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THE
HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, from the birth of Christ to the
18th Century: including the very interesting account of the
Waldenses and Albigenses
By William Jones
First Edition 1812
Fourth Edition 1819
Fifth Edition 1826
London: Printed for the Author by W. Myers, 7, Took’s Court,
Castle Street, Holborn
[Note from the publisher. This valuable out-of-print book was carefully formatted for electronic publication by Way of Life Literature. For a catalog of other books, both current and old, in print and electronic format, contact us at P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org (e-mail), http://www.wayoflife.org (web site).]
[Table of Contents for "A History of the Christian Church" by William Jones]
CHAPTER FIVE -- SECTION 2
SOME ACCOUNT OF THE DOCTRINAL SENTIMENTS AND RELIGIOUS PRACTICES OF THE WALDENSES, COLLECTED FROM THE WRITINGS OF THEIR ADVERSARIES.
It is intended, in this and the two following sections, to lay before the reader a more detailed account of the principles and practices of the Waldenses, than hath hitherto been given; and there appears no method of doing this more satisfactory, than by first hearing the charges alleged against them by their adversaries of the Romish church; and then attending to the apologies, reasonings, and confessions of faith which, from time to time, the ever laudable principle of self-defense necessarily extorted from them. This is the plan, therefore, which I intend to pursue, and the present section shall be devoted to the testimony of their adversaries.
REINERIUS SACCHO, whose name I have had occasion more than once to mention, was for seventeen years of the earlier part of his life, in some way or other, connected with the Waldenses; but he apostatized from their profession, entered the catholic church, was raised in it to the dignified station of an inquisitor, and became one of their most cruel persecutors. He was deputed by the pope to reside in Lombardy, in the south of France; and about the year 1250, published a catalogue of the errors of the Waldenses under three and thirty distinct heads. The reader who wishes to peruse the original Latin, may find it in Dr. Allix’s Remarks upon the Churches of Piedmont, p. 188-191. The following is a faithful translation.
"Their first error," says he, "is a contempt of ecclesiastical power, and from thence they have been delivered up to Satan, and by him cast headlong into innumerable errors, mixing the erroneous doctrines of the heretics of old with their own inventions. And being cast out of the Catholic church, they affirm that they alone are the church of Christ and his disciples. They declare themselves to be the apostles’ successors, to have apostolical authority, and the keys of binding and loosing. They hold the church of Rome to be the whore of Babylon, (Revelation chapter 17) and that all that obey her are damned, especially the clergy that have been subject to her since the time of pope Sylvester. [This pontiff was bishop of Rome in the days of Constantine the Great, about the year 330. 395.] They deny that any true miracles are wrought in the church, because none of themselves ever worked any. They hold, that none of the ordinances of the church, which have been introduced, since Christ’s ascension, ought to be observed, as being of no value. The feasts, fasts, orders, blessings, offices of the church, and the like, they utterly reject. They speak against consecrating churches, church-yards, and other things of the like nature, declaring that it was the invention of covetous priests, to augment their own gains, in spunging the people by those means of their money and oblations. They say, that a man is then first baptized when he is received into their community. SOME OF THEM HOLD THAT BAPTISM IS OF NO ADVANTAGE TO INFANTS, because they cannot actually believe. They reject the sacrament of confirmation, but instead of that, their teachers lay their hands upon their disciples. They say, the bishops, clergy, and other religious orders are no better than the Scribes and Pharisees, and other persecutors of the apostles. They do not believe the body and blood of Christ to be the true sacrament, but only blessed bread, which by a figure only is called the body of Christ, even as it is said, "and the rock was Christ," etc. Some of them hold that this sacrament can only be celebrated by those that are good,* others again by any that know the words of consecration. This sacrament they celebrate in their assemblies, repeating the words of the gospel at their table, and participating together, in imitation of Christ’s supper. They say that a priest who is a sinner, cannot bind or loose any one, as being himself bound; and that any good and intelligent layman may absolve another, and impose penance. They reject extreme unction, declaring it to be rather a curse than a sacrament. Marriage, say they, is nothing else but sworn fornication, unless the parties live continently, and account any filthiness preferable to the conjugal rites. They praise continence indeed, but in the meantime give way to the satisfying of burning lust by any filthy means whatsoever, expounding that place of the apostle, ‘It is better to marry than to burn,’ thus: that it is better to satisfy one’s lust by any filthy act, than to be tempted therewith in the heart.** But this they conceal as much as possible, that they may not be reproached therewith. If any honest woman among them that has the repute of chastity, is brought to bed of a child, they carefully conceal it, and send it abroad to be nursed, that it may not be known. They hold all oaths to be unlawful, and a mortal sin, yet they dispense with them when it is done to avoid death, lest they should betray their accomplices, or the secret of their infidelity. They hold it to be an unpardonable sin to betray an heretic, yea the very sin against the Holy Ghost. They say that malefactors ought not to be put to death by the secular power. Some of them hold it unlawful to kill brute animals, as fishes, or the like; but when they have a mind to eat them, they hang them over the fire or smoke till they die. Fleas and such sort of insects they shake off their clothes, or else dip their clothes in hot water, supposing them thus to be dead of themselves.*** Thus they cheat their own consciences in this and other observances. From whence we may see, that having forsaken truth, they deceive themselves with their own false notions. According to them there is no purgatory, and all that die, immediately pass either into heaven or hell. That therefore the prayers of the church for the dead are of no use, because those that are in heaven do not want them, nor can those that are in hell be relieved by them. And from thence they infer, that all offerings made for the dead are only of use to the clergymen that eat them, and not to the deceased, who are incapable of being profited by them. They hold, that the saints in heaven do not hear the prayers of the faithful, nor regard the honors which are done to them, because their bodies lie dead here beneath, and their spirits are at so great a distance from us in heaven, that they can neither hear our prayers nor see the honors which we pay them. They add, that the saints do not pray for us, and that therefore, we are not to entreat their intercession, because, being swallowed up with heavenly joy, they cannot attend to us, nor indeed to any thing else. Hence they deride all the festivals which we celebrate in honor of the saints, and all other instances of our veneration for them. Accordingly, wherever they can do it, they secretly work upon holy days, arguing, that since working is good, it cannot be evil to do that which is good on a holy day. They do not observe Lent, or other fasts of the church, alleging that God does not delight in the afflictions of his friends, as being able to save without them. Some heretics indeed afflict themselves with fasting, watchings, and the like, because without these they cannot obtain the reputation of being holy among the simple people, nor deceive them by their reigned hypocrisy. They do not receive the Old Testament, but the Gospel only, that they may not be overthrown by it, but rather be able to defend themselves therewith; pretending that upon the introduction of the gospel dispensation all old things were to be laid aside.**** In like manner they select the choicest sayings and authorities of the holy fathers, such as Augustine, Jerome, Gregory, Chrysostom, and Isidore, that with them they may support their opinions, oppose others, or the more easily seduce the simple, by varnishing over their sacrilegious doctrine with the good sentences of the saints, at the same time very quietly passing over those parts of the writings of the holy fathers that oppose and confute their errors. Such as are teachable and eloquent among them, they instruct to get the words of the gospel, as well as the sayings of the apostles, and other holy men by heart, that they may be able to inform others, and draw in believers, beautifying their sect with the goodly words of the saints, that the things they persuade and recommend may pass for sound and wholesome doctrine;--thus by their soft speeches deceiving the hearts of the simple. And not only the men, but even their women also teach***** amongst them, because women have an easier access to those of their own sex, to pervert them, that afterwards, by their means, the men may be perverted also, as the serpent deceived Adam by means of Eve. They teach their disciples to speak in dark and obscure words, and instead of speaking truth, to endeavor to speak lies; that when they are asked about one thing, they might perversely answer about another, and thus craftily deceive their hearers, especially when they fear that by confessing the truth, they should discover their errors. In the same dissembling manner they frequent our churches, are present at divine service, offer at the altar, receive the sacrament, confess to the priests, observe the church fasts, celebrate festivals, and receive the priest’s blessing, reverently bowing their heads, though in the meantime they scoff at all these institutions of the church, looking upon them as profane and hurtful. They say it is sufficient for their salvation if they confess to God, and not to man."
[* The meaning of this does not seem very obvious. The words in the original are, Quidam autem hoc dicunt tantum per bonos fleri, alii per omnes qui verba consecrationis sciunt; and the reason of the obscurity is, that, as I shall hereafter shew, they did not allow any but pastors to administer the eucharist.]
[** There appears something like a consciousness about Reinerius, that in this monstrous accusation he was calumniating the Waldenses, for in the following words he qualifies the charge by describing them as not avowing it. The reader will presently see their sentiments on the subject of marriage, and be convinced of the foulness of this slander. I shall, therefore, at present, only quote from their own apology a short extract, in which they repel the charge of countenancing lasciviousness. "It was this vice," say they, "that led David to procure the death of his faithful servant, that he might enjoy his wife -- and Ammon to defile his sister Tamar. This vice consumes the estates of many, as it is said of the prodigal son, who wasted his substance in riotous living. Balaam made choice of this vice to provoke the children of Israel to sin, which occasioned the death of twenty-four thousand persons. This sin was the occasion of Samson’s losing his sight; it perverted Solomon, and many have perished through the beauty of a woman. The remedies for this sin are fasting, prayer, and keeping at a distance from it. Other vices may be subdued by fighting; in this we conquer by flight; of which we have an example in Joseph." -- Perrin’s Hist. chapter 4.]
[*** Many will think that Reinerius must have been at great loss for substantial grounds of accusation against the Waldensea, when he could condescend to enumerate such childish things as these.]
[**** This is precisely the charge which was brought against the Paulicians; see Note, volume 1, chapter 3, sect 4, and the remarks there offered upon it.]
[***** The reader must not understand the teaching here alluded to as referring to public teaching in the church, for the Waldenses permitted nothing of that kind in their females, and the Scriptures pointedly forbid it: but he refers to their mode of propagating their sentiments by conversation, and I shall have an opportunity of shewing, in a future section, from the writings of this same Reinerius, the very simple and striking manner in which they did this.]
Such is the view which Reinerius gave of the principles of the Waldenses, about eighty years subsequent to the times of Peter Waldo; and we must understand this description as applicable to one general class of Christians, scattered throughout the south of France, the valleys of the Pyrenean mountains, the valleys of Piedmont, and the country of the Milanese; though probably distinguished in different places by the different names of Puritans, or Catharists, Paterines, Arnoldists, Leonists, Albigenses, or Waldenses, the last of which ultimately became their more general appellation. ["Nothing is so well known to the curious in these matters, as the following verse, upon the Vaudois (Waldenses) in the year 1100: Que non vogli maudir ne jura, ne mentir, N’occir, ne avoutrar, ne prenre de altrui, Ne s’avengear deli suo ennemi, Loz dison qu’ es Vaudes & los feson morir. THAT IS, Whosoever refuses to curse, to swear, to lie, to kill, to commit adultery, to steal, to be revenged of his enemy--they say he is a VAULDOIS, and therefore they put him to death." Voltaire’s Genesis History, chapter 59.] No doubt there were shades of difference in sentiment among them on points of minor importance, even as there are among Christians in the present day; and it is very certain that the catholic writers sometimes class under the general name of Waldenses or Albigenses, persons whose theological sentiments and religious practices were very opposite to those which were professed by the followers of Peter Waldo. "The practice of confounding heretics of all kinds in one common herd," says Mr. Robinson, "hath been an ancient custom with ecclesiastical historians, and it hath obscured history" [Eccles. Researches, p. 463]. This is a very just remark, and the reader who would not be imposed upon by those writers, will find it of great importance to attend to it. He himself, however, tells us that the Albigenses were Manichaeans,* or nearly so, and that they differed from the Vaudois and Waldenses. That individuals, or even a sect, holding those wild and extravagant opinions, may have existed at that time, and been classed by the catholic writers under the head of Albigenses, is not impossible, though I have met with no evidence that puts the fact beyond dispute; and the historians of the latter give a very easy and natural solution of the reason of their being accused of Manichaeism. But, whatever may be in this, the following facts are indisputable; that the general body of the Albigenses received the doctrines of Peter Waldo--that these doctrines had no connection with Manichaeism--and that the Waldenses and Albigenses were two branches of the same sect, inhabiting different countries, each deriving its appellation from its local residence. In the sketch which Reinerius has furnished of the principles of the Waldenses, it is to be remarked, that there is not the slightest allusion to any erroneous opinions maintained by them, regarding the faith and doctrines of the gospel, and this is a noble testimony to the soundness of their creed. For having himself been connected with them,--a man of learning and talents, he doubtless was intimately acquainted with their doctrinal sentiments; and, having apostatized from their profession and become their determined adversary, he did not want inclination to bring forward any accusation against them which could be done with the smallest regard to decency on his own part. The errors of which he accuses them (a few instances excepted, and on which they repelled his slanderous charges) are such as no protestant dissenter of the present day would shrink from the odium which is connected with holding, since they will all be found in one way or other to resolve themselves into the unfounded claims of the clergy, or the introduction of human traditions and the basest superstition into the worship of God.
[* The sect of the MANICHAEANS derived its origin from a person of the name of Manes, or Manichaeus, as he is sometimes called by his disciples. He was by birth a Persian, educated among the Magi, and himself one of their number before he embraced the profession of Christianity, about the end of the third century. His doctrine was a motley mixture of the tenets of Christianity, with the ancient philosophy of the Persians, in which he had been instructed during his youth. The following view of his system is given by Dr. Mosheim, Volume 1. Cent. 3. chapter 5: "That there are two principles from which all things proceed--the one a most pure and subtle matter, called LIGHT, the other a gross and corrupt substance called DARKNESS. The being who presides over light is called God--he that rules the land of darkness bears the name of Hyle, or Demon. The ruler of the light is supremely happy, and consequently benevolent and good--the prince of darkness is unhappy in himself, and desiring to render others partakers of his misery, is evil and malignant. These two beings have produced an immense multitude of creatures, resembling themselves, whom they have distributed through their respective provinces. He held that Christ is that glorious intelligence whom the Persians called Mithras -- a splendid substance, endowed with life, and having his residence in the sun. The Holy Ghost a luminous and animated body, diffused throughout every part of the atmosphere which surrounds this terrestrial globe. He held that the God of the Jews was the prince of darkness -- affirmed that the Old Testament was not the word of God, but of the prince of darkness, and rejected as spurious the four Gospels, and indeed most of the canonical Scriptures -- maintained the transmigration of souls," etc., etc. It is really surprising that Mr. Robinson, the acute, the ingenious, the liberal minded Mr. Robinson, should have charged the Albigenses with adopting this absurd system, without producing any evidence to support such an opinion. Few writers have combated the foul misrepresentations of the Catholics with more zeal and success than he has done; but in this instance he has joined their senseless clamor against the Albigenses. It is a very questionable point, whether the sect of the Manichaeans had any existence at the period of which Mr. R. is treating, and I am strongly inclined to think they had not, at least in Europe. But even though that could be proved, I may venture to affirm that it was utterly out of the power of Mr. R. or any other person to produce from the confessions, catechisms, testimonies, or conduct of the Albigenses the least trace of Manichaeism. I am tempted on this occasion to adopt the lofty language of Dr. Allix, when defending the Piedmontese Waldenses from the same charge brought against them by the catholic bishop Bossuet. "I defy the impudence of the devil himself," says he, "to find in their writings the least shadow of Manichaeism."--Remarks, chapter 17. The fact is, that, on this subject, the catholic writers misled Mosheim and Limborch; and these latter historians have misled Mr. Robinson. Indeed, an impartial reader will easily perceive throughout this gentleman’s account of "the Vallies of Piedmont," in his Ecclesiastical Researches, the strongest indications of a jaundiced eye. Speaking of Leger’s History of the Waldenses, he adds, "Orthodoxy is proved and overproved in it, for it will be allowed that an apostolical church with the Athanasian creed is above par." He cannot therefore believe that the Catholics inflicted upon the "poor Waldenses," the horrible cruelties which are detailed by Leger, though he has no difficulty in believing them to have inflicted cruelties full as great upon others!]
It will be recollected that, towards the close of the former section, it was stated that Peter Waldo, after disseminating his doctrines in France and Germany, was at length driven into BOHEMIA, where he spent the last years of his life in preaching the gospel, which he did with the most astonishing success. That kingdom comprehended what is now included in the duchy of Silesia, and the marquisate of Moravia. The country is about three hundred miles long, and two hundred and fifty broad, almost wholly surrounded with impenetrable forests and lofty mountains. The soil, where it is cultivated, is fruitful, and yields corn enough for the use of its inhabitants, which are computed at three millions in number, leaving a considerable surplus frequently for exportation. Its pasture-lands produce abundance of cattle, particularly horses fit for war. They have inexhaustible mines of gold, silver, copper, tin, iron, lead, sulfur and niter; and their carbuncles, emeralds, and other precious stones, are rended all over Europe. Crantz, who wrote the history of the Bohemian brethren, mentions a colony of Waldenses as obtaining permission to settle at Saltz and Lun, on the river Eger, so early as the twelfth century, which the coincidence of time renders it highly probable, refers to the persecuted Waldo and his brethren. Certain it is, that his labors were crowned with great success in that country; and we have two noted authors who have left us a particular account of the faith and practices of the Waldenses in Bohemia, during the fourteenth century, at which time their numbers had increased very considerably, and they had to sustain the fire of papal persecution. The first is an inquisitor of the church of Rome, who says "he had exact knowledge of the Waldenses," at whose trials he had often assisted, in several countries. The other is AENEAS SYLVIUS, who wrote the history of Bohemia, and afterwards ascended the pontifical chair with the title of pope Pius II. Thus, writes the inquisitor concerning the Waldenses of Bohemia.
The first error of the Waldenses, says he, is, that they affirm the church of Rome is not the church of Jesus Christ, but an assembly of ungodly men, and that she has ceased from being the true church, from the time of pope Sylvester, at which time the poison of temporal advantages was cast into the church--That all vices and sins reign in that church, and that they alone live righteously--That they are the true church of Christ, and that the church of Rome is the whore mentioned in the Revelation. They despise and reject all the ordinances and statutes of the church, as being too many and very burdensome. They insist that the pope is the head and leader of all error--That the prelates are the scribes and seemingly religious pharisees--That the popes and their bishops, on account of the wars they foment, are murderers--That our obedience is due to God alone, and not to prelates, which they found on Acts 4:9. -- That none in the church ought to be greater than their brethren, according to Matthew 20:25, etc.--That no man ought to kneel to a priest, because the angel said to John (Revelation 19:10.) "See thou do it not" -- That tithes ought not to be given to priests, because there was no use of them in the primitive church -- That the clergy ought not to enjoy any temporal possessions, because it was said in the law, "The tribe of Levi shall have no inheritance with the children of Israel, the sacrifices being their portion" (Deuteronomy 18) --That it is wrong to endow and found churches and monasteries, and that nothing ought to be bequeathed to churches by way of legacy. They condemn the clergy for their idleness, saying they ought to work with their hands as the apostles did. They reject all the titles of prelates, as pope, bishop, etc. They affirm that no man ought to be forcibly compelled in matters of faith. They condemn all ecclesiastical offices, and the privileges and immunities of the church, and all persons and things belonging to it, such as councils and synods, parochial rights, etc., declaring that the observances of the religious are nothing else than pharisaical traditions.
As to the second class of their errors--They condemn all the sacraments of the church. Concerning the sacrament of baptism they say, that the catechism signifies nothing, that the absolution pronounced over infants avails them nothing--that the godfathers and godmothers do not understand what they answer the priest. That the oblation which is called Al wogen is nothing but a mere human invention. They reject all exorcisms and blessings. Concerning the eucharist they say, that a wicked priest cannot celebrate that sacrament--that transubstantiation is not performed by the hands of him who celebrates unworthily, and that it (the eucharist) may be celebrated on our common tables, alleging for this the words of Malachi 1:11. "In every place shall a pure offering be offered to my name." They condemn the custom of believers communicating no more than once a year, whereas they communicate daily. [I suspect this should have been every Lord’s-day, or first day of the week, for it is certain they did not come together for worship every day; nor indeed was the thing practicable.] That the mass signifies nothing: that the apostles knew nothing of it; and that it is only done for gain. They reject the canon of the mass, and only make use of the words of Christ in the vulgar tongue--affirming that the offering made by the priest in the mass is of no value. They reject the kiss of peace, that of the altar, of the priest’s hands, and the pope’s feet. They condemn marriage as a sacrament, saying, that those that enter into the state of marriage without hope of children, are guilty of sin. They have no regard to the degrees of carnal or spiritual affinity in marriage which the church observes, nor the impediments of order and public decency, or to the prohibition of the church in that matter. They contend that a woman after child-birth doth not stand in need of any blessing or churching. That it was an error of the church to forbid the clergy to marry. They disallow the sacrament of extreme unction -- they hold the sacrament of different orders of the clergy to be of no use, every good layman being a priest, and the apostles themselves being all laymen. That the preaching of a wicked priest cannot profit any body, and that which is uttered in the Latin tongue can be of no use to those laymen who do not understand it. They deride the tonsure of priests and reproach the church that she raiseth bastards, boys, and notorious sinners to high ecclesiastical dignities. -- Whatsoever is preached without scripture proof, they account no better than fables. They hold that the Holy Scripture is of the same efficacy in the vulgar tongue as in Latin, and accordingly they communicate and administer the sacraments in the vulgar tongue. They can say a great part of the Old and New Testament by heart. They despise the decretals, and the sayings and expositions of holy men, and CLEAVE ONLY TO THE TEXT OF SCRIPTURE. They contemn excommunication, neither do they value absolution, which they expect alone from God. They reject the indulgences of the church, and deride its dispensations. They admit none for saints except the apostles, and they pray to no saint. They contemn the canonization, translation, and vigils of the saints. They laugh at those laymen who choose themselves saints at the altar. They never read the liturgy. They give no credit to the legends of the saints, make a mock of the saints’ miracles, and despise their relics. They abhor the wood of the cross, because of Christ’s sufferings on it; neither do they sign themselves with it. They contend that the doctrine of Christ and his apostles is sufficient to salvation without any church statutes and ordinances, and affirm that the traditions of the church were no better than the traditions of the Pharisees--insisting, moreover, that greater stress is laid on the observation of human tradition, than on the keeping of the law of God. They refute the mystical sense of scripture, especially as delivered in sayings and actions, and published by the church, such as that the cock upon steeples signifies the pastor!
Their third class of errors is as follows. They contemn all approved ecclesiastical customs which they do not read of in the gospel, such as the observation of Candlemas, Palm-Sunday, the reconciliation of penitents, and the adoration of the cross on Good-Friday. They despise the feast of Easter, and all other festivals of Christ and the saints, and say that one day is as good as another, working upon holy-days, where they can do it without being taken notice of. They disregard the church fasts, alleging Isaiah 58: "Is this the fast that I have chosen?" They deride and mock at all dedications, consecrations, and benedictions of candles, ashes, palm-branches, oil, fire, wax-candles, Agnus Dei’s, churching of women, strangers, holy places and persons, vestments, salt and water. They look upon the church built of stone to be no better than a common barn, neither do they believe that God dwells there, quoting Acts 7:48. "God doth not dwell in temples made with hands" -- and that prayers offered up in them are of no more efficacy than those which we offer up in our closets, according to Matthew 6:6. "But thou when thou prayest, enter into thy closet." They set no value on the dedication of churches, and call the ornaments of the altar "the sin of the church," saying, that it would be much better to clothe the poor than to decorate walls. Of the altar they say, that it is wastefulness to let so much cloth lie rotting upon stones; and that Christ never gave to his disciples vests, or rockets, or miters. They celebrate the eucharist in their household cups, and say that the corporal, or cloth on which the host is laid, is no holier than the cloth of their breeches. Concerning lights used in the church, they say that God, who is the true light, stands in no need of light, and that it can have no further use than to hinder the priests from stumbling in the dark. They reject all censings; estimating holy water no better than common water. The images and pictures in the church they pronounce to be idolatrous. They mock at the singing [chanting] in churches, saying that the efficacy is in the words and not in the music. They deride the cries of the laymen, and reject all festival processions, as those of Easter, as well as mournful processions at Rogation-week and at funerals. They laugh at the custom of bringing sick persons on a bench before the altar. They dissuade people from going on a pilgrimage to Rome, and other places beyond sea, though they themselves pretend to go on pilgrimage, whereas it is only with a design to visit their bishops who live in Lombardy. They express no value for the Lord’s sepulcher, nor for those of the saints, and condemn the burying in churches, which they found on Matthew 23:29. "Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees, because ye build the tombs," etc. and would prefer burying in the field to the church-yard, were they not afraid of the church. They maintain that the offices for the dead, masses for the deceased, offerings, funeral pomps, last wills, legacies, visiting of graves, the reading of vigils, anniversary masses, and similar suffrages, are of no avail to departed souls. They condemn watching with the dead by night, because of the folly and wickedness which are practiced on those occasions. They hold all these errors because they deny purgatory, saying that there are only two ways, the one of the elect to heaven, the other of the damned to hell, according to Ecclesiastes 11:3. "Which way soever the tree falleth there it must lie." They contend that a good man stands in no need of intercessions, and that they cannot profit those that are wicked -- That all sins are mortal, and none of them venial -- That once praying in the words of the Lord’s prayer is of more efficacy than the ringing of ten bells, yea, than the mass itself. They think that all swearing is sinful, because Christ says, Matthew 5:34. "Swear not at all, but let your communication be yea, yea, and nay, nay." They are against punishing malefactors with death, which they found on Romans 12:19. "Vengeance is mine; I will repay it, saith the Lord" [Hist. Script. Bohem. p. 222. et seq. in Dr. Allix’s Remarks, p. 211-219].
Thus far the testimony of this inquisitor; to which I shall now subjoin the short account which the celebrated Aeneas Sylvius gives of the Waldenses of Bohemia, in his history of that Kingdom.
They hold, says he, that the Pope of Rome is not superior to bishops, and that there is no difference (as to rank or dignity,) for that grace and virtue alone give the preference -- That the souls of the deceased are either immediately plunged into hell, or advanced to eternal joys [in heaven. That there is no purgatory fire--that it is a vain thing to pray for the dead, and merely an invention of priestly covetousness -- That the images of God and of the saints ought to be destroyed--That the blessing of water and palm-branches is ridiculous--That the religion of the Mendicants [begging Friars] was invented by evil spirits--That priests ought to be poor, and content themselves with alms--That every one has liberty to preach [or instruct.] -- No capital sin ought to be tolerated under pretense of avoiding a greater evil--That he who is guilty of mortal sin, ought not to enjoy any ecclesiastical dignity--That the confirmation which is celebrated with anointing and extreme unction, is none of the sacraments of the church of Christ -- That auricular confession is a piece of foppery--that every one ought, in his closet, to confess his sins to God -- That baptism ought to be administered without the addition of holy oil--That the use of church-yards is vain, and nothing but a covetous invention, and that it signifies nothing in what ground the bodies of the dead are laid -- That the temple of the great God is the universe, and that to build churches, monasteries, and oratories to him under the supposition that the divine goodness could be more favorably found in them than in other places, is a limiting the Divine Majesty--That the priestly vestments, altar, ornaments, pall, corporals, chalices, patins, and other vessels, are of no efficacy--That it is vain to implore the suffrages of the saints reigning with Christ in heaven, because they cannot help us--That it is to no purpose to spend one’s time in singing and saying the canonical hours--That we are to cease from working on no day except the Lord’s day--That the holidays of saints are to be rejected, and that there is no merit in observing the fasts instituted by the church. [Hist. Bohem. p. 141. ubi supra.]
CLAUDIUS SEISSELIUS, was archbishop of Turin, towards the close of the fifteenth century, a little before the time of the Reformation, and wrote a treatise against the Waldenses. His residence in the very heart of the valleys of Piedmont must have furnished him with the best opportunities of becoming acquainted with the principles and practices of his non-conformist neighbors, and he has transmitted to posterity a narrative sufficiently circumstantial and explicit to enable any impartial person to form a tolerably correct judgment of them. His testimony is, therefore, of too much importance to be omitted: but I must entreat the reader to bear in mind that it is the testimony of an adversary, whose papal zeal he will perceive to blaze forth against them occasionally with no little fury.
Alluding to the churches of the Waldenses in Piedmont, and those scattered throughout the diocese of Italy, he tells us, that the most cruel persecutions had not been able to extirpate them, or hinder them from a constant defense of that doctrine which they had received from their ancestors. "All sorts of people," says he "have repeatedly endeavored, but in vain, to root them out; for even yet, contrary to the opinion of all men, they still remain conquerors, or at least wholly invincible." He then proceeds thus to describe them.
"The Pope of Rome, and the rest of the prelates and priests of that church," these Waldenses affirm, "neither follow the life nor the precepts of Christ, but do quite the contrary; and that not only in secret, but so openly and manifestly that it can no longer be disguised, because they chiefly value themselves on things that are contrary to religion, and not only contemn but even mock at the precepts of the apostles. The latter lived in great poverty, humility, chastity, continence as to carnal things, and contempt of the world; whereas we prelates and priests live in great pomp, luxuriousness, and dissoluteness. We think it a brave thing to excel in royal power rather than in sacerdotal sanctity; and all our endeavors and studies tend only to the acquisition of glory amongst men, not by means of virtue, holiness, and learning, but by the abundance of all [temporal] things; by arms and warlike magnificence, and by vast expense in equipage, furniture of horses, gold, and other things of that nature. The apostles would not possess any thing as their own, neither would they receive any into their society who had not forsaken all and laid it in common: whereas we, not contented with what we already possess, fish for other people’s goods more greedily and impudently than heathens themselves. Hence it is that we make wars, and incite Christian princes and people to take up arms. The apostles traveling through towns and villages, and sowing the word of God with power, exercised many other offices of charity, according to the several gifts they had received: whereas we, not only do nothing like this, and give no good examples of holy conversation, but on the contrary frequently resist and oppose those that do, thus opening the way to all manner of dissoluteness and avarice. They, as it were, against their wills and with reluctance, by the divine command or inspiration of God, received ordination to promote the salvation of others: whereas we buy benefices and preferments for money, or procure them by force, or through the favor of princes and other indirect means, merely to satiate our lusts, to enrich our relations, and for the sake of worldly glory. Moreover, they spent their lives in manifold fastings, watchings, and labors, terrified neither by trouble nor danger, that they might show to others the way of salvation: whereas we pass our time in idleness, in pleasures, and other earthly or wicked things. They, despising gold and silver, as they had freely received the divine grace, so they freely dispensed it to others; whereas we set all holy things to sale, and barter with the heavenly treasures of God himself, and, in a word, confound all things both divine and human. So that the church of Rome cannot be said to be the spouse of Christ, but that common prostitute described by Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and St. John. in the Revelations, in such lively colors. For Christ hath joined his church to him to be his bride, holy, pure, fair, adorned with the ornaments and jewels of every virtue, without spot or wrinkle, such as the Holy Spirit figuratively describes her in the Canticles. Far be it, therefore, that Christ should ever think of changing this his beautiful and loving bride for such a stinking, loathsome harlot."
Further, Seisselius thus proceeds. "We do not deny," say the Waldenses, "that God alone is the searcher of hearts, for, as the Scripture saith, ‘He searcheth the heart and trieth the reins;’ and therefore that he alone knows whether the works of men are pleasing unto him and obtain his favor, which others can only know by conjecture. But he himself hath taught us how to form our judgment when he saith, "Ye shall know them by their fruits; for an evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit, nor a good tree evil fruit." Hence, though it be a difficult thing to judge of good works, because they receive their value from the intention of the doer, yet wicked works discover themselves, and the intention cannot make them good, especially when they are open, barefaced, and obviously repugnant to the law of God. Therefore, if I see the bishops and priests every day living in dissoluteness and luxury, robbing others of their goods, smiting their neighbors, persecuting those that are good, blaspheming the name of God, prodigally wasting the patrimony of the church in voluptuousness and damnable crimes, may I not undoubtedly affirm, that they who commit these things are not the ministers of God, but his public and avowed enemies? Surely such they are, though we should suppose them created or confirmed by an universal synod of Christians, or by the pope, or by Peter himself. But how much more may we conclude them such, when those that ordained them are worse than themselves, and their works obviously worse than theirs? What shall we say, if it appear that they have publicly and notoriously bought the papacy--that they openly set to sale sacerdotal functions, and that they set over the churches, not by mistake, but out of malice, those who are known to be wholly unworthy of that charge, and who never in all their lifetime did any thing worthy either of a priest, or even of a Christian? Shall we obey such priests and prelates who lead us the way to salvation neither by word nor work, but rather endeavor all they can to drag us into the same pit of destruction as themselves? Doth not our Savior tell us that we must not suffer ourselves to be led by blind guides, lest when one blind man leads another, they both fall into the ditch? Hath he not declared that such as these are cut off from the life of the church and the body of Christ, and destined to the fire? How can he be the vicegerent of Christ, who is not so much as a Christian, or a member of the mystical body of Christ, but whom he commands us to avoid as a heathen and publican, so long as he continues incorrigible?
"The apostolic authority, the faith of Peter, which Christ said should not fail the catholic church, and with which church he promiseth to abide forever, is to be found amongst us who walk after the example of the apostles, and according to our weak measure, observe the commands and ordinances they have given us. We are those of whom the apostle Paul speaks in his Epistle to the Corinthians, ‘Brethren consider your calling, that ye are not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise; and the weak things of this world to confound the things that are mighty; and the base things of this world, and things that are despised, yea, and the things that are not, to bring to naught the things that are.’ And the same apostle tells us, that he was sent to preach the gospel, not in the mightiness of man’s wisdom, but in plainness and simplicity; alleging to this purpose what the Lord saith elsewhere, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to naught the prudence of the prudent.’"
Such is the description given us, by the archbishop of Turin, of the Waldenses of Piedmont, before Luther was born, or Calvin thought of, or the term reformation even mentioned. And yet the Catholics have had the effrontery to ask us, "Where was your religion before Luther?" But let us further attend to the account which he gives us of the articles of their faith. On this particular he thus writes.
"They receive only what is written in the Old and New Testaments. They say that the popes of Rome and other priests have corrupted the Scriptures by their doctrines and glosses--that they owe neither tithes nor first-fruits to the clergy--that the consecration of churches, indulgences, and similar benedictions, are the inventions of false priests. They do not celebrate the festivals of the saints. They say that men do not stand in need of the suffrages of the saints, Christ abundantly sufficing in all things. They affirm that marriage may be contracted in any degree, excepting only one or two at the most; as if the popes had no power to prohibit marriage in any other degree! They say that whatever is done to deliver the souls of the dead from the pains of purgatory is useless, lost, and superstitious--that our priests have not the power of forgiving sins. They say that they alone observe the evangelic and apostolic doctrine, on which account, by an intolerable impudence, they usurp the name of the catholic church! Their barbs [pastors] do greatly err," saith Seisselius, "because they are neither sent of God, nor by the pastors of the [catholic] church, but of the devil, as appears from their damnable doctrine. They say that the authority of hearing confessions belongs to all Christians that walk according to the apostolic precepts, (which their barbs attribute to themselves) because the apostle James saith, ‘Confess your faults one to another.’ They say that we ought not to have any kind of [set form of] prayer, except it appear that it was composed by some certain [inspired] author, and approved of God. Their barbs have often preached this doctrine to abolish the service of the glorious Virgin and of other saints. They do not think that Christians ought to say the angelical salutation to the mother of God, alleging that it has not the form of a prayer, but a salutation: but that they do only that they may rob the Virgin of this service, saying, that it is not lawful to worship or serve her any more than the rest of the saints. They affirm that the blessings of the priests are of no virtue at all. Did not Christ bless the bread in the desert? When the apostles sat down to eat bread, they blessed what was set upon the table. They say there is no need of holy water in the churches, because neither Christ nor his apostles either made it or commanded it: as if we ought to say or do nothing but what we read was done by them. They say, that the indulgences allowed of by the church are despicable, useless things:-- that the souls of the dead, without being tried by any purgation, immediately on their parting from the body, enter into happiness or misery; and that the clergy, blinded by their covetousness, have invented purgatory. They say that the saints cannot take notice of what is done here below. They detest and abhor all images, and the sign of the cross, much more than we honor them. They make no distinction between the worship of Latria, which is due to God only, and that of Dulia, which belongs to the saints. As to the fasts which the catholic church has instituted for the honor of God and the saints, they have yet less reason to object these to us. They affirm that a lie is always a mortal sin, because David says, ‘God shall destroy all liars.’ And as to transubstantiation he tells us, "that the Waldenses made a mock of all the artifices which the Catholics had recourse to with the view of making it appear to them more plausible."
Upon this part of their conduct, the reflections of the learned archbishop are sufficiently pertinent to be here introduced. "I think," saith he, "that those took pains to little purpose, who, when writing against this sect, made it their chief business to insist upon the difficulties about the sacrament of the eucharist, and who, in order to clear them, have spoken so sharply and subtly, not to say confusedly, that I have great reason to doubt whether they ever understood the thing themselves. Yet I will not say that because I do not myself comprehend it, (for that I ingenuously confess) I think it also to surpass the capacity of others; but because it has always appeared to me to be a point of that difficulty, that the ablest have been ready to own that the strength of human understanding must in this case be subject to faith."