when the Waldenses were persecuted and banished by the archbishop of Lyons, and Waldo and his companions fled to other regions, from that time they were scattered through Gaul, Italy, Germany, England, and Spain. Some fixed themselves in Narbonne Gaul, which contains the provinces of Provençe, Dauphiny, and Savoy; others fled to the Alps and settled colonies in Piedmont and Lombardy. Peter Valdo, having left his country, came to Belgium, and in Picardy, as it is now called, obtained many followers; he afterwards passed into Germany, and having long journeyed through the cities of the Vandals, at last settled in Bohemia. This is confirmed by Dubravius in his history of Bohemia, who relates that he arrived there about 1184. The Waldenses themselves, in a conference with the Bohemians, declared that they had been dispersed through Lombardy, Calabria, Germany, Bohemia, and other regions, ever since the year 1160. To this belongs a report that about that time two devils entered Bohemia in human form, teaching believers to go naked and sin with impunity, whence arose, in the 15th century, the calumny of the nakedness of the Picards. The author of the Catalogus Testium Veritatis, lib. xv, declares that he was in possession of the consultation of the civilians of Avignon, of the archbishops of Narbonne, of Arles, and of Aix; together with the order of the bishop of Alby for the extirpation of the Waldenses, written 340 years before. At the conclusion of these consultations, it is said, "that it was

3 See Usher, in loc. cit. and also Thuanus.

4 See Beuusobre, De Adamitis, at the end of L'Enfant's History of the Hussite War; where he demonstrates that the Waldenses had penetrated into Bohemia in that century.

known to every one that the condemnation of the Waldensian heretics, many years since, was as just as it was public and celebrated."

The ALBIGENSES were so called from the province of Albi and Toulouse, where they principally inhabited. Albia or Albiga, now Albi, a city in the country of Cahors, belonging to Toulouse, formerly joined to the greater Aquitaine, a principal part of Narbonne Gaul, at that time bore the name of Albigesii, whence the Gallic heretics were called by the general name of Albigenses. They were dispersed through all that tract of Narbonne Gaul, and through the dioceses of Albi, Quercy, Sens, Rhodez, and the neighbourhood. But the learned are not agreed as to what sect or description they were of. The Roman catholic writers, not the recent only, but also the ancient, those of the 13th century, (as Peter de Vaux-Cernai, a Cistertian monk, in a history of the Albigenses dedicated to Innocent III; Cæsar of Heistirbach, in a dialogue concerning miracles; and the Acts of the inquisition at Toulouse, by Limborch,) paint these men in the blackest colours, as not only Manicheans but of the worst lives and manners. They relate for example that they held as to doctrine, "that there were two Gods and Lords, one good, the father of Christ, the author of invisible and incorruptible things, the other malignant, the author of what is visible and corporeal, the one the author of the Old Testament, the other of the New, so that the former was to be rejected except a few things which were transferred to the New. 2. That Christ took flesh, not really but only in appearance, so that he was not born of a woman, and that Mary, our Lord's mother, was no other than his church, which obeys the commandments of the father. 3. That there was no resurrection of the body, but that the bodies would be spiritual. 4. That human souls were spirits, who fell from heaven on account of their sins.

As to what belongs to their rites and institutes, 1. They not only in common with the Waldenses rejected the sacraments of the church of Rome, and all other ecclesiastical rites, but also baptism and the eucharist, having only retained the imposition of hands. They also called the cross, the detestable sign of the devil. 2. They rejected the orders of the Roman church, denying