in the professed servants of Him, whose "kingdom is not of this world," and thought they saw "the image of the beast," and the marks of Antichrist, in such unscriptural arrogance. They protested against the pontifical tyrant, and cast away his chains from them. Anathemas were first fulminated against such daring rebels: and afterwards, the vassals of the Roman church, that is to say, kings and princes, were ordered to be the executioners of Papal vengeance, and to carry fire and sword into the valleys of Piemont, where the seeds of the obnoxious heresy were first spread. But the Vaudois were neither to be convinced nor compelled for the one, they had too much faith; for the other too much courage: and both faith and courage were only still more excited by the violence adopted for their suppression. Fire and the sword never yet made converts; their appeal is to the flesh, while conviction is of the mind.

Should it then be asked, where was the true church of Christ to be found, after so many heresies were avowed by the Roman Hierachy, at the second council of Nice, in 767, the answer is:-It was to be found in the churches of the Valleys of Piemont; to preside over which Bishop Claude was called from Spain, that he might stem the torrent of idolatry, and oppose further attempts at unscriptural innovations".

"It is proved," said the late Rodolph Peyrani, moderator of the Vaudois, in his answer to the pastoral letter of the Romish Bishop of Pignerol, in 1818, in which that prelate accused the Vaudois of heresy and schism, "It is proved by fact, and by the history of the different innovations of well-known date, that the Vaudois do not form a new church-they continue to be what they have ever been since the days of the Apostles. From the apostolic age until the seventh century when no vital errors had as yet been introduced into the Church, we made one with the universal Church. Insensibly errors crept in elsewhere, but the ancestors of the Vaudois would not admit them-and their priests or ministers have not on that account ceased to be the successors of those established by the Apostles. To persevere constantly, and without interruption from the time of the Apostles, in the pure doctrines of the Apostles, cannot surely be schism." Note to Third Edition.

CHAPTER XII.

General observations-The Churches which have been planted by the Vaudois-In Calabria, Spain, and France-Persecutions in these countries-The Waldenses of Provence-Their correspondence with Ecolampadius-Francis I.—The cruelties practised at Merindol, at Cabriere-Aymond de la Voye-The Waldenses of Piemont take measures for their own defence— Concessions granted by their Sovereign-Review of their character, conflicts and opinions—Their claims to attention—Concluding observations.

THE Waldenses were the first to expose the superstitions of the Roman church, and the monstrous absurdities which its hierarchy introduced into the forms of Christian worship. They were the first who engaged to cleanse this Augean stable of corruption: and if we had records that would enable us to follow them, step by step, through their bold and arduous undertaking, we should be able to exhibit one of the most glorious pictures of human perseverance that was ever displayed. They not only succeeded in preserving the pure doctrine and discipline of the primitive ages in their own secluded valleys of Piemont, but they carried them into distant parts; and upon the banks of the Rhine and the Danube, in the remote provinces of Spain and Calabria, and in the plains of France, were witnessed for a time the extraordinary effects produced upon the manners and character of the inhabitants, by Waldensian preachers, whose Alpine retreats gave the name to a church, which has withstood every assault that has been made upon it, on the spot where it was originally founded. And this, it will be

WALDENSES OF CALABRIA.

255

observed, is not the least remarkable feature in the history of the Vaudois. They sent forth teachers, who crossed the Alps, the Appenines, and the Pyrenees, making proselytes wherever they went, and establishing the same fundamental truths, and even the same forms of worship, which prevailed among their own community; but no where, save between the Pelice and the Clusone, in Piemont, have those truths been uninterruptedly preserved. The parent stock remains, but most of the branches have been cut off. They were soon put down in Spain ; the spirit of the proselytes there was not enough to support them against the strong arm of oppression, although the country presented the same mountain fastnesses, as that from whence the purer faith had reached them. In Calabria, the new church flourished for about two centuries: it was planted in the year 1370; and though the lords, and landed proprietors of that province, were indignant at the idea of being set right upon the vital topics of religion by their vassals, yet they found it to be to their interest to protect a peasantry, who were more industrious in their habits, more quiet in their conduct, and more regular in their payments, than the turbulent inhabitants of the adjoining districts. But when the progress of Lutheranism threatened to hurl the triple tyrant from his throne, the Waldenses of Calabria were thought to be too much in concert with the reformers of the north, and too near the states of the church, to be suffered to remain unmolested. The bull for their extermination went forth, and no mercy was shewn to those who refused to be baptized by a popish priest: the pastors were carried in chains to Rome, some were starved to death in prison, others were tortured in the dungeons of the Inquisition, after witnessing the utter destruction or dispersion of their flock; and two were burnt at the stake, to gratify the malignity of Pope Pius IV. who could not be satisfied, unless he saw, with his own eyes, the expiring agonies of the heretics, who had dared to question his infallibility.

In France, the Waldensian name and faith continued to be upheld for several hundred years; but even there, after extending into Dauphiné, Provence, Languedoc, Guienne, and Picardy, they could not finally make head against persecution, but gradually submitted to the strong hand of power. It is not meant to say, that the spirit of religious reformation has been at any period of history totally subdued in those provinces, where the Albigenses and Waldenses once formed so large a portion of the population. But where religious services are performed as they were there, in secret, and where there is no visible church or congregation, as has been the case at different periods in the history of the French Protestants, there, it must be allowed, you cannot expect to find the faith of the reformers in the same purity as among men, who resolutely persevere in making an open profession of their opinions, who form a community among themselves, and are prepared to assert their right of conscience, sword in hand, whenever it is disputed.

From century to century, the Waldenses of Piemont have composed a distinct people, and have successfully vindicated their religious independence. The churches of the three valleys have remained churches: and whenever it was found that an attempt was making to prevent the free exercise of their religion, in the more habitable and accessible regions that bordered upon the plains, these hardy mountaineers retreated, with their wives and children, to the rocks and forests of the higher Alps, rather than renounce the doctrines of their ancestors. If they could not worship God in their own way in the villages, the whole race of them retired to their strong holds in the mountains, until the fury of persecution had exhausted itself: but they never submitted nor recanted, nor were they ever entirely driven from their ancient settlements. Like the Athenians of old, who declared by retiring to their ships, that Athens consisted not in its walls, or houses, but in its citizens, who would

THE PROVENÇAL WALDENSES.

257

not receive a foreign yoke; so did these intrepid Vaudois shew, that the pure Waldensian church continued to exist, in the faithful adherence of its professors to the creed that had been delivered to them, whether it was in their places of usual habitation and resort, or in the glens and caverns, whither they had fled for shelter.

But the Waldenses of Piemont will not only be honoured by a distinguished mention in history, as having retained their political existence, and original settlements, when other professors of the same faith were unable to do so; but, also, as having preserved their religious opinions in greater purity. Nothing has ever prevailed among them, like the fanatical or compromising principles, which are to be detected in others, who have been known under the same denomination, and the reader of ecclesiastical history should be cautious, in not attributing the wild doctrines of some of the Bohemian and Provençal Waldenses, to the Vaudois of the Cottian Alps. The Waldensian pastors, who held a correspondence with Ecolampadius, the Reformer, and professed their doubts as to the lawfulness of submitting to the civil and constituted authorities; and who even acknowledged that their clergy held it wrong to marry, but frequently broke their vows of celibacy; these, it must be remembered, were Waldenses of Provence. It was to the same persons also, that colampadius had afterwards occasion to write his letter of remonstrance, upon the subject of their timid compliance with the unscriptural practices of their Roman Catholic neighbours. "I have heard," said he," that, from fear of persecution, you dissemble and conceal your faith; that you communicate with unbelievers;

• "Tertio, an leges civiles, et hujusmodi ab hominibus inventæ, quibus circa temporalia mundus regitur, valeant secundum Deum, quia scribitur, leges populorum vanæ sunt ?"-Gerdesii Historia, tom. ii. p. 407.

"Inter nos nemo ducit uxorem, tamen ut verum fatear, tecum enim cum multâ fiduciâ omnia loquor, non semper castè nobiscum agitur."—Gerdesii Historia, tom. ii. p. 404.

S