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shown in my treatise.' Reinerius, the cruel persecutor, owns that the Waldenses frequently read the Holy Scriptures, and in their preaching cited the words of Christ and his Apostles concerning love, humility, and other virtues; insomuch that the women, who heard them, were enraptured with the sound. He further says, that they taught men to livé by the words of the Gospel and the Apostles; that they led religious lives; that their manners were seasoned with grace, and their words prudent; that they freely discoursed of divine things, that they might be esteemed good men. He observes, likewise, that they taught their children and families the Epistles and Gospels. Claude, Bishop of Turin, wrote a treatise against their doctrines, in which he candidly owns that they themselves were blameless, without reproach among men, and that they observed the divine commands with all their might. Jacob de Riberia says that he had seen peasants among them who could recite the book of Job by heart; and several others, who could perfectly repeat the whole New Testament. We must here add the testimony of that great historian, Thuanus, an enemy indeed to the Waldenses, though a fair and candid one. He is describing one of the vallies inhabited by this people in Dauphiny, which is called the stony valley. Their clothing,'

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says, is of the skins of sheep ;-they have no linen. They inhabit seven villages: their houses are constructed with flint stone, with a flat roof covered with mud, which being spoiled or loosened with rain, they smooth again with a roller. In these they live

with their cattle, separated from them, however, by a fence; they have besides, two caves set apart for particular purposes, in one of which they conceal their cattle, in the other themselves, when hunted by their enemies. They live on milk and venison, being by constant practice excellent marksmen. Poor as they are, they are content, and live separate from the rest of mankind. One thing is astonishing, that persons externally so savage and rude should have so much moral cultivation. They can all read and write. They understand French, so far as is needful for the understanding of the Bible and the singing of Psalms. You can scarcely find a boy among them, who cannot give you an intelligible account of the faith which they profess; in this, indeed, they resemble their brethren of the other vallies; they pay tribute with a good conscience, and the obligation of this duty is peculiarly noted in the confession of their faith. by reason of the civil wars, they are prevented from doing this, they carefully set apart the sum, and at the first opportunity pay it to the king's tax-gatherers.' The ecclesiastics, deputed by Francis I. to visit the Waldenses, returned with the following account of the HERETICS: They are a laborious race of people, who, about 200 years ago, emigrated from Piedmont, to dwell in Provence. By taking themselves to husbandry and feeding of cattle, they have restored many villages destroyed by the war, and rendered other desert and uncultivated places extremely fertile by their industry. By the information given us in the said county of Provence, we find them to be

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a very peaceable people, beloved by their neighbours, men of good behaviour, of godly conversation, faithful to their promises, and punctual in paying their debts. They are a charitable people, not permitting any among them to fall into want. They are, moreover, liberal to strangers and the travelling poor, as far as their ability extends. And the inhabitants of Provence affirm, that they are a people who cannot endure to blaspheme, or name the devil, or swear at all, unless in making some solemn contracts, or in judgments. Finally, they are well known by this, that, if they happen to be thrown into any company where the conversation is loose or blasphemous to the dishonour of God, they instantly withdraw.'

The Bishop of Cavaillon once obliged a preaching monk to enter into conference with them, that they might be convinced of their errors, and the effusion of blood be prevented. This happened during a great persecution in 1540, in Merindol and Provence. But the monk returned in confusion, owning that he had never known in his whole life so much of the Scriptures, as he had learned during those few days in which he had held confession with the HERETICS. The Bishop, however, sent among them a number of doctors-young men, who had lately come from the Sorbonne, which was at that time the very centre of theological subtility at Paris. One of them openly owned, that he had understood more of the doctrine of salvation from the answers of the little children in their catechism, than by all the disputations which he had ever heard. This is the testimony of Vesembe

cius, in his oration concerning the Waldenses. The same author informs us further, that Lewis XII. importuned by the calumnies of informers, sent two respectable persons into Provence to make inquiries. They reported, that in visiting all their parishes and temples, they found no images or Roman ceremonies, but that they could not discover any marks of the crimes with which they were charged; that the Sabbath was strictly observed: that children were baptized according to the rules of the primitive church, and instructed in the articles of the Christian faith, and the commandments of God. Lewis, having heard the report, declared with an oath, They are better men than myself or my people.' One of the confessors of the same king, having by his orders visited the valley of Fraissinière, in Dauphiny, was so struck with the holy lives of the people there, that he exclaimed in the hearing of several competent witnesses,-'I wish I myself were as good a Christian as the worst inhabitant of that valley!' (For the above testimonies to the piety of the Waldenses we are indebted to Milner's History of the Church, and Rev. H. C. O'Donnoghue's History of the Church and Court of Rome.)

Such were the Waldenses by the confession of their enemies! Did it never occur to their Romish persecutors that their doctrine of Justification by Faith only must have been the true doctrine, since it was productive of such good fruit? However the Waldenses might be stigmatized as HERETICS and their faith as a VILE HERESY; however Romanists might boast that themselves were the true church; in the

former we see the fruits of genuine Christianity, in the latter a spirit of bitterness, malevolence, intolerance, and persecution. As Cain persecuted Abel, and Ishmael Isaac, so the Church of Rome the Waldenses. In the emphatic language of St. Paul; "He that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit." (Gal. iv. 20.)

Nothing can exceed the calumnies which were heaped upon the Waldenses. 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 regardless of Sabbaths, In Germany they were called Gazares, a term expressive of every thing flagitiously wicked. In Flanders they were denominated Turlupins, that is inhabitants with wolves, because they were often obliged to dwell in woods and deserts. And because they denied the consecrated Host to be God, they were accused of Arianism, as if they had denied the divinity of Jesus Christ. Our old historian, Hoveden, calls them Arians. They were also called Manichees, Ribalds, Sorcerers, and even Sodomites. Like the primitive Christians, they were compelled by the cruelty of their enemies to have their religious meetings by night, and were then accused of incest and other abominable crimes. (See History of the Church, p. 100.) The Papacy "opened its mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme them that dwell in heaven.”

Nor has the term HERETIC been confined to those

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