of faith, from one of which, presented to Ladislaus, King of Bohemia, in 1508, the following summary is collected:-That the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the only rule of faith and practice, in contradistinction to all human writings and traditions: That there are Three Persons in the one Godhead, to whom alone all religious adoration ought to be given: That all men by nature are guilty and depraved; and from that natural depravity every actual transgression proceeds: That no man, either in whole or in part, can perform any work which can entitle him to the favour of God, or merit for himself eternal salvation : That eternal life can be obtained only through Christ, who by his obedience to the divine law in the room of the un godly, and meritorious sacrifice for sin in his death, has made complete satisfaction to the of fended justice of God: That it is through faith in Christ alone that we are reconciled to God, and made partakers of everlasting life, to the exclusion of all human merit : That faith itself, See Appendix. +"By faith in Christ," say they, men are through mercy freely justified, and attain salvation and remission of sins by Christ, without any human help and merit; and that for his sake only, and for his merits alone God

as well as every other grace, is the gift of God, and is wrought in the heart by the operation of the Holy Spirit: That true faith is uniformly accompanied by genuine repentance and a holy life; and that, though good works can never entitle any man to justification or salvation, yet they are evidences of a living faith in the Redeemer: That no man, while in this world, can obey the law of God perfectly: That human traditions, unless founded on, and agreeing with, the word of God, are to be wholly disregarded: That the Lord Jesus Christ alone is Head of the Church: That there are only two sacraments, viz. baptism and the Lord's supper, "by means whereof," to use their own words, "believers are made fellow partakers of the merits of Christ; but that they do not confer grace nor justifying faith upon those who are not first inwardly awakened by the Holy Spirit" That children ought to be baptized; "Children," say they, "are to be baptized unto salvation, and to be consecrated to Christ, according to his word, 'Suffer little children to come unto me," &c.: That the cup as well as the bread ought to be given to the people in the or

is pacified and reconciled, doth love and preserve us, and adopt us as his children."

dinance of the Lord's Supper: That the ministers of God's word ought to be rightly ordained, according to the rule prescribed by Christ and his apostles: And that rulers and magistrates ought to be obeyed in all things not inconsistent with the word of God. They likewise condemn all the unscriptural doctrines and superstitious rites and ceremonies of the Popish Church; for their rejection of which they have been exposed, from age to age, to sufferings and to death.

If we turn to those authors who have written against them, we will find the above and many other Protestant doctrines affirmed to have been held by the Vaudois. One Papal inquisitor of the fourteenth century accuses them of holding the following tenets: "That the Church of Rome is not the Church of Christ, but an assembly of ungodly men; that all vices and sins reign in that Church whereas they are the true Church of Christ. They insist that the Pope is the head and leader of all error; 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 iv. 9.; that none in the Church ought to be greater than their brethren, according to Matth.

xx. 25.; that no man ought to kneel to a priest; that the clergy ought not to enjoy any temporal possessions; 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, &c.; they affirm that no man ought to be forcibly compelled in matters of faith. They condemn all the sacraments of the Church, (excepting baptism and the eucharist, in the observance of which, the writer proceeds to show, that the Waldenses completely differed from the Romish Church.) They reject the canon of the mass, the kiss of peace, and the order forbidding the clergy to marry. They declare 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 hold that the Holy Scripture is of the same efficacy in the vulgar tongue as in Latin. They can say a great part of the Old and New Testaments by heart. They reject absolution, which they expect alone from God. They pray

to no saint, never read the liturgy, make a mock of the saints' miracles, and despise their relics. 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. They contemn all approved ecclesiastical customs which they do not read of in the gospel, such as the observation of Candlemas, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and the feast of Easter; and deride and mock at all dedications, consecrations, and benedictions, of candles, ashes, palm branches, oil, fire, holy water, &c. The images and pictures in the church they pronounce to be idolatrous. They maintain that the offices for the dead, masses for the deceased, offerings, funeral pomps, last wills, &c. are of no avail to departed souls. All these errors they hold, 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 Eccles. xi. 3."

Æneas Sylvius, another celebrated Popish writer, says that the Waldenses hold, "that the Pope of Rome is not superior to other bishops; that the priesthood itself is not a dignity, for that grace