cient Christians, who, besides the several names of reproach given them, were at length denominated Waldenses, from one of the most eminent teachers, Peter Waldus, date their origin from the beginning of the fourth century; when one Leo, at the great revolution in religion, under Constantine the Great, opposed the innovations of Sylvester, bishop of Rome."

The Cathari, or Puritan churches of the Novatians, also, had at that very period been flourishing as a distinct communion for more than seventy years all over the empire; maintaining, by the acknowledgment even of their enemies, the self-styled Catholics, the integrity of the true faith, together with the purity of discipline and the power of godliness, which had generally disappeared from the Catholic churches. These Puritans being exposed to severe and sanguinary persecutions for dissent, from age to age were compelled to shelter themselves from the desolating storm in retirement; and when at intervals they re-appear on the page of contemporary history, and their principles are propagated with new boldness and success, they are styled a new sect, and receive a new name, though in reality they are the same people.

The same great principles of attachment to the word of God, and determined adherence to the simplicity of its doctrine, discipline, institutions, and worship, in opposition to the innovations of a secular spirit and policy on the one hand, and of false philosophy or of pretended apostolic traditions on the other, may be traced under the name of Novatians, Donatists, Luciferians, and Erians, from the third to the seventh centuries. They re-appear in the Paulicians, who have been falsely accused of Manichæism, but who, from the middle of the seventh, to the end of the ninth century, worthily sustained by their preaching, their lives, and their martyrdoms, their claim of being the genuine descendants of the primitive churches. From Asia Minor they spread themselves over Europe, through Thrace, Macedonia, Epirus, Bulgaria, Sclavonia, Sicily, Lombardy, Liguria, and Milan; whence, about the beginning of the eleventh century, they entered into France. The first discovery of a congregation of this kind in that country, was at Orleans, A. D. 1019. A Catholic council was immediately convened, and the Paulican missionaries, with their converts, among whom were many respectable citizens, and several of the regular clergy, were all burnt alive. Other advocates of the doctrine were discovered in Languedoc, others in Picardy, and Suabia. They were called, in France, Bougres or Bulgarians, Tisserands or Weavers, Bos Homos or Good Men.

They soon spread through Germany, where they were called by the old name of Cathari, or, by corruption, Gazari. In Italy the same people were called Paterines, Josephists, Anoldists, and Fratricelli. As early as the year 1100, it is certain they began to be called Waldenses-sixty years before Peter Waldo. Their principles were powerfully advocated, and extended among the most intelligent classes in Languedoc and Provence, from 1110 to 1168, by the celebrated Peter de Bruys, and Henry, his successor;

from whom they received the name of Petrobrusians and Henricians. From the places where they flourished, they were called Toulousians, Albigenses, and afterwards, Poor Men of Lyons, and Leonists. They were condemned by a council at Toulouse in 1119, and again, by the great Lateran council at Rome, in 1139. In 1160, some of them crossed from Gascony to England, where they were called Pophlicians and Publicans, corruptions of the original name, Paulicians. About this time, arose the celebrated Peter Waldo, of Lyons, whose labors, learning, zeal, and liberality, greatly extended their principles; in consequence of which, many writers, both Catholic and Protestant, have most erroneously regarded him as the parent and founder of the proper Waldenses. Mr. Robinson, however, has shown that this name had a much earlier origin; that it signifies "inhabitants of the valleys," and that it was applied to the persecuted people of whom we have spoken, simply for the reason that great multitudes of them made their residence in the valleys of the Pyrenees and of the Alps, where, age after age, they found an asylum from the tyranny of the church of Rome. This view of the matter, also, is supported by the testimony of their own historians, Pierre Gilles, Perrin, Leger, Sir Samuel Morland, and Dr. Allix. The names imposed on them by their adversaries, they say, have been intended to vilify and ridicule them, or to represent them as new and different sects.

Their enemies confirm their great antiquity. Reinerius Saccho, the inquisitor, admits that the Waldenses flourished five hundred years before Peter Waldo. This carries us back to the year 660, the time of the appearance of the Paulicians, or rather of their great revival and increase under the labors of Constantine Sylvanus. Indeed, there is not wanting evidence to show that churches of the Puritan order existed at that time, in the West, as well as East. In the year 553, nine bishops of Italy and Switzerland openly refused communion with the pope of Rome, and the churches under their care persisted in their dissent. To say nothing of the labors of those noble reformers in the bosom of the Catholic church, Paulinus of Aquileia, in the eighth century, Claude of Turin, in the ninth, the council of Rheims, in the tenth, and of Berengarius, archdeacon of Angers, in the eleventh, which yet exerted a powerful influence in opening the eyes of men to the corruptions of that false church; if we will believe the testimony of the suffering Waldenses themselves, their doctrine and discipline had been preserved in all its purity and efficacy from the days of the primitive martyrs, in Spain, France, Germany, Italy, and especially in the valleys of Piedmont.

The learned Dr. Allix, in his "History of the Churches of Piedmont," gives this account:-"That for three hundred years, or more, the bishop of Rome attempted to subjugate the church of Milan under his jurisdiction; and at last, the interests of Rome grew too potent for the church of Milan, planted by one of his disciples; insomuch that the bishop and the people, rather than own

their jurisdiction, retired to the valleys of Lucerne and Angrogne, and thence were called Vallenses, Wallenses, or People of the Vallies."

M. Sismondi, in his late History of the Crusades against the Albigenses, says, "Those very persons who punished the sectaries with frightful torments, have alone taken it upon themselves to make us acquainted with their opinions; allowing at the same time, that they had been transmitted in Gaul, from generation to generation, almost from the origin of Christianity. We cannot, therefore, be astonished if they have represented them to us with all those characters which might render them the most monstrous, mingled with all the fables which would serve to irritate the minds of the people against those who professed them. Nevertheless, amidst many puerile and calumnious tales, it is still easy to recognize the principles of the Reformation of the sixteenth century among the heretics who are designated by the name of Vaudois or Albigeois.'

Dr. Allix, speaking of the Paterines, some of whom, disciples of Gundulph, one of their teachers, went from Italy to the Netherlands, where they were thrown into prison, says, "Here, then, we have found a body of men in Italy before the year 1026, five hundred years before the Reformation, who believed contrary to the opinions of the church of Rome, and who highly condemned her errors." Mr. Jones adds, Mr. Jones adds, "Atto, bishop of Verceulli, had complained of such people eighty years before, and so had others before him, and there is the greatest reason to believe they had always existed in Italy. It is observable that those alluded to by Dr. Allix, were brought to light by mere accident." About the year 1040, the Paterines had become very numerous at Milan, which was their principal residence; and in 1259, some of their churches in other Italian cities, we are informed by Reinerius, the inquisitor, contained fifteen hundred members. The churches were organized into sixteen compartments, or associations. They had no connexion with the Catholic church, which they regarded as Antichrist from the time of pope Sylvester. Now, when we reflect that the Paterines, as well as the Paulicians, both in principles and practice, were the same people as the Waldenses, or Poor Men of Lyons, we shall not wonder at the remarkable words of Reinerius, himself a Catholic, concerning the latter.

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"Of all the sects, which have been, or now exist," says this inquisitor, none are more injurious to the Church, (i. e. of Rome,) for three reasons:-1. Because it is more ancient. Some aver their existence from the time of Sylvester; others, from the time of the apostles. 2. Because it is so universal. There is scarcely any country into which this sect has not crept. And, 3. Because all other heretics excite horror by the greatness of their blasphemies against God; but these have a great appearance of piety, as they live justly before men, believe rightly all things concerning God, and confess all the articles which are contained in the creed; only they hate and revile the Pope of Rome, and in their accusations are easily believed by the people,

Such a concession, from such a source, speaks volumes. Here there is a succession of faithful men, whose apostolic origin, perpetuity, universal, though often hidden diffusion, general orthodoxy, evangelical simplicity, and sanctity of character, is admitted by the church of Rome herself; a succession of faithful men, organized too into Christian churches, claiming to be the true successors of the apostles, protesting against all the corruptions of the patriarchate and the papacy, and for this reason, subject to persecution from both, through the hands of the secular powers to which they are allied; a church, built not on St. Peter alone, but on the entire "foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself, being the chief corner stone," and against which the gates of hell have not been able to prevail. May we not say then, in the language of the Revelation, "Here is the patience of the saints! These are they, who keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus!" Rev. xiv. 12.

It also appears that the recesses of the Alps and the Pyrenees were distinguished retreats of these persecuted Christians in the darkest ages of the church. Or, as Mr. Robinson observes, in his Ecclesiastical Researches, "Greece was the parent, Spain and Navarre, the nurses, France, the step-mother, and Savoy, (i. e. Piedmont,) the jailer, of this class of Christians called Waldenses."

PRINCIPLES OF THE WALDENSES.

Hence it is hardly to be wondered at, that the Waldenses, like the Scriptures, have been resorted to by all parties of Protestants, in defence of their peculiar sentiments. The Papists accused the Protestants of being a new sect, whose principles had no existence till the days of Luther. This charge they all denied, and each party sought to find predecessors, and to trace a line of succession up to the apostles. The perversions of heresy on the one hand, and the corruptions of popery on the other, left no alternative but to find that succession among the Waldenses. The researches of learned men of different communities, induced by this circumstance, have furnished much important evidence that might otherwise have been lost in oblivion. But the natural consequence has been, that all have been tempted to mould the character of the Waldenses to the support of their own particular views, instead of collecting into one point all the light of history, and calmly abiding the issue. For, after all, an uninterrupted succession, however gratifying it may be to be able to trace it, is necessary only to a church which regulates its practice by tradition, and not by the pure word of God. Such was not the doctrine of the Waldenses, in the times of their ancient purity.

It is necessary here that we distinguish between the ancient and modern Waldenses. It appears from all the accounts we gather of them before the Reformation, that their principles and practice were more pure and scriptural than since that period. History assigns reasons for this. From the united attestation of their enemies,

and from their own confessions of faith, we learn that the ancient Waldenses were distinguished chiefly by the following points:

1. Their supreme attachment to the Scriptures. They held that the Holy Scriptures are the only source of faith and religion, without regard to the authority of the fathers and traditions. Although they principally used the New Testament, yet, as Usher proves, they regarded the Old also as canonical Scripture. "They translated the Old and New Testament," says Reinerius," into the vulgar tongues, and spake and taught according to them." From their greater use of the New Testament, however, as Venema observes, their adversaries took occasion to charge them with despising the Old. "Hence whatever a doctor of the church teaches," says Reinerius, "which he does not prove from the New Testament, they consider it as entirely fabulous-contrary to the doctrine of the church." He adds, "I have heard and seen a certain unlearned rustic, who recited the book of Job, word by word, and many who perfectly knew the New Testament." How noble!

2. Their scriptural simplicity, and soundness of belief. Their adversaries frequently acknowledge this: see the testimony of the inquisitor above. It is amply confirmed also by their own authentic monuments and confessions of faith, of which several are printed at length in Jones' History of the Church.

From a confession of their faith, in 1120, we extract the following particulars:-" (1.) That the Scriptures teach that there is one God, almighty, all-wise, and all-good, who made all things by his goodness; for he formed Adam in his own image and likeness: but that by the envy of the devil sin entered into the world, and that we are sinners in and by Adam. (2.) That Christ was promised to our fathers, who received the law: that so, knowing by the law their unrighteousness and insufficiency, they might desire the coming of Christ, to satisfy for their sins, and accomplish the law by himself. (3.) That Christ was born in the time appointed by God the Father; that is to say, in the time when all iniquity abounded, that he might show us grace and mercy, as being faithful. (4.) That Christ is our life, truth, peace, and righteousness; as also our pastor, advocate, and priest, who died for the salvation of all who believe, and is risen for our justification. (5.) That there is no mediator and advocate with God the Father, save Jesus Christ. (6.) That after this life there are only two places, the one for the saved, and the other for the damned. (7.) That we ought to honor the secular powers by subjection, ready obedience, and paying of tribute." What could be more evangelical? 3. Their purity and excellence of life and manners.-Though often accused of the most abominable crimes, the whole evidence goes to show that these accusations were vile calumnies, invented for party purposes by their malignant enemies, the papal priests. Indeed, an ancient inquisitor confesses that "these heretics are known by their manners and conversation, for they are orderly and modest in their behavior and deportment. They avoid all appearance of pride in their dress; they neither indulge in finery,