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to them, as sinners, all power of binding and loosing. 3. They were distinguished into two kinds; one of which was called the perfect or comforted, who professed openly their faith and religion, amongst whom they had what they denominated magistrates, deacons, and bishops. The perfect were specially named good men. Others, indeed, made a compact with these, which they termed la convenensa, a convention, that they wished to be received at the end of life into their sect. Their reception, called hæreticatio, was conducted in this manner; the perfect held the hands of him who was to be received, between his own, and over him a certain book, from which he read the gospel of John, "In the beginning was the word," as far as, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." He handed to him, besides, a slender band, with which he was to be girded as a heretic. There was some difference respecting the reception of women, but of small moment. This reception however, for which they were prepared by certain abstinences, was thought to confer salvation, and therefore was called consolation, and even spiritual baptism; and was generally, deferred to the close of life, and was conferred on the sick, to whom, that they might not return to health, it was prescribed to put themselves into endura or abstinence, in order to accelerate their death, for which purpose bathing and blood-letting were also used. They who refused this oppressive law, still abstained from all intercourse with men, and even with their wives, lest they should relapse. 4. They rejected matrimony as sensual and unlawful, substituting in its stead a spiritual union. 5. I omit the licentiousness and vices of every kind with which they were charged.

If these are their true colours, and this their true description, they must have approached near to the Manicheans, and the writers of the 13th century do certainly make a wide distinction between them and the Waldenses. Peter, the monk of Vaux-Cernai, lately cited, says, expressly, that they differed widely from the Waldenses, who were not so bad, since in many things they agreed with the Roman church, and differed from it only in a

5 Concerning these, see Cl. Joecher, Professor at Leipsic, in his Progr. De Bonis Hominibus, at the end of Schmidii Hist. Eccles. p. 3.

6 See also, respecting this rite, Ermengardus contra Vallenses, c. xiv.

few; and of whom he thus speaks; "To omit many articles of their unbelief, their error consisted principally in four-the wearing of sandals, in imitation of the apostles the rejection of swearing, and capital punishments, on any occasion-but chiefly in asserting, that any of their body might, if they wore sandals, though they had not received episcopal ordination, make the body of Christ." Reinier, also, and the inquisition of Toulouse, distinguish between the Albigenses and the Waldenses. Bossuet also follows their footsteps in his History of Variations &c. l. ii. remarking that the Waldenses agreed with the catholics in the principal points, and were therefore only schismatics. But what have the protestants to do with this? Because the opinion has been generally spread that the Albigenses and Waldenses were the same, and that the charges of Manicheism, Arianism, &c. which have been made against them are pure calumnies. Leger, in his history of the Waldenses, l. i, c. 19, has endeavoured to free them from this imputation, and though his testimonies more particularly apply to the Waldenses, yet he has shown that many of the Albigenses were the same. See also the author of the book entitled La Condemnation de Babilone, against Bossuet, where he treats of the Waldenses and of their antiquity, and vindicates the purity both of them and the Albigenses in faith and manners. But from this decision Limborch dissents, arguing that the Albigenses cannot be acquitted of Manicheism. Others take a middle course, as Spanheim, and Basnage in his ecclesiastical history, and more at large in the history of the reformed churches, in which he has inserted copious extracts from the acts of the inquisition at Toulouse. Both these writers allow that there were Manicheans and Arians amongst the Albigenses, who had come from the east into these and other western countries; but they maintain, that much the greater number of them were pure, though confounded by the Roman writers.

I should not however attempt to deny, that there were Manicheans spread through these regions in considerable numbers, and that they were marked by the name of Albigenses, concerning which see Usher and Limborch in the places before cited. I also admit that in this and the following century, the Albigenses and Waldenses

were currently so distinguished, as that the former were considered to have, if not the grosser, yet a more subtle form of Manicheism, so far at least as to speak of the devil as another God of this world; they also esteemed the flesh as the seat of sin, so as to abstain from all commerce with it, as I have before shewn, and as Limborch proves. But I have not the least doubt that those who were truly Waldenses were also called Albigenses; for example, Peter de Vaux-Cernai says, "that all the heretics of Narbonne Gaul were called Albigenses, and the least guilty amongst these were the Waldenses." William de Podio Laurentii, in the chronicles of the Albigenses, distinguishes them as Arians, Manicheans, and Waldenses; which Benedict proves in his history of the Albigenses, from an epistle of the king of Aragon. Bertrand also, a lawyer of Toulouse, in his book de Gestis Tolosanorum, clears from Manicheism the count of Toulouse, the patron of the Albigenses. Finally, since the Albigenses, both of the pure, and those of a Manichean faith, had this in common, that they ardently opposed the external rites of the church, the dominion of the church, and the papal see, it could scarcely be otherwise, but that they should all be included as Manicheans without distinction, in order to afford a better pretext for persecution, and that they might be exposed to universal odium; as history indeed has exhibited to the eyes of all ages, our own not excepted, that it was against such heretics alone that these deeds were perpetrated.

These heretics were condemned at a council held at Lombez in Gascony under the bishop of Toulouse in 1175, by the name of Good Men, to whom the following errors are imputed. 1. That the Old Testament was of no authority. 2. That a confession of faith was not necessary. 3. That infants are not saved by baptism. 4. That the eucharist may be consecrated by laymen. 5. That matrimony was unlawful and not consistent with salvation. 6. That the priests have not alone received the power of binding and loosing. But at the same time there is extant, inserted in the acts, a confession of their faith directly opposed to these errors, to which they add that they are ready to acknowledge whatever can be

See Usher, De Success. Eccles. &c. c. x. also Basnage, in loc. cit.

-shewn to them from the gospels and the writings of the apostles, to their conviction; but they refused to take any oath as it was forbidden by both. See Hoveden, Annal. p. 2, who improperly stigmatises them as Arians. At this council they were condemned and expelled. The same was done in a synod at Toulouse, 1178, under the presidency of a legate of the holy see, as the same Hoveden testifies. They were also proscribed by the third council of Lateran in 1179, as we have related in the hisof Alexander III, which sentence was confirmed by Lucius III, as related by Bernard Abbot of Clair-Vaux in the preface to a treatise against this heresy, who adds that they were summoned by Bernard to a disputation at Narbonne, after which they were condemned."

After the ample testimonies which have been adduced respecting these ancient heretics, chiefly from their persecutors, it will be sufficient to add a few brief and concluding observations.

1. That it is an undisputed fact, that sects, under the name of Waldenses, who opposed the authority of the church of Rome, are of very high antiquity; and that the catholic writers themselves allow this, without imputing to them any material errors in doctrine or practice.

2. That the Albigenses, or inhabitants of Languedoc, were, many of them at least, of the same description as the Waldenses, though their enemies charge others of them with being atrocious heretics, and men of abandoned morals.

3. That the persecutors nevertheless destroyed them all indiscriminately, depriving them of all power of defending their characters; and had, therefore, every temptation and every opportunity for calumniating them.

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4. That the Waldenses who inhabited the vallies of Piedmont, remained exempt from persecution for nearly two hundred years longer, and were thus able to transmit to posterity monuments for their own vindication.

5. That the supposed superior orthodoxy of the Waldenses, properly so called, did not preserve them from like persecutions, at the instigation of the church of Rome.

Finally, That we are, therefore, warranted in affirming, that the Albigenses were men who had received their christian principles from the first planting of that religion in Gaul; and that the great cause of their sufferings was not so much their heretical principles as their opposition to the usurpations and corruptions of the Romish church.

Notwithstanding the melancholy termination of this history, the reader can scarcely close the volume without a sentiment of exultation, when he considers how powerless are all the attempts of bigotry and persecution to impede the progress of knowledge, and prevent the final triumph of truth. The crusades against the Albigenses, and even the establishment of the tribunal of the inquisition, could not hinder the ultimate spread of their principles through the old and new world. The inhabitants of these countries, the descendents of the persecuted Albigenses, have, in this our day, witnessed the downfal of that