mont. These things fhew the mutual connection of the Waldenfian Churches, and prove the fuperior antiquity of thofe of the Vallies, the feverity of the perfecution, and the important fervices of Peter Waldo. A very extraordinary perfonage! refembling in many refpects the immediate fucceffours of the Apoftles themselves! But his piety, endowments, and labours, have met with no hiftorian capable of doing them justice; and, as in every light he had no reward upon earth, he appears to have been eminently one of thofe, of whom the world was not worthy;-but he turned many to righteousness, and fhall fhine as the ftars for ever and ever*. The word of God grew and multiplied, in the places where he had planted, and even in ftill more diftant regions. In Alface and along the Rhine the Gofpel was preached with a powerful effufion of the Holy Spirit; perfecutions enfued, 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 perfecutions, and the bifhop of Strafburg was not inferior to him in vindictive zeal; for, through his means, eighty perfons were burned at Strafburg. Every thing relating to the Waldenses refembled the scenes of the primitive Church. Numbers died praifing God, and in confident affurance of a bleffed refurrection; whence the blood of the martyrs again became the feed 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 Carcaffone, a city not far diftant from Toulouse, which might be called in those days the metropolis of the Waldenfes, on account of the numbers who there profeffed evangelical truth.

Daniel xii.

+ Matthew Paris, in his hift. of Henry III. Ann. 1223.

In

In Bohemia and in the country of Paffaw, the churches were reckoned to have contained eighty thousand profeffors in the former part of the fourteenth century. Almost throughout Europe Waldenfes were to be found; and yet they were treated as the offfcouring of the earth, and as people against whom all the power and wisdom of the world were united. But the witneffes continued to prophecy in fackcloth*," and fouls were built up in the faith, the hope, and the charity of the Gospel; and here was the faith and patience of the Saints.

CHA P. II.

THE REAL CHARACTER OF THE WALDENSES.

BUT

UT we are juftly called on, in this place, to vindicate 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, neceffarily expofes himself to the invidious charges of arrogance, uncharitableness, and felf-conceit. By condemning all others, he provokes the reft of the world to obferve and investigate his faults. These disadvantages, the Waldenfes had in common with other reformers: they had alfo difadvantages peculiarly their own. Power, knowledge, and learning, were almoft entirely in the hands of their adverfaries: in them very particularly God.Almighty chofe the weak and foolish things of the world to confound the wife. As they were, for the most part, a plain and illiterate people, they furnished no learned divines, no profound reafoners, nor able hiftorians. The vindication, therefore, of their claims to the character of a true Church muft be drawn principally from the holiness of their lives and the patience of their fufferings. There are, however, befides thefe, certain documents refpecting 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 adverfaries: in this refpect they had the honour to bear the cross of the firft Chriftians. Poor men of Lyons and Dogs were the ufual terms of derifion.

In

In Provence they were called cut-purfes: in Italy, because they obferved not the appointed festivals, and refted from their ordinary occupations only on Sundays, they were called Infabathas; that is, regardless of fabbaths. In Germany, they were called Gazares, a term expreffive of every thing flagitioufly wicked. In Flanders they were denominated Turlupins, that is, inhabitants with wolves, because they were often obliged to dwell in woods and deferts. And because they denied the confecrated Hoft to be God, they were accufed of Arianism, as if they had denied the divinity of Jefus Chrift. Our old hiftorian Hoveden calls them Arians*. It was not poffible for these poor fufferers to speak a word in defence or explanation of their doctrines, but malice, which difcolours every thing, was fure to mifreprefent it. If they maintained the independency of the temporal powers on the ecclefiaftical, a doctrine now believed almoft univerfally in Europe, they were called Manichees, as if they favoured the notion of two principles. So I find Baronius calls them, obferving that they were rather Manichees than Arians. The old odious name of gnostic also was revived, with every other term of antient or modern opprobrium, which might infix a ftigma on the character of the fufferers, and feem to justify the barbarity with which they were treated.

Matthew Paris himself, one of the most valuable of the monkish hiftorians, calls them Ribalds, or diffolute men. They were termed, and as numbers believed, not without juftice, forcerers, and even fodomites. It is furprizing how the old calumnies, with which the pagans blackened the primitive Chriftians, were renewed, namely, that they

* Hoveden, p. 327.

+ Baron. Cent. XII. Ann. 1176.

they met in the night, were guilty of inceft, and the like. Rainerius, their adverfary, as mentioned above, was not afhamed to repeat this abfurd accufation. To which he adds, that they allowed divorces at pleasure, in order that they might live with their fectarian brethren; that they worshipped their pastors; and that they maintained as a principle that no magiftrate ought to condemn any perfon to death. But it were endless to recite calumnies of this kind: let us fee how they cleared themselves by their own writings. An apology was ftill extant in the time of Perrin, which the Waldenfes of Bohemia fent to Ladislaus, king of Hungary and Bohemia, by whom they were grievously perfecuted. From this and fome other of their writings, their conduct is defended.

In anfwer to the charge of lewdness, they strongly deny it, and gravely exprefs their abhorrence of the fin. "This vice," fay they, "confumes the eftates of many, as it is faid of the prodigal fon, who wafted his fubftance in riotous living. Balaam made choice of this vice, to provoke the children of Ifrael to offend their God. Hence Samfon loft his fight. Hence Solomon was perverted, and many have perifhed. The remedies for this fin are fafting, prayer, and the keeping at a distance from temptation. Other vices may be fubdued by fighting; in this we conquer by flight." Let men of this refined age, who are enflaved by uncleannefs, learn fome good rules from the Waldenfes, whofe fimplicity was mixed with true wisdom. The charge of admitting divorces at pleasure they abhor, and quote the Scripture * against the practice: "Let not the wife depart from her husband, nor the hufband put away his wife." They published alfo a book, defcribing the causes of their separation

* 1 Cor. vii.