that he lived concealed at Lyons for the space three years. of Among other scriptural discoveries, the evils of the popedom struck the mind of Waldo; and Pope Alexander III. having heard of his proceedings, anathematized the reformer and his adherents, and commanded the archbishop to proceed against them with the utmost rigour. Waldo could no longer remain in Lyons. He escaped; his disciples followed him; and hence a dispersion took place, similar to that which arose in the primitive Church on occasion of the persecution of Stephen. The effects were also similar: the doctrine of Waldo was hence more widely disseminated through Europe. He himself retired into Dauphiny, where his tenets took a deep and lasting root. Some of his people did probably join themselves to the Vaudois of Piedmont, and the new translation of the Bible was, doubtless, a rich accession to the spiritual treasures of that people. Waldo himself, however, seems never to have been among them. Persecuted from place to place, he retired into Picardy. Success still attended his labours; and the doctrines which he preached appear to have so harmonized with those of the Vaudois, that with reason they and his people were henceforward considered as the same. To support and encourage the Church of Christ formed no part of the glory of the greatest and wisest princes of that age. The barbarous conduct of our Henry II. has been already noticed; and Philip Augustus, one of the most prudent and sagacious princes whom France ever saw, was no less enslaved by the "god of this world." He took up arms against the Waldenses of Picardy, pulled down three hundred houses of the gentlemen who supported their party, destroyed some walled towns, 2 Cor. iv. 4. CENT. XIII CHAP. and drove the inhabitants into Flanders. I, Waldo dies Not con tent with this, he pursued them thither, and caused many of them to be burned. From the account of a very authentic French in Bohemia. historian*, it appears, that Waldo fled into GerA. D. many, and at last settled in Bohemia. There he 1179. ended his days in the year 1179, or before that timet. It is evident, from good records, that the churches of Dauphiny corresponded with those of Bohemia, and that these last were, on some occasions at least, supplied with pastors from Piedmont. These things show the mutual connection of the Waldensian Churches, and prove the superior antiquity of those of the Vallies, the severity of the persecution, and the important services of Peter Waldo. A very extraordinary personage! resembling in many respects the immediate successors of the Apostles themselves! But his piety, endowments, and labours, have met with no historian capable of doing them justice; and, as in every light he had no reward upon earth, he appears to have been eminently one of those of whom the world was not worthy; * Thuan. Hist. sui temp. 457 The account which Mosheim has given us of the Waldenses, is so very different from mine, that it may seem proper that I should assign the reasons, why I presume to differ from so learned an historian in matters of fact. 1st. I have adduced ample testimonies, and the reader, who will consult Dr. Allix, may see more, to prove, that these persons existed before the time of Peter Waldo, and consequently, that he was not, as Mosheim asserts, the proper parent and founder of the sect. 2d. That his account of their insisting on the necessity of the poverty and manual labours of their pas tors is a mistake, will appear from their own declarations in the next chapter. 3d. So far was Waldo from being the founder of the Churches of the Vallies, that it does not appear that he ever was in Piedmont at all. 4th. Mosheim asserts, that he assumed the pastoral function in 1180, but it is evident from Thuanus, that he died before that æra. On the whole, the information of Mosheim concerning this people seems very scanty, confused, and erroneous. See Mosheim, Vol. I. p. 615. but he turned many to righteousness, and shall shine as the stars for ever and ever*. The word of God grew and multiplied in the places where he had planted, and even in still more distant regions. In Alsace and along the Rhine the Gospel was preached with a powerful effusion of the Holy Spirit; persecutions ensued, and thirty-five citizens of Mentz were burned at one fire in the city of Bingen, and at Mentz eighteen. The bishop of Mentz was very active in these persecutions, and the bishop of Strasburg was not inferior to him in vindictive zeal; for, through his means, eighty persons were burned at Strasburg. Every thing relating to the Waldenses resembled the scenes of the primitive Church. Numbers died praising God, and in confident assurance of a blessed resurrection; whence the blood of the martyrs again became the seed of the Church; and in Bulgaria, Croatia, Dalmatia, and Hungary, churches were planted, which flourished in the thirteenth century, governed by Bartholomew, a native of Carcassone, a city not far distant from Toulouse, which might be called in those days the metropolis of the Waldenses, on account of the numbers who there professed evangelical truth t. In Bohemia and in the country of Passaw, it has been computed that there were eighty thousand in the former part of the fourteenth century. Almost throughout Europe Waldenses were to be found; and yet they were treated as the off-scouring of the earth, and as people against whom all the power and wisdom of the world were united. But "the witnesses continued to prophesy in sackcloth ‡," and souls were built up in the faith, the hope, and the charity of the Gospel; and here was the faith and patience of the Saints. *Daniel xii. 3. + Matthew Paris, in his hist, of Henry III. Ann. 1223. Revelat. xi. 3. CENT. XIII. CHAP. H. THE REAL CHARACTER OF THE WALDENSES. Bur we are justly called on, in this place, to vin dicate the claim which this people made to the honourable character of the Church of God. In times of very great decline, whoever is led by the Spirit of God to revive true religion, necessarily exposes himself to the invidious charges of arrogance, uncharitableness, and self-conceit. By condemning all others, he provokes the rest of the world to observe and investigate his faults. These disadvantages the Waldenses had in common with other reformers: they had also disadvantages peculiarly their own. Power, knowledge, and learning, were almost entirely in the hands of their adversaries: in them very particularly God Almighty chose the weak and foolish things of the world to confound the wise. As they were, for the most part, a plain and illiterate people, they furnished no learned divines, no profound reasoners, nor able historians. The vindication of their claims to the character of a true Church must therefore be drawn principally from the holiness of their lives and the patience of their sufferings. There are, however, besides these, certain documents respecting their principles, which will enable the candid and attentive reader to form a just estimate of these men. Nothing can exceed the calumnies of their adversaries in this respect they had the honour to bear the cross of the first Christians. Poor men of Lyons, and Dogs, were the usual terms of derision. In Provence they were called cut-purses in Italy, because they observed not the appointed festivals, and rested from their ordinary occupations only on Sundays, they were called Insabathas; that is, re gardless of sabbaths. In Germany, they were treated. Matthew Paris himself, one of the most valuable of the monkish historians, calls them Ribalds, or dissolute men. They were termed, and as numbers believed, not without justice, sorcerers, and even sodomites. It is surprising how the old calumnies, with which the pagans blackened the primitive Christians, were renewed, namely, that they met in the night, were guilty of incest, and the like. Reinerius, their adversary, as mentioned above, was not ashamed to repeat this absurd accusation. To which he adds, that they allowed divorces at pleasure, in order that the sectarians might live together entirely, and exclude all others from their society; + Baron. Cent. XII. Ann. 1176. *Iloveden, p. 327. CENT. XIII. |