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Culture Documents
to
THE LIBRARY
of
VICTORIA UNIVERSITY
Toronto
5,
Canada
AN INQUIRY
INTO
BY
B. D.
"
Thou
art Peter
.*.fj.i*vu. .. Matt. xvi. 18. CU BUCUI not IWUVU.11 OMALUBV of hell shall JIUL prevail against ll/. - Go nations ; baptizing them in the name of the ye, therefore, and teach all to observe all things Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them
it."
^
and upon
this
Rock
my
even unto whatsoever I have commanded you. And, lo, I am with you alway, Matt, xxviii. 19, 20. Amen." the end of the world.
PUBLISHED BY R. B. SEELEY AND W. BURNSIDE AND SOLD BY L. AND G. SEELEY, FLEET STREET, LONDON.
MDCCCXXXVIII.
5X
NOV 1
1348
L.
A^D
O.
Cftte
Morfc,
THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE.
THE Bishop
of
the
sole
Churches
visible
in
ever to
all
share
and participation of that venerable title. His argument cannot be given with more of
fairness
in his
own words.
subsists
in
that
:
The Church
always
is visible.
is
:
that It
exists.
is
that
The
by the whole
Society.
PREFACE.
The fourth point
depart from
its
is
:
that It
;
is
not permitted to
that
doctrine
or,
in other terms,
It is infallible.
The
that
first
point
is
in the
common language
that,
signifies
A VISIBLE SOCIETY.
exists,
no
less certain:
because
is
Hence we
clearly
The
the
truth
is
:
Church
visible in the
it
follows
that If
it
always
and
if it
is
cannot pos
that
We
is
cannot be permitted
in error,
to say,
that
The Church
from
its
doctrine.
And
all this is
is
confessed
among
For
the
same Promise
exist,
in the state
PREFACE.
imported by the term CHURCH
it
Vll
and, consequently,
causes also,
that
visible,
this doctrine.
is
so
it
clear,
that
the
Protestants
and
acknow
ledge
it.
Therefore
it
it
is,
save to throw
*
into confusion *.
La
doctrine
I
de
en
quatre
points, dont
:
enchainement
Le
troisieme
que La
verite de
Evangile y
est toujours
Le quatrieme
doctrine
faillible.
;
qu
//
est
pas permis de
eloigner de sa
est in-
qu Elle
Le premier
Le terme d
suite
est,
que
EGLJSE
le
toujours, dans
Ecriture,
et en-
dans
langage
commun
des fideles,
UN SOCIETE
n est pas moins
VISIBLE.
Le second
constant
:
point,
il
que
est
L Eglise
est toujours,
puisqu
De
la
on intere tres-clairement
troisieme point
que La
Vlll
PREFACE.
To what
but
particular
following texts.
Thou
Church;
against
art Peter
and upon
gates
this
my
and
*.
the
of
hell
not prevail
it
Verite est
1
toujours professe e
par
par
la
Societe de
Eglise
car,
il
la profession
de
la verite,
s ensuit,
il
que,
si
qu
de PEvangile.
D ou
Eglise
soit
dans
erreitr,
ni de s ecarter
Et
tout cela est fonde sur la promesse, qui est avouee dans
puisqu enfin la
fait
meme
promesse, qui
toujours
fait
que
Eglise est
le
toujours,
qu Elle
:
est
dans Vetat
qu emporte
terme d
EGLISE
ni
de plus simple,
de plus
clair, ni
de plus
suivi,
est
si
clair,
que
les
Protestans ne
ont
ils
pu
nier
emporte
si
C
*
est
pourquoi
livr.
ils
n ont songe, qu a
3, 4.
embrouiller.
Hist.
des Variat.
xv.
PREFACE.
IX
Go
them
ye,
in
therefore,
and teach
all
nations
baptizing
the
name of
:
the Father
and of
them
to
the
Son and
teaching
observe all
commanded
you.
And,
lo,
I am with you
Amen*.
Such
is
and such,
which
it
claims to be founded |.
19, 20.
* Matt, xxviii.
Work, he
two
Whence
I conclude, that I
am
f Bossuet,
we may
and,
Church
to the
Church of
Rome
and the subordinate Churches which acknowledge her as their mother and mistress, he of course claims the prerogative of
Infallibility for
what we may
call the
Romish Church
as con
Roman Church.
May
for
their
Church
this
same prero
in
is
infallible.
Church
let
him be anathema.
X
I.
PREFACE.
Now, with
the
it
seems
How
to
far the
Roman
denote collectively
Now
exist
?
Coun
was
sitting, the
Pope by
that the
of Gregory
Roman Church
who hold
it
the indi
Pope;
nor will
turn, unless they can produce the infallible decision libly assigns to the
which
infal
Pope
Pope Gregory
himself.
Romana
testante
Ecclesia
nunquam
erravit
nee
in
perpetuum,
in
Scriptura,
ii.
errabit.
Dictat.
Epist.
lib.
epist. 55.
Labb. Concil.
But,
solely
still,
Romish claim of
Infallibility rest
?
upon
Or does
?
it
to
members of
the
Reformed Church
of the
who
while the
absolute Infallibility.
Where does
in
Ecumenical Council,
of
Home
PREFACE.
both the Diocesan Church of
XI
Rome and
National
Churches or
her,
Fragments of
Churches in
to
communion with
As
two-fold in nature.
reference of the
promise
clearly
imports
upon earth.
Consequently, the
first
promise
is
from
down
to the
Consequently, the second promise is a promise of Ecclesiastical Purity both Doctrinal and Practical.
That the
first
promise
is
promise of
Visible
no proof: though
as to the
there
may be
a diversity of opinion,
a promise of
Practical
Purity both
little
Doctrinal and
requires almost as
course,
all
proof:
for
though,
for
of
human
Xii
PREFACE.
:
yet,
if
Branch of the
Church Catholic
shall
in Practice, palpably corrupt both in Doctrine and we shall, on any intelligible principles, find it
difficult
to
believe,
that
Christ
has
still
never
ceased to be
spiritually present
head
Church
is is
or
some
particular
Ecclesiastical
Communion,
:
clearly intended
by
the
Man
of Sin
because he
described, as sitting
in the
because he
is
stig
matized,
and because
he
is
Perdition, a graphical
name
which our Lord himself bestowed upon a fallen Apostle, even upon the mercenary wretch who
turned away from him and
who
thus
Now, with an
;
Community
characterised
is
instructor
said to
have come after the working of Satan himself, and is thence doomed to be destroyed by the bright
ness of the Lord
astical
s
advent,
PREFACE.
Xlll
And
And
light with
darkness ?
?
And what
.
God
with idols *
And
all
how can
which
doctrinal
Christ
come
to destroy in his
anger that
he
has
and
practical
by
the direct
we
may now
argument, which,
it.
With
cannot but
(1.)
deem
sophistical.
visible,
he speaks of the Church, being always and always existent, and always professing the
and always incapable of departing
:
When
from sound
doctrine
it
is
clear,
But what
is it,
that he
would have us
1C.
to under-
* 2 Corinth, vi. 14
XIV
PREFACE.
Collective
in the
name of
Christ
Or does he mean
and as
of ecclesiastical unity ?
If the former
:
then
we may
reasonably ask
Why,
in that case, he
and
so
many members of
the
Church
Catholic,
Church
it,
by
the
then
is,
we may also
the
reasonably ask
that the
members of
Romish Church,
to
and
to
mention
various
Reformed
of
Europe
and
America,
Christ ?
ALONE
constitute
Catholic
Church of
PREFACE.
XV
really
taining
any doubt,
as to
meant by the Catholic Church. Unquestionably would have us understand by the title that he
Exclusive
who are
in
communion with
the
to
be
the
indubitable
centre
of
is
Still,
be
that,
before he
predicated of the
Romish
or Papal
Church
his
by something more tangible than mere confident assertion, to have satisfactorily demon
ness, ought,
strated
both that
SIVELY
is the
Catholic Church,
is
Church ALONE
are addressed.
preliminaries, the
From
trine to
Doc
and of her Practice, he ought, I apprehend, have proved that The Romish Church, exclu
:
sively
of
all
from
her, is
the alone
Church
Xvi
PREFACE.
addressed;
and thence
all
is
the
Church
Church
to
from the
doctrine
unvarying
;
soundness of her
sort
of
solitary
unvarying soundness of her doctrine and practice, and thence her assured infallibility, from the
alleged circumstance of her being
the
Church
all
other Churches.
Hence,
in
ence.
The Bishop
to
assumes the
precise
which he ought
Exclusive
have proved
Catholicity of the
whole
which of course
argues
;
his
adversaries do
not
admit,
PREFACE.
XV11
No
promise,
Christ
by contending
that
Peter con
of Rome,
But
this
is
merely
to
build
upon another assumption, to pile Ossa upon an ecclesiastical Pelion, to place (after the manner of the hindoo legend) his spiritual
universe upon the horns of the bull and the bull
tortoise
and the
tortoise
upon vacuity.
What PROOF
his
Rome
Christ promised
he would
build
Church
A man
of his attainments
full
centuries
was profoundly ignorant of any such speculation. Some of the old writers deemed the individual
Peter
to
to
be the
Rock
Rock
be Christ
Rock
be Peter
character
true
human and
the Virgin
the
Messiah born a
man of
and yet
b
the essential
Son of
the
Xviii
PREFACE.
living
first
God
Rock
the
later
and, upon that unauthoritative speculation, like the tortoise upon vacuity, rests the proof;
age
that
The Romish
Church
(as
is
the
alone
s
Catholic
Church,
and thence
the
Bishop
is infallible
argument and
in practice.
Such being the true state of the case, if a Romanist wishes to work any conviction in a mind which is little influenced by the mere
boldness of assumption that forms the true basis
of Bossuet s inverted process, a Protestant will
naturally invite
him
its
to
demonstrate
that
The
and
in
practice,
MUST
be
the
Church
to
his promises.
Meanwhile,
until
effected (which,
even
culously inadmissible
medium
of
infallibility,
the
medium
itself
resting
ultimately
upon
mere
PREFACE.
XIX
unproved and unproveable assumption), the Pro testant, from the gross corruption both of reli
gious doctrine and of religious practice (corrupt
doctrine, as in the case of Transubstantiation, in
which characterises
that Christ
wit,
s
Romish Church,
(the
infers
second
to
promise
the
to
promise,
the
to
that
Even
cease
present
Church
refers)
and
her
Pastors
whom
that
promise
in
can
accomplished
the
Church
Rome.
With
the Romanist, no
doubt,
the doctrines
and concomitantly dependent practices of his Church will be no impediment to his believing
:
is
the
ALONE
Church,
to
which the
relates.
and consequent practice of the Romish Church as he views them, the impediment is so great, that
he cannot believe the Saviour
spiritually present
to
stanced
Church
of
Rome
XX
and
her.
II.
fail.
PREFACE.
in the several
Churches
in
communion with
however, cannot
The promises
of Christ,
plished in
or
for,
unless
we
be
we
shall
own
accomplishment*.
* I
point.
do not object
to the
mode,
in
this
Nommer
quand
le
qu
il
falloit
montrer, un corps
les
oft
Ton prechat
la verite, et oft
Pon administrat
sacremens
com
Voila ce qu
il
du ministere.
La
de nous montrer
une Eglise et une Societe de pasteurs et de peuple oft Ton trouvat la saine doctrine toujours conservee jusqu au temps de Lu
ther.
livr.
xv.
6, 11.
But
PREFACE.
XXI
Now,
that all
who
profess the
name
of Christ
is
Church which
is
alone
inte
acknowledged,
by none more
vehemently than by the Romanists themselves. Hence, of all persons, they can have no right to
object,
if,
fessed Christians,
some one
particular
Church
is
promises
for,
in truth, they
make pre
their
on behalf of
own
Communion
He
tion
it
mea
Mes
Quand on
commence
il
votre Reforme,
avoit-il, je ne dis
qu
il
en
y joignant:
J ai
comme vous
Pape,
ni
Mes
seul
nomme un
?
homme
En
on a ra-
masse autant qu on a
le
plus pressant et
le
PREFACE.
not
been accomplished
in the
great General
Body
of professed
Christians to
which
collectively they
name
of the Catholic
fulfilled in their
own Communion
would confer the
alone
title
Therefore, on their
principles,
cherished
to the bare
which,
on their
own
principles,
s
may be
:
alleged as
promises.
that Those pro-
In reality
all
plus sensible
Donnez
gloire &
n
et,
en
avez
la
meme
cause que
que tout ce
tiss.
y a jamais eu d heretiques.
Troisieme Aver-
M.
Jurieu.
30.
An
answer
to this question is
the
year 1530.
Sumus qualescunque
pusillae.
et,
a tern-
cordavimus:
in
quam
vos, neutiquam
in A. D.
Renovat.
1530.
PREFACE.
have NOT been accomplished in
to itself the
XX111
rnises
EVERY
Society
which claims
name of CHRISTIAN.
:
Whence
in
it
plainly
must follow
that,
IF accom
ONLY
EX
a
CLUSION of
may make
profession of Christianity.
all
hands, being
have just hinted, the whole conduct of the Romish Church, as respects both doctrine and
But, as
I
been
uniformly such (save only, as the dreary uniform dete ity has been varied by regularly progressive
crowning Council of Trent), that the most profuse credulity must be beggared in the attempt to believe that, With the Romish
rioration to the
:
down
to be spiritually,
we
stand
bound
to
produce some
other
Visible
Church
XXIV
PREFACE.
satisfactory
lest,
seem
2.
accomplishment.
Accordingly, the Church, which I would produce, is that of the Vallenses or Valde
or Vaudois.
From
down
to the pre in
has
Christianity
and
and
mitive
for
Church and the Church of the Albigenses; the rise of the Albigensic or Paulician Church
itself
was
seventh century
it
between
the Primitive
Thus,
petuity
in
PREFACE.
XXV
:
fulfilled
nor, in the ab
can any objection be made to this arrange ment, which does not equally apply to the
Roman Church
for,
as
according to
His
fulfilled in
that whole
Collective body,
itself
Some
been made to
it
which
may be
pro
mere handful of
sectaries, separated
from
the Catholic
is
Respecting this objection, the latter part of it obviously founded upon a mere begging of the
:
question
Church exclusively
the Catholic
Church of
it,
Christ.
And,
namely, The
many
it,
any
difficulty,
in
truth, is
The
by the
XXVI
PREFACE.
that The
and should be
afflic
be occupied by a
new race of
now
Accordingly, the Romish Bishop Walmesley, who wrote under the fictitious name of Pastorini,
very rightly, in the abstract, thus understands the
sacred oracle of the treading
City.
down
the
of the Holy
to
true service
of
church or temple.
God
officiating
this
church
and
all the
so small a
num
Rev.
xi.
13.
PREFACE.
temple paying
therefore, given
their
to
XXVll
adoration
St.
to
God.
There
is,
suring rod,
few
is
inconsiderable
measures he has
the temple of
therein,
and he
told to
measure
God and
the altar
and them
that adore
and
altar
may
God.
But, for
is told,
them out or
to
This severe
length by
Roger Hoveden,
is
extremely curious
and, in
many
phecy, he
is
Antichrist,
like other
we
:
men
virgin.
:
Yet
the
womb
of his mother
so that the
XXV111
PREFACE.
and the
in
altar,
by
man and
the
be altogether
whence he
is
fitly
styled The
Son of Perdition.
When
and
his
preaching and
his
power
shall
Many
wonderful
up an
universal persecution
by
in
the three
modes of
who
believe in
him
and
those,
whom
by
Then every
faithful Christian, if
fire
by
the sword, or
tor
ment.
This dreadful
in
the temple of
God, that
is
to say, in the
Holy Church
tians
:
itself, inflicting martyrdom upon all sound Chris and he will become very great; because in him shall be
But,
lest
he should come
without warning, and thus deceive and ruin the entire human race,
will
be sent
PREFACE.
that the true Catholic
XXIX
Christ, would,
Church of
during a predicted season of calamitous depression be reduced within narrow limits, and that the
great bulk of those,
who made
a profession of
half,
will
God. homi
in
Nascetur ex
nes
;
Sed tamen
initio,
Diabolus simul
in-
uterum matris
et,
semper
cum
ilia.
Et, sicut
in
matrem Domini
Spiritus Sanctus
quod nasceretur
in
divi-
ita
quoque Diabolus
matrem Anti-
exterius possidebit
ut,
Diabolo
totum
hominem cobperante,
concipiat, et
quod natum
fuerit
Unde
et ille
homo
genus
quia,
in
quantum
poterit,
humanum
Per universum
Praedicatio
mundum
mittet
nuncios et
praedicatores
suos.
autem ejus
magna
et inaudita
ita ut in
errorem inducantur,
si fieri
Excitabit enim
XXX
Christianity,
PREFACE.
would
fall
away
into
such a grievous
worthy
would justly be deemed un apostasy that they of being reckoned among the faithful fol
id est, terrore, et
muneribus, et miraculis.
genti copias.
Dabit,
in se
terrore superabit
signis
miraculis seducere
Tune omnis,
fidelis
Deum
aliud quodlibet tormenti genus pentes, sive per bestias, sive per
interibit, si in fide
permanserit.
Hsec autem
tarn
terribilis et
in toto
Sed etiam
in
et ele-
vabitur, et magnificabitur
quia
in ipso
erit
omnium malorum
superbiae.
omnes
filios
Sed,
ortum duo
con
mundum, Enoc
Dei
et Elias, qui
impetum Antichristi
fideles
Hoveden. Annal.
This
is
par. poster, in A. D.
1190.
fol.
389.
Lord
to St. John,
and duly
PREFACE.
XXXI
at all peculiar
Nor was
to
this
that
Prelate.
celebrated
Abbot
of the
in
Cestertian
Order,
Joachim of Calabria,
his
own
lion-hearted Richard
century,
much
Certain
and
of this Antichrist,
many
Christians,
fear of the
Lord,
this is
until
the
consummation of Antichrist,
:
And
that the
woman
one
thousand
two
hundred
and
sixty
days*.
Surgent qusedam
et
:
gentes iniquae,
quae
;
dicuntur
Gog
et
Magog ;
destruent Ecclesiam
et tune erit
Dei
et
subvertent
in
gentem
christianam
dies judicii.
Sed,
tempore hujus
Fidem Christianam
in
timore Domini
Et hoc
est,
quod
dicit
Mulier fugit
in
XXXli
PREFACE.
appears
Church within very narrow limits, and the circumstance of its true members being driven to profess the faith in mountainous deserts and
solitudes,
no just ground
Church of
denying the
title
of The Genuine
Ac
who,
et
Pontificials
du-
1190.
fol.
388.
remarkable, that
with the hand of a painter, both the very seats and the very
location of the Vallenses.
their
location
was
in
the
desert bordering
upon the
spiritual
Egypt.
phecy
to themselves.
descended from those refugees from Italy, who, after St. Paul
and fled,
like the
woman mentioned
in the Apocalypse, to
to this
the Gospel,
from father
as
it
the
Glorious
Recovery,
PREFACE.
XXX111
put
in
precisely the
same claim
and the
on
their
own behalf:
for
the Vallenses
real Catholic
Church
in
and perverse generation and they viewed the Roman Church, which they identified with the
apocalyptic Harlot, as no real or sincere
of Christ, but purely as a
Church
Synagogue of irreclaim
able Malignants*.
*
Dicunt,
quod JRomana
Ecclesia
non
:
sit
Ecclesia Jesu
Malignantium
Christi
et dicunt,
quod
Ipsi
Ecclesia
Christi
quia
doctrinam,
Evangelii et
:
Apostolorum
in Ecclesia,
Christi,
Quintus
quod
Ipsi
sint
Ecclesia Jesu
Sextus
quod Romana
Ecclesia, sit
meretrix in Apocalypsi.
xiii. p.
300.
Valdensis haeretice,
licos
:
et,
Dicunt:
Papam
esse
Item,
Deus non
nos, sed
:
Item dicunt
extra
quod
quam
Bibl.
p. 340,
341.
PREFACE.
(2.)
A much
more
serious objection
is
preferred
be
here proposed.
He
contends
predecessors the
and
Reformed Churches of
the sixteenth
.
And he
further contends
Community who
the
modern
and 1179,
or
at the most
and, originally,
of doctrine, from
sort of Donatists,
the
than,
absolute
strictness
of
speech,
sect
of
Heretics ^.
* Hist, des Variat. livr. xi.
10.
livr. xi.
PREFACE.
XXXV
first
Now, even
if
of
namely, that The Paulicians and Albigenses were Manichdans he would not affect my proposed arrangement itself, unless he
these two positions
:
namely, that
sect,
differing
but
little
from
the
Church of Rome:
with the
But
tions
I trust,
is
tenable.
and
upon
sufficient historical
evidence
may be
distinctly
shewn,
essentials, as that
of
the
Reformed
Churches
of
the
sixteenth
century.
will, of course,
form
may be found
XXXVI
1.
PREFACE.
Allix, influenced (I
valid
:
or
that,
believers,
the
other consisting
oriental
from
the
town
of Albi,
alike
denominated
Albigenses.
The accuracy
to
of this division
doubt
and,
I
from
the
best
witnesses which
I
am
France was distinguished by the name of Albi genses ; and that the perpetually self-contradicting
charges
of
Manicheism,
brought
against
this
single class
for
there
was
only
one class
(whatever minor subdivisions there might be of the same class), consisted of the innocent descend
ants, either natural or theological, either hereditary
PREFACE.
XXXV11
number
of associated
Cathari,
whom
to four
take to
amounted
thousand,
all
the
way from
Thrace
to
Gascony
and
their proselytes,
whom
the
they called
tale of
finally
Believers,
were
multitude,
What
became of
their
Churches or Communities,
say.
in the
is
South of France
who escaped
some poor wandering individuals, were finally absorbed into and united with the ancient Church
of the Vallenses.
2.
As
Valdenses, the
reli
from a most
:
their
name, which
Reiner, de Haeret.
c. vi. in
xiii. p.
304.
XXXV111
PREFACE.
These Gal-
Lyons in the twelfth century and, as the wealthy merchant either by birth or by descent was a Vallensis he, at once, both received himself, and
;
communicated
name
of Vaudois,
from the primeval Mother-Church of Italy. The circumstance, of there thus being both
Italian
or
want of
precision, in sorting,
may
and the
Valdo.
for
Albigenses
for
mistaken
and the Albigenses have been Valdenses. The two, in short, have
:
been, more or
less,
No
the
humour
who,
in
consequence of
the
name
name
when
treating
by the general
name
of Valdenses,
all
Roman
Church
in the twelfth
but
its
PREFACE.
the
XXXIX
from
the
rately
distinguishes
*.
Valdenses
is
Albigenses
*
This distinction
systematically
Dr.
M Crie
Work
the
on the Reformation
corruptions of
the
p. 4.
another mistake.
that the
Vaudois OR Albigenses
Accord
ingly, he adds,
immediate consecution
in
As
Whereas,
in regard to the
in
be denominated
appeared
in
eleventh century
for
year 1017.
While,
in
distinct
Vaudois
of Peter
the Valdo
Frenchmen
whom
PREFACE.
Work.
Sherburn-House,
May
26, 1836.
was
most remote
antiquity, Italians of
Piedmont
In consequence of
this
error (which,
however, so
far as the
by
had
ence
error.
in
He
among
other causes, to
the circumstance of
its
Ibid. chap.
:
p.
128, 129.
The
real cause
was
amount of
may
Work
on the Reformation
in
p.
28.
CONTENTS.
BOOK
I.
INTRODUCTORY MATTER,
p. 1.
CHAPTER
I.
THE NATURE AND AMOUNT OF CHRIST S PROMISE OF AN ECCLE SIASTICAL PERPETUITY AND PURITY, p. 1.
Two
prophetic promises,
made by
to the
members
of the
consideration, p. 1.
I.
The
first
prophetic promise
is
that Christ
would found
his
2.
Human
the end
his Church upon the complex doctrine of Messiahship and his Proper Divinity, p. 2.
The
To
that,
Christ will always have a Visible of Church upon earth which shall hold and teach that
time,
p. 3.
complex doctrine,
Xlii
CONTENTS.
II.
is
one of Ecclesiastical
first
promise,
this
second
promise announces that Christ would with the Apostles and their successors,
Fisible
so be present
that some
adhere to the essential doctrines of Christianity, re stand opposed jecting those tenets and practices which
to the Gospel, p. 7.
2.
That such
is
prophetic promise,
and from the concurrent voice of prophecy, (1.) Proof from matter of fact. p. 12.
(2.)
CHAPTER
THE POSITION,
REFORMED,
RESPECTIVELY
AS
II.
OF
OF THE
S
PRO
MISES, p. 19.
of Christ impose, both upon the Romanist and upon the Reformed, the necessity of shewing a Perpetuity of sound Doctrine and sound Practice, in some Visible Church or
down
On
1
.
Romanist, deeming
his strong-hold,
usually displays
much triumphant
confidence, p. 19.
The
made
out by the
p. 19.
To
the
Reformed,
for his
the
case,
as
made
in
out by the
Romanist
no better light
than that of a mere string of inconsistencies suspended from a purely gratuitous assumption, p. 20.
CONTENTS.
II.
xliii
As
the
Reformed
is
rejects
the
case
Romanist, he
The call is answered by the adduction of the two an cient Churches of Aquitaine and Piedmont, p. 28.
The nature of the objection propounded by Bossuet and a statement of the inquiry, which that objection
:
2.
BOOK
II.
THE ALBIGENSES.
p. 31.
CHAPTER
I.
p. 31.
The
Paulicians of
Albigenses of France.
into the rise
I.
Armenia were the theological ancestors of the Hence we must begin with inquiring
An
1.
and doctrinal system of the Paulicians. p. 31. account of Constantirie or Sylvanus their founder,
of himself
p. 32.
arid principles
2.
The persecution
of the Paulicians,
of Constantine-Sylvanus. p. 43.
II.
HI.
IV.
An An An
V.
A
1.
p. 53.
2.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
II.
p. 62.
From Armenia,
Here they
became the theological fathers of the Cathari or Albigenses, who were similarly charged with Manicheism, though the
allegation
against
them
is full
cies, p. 62.
I.
The
first difficulty:
discordance of
habits
1.
and
of
The
p.
by
68.
(1.)
(2.)
p. 68.
(5.)
The account
of the
mode
in
converts, as given
(6.)
by Reinerius.
The character
of the
Albigenses,
as
given by
Bernard, p. 75.
2.
II.
The absolute denial of the charges brought against them, on the part of the Albigenses themselves, p. 77. The second difficulty that, which arises from the ac
:
III.
martyrdom rather than renounce their faith, p. 81. The third difficulty that which arises from the impossi
:
bility
the Albigenses
p. 85.
1.
preferred
by various
Lucas Tudensis.
p. 86.
CONTENTS.
(2.)
Radulphus Ardens.
p. 87.
(3.)
The
p. 89.
(4.)
Robert of Auxerre.
p. 89.
On
is
(1.) Partly,
p. 97. (2.)
Partly,
nial
p. 101.
CHAPTER
III.
THE GROUNDS OF THE ALLEGATION OF MANICHEISM AGAINST THE PAULICIANS AND THE ALBIGENSES. p. 106.
statement of the grounds, on which the allegation of Manithe Paulicians and the Albigenses, seems to cheism,
against
The
first
ground, p. 110.
II.
III.
IX.
Summary
X.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
IV.
THE FALSEHOOD OF THE ALLEGATION OF MANICHEISM AGAINST THE ALBIGENSES, DEMONSTRATED FROM THE CASE OF THE
CANONS OF ORLEANS,
p. 125.
The Canons
I.
Their case, as given by various authors, p. 125. 1. The narrative of Rodulphus Glaber. p. 127.
2.
The statement
p. 131.
Synod
of Orleans.
3.
in the
Ancient
History of
4.
II.
The
narrative of
John of Fleury.
p. 142.
An
1.
2.
The evidence
is in itself insufficient, p.
146.
CHAPTER
V.
Berenger of Tours, p. 155. I. Berenger and his missionaries must have come in contact
with the Cathari. p. 155.
II.
Be
renger differed
III.
from Rome.
p. 158.
of Berenger himself, as given by his oppo nent Lanfranc. p. 160. IV. Conclusion against the pretended Manicheism of the Albigenses. p. 162.
The testimony
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
VI.
163.
The
The
II.
to Peter
III.
cheans. p. 173.
CHAPTER
VII.
as
given by Bernard of Clairvaux. p. 188. I. The grounds, on which a charge of Manicheism was brought against them. p. 189.
1.
Bernard Bernard
them.
s s
2.
p. 192.
:
II.
that
The Albi
name
of
xlviii
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
VIII.
203.
The case
I.
The
Newbury.
p. 204.
II.
Remarks on the
1.
narrative, p. 209.
Manicheism, displayed
in their
Eucharist, p. 212.
2.
Proof positive, from the unequivocal language of Wil liam of Newbury, that the Publicans could not have
beenManicheans.
p.
216.
CHAPTER
IX.
THE FALSEHOOD OF THE ALLEGATION, DEMONSTRATED FROM THE CASE OF THE ALBIGENSES AT LOMBERS. p. 221.
The
Bossuet
mode
of quoting and
Hoveden.
II.
p. 222.
The
1
.
ungarbled statement of Roger Hoveden. p. 223. Charges brought against the Albigenses. p. 228.
real
(1.)
Examination of the charge that they rejected the Old Testament, p. 228. Examination of a collection of other charges,
trial of
(2.)
2. III.
p.
233.
Sequel of the
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
X.
245.
245.
Confessions recorded by Popliniere. p. 246.
II.
III.
CHAPTER
XI.
252.
to the
The
true
ground of the
hostility of the
Romish Priesthood
Albigenses. p. 252.
I.
II.
CHAPTER
THE ALBIGENSES DID NOT APPEAR
XII.
IN
259.
Work
259.
of the Albi
The
the
commencement
CONTENTS.
2.
in
3.
The
theological tendency
district, p.
of Toulouse
and
its
sur
rounding
4.
262.
The coincidence
Summary and
conclusion, p. 267.
BOOK
III.
THE VALLENSES.
p. 271.
CHAPTER
I.
The testimony
1
272. quity of the Vallenses. p. The ancient Leoriists and the old Vallenses of Pied
p. 274.
The Leo, from whom they received the name 277. ists, was the Presbyter Vigilantius. p.
p. 280.
of Leon-
3.
II.
The
dialect
alike
indicate
The language
CONTENTS.
2.
li
The
(1.)
Henry Arnold,
Boyer. p. 287.
p. 286.
(2.) (3.)
The Confession
(4
The
(5.)
The Address
century, p. 288.
(6.)
to the successive
Dukes
CHAPTER
II.
The Testimony
p.
I.
of
Jerome
at the
beginning of the
fifth
century,
290.
The
II.
The region
the Alps of
King
Cottius. p. 293.
CHAPTER
HI.
RECORDED BY PILICHDORF.
p.
300.
Pilichdorf
II.
Nor
ively, p.
304.
Hi
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
IV.
An account
I.
of Claude of Turin early in the ninth century, p. 306. or Nestorianism of Claude, p. 306.
s
II.
Commentary on the
III.
Claude
s s
IV. Claude
p. 316.
p.
320.
324.
VII. The charge of Dungal as to the doctrinal agreement of Claude and Vigilentius. p. 325.
VIII.
The testimony
CHAPTER
V.
The testimony
I.
of Atto of Vercelli, in the tenth century, p. 330. Evidence to the existence and doctrines of the Vallenses in
two of
1.
The former
of the
two
Epistles, p. 331.
2.
II.
The
latter of the
two
Epistles, p. 332.
Vallenses, designated
by the
III.
Atto
CONTENTS.
Jiii
CHAPTER
VI.
345.
to Adelaide of Savoy,
The testimony
I.
of Peter
Damain addressed
345.
II.
CHAPTER
VII.
TRUDON.
p.
351.
The testimony
tury, p. 351.
I.
of
Rodolph
The
results
from
II.
On
heretical country
Piedmontese Vallenses.
III.
354.
The amount
of
Rodolph
testimony, p. 355.
CHAPTER
THE
RISE
VIII.
OF
THE FRENCH
VALDENSES
IN
THE
TWELFTH
CENTURY, p. 357.
The
rise of the
\{
v
I.
CONTENTS.
The sequestered
the
condition of the ancient or Piedmontese
new
II.
Conrad of Lichtenau,
at the
commence
363.
French Valdenses.
p.
Conclusion, p. 367.
CHAPTER
IX.
TWELFTH CENTURY,
p. 368.
The theology
I.
century, p. 368.
372.
of the year
1 1
20 cannot be
2.
was written
1160. p. 373.
3.
II.
Evidence afforded by the Vallensic Poem, entitled The Noble Lesson, p. 385.
1
.
The
The
antiquity
indis
putable, p. 385.
2. 3.
Poem
by
is
the year
100. p. 386.
This date
(1.)
(2.)
established
internal testimony, p.
388.
The
first
(3.)
397.
4.
CONTENTS.
Iv
CHAPTER
X.
THIRTEENTH CENTURY,
p.
415.
The Theology
century, p. 415.
I.
Evidence of Pilichdorf.
p.
415.
II.
420.
p.
III.
422.
CHAPTER
XI.
p.
424.
The Theology
I.
of the Vallenses at
and immediately
Evidence of Claude Scyssel of Turin, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, p. 424.
Evidence afforded by the Confession of the Vallenses of Merindol in the year 1542. p. 432.
II.
III.
Remarks on an
CHAPTER
RESPECTING
XII.
THE
POOR
MEN
OF
LYONS
p.
OR
450.
THE
MISSIONARY
VALDENSES OF FRANCE,
vi
CONTENTS.
I.
An
from Thuanus,
Walter Mapes, Alanus Magnus, Guido Perpinian, Nico las Eymaric, John Masson, Reinerius Sacco, Peter Pilichdorf,
1
.
p.
451.
Marches of France,
2.
p.
457.
Italian
The connection
Valdenses. p
of the
460.
II.
The grand
peculiarity
was
The statement
of Reinerius. p. 467.
of Walter Mapes. p. 469. of
The statement
The statement
(3.)
2.
Conrad of Lichtenau.
p.
472.
The The
in
by persecution,
p.
as attested
3.
476.
settlement
final
Bohemia,
by Thuanus.
p.
476.
III.
The
French Valden
concerned, into
ses, resolves
so far as evidence
is
three
points
of Transulstantiation ;
Pope for his and Their holding the doc and Their scarcely differing
as
from Rome in their doctrinal tenets, p. 477. The first point is not stated by Bossuet so strongly
it
plications to the
Pope
But
The second
is
made very
unsatisfactorily to rest
:
upon
of
a part
CONTENTS.
that testimony, moreover, which
is
directly hostile to
483.
third
is
The
flatly
full
testimony
by the French
Valdenses. p. 487.
BOOK
IV.
SUPPLEMENTAL MATTER,
p.
497.
CHAPTER
I.
CALLY
ECCLESIASTICAL
p.
JUNCTION
OF
THE VALLENSES.
Since on
free
all
497.
the Albigenses, had they taint of Manicheism been Manicheans, could neither have been in communion with
from every
took place.
They
furnish,
an
additional
p.
vindication
of the
much calumniated
Albigenses.
497.
I.
Emigration of certain of the French Albigenses into the Valleys of Piedmont about the year 1 165. p. 498.
2.
501.
Iviii
CONTENTS.
3.
Intermingling of the French Valdenses and Albigenses at the beginning of the thirteenth century, exem
plified
in the case of
at Verfeuil
(1.)
(2.)
503.
were Albigenses. p. 504. chief pastor, Arnold, was a French ValdenTheir sis, the friend and associate of Peter the Valdo.
The
dissident religionists
p.
509.
Valdenses
p. 515.
III., in the
The decree
p. 515.
of
Pope Lucius
year
184.
(2.)
of
King Alphonso
of Aragon, in the
decretal Epistle of
p.
Pope Innocent
III.,
in the
year 1199.
II.
518.
These early interminglings prepared the way for the final geographical and ecclesiastical amalgamation of the
joint
French Valdenses and Albigenses of Languedoc, with the primeval Vallenses of the Cottian Alps. p. 520.
The emigration
of a large
The
retreat of the
his associates, p.
523.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
II.
ALBI-
of
By
St.
John
be
it
is
foretold: that
should
the
great Body of
Church should
lapse into
an
apostacy
of a
very
strongly
Our Lord
in a
Church
is
explained,
2.
perfectly accordant with the preceding the Prophet of the Apocalypse, p. 533. views, by In History, two Churches held their integrity through
manner
537.
Wit
II.
nessing Churches of the Apocalypse, p. 539. The two apocalyptic Witnessing Churches are exhibited
under the two-fold aspect of two not precisely identical conditions, p. 541.
1.
Exemplification of the
first
condition
The Prophesy
The Bearing
Martyria.
III.
p.
546.
the series of facts detailed by His
brief
comment on
tory, p. 551.
IX
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
III.
p. 553.
The
succession by the Vallenses and possessing of an apostolical the Albigenses cannot be absolutely demonstrated but it may
:
all
The The
II.
III.
Should what has been said be deemed unsatisfactory, the matter must be referred to the plain will and overruling
providence of God. p. 568.
CHAPTER
RESPECTING THE
IV.
OCCASIONAL
DISCREPANCE OF
THE CHURCHES
The unreasonableness
of the
captious
demand
of Bossuet
that
The Reformers of the sixteenth century should produce an already existent Church, with which they could agree in every, That even the most minute, particular : is easily evinced.
readily allowed
primary essentials either of faith or of practice, which are indispensably necessary to the due accomplishment of our
Lord
I.
They
CONTENTS.
of the administrator,
II.
p.
573.
:
They
erred,
again,
in
asserting
that
The
Church of
to be
Christ ought
ever moderate
to possess
;
of the Laity, thus living (as the expression runs} purely from hand to mouth, p. 577.
1
.
The
case of the
its
recog
p. 580.
The The
pretext, that an
spiritual
3.
demand
will
They
of every
description, even
reverently taken
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION,
p.
591
General conclusion to the whole discussion, p. 591. I. Agreeably to the promises of Christ, there has never been
wanting, from the very
pel, a Spiritual Visible p.
II.
first
Church
591.
Through the medium of the Vallensic Church of the Cottian Alps, the Reformed Churches of the sixteenth
century stand connected with the Primitive Church,
p.
593.
Ixii
CONTENTS.
The problem, proposed by the Bishop of Meaux for the confusion of the Reformed Churches, is solved by the
Church of the Vallenses
:
III.
for,
the middle
ages
of innovating superstition,
p.
minated.
594.
AN INQUIRY
INTO
BOOK
I.
INTRODUCTORY MATTER.
CHAPTER
I.
PROMISES OF
Two
sion
I.
The
first
of these
in
the course of a conversation with his disciples re lative to the opinions which were entertained of
him.
Jesus came into the coasts of CesareaPhilippi, he asked his disciples, saying : Whom do
When
men
man,
am
And
they
2
said
:
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
I.
Some say, that thou art John the Baptist ; Jeremias or one of the some, Elias ; and others, He saith unto them: But whom say ye prophets. And Simon Peter answered and said: that I am ?
Son of the Living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him : Blessed hath art thou, Simon Bar-Jona ; for flesh and blood
Thou art
the Christ,
the
not revealed
it
my Father which
:
is
in
heaven.
And I say
this rock,
will build
my Church
and
the gates of
Hades
The promise
distinct clauses.
two
The founda tion upon which Christ would build his Church : while the second clause respects The perpetuity of
Of these,
the
first
clause respects
the
Church when
built.
With regard to the first clause, the Rock, upon which the Lord here declares that he will
1.
is,
Peter
is
Master
at once the
1318.
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y Kaj
Xvy/tv,
ycip, flov
Xpia-rov, KCtfa
T-Jjv
tittyvciVTa,
O.I/TOV,
tva
TUV
j/.a,6fjTuv
2/^wva
jrporef/oi
KaXoJjttevov,
tTcu^of^aa-e
t
Herpov.
Ka Tov
Seov
jfypdu.fA.6vov
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avrov
fv
TOK;
a.
jco^.v fj^vevfA.ix.a
TUV
aTtoa-Tohtov
avTW
e^ovrei;,
Tloi>
ainov
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
The Son of the Living God is a phrase, which de notes the proper and essential divinity of Christ because it exhibits the only-begotten Son of the
:
Father, as being consubstantial with the Father, and thence as being true God from true God be gotten not made*.
Hence the
first
found
his
Church thus
the
perpetuity in
such a constitution.
to the tenor of this
Agreeably
second clause,
Christ would not only build his Church upon a doctrine of such vital importance that it might
justly be
deemed
as
its
foundation
when viewed
would
thus
Hades
it
For a better understanding of the second clause, will be proper to observe, that the imagery,
it,
which marks
refers, in point
of ideality, to the
spirits previous
:
invisible condition of
to the reuniting
,
disembodied
while, in
T<JV
O.TCO
TlctTpai;
Swdpei
CCVTOV KCU
KpotXOovra,.
p.
cum
.
Tryph. * See
A. D. 137.
Oper.
255.
ii.
my
append. II
numb. 10.
-2
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
I.
it is clearly borrowed point of poetical machinery, were from those large excavated catacombs, which used for the interment of the dead, and which
clause,
:
the plain import of the second clause will be that A condition of Sepulchral Invisibility, or a
* Poetis fere omnibus id saepenumero usu venit, ut, vel oc-
casione
inducti,
vel
eum locum
cum
Vita Functomagnaque, describendi sunt Inferi, sive rum Status hoc est, id clare explicandum, quod quale sit, nemini mortalium concessum est omnino mente percipere aut
:
conjectura consequi.
Nimirum
omnibus
:
idem hoc
in
in caeteris
et in aperto essent,
vulgoque constarent, de
iis
generalem
vita
in
describendo
functorum statu, unice et constanter usurpant; quamque, si modo fas sit, appellare possumus Hebraeorum Infernum Poeti-
cum.
etiam Sepulchrum
Haden ; Latini, Inferum sive neque sane aliunde sumpta est Hebraeis tota haec imago, quam de more rituque sepulturae apud ipsos recepto qui ejusmodi erat, ut materiam prseberet ornatui poetico satis accommodatam. Hebraeorum enim sepulchra, saltern
Sheol ipsi vocant; Graeci,
:
;
honestiora, quaeque familiis principibus patria erant ac gentilitia, speluncae erant amplae, sub terram, ex nativa rupe, arte manuque
excavatae;
laqueare
testudinato;
quaedam
tarn
spatiosae,
ut
columnis
suffulcireritur.
Ad
latera,
circumquaque, excideban-
tur cellae li, sculptili opere, apte recipiendis sarcophagis. ornati erant: Nullam singulique, singulis cellis, condebantur.
quippe,
anausto
aditu,
CHAP.
state
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
of Utter Disappearance from off the face of the earth, shall never be the lot of the Church which
Christ would build upon the complex doctrine of his
his
In other words,
its
import will be
To the
very end of time, there shall always be in the world a Visible Church, holding and teaching the fandaMulta hujusmodi conquique advoluto saxo obstruebatur. duo prae caeteris magniditoria etiamnum in Judaea visuntur fica, quae regum habentur sepulchra ; alterura in ipsis Hiero:
solyrais, cellas
Quod
eos
si
eos locos
valde
apparebit,
hujusmodi sepulchrorurn imagine per omnia intentam et defixam babuisse. Cum viderent corpora vita functa in terram cadere, eoque modo, quo dictum est, sepulchro condi;
mentem
in
percrebuit
apud Hebraeos,
ut
apud
dam
si
quentem
86
90.
promise, I believe,
very
commonly understood
with
all
should not be able to prevail against the Church. Certainly, this is a great and important and consolatory truth:
but, in point of ideality,
it is
not precisely the truth here an promise is, that the Church should
invisible
:
as the
dead
when consigned to those gloomy sepulchral caverns which were deemed the images of Sheol or Hades.
became
invisible,
in his native
tongue,
(J
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
I.
human Messiahship
and
its
blessed Master-Builder.
II.
The second
of the
Go
ye,
and teach
all
Holy
whatsoever
I have commanded
you.
And
lo,
I am
Amen*
1
.
all
This second promise obviously comprehends but, then, the provisions of the first promise
:
in point of spiritual
an in superstructure upon
it
dispensable foundation,
advances considerably
will readily
beyond
it.
The
justice of such a
remark
appear
Church
Hebrew
is
guage
Matthew has justly and accurately expressed Sheol by the Greek Hades. The same ideal lan employed in the Apocalypse respecting the two wit
:
nessing Churches.
Their dead bodies shall lie in the street of and they of the people SHALL SEE their dead bodies three days and a half; and shall not suffer their dead
bodies to be to say
:
the
put into A SEPULCHRE. Rev. xi. 8, 9. That is two Churches may be corporately dissolved as
Churches; but they shall not pass into a state of defunct invisi bility, as a body passes when consigned to one of the sepulchral
caverns of the East. * Matt, xxviii.
li),
20.
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
As the first promise laid the foundation of a Visible Church in the complex doctrine of Christ s
while it declared, that Messiahship and Divinity that Church should never disappear from off the so the second promise, while it face of the earth
;
:
admission into the same Church upon a baptism in the name of the Holy and Undivided Trinity,
Godhead,
therefore, the second promise, in a manner, repeats and confirms the declaration of
far,
Thus
the
first
promise.
it
But here
stops
:
not.
On
the
contrary,
it
that Christ would be alway additionally sets forth with his Apostles, even unto the end of the world.
Whence,
is
chronologically concurrent with the world s that Christ, even duration, it likewise sets forth
:
to the
present, in the
assist
ance and sanction and approbation, with the minis terial successors of the Apostles, no less than with
the Apostles themselves.
Now, though
doctrine,
of Christ
follow, that
8
essential
THE VALLENSES
doctrine
[BOOK
I.
and
;
in
so as to warrant a ration
that Christ has alway con ally scriptural belief, tinued to be, with itself and its Clergy, with the
in may, both doctrinally and practically, remain though all, nevertheless, continue to corrupt
:
Nay, so
strictly
far
con
cerned, that promise would not have accomplishment, even if the entire Visible
failed of its
Church
should have lapsed into grievous errors both of doctrine and of practice, so long as it held the
indispensable complex doctrine
fessedly
it
was founded.
Hence we may perceive the immense import ance and absolute necessity of the second promise.
not only, as in the first pro mise, that His Church shall never disappear from
:
Christ declares
off the
He
alway,
But, where erroneous doctrine, in vital essen tials, prevails and where a line of doctrinally
;
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
practice,
is
9
to
dependent
directly
opposed
:
Holy
it inculcated and adopted Scripture, certainly even though the fundamental tenet of seems, * O
Christ s
still
soundly
maintained, nothing less than a contradiction in terms to say, that Christ is there alway SPIRITU
ALLY PRESENT.
Consequently, unless an inquirer be prepared boldly to assert, that the Visible Church, in no
one of
branches, has ever lapsed into vitally erroneous doctrine and practice, we are com
its
pelled,
historical
we may
well
say, both of the Romanist and of the Reformed, the second promise can only be understood as
intimating:
PRESENT with
that,
and
their successors,
should never, in
Visible
end of the world, there the worst of times, be wanting some one
grand
essential
stand directly
the
*
and by a due rejection of and practices that on full evidence opposed to the teaching and temper of
the very important admis-
Gospel*
JO
2.
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
I.
That such
is
second promise,
sion
:
is
the
The perpetuity of the Christian Religion depends or of any not upon the preservation of any particular locality mankind. particular race of Cretienne, il n y aucun lieu ni aucune race Dans la
that,
Religion
qu on
soit oblige
1
gion et
de conserver a peine de laisser perir la Reli Alliance. Avertiss. v. sur les Lettres de M. Jurieu. 25.
this, to extricate
Bossuet says
not, that, while
theolo
House
of Orange.
But he perceives
is
he
if
is
avoiding Charybdis, he
:
of Scylla.
For, of Rome in her asserted character consequence, the preservation of The Mother and Mistress of all Churches and in her alleged function of The Centre of Ecclesiastical Unity, is quite un
of Christianity. necessary to the preservation
then,
to the superfluous adjunct be destroyed, Christianity, according of Meaux, would still continue to flourish, in unabated Bishop heaven-born vivaciousness. strength, in immortal vigour, and in
With an
it
be accomplished
inconsistency
is
in the
in
no other
and the
heightened,
is
of Scripture itself
considered.
In the figured language of prophecy, a Church is symboli cally represented by a Golden Candlestick, bearing an ignited
candle, and thus communicating light throughout
the
whole
extent of
its
action.
See Rev.
is
it
i.
12, 20.
Now
it
a Candlestick
not a fixture : on the contrary, both bears are capable of removal from one
place to another place. Accordingly, in strict adherence to this ideality, the Saviour actually threatens such a removal, in
the event of flagrant and hardened unfaithfulness.
Rev.
ii.
5.
case, unless
Rome
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
;
11
have already hinted and, likewise from the concurrent voice of prophecy.
fact, as I
for pleading an
exemption from the common possible lot of all more idle than for her to claim
a special and indefeasible right to promises, which were made generally to the Church Catholic in some one or other of its
branches, and not to any one branch as contradistinguished
from
I
all
other branches.
may
way
overwhelm
mendously
or (as
tells
its adherents delight to term it) TJnitarianism. If this utterly unsupported speculation be indeed the mind of the Gospel and the doctrine of the Apostles then, agree
:
faith ably to the tenor of Christ s promises, it to the fully held, during all the middle ages of corrupt apostasy dogma of the Trinity (as Dr. Priestly speaks), by some one or
from history, to have existed, thoughout the long period of the middle ages.
Therefore, if Socinianism be the true sense of Scripture : then Christ s promises of the perpetual preservation of a doctrinally pure Visible Church must inevitably have failed.
if Christ s promises relative to the perpetual of such a Church have not failed then Socinianism preservation cannot be the true sense of Scripture.
And,
conversely,
The dilemma,
in short, is this.
:
We
must
or
we must
confess, that
12
(1.)
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
I.
if
In regard to mere historical matter of fact, so be Christ meant to intimate, that he would
alway
then, mortal error either doctrinal or practical there never could have been such a thing
Romanist
and
the Reformed
that This circum equally admit and even contend, For the Romanist stance has actually occurred.
contends
Churches of England, Scotland, Denmark, Sweden, and many others, have thus lapsed while the Reformed contends
;
and
practical,
is
Church of Rome and justly chargeable upon the all the Churches which are in communion with
her.
Hence, by common consent based upon the undeniable necessity of facts, it is, on all sides,
fully allowed
relate to
that The second promise can only some Branch or Branches of the Universal Church, and can in no wise be extended to the entire Universal Church itself.
:
to
draw
:
meaning his own parti cular Church, never fell into error either doctrinal or practical and that those Communities, which
;
differ
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
if,
13
the sake of argument, we were to still the real state admit this absurd assumption
For, even
for
;
because it of the case will remain just as it was cannot be denied, that the Reformed Churches,
:
which
in the estimation of a
Romanist have
fallen
into heresy,
were once
in
Whence
that,
Romanism
and thus may shew, even practically, lapse that Christ has not alway been present with them.
may
(2.)
voice of prophecy
result
is
brought out.
ques
tion
how
St.
Paul
sitting of
in the
temple of
God, and therefore obviously associated with error and heresy within the very pale of a Visible
or how the expounded apocalyptic prediction of the two witnesses, de fined to be two candlesticks, and thence of ne
Church,
is
specifically
cessity
representing two Churches, is actually Let the true application of these interpreted*.
oracles be
what
it
may,
Rev.
and
ii.
3, 4.
xi. 1
4.
Compare Rev.
xi.
20.
14
THE VALLENSES
of the Romanist
[BOOK
:
I.
ment
for
both parties concur in believing, that they foretell a season, when, on account of the widely spread
mankind (I use the apostasy and degeneracy of words of the popish Bishop Walmesley), all Chris
tian Churches should be reduced to a single
all faithful ministers
Church,
of God
as
to officiate at
one altar,
and
Christians should
make
up so small a
number
that
as collected in only a they might well be represented to God : while single temple paying their adoration
the great multitude of those, who,
enter not into the temple, stand spirit of religion, unmeasured, as it were, in the outer court*.
no such general apostasy either could or can occur, unless there were many
But
it
is
clear, that
apostates
and
it is
never be such a multitude of apostates, who yet, under their predicted head the Man of Sin, should
take possession of the very temple of God or (in a manner) of almost the entire Visible Church,
unless whole Churches and Districts lapsed into heresy and misbelief and impiety.
Such apostate Churches, however, were once, by the very terms of the proposition, true and
sincere Churches.
Yet, in the day of their apostatic heresy and impiety, whatever may be the precise nature of
*
the
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
from sound
faith
15
and from
be said
of Christ*.
* I beg
it
to be here understood
that, in strict
accordance
my
subject requires, I
speak of Churches
Corruptions,
Church-members
individually.
which shut out the very idea of Christ s approving spiritual presence with an apostatic Church collectively, and which (it is
to
the
may,
nevertheless,
grace, prove innocuous midst of superstitions sincerely who, though mistakenly received, have been sanctified by the Blessed of Spirit, and who thence are animated by a living principle
God
the
interior religion.
is
With
spiritually present:
be inconsistent, as some
may
think
Hooker.
See Disc, of
Justificat.
920.
The
true rationale of the remarkable fact before us (for I
venture to style it a fact) I take to be this. Christ declares, that he will build his Church upon the Rock of Peter s Confession. He declares, therefore, that he will
build
it
of the Messiah.
upon the Doctrine of the united Divinity and Humanity Such being the case, a departure from evan
more
Rock
of Peter
Confession
is
Hence, wherever the Foundation is foundation of the Church. as may be the apostatic declension of the collec held, grievous
tive
Communion which
holds
it;
still,
in
such Communion,
16
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
I.
must inevitably Therefore the second promise with the limitations which have be
interpreted
been
Its
specified.
import, consequently,
his
will be
in
this
that,
the
God, through
very principle
harmony with
people individually. the wisely discriminating They are not all faithless, says in that are weak in assenting to the truth or stiff
Hooker,
to the truth of Christian Doctrine. maintaining things opposite as hold the FOUNDATION which is precious, But, as many
it
but weakly
and as
it
frame many
abide the trial of the fire : yet shall things that cannot upon and be saved, which indeed have builded they pass the fiery trial the ROCK which is the FOUNDATION of the themselves
upon
Church.
the
is
the principal
believed, then
that the
;
FOUNDATION of
our
St.
Paul hath
to
Timothy
God
manifested in the
,-
that of Nathanael
Thou
:
art the
Son of the living God, thou art the King of Israel that of the inhabitants of Samaria ; This is Christ, the Saviour of the
world.
He, that
THE
VERY FOUNDATION OF OUR FAITH. Forasmuch, therefore, as a little it may be said of the Church of Rome ; she hath yet she doth not directly deny the FOUNDATION of Chris strength,
tianity
:
I may, I
thousands of our fathers in former times, living and dying Disc. within her walls, have found mercy at the hands of God.
of Justificat.
14, 16, 17.
This view of the matter will, I apprehend, teach us the true St. John has principle and full import of the language, which
employed respecting Antichrist and the Spirit of Antichrist. The precise and accurately distinctive characteristic of Anti-
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
17
of
may
though not interfering to such an extent, as to produce a perfect agreement at all times in points
unessential.
christ
and the Spirit of Antichrist is A DENIAL OF THE FOUN DATION whether such denial be heightened, it may be, into absolute Atheism or whether it be variously modified, in dif
:
ferent ages
and
societies,
by a formal
rejection,
sometimes of
Humanity, and sometimes of the Divinity, of Christ. This, then, is explicitly stated and defined to be the badge or charac
the
teristic
of Antichrist.
the very
Now
name of
:
opposition to Christ
Antichrist imports a direct and formal and, accordingly, the Apostle carefully
come
of God
heard that
world.
of Antichrist, whereof ye have should come, and even now already is it in the Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God,
it
and
God dwelleth in him, and he in God. We know, that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding that we may
know him
his
that
is
true:
and we are
22, 23.
in
him that
is
true, even in
Son Jesus
Christ.
1
Ovro/;) is
the true
God
and
eternal life.
John
iv. 2, 3,
15. v. 20.
No
Communion,
therefore,
can be legitimately deemed a Branch of Antichrist, as the cha racter of Antichrist is defined by St. John. And, thence, in a
18
[BOOK
I.
mor This incapability of falling universally into Christ to his tal error, which is promised by
Church, and which
in truth
of necessity enters
in the legitimate
Church
we may
note,
would transmute
it
Church of Rome
*.
Communion which
in doctrine as such a
corrupt
there
is
God
Here,
we
are encountered
by no
contradiction.
But
to say,
that A member of the Foundation-denying Antichrist can also be, at the same time, a member of the Foundation- laying Christ,
strikes
upon
my own
in terms.
contradiction
*
livr.
xv.
3.
CHAPTER
II.
THE POSITION, RESPECTIVELY, OF THE ROMANIST AND OF THE REFORMED, AS PRODUCED BY THE TENOR OF CHRIST S PROMISES.
The promises of our Lord to his Church place both the Romanist and the Reformed in a situation
of some difficulty or at least of
for,
some delicacy
alike,
cessity of shewing, in some Visible Church or Churches from the primitive ages down to the present, a perpetuity of sound doctrine and of
may warrant
presence.
I.
On
a
this
point,
Romanist usually
of
dis
plays confidence.
1.
considerable
measure
triumphant
His
own Church, he
Now,
to this
and peculiarly,
20
heresy,
his
THE VALLENSEs
[BOOK
I.
when
in
:
ques
but,
tion,
Peter himself,
in the
second instance,
of Rome. The Church of Rome, thus divinely constituted as the centre of unity and as the standard of or
cessors the Bishops
thodoxy, has always sincerely professed the ge nuine truth of the Gospel, both in its influential
and, through the promised superintending agency of Christ, has never been permitted to depart from soundness,
faith
and
in its
dependent practice
Hence the very position, undeniably occupied by the Church of Rome, is in itself a direct proof:
that Both her faith and her practice exhibit the real mind of the Gospel. For, if her faith and her
then the practice be contrary to the Gospel of Christ, made to Peter and his succes promise
:
sors, will 2.
have failed of
is
its
accomplishment.
the case of perpetuity, as respects soundness of faith and of practice, which is made
Such
With
it,
no doubt, he himself
but, to the
Reformed,
it
is
than that of a mere string of inconsistencies sus from a purely gratuitous pended assumption. That the Roman Church has been a Visible Church from the apostolic age to the present, is
CHAP.
II.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
:
21
a simple fact
readily admitted
for, in truth, it is
of History. But the assumption, on which is constructed the entire argument in favour of her complete purity both doctrinal and practical, I mean the wholly gratuitous assumption, that The Rock on
to
is
Peter
conjointly with his Successors the Bishops of Rome : this assumption is positively disallowed because,
;
when examined,
dation.
it
rests
upon no
:
evidential foun
have already seen that, according to the oldest extant interpretation of the text, I mean
that of Justin Martyr, the
We
Confession of
Christ s
In this interpretation, he is proper Divinity. followed by Chrysostom and Hilary and," though Athanasius and Jerome and Augustine pronounce
be Christ himself ; their exposition, proceeding on the principle that Christ is at once both true God and true Man, is still virtually the
the
to
Rock
same as the more ancient exposition preserved by Justin *. Some of the early Fathers, no doubt, such as Tertullian and Cyprian and Chrysostom
himself in another passage of his writings, suppose
*
Oper. vol.
lib.
iii.
i.
p.
519, 520.
Oper. vol. vi. p. 33. Evan. Johan, Tract, cxxiv. Oper. vol. ix.
p.
22
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
I.
absolutely
But the Rock*. Peter to have been intended by not one of the most ancient ecclesiastics,
I
by which expression
mean
those
who
flourished
first centuries, ever imagines the during the three at Rockto be Peter conjointly with his Successors the is altogether fatal to
Rome.
Nay, (what
toward the assumption), when, of the end of the second century or the beginning
common Popish
third,
the then
the text to
tullian plainly
ventured to apply of Peter, Terhimself as the successor that, in advancing such told him
Roman Bishop
:
a groundless pretence, he
was a palpable usurper inasmuch as, if Peter were the Rock on which Christ would build his Church, the promise was addressed to Peter personally, and not to Peter
;
in the
Eccles. Oper. vol. i. p. 106-108. Cyprian, de Unit. Tertull. de Pudic. Oper. p. 767, 768. Chrysost. Homil. Ixix. in Petr. Apost. et Eliara Prophet. Oper. vol. i. p. 856.
De
?
usurpes
imde hoc jus Ecclesiae Petro Dominus; Super hanc petram quia dixerit
qusero,
tibi
vel
solveritis in terra, erunt alligala Qiuzcitnque alligaveritis vel idcirco praesumis, et ad te derivasse sol:
vendi et alligandi potestatem, id est, ad oranem Ecclesiam Petri commutans manifestam propinquam qualis es, evertens atque
:
Domini intentionem PERSON ALITER hoc Petro conferentem ? de Pudic. Super TE, inquit, eedificabo Ecclesiam meam. Tertull.
Oper. p. 767, 768.
On
this very
important passage I
CHAP.
II.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
23
argue, therefore, that the truth of the Gospel has always been professed by the whole Society
To
of the
Roman Church, on
Our
par
Lord,
ticular
the standard
of orthodoxy,
assert
its
than to
doctrinal
and
when he
Christ
NO WHERE
says
Super TE
inserted TE may, indeed, express Tertullian s view of the but he ought not to have introduced it with an inquit ; when, all the while Christ says no such thing.
The
:
text
My
is
amply
on account of which
it
It distinctly
shews
of the modern romish interpretation of the text ; and also that, As soon as ever that interpretation was started by an am bitious Prelate of Rome, it was promptly rejected as a ground
thing
less
and unheard-of and unscriptural novelty. With the primitive exposition before him,
the year
perhaps be amused to see the exordium of an epistle, written in 1178 by Pope Alexander III., to the celebrated indi
:
such epistle, with the delicate charge of discovering the local habitation of the said Christian monarch of India, being en
trusted to the
Philip
Pope s own friend and physician Prudent Master who had heard, that John wished to have a church
Jerusalem
for the better
and
altar at
apostolical institution of
his subjects
who might
Alexander Episcopus, servus servorum Dei, charissimo in Christo rilio, illustri et magnifico Indorum regi, sacerdotum
24
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
I.
of Bossuet, that The Accordingly, the assertions the truth of the Gospel has always been professed by
whole Society of which the Roman Church claims to be the head, and that This Society has never been
permitted
to
fall
doctrine which
is
what he
calls
an inviolable chain
these assertions
For,
Apostolica
Christo cre-
omnium
in
dentium caput
Petvo,
petram
nullis
Domino attestante, qui ait beato cui licet indigni successimus, Tu es Petrus, et super hanc Hanc siquidem petram meam. aedijicabo Ecclesiam
est et magistra
:
quam
praeconat
ventorum turbinibus nullisque tempestatibus quatiendam. Et ideo non immerito beatus Petrus, super quern fundavit
inter Ecclesiam, ligandi atque solvendi specialiter et praecipue Cui dictum est a meruit accipere potestatem. Apostolos alios
Domino
terram,
prcci-alelntnt
erit
adversus
earn;
et
;
Quodcunque
et,
ligaveris
super
ligatum
et in coelis
quodcunque
solveris super
dem,
sis
referentibus multis, et in
operibus indesinenter
sunt intendere, et circa ea tuum animum geras quae Deo grata Indor. in et accepta. Epist. Alex. Papae ad Johannem Regem
332. Roger. Hoveden. Annal. par. post, in A.D. 1178. fol. 331, Whether Master Philip succeeded in discovering Prester
John and
in duly executing his commission, does not appear. * Hist, des Variat. livr. xv. The whole of Bossuet 3.
which
CHAP.
in
II.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
25
numerous instances both of faith and of practice the Roman Church, which may be characterized than by by its love of innovation much more fitly
from pretended immutability, has apostatized nature and and both the the Primitive Church
its
:
the amount
tained
of this apostasy
by any
one,
who
may
ecclesi
Hence, when
it
is
the
rank idolatry of
worshipping, as God, the merely symbolical crea tures of bread and wine; when it is further found,
that,
in
their
they have repeatedly besought them to grant gifts and graces which God alone can bestow, even turning, with blasphemous impiety, the whole
Saints,
book
of
Psalms
into a
series
thanksgivings to
the
mother
the
and
by
into
changing
the
throughout,
name
Jehovah
the
name Mary, and the compellation Lord into compellation Lady ; when it is also found,
that they have subverted the very foundation of evangelical faith, by alleging, in the way of justi
fication,
not only the meritoriousness of human works, but the possibility that frail man can assist
*
See
my
Difficult, of
Roman. 2d
edit.
26
his fellow
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
I.
by placing
to his
account an imagined
:
when it is of supererogatory deserts other matters, and many found, in short, that these
surplus
both doctrinal and practical, which might easily be named, now characterise and have long charac Churches in terised the Roman Church and the
communion with
morally impossible,
sistency
in
her
if
the
approvingly should have alway been present with a Society, while it was thus teaching, and while it was thus
Scripture,
practising.
that
Christ
Were
mon
;
strous notion rendered imperative in Holy Writ a circumstance, which would make the Bible con
tradict the
Bible
inevitable infidelity.
these perfectly intelligible grounds, they admit, indeed, the perpetuity of the Roman
On
Church, as a
Society, professing Christian by that maintenance of Peter s Confes sion without which a Church would cease to be
visible
to
be
even externally a Church but they cannot admit its sound theological and spiritual perpetuity
:
because they cannot believe, unless they cease to believe the unambiguous declarations of Scripture
that Christ has been alway present with it, sanctioningand approving, doctrines fundamentally
itself,
heretical,
*
*.
On
Ireneus
CHAP.
II.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
far as
respects the tenor of Christ s second promise, they deny the perpetuity of the Roman Church, inasmuch as it has notoriously
Thus, so
and flagrantly departed from the well recorded nor faith and practice of the Primitive Church
:
their denial
open
to the perusal of
man
kind.
Ubi
et,
illic
Spiritus autem
Iren. adv.
c.
40. p. 226.
see, in strict
Ireneus,
Lord
accordance with the purport of our second promise, lays it down, as a ruled case, that the
we
presence of
essential
God s
course,
to
that
in the
legitimate
which
is
words,
Lo
am
The
conclusion
inevitable.
What
spiritually
sane person can believe, that Christ never ceased to be and approvingly present with a Church, of which he
Spirit,
spake by his
Come
out of her, my people, that ye be not and that ye receive not of her plagues, and
which he described by the voice of his angel, as the habitation a of demons and the hold of every foul spirit and cage of every
unclean and hateful bird
is
?
is
not unimportant to remark, that the language of Ireneus It He not only says, Where that of a strict correlativeness.
the
Church
is,
there
is,
is
the Spirit
is
Spirit
of God
there
the
Church and
He
acts,
We
learn
we
28
II.
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
I.
But, while the Reformed, under this aspect, of Christ s presence with the deny the perpetuity Church of Rome, they may fairly be called upon to establish the perpetuity of a Church or
Churches, which,
by the maintenance of
grand
essentials, shall
their
own
them
doctrine in
all
connect
two promises of
accomplishment. 1. This they answer, by the adduction of the two ancient protesting Churches of Southern
its
the
borne the names, respectively, of Albigenses and Vallenscs: the former title being derived from
rally
the
town of Albi
in
Languedoc, the
latter
from
severally
or
concurrently or unitedly, they suppose the succes sion of a pure Church to have been preserved and thus, either, in this country or in that country,
:
in this
Church, or
in that
that Christ s
promise of his perpetual spiritual with some one or other visible Church presence has been amply and exactly fulfilled.
2.
is
made.
the
According to the ingenious and acute Bossuet, Albigenses were the theological and in a measure also the natural descendants of the Paulicians
of
Armenia
Manicheans
themselves,
CHAP.
II.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
:
29
while sprung from an old stock of Manicheans or Valdenses were a body of mere the Vallenses
comparatively modern sectaries
;
CO or 1170, owed alike both their name and and their origin to Peter Valdo of Lyons who, in doctrine, differed originally but little from
year
11
;
the
at
first,
Community
and
modern Popish
their
Schismatics
it
is
principles of the
not have preserved the re in quired perpetuity of Christ s spiritual presence the early uncorsome Visible Church, between
Communions could
rupted
the ages of Primitive Christianity and later age of the great Reformation from Popery.
But, if the doctrinal perpetuity of the Reformed cannot be established; then they are forthwith
either that their system of faith and practice must be deemed erroneous ; or else that in their case
at least,
ists,
whatever
may
Roman
accom
plished.
Hence
offact,
must be inquired Whether, in point there is as much reason to deny the perpeit
:
1148.
30
tuity
[BOOK.
I.
which shall doctrinally connect the Reformed Churches with the Primitive Church ;
is
as there
to
Roman
regard promised continual pre sence of Christ with some one or other Branch of
Church,
in
the
his
Church Catholic.
BOOK
II.
THE ALBIGENSES.
CHAPTER
I.
FOR
the purpose of exhibiting the Albigenses of Southern France in the character of hereditary
has produced The learned a considerable variety of authorities. denies them to be, upon this Mosheim, indeed,
Meaux
knowledge
and, at the
same time, charges the dextrous Prelate, with having, by the spirit of party, been manifestly led even into voluntary errors. But, doubtless, on a
hasty survey, the authorities in question have a
somewhat
startling aspect *.
livr. xi.
70.
the
Mosh. Eccles.
chap.
5.
IV. Of
Manicheism of the
Albigenses Bossuet
is
32
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
of France, the
clearly,
I
must obviously
from the beginning, the Pauli who cians were a Community of sound believers, all the grand essential truths faithfully maintained
be
this
:
Whether,
of the Gospel
Whether, springing mainly as a Society of Manicheans they were they did out of themselves originally Manicheans also, though
;
or
afterward,
I protested (if
may
West,
purified
embraced the bon) against the tyranny of Rome, Bible as the alone authoritative rule of faith, and their once erroneous Creed from all the
visions of the Gnostic Theology.
I.
(I
take up the History of Peter Siculus), Constanof tine, a native of Armenia and an inhabitant
Mananalis, received from a Deacon, whom he had from cap hospitably entertained while returning
tivity
volumes
the
To the
perusal of
the world to produce a sect in Europe, anterior to Peter Valdo, which were not a branch of the old Manicheans. Hist.
des Var. *
livr. xi.
91.
stantinus nomine,
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
33
up from him, he diligently applied himself: the perusal of them led, both to a great revolution in his own senti
ments, and to the founding of a
new Church on
:
prose
and,
from
of
name
of
whose
friend
Sylvamu
he had assumed), rather than from an obscure and disowned individual of Samosata denominated
they
have
.
excepit,
aluitque
dies
aliquot domi
Diaconus ergo, ut hanc quasi gratiam hospiti suo rependeret, codices duos, quos e Syria secum tulerat, Evangelium scilicet,
Petri Siculi Paulique Epistolas, dono dedit Constantino. Hist, de vana et stolid. Manichaeor. haer. in Biblioth. Patr.
vol. ix. par. post. p. 36.
At
ille,
qui
haeresim
Manichaeorum
animum induxit daemone, ut par est, librum deinceps, praster Evangelii et Apostoli codi instigante, hoc spectans nimirum, ut mali labem ces, nullum attingere eorum ope, obtegeret quemadmodum, qui noxia universam,
ac latius diffundere,
in
: ;
Et
quidem
pietatis
est, ut,
ille,
cum Manichaeorum
artes percepisset,
34
1.
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
he had In the holy volumes, then, which with the thus obtained, Constantine, surrounded of the age, honestly sought growing superstition and, for the genuine creed of early Christianity he what he learned himself from those volumes,
;
was eager
facile
to
communicate
rem suam, quo
to others.
omnes
in
queret.
Epistolis,
est in
Sylvanum
:
fidus discipulus, a Paulo missus quique, tanquam coMacedonian! ostendensque discipulis suis Apostoli
:
Vos, aiebat, Macedones dicem quern a diacono accepterat Paulo missus. Atque id ille, estis ; ego, Sylvanus, ad vos a
a Paulo hsec scripta sunt, dicere post sexcentos annos quam non dubitabat. Petr. Sic. Hist. p. 36.
Ut
Paulo
illo,
commemoratum, cum de
:
Ibid. p. 37. nomine, appellari coeperunt. This Paul was an ancient Manichean of Samosata, long prior to Constantine-Sylvanus and, as the proselytes of Constantine Manicheism of their forefathers ; rejected for a purer faith the
:
so, consistently,
doc
system.
pe-rot.
OStoj,
e<r%ov
xpwovt; noXXovi;
T^
jaSo%^ lav
iov IlavXav.
Cedren. Histor. Compend. vol. i. p. 341. Venet. 1729. Since they disowned this Paul as their teacher, and since
they formally renounced (as even their enemy Peter Siculus confesses) the Manichean Scheme, they could not have called
name from
themselves Paulicians from him, but must have assumed the that Apostle whose writings they peculiarly esteem-
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
35
That a diligent perusal of the hitherto unknown New Testament, even under the defective form
wherein our inquirer originally possessed
it,
should
lead a person to reject the worship of the Virgin and the Saints and the Cross, and to deny the
material presence of Christ in the consecrated elements of the Eucharist (for such is evidently the purport of the furious declamation of Peter
Siculus)
:
it
is
quite
ed and whose disciples they eminently professed themselves to Their adversaries, however, regardless of the palpable inconsistency, and bent upon pronouncing them to be Manibe.
chans, asserted, that they were called Paulicians from the Manichean Paul the son of Callinice, whom yet, as Cedrenus
assures us, they disowned as their theological instructor.
Peter
they not only dis owned, but even directly condemned, the very Paul, from whom he nevertheless asserts them to have borrowed their appellation.
Siculus goes
still
further
for
he
states, that
A curious
position
effect is
produced, by placing
in
immediate juxta
Siculus.
Promptissim
Sic. Hist. p. 31.
etiam damnant
Paulum Samosatenum.
Petr.
Cum
de Paulo
illo,
et
filiis,
age-
remus: de
They
whom
they
Certainly
calumniators ought to have good memories. I suppose I need scarcely say, that this Paul of Samosata
was an
Samosata, who was Bishop of Antioch in the third century, and who speculated heretically on the doctrine of the Trinity.
36
understand*.
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
reader,
II.
who
happens not
have particularly studied this part of Ecclesiastical History, will probably be sur that the process of reading, with to learn
to
:
prised care and attention, the four Gospels in connection with the fourteen Epistles of St. Paul, actually
Manichean and that the same process, universally and unanimously written in the New (so distinctly is Manicheism
converted Constantine into a
;
Testament), either confirmed or introduced, accord ing to the nature of their previous opinions, the
*
As a somewhat curious specimen of the style in which Peter Siculus delights to expatiate, I subjoin his own precise words.
Sergius,
rnultos
:
ille
diaboli
maximus propugnator
fecit,
Sergius,
qui
ex ovibus lupos
et
pavit Sergius, acer ipse sub fraudulentus simulator, quippe hac arte nmltis fucum faciebat Sergius, inimicus crucis Christi ; os impietatis ; in Christi
:
Sergius, Christi Apostolorum adversarius, qui et Prophetas odio habuit, et, a divinis literis versus, ad fabulas et mendacia se convertit Sergius,
: :
Christi osor, Ecclesiae perduellis, qui Dei Filium conculcavit, et sanguinem Testamenti pollutum duxit, et Spiritui gratia
contumeliam
fecit.
Sergius, energetically vilipended, was a most laborious successor of Constantine and a diligent teacher of the
The
thus
doctrine
New Testament
is
itself. lisdem, quibus apud nos sunt, verbis, acknowledgment of Peter himself respecting the several books of the New Testament used by the Paulicians. Ibid,
the
p. 33.
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
37
his variously
Manes among
indeed, that Constantine, deeply im bued with the discourses of Christ and with the
It is true,
writings of Paul, openly rejected the books of the ancient Manicheans it is true also, that this
:
termed by Peter Siculus, discarded the theology of Manes, together t^ O with the whole theory of the thirty celestial eons
disciple
of Manes,
as he
is
Still,
we may
credit
the historian,
nothing can be more clear and more certain, than, that, from the study of the New Testament,
catholic doctrines of
the Trinity and of Christ s godhead and incarna tion, the man rose a hardened and inveterate Mani-
chean *
soli
multumque
disciplina sunt
in dis-
enira impuri,
putationis
certamen
descendant,
morum
tatem
se
ferentes
per astum
comprobant pronunciantque.
Et
Deum
profiteri
cum impie
se taciti interpretentur
mini
Dei
;
fatentur
tionis
nostri in Virgine, quanquam alio et impio sensu, sequiusque sentientes damnant: omnia tamen Incarna-
Manetem
et asseclas
38
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
Mananalis,
it
:
among them
appears to have lain very eminently for these, no doubt, whatever might
be the case with the converted Catholics, reason ably thought, as we gather from the veritable
narrative of Peter Siculus, that the
most effectual
of preserving and improving their longcherished system was to flock round a teacher,
mode
who had
illius imitati,
who
Paulum
Samosatenum.
et,
ginem insectantis sudoribus manare affirmabat, et alia id genus non pauca, tanquam absurda nimis atque incredibilia, rejicienda sibi atque explodenda putavit minime id quidem, ut tantam
:
the
most effectual mode of gaining Manicheans of the old school should be an open rejection
may pardon the however, both for his gross inconsistencies, and for his uncharitably gratuitous ascription of motives, since he has
historian,
We
recorded the vital facts that Constantino disowned, both the books of the Manicheans, and the system of Manicheism itself; and that The Paulicians, his followers, held the doctrines of the Trinity and of Christ s incarnation and
:
godhead.
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
39
Manes himself
Yet
Manicheans,
the
while
actually
remaining
so rashly
Manicheans,
to the
new
Sylvanus,
who
acknowledged his preference of St. Paul to the slighted and disregarded heresiarch of Persia, is
not the only paradox, wherewith, in the present strange eventful history, we are destined to be
encountered.
As Constantine, though
of
Manes,
avowedly
renounced
Manes
while
though a decidedly confirmed Manichean, he openly rejected the whole theological system of Manicheism with beautiful consistency, the Maniche ans, who joined themselves to him, and who in his person venerated a true apostolical follower of
:
so,
prompt minds
(I
of the careful historian), spat upon and detested Scythianus and Budda and even Manes also, who
were notoriously the princes of the whole sect ; while yet, like their innovating reformer Sylvanus,
they remained such staunch Manicheans, that, rather than renounce the creed of Manes which
however they had already renounced, and rather than express an eternally-saving penitence which however they had already expressed, these most
inexplicable religionists chose impiously to die as
heretics in their already rejected and detested heresy *!
Jiilcni
40
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
to the
end of
to
this
Constantine, while he
ceasing
led
be a
life
of
most exemplary godliness, diligently, on scriptural abominations and im authority, inculcated all the
BasUides. purities of the gnostic
tive Christians,
who
the
soberly inquiring Pagans, he had clearly learned these abominations and these impurities
from an habitually diligent perusal of the New and his acquiescent proselytes, at Testament
:
of
it
runt, et
ex serapiterno
exitii
barathro effoderunt.
Petr. Sic.
Hist. p. 31.
Adeo
ut,
artificium
ignorantes,
Scythianum ac Buddam
et
Manetem
spuant et detestentur
que nomen assumpsit, aliosque qui post eum Apostolorum nuraero habeant, et Paulo pares
Ibid. p. 36.
honore ducant.
disci pulos,
Simeon autem, ne quid regii mandati praeteriret, Constantini quo ad saniorera mentem revocarentur, Ecclesiis
comraendat.
Sed
illi
maluer-
untque
in errore
quam Deum
sibi
poenitentia
Ibid. p. 37. placare salutemque consequi sempiternam. Itaque, extructo ad acervum ingenti rogo, incensi et cremati omnes fuerunt. Ibid. p. 37.
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
41
the moral corruptions, which their master had thence taught them both by precept and by prac
tice
In short, most diabolically and most cun ningly to boot (as Peter Siculus remarks), the Paulicians, for the better establishment of their
!
bad principles and worse conduct, were wont to insist that Both Priests and People are in duty
:
bound
to the
that
God
wishes all
saved and to come to the know and that The Priests of the
s
day adulterated
cealing
God
and con
!
contents *
juvenis adhuc esset, in foeminam igitur (Sergius), casu incidit, moribus infamem, secta Manichseam. quandam
Hie
cum
venem
est allocuta.
te
literarum scientia
bonum
quaque. Die ergo mild : cur non legis sacra Evangelia ? Quibus ille verbis allectus, nee occultum potius intuens nequitiae
Nobis profanis ista venenum quod latebat, ita respondit. non licet, sed sacerdotibus duntaxat. At ilia, Non ita legere
est, inquit,
Deum
ut putas : nee enim personarum acceptio est apud omnes siquidem homines vult salvos fieri Dominus, et
ad agnitionem veritatis venire. At sacerdotes vestri, quoniam Dei verbum adulterant et mysteria occulunt quce in Evangeliis
continentur, idcirco vobis
scripta sunt
;
aiidientibus
ne possitis
pervenire ad agnitionem
currens
Evatigelii
Eodemque
vocis
filo
singula per-
verba,
et
cujusque
sensum,
prout
42
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
Nevertheless (so runs the testimony of our judi cious and consistent historian), although these
strangest
of
all
strange
Manicheans absolutely
learned nothing from their professed rule of life, the Gospels and the Epistles, save the flagitiousness of Basilides yet they peremptorily rejected
:
exhibited, in their whole prac every base lust and declared themselves, tice, a consistent piety while alleged by their enemies to be the vigilant
; ;
guardians and the unflinching champions of the speculative dogmas of Manicheism, entirely free
from
all
his
As
who
among them
at Tibrica,
he
is
capere ilium videbat, mirifice depravans, brevi aptum reddidit diaboli instrumentum. Ibid. p. 38.
The
unacknowledged Manicheism
by reading
in
New
Ibid. p. 33, 39. high veneration by the Paulicians. * Qui tametsi a Manichaeorum impuritatibus se alienos dic-
dogmatum ipsorum
vigilantissimi custodes et
propugnatores.
Quandam
Hie
(de Sergio
prae se ferentes
morum
sanctimoniam. Ibid.
flagitiis
p.
31.
vero, rejectis
omnibus illorum
ac
libidinibus
Manichaeisque
Ibid. p. 38.
veluti salubria
simulabat.
1"
Ego
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
;
43
which,
But he
since in all parallel cases of this perplexing de scription, it is uniformly adopted by the sagacious
Bishop of Meaux, must needs be both respectable and satisfactory. The solution is this All their
:
was mere hypocrisy ; and They them undoubted wolves in the decent garb of selves were harmless sheep * !
specious piety
In an age of burning zeal, it was not likely, that the affair could be suffered to rest here. The
2.
divine
the
meritorious
slaughtering without mercy the culprits them selves, and of dooming to well-deserved death
and confiscation
all
who
them harbour f.
But now
ex
that extraordinary
piorum et orthodoxorum principum, quamvis indignus et ultimus, mult a cum cura obsecutus, omnibus palam facere enixe
contend!.
*
lupum
tegens, pietatis
t Hoc siquidem, ad caetera sua egregia facinora, divini atque orthodoxi Imperatores addiderunt, ut Manichaeos Montanosque capitali puniri sententia juberent; eorumque libros, quocumque in loco invent! essent, (lanimis tradi quod, si quis
:
44
race of
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
so undeniably
title
by
rejecting
charged, at the same time, to disperse his disciples, singly or in small com that so, however panies, throughout the Church
to death.
:
He was
obstinately
determined
the full
to
the
contrary,
finally
they con
sincerity of well
accredited
Catholicism.
The
:
Apostle should be stoned to death by his own disciples. All his proselytes, however, save one, disobeyed or evaded the sanguinary decree but, in that one, a new
that
the
to slay a
new
Goliath.
Among
the earliest converts of Sylvanus, was the This highly-privileged instru disciple Justus.
divine vengeance,
ment of
whose name
(as the
uspiam eosdem occultasse deprehenderetur, hunc eundem mortis poenae addici, ej usque bona in fiscum inferri. Petr. Sic. Hist,
p. 36.
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
45
as from the
was
raised
up
in
the
late
persecutor
Simeon.
Three years, amidst the pleasures and blandish ments of a court, he resisted his convictions but,
:
end of that term, he left all that he pos sessed, and fled privately from Constantinople.
at the
eo loci annos septem et viginti versatus esset (Constantinus Sylvanus) multosque ex iricolis in errorem impulisset,
*
Cum
dignum magisterio
et
finem
sortitus
est.
Nam
tinus ablegavit
cum
mandatis,
dosque dispergere, quanquam illi corrigi prorsus noluerunt. Nee mora jussis intercessit. Advolans enim Simeon, simul ac
destinatum locum
comprehendi omnes, et in australem Quo loco, miserum partem duci, jussit. ilium ejusque discipulos ex adverso destituens, signum dat illico, Verura hi, magistro suo, ut unum omnes lapidibus incessant.
attigit,
Coloniensis Castri
ut qui a
tis,
Deo ad
manus quidem ad balteos suos per speciem adducebant, clam autem lapides in terga vibrabant. Adoptarat ante pltires annos Sylvanus Justum quendam, eumque Manichzei haeresi
cum
primis iinbuerat
congruentem, ab
sequens,
illo
mercedeoi
tune vero, educationis doctrinaeque suae tulit palatini enim jussis ob:
sumpto
Davidica:
in
manu
saxo,
Sylvanum,
Goliath, vi
magna
percussit et occidit.
vox
ilia
Lacum
et incidit in
46
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
Peter Siculus promptly sets down his unaccount able conduct, as a clear case of diabolical pos
Whatever may be the value of that ingenious conjecture, Simeon became the suc cessor of the man, over whose martyrdom he had
session.
presided
who
Paul
friend Syl-
new
Paul
Titus *.
Meanwhile, the apostate murderer Justus seems, upon a profession of repentance, to have been un
find
for we suspectingly readmitted into the Society him disagreeing with the now spiritual ruler
:
Simeon, as to the true import of a remarkable text in the Epistle to the Colossians -f. This led
an act of what looks very like intentional In consulting the Bishop of Colonia treachery.
to
as to the sense of the litigated passage, he gave, to that Prelate, a full account both of himself and
Commuauscultat
nimis
excutit
et
institutionis
atque (ut verius dicana) levis ac praeceps animo, pestiferam haeresim hausit, et cum ea rediit Constantinopolim ad Imperatorem. Triennio deinde domi suae privatim acto, cum plene
jam
irretitus possideretur
a diabolo,
cessit,
Cibossam petens.
inde Constantini discipulis, ejusdem impietatis successor effectus est et ut nomini suo famam, eadem qua predecessores arte
:
conciliaret,
Titum
i.
se appellavit.
t Colos.
1517.
CHAP.
nity.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
47
to the
The Bishop communicated the confession Emperor and the Emperor, forthwith col
:
Manicheans
all,
who were
pertinacious
in error, upon one enormous funeral-pile*. A certain Paul, however, with his two sons, having, some considerable time before, retired to
and, in him,
and
he bestowed
made his escape son Genesius upon whom the name of St. Paul s disciple
:
in his
Timothy, the indomitable impiety revived and was In despite of internal dissention continued f.
itself,
the sect
still
in
toli
sensu
quod cupiebat
audiret,
omnia mox de
se sociisque, et
quam
Re
cora-
cunctandum
ratus,
de singulis
Imperil
statim in
sceptra
Qui quidem
ut audiit,
oiiines
unum
jussit,
atque flammis tradi quotquot essent in errore pertinaces. Itaque, extructo ad acervum ingenti rogo, incensi et cremati omnes
fuerunt.
f Incensi et cremati
genere
omnes
fuerunt, praeter
erant,
Paulum quendam,
Arabem,
cui
duo
filii
Genesius et Theodorus,
quibuscum fuga se proripuit pater, et Epispalim abiit jam dudum. Producit ergo alter hie Paulus, ad impietatis scholam,
filium Genesiura, cui
Petr. Sic.
Hist. p. 37.
48
THE VALLENSES
(if
[BOOK
II.
and Bahanes
the
first
deemed an ambitious
III.
intruder),
At
Community
of Sergius,
under the
took the
spiritual
government
who
scriptural
name
of
Tychicus
|.
Thirty and four years, this new Prelate (him self a convert, as it might seem, from among the
Catholics) laboured in the paradoxical vineyard of unmanicheanised Manicheism. He supplied
his people with books written by himself in the form of epistles which, though Peter Siculus
;
declares
them
all
deemed
in
veneration
in high he incessantly acted the missionary, the same towns and through the same regions
:
be
full
of
at least
as those
oriental theatre of
;
exertions
a circumstance
which
already
*
led (I suppose)
mentioned
pastoral
and he
f The
agency jof a woman whom the rabid historian pronounces to have been a morally infamous Manichean, have been given in the preceding notes. That he was a proselyte from among the
Catholics, I gather from his expressed notion, so well
combated
by
female instructor, that the Gospel was too sacred a book to be read by profane Laics, and that it was reserved for the
his
exclusive perusal
of the Clergy.
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
49
thereby, as our historian pithily observes, turned many from the orthodox faith, and made nume
rous converts to the devil *.
His active
life
he
by martyrdom, being cut into two pieces with an axe a remarkable instance, according to
closed
:
Peter Siculus, of the just judgment of God that who had divided the Church, should himself he,
;
spirit
should
foeraina, diaboli
propugnator Ser-
gius,
cum
qui sinceram et illibatam Christianorum fidem nostram ac pietatera colunt, in pernicie versari
:
praeco
fit
erroris
nomen
jactavit, et
quibus Apostolus veritatis verbum ante octingentos annos promulgarat, impigre circumcursans, multos ab orthodoxa fide
avertit,
et
diabolo adjunxit.
:
Quod
ipsemet,
in
Ab
a Borea
ad Austrum,
cucurri,
quam Paulus Apostolus Thessalonicensibus praedixerat, quaque iste magnam Ecclesiae partem graviter afflixit. Petr. Sic.
Hist. p. 39.
Habent porro
Ibid. p. 33.
f Justo tandem Dei judicio, securi dissectus, ut qui Ecclesiam Dei dissecuerat, in ignem missus est sempiternum. Petr.
Sic. Hist. p. 40.
50
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
Under the administration of Carbeas, the Com munity so greatly increased in number that they migrated to a new settlement which they called Tibrica and, while Chrysocheris was their chief
:
Impe
Court, spent, at that place, as I have already observed, nine months among them*.
IV.
At
this time,
Testament, which, as received by Constantine from the Deacon, contained only the four
New
Gospels and the fourteen Epistles of St. Paul, they had added the Acts of the Apostles, the
Catholic Epistles of James three Epistles of St. John
exception of the two Epistles of St. Peter and the mysterious book of the Apocalypse, they then, in its full completeness, possessed the entire
volume.
Nor did they only possess it, thus far numeri what is absolutely and inherently cally complete
:
fatal to
the malignant
historian
calumny of
it
their
pretended
likewise, as their
himself admits, free from all interpolation and erasure and corruption, in the
*
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
copies
I
5]
used by the
a matter of
This.
need scarcely
is
remark
prime importance
testimony,
it
and thence,
in
the
in
way of remem
origi
brance
*.
From
their readiness to
I
nally wanted,
venture
believe,
that
they
would have been equally glad to possess the remaining books of the New Testament though
:
Sacra quatuor Evangelia, et Saricti Pauli Apostoli denas Jacobi item Catholicana, ternas quaternas Epistolas, recipiunt
:
Joannis,
New
Testament of the
Paulicians, which they probably at that time had completed by the addition of the Apocalypse and the two Epistles of St. Peter,
was
precisely the
same as the
New
TO?<;
Testament of the
it
entire
Ca
nap
tholic
Church
perversely.
Xoyon;,
OVTV<;
a,ica.pd\\a,KTa,
Kovj/xara
$ia<rTpf<pov<rt.
Cedren.
Hist.
Compend.
vol.
i.
p.
343.
who flourished during the twelfth of the New Testament, which ran century, any interpretation counter to the prevailing superstition, would be deemed a per
In the days of Cedrenus
His testimony is important inasmuch as it thence appears, that, in the course of the three hundred years which elapsed between Peter Siculus and himself, no corruption of the
version.
:
New Testament, to serve the purposes of the Manichean Heresy, had ever been attempted by the Paulicians. Yet, to extract Manicheism out of the genuine and unadulterated New Testa
ment,
is,
52
THE VALLENSES
historian
[BOOK
II.
ology
that They and the keyreviled the Prince of the Apostles, His very phrase bearer of the courts of heaven. shews the true nature of what he character
their intemperate
declares,
istically
styles their
evil-a/ectedness
toward St.
Peter: the Sicilian Divine was indignant, that of Peter and his successors should the
heretics
of Armenia.
Their theological descendants in Europe obtained which their asiatic forefathers that
in
the
dicted Babylonian Harlot, those descendants rea the corrupt and dily traced the lineaments of persecuting Church of the seven hills.
lan respect to the Old Testament, the guage of the historian inevitably imports, though
With
he plainly meant not to convey any such idea, He tells that they were well acquainted with it.
us, that they admitted
it
not.
Now
this assertion,
even
liar
be correct, implies, of necessity, a fami knowledge of its contents: for a person can
if it
is
which he
altogether unacquainted.
His very
the mere
objurgation,
indeed,
it is
:
distinctly,
from
terms in which
familiarity
with it for, in his wonted exagger and intemperate phraseology, he tells us, ating
that they stigmatised the ancient hebrew prophets as robbers and The existence, then, vagabonds. of the prophets was and, fully known to them
:
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
53
that they,
who had
read in the
New
Testament
the attestations of Christ and the evangelical writers to their true character, should speak of them as Peter Siculus describes, will probably be
all
save those
who
wish to
of the Paulicians *.
For
my own
as they
Old Testament, so I think they likewise The admission of the one circum possessed it.
the
stance
draw
V.
after
stance.
It will
now,
in conclusion,
be useful to sum
up the evidence, which, in regard both to the doctrines and to the principles of the much calum
niated
Paulicians,
may
be
gathered from
the
When
Paulicians, though perpetually by their enemies charged with the Manichean Heresy,
The
accusation
f In the midst of much violent declamation and of assump tions alike uncharitable and gratuitous, every one of the subse
quently specified particulars will be found Paulicians written by Peter Siculus.
in
54
THE VALLENSES
rejected,
[BOOK
II.
and always
Manicheism*. abhorrence, both Manes and doctrines of the Trinity They held the allied
and the Incarnation
:
but they
renounced the
and of the Virgin and of the worship of the Cross while they evidently disbelieved that Saints material presence of the Lord s body and blood in the consecrated elements which finally received
;
the
away the
and which
asserts
and Simeon and Sergius, they revered, as faithful ministers of Christ, and as devout imitators of
the Apostle Paul. They were anxious to
make
converts
on the
the sincere doctrines ground, that they proclaimed of the Gospel while, consistently, they had ever
:
have not had an opportunity of reading the work of Photius against the Manicheans: but, as I learn from Mosheira,
I
he
also,
like
Peter
Siculus,
admits,
that
the
Paulicians
of his
Manes and
17,
lib.
i.
p.
ii.
56, 65.
5.
See
ii.
Mosheim
p. 367.
chap.
v. vol.
The
Work
of Peter Siculus,
who
in
the
year 870 spent nine months among the Paulicians to the great jeopardy of his orthodox Catholicism, seems to be the original
fountain,
is
derived.
Photius
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
55
always contended, that it ought not to be exclu sively locked up among the Priesthood, but that it ought to be freely open to universal perusal.
their
scheme of doctrine
from a mutilated or interpolated or currupted New Testament. The ancient Gnostics and Marcio-
and Manicheans, conscious that their own allied systems and the genuine Gospel could not subsist together, were notorious for their unprin
nites
To the exhi cipled erasures and adulterations*. bition of anything like even a moderately plausible
case, such
management was
or
absolutely necessary.
Manicheism, however modified, could not advance a step without it. Hence, where real Manicheism existed, there also was a
Gnosticism
garbled and spurious Gospel, arranged and pre
pared
purposes of innovating heresy. But the Paulicians confessedly used the genuine
to
suit the
for, though, when the historian wrote, Gospel they had not as yet been able to complete the sacred volume by the sole requisite addition of the
:
two Epistles of St. Peter and the Apocalypse of St. John still their copies of the books which they
;
possessed were free from all corruption, and verMarcion. lib. iv. Oper. p. 222225. Marcion substantially held the same doctrines as the Mani
cheans.
* See Tertull. adv.
Hence,
in
order to
make
it
serve
his
purpose, he
found it necessary so to corrupt and mangle and mutilate and interpolate the genuine Gospel as to produce a code which
56
bally corresponded
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
Church
alone,
Catholic.
Now
this single
circumstance
of all
other
Had
they been
New
Testament
would have been variously curtailed and interpo lated and corrupted, in order to suit the palpable
But their copies were, confessedly, genuine and unadulterated. Therefore, unless universally, they were absolute fools, they could not possibly have been Mani
necessities
of their
system.
cheans.
They
admitted genuine Gospel unwillingly, as a docu ment, which they disliked indeed, but which they
found
impracticable with any shew of decency to reject. On the contrary, they were so fully
it
its truth and of its vital import ance to salvation, that, rather than abandon it and
convinced both of
their per
and under
its
most
painful nature.
How
persons,
thus
characterised
even by an
enemy, can have been Manicheans in doctrine, certainly exceeds my own skill to explain*.
*
subjoin
the
six
articles,
under which
Peter
Siculus
Paulicians.
The
CHAP.
2.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
little,
57
able to explain,
As
moreover,
am
how they can have been Basilidians in practice. The historian s reluctant attestation to their moral
and
religious principles
is, I
and altogether
satisfactory.
and consistent, that nothing is left for their enemy, save to pronounce the whole of their specious
piety mere hypocrisy.
rejected with abhorrence the so they indignantly doctrinal errors of Manes
:
As they openly
that they
were tainted
own
judging how
far
acknow
ledged rejecters of Manes and his whole system. Primum illorum axioma est duo rerum esse
:
principia
Deura tnalum,
et
Deum bonum
;
torera ac principem
Secundum
infinitis
quod Deiparam semperque Virginem, atque laudibus concelebrandara, per odium abjiciant, nulloque
:
inter
neque Christum ex
detulerit;
natum, ut qui corpus e ccelo secum Josephumque ex ilia, post Domini partum, plures
e
Tertium
quod,
sacris
mysteriis, divinam ac
nostri
tremendam
corporis et sanguinis
Domini
a Domino nempe negent, aliaque de hoc mysterio doceant non panem et vinum in coena discipulis propinatum, sed figurate symbola tantum et verba, tanquam panem et vinum, data.
Quartum
crucis non
et vivificae
contumeliis
onerent.
58
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
In their labour of proselyting they were so suc converts from among the cessful, that not only
educated Laity, but even numbers of more learned Monks and Priests, joined their Com
less
These became preachers of the faith which they had adopted and the fact itself ex from the characteristic asser periences no change
munity.
:
were transmuted
adraittant,
Quintum
prophetasque
sacra quatuor
Evangelia, et S. Pauli Apostoli denas quaternas item Catholicam, ternas Joannis, Epistolas, recipiant, Jacob! Catholicam Judae, cum Actis Apostolorum, iisdem, quibus
verbis.
:
teros et seniores
aiunt enim,
quod
seniores adversus
Dominum
congregati
sint.
whence we
may
accuracy
in other matters.
:
According
did not,
disciples
that
Our Lord
his
the institution
set before
if they were
but that symbols only and words, as ; This bread and wine, were figuratively given.
that runs,
palpable
perversion, he,
may
read.
What
they
was
this
that,
literally
of the thing
signified.
The
determined misrepresentation, which runs through the whole document, is so manifest, that it can scarcely escape even the most careless observation.
vein, indeed, of
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
into wolves,
59
to be
from sheep
adherence
to
was marked by their frequent and ready Hundreds of them submission to martyrdom. were burned alive upon one huge funeral pile
:
suam * Monachos complures, et moniales quae virginitatem suos corrupit et, a monasChristo devoverant, per discipulos
:
Multos denique tica vita revocans, a ex sacerdotes et levitas ab orthodoxa religione avellens, et
Deo
simul
alienavit.
ovibus
lupos faciens,
Petr.
Sic.
Hist. p. 39.
I suppose, monastic
Like their theological descendants in Europe, they deemed, vows absurd and unscriptural and tending
of Peter Siculus, in his dealing
The most
singular
humour
with the luckless Sergius (the special object of his vituperation that he not only heaps upon his in the preceding passage), is of the most palpable and ridiculous devoted head a
:
profusion all the conse calumnies, but that he actually charges him with of his apostleship, in the shape of persecutions and quences him troubles and captivity and the like strangely describing
;
who
bondage, and
who
Of
this,
also,
he had express Sergius was destined to bear the blame, though ed his decided disapprobation of such proceedings, and had
admonished
could not alway make them obey his exhortations to meekness and submission he ought not, argues the candid historian, to
:
By
eople.
60
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
two, out of three more eminent presidents, were cut in sunder with the axe severally stoned and
:
and the
third,
that
Simeon
years amidst the honours and pleasures of a court, from a persecutor became a steady convert, ap peared as the successor of the very man over
finally
which, by a sacrifice of all his worldly goods and prospects, he had embraced. In short, such mingled violence and inconsis
tency and absurdity, as distinguish the writer now before us, may well make a sober inquirer pause, before he admits the Paulicians to have been a
sect of Manicheans.
Palpable misrepresentation runs through every page of the Work of Peter Siculus and, upon my own mind at least, its
:
effect
is
which
it
was
intended to produce.
declamation,
I
popish priest, bellowing against Luther, and child ishly propounding his manifest connection with
Lucifer.
The
school, to
belong
every age, calumny has been the of an apostate Church), is, graphi regular staple cally no less than prophetically, exhibited by the
(for, in
Now
is
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
01
our God, and the power of Christ : for the accuser accused them of our brethren is cast down, which
before our
night.
And
they overcame
the
Lamb, and by
word of
the death*.
* Rev.
xii.
10, 11.
CHAPTER
II.
WEARIED
out with incessant persecution in the East, the suffering Paulicians meditated, at length, a retreat into the West.
The
earliest
of
the reign of Constantine the son of Leo Isauricus. These fugitives were followed by others for,
:
shortly after the Community was visited Siculus in the year 870, a considerable
them passed
over,
and, if we may they advanced into Bulgaria judge from the historian s monitory address to the Archbishop of the latter province, he appears to
have
*
known and
anticipated
their
intention *.
apud Paullicia-
nos diu moratus, saepe disputando cum illis sum congressus, illorumque arcana omnia per Catholicos etiam ibi degentes
curiose investigavi
:
cognovi
Bul
exseliteris
garia quoscunque possent a Catbolica Religione ad suam cratam et nefariarn sectam averterent. sacris enim
facile se posse
CHAP.
II.]
63
But, in Bulgaria, as might be expected from its dependence upon the Constantinopolitan Empire,
they found
little
of their feet.
Some, however, notwithstanding the persecution which there again relentlessly dogged them, still
remained
1
in
that district
hoping, in the papal regions of Europe, migrated further westward into Germany and Italy and France.
lolium
haereseos
permiscere.
impii seepenumero
factitare, ut
omnem move-
nullumque recusent periculum, quo damnatarum opinationum suarum pestera quibuscumque possint, infundant.
Petr. Hist. Archepisc. JBulgar. nuncupat. p. 31.
The reader will not fail to observe, in this passage, two im the one, that portant admissions on the part of Peter Siculus he picked up some of his tales respecting the Paulicians from
:
made
the Sacred
be recollected, that the Sacred Scriptures, thus syste matically made the basis of their zealous preaching, are those
It will
very Scriptures, which Peter Siculus himself, as well as Cedrenus three centuries later, admitted them to have possessed and used uncorrupted and unmutilated, so as precisely to correspond
Body
of Christians
the
Church
at large.
Thus perpetually does falsehood defeat its own ends by its own inconsistency and thus wisely is it ordered by the right
:
lie,
which
shall so
in
laugh at detection,
perhaps nothing
less
than an impossibility.
(54
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
names, such as Patarins, Publicans, Gazarians, Tur lupins, Runcarians or Hungarians apparently from Hungary, and Bulgarians certainly from
Bulgaria
:
among which,
tans seems chiefly to have predominated, until, at length, from their abounding in the neighbourhood
of Albi, they received the appellation, by which they are now most commonly known, of Albigenses
or Albisenses or Albigeois *.
*
The
is
by Usher
but, without
any
judge, he adopts the familiar calumny, that they and their suc See Usser. de Eccles. cessors in Europe were Manicheans.
Success, c.
viii.
17
22.
out this
Work,
styled Albigenses
all
and certainly of
modern
ears.
As
to the time
when
was
first
The
General History of Languedoc, contends, that it is not older than the year 1208, having been given to the religionists of
them.
Southern France at the commencement of the crusade against He supposes, that they were thus denominated from
the circumstance of their having been the Council held in the year
1
condemned
xix.
as heretics in
176 at Lombers
livr.
in the
diocese of
iii.
Albi.
It
is
4. vol.
p. 4.
a point of no great moment, save to the antiquary. I may add, that Ricchini, the editor of Moneta, has given a very good
summary of
the whole of western and middle Europe. Cathar. c. i, ii. Like the rest of his
Ricchiu. Dissert, de
fraternity, relying
on the
somewhat
incontrovertibly Manicheans.
Ibid,
1. c.
ii.
5.
CHAP.
II.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
65
In accordance with their acquisition of this last name, a very large proportion of them settled in
Gascony and Languedoc and Provence and Aquitaine and their original number was swelled by
:
the rapid addition of myriads of native converts, whom the disciples of St. Paul successfully pro
selyted
throughout those districts of Southern France, which, long maintaining a sort of inde
pendence upon the Papacy, zealously opposed the idolatrous ordinances of the second Nicene Coun
cil,
to
adopt the
they attracted the notice of the dominant Church and the language of the Council of Tours which
:
Pope
year 1199 and with that of the Archbishop of Narbonne in the year 1213 and with that of Louis IX in the year 1228, distinctly
Innocent III
in the
and that
their doctrine
Turon. can.
iv.
quamplurimos jam infecit. Concil. Labb. Concil. vol. x. p. 1419. sive in Gul.
lib.
ii.
Neubrig.
et
Rer. Anglican,
c.
15.
Paterini, dicuntur,
in
nominibus appellatos,
et alios quoslibet
66
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
But, though their chief establishment appears to have been in the South of France, they had, on
the whole, in the twelfth century, no fewer than sixteen Churches loosely scattered over the coun
try
which extends from Bulgaria to Gascony. Of these, the names and locality are given, with
precision,
much
by the
is
Inquisitor
Reinerius
commonly
said to have
composed
associated
his
Work
;
tionally remarks
about the year 1254, addi that, while the entire regularly
Community
proselytes,
ruperint falsitatis.
p. 56, 57.
Cum
nata,
enim
in
partibus
nostris
partibus usque
adeo succrevisset,
quod cultus
:
factum
est, ut,
in
parte
maxima dudum a
destructis adversitatibus
et
cultoribus
conculcata,
demum
Quia
virus
suum
in
effuderunt Ecclesiam
matrem nostram
multipliciter maculantes
ad ipsorum extirpationem statuimus, quod haeretici, qui a fide catholica deviant, quocunque nomine censeantur, postquam fuerint de haeresi per episcopum loci, vel per aliam ecclesiasticarn personam quae
potestatem habeat, coridemnati, indilate animadversione debita puniantur. Ludov. IX. Epist. in Labb.
Concil. vol. xi. par. 1. p. 423.
*
In toto
CHAP.
II.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
67
the
Every calumny, which had assailed them in and East, attended them into the West
:
Peter Siculus himself cannot be more violent, than the multiplicity of concurring authors ad
duced by Bossuet.
Those authors he
cites,
for
the purpose of shewing, that they were profligate and thence that they cannot be Manicheans
;
safely claimed by the Reformed Churches as part of an ecclesiastical succession in which the pro mises of Christ have been accomplished. But, in
every point of view, there is such a mass of incon sistency in the evidence, that, if any person wishes
upon it, he will find himself beset with difficulties and contradictions, which
to frame his belief
are
more sensibly
felt
mounted.
by which he will be en countered, may be stated in manner following. The Albigenses are asserted to have been habitI.
The
first difficulty,
mundo non
Credentes innumeri.
c. vi. in
Bibli-
The
of the Paulician Emigrants, while the Believers were the native Proselytes
whom
by
they
made
in
Europe.
may
observe, that,
its real title
in this citation, I
Work
it
of Reinerius
as prefixed
himself.
Hccreticis.
He
calls
Opusculum de
The
Jesuit Gretser,
by way of im
fit
to style
it
68
THE VALLENSES
:
[BOOK
II.
neverthe ually guilty of the vilest abominations less, as Bossuet himself is constrained to allow,
of profligacy and impiety might always be known by the peculiar strictness of their walk and con
versation.
1.
Most
curious
is
the
effect
produced by
in
discordant statements
versal doctor,
These heretics are variously styled Catharri,/ro??z the word Catha which signifies a flux ; on account of their utter abandonment to dissoluteness of man ners : or Cathari, as it were Casti because they
;
pretend
to be
;
or Catari,
from
the
word Catus because they are in the habit of kissing the hinder parts of a cat, under the form of which
animal, as we are well assured, Lucifer
is
wont
to
appear
(2.)
to
them
*.
of Clairvaux.
*
est,
diffluentes
per vitia
Catha, quod
vel
quia se
;
vel
quia
lib.
i.
c.
Eccles. Slice,
16.
CHAP.
It
is
II.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
69
unutterable obscenities.
baseness, they
In order
of continence.
so scandalous,
women
chaste *.
This Alanus,
in
was
s
styled
Magnus
upon
He
is
one of Bossuet
to
witnesses,
whose
credit
we
are invited
Another of
of
an avatar of Lucifer.
pears in the extraordinary and somewhat unexpected capacity, of a strenuous advocate for the doctrine of Transubstantiation,
and of a stout assailant of an Albigensic heretic who presump See Luc. Tudens. tuously denied the truth of that doctrine.
adv. Albig.
lib.
iii.
c. 14. in
xiii. p.
283.
The same
in the
paldus.
Ibid. lib.
iii.
c. 15. p.
283.
These were the arguments, wherewithal the Romish Clergy did battle against the hated Albigenses cats and calumnies,
:
of rank dishonesty or of besotted credulity, gravely brought forward as good and sufficient evidence to convict the Albigen
ses of
Manicheism.
nefanda et
obscoena
dicuntur
Nam
siquideni et
vulpium posteriora
foetent.
70
(3.)
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
next attend to the apostate In who gives us some yet further quisitor Reinerius, insight into their base practices.
We may
They make a cake of meal mixed with the blood of an infant. If the infant dies, it is deemed a martyr:
if
it lives, it
is
styled a saint.
naked
to
Many
more
pray, both men and women promiscuously*. of their Believers of both sexes, scruple no
approach their nearest relatives, than their It is their common respective wives or husbands -\.
to
opinion, that
marriage
no person
is is
a mortal sin
but they
think, that
punished for adultery and incest, than for lawful Whatever sins they have committed matrimony \.
In operimentum turpitudinis, continentiae se insigniere voto.
Ibid. serm. Ixvi. p. 762.
Cum
potes
:
foemina semper
nonne plus
et,
non coguoscere foerainam, est quam mortuum suscitare ? Quod minus est, non quod majus est, vis credamtibi? Quotidie latus
esse,
et
in
mensa
camera; oculi tui, ad illius oculos in colloquio ; inanus ad manus ipsius in opere et continens vis putari ? Esto,
: :
ut
sis
"
Ex
ab
panem; qui
viri
infans,
si
si
Adami-
tae,
Adam,
et fceminae.
Reiner, de haeret. c.
xiii.
p.
307.
quam
neptem, conad uxorem et virum cognatam, accedere, quam Reiner, de haeret. c. vi. p. 303.
filiam, fratrem,
et
Communis
opinio
omnium Catharorum
est,
quod matrimo-
CHAP.
II.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
71
before their
manifest
from
the
make
restitution
of
theft or rapine.
reserve,
it
to their
children
no sin*.
Yet, to this very same Reinerius, are we indebted for the following most graphic account
identical Cathari, whom, immediately he had been busily describing as the worst before, and most profligate of mankind.
of those
words.
Heretics are known by their manners and their In their manners, they are composed and
They admit no pride of dress : holding a just mean, between the expensive and the squalid. In order that they may the better avoid lies and
modest.
oaths
trickery, they dislike entering into trade ; but, by the labour of their hands, they live like
and
Their very teachers are, ordinary hired workmen. mere, artizans. Riches they seek not to multiply,
nium carnale semper
fuerit
in future
quod
imo
reser-
manentibus
quia dicunt,
c. vi.
usurara
nullum esse
peccatum.
Reiner, de haeret.
303.
72
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
but they are content with things necessary. They are chaste also: a virtue, in which the Leonists
particularly excel.
temperate.
They
they are always They carefully restrain either in working, or in learning, or in engaged, and, therefore, they spend but little time teaching
themselves.
:
From anger
in prayer.
nevertheless,
confess,
and
may
likewise be
:
known by
their precise
words
all scurrility
and detraction
.
levity
of speech*
Much
of the
* Haeretici Sunt enim in cognoscuntur per mores et verba. moribus composite et modesti. Superbiam in vestibus non ha-
bent
multum
abjectis, utuntur.
Ne-
gotiationes non habent, propter raendacia et juramenta et fraudes vitandas sed tantum vivunt de labore, ut opifices. Doctores
:
etiam
maxime,
Leonistae.
in
cibo et potu.
Ad tabernas Ab ira se
:
non eunt,
cohibent.
orant.
Semper operantur,
Item ad ecclesiam
communicant,
modestis.
et ideo
parum
vadunt
offeruut,
et confitentur,
et
capiant in sermone.
Cognoscuntur etiam in verbis praecisis et Cavent etiam a scurrilitate, et detractioue, et vermendacio, et juramento.
Reiner, de haeret.
borum
levitate, et
c. vii. p.
307.
CHAP.
II.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
I
73
occasional conformity,
Reinerius, however, goes on presentation. curious account of the mode, give us a very
which
this vile
and
rustic
and
illiterate
race (as
contemptuously styles them *) made converts even among the great ones of the earth
Bernard
mode
known
to
have
proselyted, not only the Princes of the House of Toulouse with other Nobles, but likewise the
that
is
we may
Albigenses, to the doctrinal follies and the prac tical impurities of Manicheism
.
devise,
in
sinuate themselves into the familiarity of the noble and the great : and this they do in manner following.
They exhibit for sale, to the lords and the ladies, rings and robes and other wares which are likely to
be acceptable.
When
whether they have any more goods for sale, one of these travelling pedlars will answer : I have jewels
these,
which
I will
me against
readily being be
The security being pledged, trayed to the priests. the heretic then proceeds to say : I possess a bril
gem from God himself ; for, through it, man comes to the knowledge of God: and I have another,
liant
*
Vile
nempe hoc
genus, et rusticanum,
ac sine
literis, et
prorsus
p.
imbelle.
Bernard, super
Cantic. serra.
Ixv.
Oper.
762.
74
THE VALLENSES
it
[BOOK
II.
forthwith
the love of
God
in the heart
of the owner.
manner proceeds he to speak of all his other Then he recites a chapter from metaphorical gems. Scripture or from some part of our Lord s dis
In
like
he finds his auditor to be pleased, he will proceed to rehearse the twenty-third chapter
courses.
When
of Matthew and the parallel passages in the twelfth chapter of Mark : wherein the Scribes and Phari
sees are described, as sitting in the seat
of Moses
denounced against those who shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, neither
is
who
wish
it to
enter.
After
this,
the heretic
draws a
comparison between the state of the Roman Church and the state of the ancient Pharisees : applying, to
the former,
all that is said
Among
New
Testament
but,
among
you can scarcely Jind either a man or a woman, who knows not how to recite the whole text in the
we possess the true faith of Christ, and because we inculcate upon all our people holiness of life and soundness of doctrine :
vulgar tongue.
Yet, because
therefore do these
Besides: Jewish predecessors persecuted Christ. and do not : but we practise all, that we they say
teach.
the traditions
of
CHAP.
II. J
AND ALBIGENSES.
75
we persuade persons only to observe the doctrine of Christ and the Apostles. They impose upon their
penitents heavy punishments,
alleviate with
so
much as a
single finger
but we,
;
Go,
Furthermore
:
we transmit
souls,
thus
propounded,
the
heretic
Judge ye, what state and what faith is the more perfect ; that of our Community, or that of the Church of Rome ? And, when you have honestly
judged, choose that which you deem the best. Thus, through their errors, is a person subvertedfrom the
and thus, believing and harbouring and favouring and defending and for many months
catholic faith
:
hiding a vagabond of this description, he learns, in his own house, the several particulars respecting
their sect^.
(6.)
similar
character of
the Albigenses,
If you
nothing can be more Christian : if you inquire into their conversation, nothing can be more irreprehen*
Lat.
Infernum.
into
Hell
but Reinerius
as
a Lower Region.
t Reiner, de haeret. c.
307, 308.
76
sible
;
THE VALLENSES.
[BOOK
II.
deeds.
life
attack no one, they circumvent no one, they defraud Their faces are pale with fasting : they eat no one.
but they labour with their own hands for the support of life. Yet mark the
;
fox.
Women
and husbands
forsake
Nay many
tually
and
si
conversationem,
circumvenit,
niis
:
neminem supergreditur.
;
vitarn sustentat.
jam vulpes?
item
viri dimissis
sacerdotes,
populis
intonsi
barbati
apud
eos,
inter textores et
textrices,
plerumque
invent! sunt.
Bernard, super Cantic. serm. Ixv. Oper. p. 761. Bernard, blinded by prejudice, and led away by the idle cock-on-a-bell stories of the age, never seems to have considered
the utter
who
possessed
whatever knowledge was then possessed, should forsake their all to join a body of absurdly unscriptural and despised and for such, if we may credit Bossuet s proscribed Manicheans
:
extraordinary
band of witnesses,
Cathari
or
Albigenses.
have used the expressive proverbial phrase cock-on-a-bell, familiarly corrupted into cock- and- a-bull, in its true and genuI
CHAP.
2.
II.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
77
what are the inferences, which any reasonable and sober-minded man, well acquaint ed with the principles and practices of the Romish Ecclesiastics, would draw from these most curi
ously mottled statements
?
Now
When we
Christians,
recollect,
that,
every babbling Pagan was ready to bring charges of a nature exactly similar to those
and
when we note the concurrent admission, that nothing could be more exemplary than their whole
conduct and conversation
our Lord
s
:
we may
perhaps, on
fruits, find
wise system of judging a tree by its it not very easy to believe, that these
hated religionists were such monsters of iniquity as their enemies would fain have us to admit. *
ine application to the fabulous narratives of
Popery. There is some measure of antiquarian curiosity attendant upon it, which may rival the singular metamorphosis of the Pix and Ousel into
the familiar sign of the Pig and Whistle.
ages, as
we
campanam was
Priest
:
the
ecclesiastical
hieroglyphic of a Romish
what copiously
true, the
legends rather marvellous than absolutely of our English Protestantism soon learned contempt
in
cock-and-a-bull-story
in his Octavius, gives a very full account of the calumnies, which, by the Pagans, were excogi tated and propounded against the Primitive Christians pro-
Minucius
Felix,
78
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
Nor
saries,
is this all.
it
As we have heard
fair to
their adver
seems only
hear themselves.
to the allegations
miscuous incest
in
an
an adoration of
child, for the
p.
7090.
trifling
Popish Priests
variations, as if the
servile herd of imitators were, in their profitable trade of mendaciousness, unwilling to relinquish all claim to originality of
The reader will been transferred to the Paulician Albigenses. be amused with a few specimens of such romish fig perhaps
ments: for which he stands indebted to the several workshops, of Conrad von Magdenberg of an Inquisitor, who seems to have
;
had grace
name
who has
recorded the two surprising cases, of a catus, or male-cat, which at the point of his claws zealously advocated the doctrine
of Transubstantiation, and of the metamorphosis of a dead Albigensic heretic into the toad denominated Crapaldus.
Doubtless
he will be prepared to receive, with all due implicitness of con fidence, the testimony of such credible witnesses.
est,
quadam
itaque nonnulli ex
ille-
cebris,
loquar, spurcissimas;
libidines
ut
cum
reverentia
Conrad, de
xiii.
in
Biblioth.
Patr. vol.
CHAP.
II.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
79
By the acknowledgment of Bernard, they flatly and steadily denied their truth. Was the Abbot of Clairvaux, when he com
bined their admitted conduct with their admitted
denials, convinced of their innocence
?
scribam.
esse
Dei fratrem, injuriose de coelo detrusum, et se cum eo regnaPueros eorum ei immolant turos. ipsumque pro divitiis
:
rogant.
Ad
promisctias concu-
piscentias et
Ind. Error, in
341.
Dicunt
eis haeretici
Omnia, qua in hoc mundo visibilia sunt, Unde non refert, in lucro pecuniarum,
:
utrum bene acquirentur vel male illarum salvat, nee mala damnat.
facere,
nee
si
obest agere
mala
damnatur,
haereticis,
Haec dicentibus
:
vani homines
et se,
committunt.
Effe-
quam non
:
pertranseat
:
eorum
luxuria.
filia
Abutitur
matrem
frater, fratrem
et pater in
turpitudinem
:
operatur.
quos,
in
diversis
immundicitiis et fostore
infamiae
polluit;
Hoec ab
haereticae
accepimus,
;
qui
quondam
cceno
faecis
obvoluti
et per gratiam
Petr. vol.
xiii. p.
were easy to multiply specimens of similar fabrications, all relentlessly pilfered from the original manufactory of Pa ganism but these, at least for the present, may suffice.
It
:
80
THE VALLENSES
Nothing of the
sort.
[BOOK
II.
strong for plain common of their denial of the atrocities laid to their charge, they were sagaciously subjected to the waterordeal
:
and,
to sink,
when they found themselves unable they then, if we may credit the tales
reported to Bernard, not merely confessed their impiety, but even gloried in it*.
On
the tales, to wit, of an ignorant and infuriated mob of brutal persecutors, he pronounces the
whole of their specious piety to be mere dissimu lation and Bossuet, at the end of the seventeenth
:
Bernard
clear-sightedness,
to
Plerumque
traxerunt.
fideles, injectis
Qujesiti fidem,
mendaces inventi
omnia prorsus suo more negarent, examinati judicio aquae, sunt. Cumque jam negare non possent,
quippe deprehensi, aqua eos non recipiente, arrepto, ut dicitur, misere quam libere, impietatem non consed professi, sunt, palam pietatem astruentes, et pro ea
subire
parati, nee
mortem
minus parati
From
it
the very
mode
in
which Bernard
think
rather professed than confessed, was evident, that, not the truth of the allegations brought against them in regard
to faith
what they
and practice, but the system which he indeed called im but which they knew to be the piety, Gospel.
CHAP.
II.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
81
mode
hy
in
their lives
pious,
at
least,
:
externally, as their
maintained what they held to the Gospel and, rather than renounce
;
cheer
fully
suffered
its
most
formidable aspect. Active courage in battle may, no doubt, subsist but the along with great profligacy of manners
:
natural tendency of habitual vice is to weaken and destroy that passive courage, which, in cold blood,
for conscience-sake,
induces a
man calmly
to suffer
death rather than relinquish what he is persuaded is the vital truth of God. Persons may live de* Saint Bernard
mulation.
fait
voir,
que
que
dissi
35.
Ne
Ibid.
que leur vertu n etoit qu une croyez jamais rien de bon de ceux qui
60.
:
tort d
personne ; jeune ; par Us ne mangent point leur pain comme des paresseux ; et Us travaillent pour gagner leur vie. Qu y a-t-il de plus specieux que
ces heretiques de saint Bernard
?
etoit
que
feinte.
le
Regardez
;
le
fond
orgueil
1
clerge
c est Faigreur
le
centre
Eglise;
venin
143.
82
THE VALLENSES
:
[BOOK
II.
bauched hypocrites but, I should think, few would be much disposed to be such characters burned alive from an extraordinary love for the
Manicheism. Mistaken men speculations of die for what they honestly deem the Gospel
immoral
may
but
men
who
commonly lay down their lives for How, then, in the case of the
gate and hypocritical Albigenses, difficulty to be solved ?
grossly profli
is
this
second
to his
hand by the wisdom of the twelfth century, as displayed by the same most serviceable Bernard and he might have yet additionally brought for
:
ward the sagacity of the thirteenth century, as for the solution of exemplified by Lucas of Tuy
;
quadrates with that of Bernard, and is indeed, with due acknowledg ments, professedly and modestly borrowed from it.
what incongruously described, as being ready to say and to swear anything in order that they
might escape
other,
it
punishment
this
still,
somehow
race
or
was a public
that
fact
too notorious to be
denied,
most
paradoxical
sub
mitted, even joyfully and triumphantly, to martyr dom, rather than apostatise from the creed of
their forefathers*.
*
Avouant
et jurant lout ce
qu on vouloit, pour
livr. xi.
se sauver
du
supplice.
41.
CHAP.
II.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
83
particulars,
but, the
naked
of voluntary and triumphant suffering for alleged conscience-sake on the part of the suf ferers, he is content to explain in the manner
recommended by Bernard.
If Judas might
devil
to
upon himself: surely Satan, with at least equal facility, might tempt the Albigenses to brave death at the hands of others *.
lay
* I subjoin the originals, that full justice
this curious
violent
hands
may
be done to
il
(le
and perhaps unique specimen of Latin ratiocination. diable) avoit bien pu porter Judas a se donner la
mort a lui-meme, il pouvoit bien porter ces heretiques a la souffrir de la main des autres. Boss. Hist, des Variat. livr. xi.
147.
quod, non modo patienter, sed et laeti, ut sed qui minus advertunt, videbatur, ducerentur ad mortem
Mirabantur
aliqui,
quanta
etiam
in
sit
modo
in
Nonne
ab
plus
alio
est sibimet
hominem
injicere
in
manus, quam
id libenter
sustinere
Hoc autem
Denique Judas suspendit seipsum, diabolo sine dubio immittente. Ego tamen magis existimo, magisque admiror, quod
potuit immisisse in cor ejus ut traderet
Dominum, quam
ut
semetipsum suspenderet.
martyrum,
illis
et
in
pertinacia
istis
horum
in
pietas,
Bernard, sup.
in
84
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
This truly logical argument, from the less to the greater, must needs, with all close thinkers,
be invincibly conclusive.
The con
tempt of death,
judiciously
but, in heretics,
in
makes the
it is
simply produced by
a diabo
patitur
quod
dicit se corporis
non
pertinere,
Est ergo a diadolore sustinuit passionem. mente dat se praecipitem bolo ejus insensibilitas, cum coecus
qui pro nobis
: quod, in pluribus impiis, non solum legimus, verum Saul et armiger ejus gladiis cecietiam vidimus, praecessisse. derunt: et Achitophel suspensus occubuit, quia nutu Dei dissi-
cum
morti
patum
est consilium
:
ejus.
alii,
suspendit
et
multi
praecipitio tradiderunt.
De hac autem
Bernardus
c.
21. in
Luc. Tudens. adv. Albig. fideles instruit. Bibl. Patr. vol. xiii. pp. 285, 286.
in
Much
by no philosophical love of
but they were driven along to death by the mere vain glory of an ostentatious madness. That he of the cat and the crapaud should eagerly catch up the wisdom of St. Bernard, retailing it
with some judicious improvements of his own, is small wonder. Lucas of Tuy would have forfeited his charter, had he Verily,
acted otherwise.
CHAP.
II.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
85
adopting, in the seventeenth century, the che rished solution of the twelfth and thirteenth cen
turies,
be solved
the evidential difficulty, I mean, when the whole matter is fairly considered, of admitting the suffi ciency and satisfactoriness of the testimony, which
is
adduced
for
asserted fact,
the
Manicheans.
Like the primitive Christians, these religionists, we have seen, were charged with the secret
as
Yet they are ad practice of various impurities. mitted to have led holy and honest lives of habi and temperance and chastity and self-denial they are still further admitted to have always
tual
:
as
we have
also
avow and
swear anything that might be required of them: order that, by such unscriptural dissimulation,
the
awarded
to heresy.
Yet, even
by the confession
of their adversaries, they cheerfully and triumph antly laid down their lives, rather than renounce
the doctrinal system, which, whether correctly or incorrectly, they themselves at least deemed the
sincere truth of the Gospel.
8(3
THE VALLENSES
[fiOOK
II.
what, by their bigotted in was alleged to be opponents, that system order that we may judge, how far the difficulty of any credit to the testimony of such
We
have
now
to learn,
attaching
inconsistent witnesses
may be
fairly
thought ca
necessary to
Though
the
title,
affixed (I suppose)
by
the Jesuit
of Tuy, purports that it is a Treatise against the little about Albigenses, the author really says very
their alleged peculiar opinions.
That
little,
how
the
ever,
is
sufficient to
impious speculations of Manicheism. These heretics, says he, falsely assert, that the
created by the devil. Glorying in the name of philosophers or naturalists, they pro But pound many doctrines contrary to the truth.
body of
man was
their object
to
is to
introduce the
:
as they saucily pretend, created all things visible. Thus they assert : that every visible object in this
CHAP.
it
II.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
87
matters not, whether money be gained well or ill. They likewise contend : that the Prelates of the
assistance, by indulgences of re
who have
died
and that
alone
:
souls
no punishment,
save
in
hell
adding, that they know nothing about the condition of those survivors, whom, while they lived in the
body, they loved in this world*.
(2.)
in the thirteenth
century
but the testimony of an earlier writer, Radulphus Ardens, who lived towards the close
is
* Humanum Luc. corpus factum a diabolo mentiuntur. Tudens. Praefat. adv. Albig. in Bibl. Patr. vol. xiii. p. 324. Alia plura, ut oppugnent veritatem, proferunt haeretici, qui philosophorum seu naturaliurn nomine gloriantur. Quorum finis
est
et
duos
fateri
Deos
quorum
malignus,
Ibid. lib.
procaciter mentiuntur,
c. 1. p.
creavit
orunia visibilia.
277.
:
Dicunt
eis haeretici
Omnia, quae
in
hoc mundo
visibilia sunt,
Unde non
refert, in lucro
Ibid. lib.
iii.
c. 5. p.
pecuniarum, 279.
nullius
;
sancti
judicii, coelum
nisi
ascen-
dere
in atque nusquam pati pcenas animas, habere notitiam etiam eorum, quos, dum viveneque Praefat. in Ibid. p. 234. rent, in saeculo dilexerunt.
tantummodo
inferno
88
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
Such, at this day, are those Manichean Heretics, who by their heresy have polluted their native country
of Agenois.
life
of the Apostles ; saying, that they will neither nor swear at all ; and, under the pretext of ab lye
stinence
and
continence,
food : for they assert, that it as great a sin to approach to a wife as to a mo ther or a daughter. They likewise condemn the Old
is
New,
and
not others.
What, however,
more hor
rible, they propound two Creators of the universe : believing God to be the author of things invisible,
Hence they
secretly
worship
the
devil,
whom
they esteem the creator of their own bodies. The sacrament of the altar they assert to be mere
bread.
Baptism they deny, as also the resurrec tion of the body and they preach, that no one can be saved except through their hands*.
:
Agennensem raaculaverunt
Apostolorum
damnantes.
;
sub
uxorem, quantum ad matrem vel filiam. Daranant etiam Vetus Testamentum de Novo, vero, quaedam accipiunt, quaedam non. Et, quod gravius est, duos praedicant rerum
:
auctores
Deum
invisibilium,
et
Diabolum
adorant
visibilium,
auctorem
sui
credentes.
Unde
occulte
Diabolum, quern
CHAP,
(3.)
ll.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
the same account
is
89
given in a Frag ment of the ancient History of Aquitaine, edited by Peter Pitheus, where it treats of the year 1017.
Much
Manicheans, seducing promiscuously the people from truth to error. They persuaded them to deny
tain
Baptism, the sign of the Holy Cross, the Church, and the Redeemer of the world himself ; together
with the veneration of the Saints of God, lawful
marriage, and the eating of flesh : whence they turned away many simple persons from the faith*.
again the alleged Mani cheans of Aquitaine and the South of France, in the account given of the Publicans or Cathari of
(4.)
We may
trace
twelfth
century.
The heresy of
those,
whom
or Cathari or Paterins,
corporis credunt creatorem.
defiles
Sacramentum vero
negant.
panem
esse
dicunt.
Baptismum
Neminem
in
posse
Resurrectionem etiam
covporura
negant.
Had
ill
ph.
Ard. Serin,
Dominic, post
viii.
Trinit. viii.
22.
Redemptorem
tima,
sreculi,
:
legi-
esum carnium
unde
multos simplices averterunt a fide. Baron. Annal. vol. xi. A.D. 1017.
90
Christ.
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
places
This had clandestinely sprung up in many but, in Gascony, it had openly taken pos
For, session of the people to a very great extent. cut off from the catholic there, the heretics, being
and
cere
own
inventions,
and poisoning
Where
Abbot of Clairvauv had become Bishop of Alba, a man of a very eloquent tongue, was sent by Pope
Alexander
:
and
infantry
from
But his efforts conquered the aforesaid heretics. were fruitless : for, as soon as ever they became masters of their own actions, they forthwith returned
to
munita
vientes
catholico ritu posthabito, suis adinventionibus inserearumque virulentia, quos potuerint, toxicantes.
Papa
Episcopus Albanensis
cos expugnavit.
quae,
verbo,
militum
hzereti-
Verum
id frustra
nam, ut
sui
compotes
facti
CHAP.
(5.)
II.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
91
What, however, will perhaps be deemed the most important testimony to the Manicheism
of the Cathari or Albigenses,
sitor
is
Reinerius Sacco,
their
seventeen years,
at length became a of Preaching Friars. This Priest in the Order peculiarly circumstanced individual is thought to have written about the year 1254 and, if we
:
suppose him to have composed his Treatise toward the close of a long life, he may not improbably be
the Friar Reinerius,
in his
whom Pope
Innocent
III.,
men
being employed by him, in conjunction with Friar Guido, for the purpose of hunting out the heretical Valdenses and Cathari throughout
the South of France and the North of Spain
Chronolog.
c. viii. in
tions, as
*.
A. D. 1181.
apud
TJsser.
de
Eccles.
Success,
37.
readily understood charge of denying the sa brought against them by Nicolas Trivett in his
The same
craments
Chronicle.
Haeretici,
is
circa Tolosam,
quos Albigenses vocant, et alii multi, conveniunt male sentientes de sacramento altaris, de matrisacramentis
multse
aliae
:
monio, et
Rornanus,
aliis
et
personae
cum
viii.
przedictis
regibus, licet
*
parum
profecerint, convenerunt.
in
Nicol. Trivett.
p.
Chronic, in A. D. 1178.
478.
As
have stated
the text,
it
is
commonly
said,
that Reinerius
92
THE VALLENSES
The opinions
in
[BOOK
II.
common
to
all the
Cathari are
these.
it,
were
All the sacraments of the Church, to wit, the, sacrament of Baptism by material water, and the
other sacraments, profit nothing to salvation, and are false sacraments : inasmuch as they are not
the true
sacraments
but deceptive
to
and
diabolical
.
a Church of malignants
:
but his
Work,
in
I think, affords
it in
the year
his
1230.
the
Work
itself,
Inquisitorship must have continued at least down to the latter mentioned year and the wording of the passage, which con tains the date, seems to indicate, that, in that same year, the
:
Work
was composed.
tenet opiniones antiquiores,
Prima pars
centis triginta.
Domini CURRENTIBUS
in Bibl.
Patr.
Somewhat awkwardly,
than
in ordinal,
the date
is
numbers
but
it
CURRENT
it
hard to say, what the term be used for the purpose of inti
is
mating, that the year 1230 was then actually current, Reinerius was engaged in the composition of his Treatise.
If, then,
when
when 1 suppose
Reinerius was seventy years old in the year 1230 his Work to have been written, he would have
been thirty-nine years old in the year 1199, when a certain Friar Reinerius was employed by Innocent III. as his Inqui
sitor in the
in the
North of Spain,
Now
the Reinerius of
Pope
CHAP.
II.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
is
93
:
Carnal matrimony
future world, a person
a mortal sin
and, in the
is
not punished
more heavily
for adultery and incest, than for lawful wedlock. There is no future resurrection of the body.
To
urgent necessity, is a mortal sin. The secular authorities act sinfully, when they punish with death malefactors or heretics.
No
tration.
Sacco, correspond, both in name, and in office, and in the But, if these two country where that office was exercised.
Reinerii be one and the same individual
lated age of thirty-nine,
:
we must deduct
This process will leave twenty-two years, for Let us suppose, In that case,
the time before Reinerius became a Catharus, and for the time
he must have
left
thirty-five.
Hence
in the
year 1199, when, by the hypothesis, he would be thirty-nine years old, he might well be an Inquisitor sent forth by Pope
Innocent
for I
it
Roman Church
employ
and persecuting
But, even
if
we
Work,
two Reinerii
let
be quite possible.
five years old in
For,
will
still
the year 1254, and let him have joined the Cathari at the age of twelve and, according to such an hypo
:
thesis,
in the
year 1199.
94
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
All unbaptizcd infants suffer eternal punishment no less severely, than homicides and robbers.
There
is
no purgatory *.
the
The
above-mentioned
common
Principle of good ; and a Principle of evil. The Trinity, namely, the Father and the Son and
the
Holy Ghost,
is
not one
God
is
greater than the Son and the Holy Ghost. Each Principle, or each God, created his own
angels and his
*
own world.
Communes
Quod
opiniones omnium Catharorum sunt, videlicet: diabolus fecerit hunc mundum, et omnia quae in eo sunt.
Baptism! aquae materialis et caetera sacramenta, nihil prosint ad salutem et quod non sint vera sacramenta Christi et ejus
;
Item, communis opinio omnium Catharorum est monium carnale semper fuerit mortale peccatum
puniatur aliquis gravius in futuro propter
quod matriet
quod non
adulterium et inces-
urgente necessitate,
Item, quod potestatesseculares peccent, mortaliter puniendo malefactores vel haereticos. Item, quod
fieri,
mortale peccatum.
nisi
per ipsos.
parvuli etiam, non baptizati, non levius aeternaliter puniantur, quam homicidae et latrones. Item, quod omnes negant Purga-
torium.
xiii.
Reiner.
Opusc. de
hjeret.
c. vi.
in
p. 302.
CHAP.
II.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
it,
95
was
the evil
God.
The
and,
when war
Michael
the
Archangel, the angel of the good God thence ex tracted a part of the creatures of God, and daily
infuses them into
human and
from
Virgin,
true
and drink
neither
was he
:
but
matters were only putative or apparitional. The same must be said also of his miracles.
Closes and
and John
mies of
God and
devil
The
was
Old Testa
mon, Wisdom, the Son of Sirach, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and the twelve minor Prophets. This world will never have an end.
The alleged future judgment has already occurred, and will never take place again. Hell and eternal jire and eternal punishments are in this world, and not elsewhere*.
*
Opiniones istorum,
pi-acter
communes supra
scriptas, stint
96
2.
THE VALLENSES
Such,
in point of doctrine, if
[BOOK
II.
we may
credit
According to the evidence, which in all fairness has been adduced, they were rank whether Manicheans. But here the question is the witnesses against them are to be credited.
:
istae.
Quod duo
sunt Principia a
Deo:
Trinitas, scilicet
:
Pater et Filius et Spiritus Sanctus, sed quod Pater major est Filio et Spiritu
Item, quod utrumque Principium, sive uterque Deus, et quod iste mundus est creavit angelos suos et suum mundum
:
in
:
Item, quod diabolus cum suis angelis ascendit in coelum facto ibidem praelio cum Michaele archangelo, angel us boni
;
et infundit eas et partem creaturarum Dei humanis corporibus et brutis et etiam de uno corpore quotidie in aliud, donee dictae creaturae reducantur in coelum. Item,
quod
et
Filius
sed ejus
Dei non assumpsit humanam naturam in veritate, similem, ex beata Virgine, quam dicuntfuisse angelum:
comedit
et bibit,
est,
nee
sed quod
putativa
similiter,
Christus fecit.
et caeteri
Item, quod Abraham, Isaac, et Jacob, Moyses, plures patres antiqui, et beatus Joannes Baptista,
Item, quod diabolus
:
scili
cet,
Job, Psalterio,
libris
Salomonis, Sapientiae
filii
Sirach,
Isaiae,
Hieremiae, Ezeckiel, Daniel, et duodecem Prophetarum. iste nunquam habebit finem. Item, quod
est,
nee amplius
fiet.
Item, quod
infernus et ignis aeternus, sive poenae aeternae, sunt in isto mundo, et non alibi. Reiner, de haeret. c. vi. in Biblioth. Patr. vol. xiii.
CHAP.
(1.)
II.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
97
counter-testimony (which, however, shall appear in its proper place), I should that fearlessly say
:
in
such evidence.
Upon very front, it bears impressed the dark brand of determined prejudice or of interested
calumny. We have seen how entirely Peter Siculus has
failed in
attempting to fix the charge of Manicheism upon the oriental Paulicians and equally vain are the efforts of the Romish enemies of the
;
Albigenses. Finding, that the Paulicians had most incongruously been set down as Manicheans, for the very reason, which, according to plain common sense, should have effectually determined them to be not Manicheans namely, because a
;
large proportion of
them had,
been actually converted from Manicheism to what was plainly the sound faith of the Gospel finding
;
this, the prejudiced or interested bigots of Ro manism readily caught up the same convenient
and, so
minute particularity was concerned, had small difficulty in filling up the outline, with much specious and plausible exactness, from the ancient
as
very eminently and clearly the case with the wretched apostate and persecutor Reinerius Sacco. His very minuteness convicts him
is
Such
of being a
mere
retailer
98
primitive
THE VALLENSES
writers against
[BOOK
II.
the
real
:
Gnostic and
serves only to throw a greater discredit upon his for no honest his foully calumnious statements
;
appeal to Heaven for the purpose of establishing his trustworthiness *. The consciousness of his apostasy (an apostasy,
torian thinks
it
necessary
to
the guilt of which was tremendously aggravated by the persecution of his former brethren) is ever
and thrice, in a Work of only present to his view ten not very long chapters, does he refer to it|. Having quitted his own communion for that of
:
the
1
frater Reinerius,
Reiner, de haeret.
303.
;
The man, who wrote this, was suspected of being a liar and was conscious to himself, that the suspicion was well founded.
Had
he
known himself
to
facts,
he
would never have thought of saying, Non mentior. His whole phraseology and manner clearly import, that his injured bre thren had charged him with gross falsehood and determined
misrepresentation.
rebuts the charge with oaths and violent asseverations but, unlike Peter, the unhappy man repented not of his enormous
He
lied
t Quia, heu, jam multi sunt haeretici, idcirco, ad laudeni Dei et cautelam fidelium, ego frater Reinerius, olim hveresi-
CHAP.
to
II.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
99
sincerity of his conversion by under the office of Inquisitor among those with taking
shew the
whom
Gospel, he resolutely determined to make out a strong case against them, both to please his em
ployers, and to vindicate his own foul apostasy. Yet so clumsy is he in the management of that very minuteness which was designed to make most strongly against them, that he more than
Thus he
Christ,
by a Church of Malignants. Yet, in the judgment of these very Cathari, if we are to believe this veracious witness to what he
nance
all
of
punishment
asserts,
as homicides
that,
and robbers.
Thus he
rum,
licet indignus, praesens Opusculum de haereticis compilavi. Reiner, de hoeret. Praefat. in Bibl. Patr. vol. xiii. p. 298.
in
septeradecira
conversatus
seorsim ab
sum cum
aliis,
non vidi aliquem ex eis orare secreto aut ostendere se tristem de peccatis suis, seu
eis,
Ibid. c. vi. p. 303. lachrymari, vel percutere pectus suum. The third instance of uneasy reference to his apostasy given above.
is
100
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
the Old Testament as exceptions, they rejected the work of the devil, while he is totally silent
respecting any rejection of any part of the New an assertion and a silence, which Testament
:
that, like the old Paulicians, evidently imply they received the latter just as the Catholic
;
Church
receives
it
Gospel that so it might serve their own purposes. Yet he requires us to credit him, when he says that, with the whole New Testa
:
ment and with confessedly the greater part of the Old Testament in their hands, they deemed Abra
ham and
maintained, as a scriptural truth, the doctrine of two Independent Principles adopted all the ab
;
character of Christ
material world
and
broached a farrago of fables, all of which are that hopelessly irreconcileable with Gospel,
which they not only had in their hands, but which, by this egregious blunderer s own confes sion, they could well nigh say by heart from one end to the other*.
A
*
Apud
uncontradictedly
vel femina, qui
textum non
307.
Reiner,
de hseret.
c. viii. p.
CHAP.
II.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
101
his testimony,
who
will believe
his
The easy
:
faith
of
Bossuet
may admit
evidence
but the
From them
he has borrowed a bungling account of the an cient Gnostics and Manicheans, who had fabri
cated for their
own
own purposes a Gospel of their and then, not perceiving the grossness of
he saddles
it
his inconsistency,
upon a body of
the genuine Gospel, and who, instead of seeking to corrupt it, could
Christians,
who
possessed
actually say almost the whole of it by heart. A prudent inquirer, (2.) But this is not all.
before he gives credit to these repeated allegations of doctrinal Manicheism against the Albigenses, will naturally ask What answer did they them
:
selves
make
to the
charge
both
Manes
and
Nor
to
We
You
are
Christians, said
Peter
:
believe in the
we
believe in
him
102
THE VALLENSES
:
[BOOK
II.
nor yet did they deny it merely once or twice was the denial confined to a few individuals. It
we
assured,
their
universal
concerning
whom
in the
Gospel
Ye have neither
heard
his voice,
John
v. 37.
guage
in
his
own way
and forthwith
from the
set
them down as
to
acknowledging
their difference
Romans
be
that
of the world, and they believed one God to be the Creator another God to be the heavenly Father excluded from the
their bantering
Yet administration of the world and ruling in eternity alone. which he luckily gives us as well as his words,
own comment upon them, really import nothing more, than that he, whom the Romans worshipped as the Creator of the
world, was venerated by the Paulicians as that heavenly Father whose voice is not heard and whose shape is not discerned.
Hoc
cum cum
saepe licet in
illis
observare, quando,
urbanitatis causa,
aliquo
illis
?
liberiores facti,
produnt
die,
libere,
sermocinetur.
4ge,
inquit,
:
secernit
quo in Evangeliis
audistis,
Dominus
loquitur
Quoniam vocem
neque speciem ejus vidistis. These expressions of the bantering Paulicians Peter gravely interprets as an admission, that they held the manichean doc
trine of
Assenmt autem, sejunctionem suam a nobis in hoc consistere: quod ipsi quidem alium aiunt esse Deum, mundi conditorem et alium, quern Patrem Coelestem vocitant, exclusum a mundi
;
Pet. Sic. administratione, solaque in aeternitate dominantem. Hist, in Biblioth. Patr. vol. ix. 33. par. post. p. From what part of the words of the Paulician does Peter
deduce
his Asserunt
CHAP.
faith,
II.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
103
promptly to deny all the various matters of which they were suspected*.
The evidence,
follows.
whole of whose concur rent testimony is hopelessly inconsistent and contradictory, the Albigenses are charged with having adopted and maintained the creed of Ma-
By
nicheism.
But, by the confession of their very enemies, it was their universal custom to deny the truth of
the charge
their
:
for
participation or approbation of that heresy ; and, adversaries themselves being judges, the
for their
honesty.
To which
stands,
party,
ought we
to give credit?
Certainly not to the Albigenses, replies the Bishop of Meaux. From the Paulicians of the
East to their Catharistic Successors in the West, the whole generation are rank liars and equivocators.
their
Manicheism
as
Inquisitor
is
suo
MORE
inventi sunt.
104
in all ages
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
and countries, is itself a decided proof, It was the that they ought not to be believed. from its earliest commencement: spirit of the Sect
and, since both Paulicians and Albigenses have invariably renounced Manes and disclaimed Mani-
cheism, nothing can be more clear, than that the accusation is fully established by the simple and
incontrovertible
tency*.
fact
of their
unvarying
consis
Now what
to
do
and
all
their specific
the Articles
demonstrated their
Mais
la
marque
la
qu
ils
recevant les sacremens avec nous, mais encore en repondant comme nous, lorsqu on les pressoit sur la foi. C etoit 1 esprit
de
des
la secte
le
et
nous
avons remarque
temps de saint Augustin et de saint Leon. Pierre de Sicile, et apres lui Cedrenus, nous font voir le meme caractere
les Pauliciens.
dans
Non-seulement
;
ils
nioient en general
qu
ils
fussent
Manicheens
chaque dogme de
le
mensonge,
parce qu elles etoient plus artificieuses et plus pleines d hypocrisie. Boss. Hist, des Variat. livr. xi. 31.
CHAP.
II.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
it
105
Yet, paradoxical as
may
mitted
fact,
that, In
all
and
be
the Albigenses
Manicheism.
CHAPTER
THE
III.
GROUNDS
OF
THE
ALLEGATION
PAULICIANS
OF
MANITHE
CHEISM
AGAINST
THE
AND
ALBIGENSES.
BUT
it
will be said
lar charge of
Manicheism, rather than the charge Hence it will be asked of any other Heresy. Could their enemies have so pertinaciously brought
against them the specific and well-defined accusation of Manicheism, if there had been nothing whatever,
in their doctrinal system,
was
built
Community having
been,
to
a considerable extent,
composed of honest converts from Manicheism, is, I think, abundantly manifest nor does the intrinsic
:
absurdity and contradictoriness of the charge at all derogate from the certainty of the fact, when
the character of blind and deaf and furious and
unreasoning bigotry
is
considered.
CHAP.
III.]
From
:
Asia,
emigrant Paulicians into and, whether from the intercourse of Europe ordinary conversation, or from dishonestly dis torted reports of occasional apostates (such as
charge attended
the
Reinerius Sacco) eager to please their new friends, or from resolute misconstruction of unprincipled
Inquisitors in their examination of pretended he
nothing would be more easy than to fix a semblance of Manicheism, quite enough to satisfy
retics,
vulgar ignorance and prejudiced bigotry, upon these hated reformers and provoking reprovers.*
*
According
it
to the plan
guedoc,
which sat
in
the year 1244 for the purpose of aiding and abet Holy Office of Holy Dominic in
project of exterminating the reputed heretics of Southern France, Inquisitors (much, no doubt to their satisfaction) were forbidden to reveal the names of witnesses by the twenty:
fourth canon,
it
was enacted;
who
confessed themselves to
in
and,
;
by
canon, to
make
all sure,
it
was decreed
that he,
who
shall
have been convicted by witnesses, or through any other proofs, shall henceforth be always reputed a heretic, even though he
Hist. Gener. de Lanshould deny the truth of the allegation. un Benedictin. livr. xxv. 81. vol. iii. p. 445. gued. par
Deeply steeped in infamy as is the Pontifical Church, we can scarcely theorise a lower depth than this glaring and scan-
108
THE VALLENSES
I
[BOOK
II.
evil.
No
believe a syllable
rational being can, by any conceivable possibility, of the tales of Manicheism related of the Albi-
genses,
when those tales rest upon such a foundation as that which has been laid by the Council of Narbonne. For, in sooth, man of infamous character charges an how stands the case ?
unoffending
individual
with Manicheism
is
the
:
name of
the
wretch,
who
concealed
the accused,
his firm
still
however,
avowing
:
but
the
charge, though
in
convicted heretic.
Such
is
must
in all fairness
be admitted
that,
preme contempt
to the
Romish Clergy.
Of
this
we have
The
Through some ingenuity of management on the part of agents employed by the mischievous Albigenses, a fountain was found
to
work most
surprising miracles,
and, through a continuation of the same management, it was soon discovered, that the bones of a sacred martyr and of a holy abbot rested, in the odour of sanctity, close to the wonder
working fountain.
The whole
CHAP.
III.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
have been produced
I will
:
109
and,
readily
was
far too
The
the
laughter-loving
condemned
somewhat novel
character of a catholic martyr and of a beatified abbot, near to and the bones of those two respectable in the sacred fountain
:
ance of miracles, as the bones of the most approved saint in the From such premises, the logic of the Albi pontifical calendar.
genses drew a most heterodox conclusion.
that popish miracles, as performed
They dared
to hint,
Quod callide fecesays honest Lucas. rant quibusdam detegentes, hasretici deridebant Fidem Catholicam : et, simili artificio fieri miracula in Ecclesia coram Sanc
Quid plura?
torum
corporibus,
affirmabant.
Unluckily,
;
this
albigensic
for
Lucas goes
illis,
Non
quibus
profana
consilia
et in hceresin laberentur.
But
malady was soon stopped by a judicious application of the regular popish medicine, for such cases had and provided. After an appeal to heaven somewhat on the
the progress of the
plan of that of Elijah and the Baalites, which, Lucas assures us,
was eminently
the whole, as
way of persecution. The moral of summed up by the Prelate of Tuy, runs thus
:
Heec idcirco
caveant:
vertere
10. in
scripsi,
Luc. Tudens. adv. Albig. Bibl. Patr. vol. xiii. p. 280, 281.
fidem
c. 9,
HO
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II,
undertake to convict St. Paul himself, the model of the genuine Christian so specially revered by
the Paulicians, of rank and palpable Manicheism. that I. It was the doctrine of the Manicheans:
There are two independent Principles ; the one, good; the other, evil : of whom, the material world was
created by the Evil Principle, while the spiritual world was the work of the Good Principle.
an unfortunate Albigensis, well read (as the custom of the sect was*) in Holy Scripture, has been known and reported, we will suppose,
have designated Satan by the titles of Prince of this world and God of this world, to have ex him from pressed a hope that God would deliver
to
Now
world, to have declared that the kingdom of Christ is not of this world, to have asserted that the world hath not known the
this present evil
Father, to have pronounced that the friendship of the world is enmity with God, to have inti
devil
is
come down
to
his
own
peculium the inhabiters of the earth and the sea, to have described the Evil One as the Prince
*
tria
Rarus
capitula continuata
Novi Testamenti
Apud
et
est,
:
sanctam
et
vitam
et
et, quia verarn fidem Christi habemus, doctrinam docemus omnes nos ; ideo
t persequuntur nos ad mortem, viii. in Bibl. Patr. vol. xiii. c.
Scribac
Pharissei
gratis
Christum,
p. 307.
lleiner. de haeret.
CHAP.
of the
III.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
of the air and as the Spirit that
Ill
Power
now
have
worketh
father
spoken of a horrible worship paid to the dragon, and to have declared that he and his associates are of the Good God, while the whole world lieth in the Wicked One.
Let a hated Albigensis use
this truly scriptural
quite easy to see, how malice or ignorance or a mixture of both might very plau sibly exhibit him to the vulgar, as a Manichean
language
and
it is
who God
who
and the Creator of this world, while the world to and who come was the work of the good God the Devil or the bad God, as the worshipped
;
air,
mankind
*.
concerned
* Inclucunt illutl,
quod
dicitur
Omnis planeradicabitur.
Pater meus
Ergo aliqua plantatio est, quam Pater Jesu Christi non plan tavit et ita Diabolus est et ita Diabolus plantavit illam
: :
et
Valdens.
c. 1.
II. p. 11.
Ad idem inducunt illud, quod legitur Joan. i. 12. Quotquot autem reccperunt eum, dedit eis potestntem Jilios Deijneri: qui, non sanguinibus, neque in voluntate carnis, neque ex voluntate
viri,
Illi
filii
Dei, qui
Sed homo
exterior ex
duobus
Ergo homo
Deo
112
II.
THE VALLENSES
It
[BOOK
II.
was the doctrine of the ancient Manithat Christ was never really cheans and Docetse
:
incarnate, his apparent flesh being a mere unsub stantial and visionary illusion; because, since matter
was
bad
the
work of
it
the evil
God and
thence inherently
to
itself,
were a contradiction
assert that
a true fleshly material body. Some one, then, of the Albigenses happens to declare, that henceforth he knows no man after
natus
et, ita,
a Diabolo.
Ergo Diabolus
carnis.
Ibid. p. 12.
Ad
idem inducunt
illud,
quod
Vos ex
patre Diabolo estis, et desideria patris vestri vultis facere. et ita iteruin Diabolus erat pater illorum. Ergo creavit eos
:
ut prius.
Ibid. p. 13.
illud
Ad
idem objiciunt
et in
Joan.
xiv.
30.
Venit
Princeps
mundi hujus:
Si Princeps, ergo
Ad
est de
idem objiciunt
hoc mundo.
Ibid. p. 15.
Ergo mundus
non est a
factus.
Ad
ita,
idem
illud
Rom.
viii.
8.
Qui autem
innuitur,
in
sunt,
Deo
:
Ex quo
quod caro
mala
et,
Ibid. p. 17.
In this way, throughout his large work, does Moneta repre and then does he
:
gravely confute the arguments, which he puts into their mouths, and which he never could have heard them advance because
CHAP.
III.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
113
adding, that although he had known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth he knows him no more under that carnal aspect. Or
the flesh
:
is
Or
that
In such a reported case, who does not perceive the inference, which would be drawn by joyfully a malignant Inquisitor, the iniquitous prejudger of
his prisoner
?
the whole
commu
nity to which he belongs, are, by the very purport of their own words, plainly convicted Docetee of
the
Manichean School.
body
was altogether
coelestern
et
et
indutum
visse.
cum
illo
verbo Joan.
51,
vivus,
iii.
c/ui
de coelo descendi.
Vald.
lib.
:
c.
TV.
p. 246.
et alia
aliorum Catharorum
qui dicunt,
quod Christus
non de ea materialiter, camera assumpsit hujus massje carnalis, quia earn credunt a Diabolo fabricatam. Dicunt enim id quod non habuit vere corpus humanum, sed phantasticum et ex hoc oportet eos dicere, est, quod apparebat nostrae naturae
ea,
;
:
quod non
fuit vere
homo;
id est,
I
114
III.
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
their
Through the consistent following out of it was the doctrine of the Maniprinciples,
:
cheans
to be
Baptism by material water ought not administered ; and that Marriage ought to be
that
reviled
and
rejected.
The dreaded heretics are known to have re marked that Baptism by water and the reception
:
that
who
believes not,
;
is
damned, notwithstanding
that, unless a man be born of the baptism he cannot enter into the kingdom of God Spirit,
;
is
is
flesh,
spirit.
is
They furthermore have been heard to deny, that Marriage is a sacrament while they urged that the very gaze of concupiscence is virtual fornication
; ;
erect
charge
that the
Albigenses were
Manicheans, who rejected Baptism by water, who argued the inutility of baptising infants on
Dicunt ergo, quod corpus spirituale accepit operatione Spiritus materia fabricatum quo corpore mediante,
:
Sancti, ex alia
Filius
eo.
Quandoque
cum
ambulabat super mare, ut habetur Matt. xiv. 25. Et, Luc. iv. 29, 30. Et surrexerunt: ipse autem, transiens per medium illorum, ibat
;
qui
eum
eum com-
CHAP.
III.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
faith,
115
and who
them to deny the incarnation of Christ, led them also, by a plainly necessary consequence, to
led
deny
perly, in
that the consecrated elements could pro any sense of the words, be styled Christ s
Ad
idem inducunt
;
aqua
vos
illud Act. i. 5. Joannes quidem baptiautem baptizabimini Spiritu Sancto, non post
multos hos
dies.
Spiritus Sanctus.
Ecce, quod, in baptismo aquae, non dabatur Monet, adv. Cathar, et Vald. lib. iv. c. 1.
111. p. 282.
Ad
idem inducunt
illud
Qui
demnabitur.
Parvulus ergo non credit. Ergo conIV. p. 283. Negant etiam omnia sacramenta Ecclesiae Romanae, Matrimonium. Ibid. lib. i. c. 1. p. 5.
Ibid.
Ad
illud
esse illicitum
inducunt
Matt.
27, 28.
Audistis
quod dictum
est antiquis,
non
moschaberis.
Ego autem
qui viderit
mulieremad concupisccndum earn, jam mcechatus est earn in corde suo. Sed ille, qui habet uxorem, videt mulierem ad concupis-
cendum
p.
earn.
Ergo ipsemoechatus
est.
Ibid. lib.
iv. c. 7.
I.
nubunt
et
traduntur ad nuptias.
illo
qui digni habebuntur sceculo et resurrectione ex mortuis, neque nubunt, neque ducunt
Illi vero,
uxores.
Dicit haereticus
vide,
quod
:
ista
verba, nubunt et
ducunt uxores, praesentis temporis sunt ille ergo, qui volunt esse digni futura Ibid. gloria, in praesenti non debent nubere.
p.
319.
I
HG
Now,
as a
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
mere point of
tion.
This, no doubt, they did, because they under stood the words of our Lord figuratively. But,
by their enemies, the circumstance was confidently adduced as a certain proof that they denied the
led them,
of course, to deny the crucifixion, no less than the incarnation of our Saviour.
But the Albigenses paid no veneration to the and invoked neither the angels nor the Cross
:
saints nor
Hence they were pronounced to be Manicheans who trampled upon the Cross, who despised the
Saints,
who dishonoured
dicunt eniin, quod Est autem opinio eorum detestanda panis non transubstantiatur in corpus Christi, nee vinum in sanquia istum guinem ipsius. Cujus opinionis causa prima est
:
materialern
panem
et
vinum mala
esse
esse.
Monet, adv. Cathar. unde hujusmodi cibaria oriuntur. et Valdens. lib. iv. c. 3. I. p. 295. Hoc est Alii autem aliter intelligunt ilia verba Domini
:
corpus meum.
Pe.tra
Id
est, significat
autem erat
ex
Christus ;
id
significabat
Christum.
Ibid. p. 296.
Nemo
corpus.
eis
credit,
quod ex
illo
Reiner, de haeret.
c. vi. p.
303.
CHAP.
III.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
the crucified
117
Re
deemer himself*
native
resembling
their
respective
Creators.
of the Albigenses, in an unlucky hour, happen to speak of the Devil and his angels and, what is still worse, they are furthermore
:
Some
known to have talked about a war in heaven, when Michael and his angels fought on one side,
while the dragon and his angels fought on the other side.
Misrepresentation
since
it
is
speedily at
work
and,
is
ture-loving
indisputable
Mani by the
is
cheans,
their language
interpreted to import,
that the angels of the Devil were created Devil while, upon the war in heaven,
;
gra
tuitously
built
the
created
rial
God
that
by the
circle
after
the
of
metempsy-
et
crucis
adorationem.
1. p. 5.
Nunquam etiam implorant patrociniura Angelorura, vel Sanc torum, seu Beatae Virginis neque se muniunt, signo crucis.
:
Reiner, de hvcret. c.
vi. p.
303.
118
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
heaven*
VII.
The
principles of the
to
Manicheans obvi
reported to the Inquisitors and the Popish that the Albigenses have been heard to Clergy speak of the resurrection of a spiritual body, as
:
contradistinguished from
that
natural or carnal
;
body which
is
sown
in
have wickedly asserted the impossibility of flesh and blood in heriting the kingdom of heaven.
also
to
known
they have said nothing but what St. Paul himself has said yet, with the
Now, although
in truth
interested and prejudiced, the use of such Ianguage is quite sufficient to stamp them with
undoubted Manicheism.
flesh f.
Most indisputably,
all
VIII.
The Manicheans,
like
the
Gnostics,
animus praedictas corporibus istis veluti carceribus inclusit et Monet, adv. Cathar. et Vald. lib. i. c. 1. quotidie includit.
p. 4.
is
hacret.
c. vi. p.
304.
The passage
futuram.
cited above,
book
ii.
chap. 2.
III. 1. (5.)
Omnes
Cathari
negant carnis
302.
resurrectionem
Reiner, de haeret.
Isti
c. vi. p.
negant horum
omnium corporum
resurrectionem, ponentes
resurrectionem esse corporum ccelestium, de quibus sumus. Monet, adv. Cathar. et Vald. lib. i. c. 1.
jam
locuti
p. 5.
CHAP.
III.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
:
119
contending, that, without any choice or preference, the Elect were fatally impelled to perform good deeds, while the
A zealous Inquisitor
proof of this opinion
;
hears
the while,
quoting
modern
purpose.
Nothing more
text in
thetical
is
requisite,
question by
the
insertion
words wholly unconscious of the pen of and the unlucky culprit, upon whom the Apostle
:
is
tacitly saddled,
by the express
Holy Writ, a fatal necessity of doing whether good or evil. The GOOD which I wish,
authority of
that
I do
not
the
EVIL which
in
hate, that
I do*.
his
exordium.
In a subsequent part
of his Work, by which they demonstrated, that We are buried a carnal body, and rise again a spiritual
and then, from such their demonstration, he clearly, at Manicheans. great length, shews them to have been truculent
body:
Ibid. lib. iv. c. 7.
*
Isti I. p.
346353.
Monet, adv. Cathar.
et
Vald.
lib.
c. 1. p. 5.
vii.
Ad
15.
ago: sed, quod odi Facit ergo homo, qui de bona creatione
BONUM,
hoc
120
THE VALLENSES
fine,
[BOOK
II.
IX. In
summed up
the
after
Certain
pious
dissidents
in the
from
Roman
Church, denominated, Cathari and Publicans and Albigenses, spake of the strife between the flesh and the spirit; de
scribed the
South of France,
of this
world, as
waging an incessant though ultimately fruitless war against the God of heaven denied, as a
;
result, from the appli cation of water, the spiritual or regenerative effect of Baptism disbelieved material of
;
any
change
est,
maluin
invitus.
i.
malurn.
Ibid. lib.
Work
never met with a book which more completely illustrates the Like his principle adopted throughout the present chapter.
after him,
he seems,
first, to
have diligently raked up, from the old heresiographers, all the peculiarities of ancient Manicheism next, to have saddled
;
ments of the heretics from particular texts of Scripture and, then, to have triumphantly refuted those arguments, under the
aspect of their being genuine specimens of catharistic reasoning. Meanwhile, the Cathari themselves, like their predecessors the
Paulicians, instead of arguing in favour of Manicheism, con stantly, by the very admission of their enemies, denied that
they were Manicheans, and professed their steady adherence to the Symbols or Creeds of the Catholic Church.
Moneta
Hence he was a
contemporary of Reinerius.
CHAP.
III.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
121
into the literal
re
Wine
a sacrament
believed the
as contradistin
;
asserted the
man
to do,
is
by
;
his
own
unassist
good
maintained, that,
served by myriads of holy angels, so numerous evil angels await the bidding of Satan offered up rejected the doctrine of a Purgatory
is
; ;
God
no
and abhorred the superstitious worship of the Cross, deeming even the true wood (could it any where be found) nothing more valuable or more
any other piece of wood, inas much as the Saviour of mankind (according to the
salutiferous than
excellent remark of Ambrose) was not The Cross but He who for our sake hung upon the Cross *.
Through the agency of a gross misrepresenta tion, these several tenets were easily made to
appear the same as the well-known tenets of the Manicheans and, though, confessedly, in every
;
Regem
non lignum utique, quia hie geutilis est sed adoravit ilium, qui pependit in de obit. Theodos. Imperat. Oper. col. 498. Ambros.
adoravit
;
:
a popish bigot such language as this would have afforded Manicheans who quite sufficient proof, that the Albigenses were the Cross and who renounced the Saviour. trampled upon
To
122
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
;
II.
always denied that they were Manicheans con of their very enemies, stantly, by the admission
and were ready, when led holy and godly lives called upon, to seal their faith with their blood
;
it
for the
Rome
or Constantinople
Ma
;
nicheism was determinately brought against them and the very constancy of their invariable dis
claimer, both in Asia
itself alleged as
and
in
hypocrisy*. Thus, to the entire satisfaction of the Papists at and thus least, was the business accomplished
:
Bossuet, as
if
uncomely array of
witnesses,
would attempt
mend
their credit
by
alleging
that,
while they regularly bring a charge of Manicheism against the Albigenses, they never bring any such charge against the Valdenses for
whom
much
greater affection.
charge, so strictly discriminating, could not but have rested on a solid foundation. Hist, des Variat. livr. xi. 51.
argument of the ingenious and acute Prelate, whose never overlooks even an apparent advantage, the pre sagacity ceding statement of the GROUNDS of the charge of Manicheism
this
To
against
reply.
the
Albigenses
affords,
trust,
full
and
sufficient
The enemies of the Albigenses had it in their power to make out a plausible case because against that body of religionists they were known to be the theological descendants of the Pau:
licians,
in
cheans, though,
CHAP.
III.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
123
was an ancient Church of faithful and suffering Christians, without a shadow of trustworthy evi
dence, pronounced to be a synagogue of profligate
and wrongs-headed Manicheans. O X. Hitherto, so far as concerns the Albigenses of Southern France, we have seen only the testi
mony which
purpose of esta blishing their Manicheism we must next proceed to exhibit a variety of facts and documents, which,
is
adduced
for the
:
Manicheism
to the
New
But the equal enemies of the Valdenses could make out no such case against them : for they had no connection with the and they had never migrated westward out of Paulicians Armenia and Bulgaria. Consequently, had their enemies
;
falsehood
of the attempted any such calumny, the very notoriousness would have forthwith defeated its own purpose.
The Romish
the
Priests, verily,
in
their
Thus
Monk
of Vaux-Sernay, after
Albigenses, speak of the who, nevertheless, were mingled with the and who, as evidently Albigenses throughout Languedoc from the records of the day (particularly, 1 may re appears
tales respecting
when he comes
mark, from the account of the famous conference at Montreal), were in strict amity and communion with them.
There were
many
who were
called Valdenses
:
from a
certain
These were bad comparison Lyonese named Valdensis. the others, they were far less perverse ; for, on several points, of
but, in
iii.
124
II.
tending as they do to the complete exculpation of this much slandered Community, serve also to
shew, that our already intimated suspicions re specting the fidelity of their accusers have in no
wise been without sufficient foundation. In prosecuting this inquiry, it will be useful to bear in mind the remarks which have been made,
as to the great facility of perverting
tural expressions into a
even scrip
;
semblance of Manicheism
it is
predetermined
CHAPTER
IV.
THE
earliest
instance,
believe,
of the
public
reputed Manicheans who had suddenly appeared in France, is that afforded by the remarkable case of the Ca
attention being
to certain
drawn
nons of Holyrood
I.
m
in Orleans.
manner
of the Galilean
Romish Clergy, Bossuet rapidly tells the story in his own way suppressing all the gross contradic
:
tions,
which occur
;
matter
very suspicious method in which was procured the pretended confession of the culprits and, instead of honestly exhibiting in his margin the
;
original
his
scanty and
garbled narrative claims to be founded, loosely giving mere references to books of no general access, so as effectually to preclude a reader from
126
portunity,
THE VALLENSES
and
will
[BOOK
II.
of proceeding and, though a full statement of the several ac counts as they are variously given by Rodulphus
:
mode
Glaber and the Actuary of the Synod of Orleans and the ancient Historian of Aquitaine and John of Fleury, with the remarks appended to them,
will,
of
;
necessity,
yet,
is
occupy
some
considerable
inquirers my ina
space
by those
conscientious
whose object
bility to
imitate the
will
* I subjoin Bossuet
because, as
we
less.
proceed, a reference to it may Its scantiness of correct information affords to the Bishop
for a
ample room
II est constant,
racines dans la
redundancy of illustration. que Pheresie manicheenne jeta de profondes et c est de la, qu elle se repandit Bulgarie
:
Europe
qui
fit
donner,
comme
nous verrons,
Mille ans
Christ
1
:
le s
et le
Eglise d Occident de quelque malheur extraordinaire. C etoit peut-etre aussi le temps de ce terrible dechainement de Satan,
marque dans
fier
signi-
d extremes desordres
le
fort arme,
c est-a-clire le
demon
victorieux,
Jesus-Christ lie par dans ce temps et en 1017, soil, ft Orleans des heretiques d une
fut
CHAP.
1.
IV.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
narrative of
127
is
The
Rodulphus Glaber
to the
The heresy in was said to have been originally brought question into France by a woman from Italy who seduced
:
persons of every description, not only simple Laics, but likewise many even among This woman, in the more learned of the Clergy.
from the
faith
the course of her pernicious ramblings, came to Orleans where, for a considerable time, she took
;
Here she infected many with her poisonous doctrines: and, what is more especially
up her abode.
il
Tine
heresie.
femme
Deux
I
chanoines d Orleans,
nomme
Etienne ou
Liso ius, qui etoient en reputation, Heribcrt, et On eut beaucoup de peine a defurent les premiers seduits.
autre
nomme
Mais
soup^onna ce
que
c etoit,
qu
ils
nioient
la
chair
humaine en Jesus-Christ
peches fut
la remissione des
le vin
Bapteme,
ni
On
ils
Eucharistie
particuliere,
qu
appeloient
la
viande
celeste.
Elle etoit cruelle et abominable, et tout-a-fait du genie des Manicheens quoiqu on ne la trouve pas dans les ariciens. Mais
outre ce
qu on en
vit a Orleans,
Gui de Nogent
la
remarque
128
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
deserving of notice, Heribert and Lisoye, who both in rank and in knowledge stood among the highest of the Clergy, becoming her proselytes,
not only throughout Orleans but likewise through out the neighbouring cities.
in this
being a man of a sound mind, forthwith took the and thence communicated the circum alarm
:
stance to the
Normandy.
with such tidings, lost no time in conveying the information to King Robert. Whereupon, the
II ne faut pas s etonner, qu on trouve de nouveaux prodiges dans un secte si cachee, soil qu elle les invente, ou qu on les y decouvre de nouveau.
On
le
a vu,
que
don-
heretiques rejetoient
Incarnation.
Pour
Bapteme,
le
Augustin
le
dit expressement,
que
les
Manicheens ne
noient pas, ei
Pierre de Sicile, et apres croyoient lui Cedrenus, nous la meme chose des Pauliciens apprennent tous ensemble nous font voir que, les Manicheens avoient une
inutile.
:
Ce que
d Orleans, qu
etait encore
1
il
comme
on a vu, de
Us ne dirent rien ouvertement des deux principes mais ils parlerent avec mepris de la creation et des livres ou elle etoit
ecrite.
et
ils
confesserent
le
dans
le
qu
ils
CHAP. IV.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
taking as his assessors
a close
129
zealous Sovereign,
many
the
scrutiny
among
Clergy of Orleans.
dissemble,
how
Heribert and Lisoye did not much they differed from the esta
blished faith of
expressing their
Rome
and declaring that nothing should separate them from their fellowship. Sorely grieved, that an inculpation thus serious
should attend upon men, who, with
all
probity of
morals, had hitherto, in their appointed station, been pre-eminently useful the King and the
;
Prelates,
retiring
apart,
proceeded
to
more
Seigneur de VUnivers.
celui
Le
que
les
tant
le
c est
ici
On
sait,
:
de seduction agissoit en eux. Au reste, premier exemple d une semblable condaranation. que les lois romaines condemnoient a mort les Mani
1
esprit
cheens
le saint
roi
Robert
les
jugea dignes du
feu.
Bossuet.
livr. xi.
1620.
the history which Bossuet gives of the Canons of Orleans: and, in his margin, he barely refers to the Acts of
Such
is
to the History of Rodulphus But, while he thus treats his unsuspecting readers with nothing beyond a meagre reference for the authority on
Glaber.
which he gives
his narrative, he cautiously abstains from saying a syllable, as to the essential discrepances in the two accounts On the contrary, he makes up a very to which he refers. his own out of the two, plausible and very respectable tale of
130
secret
THE VALLENSES
:
[BOOK
II.
and, as we examination of the accused are assured by the examiners themselves, the result of this secret examination was a full con
fession of the
We
have only so recently discovered : but we are well assured, that, sooner or later, both you and all men
will do the same.
New
Testament
may say
the
existence of a
a system of mere deli For both the heaven and the earth
have ever been exactly as they now appear, without To having a Creator who gave them a beginning.
expect, therefore,
holy
and Christian
fluous absurdity.
absurdity which might shake
its
credit, preserving a
profound
which
is
totally incompatible
Manicheism, and omitting the important fact that the examina tion was made with closed doors, and that we know nothing of
the pretended confession of the accused, save
what we have
which he
That Bossuet himself had read the two jarring accounts to refers, and therefore that he could not have sinned
is
from ignorance,
evident
;
because,
OR
Heribert.
The
fact is
name
CHAP. IV.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
131
On making
recantation or cremation
offered to them.
was
freely
and mercifully
fire
To
altogether
refused.
Hence,
an enormous
having been kindled by the royal command not far from the city, they were forthwith led out to
execution.
But, to the
were
lingly
so far from
offered
of thirteen, they being daunted, that they wil themselves to the flames. Yet,
number
that
what voice they were able to exert, they had been deceived by the devil, and
that they had entertained evil sentiments respect The ing the God and Lord of the universe.
by-standers, hearing this lamentable cry, imme diately attempted to draw them from the fire
that
all
their
Wherever any of their fol lowers could be found, they were subjected to the same punishment*. 2. Thus runs the narrative of Glaber but the
were
fruitless.
:
Actuary of the
* Tertio
Synod
infra
of Orleans,
who wrote
in
de vicesimo,
reperta est,
atque insolens haeresis: quae, scilicet, diutius occulte germinata, in perditionis segetem male pullulans, plures in suae coecitatis
praecipitavit
laqueum.
quadam ex
quoscumque
Italia procedente,
Galliis habuisse
exordium
132
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
him
many
when
Manichean
Orleans, an individual
named
Knights of the Duke of Normandy, was eminently useful in detecting that pest, which, in all direc
tions,
France.
ordine.
Quae,
scilicet,
veniens
in
civitatem Aurelianensem,
dum
Fiierunt
nempe hujus
in
perversi
Clero
Qui, non
etiam
in vicinis
urbibus,
dum quendam
sanae
men
in
Rothomagorum
perversi
in
omne secretum
Dicebant
dogmatis
explanantes
in
docerent.
nempe, fore
proximum,
illorum scilicet
dogma populuru
cadere universum.
simum Comitem
rei,
Quibus compertis, presbyter sollicite perrexit ad christianisexposuit ei omnem ejus civitatis Richardum
:
ut compererat, ordinem.
misit celeriter
ad Regem, palam
faciens
clandestinam
in
Tit autem cognovit Rex, regno proprio Christi ovium pestem. scilicet Robertus, moerens nimium effectus est. Idcirco,
quantocyus Aurelianos properans, convocatis plurimis episcopis et abbatibus ac religiosis quibusque laicis, acerrime ceepit perscrutari, qui essent auctores
Facta
igitur perscrutatione
Clericos,
quomodo
unus-
CHAP.
IV.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
133
for the
house, a clerk
named Herbert
who,
sake
of prosecuting his studies, repaired to Orleans. There, while he was seeking after the teachers of
truth,
he blindly
clerks,
fell
of
heresy.
city
same
illus
Stephen and Lisoye men, for their wisdom, redolent of among sanctity, abundant in almsgiving. To their teach and, while he fondly ing, Herbert resorted
two
trious
all
quisque sentiret et crederet ea, quae Fides Catholica per docilli trinam apostolicam incommutabiliter servat et praedicat
:
non
Delude vero quales diu latuerunt, manifestarunt. illos se parti istorum profitebantur haerere, nee ulla plures post ratione se posse affirmabant ab illorum segregare consortio.
Quibus compertis,
effecti,
tarn
Rex quam
;
Pontifices,
tristiores
interrogaverunt
illos secretius,
utpote
viros hactenus in
omni morum probitate perutilissimos quorum unus Lisoius, alter Heribertus. Qui dum interrogati fuissent, a quo, vel
unde,
eis ista
:
sponsum
Hoc enim
repraesumptio accidisset, hujusmodi dederunt diu est, quod sectam, quam vos jam tardt
;
agnoscitis,
amplectimur
quam
cceteros,
:
cujuscun-
cadere expectavimus
quod etiam
palam exposuerunt omnium antiquarum stultissimam ac miserrimam nempe sui deceptricem haeresim.
His
dictis, continuo,
esse, quicquid, in Veteri ac Novo de trina unaque Deitate, beata confirmat auctoritas. Coelum pariter ac terrain, ut conspiciuntur, absque auctore
initii,
semper
extitisse,
asserebant.
Omne
pietatis duntaxat
et justitice,
134
THE VALLENSES
to
[BOOK
II.
have reached the very pinnacle of true knowledge, he was, by their means, really
deemed himself
entangled in the snare of the devil. On his return home, loudly celebrating Orleans as the true light
of
wisdom and
as the resplendent
lamp of sanc
his knightly
tity,
But his lord was not so easily patron Arefaste. deceived. Suspecting that all is not gold which
glitters,
Duke
who, in his turn, communicated it to King Robert adding, that his trusty soldier Are faste desired nothing more than the royal per;
Richard
Dictum
est eis,
quoniam,
nisi celerius
ad sanara
fidei
raentem
redeant, Regis jussu, et universae plebis consensu, igne essent protinus cremandi.
rant,
minus posse
illos
Cernens quoque Rex et universi qui aderevocari ab insania, jussit accendi non
permaximum,
lit,
Ad
quern
cum
ducerentur, rabida
omnimodis hoc velle proclamabant, ac sese ultro ad ignem trahentibus inferebant. Quibus ad ultiraum numero tredecim igni traditis, cum jam ccepissent acrius aduri,
cceperunt, voce
se,
pes-
sime deceptos
nuper de
universoru?n
ei
Deo ac
blasphe-
Domino male
miam,
illos
sensisse; et, ob
vero, plures e circumstantibus, auditis, humanitatis pietate permoti, accedentes, ut vel semivivos ab igne eriperent, minime valuerunt ; quoniam, vindice flamma consumente illos, continue in
His
Si qui vero
postmodum hujus
simili
per-
sectatores
fuerunt reperti,
ultionis
vindicta
c. 8. in
ubique fuerunt perditi. Rodulph. Glab. Hist. lib. iii. Baron. Annal. ad A. D. 10J7. vol. xi. col. 61, 62, 63.
CHAP.
mission
IV.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
undertake
the
135
to
theological obtained, the knight repaired to Orleans easily and presented himself, before the two heresiarchs,
:
alarming
in the
Ere
this spirit
ually dangerous
was taken, he very prudently had the precaution to fortify him self with suppliant prayer against the machina
however,
:
tions of Lucifer
and, furthermore,
during the
whole progress of his most adventurous enterprize, he effectually kept the foul fiend at arm s length,
according to the wise sacerdotal advice which he had received, by a daily orthodox communion.
For the deliberate purpose of betraying them, our mirror of knightly honour soon wormed himself
into the confidence of the
rics
:
two unsuspecting
cle
report to his employers was, that, at length, they communicated the following sum
his
and
mary
Virgin
:
Mary
neither
was
lie
truly buried
from
away
the dead.
In
Baptism, there
is
no washing
of sin
is
nor, through
the consecration of a
priest,
there
blood of Christ.
any sacrament of the Body and The invocation of Saints and Mar
tyrs
is
mere
idle folly.
In making this communication, they professed to open the gates of heaven for the triumphant entrance of the devout aspirant and, feeding him
:
136
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
the while with celestial food, they undertook, by the imposition of hands, to liberate him from all
sin,
and
to replenish
gift of
the
Holy
Spirit.
But, notwithstanding such lofty promises, no thing could be a greater abomination, than the
horrible
tial
mode
in
their celes
together in
nights, they congregated an appointed house, holding lamps in their hands. There, after the form of a litany, chaunted forth the names of demons nor did they they desist from their unhallowed orisons, until,
:
food.
On
certain
shape of some small beast, they beheld the worshipped Evil One suddenly descend among
in the
their
company
lamps
:
*.
As soon
and, then, without any regard either to nearness of consanguinity or to the holiest vows
their
each seized upon the woman who happened to be nearest. When, from this infernal commerce, an infant was born,
they preserved
like the
it
day
and then,
Pagans of
Alanus Magnus, as we have seen above, determines, with laudable precision, the favoured Bestiola, which was specially
selected
as the vehicle of Lucifer, to
male
cat.
CHAP.
IV.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
137
The
made
these
perhaps indeed having himself wit nesses the bestial avatar of Lucifer, communicated
discoveries,
them incontinently
and,
without loss of time, the accused, confronted by the daring knight who had thus magnanimously o t/
/
in
were
This examination, subjected to an examination. however, took place, not in public, but before a
private convention of the King and the Prelates which was held with closed doors in the basilica
or cathedral.
by Arefaste
we
are assured
preferred by those
who
assisted at the process, were duly confessed When variously examined on the prisoners. by sundry doctrinal points, and particularly as to their sentiments respecting the Holy Scriptures,
is
reported to have
The
those,
doctrine,
may
tell to
who savour of earthly things, and who believe men written upon animal But, to us, who have the law written parchment. in the inner man by the Holy Ghost, and who relish nothing save what we have learned from God the
the Jigments of carnal
Creator of all things, you vainly propound matters which are superfluous and altogether alien from sound divinity*. Put, therefore, an end to your
*
divinitate
devia.
can only
understand
the
word
divinitas,
low
latin translation of
138
THE VALLENSES
:
[BOOK
list.
II.
words
We
clearly
King reigning in heavenly places. With his own right hand, he is raising us to an Immortal and he is, even now, about to bestow upon triumph
behold our
:
tis
From
laboured
the
hour of the day to the ninth, all incessantly to recall them from the
first
:
but, harder strangeness of their wicked error than any iron, they obstinately refused to repent. Whereupon, by the assembled Prelates, they were
Constance
herself,
by the
at
the folding doors of the King, kept guard cathedral. When the ceremony of degradation
woman
with a stick thrust out the eye of Stephen who had formerly been her confessor. The heretics
city:
mighty being kindled in a certain hamlet, they were all, together with the nefarious dust which has been mentioned as the material
fire
out of which the celestial food was prepared, con to the flames, save a signed single clerk and a
We
into
our
own language,
precisely in the
same
sense.
CHAP.
single
3.
IV.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
139
To
praefato viro,
quomodo,
in
Aureliana urbe,
tatem,
latentcr
pullulantem,
jamjamque
per
Galliarum pro-
Hie,
in
domo
:
sua,
dicitur,
no
mine Herbertum
decreverat.
Verum, dura
hzeresis
barathro
clerici,
dilabitur.
Nam,
ea
tempestate, in
eadem
civitate,
clari,
duo
Stephanas
et Lisoius,
Eosdem niemo-
discipulus
cum
parvo temporis interstitio, docilis divini verbi dulcedine ab eis debriatur, mortifero
:
nequitiae haustu
qui,
irretitus,
arcem conscendisse
sniiin,
se credi-
aft ectu
verborum
;
in
erroris
testih cans
Aurelianam
sanctitatis
urbibus, coruscare luce sapientiae atque In cujus verbis, dominus ejus, intellectual! et cito Comiti auditu, ipsum animadvertit a via justitiae devium
himpade.
Richardo causam
litteris,
Rodberto Regi,
pestem
in
garetur, patefaceret, et ut
earn
Igitur,
edoctus fuerat,
quotidie
sacra
communione ac
ad
eorum doc-
trinarn veniens,
ultimus intra
domum
erroneorum adsidebat.
140
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
History of Aquitaine
mem-
At
ille,
:
referebat
de omni verbo quod proferebant, semper Deo gratias unde rati sunt eum couversura esse in eorura errorem;
jamque
Christum de Virgine aperiunt, coopertam, Maria non esse natum, neque pro hominibus passum, neque vere in sepulchro positum, nee a mortuis resurrexisse : addentes, In
securi
dicentes
Martyres atque Confessores implorare, pro nihilo ducebant. Cumque haec et alia execranda perditi et miserrimi homines
a foetido pectore evomerent, Arefastus
Si, in his quce enumerastis , salus
sic
ad eos dixisse
fertur
a vobis obnix rogo, mihi aperire in quibus ; ne meus animus, in dubio positus, cito cadat in sperari poterit,
ut dicitis, esse potest
desperationis ruinam. Proculdubio,frater, inquiunt, in chary bdi
falscB opinionis hactenus
cum
indoctis jacuisti
nuncvero, erectus
ad lucem verce
Pandemus
tibi
salutis ostium,
quo ingressus,
per impositionem
coslesti
nostrarum, ab omni peccati labe mundaberis, atque Sancti Spiritus dono repleberis. Deinde,
videlicet
manuum
cibopastus,
Sed, antequam ad conflictum veniamus, de cibo illo, qui ccelestis ab illis dicebatur, quali arte conficiebatur, nescientibus
demonstrare curabo.
Congrebabantur, siquidem,
certis noctibus in
ad
in
quamprimum quisque
veniebat,
manum
sibi
CHAP.
IV.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
141
in
con
Their heresy
confidently
it
is
Manicheism
and
sub
same per-
respectu
et,
monacha, haberetur,
illis
aestimabatur.
Ex quo
cremabatur.
Cujus
cinis
solet aegris
dandum de hoc
quicumque de
de eodem cinere quamvissumendo parum praelibavisset, vix umquam postea de eadem haeresi gressum mentis ad viam
veritatis dirigere valeret.
Igitur,
illis
introductis ante
ait
:
Regem
et
tum Arefastus
Docuistis equidem
me nullam
promereri veniam peccatorum, neque Christum de Virgine esse natum, neque pro hominibus passum, neque vere~ sepultum, neque a mortuis resurrexisse, neque panem et vinum, quod super
altare
manibus sacerdotum
Sancti Spiritus
posse
in
operations
et
effici
videtur
Christi.
sacramentum, converti
corpore
sanguine
Cumque
Stephanum
si ita
et Lisoium,
qui hujus
At
illi,
cum
diabolo
in
inferno
et
habentes,
se
sentire
ac credere,
coustanter adserunt.
142
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
were simi
punished
so
that
the
Manicheans,
who
"West,
deceiv
4. Finally, John of Fleury, in his brief narrative of the same transaction, communicates yet another
Ista
illis
narrare potes qui terrena sapiunt, atque credunt scripta. in membranis animalium :
devia
Jlnem impone
et,
de nobis, quicquid
nostrum, in ccelestibus regnantem, videmus: qui, ad immortelles triumphos, dexterasua, nos sublerat : dans superna gaudia.
veils, facito.
Jam Regem
Cumque, ab hora
ipsi,
diei priraa
illos
tninime resipiscerent
jussi
sunt singuli
suo ordine, statimque ab Antistibus a honore sunt depositi. Et, Rege jubente, Constantia proprio
sacris vestibus indui in
Regina ante valvas basilica; stetit, ne populus eosintra ecclesiam Et sic, de gremio Sanctae Ecclesiae, ejecti sunt. interficeret.
Qui cum
ejicerentur,
Regina, Stephani,
eruit.
sui
olim confessoris,
civitatis
cum
baculo,
in
oculura
Deinde, extra
educti
muros,
clericura
quodam tuguriolo copioso igne accenso, printer unum atque unam raonacham, cum nefario pulvere de quo
1017.
in
Eo
sunt. Gest. Synod. Aurelian, A.D. Dacher. Spicil. vol. ii, p. (370676. tempore, decem ex Canonicis Sanctae Crucis Aurelianis
:
probati sunt esse Manichaei quos Rex Robertus, cum nollent ad catholicam converti Simili modo, fidem, igne cremari jussit.
apud Tholosam,
et ipsi
igne cremati
CHAP.
IV.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
:
143
which shews, that, along with the ten particular Canons, four of the Laity also, for the sake of
their religion,
death of vivicremation.
He
tells
us,
the entire
number
of the
:
sufferers at Orleans
amounted
to fourteen
and
he adds, that among them were found certain of the more noble Laity, as well as of the better Clergy
*.
Now
Conse
quently, the additional four were Laics. II. I have here simply given the various ac counts of this detestable popish barbarity which
and
that any unprejudiced reader will rise from the perusal of them, perfectly satisfied, that these ten
Et, per diversas Occidentis partes, Manichsei exorti, per latibula sese occultare coeperunt, decipientes quoscunque potesunt.
rant.
in
Volo vos
Aurelianensi civitate
nam verum
Fecit
Rex Robertus
ejusdem
qui,
Deo
abnegando
abnegabant, sacri baptismi gratiam, dominici quoque corporis et Cum hoc, post perpetrata scelera sanguinis consecrationem.
vitiorum, negabant posse recipi veniam peccatorum.
Enim vero,
cum
Deus creavit et adipi, tanquam ab immunditiis, abstinebant. Joan. Floriac. Epist. ad Oliv. Auson. in Masson. Annal. Franc, lib. iii. apud Usser. de Eccles. Succes. c. viii. 21.
144
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
Clergymen, confessedly skilled in theology, and confessedly eminent for the holiness of their prac
tice,
Laymen
their friends
and proselytes and associates, were no Manicheans, but, on the contrary, resolute and heavensupported martyrs to the pure and unadulterated faith of the Gospel.
be useful, however, to enter a little into the particulars, which, though with no small
It will
measure of incongruity, we have seen recorded. 1 Here I shall pass over the slighter points of
.
discrepancy in the several accounts, though even these tend to throw a doubt upon their general
fairness
myself to those broader points, which, when united with other matters, effectually take away from Bossuet
:
and accuracy
shall confine
and subsequent writers of his stamp, all the bene fits which they would derive from the case turning
it
over, in the
way
of historical evidence,
to their
opponents.
According to Rodulphus Glaber, the accused were absolute atheists who, thence, believing in
:
no God, consistently denied both the creation of the world and a future state of retribution.
an
;
evil
of the
material world
CHAP.
IV.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
to the
145
Acts of the Synod of Orleans, they believed in one God the Creator of the universe and, so far from denying a future state
According
of retribution, they confidently, on the very eve of a dreadful death, looked forward to an immortal
Which
them
are
we
to receive
of the popish persuasion, they are all as being all severally the exact truth propounded,
:
By writers
and,
though Bossuet
is
as silent
;
as the
respecting any discrepance of heretics, we all know the strictly honourable conduct of Romish Ecclesiastics.
yet, in the
grave treatment
in every
the associated
ask in
of plain
common
sense,
would
believe
being propounded by the folly of their enemies ? Bossuet, who had an object to serve, carefully avoids the exhibition of any symptoms of mis
but the searching incredulity of a Pro giving testant will find it difficult to admit, that even the
:
briefly
14G
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
Through a space of eight hours the examina And the same men, we are tion was prolonged. assured, in the course of the same scrutiny, con
fessed
:
believed in two
no
God ;
God
in
heaven
to
material world and the spiritual world to have been severally created by two Gods, and yet that They
asserted the entire world both material
to
and
spiritual
all but to
have existed
without any Creator from all eternity : that They totally denied a future state of rewards and punish
and yet that Their assured confidence in an everlasting state of future glory and joy celestial
ments,
was such as
to
Such, then, being the case presented to us, we may perhaps, without incurring a very severe
on the premises themselves, to doubt, or possibly still more than doubt, whether the alleged heretics of Orleans
reprehension, be allowed, even
ever really pleaded guilty either to Atheism or to Manicheism for, out of their three recorded
;
confessions, two,
apocryphal.
As
yet,
It is clumsily asserted, we have seen, that the Heretics, while professing the faith in one
CHAP.
IV.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
147
two hopelessly
Truly, our
sole
evidence
is
were, with judicial blindness, these wretched men seem not to have perceived, that, by issuing forth, as the result of their exa
Smitten,
as
it
mination,
tissue
of contradictory
absurdities,
they were shamefully blasting their own charac ters, and with a pen of infernal fire were writing
own historical condemnation. The accused were examined, not fairly in court, so that all, who chose to attend, might
their
open
hear
what they
really said
but, as both
Glaber and
Synod agree, they were examined secretly, before none, save the bigot King, and his miserable spy Arefaste, and his Conclave of inte
rested
Prelates,
;
Monks
and
on the easily
apprehended danger to the from a sudden ebullition of popular fury, prisoners, the multitude were sedulously excluded, Queen
Constance
herself
*.
condescending
in
person
to
From the brutal rage of this woman against her former Confessor Stephen or Heribert, I suspect, that, in the spirit of
L
-2
148
THE VALLENSES
plainly,
[BOOK
II.
Hence, most
we know
specific
their infuriated
us.
tell
And,
in the
her evil ways, too solemnly and too faithfully, ever to forget or to forgive what was felt as an injury and an insult.
Constance is described as a woman of extraordinary beauty, but of conduct the reverse of gravity and simplicity and modesty. de Beauvais, Count Palatine and Prime Minister, en
Hugh
his
master
and
to
him
the
King commu
from
to
This
was
sufficient
and revenge. She, object of her hatred had him assassinated in the presence of her husband, accordingly, who, in vain, endeavoured to save the life of his favourite.
Gifford
s
i.
p.
274.
but,
Hence
ation.
be her Confessor. martyrdom, he had ceased to is evident, that he had been dismissed from his situ
of his dismission and of her hatred
The cause
may,
from her character, be easily divined. It is lamentable to note the rapid historical carelessness, with
which Mr. Gifford adopts the wretched figments of popish writers respecting the martyrs of Orleans. Swallowing, with out either hesitation or discrimination, the Crambt recocta of
of the primitive pagan calumnies which equally fitted the case Christians and of the more modern Albigenses, this author
the title of speaks of such men as Heribert and Lisoye under a voluptuous Confessor leaders of a voluptuous sect. Verily,
would have been quite secure from the hatred of a voluptuous Queen. Such an Ecclesiastic would not have merited and
obtained the pj*? of Constance.
CHAP. IV.]
so
AND ALBIGENSES.
149
:
egregiously
that, while,
by way of blackening
the utter
most the objects of their hatred, they have put into their mouths the two palpably irreconcileable Atheism and Manicheism confessions they
"of
to record yet a
evidently the true one, and with which the antecedently mutual incon
is
which
can by
no ingenuity be made to harmonise. We have the law of God written in our hearts by
Holy Ghost, say these noble champions of the truth and we relish nothing, save what we have
the
:
heard from
God
You
vainly propound, for our acceptance, matters which Put an end, there are alien from sound theology.
fore, to
your words
With the
heaven.
and do with us what you list. eye of faith, we see our King reigning in By his own almighty hand, he will raise
:
us up to an immortal triumph, and will speedily bestow upon us joy celestial. Were these men Atheists or Manicheans? Were
these
men
?
of Satan
of children
that
so,
victims, they
on the Eucharist
that these
Can we
seriously
believe,
men, firm unto death in the mainte nance of their principles, were ever guilty of such
unutterable, such monstrous, such wantonly gra-
150
tuitous,
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
Is
it
likely,
and a
hellish
beyond
this
choose death in
apostasy with
calling in
its
bitterness,
rather
?
than
all its
the
who
splendid absurdity of fabled impossibilities, will, who can, believe, that Lucifer either
among them
in the
shape of
a cat, to wit, as the grotesque superstition of a barbarous age was most commonly In the whole account, a inclined to determine ?
:
Pelion upon an Ossa, absurdities are mercilessly piled upon gross self-contradictions yet the
:
Bishop of
cial care
Meaux
either
is,
or
would
affect to be,
quite satisfied.
At all events, he has taken espe not to endanger the acquiescent faith of
by
letting
him into the secret of those damning incongruities, which may lie advantageously locked up in a dead lan guage, or which may safely repose in massy tomes
his easily-convinced admirer,
it
may be
the
that,
that they
the devil,
and
that they
had
God and
CHAP.
IV.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
is
151
The
the
allegation in question
:
certainly
made by
Rodulphus Glaber
ing this particular
Synod of Orleans are altogether silent respect and even Glaber himself, by the sort of trembling uncertainty which marks his phraseology, may well be deemed no secure wit
;
ness to the pretended fact. They cried out, we are told by this writer, not with a loud and distinct
might easily hear their words but only with what feeble measure of utterance they possessed *. Whatever, then, they in their agonies, they were indispu might say,
voice,
;
tably heard very uncertainly and very indistinctly. Most probably they warned the bystanders of the
snares of the devil
against their
:
and,
for
their
many
sins
their
own
their
effect
merits of
to
Redeemer.
Broken ejaculations
such
Voce qua
little
poterant.
is
f If
we could
amusing
in
the even-handed
by the Papacy,
When,
152
THE VALLENSES
recollect, that a
[BOOK
is
II.
When we
as
woman
of
recorded
having
to
been
the instrument
Paulicianism,
converting
shall be Sergius the singular resemblance of the as struck with serted mode wherein the Canons of Orleans were
ancient
we
death
in the
discharge of his
humane and
as an undoubted saint and out patience, to be unluckily slain he was forthwith canonised. martyr,
Such, for instance, was the appropriate mode, in which the blessed Peter of Verona obtained, in the thirteenth century, his
regular patent of celestial nobility.
lica
martyrio coronatur.
In
cujus canonizationis
testatur
literis
quae
est Perusii,
Papa
Innocentius,
ipsum tutum
annos triginta vixisse in Ordine fultum caterva virvirginitatis etiam florem illibatum servasse, nulliusque
mortalis criminis
unquam
:
sensisse
testimonio Confessorurn
vita et in
Nicol. Trivett.
Chron.
in
Of course, the torturing and murdering of a Catharus, so far from being a mortal sin, was an indisputable merit. The Blessed Peter s Preaching Friars certainly shewed some
a ingenuity in beating up for recruits to their ghostly regiment specimen of which is, by Nicolas Trivett, carefully handed down to the due admiration of all succeeding ages.
:
Scholar of Bologna,
CHAP.
IV.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
Catharism.
nothing
153
converted to
itself,
In the circumstance
see
the knowledge of the unadulterated Gospel but I see everything improbable in it on the hypothe
:
sis, that they were quite easily induced to adopt the dreams of Manicheism by a vagrant female
from
Italy.
liver as
he
was
midst of a vast plain, caught by a tempest. suddenly, Thus distressed, he knocked at the door of a house for ad
mittance,
lam Justice,
to
and I cannot,
in such a
my
He
tenant
:
knocked
at
a second door,
and we have no lodgings here for liars. third door was tried. / am Peace : and I harbour no
But perhaps swaggering gallants and ruffling swashbucklers. my sister, who lives at the next door, may take you in.
Thus admonished, the Scholar made a fourth trial. / am Mercy, said the sister of Peace and the best direction, which I
:
is this.
Preaching Friars
live
St. Nicolas,
where the
shall Jind,
a stable of
penance, and a manger of continence, and a belly-full of doctrine, and an ass of simplicity, and an ox of discretion, and Mary
illuminating,
thee.
and Joseph
profiting,
filled
Devoutly, when he awoke, ruminating on these matters, and with compunction for the crop of wild oats which he had
lost
sown, he
no time
in
And
154
If,
[BOOK
really
II.
Canons were
con
verted by a woman from that country, I conclude, that she must have been a member of one of the
Italian
*.
* These are duly enumerated by Reinerius, as they were in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. subsisting
Ecclesia Albanensis vel de Sensano
;
Ecclesia de Contorezo;
Bagnolo;
;
Ecclesia Vicentina
Ecclesia de
de Marchia
Ecclesia
Florentina
Valle
Spoletana.
tibus
et in pluribus civita-
Lombardiae
Illi
et sunt
numero
sexus.
diara
:
totam Lombar-
bene mille quingenti, vel etiara plures. Bagnolenses morantur in Mantua, Brixia, Bergomi, et in Comitatu
et sunt
ducenti.
circiter
in
Romaniola
et sunt fere
:
nihil
habet Veronae
sed sunt
c. vi.
centum
et quinquaginta.
xiii.
Reiner, de haeret.
in
p. 304.
In Italy, as usual, and (I doubt not) with the very same measure of truth, the Paulicians or Cathari, during the Pon
tificate of
century, were charged with Manicheism by the Inquisitor Nicolas Eymeric, who pretends to sum up their faith in four
teen
several
quaest. 13.
articles. Eymeric. Director. Inquisit. par. ii. See Allix on the Anc. Church of Piedm. chap. xv.
CHAPTER
THE
FALSEHOOD
OF
V.
THE
the famous Berenger of Tours, who nourished in the middle of the eleventh century,
WHETHER
ought
to
be viewed
as
an actually associated
member
nity,
Still,
Commu
may
perhaps, not unreasonably, be doubted. however, there are particulars both in his
doctrine and in his system, which may tend to establish the circumstance of his intimacy with
the
members
of that
inductively to shew that the Community in ques tion could not have been tainted with Manicheism.
the Albigenses always denied the occurrence of any material change in the
I.
and they were remarkable on account of the zeal with which they carried on their extensive missions, for the pur pose of disseminating tenets, which they deemed to constitute the sincere Gospel, and from which
consecrated eucharistic elements
:
they asserted the dominant Church both of the East and of the West to have foully apostatised.
156
THE VALLENSES
like
[BOOK
II.
Now,
Under the
is
in
concerned,
have given up his opinion. After every abjuration, as Bertold of Constance happily expresses it, he returned to the same heresy,
he appears never
*.
Yet, such
was
his.
fame
for austerity
humility and almsgiving, that even without retrac tation, as we learn from William of Malmesbury,
saint
-f.
Holding, then, doctrinal views of this descrip tion, he employed, for the purpose of spreading
his sentiments, poor scholars,
self converted,
whom
he had him
to
act as
direction
and
the
popish
well
nigh
all
the
tempore deficiens,
locum suum
qui, licet
eandem
haeresin saepissime in
Nam,
et in
Romana
Synodo canonice convictus, haeresin suam, in libro a se denee tamen scriptam, combussit, et abjuratam anathematizavit
:
postea
diraisit.
c. vii.
Success,
f Ita resipuit, ut, sine retractatione, a quibusdam sanctus habeatur. Gul. Malmes. de Gest. Anglor. Contin. lib. iii.c. 27.
p.
342
sive,
sub alio
fol.
titulo,
iii.
63.
Vide Nicol.
CHAP. V.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
157
in
French and Italians and even English were fected with the poison of his heretical pravity.
But,
if
body and blood of Christ, they must have attracted the notice and fallen into the company of the Albigensic Cathari, whether in France or in Italy,
who, invariably and from the very first, held pre Whence it is ob cisely the same sentiments.
vious, that identity of opinion
a deep feeling of interest, much intimacy and converse and mutual confi
dence
so that,
the Cathari were or were not strictly one Com munity, they would still, from a consciousness of
doctrinal
identity of
missionary
Fuit eo tempore Berengarius Turonensis haeresiarcha, qui, panem et vinum in altari apposita, post consecrationem sacerdotis, verura et substantiate
disseminata
unde,
soliditati
timens,
sanctae
rum
fulgure,
depulit.
in
:
haereseos,
diu
sinibus
quorundam
nebulonum confotum,
esset
iterum erumperet
Hildebrandus,
cum
Archidiaconus
158
II.
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
According, indeed, to the Bishop of Meaux, Berenger was heretical on the alone point of Transubstantiation for, if we may
is
Nor
this all.
maining fabric of Popery untouched and unin he never advanced any other erronous jured,
Turonis,
Porro, licet Berengarius dogmatis corapulit. calorem juventutis, aliquantarum haeresium defensione, priraum infamaverit, sevo austeriore ita resipuit, tit, sine retractatione, a
anathema
et
eleemosynis approbatus.
Largarum possessionum,
ut nullam
dispertiendo,
dominus
conspectui
suo
formam
quam
Non
aspernari
pauperem
:
non adulari
et vesti-
Secundum naturam
vivere
habens victum
tum, juxta Apostolum, his contentus esse. Gul. Malmes. de Gest. Anglor. Cont. lib. iii. c. 27. p. 342 sive lib. iii. fol. 63.
:
Clandestinis colloquiis,
in
suam
sententiam traxit
turn
praesertim
opulentus esset, ita eorum opera, omnis pene Gallia ac vicinae gensollicitavit, ut, tes eo malo quam citissime laborarent. Alan, de Euchar. lib. i.
theologias studiosos, quotidiana stipe,
c.
cum
vii.
Eodem
in
lapsus pravitatem,
omnes Gallos,
fens. in A. D.
doctrina
siquidem, per egenos scholares, quos quotidianis stipendiis susMatt. Paris. Hist. Mag. tentabat, eandem passim divulgabat.
ad
A. D. 1087.
CHAP. V.]
opinions*.
is
AND ALBIGENSES.
159
But
it
may be
as
quite
so
certain,
Berenger, says Reginald, was condemned, because he embraced that Faith, which we of the
believe.
to be
Roman Church
statement of a modern writer, the Bishop might, with some shew of reason, have demurred but he could scarcely, with any mea
this
:
To
sure of decorum, have slighted the intelligible hint of William of Malmesbury that a denial of
Transubstantiation
sole
heresy of
in the
Berenger,
when
tells
that
speaking
plural form,
*
laissa tout
livr. xi.
reste
en son
entier.
f Darnnatus
est
quam
nos, ut
bat turn etiam quia Ecclesiam Romanam, Ecclesiam Malignantium, Concilium Vanitatis, et Sedem Satance, vocabat et
: ;
immo
cem
aut
et
sanctitate et
Pulpificem dictitabat,
dignatus.
cum
Episcopi
Gul.
Reginald.
Calvino-Turcism.
c.
vii.
lib. xii. c. 5.
24.
160
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
HERESIES, he had rendered the Jirst heat of his At any rate, whether Bossuet *. youth infamous had or had not consulted the continuator of Bede, he savs nothing of an intimation, which, without
indeed descending to particulars, ascribes, never
theless, to the
These
were no
Scheme
:
of Doctrine pro
too, always be a Church of
for
they,
to
Rome
too,
always inculcated that same apostolical poverty, which, according to William of Malmesbury, was assumed by BeMalignants
;
and they,
renger
III.
\.
I
may
is
calorem juventutis, aliquantarum haeresium deGul. Malmes. de Gest. Anglor. Cont. fensione, infamaverit.
lib. iii. c.
Primum
27. p. 342
sive lib.
iii.
fol.
63.
in
oppido Montis
memorabile colloquium,
inter
num
qui a
Papa
missus fuerat
bus, et
ad haec
Arnaldum Hot Pastorem Albigensium appellatum, qui tria Primo Romanam Ecclesiam expresse asserebat.
:
sed turbuesse
adeoque Babylonem
cationum
et abominationum, sanguine sanctorum, et martyrum Jesu Christi inebriatam. Secundo Politiam illius non esse
:
stabilitam.
Tertio
CHAP.
V.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
is
161
equally
the undeniable testimony, to wit, of Be renger himself, as adduced and commented upon by his stout opponent Lanfranc. At least, if the
words be not precisely the identical words of Berenger, the opinion, which they convey, is
ascribed
lowers.
by Lanfranc
to
fol
The Gospel, so runs the imputed heresy, was Then the world originally preached to all nations.
believed :
and
the
For a sea
through the
son,
it
but,
unskilfulness of
men whose
intelligence
was
evil, it
and, henceforth,
us,
alone
and
in those
who follow
the
Holy
can
Jesu
How
this
esse vel a
22. 1207. apud Usser. de Eccles. Success, c. x. Item sunt (doctores Romanae Ecclesise) divites et avari,
:
quibus dicitur
vestram.
Nos
mus
*
tegi,
his content!
sumus.
Reiner, de haer.
in
c. viii. p.
307.
mnndus
ritia
Crevit, fructificavit
erravit et periit.
sed,
impesolis,
In nobis
et in
Lanfranc.
A. D.
Annul,
in
1072.
162
II.
be construed to mean only, that Berenger left the whole fabric entire (as the Bishop speaks), save
and except the dogma of Transubstantiation, I have not skill sufficient to explain. At all events,
what may well shew the close connection, of the Berengarians and the Cathari, the latter, on this the for point, held precisely the same opinion as
mer. The Church of Rome, says Reinerius, they style Hence they oppose the Pope and all the a Harlot.
Catholic Bishops and Priests and Clerks: declaring, that they themselves are the Church of God, and that
the others are but the seducers of the world*.
IV. In point, then, of fact, the circumstance, that both Berenger and his numerous missionaries
and
more numerous proselytes must have familiarly mingled and doctrinally conversed with the Cathari both of France and of Italy, is, from
still
the very necessity of the case, plainly, I think, Now the sentiments of Berenger indisputable.
were too well known, for his enemies to hazard Hence against him any charge of Manicheism.
a reasonable presumption, that, mixing with the Cathari as he and his missionaries must ine
it is
among them
just as
among
themselves.
*
Ecclesiam
Romanam
:
dicunt Meretricem.
Unde, Domino
Papae, et omnibus Episcopis, Sacerdotibus, et Clericis, cathodicentes Se Ecclesiam Dei, et illos mundi licis, contradicunt
;
seductores.
Reiner, de haeret.
c. vi. p.
306.
CHAPTER
THE
VI.
FALSEHOOD OF THE ALLEGATION, DEMON STRATED FROM THE CASE OF PETER DE BRUIS
AND HENRY.
BUT, whatever direct connection may have sub sisted between Berenger and the Cathari, there can be no rational doubt, that Peter de Bruis
and
Henry were two of the most emi Under that aspect, nent among their ministers. are viewed by Bossuet and accordingly, they
his disciple
:
thence, as a necessary part of his system, they are of course to be convicted of Manicheism*.
case, an exculpation of these two an exculpation of the Cathari. more complete failure than the attempt of
Yet, save Bossuet, I have rarely encountered. the malignity of the intention, it may well be
excused.
The Bishop,
:
in
truth,
had
little
to
work upon
and that
6569.
164
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
writings of Bruis and Henry, that know any thing of their tenets save
learn from the Tractate or
we
scarcely
Clugny, Peter the Venerable, addressed to the Archbishops of Aries and Embrun with other
Prelates of
In point of
quantity, this
Work
:
deduce from it any proof of the Manicheism of the alleged heretics, could only, I think, have been gravely attempted by an Eccle
the
siastic of
I.
Romish
first
persuasion.
In the
and Provence and Languedoc and Gascony, du At length, ring a term of nearly twenty years *.
*
Dominis
et Patribus, Magistris
;
Diensi et Wapicensi Episcopis Ebredunensi, Archiepiscopis Frater Petrus humilis Cluniacensiutn Abbas, salutem et ob-
sequium.
Scrips! nuper epistolam
reverentiae
:
vestrae,
contra haereses
a dictando aniraum, a scribendo stylum, retardentibus, hue Mitto nunc tandem earn prudentiae usque mittere distuli.
vestrae, ut, per vos, haereticis contra
quos scripta
est, et
etiam
Vobis
etiam
mitto,
quoniam,
in
more
pestis
adjuvante
removit.
:
studia
vestra,
vestris
paululum
et,
CHAP.
VI.]
AND ALBIGENSES
:
165
he was seized by his watchful enemies and, in the year 1126, was committed to the flames in
the town of St. Giles.
After his
death,
:
Henry
ministered in the same tract of country and, in the year 1147, he also was either burned alive at
days in prison. Now, from the Tractate of the Abbot of Clugny, Bossuet trusts, that he shall be able to establish
the Manicheism of Bruis and Henry, and thence, by a necessary consequence, the Manicheism of
the Albigenses. For the giving a correct account of the doctrinal
system maintained by these two individuals, the admirable qualifications of Peter the Venerable
a Septimania vestra, vobis persequentibus, expulsa, in provincia Novempopulana, quae vulgo Gasconia vocatur, et in partibus
in quibus nunc se adjacentibns, sibi foveas praeparavit timore occultans, nunc de ipsis audaeia assumpta prodiens, quos
ei
:
nunc
istis,
nunc
illis,
venena propinat. Vestrum est, igitur, ad quos praecitarn ex officio, quam ex singulari scientia, in partibus pue, illis cura Ecclesiae Dei spectat, et quibus ipsa velut fortibus
columnis
illis in
maxime
innititur
vestrum
est,
quibus se latibula invenisse gaudet, et praedicatione, et etiam (si necesse fuerit) vi armata per Laicos, exturbare. Et, erronei dograatis semina, a Petro de Bruis per viginti quia prinia
fere annos sata et aucta,
produxerunt
contra
ilia
maxime, ut
par.
166
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
own
free
acknow
ledgments. He wrote, as he himself distinctly tells us, from mere vulgar unauthenticated rumour.
Let us
to the
see,
of either Christ
or the Prophets
or the Apostles.
I say
this,
be
cause
do
report has spread it abroad, that you not totally believe either the Prophets or the
common
or
it
Apostles
report, if
and
the
same
detract
from
the majesty
both
of the
New
Testament.
ought not to give assent to rumours, more especially when some affirm that you have rejected the whole of the Sacred Canon, while
others contend that
you
I am
*
unwilling to
certain *.
Quia
est rever-
tendum
et,
de
Evangelicis,
si
seu
Propheticis,
dictis, testimonia,
tamen vel
hi,
Videndum
est,
utrum
cedunt, saltern Christo, Prophetis, vel Apostolis, adquiescant. Hoc ideo dico, quoniam, nee ipsi Christo, vel Prophetis, aut
Apostolis, vos ex toto credere, fama vulgavit : ipsique majestati Veteris ac Novi Testamenti, quse jam ab antiquo totum
si
tamen verum
est,
indicavit.
CHAP.
VI.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
167
He had
consulted a Work, which was said to have been dictated to an amanuensis by Henry, the disciple
adduce
it
as affording
any
warrant
Giles;
from temporal
did not so
trine
:
whereby, through the zeal of the faithful, he passed to eternal jire, Henry, the heir of his
wickedness, with
I know
much amend
for, as I lately saw in a volume which was said to have been written from his dictation, he put
forth, not merely jive points, like his master, but many points. Nevertheless, because I have not as
yet full confidence, that he either so thinks or so
preaches, I defer my answer to him in particular, until I shall have indisputable certainty of the mat ters which are reported concerning him*.
debeo,
certis
209.
* Post
eum
concremando, ultus est; postquam plane impius ille, de igne ad ignem, de transeunte ad aeternum, transitum fecit: haeres nequitiae
ejus Heinricus, cum nescio quibus aliis, doctririam diabolicam non quidem emendavit, sed immutavit et, sicut
;
168
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
honesty, while he attacks the two heretics, evinced by Peter of Clugny, in duly telling us,
The
that, save
by hearsay, he
is
really
knows nothing
it
about them,
goes: yet, assuredly, if acknowledged ignorance and uncertainty be valuable requisites in a trust
worthy witness, we have them exhibited in the highest perfection by this specially Venerable
Abbot.
After thus very handsomely confessing that he was entirely in the dark, as to whether the Petrobrusians did or did not receive either the whole or
any part of the Canon of Scripture, he sets him an admission of the New
after
it
in tomo, qui ab ore ejus exceptus dicebatur, non quinque Contra quae animus accentantum, sed plura, capitula edidit.
nuper
verbis daemonicis,
divinis
sermonibus,
obviare.
Sed, quia
eum
nondutn mihi
Petr. Cluniac.
Si enim,
;
quod oranes
affirmant,
suscipitis
tis.
omnia
suscipie-
Nee enim
Evangelium
p. 209.
suscipit, dubitare.
Evangelium
Ibid. p. 212.
toti
et,
CHAP.
VI.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
169
And,
in truth, this
But how
against one of the recognised tenets of Manicheism is to fix the charge of Manicheism itself upon
persons whom Peter all the while confessedly knew not to hold any such tenet, certainly passes
very good but, so far as Bruis and reasoning in its place his disciples are concerned, it is plainly, accord
my
comprehension.
The reasoning
:
is
own statement
of the matter,
the purpose of indisputably establishing his accusation, he sums up, in five points, the
larity, for
principal doctrines, which, during the space of well nigh twenty years, were said to have been preached by the indefatigable heresiarch.
The. first point denies
:
that children,
who have
not arrived at the age of intellect, can be saved by Christian Baptism * ; or that the faith of another
to those,
any faith of
it is
their own.
cording
them,
s
own faith, which saves with Bap tism inasmuch as the Lord says ; He, that believeth and is baptised, shall be saved ; and he, that
an individual
:
damned.
of this expression, I sup which Christ himself submitted
Christ! baptisraate.
The meaning
pose, must
to,
170
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
The second point maintains : that churches ought not to be built, and that those already built ought to For sacred places, set apart for be pulled down.
: inas prayer, are no way necessary to Christians much as God, whether invoked in a tavern or in a
church, in a market-place or in a temple, before an altar or before a manger, equally hears and answers
those
*
*.
s statement of this point is evidently a mere of a very just allegation on the part of his opponents. perversion The gross superstition of the day was not content with the
The Abbot
decent setting apart of a new church to the worship of God but, furthermore, enriched or encumbered it with the fictitious
:
relics of saints
and martyrs
attributed to
it
a sort of mysterious
geographical sanctity, quite apart from the spirituality of any service actually performing within its walls and, in the current
;
it,
as the
Locus Benedictus
Arguing against this gross and mischievous superstition, the more evangelically enlightened Petrobrusians, 1 suppose, urged the words of our Lord to the woman of Samaria The hour
:
now
is,
when
Father
in spirit
and
in truth.
Throughout
a
his
combating
demon of
for
the churches in the country and having no pulling churches whatsoever, was purely a matter of ignorant blunder
ing hearsay.
evocation.
in
is
told,
shews us
how
originated.
CHAP.
VI.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
commands
:
171
The
third point
For the cross, jixes should be broken and burned. on which Christ was so horribly tortured and so
cruelly slain,
is
way
be treated with every dishonour, ought hacked with sivords, to be burned withjire.
to
be
omnibus clarum
et
locorum autem
sacrorum
aedificia fieri
;
non debere,
quidem
dicimus.
affirmatis
The persecuted
who were
relentlessly harried
by the
orthodox from Dauphiny to Gascony greatly to the delight of the holy Abbot, would, I doubt not, like men of plain common sense, have been very glad to have had comfortable churches of
their
own,
if their
the case
popish enemies would have permitted them. and hence they were fain to wor
:
God,
else
in
anywhere
Under
latebrae,
very be made a matter of reproach to them, by the two well-housed Abbots of Clugny and Clairvaux. Sibi foveas praeparavit, says Peter in quibus nunc se ttmore
their unwilling latebra, should
:
these circumstances,
rather too
much, that
their
occultat, nunc
de
ipsis,
audacia assumpta,
prodit.
Petr.
Ubi
Illi in
poor sufferers,
publico
:
quam
vos
jactatis
in
Illi
clamant:
vos susurratis.
vos in
angulo.
Illi,
ut nubes, volant:
Bernard, super
172
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
and continually
it
also declares,
that
ought not
up
to
God.
The fifth
when made by
:
the
living
faithful on behalf of the faithful defunct affi?*ming, that, not even in the smallest degree, can they help
whom
he would
to the afflicted Albigenses. place in such strong contradistinction St. Paul would not have despised their fovece and tenebrce
Nay,
:
who wandered
ther he
about in sheep-skins
and
in goat-skins,
being
destitute, afflicted,
tormented
it
may
fairly
be doubted, whe
Bernard
s
would have
fully entered
et
rusticanum ac sine
titeris et
prorsus
imbelle.
Nullum corpus
replied
the supposed illiterate patient, pro quo Christus non est dedig-
natus mori.
We
*
all
know
is
St.
Paul
unrivalled parenthesis
Of whom
infra
the world
not worthy.
Primum
haereticorum
capttulum
negat,
parvulos,
illis
uti
non
possunt
cum
baptismate salvat,
Domino
;
dicente
Qui crediderit
et bap-
Secundum capitulum dicit, templorum vel ecclesiarum fabricam fieri non debere, factas insuper subrui oportere nee esse
:
CHAP.
VI.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
173
Here, in due form, as preferred by Peter the Venerable against Bruis and his disciples, we have, with whatever distortion of statement, five
specific articles of indictment.
Now, even
if
we
unreservedly take them as they stand, I should be glad to learn, from any modern follower of Bossuet, where it is that they exhibit the slightest
by no means
also a
we have
By
of Baptism
whence,
quoniam
in
aeque,
taberna et
in ecclesia,
in
foro et in templo,
Deus
audit,
et
eos
qui merentur
praccipit, et suc-
quia species
ilia
vel instrumentum,
occisus, est,
quo Christus
tarn
dire tortus,
tarn crudelitur
nem tormentorum
et mortis ejus,
et
continue per
sacramentum
Ecclesia
oft erri
sed, omnino
neque Deo
debere, decernit.
Quinlum capitulum,
reliqua bona, pro
deridet
:
sacrificia,
orationes,
eleemosynas, et
nee,
juvari, affirmat.
ea aliquem mortuorum, vel in modico, posse Petr. Cluniac. cont. Petrobrus. p. 20(J, 207.
174
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
the writings of popish ecclesiastics, a renunciation of this sacrament is perpetually alleged against
those pretended heretics, upon whom they would But, invidiously fix the charge of Manicheism.
according to the Abbot, bitter and prejudiced as he was, the Petrobrusians were only a sort of
Antipedobaptists, who rejected not Baptism itself, but who simply denied the utility of Infant-Bap
Judging from the language which they are reported to have held on that topic, I am myself
tism.
that they did nothing more than deny the spiritual grace of Regeneration to follow, ex
satisfied
:
opere opera to, the outward administration of the material sign in Baptism ; and that this was mis
be baptised, inasmuch as infants cannot, by any proper faith of their own, be worthy reci But, however that may be, the question, pients*.
to
really
rejected by
in truth, so far as
is
any testimony
to their
fancied Manicheism
the mark.
them
Infant-Baptism specifically: still they confessedly held the observance, and even insisted upon the necessity, of the sacrament of
have retained,
Baptism
*
itself.
Now
this
Dixistis
sine
Nee Baptismus,
;
nee propria
sine
fides,
baptismo
aliquid
potuit.
Neutrum enim,
altero, salvat.
CHAP.
done,
VI.]
if
AND ALBIGENSES.
175
Heresy.
So likewise the very mode, in which (according Abbot) the Petrobrusians shewed their zeal for the destruction of crucifixes, and respecting
to the
which Bossuet is profoundly silent, yet again demonstrates the impossibility of their having been Manicheans. On a certain Good- Friday, they
collected together as many crosses as they could and, using them as the materials for a large fire which they kindled, they proceeded to roast a
:
quantity of flesh meat, from which they after ward made a hearty meal, inviting the people to
follow their
example
*.
the
narrative effectually
Manicheism.
well known,
verborum
was
:
et,
quod
Quod
tune factum
est,
quando, ad inauditam Divinitatis contumeliam, magnode crucibus aggere instructo, ignem immisistis, pyram fecistis, carnes coxistis, et, ipso passionis dominicae die paschalem dominicam
praecedente, invitatispublice ad talera
esum
populis, comedistis.
Petr. Clun. cont. Petrobrus. p. 222. In spirit, the action was the very same as that of Hezekiah
when he brake
in
the
same
also
when,
at
17G
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
was the
haunted by any such absurd scruples, shewed contempt both of purely mechanical fasting and of idolatrously worshipped crucifixes, by
their
feeding strenuously upon flesh meat cooked on Good-Friday at a fire made of the timber of
crosses.
There
is
even
still
more
same conclusion.
the form,
:
The Manicheans,
which was seen, having been purely phantasiastic whence, they also consistently denied, that he
endured upon the cross any real sufferings.
Ac
cordingly, a denegation of Cht^ist s substantial body, is, by the romish ecclesiastics, perpetually charged
upon
those,
cheism.
whom
the veil on which was represented the image of some saint or per-
Pope Gregory
I,
brake
in
Strong cases re
and strong remedies (though, after all, mere senseless pieces of wood were burned, because they were
wickedly abused) will always move the indignation of idolatrous Ye have taken away my gods which I made : and what bigots. have I more? has been the piteous complaint and angry ques
tion of
CHAP.
VI.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
177
ing that Christ had a material body, are actually said to have alleged, in their third point of doc trine, that it was the height of absurdity to adore
the instrument on
so horribly
Hence,
of their
IV.
Still,
Meaux
does not altogether despair. Advancing, it seems, a step beyond Berenger, the Petrobrusians not
only denied the truth of the body and blood of Christ, but likewise the sacrament itself with its
thus leaving the people with species and figure out any sacrifice of the most high and true God *.
:
* Si haeresis haec vestra Berengariis limitibus contenta esset, veritatem quidem corporis Christi, sed non sacramentum quae
vel speciem
facile
labore expedirem.
inquam,
libri,
si nihil deterius Berengarianis Sed, quia, ut dixi, errorem errore, haeresira haeresi, nequitiam nequitia, non tantum verita superastis tem carnis et sanguinis Christi, sed et sacramentum, speciem, ac
figuram, negatis
ejus
et sic,
absque summi
et veri
Dei
sacrificio,
populum
esse censetis.
Peter means, by saying, that the heretics went beyond Berenger himself, it is not easy to determine. But, from his
What
and
without any
implies,
true
God
which,
therefore,
that
178
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
the Bishop rapidly pronounces them to be clearly convicted Manicheans, because, like the Manicheans, they absolutely rejected the Eu
Hence
charist*.
It is really very difficult to believe, that Bossuet could have honestly penned such a charge on such grounds. Why, the very language of Peter the
Venerable
runs,
is
may
so perfectly intelligible, that he, who read. What Bruis and his disciples
am
inclined to think,
was
this.
and Ireneus,
the
was
willing to
deem
the elements,
God
of the
first-
of the earth.
Justin. Mart.
p.
Apol.
i.
Dial,
c. 32.
269, 270.
establishment of the utterly unscriptural sacrifice of the Mass, roundly, and very truly, denied the existence of any sacrifice in
the Eucharist, according to the sense imposed upon the term the Romanists. The declamatory rhapsodies of that violent by
and confessedly half-informed writer Peter of Clugny are built, I believe, upon the truth: but no sober person, I suppose, would care to swallow them undiluted and unanalysed.
*
Ce
du corps
I
et
du sang
mais,
comme
Eucharistie.
66.
Whenever
it
suits
his
the Venerable
is
pleased to
tell
him
but,
when
the
Abbot un
luckily says
anything incompatible with the hypothesis of Petrobrusian Manicheism then the wise practice of Bossuet
;
is
the
Prudens
prcetereo.
CHAP.
VI.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
179
rejected was, most evidently, not the due adminis tration of the Eucharist, but its miserable perver
sion
They denied
not
broadly the truth of the body and blood of Christ ; for they acknowledged, that he had a real sub
stantial
but body which suffered upon the cross they denied the truth of any material presence of Christ s body and blood in the Eucharist; ration
:
ally
and
whereby the priests claimed to make the body and blood of Christ at the altar, was a piece of
useless folly. And, in like manner, they denied not the sacrifice of Christ, which he once for all
offered
worse than
notion,
the Eucharist, in
species and figure, is a sacrifice of the literal body and blood of Christ, offered up whensoever Mass
is
celebrated
mean by
that
certain,
by a
it
is
quite
from
his
own
words,
as
Negat corpus
vacuum esse, quicquid, in altaris sacramento, altaris ministri Petr. Clun. cont. Petrobrus. p. 228. agere videntur, affirmat. et sic, absque Sacraraentum speciem ac figuram negatis
:
summi
et
veri
Dei
sacrificio,
ejus
populum
esse
censetis.
Ibid. p. 228.
180
THE VALLENSES
;
[BOOK
II.
for he represents their regard to the Eucharist doctrine, concerning the ministration of a popish
as one which left the people priest at the altar, without any sacrifice of the most high and true God that is to say (for thus the whole context
;
imports), as one which left the people without any daily sacrifice of the Mass.
In truth, the very phraseology which the blun dering Abbot puts into their mouths, absurd and
so utterly destroys the fancy of their being Manicheans, that Bossuet, more
incongruous as
it is,
prudently than equitably, has not, any more than their fourth and fifth points of doctrine, ventured
to
adduce
it.
According
to say to priests,
to
the people
Be
not
deceived by
t/ie
make
the
whereas
supper
*.
;
What
that
The body of
* Verba vestra, quae ad nos pervenire potuerunt, ista sunt. O populi, Episcopis, Presbyteris, seu Clero vos seduNolite,
centi, credere
:
decipiunt
ad vestraMentiuntur
in
rum animarum
plane.
salutera
se
tradere, mentiuntur.
serael tantum,
:
ab ipso Christo,
et semel,
hoc
datum
est.
est.
neque
alicui
datum,
CHAP.
VI.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
Christ was once for all offered up on the cross : whence they argued that A priest could not make
;
it
in order that
it
might be repeatedly
own language
even
as reported
by the Abbot,
incompatible with
:
the notion of their being Manicheans for, in that very language, they are made professedly to ac knowledge the true substantial existence of the human body of Christ.
construction of the five doctrinal ascribed to the Petropoints brusians; together with a sixth point, in itself of secondary importance, and to the main question of no importance whatsoever.
still
further
Ye say:
tant faith, nor faith without concomitant baptism, is of any avail; for neither can save without the
other*.
Ye preach that churches are vainly built; since the Church of God not in a mass of co consists,
:
Ye say
Lord
is
not to be
honoured or adored ; for the instrument of Christ s torment and death ought to be rejected, not vene*
Dixistis:
Nee
:
fides, sine
baptismo
brus. p. 217.
182
rated;
THE VALLENSES
ought
it
[BOOK
II.
to
be
matter as
is} to be invocated
by
silly
prayers.
not
the
Ye
assert:
that the
Church
possesses
body of the Lord, in the sacrament of the altar ; and that, whatsoever is there done by the priests, is
idle
effect,
since
is
in vain to
pray or
to
do
any good deed for the defunct ; because the good deeds of the living cannot profit those, who, when
they
departed hence,
took
whole
by another.
Ye add
God
is
only mocked ;
who
affections alone
voices,
can neither
scientific
*
music*
cum
Ecclesia
cohaerentium
lapidum, sed
esse
Domini honorandam
vel
adorandam non
et mortis instru-
mentum
non
fuit,
ignibus concremanda,
invocanda
altaris,
fit,
est.
Asseritis, corpus
Domini,
in
in
sacramento
Ecclesiam
eo a sacerdotibus
:
inane prorsus et
futuris
illud
absque aliquo
Christianis
dederit.
veritatis effectu
semper,
discipulis,
CHAP.
VI.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
statement,
183
:
From
this
jected to the miserably superstitious worship of the cross, was the palpable circumstance of its and that being a piece of mere insensible matter
;
and
of the Mass, was the scrip tural verity of the one sacrifice of Christ, once offered on the cross for the sins of all mankind,
impious mummeries
not repeatedly offered under the aspect of a sacri fice both for quick and for dead as often as a
priest celebrates the Eucharist.
On
the whole,
if
we
nothing indeed of Manicheism, but much of very sound Protestantism. Hence, with such evidence
before him, I marvel not, however discrepant from Bossuet, at the very natural conclusion of the chronologist
Genebrard
that
The
theological
parents of the Calvinists, or the members of the French Reformed Churches, were the Petrobrusians
Affirmatis,
vanum
det unctis
Additis, irrideri
solis
Deum
cantibus ecclesiasticis
quoniam, qui
nee uiusicis
modulis,
potest,
mulceri.
Petrobrus. p. 219.
184
THE VALLENSES
the
[BOOK
II.
Henridans and the Albigenscs*. In truth, the Petrobrusians and the Henricians, as Bossuet
and
himself well knows or rather insists, were but the
Consequently,
when
their doctrinal
system
is
ascertained, that of
the Albigenses is ascertained alsof. VI. At a later period, as I have already stated, the disciple Henry either died in confinement or
Let us hope, that the former was the It has been said, however, that, after a
xviii.
196.
j>.
From
Abbot
Peter,
we may
gather,
even some good Catholics, most probably from their converse with the heretical Albigenses, entertained
that, at
this time,
doubts
in
ing both the worship of the cross and the efficacy of any good deeds of the living to profit the dead.
Cum
probetur
negatur
ritur.
;
quod
sic,
quibusdam
hzereticis
utrum
debeat,, a
mortuis prodesse valeant, et hi haeretici etiam Catholici dubitarevidentur. Ibid. p. 240. negant, etquidam
Notwithstanding arguments in favour of idolatry and human meritoriousness, with which he himself at least is evidently quite
Peter
s
continued to ferment through all the middle ages until the mass was sufficiently prepared for the glorious Reformation of the sixteenth century.
CHAP. VI.]
painful
life
AND ALBIGENSES.
185
incessantly devoted to ministerial and missionary exertions, he was, in the year 1147, consigned to the flames at Toulouse, by the bar
barity of the Papal Legate Alberic, and at the unchristian solicitation of Bernard of Clairvaux.
Be
that as
it
may,
this
lessly, even after death, pursued the reformer with the foulest and yet most inconsistent calum nies for, while he represents him as a very mon
:
ster,
he
is
success of his indefatigably conducted labours. Henry travelled, indeed, throughout the whole of
Languedoc and Gascony, a convicted wolf in sheep s clothing he apostatically threw off the habit of his Order, for he had originally been a
:
monk; and,
returned to
flesh
:
as a
dog returns to his vomit, greedily the world and the uncleanness of the
for
fornicator,
:
and, by
way
wherever
he journeyed, whether from Lausanne or from Poictou or from Bourdeaux, he left behind him the
slimy traces of his filthiness yea, the very land, wherein for a season he took up his abode, stank awfully with the stupendous fetidness of his evil
:
odour.
when he girt up his loins and, not whither he went, became a wan knowing derer upon the face of God s earth such, with a
Yet,
;
:
was
186
cess
tions
;
THE VALLENSES
that churches were
;
[BOOK
II.
left
without congrega
;
without priests priests, without reverence; and Christians, without Christ. The sanctuary of God was denied to be holy
congregations,
:
churches were deemed no better than synagogues sacraments were no longer sacred festivals were
: :
By death, deprived of their solemn festivities. souls were hurried before the terrific tribunal of
God:
neither, alas,
reconciled
of
fortified
by the viaticum
of Christ,
Bernard to
:
his
Surely,
cannot be of God, who says and does things so contrary to God. Nevertheless, alas, alas, he is
man
heard by multitudes
and he has a
him.
people,
who give
implicit conjidence to
*
By
Parvulis Christianorum
:
Christ!
dura
baptism! negatur gratia nee saluti propinquare sinuntur. In the text, I have expressed what I believe to have been
the doctrine really taught by Henry. He denied, I suppose, that the inward grace of regeneration always, in the case of
infants, attends
visible sign in
baptism.
upon the administration of the outward and This was construed into a denial of
Bernard, accurately enough, reported
baptism itself
to infants.
Henry in the words, Baptismi negatur GRATIA Henry himself, by the term gratia, meaning the in ward grace of Baptism but I do not think, that Bernard so
:
CHAP. VI.]
cal art, he has
AND ALBIGENSES.
bewitched the
silly
187
own
that the
in the
high-road
to
ruin
and that
riches of the mercy of God, and the entire which belongs to the whole human kind, ap grace
pertain exclusively to those, whom he, by his artful predication, has fatally deceived *.
The climax
plete,
of Bernard
:
had he subjoined monster of depravity, this manifest child of Satan, after painfully wandering from place to place,
after
enduring a
life
tion of
what
at least
braved death, either in the flames or in a dungeon, rather than renounce the principles,
Christ
;
which, during a term of more than twenty years, he had cherished and acted upon.
*
Non
est hie
homo
Deo
:
et facit et
loquitur.
Proh
populo stulto et
populum, Nescio qua arte diabolica, persuasit insipienti, de re manifesta, nee suis credere
errare posteros,
et
sanguinem perditum iri, et, ad solos quos Dei divitias et universitatis gratiam
Bernard. Epist. ccxl. ad Ildefonsum Comitem pervenisse. Sancti vEgidii de Henrico haeretico. Oper. col. 1591, 1592.
CHAPTER
THE
FALSEHOOD
OF
VII.
THE
STRATED
FROM THE
OF CLAIRVAUX.
however, in regard to the Manicheism of Bruis and his catharistic followers, Peter of Clugny be
IF,
not quite so satisfactory a witness as Bossuet the celebrated Bernard of could have desired
:
and contemporary,
whose general vituperation of Henry we have already heard, may perhaps somewhat better
supply the wished-for information. Such are the sanguine hopes of the Bishop of Meaux. Peter the Venerable, he admits, may indeed speak with some hesitation, as to their
receiving,
Manicheans, no part of the Sacred Canon except the Gospel alone but then
like the
:
Bernard, he remarks,
well
in
ne recevoient
parle qu
Bernard assure, que cet heretique et ses sectateurs mais Pierre le Venerable n en rjue I Evangile
:
en duutant.
livr. xi.
655.
The truth of Scripture, says the Abbot of Clairvaux, stands thus: IT is THE GLORY OF KINGS TO CONCEAL A MATTER BUT IT IS THE
I.
;
Wilt
In that
But perhaps thou receivest not this portion of Scripture. Even so it is. They profess, that
God.
they,
and they
of the Gospel
form.
alone *.
in
mood and
Bernard, we see, alleges, against the Petrobrusian Cathari of Gascony, a rejection of the
Old Testament
and
partly, in
an intimation, that they received not a text which he had professed to cite against them from the
and partly in an avowal made by that they alone were emulators of the themselves,
Proverbs
;
(as he
understood
Hebrew
Scriptures.
That the Cathari, perhaps with some slight tinge of sarcasm, should have refused to admit
Why,
does
*
cite, in his
That writer
NOT
Stat
;
VEvangile.
nempe
Scripturae veritas
bum
gloria
Non
vis tu
revelare
Non
hanc.
solos.
Sed
forte
Solius Evangelii se profitentur aemulatores, et Bernard, super Cant, serrn. Ixv. col. 760.
190
the
THE VALLENSES
passage
[BOOK
to
II.
which
Bernard professed
cite
much
while, at the
same
ceive the validity of the reasoning, which, from the rejection of the cited passage (for, verily,
the
Cathari did
reject
it),
would demonstrate
their universal
also.
rejection of the
Old Testament
The
truth
is
neither in the
Hebrew
Original,
nor yet in the Greek of the Seventy, nor yet again in the Latin Vulgate, does any such passage exist,
as that
to cite
We
to
the glory of
KINGS
to
search
out *.
But we
Vulgate
which, I suppose,
book of
:
reference.
CELARE
verburn
et gloria
regum investigare
sermonem.
Proverb, xxv. 2.
In what part of Bernard s citation, Gloria Dei REVELARE sermonem, lies his Stat Scriptures veritas ? I suspect, that the
inveterate heretics,
the entire
to believe,
New
who, as Reinerius tells us, had well nigh Testament by heart, and who, I shall venture
were reasonably well acquainted with the Old Tes tament to boot, must have smiled alike, if in the midst of their and
at the logically
argument.
like
They sometimes, we
:
good Catholics
that they
CHAP.
VII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
It
is
191
the glory of
KINGS
to
it is
the glory of
GOD
to re
submit, that the probably sarcastic re jection of a passage, which no where occurs in the Old Testament, is not a very logical proof,
I
Now
that the
Old Testament
*.
itself
Cathari
Tntersunt prsedicasernione.
in
Reiner, de
haeret. c. vii. in Bibl. Patr. vol. xiii. p. 307. * The who wrote the General
Benedictine,
History of Lan-
in
by
God wrought
the eloquence nor the miracles of the Saint produced any per
Mais
After this he acknowledges, that the peculiarly Christian logic of the two successive Cardi nals, Peter of St. Chrysogon and Henry of Albano, was not a
les reprirent bien-t6t
apres.
La
les
Chrysogone
en 1178 dans
monies pa is, n eut pas un succes plus heureux, malgre les soins qu il se donna pour faire une recherche exacte de ceux qui
s etoient laisse
seduire
les penitences
seve>es
et la confiscation
la disposition
ne firent qu irriter les esprits, des creurs. Enfin, le Cardinal Henri Eveque d Albano, etant venu en 1181 dans le haut Languedoc, a la tete
les heretiques, autant
par
d abord quelques foibles armes que par mais il n eut pas plutot termine son expedition, que progres
la persuasion,
fit
:
192
2,
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
clearly convicted Manicheans pro that they alone were emulators of the fessed also,
But these
Gospel alone : and, from such phraseology, Ber nard was confirmed in his prepossession, that,
confessedly emulating the Gospel alone, they must, by a plain implication, be understood, as
also confessedly rejecting the
Scriptures of the
Old Testament.
When
I -consider
Popery has so
Gospel of Christ and when I recollect, that, by Bernard s own account, the Cathari of Gascony claimed to be successors of the Apostles and dis
tinguished themselves by the name of Apostolicals : I doubt not, that they really made the profession ascribed to them, though Bernard, much too hasty
be a patient investigator, has somewhat absurdly mistaken its obvious and indeed necessary import.
to
profession,
which
is
to
pr-
terent
oreille
discours seducteurs de
que Perreur, au lieu de diminuer, ne fit de nouvelles forces. Hist. Gener. de Langued. que prendre
leurs faux ap6tres, et
livr.
xxi.
1.
vol.
iii.
p.
127, 128.
How
much
the general
conduct of the Clergy advanced the project of converting the heretics, may be easily inferred from the estimation in which
they were held. The Benedictine cites William of PuyLaurens, a writer of that period, as stating it to be a common
proverb among the heretics / had rather be a Priest, than have done such a thing. Ibid. 2. p. 129.
:
CHAP.
VII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
193
Old Testament
they,
and they
alone,
Such was
their profession.
;
And what
is
its
obvious and necessary meaning necessary, I say, because the words, they alone, or they to the exclu
sion of their
adversaries,
absolutely
forbid
any
other interpretation.
Bernard, though he himself, mingled with what ever superstition, repeatedly maintained the sound
doctrine to which the Cathari of
yet,
Gascony alluded
led,
by misapprehend the purport of their profession, and thence to impose upon it a sense foreign alike to its plain meaning and to
their evident intention.
his prejudices, to
can readily com But, that the cool and penetrating and prehend. acute Bossuet really fell into the same mistake,
This
I
albeit reluctant to
judge uncharitably,
find
it
no
easy matter to believe. Even a child in Theology, who knows the fundamental point of difference,
between simulated Catholicism and genuine Ca tholicism, to be the vital doctrine of Justification
through Faith on account of the alone perfect Right eousness of Christ, and not on account of the Infused
Righteousness and alleged Meritorious fallen man : even a child in Theology,
will
Works of
I
104
it
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
Bernard himself. While the Romanists, as good Latimer quaintly an utterly unevangelical mingleexpresses it, made
mangle of Christ O
s
merit and
Man
merit
confused Scheme, which shortly afterward was reduced into regular phrase and form by the Schoolmen, and which ultimately was laid down
by the shameless heretics who congregated together in the packed Conven the Cathari, broadly in their day ticle of Trent
as an Article of Faith
:
contrasting their
adversaries,
own
;
professed
They
alone,
in
the
that
They
alone,
as
contradistinguished
it
from
the rife
to
teachers
a principle
preach
but the Gospel; Gospel, and nothing the great predicted that They alone, in the midst of to adulterate apostasy of the Man of Sin, refused the by laying down terms of Justification
Gospel
the
On
tifies,
tes ground, as the Abbot of Clairvaux the Papalists, for they consistently censured
this
of Inward Regene ascribing to Baptism the grace which he ration, mechanically or ex opere operato ; of the Sacrament of curiously mistook for a denial and, on this same ground Baptism to Infants
:
also,
CHAP.
VII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
and
195
utterly unwarranted,
to the
as altogether contrary
tice of
praying for the dead and of supplicating the Saints for their suffrages*. Hence, moreover, as essentially subversive of the sincere Gospel
which alone they were emulous to preach, inas much as it rests upon the unscriptural principle, that Man may either hereafter make satisfaction
for himself by
his
own
sufferings, or that
Here he
satisfaction for the dead by his reputed works and by the sacerdotal offertory of the good
may make
they rejected entirely the dangerous and unauthorised figment of a Purgatorial Fire main as soon as the soul is separated from taining, that,
:
;
Mass
the body, it forthwith passes, either to a state of And hence rest, or to a state of damnation f.
}
finally,
posed upon them by their enemies, they them selves would acknowledge no appellation, save
that of Apostolicals , equivalent to their old
name
inasmuch as they claimed to be the uncorrupted successors and followers of St. Paul and the Apostles^.
Paulicians
:
* Videte
detractatores,
videte
canes.
Incident
nos, quia
quod oramus pro niortuis, quod sanctorum suffragia postulamus. Bernard super. Cant. serm. Ixvi. col. 765. f Non credunt autem ignem purgatorium restare post mor
baptizaraus infantes,
tem
transire,
ad damnationem.
Nempe jactant
se esse successores
Apostolorum,
et Aposto-
196
II.
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
Of this
last peculiarity,
and, accordingly, he notices it in a very remark able passage, which, by placing these Apostolicals
licos
nominant
ostendere.
On
To
this point
nullum tamen apostolatus sui signum valentes Bernard, super Cantic. serra. Ixvi. col. 765. Bernard hits them hard smiting them, without
: ;
is
But,
in spite
of their
believe this, boast, says the victorious Saint, let those of them who believe also that they have the power of consecrating the
body and blood of Christ to nourish them become the body and members of Christ.
so that
they shall
Non
Sed
sibi
ignoro,
quod
se et solos
hoc persuadeant, qui illud quoque persuasum habent, sua corpus Christi et potestatem se habere quotidie in mensa
in
corpus Christi et
membra.
The
the
body
s
heretics believed that they could figuratively consecrate and blood of Christ to the nourishing of them into
Christ
own humble table, than Bernard himself at the gorgeous high altar of his own conventual church of Clairvaux and he boldly
:
by
their
beggarly
Precious Apostoli
who claim
to
BE
MAKE By
we
it !
the way, so perpetually does the truth look in upon us, have here again an incidental proof that the Albigenses
The
old
Docetae, as
:
we
from Ignatius, abstained from the Eucharist because, our Lord to have had a substantial body, they of denying course could not admit the Eucharist, which was his body
CHAP.
VII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
197
(though unable, he contends, to shew any sign of their Apostolate) in direct contradistinction both
to
Manicheans and
to
vii. sacramentally or figuratively. Ignat. Epist. ad Smyrn. But the Albigenses of Gascony, as we are unwittingly told by
suaded (whereat, the Saint thought foul scorn of them) that, at their own tables, they could consecrate the body and blood of
;
mem
Now
if
all
this
doing,
but that his form was merely spectral or phantasiastic. I suspect, that the perpetual charge of Manicheism, brought
against the Apostolicals or Albigenses, will afford the true
to
key
a strange story told by William of Newbury. When Pope Eugcnius, Bernard s friend and disciple, presided at the Council of Rheims in the year 1148, a gentleman of
Bretagne, Eudo, whose sirname is said to have been Eun, came, with his followers, under the cognizance of that Pontiff on the ground, that, through the medium of an odd sort of pun
:
come
upon the appellation Eun, he claimed to be to judge both the quick and the dead.
Him who
should
Quutu, sermone
gallico,
Eun
diceretur,
quod
in ecclesiasticis
exorcismis dicitur
scilicet,
Per
Eum
qui
Christ
Manicheism.
The
Eons
new Manicheans
in the
Emanations
Eon.
to be a principal
Hence,
name
198
THE VALLENSES
to
[BOOK
II.
and
Eunomians and
to Nestorians, thence of
not with any necessity admits, that They symbolised one of those various classes of acknowledged Heretics.
Bossuet has thought Not even it expedient to suppress altogether. Bernard s ingenious theory, that, Satan himself
The passage
in question,
was
misrepresentation, or Albiabundantly indicates, that the Cathari France were not Manicheans. genses of Southern
I shall,
therefore, in
s
common
justice,
supply the
learned historian
lack of service.
:
These heretics prohibit matrimony from meats, which God hath created.
order
to see
and abstain
But now,
in
whether
properly
to that which of demons and not of men, according them the author had foretold, inquire of the
Spirit
or
of
Eon, imposed upon Eudo and hence, likewise, pro ceeded the allegation, that he claimed to be the future judge both of the quick and of the dead, or, in other words, that he claimed to be the great Manichean Eon Christ.
Eun
will- worship of evidently hostile to the romish he is described, as a special enemy to churches Monasticism for
Eudo was
and monasteries
tator.
ecclesiarum
maxime ac monasteriorum
in
infes-
He
:
himself perished
prison, after
finement
and
shewed
by
might really have been. Curiae prius et postea ignibus traditi, Gulielm. ardere potius, quam ad vitam corrigi, maluerunt.
Neubrig.
Rerum Anglican,
lib.
i.
c. 19.
CHAP. VII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
:
199
none.
of their
heresy
sect
and they
which,
will assign
What
not
is there,
Manes, for their prince and preceptor the Sabelthe Eunomians, lians, Sabellius: the Arians,Arius Eunomius the Nestorians, Nestorius. Thus all
:
other pests of this stamp are known to have had, each a man, as their several founders : whence they have at once derived both their origin and their
name.
will
title,
you
these heretics ?
Truly,
by
none.
For
from man ;
it
:
neither,
it
though far be
it
from me
to say, that
through
have received
it,
Holy
demons, speaking
to
lies
in hypocrisy,
and forbidding
marry*.
*
Hi
nubere prohibent
hi
si
Deus
creavit.
Nunc autem
illis
videre,
hominum
quaere ab
haeresis
ludificatio haec,
suae sectae
auctorem
ManiNesto-
chaei
Manem
:
Sabelliani,
:
Sabellium
riani,
Arium
Eunomiani, Eunomium
caeterae
Nestorium.
Ita
omnes
nomen.
a quibus ori-
et
Quo nomine
;
Nullo.
neque per
Quoniam non est ab homine illorum haeresis, hominem illam acceperunt absit tamen, ut per reve-
200
THE VALLENSES
assertion,
[BOOK
II.
The
Cathari
when yet, according to the prohibited matrimony, testimony of Peter of Clugny, they absolutely
and when, accord compelled the Monks to marry, the researches of Coccius, Bruis himself ing to
maintained that both Priests and
Monks ought
to
marry
and the
assertion, that
stinence
from
meats on the
Manich&ism, when
timony of the same Venerable Abbot, they pub on Good-Friday licly roasted and eat flesh-meat
to give us
much
sed, magis et absque dubio, uti Spiritus Sanctus praedixit, per immissionem et fraudem daemoniorum, in
Ber hypocrisi loquentium mendaciura, prohibentium nubere. nard, super Cantic. serm. Ixvi. col. 763. Strange it is, that this intemperate man should not have been
conscious of his
own
absurdity.
he foolishly alleged against afforded one of the strongest arguments in their favour. They knew themselves to be a sound Branch of the Primitive Church
Catholic
:
nicknames
their
enemies
might impose upon them, they themselves would acknowledge no appellation save that of Apostolicals. The name was virtually the same as that of Pauliclans.
I should be obliged to speak in such terms of but simple justice to the Albigenses requires it. The Abbot of Clairvaux was, I believe, personally a good man and his writings contain much that is sound and excellent. But I regret, that
:
Bernard
CHAP. VII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
201
And certainly our confidence of his accuracy*. in the stated result of his inquiries will not be
much
increased,
when we
recollect,
that,
even
torraentis
compulsi.
Ibid.
p. 208. Sacerdotes et Monachos potius debere uxores ducere, quam scortari. Cocc. Thesaur. Catbol. lib. viii. artic. 6. apud Usser.
de Eccles. Success,
c. viii.
28.
so justly reprobated
With
respect to the
employment of force,
and so pathetically lamented by Peter the Venerable, we may safely, I do suppose, set down, as a mere figure of rhetoric, his
appalling statement
:
Monks, who
fell into
the
hands of the ferocious Apostolicals, were, not indeed murdered, but, what is still worse, were, by dint of sheer terror and sundry
hard knocks to boot, relentlessly compelled to take wives unto
themselves.
Bernard assures
us,
that, so far as
club-law
is
concerned,
and peaceable
et
sort of
people
more the
:
pity, to
vile
genus
us,
rusticanum
et
PRORSUS IMBELLE.
And
he further
tells
that a great
Priests,
leaving their
et textrices,
Bernard, super Cant. serm. Ixv. Oper. col. 761. Hence, unless we can gravely believe Peter the Venerable,
that the
gious houses
the purpose
unhappy Monks were dragged bodily out of the reli by a terrific raid of weavers, male and female, for
of marrying them to a corresponding number of
202
[BOOK
II.
spawn
Abbot
is
not careful to
we must,
I fear,
was necessary
to induce
them
exchange
their character of
At
all events,
the Petro-
state,
they either compelled or persuaded the Monks to enter into a professedly, as Bossuet again and again reminds us,
The whole
serves to
shew, how badly the miserable figment of Albigensic Mani cheism hangs together. Perpetually the pretended Manicheans are described as doing, what real Manicheans, on their own
principles, never could
have done.
CHAPTER
THE
FALSEHOOD
OF
VIII.
THE
ALLEGATION
STATEMENT OF
DEMON WILLIAM
the indefatigable Bishop of Meaux is not without resource. Through the help afforded by
BUT
still
William of Newbury, he thinks, that he has cer tainly detected the pest of Gascon Manicheism,
in the
very act of attempting the invasion of our hitherto unpolluted England*. Yet, with such
different
upon
minds
that,
had
wished
to select
a specially compact proof that the Albigenses were not Manicheans, while, at the same time, I
might exhibit a vivid picture of their character and disposition I should have incontinently laid
;
my
narrative,
to
which
Bossuet
purpose.
directly
opposite
livr. xi. $
43.
204
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
our ancient English historian, occurred during the and Bossuet assigns reign of the second Henry
:
them
much about
not always accurate investigation of the doctrines and habits of the Cathari of Gascony and Lan-
guedoc. I. Let William of Newbury, however, tell his own story in his own words and thus let him
:
its
In
the
into
of those whom they commonly denominate Publicans. These formerly emigrated from Gascony, de
from an
uncertain author
and,
many
perfidy.
said to have been infected with this pest, that accor ding to the prophet, they seemed to be multiplied
When any remissness beyond the sand of the sea. toward them is shewn by the Prelates of Churches and by the Princes of Provinces : then these very
evil
and, seducing
the simple under a pretended display of piety, lish the the Lord of hosts the vineyard of
demo more
grievously as
the
more freely.
Faithful
God s
kindled against
CHAP.
VIII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
205
then they lie hid in their pits, and are less noxious ; but still, by secretly scattering their poison, they cease not to be injurious. They are mere
rustics
them:
and men of
are dull in the comprehension of argument. if they are once thoroughly tainted with that
they
will rigidly
Yet,
pest,
hold out against all discipline. Hence, it very rarely happens, that any one of them, whenever they are betrayed and dragged out of their
lurking-places,
is
and from every other similar pest of heresy, England was always exempted: though, in
this
From
many
was
diverse heresies It
is
were
in a state
of vigorous pullulation.
the island
true,
indeed,
that
when
called Britain on
account of the Britons its inhabitants, it sent forth Pelagius a future heresiarch in the East, and in process of time admitted his error within its borders.
But, when, after expelling the Britons, the nation of the Angles occupied the island, so that it was
from
Henry
pitious,
the second
the pest,
God
being pro
which
had
crept
in,
was
so
promptly encountered, that henceforth all heresies feared to invade this highly privileged island.
At
individuals,
206
THE VALLENSES
as
it
[BOOK
II.
Gerard being
their leader,
to
whom
:
up as their prince
rest
tics
and preceptor
for he alone
while the
were altogether without letters, being mere rus of the Teutonic Nation and Language. Making
in
some stay
in their
to enroll
they
But they by the potency of diabolical incantations. could not long remain concealed : for, some persons,
inasmuch as they were a foreign
sect,
inquiring
more
were appre
The king, unwilling either to dismiss or to punish them without full discussion, ordered, that a Council Here, of Bishops should be assembled at Oxford. while they were solemnly convened respecting reli
gion,
the person,
who seemed
that
to
have a tinge of
letters,
for
all,
and
tles.
that
Apos
Being
articles
of our holy faith, they answered rightly, indeed, so far as respects THE SUBSTANCE OF THE HEAVENLY PHYSICIAN but, respecting his reme
:
dies
by which he designs
is to
to
heal
human
infirmity,
that
say,
they uttered
CHAP. VIII.]
perverse things
;
AND ALBIGENSES.
detesting holy
207
the
Baptism and
Eucharist and Marriage, and presumptuously dero gating from Catholic Unity which is imbued with
these divine subsidiaries.
When
taken
they
from
Scripture,
that
They
believed as they had been taught, but that They would not dispute concerning their faith. Being admonished to do penance and to unite themselves to
the body of the
all
They
ducing them, through the agency of fear, to repent ance : abusing that word of the Lord ; Blessed are
they
who
suffer persecution
on account of right
kingdom of heaven.
Then
the Bishops,
poison of heresy should creep more widely, after a public declaration of their being convicted heretics,
delivered them
up
to
His
sentence,
accordingly, was
that
mark of
heretical
heads
infamy should be branded on their fore that, In the sight of the people, they should
;
be whipped and driven out of the city and that A strict prohibition should be published, forbidding
the lieges either to receive them into their houses or to cherish them with any consolation.
all
forth
to
not with
208
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
lingering steps, but actually rejoicing with much joy : while their master preceded them, and sang ; Blessed are ye, when all men shall hate you.
spirit
As for
in
the wretched
woman whom
England, she, departing from them through fear of punishment, confessed her error, and merited
reconciliation.
was subjected
to
just severity:
to wit, both
the individual,
upon
his
of his
forehead and round his chin, as a badge Thus, with garments cut preceptor ship.
short, as
low as the girdle, being publicly flagel lated, and with loudly sounding stripes being ejected
from
of the cold (for the season was winter} no one shewing to them
The pious rigour of this severity did not, indeed, purge the realm of England from the pest which had
already crept into it : but, through the salutary terror which it struck into heretics, it at least pre vented it from creeping any further*-.
* lisdetu diebus erronei quidam venerunt
in
Angliam, ex
eorum (ut
creditor) genere quos vulgo Publicanos vocant. Hi, nimirutu, olim ex Gasconia incerto auctore habentes ori-
ginem,
regionibus
plurimis
virus
suae
perfidize
infuderunt.
CHAP.
II.
VIII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
209
Such, even in their mildest form, are the tender mercies of Popery But can we seriously believe, even on a hasty survey of the matter, that
!
Hispaniae, Italia;,
Germaniaeque>
hac peste
dum
antur.
Denique, cum a Praesulibus Ecclesiarura et Principibus Provinciarum in eos remissius agitur, egrediuntur de caveis suis
:
et, praetenta specie pietatis seducendo siraplices, vineam Domini Sabaoth, tanto gravius quanto liberius, demoliuntur. Cum autem adversus eos igne Dei fidelium zelus
vulpes nequissimae
sed
Homines
Sane, ab hac et ab
exstitit
aliis
Anglia
cum,
in aliis
mundi
haereses.
Et quidem
haec insula,
cum
in se,
semel et
nullius un-
quam ex
pagandum
pesti, quae
tanquam pro-
dioblatandum
introivit.
Tune
vero,
Deo
propitio,
hanc in sulam ingredi vererentur. Erant autem, tarn viri quam foeminae, paulo ampliiis quam triginta: qui, dissimulato errore, quasi pacifice hue ingressi
jam
210
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
themselves, thus triumphantly suffering, thus ex hibiting afresh the wonders of the Primitive
Church, were, after all, a synagogue of inveterate Manicheans, bad in doctrine, worse in practice ?
sunt,
propaganda
pestis
gratia
in
Nam
ris et idiotae,
Teutonicae.
Aliquamdiu
in
mulierculam, venenatis circumventam susurris, et quibusdam (ut Non dicitur) fascinatam praestigiis, suo caetui aggregaverunt.
enim diu
sed quibusdam curios^ indagantibus, quod peregrinae essent sectae, deprehensi tentique sunt in cuslatere potuerunt
:
todia publica,
Rex
ubi,
dum
causam omnium,
et loquente pro
omnibus,
stantia
recta,
quibus humanae infirmitati mederi dignatur, id est, divinis sacrasacrum Baptisma, Eucharistiam, mentis, perversa dixerunt
:
Conjugium, detestantes;
quam
baec
Cumque
quidem, ut
Ecclesiae
sumtis de Scriptura divinis urgerentur testimoniis, se instituti erant, credere, de fide vero sua disputare
nolle, responderunt.
unirentur,
omnem
verbo illo Minas quoque, ut vel metu resipiscerent, deriserunt dominico abutentes Beati, qui persecutionem jmtiuntur propter
:
justitiam
quoniam ipsorum
est
regnum ccelorum.
Tune Episcopi, ne
eosclem,
CHAP.
VIII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
itself,
211
slightest
and the
know
ledge of human nature, alike forbid the monstrous, the incredible supposition.
But, happily,
we can
characterem frontihus eoruin inuri, et, spectante district^ prohibens, ne populo, virgis coercitos urbe expelli
:
quis,
convovere,
praesumeret.
non
lentis passibus
critis,
Beati
se,
cum
In tantum, deceptis a
spiritus.
quidem muliercula, quam in Anglia seduxerant, metu supplicii discedens ab eis, errorem confessa, reconciliationem
meruit.
Porro,
detestandum
illud
:
collegium,
cauteriatis
frontibus,
in eis,
eo, qui
primatum gerebat
ob
mentum, dedecus
public^
caesi, et
sustinente.
flagris resonantibus
urbe
rantia (hiems
Hujus
ilia,
qua)
jam
irrepserat
verum etiam, ne
praecavit.
ulterius irreperet,
Anglicar. lib. ii. c. 13. p. 390, 391. In this last sentence, the word solum, I suspect, ought to be
inserted
ventured to
I
make any
of his barbarity
though the Publicans abounded in his French Dominions of and its dependencies, he would not resort to the extreme jGuienne
212
THE VALLENSES
tangible, than the
:
[BOOK
II.
more
experience
also to the happily, very record of their examination. does Bossuet garble one part of this record
of Christian
Why
and then,
without the
far
slightest notice,
another,
it ?
the
murdered Pub licans, it seems, had a horror of Baptism and Marriage and the Eucharist thus, according to
With
Bossuet,
exhibiting
*.
three
visible
characters
of
Manic he ism
Now, on
was the
Bossuet represents his author, as saying that They spoke VERY ILL of the remedies which the
:
celestial
physician has
left
us
holding in horror
which
in
visio contingerat, erat tune, quando Francia : pluribus locis per regnum licet ibi essent quod rex nullo modo fieri permisit in terra sua, Hoveden Annal. par poster, in A.D. 1182. Roger perplurimi. fol. 352.
Tempus
quo hvec
in
Publicani comburebantur
* Avoir en horreur
etle Mariage
:
Bapteme
du Manicheisme. Boss.
43.
f Bossuet
s translation
runs as follows.
CHAP.
VIII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
213
But William of Newbury uses no such vaguely On the contrary, he employs a pliant language. strict defmiteness of phraseology, which Bossuet,
in his version,
What
They
this
that
the
uttered
PERVERSE
THINGS
respecting
remedies by which the heavenly physicician deigns to heal human infirmity, that is to say, RESPECTING
detesting
Baptism and
The genuine words of the historian, we see, bear a very different aspect from those which Bossuet has put into his mouth and they evi
:
William of Newbury states not, loosely and vaguely, as Bossuet represents him, that the Pub:
On
ford.
fit
entrer ces heretiques dans le Concile assemble a Ox Girard, qui etoit le seul qui sut quelque chose, repondit
Medecin Celeste
aux remedes qu
en horreur
sant
le
il
nous a
1
ayant
Bapteme,
comparison, the
original of
William of Newbury, in immediate juxta- position. Interrogati per ordinem de sacrze fidei articulis, de substantia
infirtnitati
humanrc
mederi dignatur, id
est, divinis
sacramentis,
quam
The
ideas.
original
214
licans spoke very
THE VALLENSES
ill
[BOOK
II.
and
they uttered perverse things respecting the sacraments ; in other words, that they perverted what the Romanists held to be the
true doctrine of the sacraments.
definitely, that
This
it is
is
the statement
to all,
derstand.
bishops, adducing from Scrip ture the testimonies alluded to by William, from a
literal
The assembled
eucharistic words,
idolatrous results
and,
when
Mass;
their judges
would
readily pronounce them, to utter perverse things respecting the sacrament, and, inasmuch as they
the Eucharist
itself.
The assembled
tural
Lord
the Spirit always accompanies Baptism by water if canonically administered and, when the prison
:
ers
like
not upon
England, the efficacy of a sacrament to depend, its canonical administration merely, but
CHAP.
VIII.]
its
AND ALBIGENSES.
;
215
their judges would worthy reception again describe them, as speaking perverse things respecting the sacrament, and as undervaluing,
upon
scriptural testimony,
from
St.
Paul
declaration
that
a great mystery, maintained, on Marriage the ground of mystery and sacrament being theo
is
logical
and,
when
denying Marriage to be a sacrament in any such sense as the two only ordained by Christ himself;
once more likewise, would charge them with speaking perverse things of a sacrament, and would exhibit them to the hatred of the
their judges,
people as despising and detesting Marriage, simply because they objected to the view taken of it by
their episcopal inquisitors.
That what
the
correct in
for
am
ployed by the old History of Treves preserved in the Spicilegium of Dacherius. From this Work, it distinctly
appears
that the
denial
Sacraments themselves, but only (as have supposed) A denial of Trans instantiation
216
and
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
denial that
salvation of children*.
Thus, when, instead of the garbled statement given by Bossuet, the real words of William of
Newbury
in
are attended to
are explained
by the
parallel
:
the
History of Treves
idle
charge of Manicheism against the cans melt rapidly into thin air.
2.
German Publi
decisive point,
how
be noticed.
Commentary
is
concerned, while he
is
copious
and triumphant upon the garbled passage which I have already noticed the garbling itself being
;
very escape observation he cautiously avoids directing the attention of his reader to the decisive point in question and suffers it to as soundly as it may, in the deep silence sleep,
likely to
: ;
Ivodii,
est,
fuerunt
ro tempore haeretici, qui substantiate panis et vim, quae in altari per sacerdotes benedicitur, in corpus Christi et sanguinem veraciter transrautari
negabant; nee Baptismi sacramentum parvulis ud salvationem proficere, dicebant et alia perplura profitebantur erronea. Hist. Trevir. in Dacher. Spicil. vol. ii. p. 221.
:
Among
deemed
is
erroneous,
we may
doubtless rank
a sacrament.
CHAP.
time
VIII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
217
when he was
the poor Publicans into palpable Manicheans, the learned Prelate must himself have well
known, that the distinctly specified particular alluded to was utterly fatal to his very ingenious
case of accusation.
need scarcely
to repeat
to
of
Manes denied
our Lord,
body
alleging, that,
solid
simply
an
unsubstantial
mocked the eye by a mere corporeal semblance. Now, in direct opposition to this palmary doc
trine of
far as regards
sician.
SUBSTANCE of
the heavenly
phy
In other words,
Manicheans, by their
is
the production
of the
Evil Principle, stood pledged to deny. Hence, instead of establishing the Manicheism
of the
Gascon Albigenses, the narrative of the English Historian absolutely and incontrovertibly
:
demonstrates
that,
much calumniated
cheans*.
By
is
In the Auctarium Aquicinctinum, edited by Miraeus, there a curious account of the examination of four heretics at Arras
year 1103:
that
is
in tho
to say,
218
It
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
may
The very terms of the narrative shew that the Publicans must have been closely questioned
;
SUB-
was supplied by the Archbishop of Rheiras, whose theological acuteness was assisted by the military experience of Philip,
Count of Flanders. These two sagacious judges, however, could make nothing of them, save that they were, by their own Like Bernard s friends in confession, most unclean heretics.
Gascony, they would
siarch.
Hence
the
thrown out, having nothing whereby to guide their course. Some amateurs were positive, that these nondescript heretics
were Manicheans
others declared them to be Cataphrygians and others, again, stoutly maintained, that they were Arians. Pope Alexander, in his pontifical wisdom, had, no doubt,
: :
but,
still
the
two
They
mining convicted of being heretics specially distinguished for their uncleanness. Accordingly, the culprits were sentenced to the
flames
:
that,
let
however, very satisfactorily, by deter them be what they might, they stood self-
and, as, under such circumstances, they could no longer for their worldly substance, the Priest and
to divide the spoil.
This, I sup
pose,
the Albigenses.
Atrebatensi civitate deprehensi, a Frumaldo, ejusdem civitatis Episcopo, in carcere sunt reclusi
Quatuor
hseretici, in
litteratus
alter,
Radulphus,
Horum
CHAP.
VIII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
219
the very nature of the questioning de that its cause was a suspicion, the monstrates
STANCE
vulgar suspicion of the day to wit, that the prison and the ers must needs be followers of Manes
:
vitate Atrebatensi,
Remensis Archiepiscopus, et Comes Flandriae Philippus, in cide secretis suis locuturi, conveniunt. Ibi
in terra
muniCata-
Quidam
dicuut
illos
Manichaeos
alii,
Sed, quicquid sint, oris proprii confessione Multi sunt, in praesentia convicti sunt hreretici immundissimi.
Archiepiscopi et Comitis, accusati
milites,
:
nobiles, ignobiles,
clerici,
Tune
:
decretalis sen-
tentia
ab Archiepiscopo
;
et
incendio traderenter
cipi resignarentur.
substantiae vero
Alexander himself, however, saving his presence, was but a blind guide to the Knight and the Prelate for, infallible as he
:
know very
and, as for
he was quite at sea, being sure of nothing, save that they were abominable and turbulent heretics, who ought incontinently to be cursed and subjected to the liberal
their doctrinal errors,
system of exclusive dealing and attacked without loss of time at This precious document issued from the point of the sword.
the third Lateran Council in the year
1179
so that
it
appeared
the year 1183. Sicut ait beatus Leo, Licet ecclesiastica disciplina, sacerdotali
220
II.
far as regards
SUBSTANCE of
entirely
the heavenly
;
phy
that
groundless
and
un
supplicium.
locis, ita
Eapropter, quia
in
Wasconia, Albigesio
Cataros,
alii
et aliis
alii
haereticorum, quos
alii aliis
alii
Pullicanos,
Paterinos,
sitas, ut
jam non
ceant
sed errorera
suum publice
manifestent, et ad concensum
:
suum
et receptores anatbemati
decernimus subjacere
et sub anathe-
domo
cum
autem cunctisque
peccatorum, ut
omnium
opponant, et contra
Confiscentur quoque
bona eorum
hujusmodi pestilentes
III. can. 10. in
fol.
homines subjicere
Concil.
Later.
1179,
334.
When
correctly.
we
see,
quite
CHAPTER
THE
IX.
FALSEHOOD
OF
THE
STRATED
FROM THE
AT LOMBERS.
WE
have already seen more than one specimen of Bossuet s management in the garbling and pack
but all, that we have hitherto ing of evidence sinks into insignificance, when compared beheld,
:
with his treatment of a witness, who, by fully giving us from their own lips their
faith
own
.
Confession of Faith, practically and effectually acquits the Albigenses of any taint of Manicheism
question is Roger Hoveden and the Confession, recorded by him, was pub
The witness
in
licly delivered in
In the year 1176, a Council was held at the town of Lombers near Albi, for the purpose of
These sec
appears, prevailed, in great numbers, where they throughout the region of Toulouse
;
were known by
the appellation of
Good Men
222
THE VALLENSES
remarks,
[BOOK
II.
they were
indisputably those, upon whom, subsequently to the Council of that year, has most usually been
bestowed the
local
all
is
name
on
of Albigenscs.
Thus
far,
clear.
the authority of Roger Whether, Boss net was justified in asserting the Hoveden, Albigenses to have been Manicheans.
question,
On
this
point,
let
us
first
hear the
French
Prelate s representation of his evidence, and after ward attend to the entire testimony of the writer
upon whose statement he professes to depend. I. Respecting the alleged Manicheism of the Albigenses at Lombers, Bossuet writes and quotes,
as follows.
An
of
this
Council at
gives a faithful abridgment of its Acts in a more ample form than they have ever since been recovered.
Mark, how
In
the province of Toulouse, says he, there were certain heretics, who assumed the name GOOD
of
the
Knights of
These said :
that
They
received, neither
Psalms, nor the Old Testament, nor the Doctors of the New ;
save the Gospels, the Epistles of St. Paul, the seven Canonical Epistles, the Acts, and the Apo
calypse.
is
CHAP.
IX.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
223
quite sufficient to
Here, as
if
the Bishop suddenly stops short. II. Now, even upon the face of his
citation
own meagre
demur
to
from Hoveden
we might
well
the validity of this testimony. For, simply taking the matter as there exhibited, we might justly that the very statement, which was observe
:
formally made the ground- work of the charge against the Albigenses, itself contains the most
palpable internal
marks of falsehood.
These
:
strange heretics are said to have made a profession that They received none of the Books of the New
Testament
of
the
St.
save only the Gospels, and the Epistles Paul, and the seven Canonical Epistles, and
;
Acts,
and
the Apocalypse.
In other words,
Books of the
New
Testament are
Voici,
comme
il
commence
le
son recit.
II
soldats de Lombes.
Ceux
la disoient, quails
les
loi
de Moise, ni
les
les
prophetes, ni
docteurs
du nouveau; a
deV Apocalypse.
pour faire rougir Boss. Hist, des
C en
davantage d
reste,
38.
224
avowal
the
:
THE VALLENSES
that They received
[BOOK
II.
New
Testament
save
But
down
built
a writer,
whose
calumny
is
upon a deliberate suppression of evidence, and who yet (as I may truly say) has the unac
countable impudence to aver, that, without speak ing more of the remainder, the modicum, which he
cites, is sufficient to
the
I s
have
little
to do,
;
be
own
narrative
which
Bossuet himself graces with the well-deserved name of faithful, and which Bossuet himself
describes as giving an abridgement of the Acts of the Council in a more ample form than they have
There were, in the province of Toulouse, certain heretics, who assumed the title of GOOD MEN, and
whose cause the Knights of Lonibers maintained. These persons taught the people contrary to the
faith of Christ, propounding and saying : that They received, neither the Law of Moses, nor the Pro
nor the Psalms, nor the Old Testament, nor the Doctors of the New Testament; save only
phets,
the Gospels, and the Epistles of Paul, and the Seven Canonical Epistles, and the Acts of the
Apostles, and the Apocalypse.
When
and
whether
CHAP.
they
the
IX.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
saved
by
225
also
were
baptism
concerning
body and blood of the Lord, where or by whom it was consecrated, and who took it, and whether it was more or better consecrated by a good
man
than by a bad
man
wife could be saved if they were united: they answered, that, carnally Concerning their own faith and the of infants, they baptism
whether
man and
would not speak, nor were they obliged to speak. Concerning the body and blood of the Lord, they
said:
that
;
it
worthily,
was
saved
to himself
they
said
that
were joined
to
together,
in
order, as
Paul speaks,
avoid
They said
rogated
:
also
many
Men ought not to for all with any oath as John declared in the Gospel and James in his Epistle. They said, moreover, that Paul commanded Bishops and Presbyters to be ordained in the Church; and
as,
instance, that
;
swear at
commanded were not were not Bishops or Presbyters, ordained, they but ravening wolves, hypocrites, and seducers,
lovers of salutations in the market-place the highest seats of feasts,
that, If
such persons as he
and of
the
commandment
bearing white and splendid robes, having on their fingers rings of gold decorated with jewels, which
226
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
Wherefore, things their Master commanded not. since such Bishops and Presbyters resembled the
Jesus, men ought not to because they were bad men. obey them, The allegations, therefore, being heard on both
Presbyters
who betrayed
Gerard Bishop of Albi ; and judges being elected and appointed by each parly ; and these judges consenting and acting as assessors to the
sides, before
Gerard Bishop of Albi, namely Roger Abbot of Castres and Peter Abbot of Ardoural, and the Abbot of Candeil and Arnold of Narbonne ; and
said
furthermore, in the presence of good men, as well Prelates and Clerks as Laics, to wit, the Lord
this,
and Abbots and Archdeacons, as also Counts and Nobles of that Province to the number of twenty, and almost
bers
:
and Lom-
many
from
the
New
Testament,
against were brought by the Archbishop Peter of Narbonne and by the Bishop of Nismes and by Abbot Peter of
Cendras and by the Abbot of Fontfroide ; for the heretics would receive no judgment save through the
New
*
Testament*.
Erant itaque
in
de Lumbertio; proponentes, et docentes populum, contra Fidern Christianam dicentes etiam, quod non recipiebant Legem
:
Psalmos, neque Vetus TestaDoctores Novi Testament! nisi solummodo mentum, neque
Moisi, neque Prophetas, neque
;
CHAP.
IX.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
227
Having thus given a summary of the accusations and the proceedings, Roger next details at great
Evangelia, et Epistolas Pauli, et septem Canonicas Epistolas,
et
Actus Apostolorum,
et
Apocalypsim.
Et, interrogati de fide sua; et de baptismo parvulorum, et si salvabantur per baptismum ; et de corpore et sanguine Domini, ubi consecrabatur, vel per quos, et qui surnebant, et si magis
vel melins consecrabatur per bonura, quarn per
malum
et
de
matrimonio,
mulier
:
si
poterant salvari,
si
responderunt, quod, de fide sua et de baptismo parvu lorum, non dicerent neque dicere cogebantur. De corpore et
;
monio autera dicebant: quod vir et mulier jungebantur, proper luxuriam et fornicationem vitandam sicut dicit Paulus.
;
Dixerunt etiam multa, non interrogati quod non debebant jurare omnino per aliquod juramentum; sicut dicebat Joannes
:
in
Evangelio, et Jacobus
prsedicebat,
in
quod Paulus
quod
si
Episcopi et Presbyteri;
et,
tales
praecipiebat, non essent Episcopi nee Presbyteri, sed lupi rapaces, hypocritae, et seductores, amantes salutationes in foro,
in coenis,
volentes vocari
et
Candidas
illis
Episcopo
;
ab utraque
parte
et
consentientibus,
et
assidentibus
praefato
Episcopo
Rogero Castrensi Abbate, et Petro Abbate Ardurellensi, et Abbate de Candilio, et Arnaldo Narbone, in praesentia bonorum virorum, tarn Praelatorum et CleAlbiensi,
et
Girardo
Q 2
228
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
length, under seven different heads, the argu ments of the Court against the asserted opinions
and the result was, that, on of the Albigenses the several counts of the indictment, they were
:
we admit
the
Albigenses to have been convicted Manicheans, o we must inquire Whether they themselves acknow
:
them
owned and
rejected them.
The
niently several
allegations against
them may be conve arranged under two divisions and their replies shall be duly given and fairly
:
discussed.
(1.)
As
it
Mani:
cheism,
that
They
ricorum
quam Laicorum,
videlicet,
Abbatum,
et
Ar-
Lumberci
contra
proponebant, et inductae sunt Novi Testament! multae autoritates, a Domino Petro Narboqiiae
praedicti
haeretici
nensi Archiepiscopo,
et a et
Ceudracensi Abbate,
cnim
haeretici
per
Novum
Tes-
tamentum.
fol.
in
A.D. 1176.
317.
fol.
317319.
CHAP.
IX.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
And,
:
229
charge
Dispensation.
against
them ran
OLD*
Law
NOR THE
TESTAMENT
*.
Their reply to this charge, according to the report of the Bishop who acted as spokesman,
those testimonies
that
and not in any others ; for the recep one part of a written instrument does not of pledge a man to receive every part, so that he must
the Apostles,
tion
Non
317.
recipiebant
Legem
isti
haeretici,
Moysen
:
Prophetas
et
Psalmos,
in
Roger.
Hoveden. Annal.
fol.
318.
in
The
learned
Benedictine, who,
rejected the
Law
have been that They Moses and the other Books of the Old Tes of
:
New.
de Lodeve interrogea ensuite les heretiqties au nom de I Ev&que d Albi, qui, comme Diocesan, avoit la principale autorite sur eux et leur demanda, s ils recevoient la Loi de
:
L Eveque
Moyse
de
Ancien Testament.
11s rvpon-
230
THE VALLENSES
of the report
[fiOOK
II.
The phraseology
certainly not of a
now
before us
;
is
common
description
and the
the Albigenses to
have dis
claimed at least an universal rejection of Moses but still, and the Prophets and the Psalms
:
whether justly or unjustly, the sufficiently obvious design of the reporter was; to convey an idea, that The Albigenses professed to receive no part of and the Psalms, except the few sentences verbally cited from them by Christ and the Apostles ; and thus, on their side, to
Moses and
the Prophets
of produce the semblance of an acknowledgment Manicheism. Yet the idea, so plainly intended to be con
their answer,
dirent: qu
ils
n admettoient que
xix.
2. vol.
iii.
le
Langued.
livr.
p. 3.
I can only say, that, in regard to their confession on this in which Roger point, I have faithfully given the precise words,
Hoveden records
Bishop himself.
the statement of
it,
as
made by
the acting
who
acted
by authority of the Bishop of Albi, is variously called Gilebertus Lugdonensis Episcopus and Gocelinus Lodovensis
Episcopus. Probably the first title ought to be erased in favour of the second. This, I suppose, was the opinion of the Benedictine for he speaks of the acting Prelate, as being
:
It
is
quence
in itself:
name
or episcopal title to
the spokesman.
CHAP. IX.]
is
AND ALBIGENSES.
231
directly contradicted by the remarkably precise statement of one of their own ancient Symbols or
For, in that instrument, they ex that They received the Canonical pressly declared
Confessions.
New
Testament*.
conflicting
Under these
circumstances,
the
Confession saying one thing and the episcopallyreported answer saying quite another thing, what
is
evidence
Nothing,
think,
is
more
clear,
Lombers has
been garbled and managed by its popish reporter, in order that it might be made to speak a language altogether opposite to that which it really spoke
:
and,
if I
tation
by
the specific statement of their ancient Confession, without much difficulty be detected.
Law
se, tarn
Veteris quatn
Novi Testament!,
A. D. 1206.
chap. 10.
232
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
nothing more than Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms.
not very likely, that the important clause in question would, in their reply, be omitted
it
Now
is
by the Albigenses
to understand,
themselves
it
why
but
it is
by an interested and unscrupulous Ecclesiastic. Under the comprehensive denomination of THE OLD TESTAMENT, the Romanists included, as well
the Apocrypha, as the
Inspired Hebrew Scriptures. By the very terms, then, of the accusation, the
Moses and
ably
to the
Psalms, or, agree well-known Jewish division, The Tora Nebiim and the Chcthubim, but likewise
the Prophets
and
the
hending also the Apocrypha. To such an accusation, their answer was, not the garbled statement reported by the episcopal
but a statement, which exactly cor responded with their ancient Confession as already
Inquisitor,
adduced
a statement, in truth, which that very Confession itself enables us to disentangle from
:
New
Testament.
CHAP.
IX.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
233
Their imgarblecl answer at Lombers harmo that They received Moses and the niously ran
:
MENT,
any
for
it
Books of the Volume which in the language of the day was collectively styled THE OLD TESTAMENT, they were therefore bound to receive
received some
them
all.
And
that
was
77? ey
CANONICAL Books of
the
tion
Old Testament, because those Books had the attesta of Christ and the Apostles; but rejected the
APOCRYPHA, though by the Papists deemed a part of the Old Testament, because it was not thus at
tested.
(2.) It
was
ses
that They refused to confess, with the mouth, the faith which they cherished in the heart ; that
:
to
be a
mean of
salvation to
by an ungodly maintained man and woman, Priest; They united in marriage, not to be in a state of salvation ; and that They received none of the Doctors of the
Eucharist
that
Testament, save only the Gospels and the Epistles of Paul and the Seven Canonical Epistles and the Acts of the Apostles and the Apocalypse ;
New
234
in other
THE VALLENSES
words as
I
[BOOK
II.
received
NONE of
the
Books of
the
New
Testament,
save only them ALL. To these allegations, while they reasonably re fused to plead before their iniquitous judges, they
reply before what they deemed the more impartial tribunal of the assembled mul
freely
full
made a
titude.
Seeing themselves convicted and confounded, says the narrative of Hoveden, they turned themselves
to the
; for we now confess it, Then the and for your sakes. of you through above-mentioned Bishop answered: You speak, it seems, not for the love of God, but for the sake of
Whereupon, they confessed, as follows. We believe in one God, three and one : the Father, and the Soti, and the Holy Ghost.
the people.
God
took our
Jlesh upon him ; was baptised in Jordan ; fasted in the wilderness ; preached our salvation ; suffered,
and
died,
into hell
rose
again on the third day ; ascended to heaven ; sent, on the day of Pentecost, the Spirit the Paraclete ;
come again, in the day of judgment, to judge the quick and the dead, when all will rise
will
and
again.
We
We
acknowledge likewise
believe
that,
what we
believe
that he,
who
eateth
CHAP. IX.]
Christ,
is
AND ALBIGENSES.
;
235 and
that the
body of Christ
Church and by a Priest, whether that Priest be good or bad ; and that the consecration is performed,
not
more
effectually by
evil one.
Also
ice believe
that a person
not in a state of
he has been baptised; and that infants, through baptism, are placed in a state of
salvation, unless salvation.
We
believe likewise
that
are in
a state of salvation, though they be carnally joined in marriage; and that every one ought to receive
penitence, both in mouth
and in
heart,
from a
Priest;
and
to
shewn
we
have,
verterunt se ad
fidem nostram
omnem plebem, dicentes Audite, O boni viri, quam confitemur nunc confiteraur autem propter
: :
amorem
et
gratiam vestram.
Vos
dicitis,
Deum
gratiam
populi.
Nos
Et
Deum,
trinum et unutn
Patrem, et
baptizatum esse
;
Jordane
jejunasse in deserto
passum, mortuum, atque sepultum; ad inferos descendisse ; read coelos ascendisse Spiritum Paradesurrexisse tertia die
;
236
distinctly
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
SION
and honestly recorded, A FULL CONFES OF THE REAL FAITH OF THE ANCIENT
Positively,
it
ALBIGENSES.
negatively,
it
peculiarities
which
In
their accusers.
it
definitely settles
raisisse
venturum,
in die judicii,
ad
omnes
resurrecturos.
crediraus, ore
quia,
quod corde
debemus
Credimus
Christi
sia
; ;
et
quod corpus
nisi
quia non salvatur, qui non manducat corpus Christi non consecratur, nisi in Ecclea Sacerdote, sive bono sive malo; nee raelius
et
non
fieri
per quiuii per nmliuii. Crediraus etiam: quod non salvatur quis, nisi qui baptizatur;
bonum
Crediraus etiam
ter raisceantur
;
quod
et poenitentiam
et corde et
a Sacerdote, et
in Ecclesia baptizari.
Et
tolas,
fol.
si
illi
quid amplius posset eis ostendi, per Evangelia vel Episcrederent et confiterentur. Roger. Hoveden. Annal.
319.
of Languedoc, in his general narra more fair and honest than Bossuet.
This Noble Confession of Faith, publicly recited by the Albigenses on the present occasion, and fully recorded by Roger Hoveden, he does not indeed give at large, as he ought to have
done.
cles,
But
it
arti
namely,
the
articles
wherein they
manicheanising, he distinctly owns, that they spoke soundly, even as Catholics themselves would have spoken. Les heretiques, se tournant alors vers le peuple Ecoutez,
:
CHAP. IX.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
237
System
notwithstanding the previous conviction of the accused (against the juridical justice of which they formally protested *), we
2.
Here, then,
doubtless
may
dirent-ils,
Us
parlerent
comme
les
Catholiques.
Hist.
2. vol. iii. p. 3. Gener. de Langued. livr. xix. It may be proper to state that, according to our Benedic
:
tine, the
was
1176 but
in the
Lombez on
Albi.
Locality,
:
think, determines
but, so far as
is
my
purpose
concerned,
of no consequence.
He
Lom
and unsubstantiated charge of Manicheism was similarly pre ferred against both of those pious and eminent reformers. See
above, book
ii.
chap. 6.
less
purpose of the day and the priesthood. If its utter and hope falsehood be not completely established by the distinct and
at
unequivocal confession of faith, publicly made by the Albigenses Lombers, and duly handed down to us by Roger Hoveden, I am at a loss to understand what greater and more precise his
can be required for the establishment of a fact. Subjunxerunt etiam haeretici illi quod Episcopus, qui
:
torical testimony *
238
the finding
:
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
we
doubtless
may
an
the
tendency
will
charged.
is
episcopal prolocutor at Lombers seems to have studied the Works of Bernard with
The
no
less
The former
emolument than the Bishop of Meaux. Prelate, like the latter, had there
:
read, I suppose
that, while,
Manichean Heretics of Gascony re fused to swear at all; they, nevertheless, had a mysterious arcane maxim, which enjoined them
science, the
forswear rather than betray the dread secret which the free-masonry of their sect
to to
swear and
etquod inimicus
eorum
quod lupus rapax Dei; et quod non bene judicaverat. Nee, de fide sua, respondere voluerunt, quia cavebant se ab eo, sicut eis praeceperat
erat; et
Dominus
ad
et
in
vos in vestimentis
quod
eorum fraudulentus
et parati erant
quod non erat bonus pas tor, nee ipse, nee caeteri episcopi vel presbyteri, sed potius mercenarii. Respondit episcopus, dicens quod sententia in eos de
ostendere per Evangelia et Epistolas,
:
hoc paratus erat probare in curia Domini Alexandri Papae Catholici vel in curia Ludovici Regis Franet
ciae vel
in curia
quod
recte fece-
rat judicatum, et
hscresi notati.
et quod ipsi manifesto essent haeretici, Hoveden. Annal. fol. 310. Roger.
CHAP. IX.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
239
he
On
this principle,
:
and, knowing
to
swear and
somewhat incomprehensibly on
dicitur, latebras sibi
; :
firmaverunt
ne tenuiter quidem, jurare ullatenus de Evangelic: Nonjurate, neque per Bernard, super Cantic. serm. Ixv. ccelum, neque per terram. col. 759, 700.
alias,
Enimvero
good of
his
his
own
whole of
ment.
The Abbot
of Clair-
by the Manichean
and thence, without further ceremony, though not without telling us that the whole was pure hearsay, he very
liberally,
present of
to the
of Gascony
justice.
who would
Meanwhile Bossuet
quite sure,
that these
men,
who, notwithstanding
their alleged
maxim
allowably either swear or forswear himself at pleasure, would actually suffer death rather than confirm the truth of their
confession
by an oath
their
Bossuet
is
must
have borrowed
remnant of the
philb epiorcian
lurking-
Priscillianists,
who
time of Augustine.
Priscillianistae,
imeGnosticorum
et
Quamvis,
tinam
et
ex
aliis haeresibus, in
tanquam
in sen-
quandam,
horribili
confusione
confluxerint.
Propter
240
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
the premises, though doubtless very usefully for the object which he had in view, brought the truth of their Public Confession to the undeniable
test of their refusing to take
in
occultandas autera contaminationes et turpitudines suas, habent, suis dogmatibus, et hzec verba Jura, perjura, secretum
:
prodere
noli.
August, de
haeres.
ad Quodvultdeurn.
Oper.
The
transfer
Priscillianists,
might have been very plausible, no doubt, if the however inconsistently, had made a conscience
we know the ancient Albigenses to have but Augustine gives no hint, that they entertained any On the contrary, as they allowed both scruples of the sort.
of taking an oath, as
done
in
which by recently seen in certain religionists, who would not acknowledge themselves to be disciples of Priscillian)
:
way, we have
strain at
hoc est utique quod dogmatizant, ad occultandam religionem, religiosos debere mentiri in tantum, ut, non solum de aliis rebus
:
religione,
ad doctrinam religionis non pertinentibus, sed de ipsa quoque mentiendum sit, ne patescat alienis ut, videlicet,
:
negandus
sit
Christus,
quo
possit inter
Christianus.
vol. iv. p. 19.
Oper.
Had
the confessors of
Lombers been
Priscillianists, as
Bossuet
either wildly or
fallen into
the snare
bert
Would
kept their secret, by swearing, according to their alleged max im, that they believed the truth of their confession ? Happily
it is
so ordered
by Providence
that
malice
is
not always so
CHAP. IX.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
:
241
Bishop asked them whether they would swear, that they really held and believed that faith : and whether there was any thing else, which they ought to confess : inasmuch as had
they
Then
the aforesaid
and preached ill previously thought reply, they said : that they would not swear at
ill
both
In
all;
because, if they swore, they would act contrary to * the Gospel and the Epistles
.
The
trap
completely
hope and expectation of the dextrous Prelate. These unaccountable religionists, whose arcane
to be that They ought to boggle neither at an oath nor at per jury when the secret of their sect was in question, and whose fixed principle, nevertheless, was
doctrine,
it
known
be that They ought not to swear at all upon any occasion, REFUSED to swear precisely when their arcane dogma REQUIRED
to
equally well
known
was that they were clearly convicted of being Manichean Here tics, because they would in no wise swear to the
the result
:
them
to swear,
And
sincerity
of their
Public
Confession,
and thus
labour of
sharp-sighted
as
to
avoid
inconsistencies
in
its
calumny.
Interrogavit etiam eos praedictus Episcopus, si jurarent, se enere fidem istam, et credere, et siquid amplius deberent confiteri
:
quia mal
dixerunt
et
dentes
Evangelium
ol.
Responquod nullo modo jurarent; quia, contra Epistolas, facerent. Roger. Hoveden. Annal.
:
319.
242
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
community.
In arrest of this most righteous judgment, our manifest Heretics pleaded the bargain which Alberic had made with them that they
Bishop
should not be compelled to swear*. The plea was overruled by the Bishop of Albi, who denied the existence of any such bar
flatly
gain f.
of the
antici precondemned Albigenses who, shrewdly to take an pating that they would be required oath touching the truth or falsehood of whatever
their
enemies might please to profound, and hav however unfounded, ing scruples on that point made it an express stipulation with their treache
rous sacerdotal judges, that no confirmation
by
Accordingly a
:
final
sentence of condemnation
was pronounced and it was severally confirmed, both by the President Gerard of Albi, and by all
Videntes, itaque, quod super hoc erant convicti, dixerunt non cogeret quod Episcopus Albericus fecerat eis pactum, quod
:
eos jurare.
fol.
320.
Was
there
is
administered by popish priests and inquisitors? The prisoners saw plainly enough, that they were scandalously entrapped:
but, according to the notions of Protestants at least, entrapment
is
synonymn
of conviction.
t Quod
Annal.
fol.
et Albiensis
Episcopus negavit.
Roger. Hoveden.
320.
CHAP.
IX.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
243
his assessors
vosts or Priors or
once enlightened and con firmed by the strictly concurrent judgment of a noble female theologian, the Lady Constance,
at
sister to the
united
wisdom was
to
the
We
:
have
now
Lombers
a Confession
correctly propounds the great leading doctrines of the orthodox Catholic Creed and which, on the
;
other hand distinctly renounces the incompatible of peculiarities of Manicheism with the
holding
which they were charged by their enemies. THIS CONFESSION WITH ALL ITS CONCOMITANTS HAS BEEN DELIBERATELY SUPPRESSED BY THE
BISHOP OF MEAUX.
what he must have known to be the mere hearsay charge of their enemies for,
brief citation of
;
almost at the
tive,
it
commencement
of
Hoveden
narra
is
explicitly said,
and on
brief citation of this description is all, that Bossuet to his miserably duped readers and admirers, gives,
out of the present most important and (eviden* Hanc sententiam ratam habemus
sciraus, et
:
Roger. Hoveden.
Annal.
fol.
244
tially
II.
DECISIVE trial and such a speaking) most mixture of true gallican citation, he adds, with a
is
quite suffi flippancy and popish impertinence, more of the remainder, to cient, without speaking make our Protestants blush for the errors of their
ancestors *.
writing for the avowed purpose of saddling the charge of Manicheism upon the
professes Albigenses. This charge himself styles a faith on the authority of what he
he
to establish
ful abridgement.
That abridgement unequivocally demonstrates, that THE ALBIGENSES WERE NOT MANICHEANS. But the part of it, which contains this demonstration, Bossuet DELIBERATELY SUP
PRESSES.
Auditis igitur Annal. fol. 317.
*
UTRINQUE
allegationihus.
Roger. Hoveden.
CHAPTER
THE
X.
FALSEHOOD OF THE ALLEGATION, DEMON STRATED FROM THE CONFESSIONS OF THE ALBIGENSES.
the great compactness of their Confession as delivered at Lombers, I incline to think, that the Albigenses must have had it heart insert
FROM
by
ing,
however, extemporaneously,
those
evident
it
had
it
in
writing
for
such a Confession
would be useful and indeed necessary, both for the instruction of their Catechumens, and likewise as a test and directory to their Clergy.
Accordingly,
like the
we have on
reference to documents of this and, description obvious conclusion which cannot but be
drawn from the Confession preserved at full length by Roger Hoveden, the equally obvious conclu-
24G
sion,
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
drawn by those who had actually read them, was this that The Albigenses, so far from being Manichkans as Bos suet would maintain, held, in
;
truth, the
which
is
same general system of doctrine as that professed by the Reformed Churches of the
for instance,
sixteenth century.
I.
To such documents,
under such
an aspect, the historian Popliniere, on the testi mony of many eye-witnesses, will be found to
advert.
That the religion of the Albigejises differed very little from that which is now professed by Protest
ants,
appears
both
monuments,
country, have been written concerning the history of those times ; and likewise from the. public and
solemn
disputation,
which was
held
between
the
Bishop of Pamiers and Arnold Hot one of their The Acts of this Disputation, written ministers.
a dialect approaching rather to the Catalonian than to the French, remain entire down to the
in
present day.
they
Indeed,
me, that
ARTICLES OF THEIR FAITH, engraved on certain ancient tablets which are at o Albi : adding, that these Articles are every where
conformable
to the doctrine
of the Protestants
*.
Albigensium religionein parum admodum ab ea discrepasse quam hodie profitentur Protestantes, tarn ex pluribus fragmentis et
illius
lingua de horiun
CHAP. X.]
II.
AND ALBIGENSES.
these written Articles
247
To
of their Faith,
as
doubtless in substance
the
Confession preserved by Roger Hoveden, another historian, Vignier, also adverts and, with much
:
laudable
precision,
he gives the
authority
on
which he makes
his statement.
person from
affirmed to
Gas cony, worthy of confidence, me: that he had read ONE OF THEIR
in the ancient
CONFESSIONS, written
guage, and presented
France.
Basque lan
to the
Chancellor de
V Hospital
doctrine of the
This Confession entirely agreed with the Valdenses : and, in no part of it,
Munich ^ism.
they
receive
In
the
they expressly
declare
that
New,
which either
contains
every doctrine, them, or which founded upon Whence, any thing contrary to them.
reject
is
not
upon
to
repudiate
and
temporum
quam ex
publica et solenni
disputatione inter
Apamiensem Episcopura et Magistrura Arnoldum Hot Lombrensem Ministrum habita ciijus Acta Inte
:
gra, ad hunc usque diem, extant, lingua, ad Catalanicum potius quam patrium sive Francium idiomaaccedente, conscripta. Imo
ARTICULOS FIDEI plures mihi pro certo dixerunt, vidisse se veteribus quibusdam tabulis qiiae Albii sunt incisos, IPSORUM,
doctrinae
Protestantium
usquequaque
fol.
248
condemn
all the
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
nances of the Roman Church : saying, that she is a den of thieves and the Harlot of the Apocalypse *. III. Should it be said that Popliniere and
Vignier are comparatively modern writers, we may turn once more to the ancient and unobjec
Roger Hoveden. In the year 1178, Raymond and Bernard Ray mond and other Albigensic Heresiarchs were
tionable testimony of
examined
safe-conduct,
before
Cardinal
and
Ecclesiastics.
On
produced
a paper, on which they had written THE ARTICLES The suspicions of the judges OF THEIR FAITH.
led
them
to enter into
:
Homo
:
quidam
legisse
fide dignus, e
affirmavit
se
Gasconica conscriptara, ac Cancellario Hospitalio ante secundas Gallioe turbas oblatam quae cum Valdenpaulo sium doctrina plane consentiebat, nullo omnino ManichiEismi
veteri lingua
comparente
vestigio.
Canonicos
;
quam Novi Testament!, Libros recipere omnemque doctrinam rejicere, quae in eis fundamentum non haberet, aut aliquid eis contrarium contineret. Indeque omnes
se, tarn Veteris
Romanae
Ecclesiae
ceremonias,
:
traditiones,
et
ordinationes,
repudiabant ac condemnabant dicentes, earn speluncam esse latronum et meretricem apocalypticam. Vigner. Hist. Eccles.
in A. D. 1 20G.
c. x.
15.
CHAP. X.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
249
answered, upon all those Articles, just as soundly and as circumspectly, as if they had been the most
sincere of Christians.
of
Toulouse
:
and
charged
good God and an evil God with having declared, that man and wife cannot be saved in the state of
matrimony
Christ
is
with having denied, that the body of made by an unworthy Priest with hav
;
;
unprofitable to infants; and with having uttered sundry other blasphemies In return, the against God and the Church.
is
Heretics flatly contradicted all these charges : de claring, that their enemies had borne false witness For, PUBLICLY, before the aforesaid against them.
and
confessed, and firmly asserted ; that One only God the Most High had created all things both o o
visible
and
invisible
of
The other charges independent Principles. likewise they specifically denied in a similar man
tivo
ner
but,
when
their asseveration,
was, as in the case which had shortly before occurred at Lomthat they were duly excommunicated and bers
:
conscience.
The
their
undoubted master
Anno
gratia:
1178,
250
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
quod
quidam
lucis
fa
si
fratres,
alii
Raimundus
videlicet, et
Bernardus Rai-
mundi, et quidara
cum
secum traxerant ad
praesentiam
inferos.
Qui cum
invitati
fuissent,
ut ad
fidem sociorumque ejus se ad illorum praesentiam confiterentur, responderunt Data ventures, si eundi et redeundi haberent securitatem.
Cardinalis
venirent,
ut
suam
itaque eis securitate eundi et redeundi, venerunt coram praedicto Cardinal! et Episcopis et Comitibus et Baronibus et Clero et
et in
medium
protulerunt
quandam char-
qua FIDEI SUJE ARTICULOS conscripserant. Quam cum prolixius perlegissent, quaedam verba videbantur in ea suspecta
existere, et, nisi plenius exponerentur, hteresim quam praedicaverant possent velare. Itaque, de Articulis Fidei Christianas
examinati, responderunt super omnibus Articulis Fidei ita sane et circumspecte, ac si Christianissimi essent. Quod cum Comes
Tolosac, et caeteri qui prius audierant ipsos Christianas Fidei
contraria praedicasse, audissent; vehementi admiratione commoti,
Christianas Fidei zelo
succensi, surrexerunt, et eos plane
:
in
dicentes,
bonus et
quibusdam illorum, quod duo Dii existerent, alter alter malus bonus, qui invisibilia tantum, et ea quae
;
hominem,
:
et
in
alia
visibilia, condidisset.
Alii
autem
corpus
affirmaverunt
se,
illorum
praedicatione,
audisse,
quibus criniinibus
irretiti.
se audisse
ab
virum
alter alter!
debitum reddat.
baptismum parvulis non prodesse et alias quamplures contra Deuin et Sanctam Ecclesiam atque Catholicam Fidem
audisse
Haeretici autem
ill!
h?ec con-
CHAP. X.]
tradicebant,
illos
AND ALBIGENSES.
falsum
dixisse
251
et firmiter asseruerunt:
et penitus
:
sunt etiam
injustus, et
denegabant duo esse Principia. Confess! quod sacerdos, sive bonus sive malus, Justus vel tails etiam quern adulterura aut alias criminosum
posset
et,
vinum
in corpus et sanguinem Christi vere transubstantiabantur. Asseruerunt quoque quod parvuli vel adulti, nostro baptis:
mate baptizati, salvantur et nullus, sine eodem baptismo, omnino inficiantes, se aliud baptisma aut manus potest salvari
;
:
impositionem, sicut
:
imponebatur, habere. Affirmaverunt nihilominus quod vir et mulier, matrimonio copulati, si aliud non impediat, licet carnaliter alter alteri debitum peccatum
eis
reddat, propter
bonum
Haec
omnia,
se intelligere asserentes,
sicut confite ceperunt, quod ipsi jurassent, se ita corde credere, et intentionis bantur. Ipsi vero, sicut homines tortae mentis
obliquae,
sopitum intellectum eorum alicujus auctoritatis superficies videbatur juvare, occasione verbi
dixisse legitur
:
illius,
quod Dominus
in
Evangelio
in
Quod cum
illi,
arcum
pravum
pnedictus Cardinalis et praenominati Episcopi, totius populi, eos iterurn, accensis candelis, una
Pictavensi Episcopo et
aliis
conspectu
praefato
illis
cum cum
in
omnibus
astiterunt,
excommunicatos denunciaverunt,
et ipsos,
cum
Roger. Hoveden.
Annal.
327, 328.
Chrysog.
CHAPTER XL
THE
FALSEHOOD
OF
THE
STRATED
HISTORY.
FROM
THE
WHEREVER
light
hand, denounced
and the personal profligacy of the Popish Clergy while the Roman Church itself they pertinaciously
stigmatised,
as
the
Apocalypse, or as the
tacy to which the Papal Man of Sin, Antichrist ruling over Antichristianism, enacted the of a
part
In return,
the
the silly populace, with idle tales of their worshipping Lucifer under the specious form of a male cat and, what was a far more serious mat
rified
;
them
CHAP. XI.]
All
this
253
absurdities,
affects to believe
though a
man
of his talents
and acuteness (would that I could likewise say, of his honesty and fairness) must have slily laughed
in his sleeve, at the to
rity of the
whom
he
To demonstrate
of his management, nothing more, I suppose, can now be necessary, than to mention the names of
Peter Siculus, and the Actuary of Orleans, and Bernard the Saint, and Peter the Venerable, and
Reinerius the Apostate, and Radulph the Ardent, and Radulph the Smooth, and, though last not least, Alan the Great, yclept The Universal Doctor,
that
erudite
etymologist of
the
crabbed word
Catharus, and that immortal immortaliser of the Infernal Catus or the Luciferian Boar-Cat.
ragged regiment of witnesses, is, in truth, sufficiently clear from his deliberate suppression of really
valuable evidence,
at
his
diately to his
fatal
when
to
which he was
say not, that an inferior artist of the Roman School might have been unprepared, through the profuse credulity of ready malice, to hold each
254
strange
tale
THE VALLENSES
devoutly true.
[BOOK
II.
assuredly no ordinary man, after perusing the clear and valuable narrative of Roger Hoveden, could,
actually
and bona-Jide, have been persuaded, that the Albigenses were cat-worshipping and devil?
* venerating Manicheans
* I
craft,
may
have evidently been borrowed from the older figments and they rest, I suppose, upon
If the Albigenses had their equal trust-worthiness of evidence. infernal orgies the witches had their diabolical sabbaths if
; :
Bossuet
self, as
witnesses assure us
all
he presented him
we
know,
if the very same respectable animal Albigenses worshipped the devil; the_ witches were not a whit behind them in selling
we
some shrewd doubts upon the subject began to creep in, honest Joseph Glanvil, himself a Fellow of the Royal Society, set his
face like a
flint
:
against
what he deemed
in
the growing
Sadducism
of the times
yet,
though
the very
title
in
ingenious Sadducismus Triumphatus, witches themselves, with the belief in their existence, have totally vanished out of the
land, and our faith is no longer required to be shewn by the strenuous vexing of black cats and the resolute tormenting of old women. I have best to send the chadone
certainly
my
CHAP.
XI.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
In exact accordance with the opinion which I have avowed relative to the determined ascription
of Manicheism to the Albigenses, speak two very honest old historians, with whose Works it is
not
good fortune to be acquainted, but whose testimony has very judiciously been adduced by
my
Archbishop Usher.
I.
still
sounding William Paradin, the Annalist of Burgundy. / have seen certain Histories, in which both the
Albigenses and their Princes stand excused of the J O so frequently brought agaitist them. allegations
we may
profitably listen to
The
vices
Actuary of Orleans after the familiar delicice of the witches and, if I do not absolutely venture to style my tractate Bossuet ismus Triumphatus, 1 am not without hopes, that in future we may be allowed to doubt, notwithstanding the positive asseve
ration of Peter of
faith with the Albigenses, that
Vaux-Sernay, whether it was an article of John the Baptist was one of the
wives, hight Colla and Coliba, by
by Peter of
s
may
observe
in passing, is
one of Bossuet
we
256
THE VALLENSES
malice,
[BOOK
II.
Through sheer
puted
to
them by their enemies. They did none were falsely accused : of the things, whereof they though they did indeed, somewhat too freely, repre
II.
hend the
Girard, the Historiographer of France. The Counts of Toulouse and Cominges and Bigorre,
and
even
the
King of A r agon
himself,
sec
These
were tainted with bad opinions : but that circumstance did not so much stir up against them
the hatred of the
the
Pope and of
freedom of speech with which they censured the vices and the dissolute manners of the said Princes
for they were accustomed to reprehend the life and actions of the Pope himself. This was the chief matter, which stirred up an
;
and Ecclesiastics
and
it
moreover
opinions,
from
which they altogether dissented, were fictitiously ascribed to them. The Clergy of France, in short,
* Gulielmus Paradinus,
quasdam
in
:
quibus Albigenses eorumque Principes eodem modo excusantur quod hujusmodi, scilicet, vitia et errores afficta illis fuerint et
malitiose imposita
;
nee quicquam
illi
fecerint eoruni
quorum
falso accusarentur, praeterquam quod vitia et corruptelas Praesulura liberius ad A.D. Paradin. Annal.
reprehenderint.
p.
Burgund.
1209.
$
lib.
ii.
c. x.
15.
CHAP. XI.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
257
their vices.
Hence
interpose his
good order*. In the mouth of a Romanist, though an honest Romanist, the bad opinions, with which the Albito
and
genses are here said to have been really tainted, were evidently no other than the doctrines subse
Eorum
paries secuti
surit
Et, Bigerronum, et Carmanii, ipseque RexTarraconriensium. imbuti fuerint opinionibus, non hoc tamen tantum quamvis pravis
Papae
et
in
tum
libertas orationis,
asticorum vitia et
vitam et actiones reprehendere, consueverunt. Haec praecipua res fuit, quae universorum eis conflavit odium, quaeque effecit,
ut plures nefariae affingerenter eis opiniones,
a quibus omnino
fuerant alieni.
Augustus, a regni sui Clericis excitatus (qui Albigenses, ob hoc, omnis generis haeresium insimulabant,
vitia insectarentur etassusarent),
Rex
quod ipsorum
Innocentium III.
Pontificem rogavit, ut suam hie vellet authoritatem interponere et haereticos ad frugem bonam reducere conaretur. Girard.
Histor. Franc,
lib.
x.
c. x.
15.
poured upon these Princes by the monastic historiographer of Vaux-Sernay, for resisting, on behalf of their oppressed subjects, what he humourously calls The
theological abuse,
business of Jesus Christ and The affair of the Faith, is in the In the same spirit, highest degree amusing and characteristic.
if
The
the pious
258
[BOOK
II.
sixteenth
while
the
many
nefarious
sacerdotal enmity were opinions, which through but from which they falsely ascribed to them,
themselves altogether dissented, were, no less of the evidently, the various fantastic dogmata
Manichean Heresy.
nothing can be
Christian.
more
if,
proper
and
But,
in reprisal,
NOT
BURN,
dwin
:
enliven the
Monk
exclamations
his
Cain
of evidence even
Baldwin
is
of the traitor
orders of his
brother Count
Raymond.
CHAPTER
THE
XII.
ALBIGENSES DID NOT APPEAR IN FRANCE UNTIL AFTER THE CLOSE OF THE TENTH CEN TURY.
be asked, why, in the precedinglengthened discussion, I have made no use of the Work of Dr. Allix on the Ancient Churches of
it
PERHAPS
may
is
that,
In
of the state of religion in the South of to the end of the tenth century, I can
being then and there in existence*.
France down
faid no traces
Of
course,
it
will not
that the precise name of Albigenses did not come into use until after the Synod of Albi or Lombers
in the year
that,
1176
and
I likewise
know
full well,
although the Albigenses themselves would recognise no other names than those of Good
*
i.
Allix
x. p.
Remarks on
the Anc.
1109.
S 2
260
THE VALLENSES
;
[BOOK
II.
they were, by their enemies, before that time, variously called Petrobrusians and Henridans and Publicans and Paterines and
Cathari and Bulgarians. But, what I mean, is Let those religionists be distinguished by this. what appellation they may, I can discover no
vestiges of
Men or Apostolicals
them
in the
South of France
until about
the
commencement of the eleventh ]. At that time, as Dr. Allix of Ademar Cabannensis, authority
cheans
(for so
century.
states
on the
certain
Mani-
he incautiously styles the descend ants of the Asiatic Paulicians), being chased by
Emperor of Constantinople out of his domi nions, made their first appearance in France
the having,
in
their
shewn themselves
Lombardy*.
Now, long
before the
commencement
of the
eleventh century, quite back indeed to the semiapostolical times of the second century, we may
throughout the Churches of Southern France, a strong adherence to a purer system of religion than what had become fashionable at
observe,
Rome
and, with
it,
we may
and
From time to time, moreover, we usurpations. see many eminent individuals, inculcating may
the sincere truths of the Gospel, and protesting
CHAP.
XII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
261
against the veneration of saints and images and relics. But, so far at least as the Work of Dr.
concerned which seems, however, to have exhausted the subject we can perceive nothing, which at all resembles a detached and
Allix
is
;
:
compact Church of avowed and uncompromising and systematic witnesses against the manifold
corruptions and abominations of Popery. 2. Such was the state of things at the
com
mencement
as
of the eleventh century. But, as soon the mis- named Manicheans, from Lombardy
their
The
but,
strangers,
it is
true,
then, they were a well-disciplined handful, accustomed to act together in concert and to move
with a
common
object.
They were
:
so few, that
they have not even communicated to the West but, then, any of the proper names of the East were a nucleus, round which serious and they
dissatisfied inquirers
binedly be gathered*.
their
From Bulgaria
to
the
entire number, as appears from Atlantic, an estimate of the associated or proper Cathari
*
Among
come down
to us,
we meet
with Gerard and Arnold and Radulph and Bruis and Henri: but we never meet with Constantine or Sergius or Simeon or
Michael or Canaxares
these
or Carbeas or Chrysocheris, though names were famous among the Paulicians of Asia.
all
262
THE VALLENSES
in
[BOOK
II.
made
the
thirteenth
century by
:
Reinerius,
but, then,
scarcely
amounted
to four thousand
their compactness,
sions,
and admirable
fitness for
mis
from the concurring state that, along that whole ment of the same writer
no
less appear,
planted here and planted there, they had sixteen Churches, regularly organised under the government of Bishops, Priests, and
line of country,
Deacons*.
although the proper or associated Cathari were, as we have seen, barely
3.
Reinerius adds
that,
four thousand in
number
whom
they styled
numerable t-
main Church of the Albigenses in France, such a statement ex hibits my own view of the matter.
Now,
precisely
\Vhen the emigrating Paulicians first appeared in that country, the people were already pre-disto resist the papal authority, and were
posed
maintain already inclined to
what the
Pontificials
were pleased to call heresy. This whole district of Toulouse, says Peter of with the acVaux-Sernay in perfect accordance
*
Reiner,
de
haeret.
c.
vi.
p.
304.
in toto
;
nmndo non
sunt Cathari
Et
Reiner, de hseret.
CHAP. XII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
was,
263
from
the very
foundation of the city, notorious for its theological craftiness : insomuch that the town might well be called DOLOSA, rather than TOLOSA. Rarely or
never, as report credibly asserts, has
it
been free
from
this pest
yea,
rather,
it
Generation after generation , from father pravity. to son, the venom of superstitious infidelity has been
successively diffused*.
*
Haec Tolosa,
sicut
sive
Hist. Albig. c.
veneno superstitiosae infidelitatis diffuse. Petr. Vallisarn. In another place, the Monk breaks out i. O
:
tabernacle
of
robbers.
Ibid,
108.
earlier, or in the
year
of Clairvaux.
From
might appear, that the very Clergy, as well as the Laity, determinately worshipped God in the way which the Abbot
called Heresy.
Audite
nostri.
scias terra gemitum cordis cceli, quod plangimus Doleant vices Christ! catholic! christiani et, ad detri: !
menta
filii
fidei,
fidelis
populus ingemiscat.
salutis
Quique
:
terrigenae et
et generalis
hominum humanae
damna
deplorent
ab omnibus viventibus generaliter lugeatur. Stat contra phalangas Israel novus nostri temporis Philistaeus,
Deum
majestatis in prima
Quid dubitas, O David ? Quid praesumptione blasphemat. ira fidelis? Sumctibi fundam et lapidem. Peicutiatrepidas,
tur protinus in frontc
blasphemus
et
264
THE VALLENSES
Peter calls superstitious
[BOOK
infidelity,
II.
What
or (in
new
doctrines and
new
practices
an unwilling
for
demand
the
production of scriptural authority, whenever the usurping Roman Church strove to force those
doctrines and those practices upon the struggling consciences of the reluctant Gallicans.
4.
we
shall not
pudentur
erigitur,
Surgite,
inquam,
monstramus
vel
quidem melius.
:
Sed,
semitas
et, instar
quo eo plus
astrinxeris,
Contigit nuper, ad imperium Domini Papae, et hortatu piissimorum Principum Ludovici Francorum et Henfacilius elabuntur.
rici
Legatum, virosque venerabiles Pictavensem et Bathonensem Episcopos, nosque in comitatu eorum, urbem adire Tolosam
quae, sicut erat civitas
tur
maximai multidudinis, ita etiam dicebaesse mater haeresis et caput erroris. Perreximus ergo ad
:
illam
ejus.
ut sciremus,
si,
ita ut, a Et, ecce, inventa est plaga ejus magna nimis planta pedis usque ad verticem capitis, vix esset in eo sanitas.
Vere enim
tertia
abominationibus suis malis, quas civitas ilia nobilis, in incredulitatis suae gremio, confovebat. Locum in ea sibi abominatio
CHAP. XII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
265
wonder
Paulician Albigenses.
The
:
baleful tyranny of
Rome was
daily increas
and the necessity of a regular and complete ing separation from that incorrigible Church became
daily
By
the zealous
:
disciples of St. Paul, a rallying point was offered and now we begin to hear of a spread of religion,
The framework
in
et
tur in populo,
dominabantur
in
Clero
eo Quod populus,
honines
sic
sacerdos
pastoris.
et,
interitiim
gregis,
:
ipsa configurabatur
vita
Loquebantur
heretici
et
admirabantur.
Loquebatur catholicus: et dicebant, Quis est hie? in stuporem et miraculum deducentes, si esset aliquis inter eos, qui
de verbo
fidei
mutire.
In tantutn
prae-
quod
illi
sibi
sed etiam evangelistas habebant, qui corrupta et cancellata evangelica veritate nova illis evangelia cuderent, et de corde suo nequam recentia dogmata seducto populo
prredicarent.
Ho-
veden. Annal. A.D. 1178, par. post. fol. 329, 330. The various particulars, set forth in this most graphical exhi
bition both of the temper of popery
in
noted, with so
He
and protected the heretics, in opposition to the Catholic Church, Petr. far more ardently than was consistent with their duty.
Vallisarnens. Hist. Albig. c.
i.
266
of the
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
Church was the Church of the ancient Paulicians but its acquired members were native French or Italians or Germans or Spaniards*. Its grand and most influential settlement, how
:
ever,
seems ultimately
to
Ecce quidam
latibulosi homines,
perversi et perversores,
omnes
multis stulta- simplicitatis hominibus corruperunt, ita per terras multiplicati sunt, ut grande periculum patiatur
membra
;
Christi conta;
minans.
Hos
Elandria, Piphles
appellat.
Dominus, dicunt In penetralibus esse Christum : quid, veram fidem Christi et verum cultum Christi non alibi esse,
dicunt, nisi in conventiculis suis, qiue habent in cellariis et in
textrinis et in
hujusmodi subterraneis domibus. Apostolorum vitam agere se dicunt sed contrarii sunt fidei sanctae et sanje doctrinae, qua a sanctis Apostolis et ab ipso Domino Salvatore
:
i.
in Biblioth.
Pair. vol.
xii. p.
898.
perverted
matters, as Eckbert testifies, they rejected prayers and masses for the dead, denied the existence of a purgatory, and disbe
lieved the
p.
doctrine
xi. p.
of Transubstantiation.
Ibid.
serm.
ix.
913. serm.
922.
Bernard, as
the
teztores
we have
and
textriccs
who
contrived,
nevertheless,
to
seduce numbers even of the Clergy from their allegiance to their sovereign lord the Pope. Bernard, super Cantic. serm.
Ixv. col. 761.
CHAP.
XII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
:
ern provinces of France though a correspondence and connection was long kept up with the Church
in Bulgaria, from which the more western Bishops received their consecration, and which itself was
Metropo same southern finally, district, the prevailing name of Albigenses was bestowed upon its members a local or geogra phical appellation, which itself indicates the mighty increase of the misnamed heretics through out Languedoc and Provence and Gascony.
spiritual
lis *.
Here
also,
in the
II.
When
it
is
considered, that
we
literally
* Primis temporibus, quibus haeresis Catharorum in Lombardia multiplicari coepit, priraum habuerunt Episcopum quen-
sub cujus regimine Lombardi et Tusci Iste Marcus ordinem suura habebat et Machiani regebantur.
de Bulgaria. Veniens, autem, quidara Papa, Nicetas nomine, a Constantinopoli in Lombardiam, ccepit accusare ordinem Bul
garia quern Marcus habebat.
tare incipiens,
relicto ordine
Papa
Niceta ordinem Druguriae cum suis complicibus, et tenuit per Vet. Auct. in Vignier. Hist. Eccles. in A. D. multos annos. 18. 1023. apud Usser. de Eccles. Success, c. viii.
the
Community bore
301.
the local
I take to
be a corruption of Hungarii.
c. vi. p.
299.
Some
Slavonia
further divisions
:
Ex
sectas desicrunt
268
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
II.
know nothing of
save
what
the Paulicians and the Albigenses has come down to us through the me
dium of
their
enemies
and when
it is
recollected,
that, by malignant diligence of the popish inquisitors, the writings of the Albigenses them selves have been so effectually destroyed, as to
the
prevent their now being independently heard in their own defence we may well consider it to be
:
specially providential, that, through the blunders or inconsistencies or admissions of their unrelent
ing persecutors, enough, and more than enough, should have come down to us for their complete
exculpation.
Episcopum.
guria, tertia
c. viii.
e Bulgaria,
secunda e Dru-
18.
it might appear, pre connection withBulgaria. original
Aliquam quoque
finibus
Bulgaros
:
et
Albigenses intercessisse
in
necessitudinam, ex eo
colligitur
Bulgarorum, Croatiae, et Dalmatian, sibi constituisse, ex epistola Conradi Portuensis Episcopi, tradat in Majore Historia, ad A. D. 1223, Mattheeus Parisius: et Albigenses Galliee,
Roberti Altissiodorensis et Gulielmi Nangiaci Chronologia, ad A.D. 1207, appellentur Bulgari. Ibid. 19. See also Hist. Gener. de Langued. livr. xxiii. 74.
in
The
fort.
connection, I suppose,
in
was broken, when the Albigenses the Crusade of Simon de Montthe Paulicians of Bulgaria and
not.
What
finally
became of
Apparently, they gra dually wasted away, and became extinct. According to Eneas Sylvius, some of them still existed in the fifteenth century.
Hungary and
Slavonia, I
know
CHAP.
XII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
2G9
But,
invariably, and (as Bernard speaks) according to their custom, they are admitted to have firmly
They were
cise
charge.
publicly examined upon that pre But their open confession in full
by Roger Hoveden.
the Mani-
was a
chean System.
im
purity, and were even charged with an actual But their lives are con adoration of the devil. and they fessed to have been eminently holy
:
lamb
to
verily,
the wolf
opinions
by
fire
and sword
have been public plunderers and stark marau ders who, at length, sorely against their will, forced the meek and unoffending Papists into a
;
just war (the ruthless hypocrites !), undertaken for self-defence no less than for the extirpation of
Yet Bernard describes them, as a timid heresy. race, of mere rustics and weavers altogether un;
warlike,
and much more disposed to hide them dens and caves of the earth, than, in the spirit of the age, to court the chivalrous dan
selves in the
gers of glorious
battle
while, at a
somewhat
270
[BOOK
II.
the
Count of Foix, the Count of Cominges, the Viscount of Beam, and even the
of Toulouse, the
Count
a pro fessed Romanist, against whom all these pretended deeds of violence, if committed at all, must indis
putably have been committed, not only endured but protected them and, when the Pope, through
;
the agency of his military apostles, kindly under took to free those princes from such troublesome subjects, actually made common cause with the
lawless miscreants, and suffered in their defence
every calamity which the unchristian zeal of the misnamed holy croisards could inflict *.
There
is,
God
and that
is
SELF-
CONTRADICTION.
It
is
to
is
contain within itself its own confutation. This the case with the stories fabricated manifestly
the Albigenses-\.
respecting
Their credibility
is
BOOK
III.
THE VALLENSES.
CHAPTER
I.
BUT
it
is
much
The Church,
to
which
:
I allude, is that of
the
Vallenses of Piedmont
and, in order to
my
pur
pose of connecting the Churches of the Reforma tion with the Church of the Primitive Ages, the
two points of
gelical
come
272
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
a well-informed Inquisitor who flourished during the earlier part of the thirteenth century, asso ciated with the dialect and traditions of the Vallenses themselves,
may, under the aspect of preli minary matter, be usefully and properly brought
forward.
I.
the testimony of Reinerius. Concerning the sects of ancient heretics, observe, that there have been more than seventy : all of
The
following
is
which except the sects of the Manicheans and the Arians and the Runcarians and the Leonists which
,
have infected
Germany
still
is
Among
all
these
sects,
which either
existed,
exist
more pernicious to the Church than that of the Leonists and this, for three reasons. The first reason is ; because It has
there
not
one
it
has lasted from the time of Sylvester ; others, from the time of the Apostles. The second reason is ;
because, It
is
more general
While
for there
is
scarcely
any land,
reason
is ;
in
which
The third
because,
the immanity of their blasphemies against God, strike horror into the hearers, this of the Leonists
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
;
273
has a great semblance of piety inasmuch as they live justly before men, and believe, together with
all
the Articles
pheme
the
which the
to
give
De
sectis
quod
sectae haepet-
quam
septuaginta
quae cranes,
Dei gratiam,
runt.
Manichaeorum, Ariano-
rum, Runcariorum, et Leonistarum, quae Alemanniam infeceInter omnes has sectas, quae adhuc sunt vel fuerunt, non
quam Leonistarum
est diuturnior
;
et hoc, tribus de
causis.
Prima
est
Quia
aliqui
enim dicunt,
Secunda
magnam
habet speciem
coram hominibus, juste vivant, et bene omnia pietatis de Deo credant et omnes arliculos qui in Symbolo continentur : solummodo Romanaru Ecclesiam blasphemant et Clerum cui
eo quod,
;
multitude
Laicorum
facilis
est
ad
credendum.
299.
Reiner, de
Respecting the Church of the comparatively modern French Leonists or Poor Men of Lyons, which was founded in the
twelfth century
scribed
is
fully de
by Reinerius in the fifth or immediately following of his Tractate, see below, book iii. chap. 8. TI. and chapter book
iii.
chap. 12.
I. 2.
whose founder
is
re
who
thus through
274
1.
THE VALLENSES
I
[BOOK
III.
passage for the purpose of exhibiting Reinerius, as attesting the remote Yet, by antiquity of the Vallenses of Piedmont.
this
have adduced
name, he mentions
not, in
it,
the Vallenses
he
speaks only of a body of contemporary religionists, whom he denominates Leonists. These, in regard
to the origin of the sect,
he carries back
distant period
and, at the
same
to a
distinguishes
he here simply alludes to under the names of Manicheam and Runcarians, but whom he
under the systematic charge of being deeply tainted with the Manichean Heresy. Hence, to make his attestation at that all available to my purpose, I have to shew
afterward
fully
whom
describes
whom
mont.
following. a writer of the thirteenth century, Reinerius, tells us: that, In the judgment of some inquirers,
My
manner
temporis est quod esse creperunt ; quoniam, sicut patet, a Valdesio cive Lugdunensi exordium acceperunt qui hanc viam incepit, non plures sunt quam octoginta anni.
:
Non
nui hum
et
Valdens.
lib. v. c. 1.
IV.
p. 402.
attention
MODERN
Leonists.
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
had existed from
the time of
275
the Leonists
Sylvester.
Pope
cen
to
who claimed
Pope
Sylvester,
*.
Scyssel, who was Archbishop of Turin at the latter end of the fifteenth and at the
And Claude
who
lived in
the immediate neighbourhood of the Valdenses of o and who in fact comprehended them Piedmont,
within the geographical limits of his province, that The Valdenses of Piedmont derived tells us
:
themselves
from
a person
named Leo
who, in the
Emperor Constantine, execrating the avarice of Pope Sylvester and the immoderate en dowment of the Roman Church, seceded from that communion, and drew after him all those who
time of the
Dicentes
(scil.
Valdenses)
in
Bib-
Patr. vol.
xiii. p.
312.
century, on the autho of the Editors of the Cologne Bibliotheca Patrum. See rity
I ascribe Pilichdorf to the thirteenth
the Catalogue prefixed to Bibl.Patr. Colon, vol. xiii. Bossuet, on what authority I know not, places him a century later. See Hist, des Variat. livr. xi. So far as concerns my own 1)5.
it is
a matter of no great
T 2
276
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
of
Piedmont stand
ing in direct connection, not only with the tradi tion respecting Sylvester, but likewise with an
individual from
title
of Leonists
has plainly and almost avowedly been deduced. Such a combination of circumstances evidently brings out the result that The Valdenses and the
:
Maximi temporibus,
:
a Leone
quodam
religiosissimo
qui, execrata Sylvestri Romance TJrbis tune Pontificis avaritia et Constantini ipsius immoderata
largitione,
paupertatem
in fidei simplicitate
sequi maluit,
quam,
cum
Sylvestro,
Cui cum
adhaesissent, sub
ad
posteros
verae
normam
transmiserunt.
Claud.
Scyssel. Taurin. adv. error, et sect. Valdens. fol. 5, 6. I suppose it will be allowed, that the well-informed Reinerius
could scarcely, for the sake of currying favour with the vulgar and the ignorant on behalf of the Valdenses, have described them as being the oldest of all sects older, as he
:
distinctly specifies,
than
of
the Valdenses.
Therefore
we may
overwhelming evidence.
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
of course,
it
277
that,
Whence,
follows
to
In ascrib
to the Valdenses.
2.
lived
in
Who
this
ject for a
somewhat curious
I
purpose now to enter and it will probably be found to bear not a little closely upon a matter of testimony which will be
that subject,
On
the topic of a future discussion. That any Leo was the founder of the Vallensic
Church, as Claude not quite accurately (I suspect) for the reports the tradition, cannot be allowed
:
Communion
descends in a direct unbroken line from the Apos tles. But, that, at some remote period, they had
among them an eminent teacher, who was distin guished by the appellation of Leo, and from
they themselves were sometimes deno minated Leonists, is a matter so highly probable, that I can see no reason why we should hastily
reject
whom
such a supposition.
At
all
events,
we
seem by chronology itself prohibited from deriving, as some have done, the name of Leonists from the
town of Lyons on the Rhone
:
that
is
to say,
if,
278
for
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
such derivation, we take the specific ground that Peter of Lyons, in the twelfth century, com
to his
own
Peter
disciples,
the Poor
Men
he
had
it
called
Leonists
from the
Lyons of the opulent merchant Peter, that is to say, from the Lyons which is seated upon the Rhone I am not without a strong suspicion, that,
:
ultimately, and through an entirely different chan nel, the title may have been borrowed from another
Lyons
in
Aquitaine, upon
Convenarum,
of St. Bertrand,
mean, which now bears the name and which is situated in what
is
(from Convenes)
*
styled the
Pays
de Cominges f.
nota,
De
sectis
modernorum
haereticorum,
quod secta
tali
Pauperum de Lugduno, qui etiam Leonistce dicuntur, orta est. Reiner de haeret. c. v. p. 300. He then
their foundation
raodo
sets forth
vol.
i.
p. 74.
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
is
:
279
My
conjecture
Leo of
and
misplaced,
of
is
whom,
in
no other than the famous Vigilantius immediate connection with the pri
century,
we
shall
presently hear
This holy man, as we fortunately learn from the very scurrility of Jerome, was actually born in the
precise
town of Lyons or Convenes in Aquitaine *. Whence, from the place of his nativity, he would
obviously be called,
Vigilantius Leo or
among
His
proper local appellation he communicated, if I mistake not, to his congenial friends, the Vallenses of
Piedmont
and
his
memory,
was
apprehend, the name of Leonist was derived from Lyons: not, indeed,
Thus
ultimately,
Nimirum respondet
et
generi suo
:
venarum natus
Hispania,
est semine quos Cneius Pompeius, edomita ad triumpham redire festinans, de Pyrenaei jugis Unde et Convein urium oppidum congregavit.
c.
ii.
Oper.
p. 159.
Quia ad
Ibid. p. 159.
radices
Pyrenaei
habitas,
vicinusque
es
Iberiac.
280
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
but from the Lyons of Aquitaine, or the Liigdunum Convenarum of the Pyrenees. 3. The importance of the testimony of Reinerius,
to the apostolically
montese Vallenses, is so great, that we shall not wonder at the circumstance of its being made the
subject of a quibble on the part of the Jesuit Gretser.
He
remarks
rity of his
own
themselves
*.
it
So
is
far as
true.
where he did, cautiously eschewing all notice of what Reinerius says in his own person ; and thence plainly omitting the whole of what he says, as the result of his own inquiries and as the amount of his own conviction.
*
cum
:
fictitiae
Valdensium ansua,
tiquitati
Non, enim, ex
sectam
Valdensium, a
durdsse.
temporibus S. Sylvestri Papce vel etiam ipsorum Apostolorum, Gretser. Prolegom. in Scriptor. cont. sect. Valdens.
Bibl. Patr. vol.
It
xiii.
p. 296.
may be
doubted, whether
Du
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
281
and positive testimony, then, of Reinerius, speaking in his own person and not
The
direct
the
ty
Runcarians or any one of the more than seven sects of heretics that had once existed. And he
assigns this, their undoubted high antiquity, as the first and foremost of the three special reasons
why
they were so
injurious
to
the Church of
Rome.
say nothing of the allied sects of the Gnostics and the Docetae
Now
if
we
pronounces them to be still older than the Mani cheans, must, according to the result of his in quiries and the sum of his conviction, inevitably
be viewed, as running up to an antiquity not less than that of the third and second centuries a
:
in the
who
mentions (as
still
we have
seen)
Leo
existed in
Piedmont
inconsistency,
respecting
the
origination
of
the
Vallensic
282
II.
THE VALLENSES
Agreeably
to
this conclusion,
[BOOK
III.
cessity of their ancient dialect, the evidence is by their own unvarying tradition,
He
would have us
and a
of
Lyons was
the first author of the contagious pestilence and yet he speaks of what by his own account was a mere upstart invention of
Valdensis quippe,
urbis municeps fuit
lulavit.
:
ut aiunt,
uncle et
appellabatur
et
Lugdunensis
In
Claud.
5.
spem
niiiximam eliminendae haeresis hujus antiquissimce erecti proculdubio suinus. Ibid. fol. 3.
His
ascription of
it
to
Valdo
clearly
circumstance of
many
;
permanent refuge from persecution among their elder brethren an emigration, which he places about two of the Cottian Alps
amusing than
named
heresy.
his own time but nothing can be more demonstration, that no primeval individual Leo, could have been concerned with this most ancient
:
his
Even
Antony and
:
Hilary,
are duly
all
respecting Leo,
mentioned by ecclesiastical writers but, such writers are silent. Ibid. fol. 2, 6.
perhaps find, in the sequel, that the true Leo or Leonist of Valdensic Tradition is noticed most abundantly and
We shall
most vituperatively by the angry bigots of the day. In the humble friends and followers of this distinguished individual,
the poor Vallenses of Piedmont, the theological perspicacity of of Scyssel detects, both the apocalyptic harlot, and the ten horns
siam Malignantum, et Scortiim vilissimum Meretricemque omni turpitudine infamem, vel Bestiam ascendentem de niari habentem
capita septem et cornua decem.
Ibid. fol. 39.
in their
Truly, the
current coin.
own
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
283
Valleys of Piedmont, exactly to the period marked out by the personal inquiries of Reinerius.
Scyssel charges the Valdenses with dissembling or concealing
their doctrine
:
Peter
denial of the
and professes to think, that, on their principles, Lord might be excused. But his own
have been, that they were not forward in disputing with those to be impenetrably hardened
Hi
perditi
suam
excusationem, adducunt;
Non
est
Ibid.
fol.
In his time,
the
title
it
of The
seems, they claimed to themselves exclusively Catholic Church : thus asserting their true
prophetic
character of the
Communion,
fulfilled.
in
Se solos evangelicam atqtie apostolicam doctrinam servare ob eamque maxime causam, Ecclesice Catholicee profitentur
:
sibi usurpant.
Scyssel, however, somewhat heretically, himself pronounces the Rock, upon which Christ would found his Church, to be, not Peter, but Peter s Confession or (what is equivalent) Christ
himself.
How
:
his
Rome
for
such a
slip,
know
not.
Petro dixit
Tu
es
Petrus ;
et
super hanc
Petram
ccdificabo
Ecclesiam meant,
Non
;
aediticaturum se
Ecclesiam
sicut dicit
intellexit
Paulus.
sed super seipsum, qui est vera Petra, Petra, inquit, erat Christus : et Lapis
fol.
25.
gives the
same
in
891.
284
1
.
THE VALLENSES
I
[BOOK
III.
remark on
my own
may
lay
some
but
certainly
Monuments of
the
Roman
who had no
object to serve
be
The
as
we
are assured
by Raynouard,
the decomposition of the tongue spoken by the Romans, and the establishment of a new gram
matical system.
that
to say,
It
parent Latin.
On
when speaking
its
of the Noble
to
me
to be
of an
epoch already far separated from its original for mation ; inasmuch as we may remark the suppres sion of some final consonants : a peculiarity, which
had already
lost
terminations *.
M. Raynouard,
Monumens
de
la
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
this
285
Circumstances of
formation of the
Vaude
and thus, by a neces of most remote antiquity refer also the settlement of the sary consequence,
Vaudois themselves to the same remote period forbidding the supposition, that they might have
;
what Ray-
nouard
tical
new gramma
system, and after the origination of a lan guage derived only at second hand from the
Latin.
Hence, the primevally Latin Vaudois must have retired, from the lowlands of Italy to the valleys of Piedmont, in the very days of primitive Chris tianity and before the breaking up of the Roman
des
:
Romains
et
systeme grammatical
pays que ce peuple habitait. Et, dans le lettre de lui, parlant de la JSTobla Ley9on, qui raontre pourtant la date assez ancienne de 1 an 1100, et qui par cela m6me doit etre anterieure a la
Le plupart des Merits des troubadours, il s exprime de la sorte langage m en parait etre d une epoque dejti eloignee de sa for mation : ou y remarque la suppression de quelques consonnes
:
finales
ce, qui
annonce que
les
livr.
ii.
note
iii.
vol.
i.
361, 362.
286
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
But it is scarcely probable, that men would leave their homes, the fair and warm and fertile
country of Italy, for the wildness of desolate mountains and for the squalidity of neglected
valleys
which would require all the and moun severe labour of assiduous cultivation
;
valleys,
which no labour could make productive unless some very paramount and overbearing
tains,
:
and third and fourth centuries, occurred under the Emperors Marcus Aurelius and Maximin and
Decius and Valerian and Diocletian.
Therefore, both from the philological necessity of their language, and from the tenacity with
their primeval
we can scarcely doubt, that the who fled from persecution during
Chris
those
centuries,
2.
This opinion, accordingly, has ever prevailed among themselves, down, as we may say, even to
the present time.
(1.)
the
To such a purpose, for instance, speaks celebrated Henry Arnold who, in the emer
:
soldier,
superintended the glorious re-entrance of the Vaudois into their native country during the year
1689.
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
as primitive as their
287
That
is
their religion is
is
name
him
venerable,
the,
Reinerius
to the
Pope on
that
It
They have
existed
would not be
difficult to
prove, that this poor band of the faithful were in the Valleys of Piedmont more than four centuries
before the appearance of those extraordinary person
ages, Luther
of the Reformation.
been
Neither has
Church
reformed : whence arises its title of EVANGELIC. The, Vaudois are, in fact, descended
ever
those refugees
from
from
Italy
like the
woman mentioned
the Gospel,
they have,
to
this
day, handed
down
from father
plicity as
(2.)
it
same purity and sim was preached by St. Paul * To the same purpose, likewise, speaks their
to
son, in the
historian Boyer.
O marvellous ! God, through his wise providence, has preserved the purity of the Gospel in the Valleys of Piedmont, from the time of the Apostles down to
our own time
(3.)
|-
To
s
they them-
* Arnold
288
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
which
in
they presented
to
Francis
I.
of France
the
is
that,
hand, accord
and
in every
and delivered*.
speak
supplication to
Let your highness consider, that this religion, in which we live, is not merely our religion of the
present day or a religion discovered for the first time only a few years ago, as our enemies falsely pretend : but it is the religion of our fathers and of
our grandfathers, yea of our forefathers and of our It is the religion predecessors still more remote.
of the Saints and of the Martyrs, of the Confessors and of the Apostles.
(5.) So again, when addressing themselves to the Reformers of the sixteenth century, they still forth the same traditional asser harmoniously put
tion of
an apostolical antiquity
while, in point of
knowledge and attainments, poor and secluded as they had long been, they modestly confess their
own
inferiority
to
the well-instructed
solicit.
teachers
Our
ancestors
*
to
us,
that
i.
p. 103.
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
the time of the Apostles.
,
289
In
and,
thinking as you think, from the very days of the Apostles themselves we have ever been concordant
respecting the faith.
In
we
may
own
be said to differ
from you ;
sloivness
that,
through our
fault,
and
the
do not understand
the
Finally,
it
is
remarked by Leger
that,
perpetually asserted the uniformity of their faith, from father to son, through time immemorial, even
from
those sovereigns
reasonably enough observes, sufficiently indicates their internal consciousness of its accuracy*.
* Muston. Hist, des Vaud.
A.D. Evangel. Reriovat. Vaud. par. i. p. 164. Gilly
in
livr.
ii.
1530. p.
s
163. Leger.
Hist, des
Waldens. Research,
p. 40.
CHAPTER
II.
THUS, during the persecutions of the second and third and fourth centuries, placed in the valleys
of the Cottian Alps as in a citadel fashioned by the hand of nature herself, we find the Vallenses,
self-same region, still holding the self-same primitive doctrine and practice at the beginning of the fifth century while, by so doing, they
in the
:
grow
by
their secluded
they had been providentially exempted. The account of this matter, which I place at
head of the chain of testimony that runs through the whole period of the Middle Ages,
the
is
ant,
inasmuch as
it
furnishes
the
precise
link
in order,
on the
strength of evidence, synchronical with the par connect the Vaudois with the
Primitive Church
and
it
say,
CHAP.
that,
II.]
291
so far as
my own
are concerned, I have been privileged to be the first discoverer of the evidence in question *.
I.
Vigilantius,
Lugdunum Convenarum or
in Aquitaine,
Barcelona in
and a Presbyter of the Church of Spain, had charged Jerome with too
great a leaning to the objectionable opinions of This circumstnnce called forth the rage Origen.
and, in the year 397, he addressed to him a very violent epistle on the
:
subject |.
epistle.
returned into his native country of Aquitaine: and there he published a most un
compromising and decisive Treatise against the miserable growing superstitions of the age a Treatise, which is ascribed to the year 406.
;
In this Treatise, he attacked the notion, that censured, Celibacy is the duty of the Clergy
:
as
idolatrous,
the
excessive veneration
of
the
in
brief,
print.
to Dr. Gilly
Memoir
of Felix Neff:
communicated
it
to Dr.
p. 178.
Ixxv. vol.
c.
ii.
Oper. vol.
ii.
p. 159.
Epist.
292
THE VALLENSES
idle
[BOOK
III.
ridiculed the blind reverence, which was paid to their senseless and useless relics exposed the
:
like the Pagans, gross folly of burning tapers, detected before their shrines in broad day-light
:
the spurious
miracles,
which were
:
said
to
be
the
:
wrought by
vilified
boasted sanctity of vainly gratuitous monachisin and pointed out the useless absurdity of pilgrim
ages, either to Jerusalem or to
*.
sanctuary
course of
and, in the
to
he naturally adverted
Jerome
former indecent attack upon him. Matters being in this state, Jerome wrote a addressed very intemperate and abusive epistle,
to
and,
shortly
afterward,
receiving
which,
absurdity
or
brutal
scurrility
is
dominant f.
From
those documents,
we
will
readily be
Hieron. adv. Vigilant, ad Ripar. Oper. vol. ii. p. 157. Hieron. adv. Vigilant, cap. i, ii, iii, iv, vi. Oper. vol. ii. p.
158161.
t Hieron. Epist.
p.
liii.
ii.
157161.
CHAP.
II.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
293
To
of Vigilantius
identity with those of the Vallenses, in all ages, cannot have escaped his notice. But, when this
remarkable
individual
quitted
Barcelona,
from
what part of the world did he publish the very seasonable Treatise, which called forth such vulgar and offensive" vituperation from the superstitious
and^exasperated Jerome ? His antagonist tells us
that
He
wrote
from a
and
is
the Alps of
to say,
King Cottius ; from a region, that which formed a part of what was once
Gaul*".
styled Cisalpine
Now
lenses.
this district,
is the precise country of the Val Hither their ancestors retired, during the persecutions of the second and third and fourth
Cottian Alps,
centuries
from the
world, they retained the precise doctrines and practices of the Primitive Church endeared to
them by
suffering
and exile
Ego
abiit
vidi
et,
testimoniis Scripligare
turarum,
quasi
;
Hippocratis,
;
volui
furiosum.
Sed
excessit
evasit
in
Hieron.
Oper,
vol.
ii.
p. 158.
294
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
by a now opulent and gorgeous and powerful Clergy, were daily sinking deeper and deeper into that apostasy which has been so graphically
foretold
and, here, as
we
medium
of an accidental state
ment
up
his abode, at
the beginning of the fifth century, among a people, who, Laics and Bishops alike, agreed with him in
his religious sentiments,
as a brother*.
*
The wisdom
of
God works
not miraculously,
when the
may
Seclusion within a mountainous district of his high purposes. has a physical tendency to preclude change and innovation. Opinions and practices are handed down from father to son
:
is
their
one generation
is
Hence,
the
first
in the course of
God
to
When
emerge
Retiring, like
Here they they concealed themselves in a spacious cavern. were overpowered by a sleep of one hundred and eighty-seven When they emerged, they themselves remained con years.
sciously the same, faithfully reflecting the feelings
:
and habits
and opinions of a period long since passed away but, mean while, what a change in the world Christianity, trampled
!
new
upon and persecuted, was now triumphant. Every thing was Their tale of the Primitive every thing was strange.
:
Church was
recited
their
benediction
was bestowed
arid,
CHAP.
II.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
295
In his Epistle to Riparius, Jerome thinks it expedient to marvel that the holy Bishop, within
:
re
their
The application of the tale is easily made : and the Cottian Alps are not the only land of mountains, in which it
pired.
When, in the eighth age, the Roman world had fallen deeper and deeper into the wretched superstition of image-worship, the person, who strenuously opposed this odious and unscriptural
corruption,
Isauricus.
In his unsophis
footing
and Leo, at Constantinople (surely the name is des was shocked and surprised to find
form of Christianity to which he and his fathers before him had been accustomed.
Such were
subordinately to be called the philosophy providential dispensation, may of the matter, the unchanging character of the secluded Alpine
Now, God s
Mountaineers
is
accurately exhibited
in
The
inhabitants
Roman Empire
:
but the gradually apostatised from the sincerity of the Gospel very character of their country was, in the hand of God, the
secondary cause which led the sequestered Vallenses to perse vere in the unadulterated faith of the Primitive Apostolic
Church. Unchanged themselves, when at length they emerged from the figurative sleep of their allegorical Ephesian cavern, that the Gospel, which they had carthey marvelled to find
:
290
THE VALLENSES
But,
alas,
[BOOK
his
III.
of Apostolicity *.
in
subsequent
Tractate against the audacious heretic, the un welcome truth comes out and the reason of such
:
upon the historical can most prominent and most abundantly ma vass, The two superstitious bigots, indeed, nifest.
,
Riparius and Desiderius, who seem to have dwelt upon the frontiers of the spiritual Goshen of the
Valleys, complained heavily to Jerome, that their neighbouring Parishes or Dioceses were polluted,
forsooth,
and
s
it
with
Satan
albeit,
own
a
his
hand, Vigilantius,
of the
in the
facetious
Saint,
his aerial
f.
ried
persecution, had
and that they had only to bear their testimony to the heresy doctrines and practices of the Primitive Church, and then, like
the seven resuscitated sleepers of Asia,
their
heads
*
in
death.
in
inutile,
tradere in interitum
Epist.
Hii.
ut
p.
spiritus
salvus
fiat.
Hieron.
Oper.
158.
Riparius et Desiderius, qui parochias suas vicinia istius scribunt esse maculatas miserimtque libros per fratrem Sisinnium,
:
qnos
inter
CHAP.
II.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
297
the Bishops, evidently the Bishops of the alpine district where the zealously active Leonist so
journed
to
they,
however nefandous
his
Jerome and
elicit
it
might
piteous
bosom
it
Father, however a lamentable Proh nefas duly to might provoke be re-echoed by Desiderius and Riparius they, the Bishops of the country between the Adriatic
:
the
Sea and the Cottian Alps, perfectly agreed with misnamed heretic and, on one special point
;
of difference
between the
nation of batchelors
nay, if we rigidly interpret the inflated language of Jerome, absolutely made antecedent matrimony a sine quo non to the ordi
;
nation even of a
Deacon
:
*.
But
Rome
herself,
towering in
her sacerdotal potency, was not to escape un In the Tractate of Jerome, we have a scathed.
nomuillos, qui, faventes vitiis
cant.
suis, illius blaspheraiis
c.
ii.
acquies-
poor Vigilantius, that his duced by an unlucky fit of indigestion Incurset Galliarum Ecclesias, portetque nequaquam vexillum Hieron. adv. Vigilant, c. ii. Oper. Christi, sed insigne diaboli.
!
Oper. vol. ii. p. 159. Alas, whole heresy should have been pro
vol.
*
si
ii.
p. 159.
Proh
nefas
nisi
uxores duxerint.
158.
c.
i.
Oper.
vol.
p.
298
THE VALLENSES
[fiOOK
III.
and long venerated Leo of Vallensic tradition, supported by the Bishops of a whole people, and,
in that support, standing directly
opposed
to the
Roman Pontiff, and to all those other Bishops who were blindly following him in his now-rapidly
developing predicted apostasy. Jerome, nurtured in the adulterate Christianity
and fanatic monks and lordly prelates, is amazed, yea horrified, at the alpine That stubborn son of audacity of Vigilantius. the Pyrenean Lyons, who seems to have troubled
of opulent cities
about any doctrinal authority save that of Scripture, was unable thence to dis
his
little
head very
cover
the vital importance of consecrating the Eucharist over the bones of Peter and of Paul,
Rome
Ecclesias
any very particular reverence for the holy fragments of less important dead men and women. What, cries Jerome, scandalized to the
to entertain
less last pitch of
Roman
to
Bishop,
then, do
ill,
who
sacrifices
the
Lord over
men;
the bones,
and of Paul:
dust
?
bones, in
mere worthless portion of Does the Bishop of Rome do ill, who deems
their tombs the altars of Christ? Are the Bishops, not merely of a single city, but of the whole world,
CHAP.
all
II.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
:
299
because, despising the huckster Vigilantius, they reverently enter into the stately cathe
mistaken
Truly, a rapid declaimer ought to be blessed with a good memory. Only two pages before,
very same Tractate, Jerome had been groaning over Bishops, not in deed (as he remarks) to be called Bishops, who were the sworn allies and associates of the des
and
in
the
course of the
and now he disco perately wicked Vigilantius vers, that all the Bishops of all the world, with
:
the
Pope
of
Rome
But, though Jerome may forget the important fact which he has recorded, others will remember it. Those, who adhere to the catholic
the heretic.
Church
as they stand
broadly opposed to unscriptural popish additaments, will recollect, that Vigilantius was not an
insulated
cerity of the Gospel.
Bishops and Clergy at their head, were his asso ciates and the recorded abode of this whole
:
people was a mountainous district between Adriatic Sea and the Cottian Alps.
*
the
Male ergo facit Romanus Episcopus, qui super mortuorum horainum, Petri et Pauli, secundura nos ossa veneranda, secun dum te vilem pulvisculum, offert Domino sacrificia, et tumulos
eorurn Christi arbitrator altaria
:
et
temnentes,
Vigil, c.
iii.
ingrediuntur
basilicas
p. 160.
Oper. vol.
ii.
CHAPTER
III.
THE ANTIQUITY OF THE VALLENSES SHEWN FROM THE TESTIMONY RECORDED BY PILICIIDORF.
WITH
fearful
rapidity,
the
deluge of Teutonic
Invasion was now rising to overwhelm the whole Western Roman Empire and a period of well nigh two centuries elapsed, ere its tumultuous
:
streams of
many cognate
But the Alpine Retreat of the Primitive Chris tians, more highly privileged than the submerged
Ararat of old, reared
its
flood,
and
preserved
its
sacred
amidst
the
Whenever
the
Gothic
Nations
precipitated
themselves upon Italy, their line of march was invariably across either the Rhaetian Alps or the
Julian Alps: nor have I been able to find, that the Cottian Alps ever came within the sphere
of their operations. Under Providence, the pecu liar locality of this mountain range procured its and thus, in the midst of the storm, exemption
:
CHAP.
III.]
301
its
housed within
and sequestered
recesses.
length, all the ten fated kingdoms erected by the ten principal Gothic Tribes
established a
At
were
:
and,
of
Germany
government in the western countries of Europe *. Then, the revolution being completed, we forth with hear of the divinely preserved Church in the
wilderness.
the
The tenth and last Gothic Kingdom, Lombards, was founded, upon the
:
that of
soil
of
and, about three year 567 and 568 centuries after Constantine or at the commence
Italy, in the
age,
the Vallenses
again
attention.
time,
another celebrated
a worthy
pastor,
and
among
ed appellation of the country where he sprang up, we first, so far as I know, meet with the geo
graphically descriptive
lenses or
title
of Valdenses or Val
Men
* For the dates of the establishment of the ten gothic king doms upon the platform of the Western Roman Empire, see my
Sacred Calendar of Prophecy, book iii. chap. 2. IV. f The true import and etymology of this title was
the beginning of the thirteenth century, preserved
1. (4.)
still,
at
by
the pious
individuals
who
bore
it
302
THE VALLENSES
[fiOOK
III.
For the preservation of this piece of Valdensic history, handed down among the Alpine moun taineers themselves, and from them communicated
to the Valclenses of France,
we
are indebted to
Peter Pilichdorf
who,
of Constantine, a companion of Pope Sylvester, dis liking the excessive enrichment of the Church by
the donations of the
separating himself
from
way of poverty
asserting,
of his
from
the
true Church.
we
learn from
Vallenses
se
appellant,
quod
Valle
lachrymarura
maneant.
xxv.
In thus mysticising their usual designation, they alluded, I suppose, to that of the Psalmist in the familiar translation of the Latin Vulgate.
Beatus
vir,
ascensiones in corde
loco quern
posuit.
suo disposuit,
valle
lachrymarum,
in
Psalm Ixxxiv.
5, 6.
CHAP.
III.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
way of
poverty.
303
From
these two,
originated the sect of the Valdenses *. From the identity of name, it may be thought,
Peter of Valdis, thus ascribed to the beginning of the seventh century, is a mere fabu lous duplicate of the later and more celebrated
that this
Peter
Valdo of Lyons
who,
in
consequence of
some extraordinary chronological blunder, has, in this tradition, been thrown back more than five
hundred years.
Such, when first I read the passage which mentions Peter of Valdis as living three centuries
after Constantine,
itself to
presented
* Valdenses dicunt
tini,
noluit consentire,
ditaretur; et
ex hoc a Sylvestro
paupertatis
tenendo
apud quem
paupertate
sibi
cum
:
ad
quod, post annos trecentos a Constantino, surrexit quidam e regione Valdis, Petrus nominatus; qui similiter viam paupertatis docuit.
cecidisse.
Item
Pilich. cont. Pauper, de quibus secta Valdensis est orta. Lugdun. Fragment, in Biblioth. Patr. vol. xiii. p. 333, 334.
in
but he, somewhat ludicrously, twits the Vaudois with their inability to demonstrate its truth by miracles
:
Pope
Sylvester.
Sed quae signa virtutum prasdictis perhibent testimonium ? Cum tamen facta celeberrima et miracula Sylvestri totum
mundum
non
latuerint.
Ibid. p. 334.
304
THE VALLENSES
correct.
[BOOK
III.
If there be
any
must ine
vitably be laid to the account, either of Pilichdorf individually, or of the Valdenses his informants
collectively.
I.
Now, with
he well knew
the days of
indeed, he distinctly tells us), that Peter Valdo of Lyons began his ministry in
(as,
Pope Innocent
II.
1160: and, of
this individual,
own knowledge,
a very full actly corresponds with the parallel account given by Reinerius *.
impossible, that Pilichdorf, thus fully informed, could ever have himself mis taken so widely, as to place Peter Valdo of Lyons
Hence,
think
it
in the seventh
Peter of Valdis.
No
confusion,
can
reasonably
be
ascribed to Pilichdorf himself individually. II. And, as for the Valdenses collectively,
it is
plainly no less impossible, that, in the thirteenth century or in the age when Pilichdorf received
his information
Persons,
teenth
who were
and
century,
who
c.
thence
must
have
i.
Reiner,
tie
haer. c. v. in
Bib-
Patr. vol.
xiii. p.
CHAP.
III.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
305
the character and history of the pious merchant of Lyons, could never have ignorantly ascribed Peter Valdo, who notoriously
familiarly
known
during the latter half of the twelfth century, to so remote a period as the very begin or, if they had made ning of the seventh century
flourished
:
it
is
plain, that,
the
malignant
a
Pilichdorf,
it
would have af
forded
triumph.
In his
Work
against the Poor Men of Lyons, he notices, without any imputation of a confused blunder, the standing
tradition of the Valdenses, that another Peter of
much
very
higher antiquity had previously risen up in the region named Valdis; a region, which, by its
name evidently
identifies itself
in
Piedmont.
as
the
tradition
purports,
an
who
CHAPTER
IV.
THE ANTIQUITY OF THE VALLENSES SHEWN FROM THE HISTORY OF CLAUDE OF TURIN.
DESCENDING with
the
stream
of
time,
while
corruption went on rapidly increasing through the provinces and in the rich towns of the now dislo
cated though partly restored Western Empire, we shall again, early in the ninth century, meet with
the Piedmontese Vallenses in direct connection
Claude, Bishop or
made up
his
mind, as to whether Claude was an Arian or a One of the two, he confidently pro Nestorian.
nounces him
to
have been
and, so far as
can
understand the ingenious Prelate, he rather in His authority clines to the charge of Arianism.
who, prudently Bishop of Orleans for the death of Claude, when he could waiting offer no contradiction, brought the charge against
is
Jonas,
him
in the
Preface
to his
CHAP. IV.]
307
the
worship
Bald. *
*
of images,
Charles
Claude
cle
c est-a-dire,
livr. xi.
1.
Nestorien de
Turin 6toit Arien et disciple de Felix d Urgel, Boss. Hist, des Variat. plus.
in
for JBossuet, according custom, never gives the originals. Ut relatione veridica didici, non modo error (de quo agitur) discipulorum suorum mentibus reviviscit, quin potius (eo
:
et
ad simplicitatem
catholicae
et
apostolicae
oppugnandam
in
armario episcopii sui clandestina calliditate reliquisse. Sufficere namque Claudio poterat, ad curaulum miseriarum suarum,
error quern secutus est
duorum
his
scilicet
haereticorum, Eustathii
et
Vigilantii.
Sed,
suae
altiori
perditionis
hostis
baratro
praecipitem
dedit,
dum
:
infestissimi
sanctae
in vita,
se sectatorem
in in
discipulumque, et
vita
quidem, docendo
et
praedicando
in
morte quoque,
se scriptum
eundem errorem a
relin-
Secta quippe ejusdem Arrii, olim a sanctis patribus quendo. damnata, catholicoque mucrone sub perpetuo anathemate confossa, quae sub eodem Claudio dicitur resuscitata, necesse est,
ut,
sagacissimo
quaesitu
et
diligentissimo
scrutamine,
extat
inventa, et in
ecclesiasticis
lucem perferenda, et cum resuscitatore suo ab viris rursus sanctarum scripturarum telis ferienda
Jon. Aurelian.
atque frustranda.
de
cult. imag.
praefat.
in
Biblioth. Patr. vol. ix. par. prior, p. 91. It may be observed, that, as Jonas waited for the death of
Claude
adduces
fertur
:
dicitur.
Injustice to Jonas
the ninth century, he
ought
to
be stated
that,
although,
in in
composed a
work
308
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
of the allegation,
which
pretended Arianism of which even his bitter enemy Dungal could discover no traces during his life, may well,
Felix
of
Urgel and
even on the
that
first
Claude was
favour of images;
denying to them
all re
Hence
Church, as Bell-
armine remarks, must be read cautiously by all good Catholics. Jonas Episcopus Aureliancnsis, imperante Ludovico Pio,
scripsit libros tres, qui extant,
Taurinensem pro defensione sacrarum imaginum et signi sanctae Sed hie tamen auctor crucis et peregrinationum ad loca sancta.
caute
legendus
est,
quoniam
laborat
Galli,
eodem
errore,
quo
Agobardus
et reliqui ejus
aetatis
religiosum.
Bellarm. de
The
the Cardinal.
uti praedixi-
mus.
*
Ob
id,
scripta
ista
tonae
magno cum
judicio et caute
legenda.
Ibid. p. 90.
Dungal has written a long and angry answer to what he Claude of Turin and, though
:
CHAP. IV.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
309
Accordingly, in the
Works
of that remarkable
do, he never once, the object of his wrath being then alive, has
ventured to charge him with either Nestorianism or Arianism. He refers, in a single place, to Felix, as the author of the
error,
for
which Claude maintained, and which he (not very wisely a man of such limited powers and such a rambling illogical head) had undertaken by the aid of mere verbose declamation
which he directs the whole of
is
worship, and
relic-worship,
and
cross- worship,
and foolish
pilgrimages to Rome, and perhaps still more foolish ledgments of papal supremacy in the chair of the
the heresy either of Arius or of Nestorius.
in magistro
acknow
Apostle; not
He
simply says
hujus erroris
Felice.
Dungal. Respons.
Bibl.
is
cont.
878.
The
hie
error,
Treatise,
folio
which extends through twenty two very closely printed On this same Hie error, Dungal is very full and pages.
:
but not a syllable has he to say upon either the very angry Nestorianism or the Arianism of the mad blasphemer and the
hissing serpent,
whose head,
for the
to be
made
with the unscriptural folly of the cinder-rnen and bone-worship pers, certainly did not mince the matter. Dungal, at the close
of his Treatise, reminds him,
how he
refused to attend a
Con
vention of Bishops on the not very complimentary ground of their being a Congregation of Asses. Propter istam autem
insanissimam
;
renuit
ad
Conventum occurrere
Episcoporum vocans illorum Synodum Congregationem Asinorum. Dungal. cont. Claud. Taurin. in Bibl. Patr. par. post, ix. p. 895. vol.
310
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
nothing whatever appears to inculpate him while we find abundance, both to shew his
:
explain why the Romish Priesthood have in his case diligently resorted to their old and familiar craft of abusive
real
sentiments,
and
also
to
calumny.
commentary on the
is
the only one of his various writings, which has But the Monks of St. been published in full.
Germain had
upon
all
Abbey
of St.
as also those on
which formerly belonged to the Library Remi at Rheims. There exist likewise, both in England and elsewhere, several manuscript copies of his Commentary on St. Matthew. Papirius Masson, moreover, has published extracts from his Epistle to the Abbot Theutmir, which are
Leviticus,
prefixed to the violent attack of Dungal upon that Epistle, and which occur likewise in the Work of
defence of images and Mabillon has printed the dedication of his Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians,
for the
addressed to the Emperor Louis the Pious. Now, under such circumstances, could any real
heresy have been adduced from his writings, we should long since have heard of it for, if Bossuet, from Claude s own compositions to
proof of
:
which he had easy access, could have established the truth of his random accusation, he was not a
CHAP.
IV.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
311
man
have contented himself with a meagre refer ence to the posthumous gossip of Jonas of Orleans.
to
Work by Claude, his on the Epistle to the Galatians, as Commentary having been published in full. That Work is now
II.
I
have mentioned a
before
me
its
character
and contents will fitly introduce those subsequent remarks, which I shall have occasion to offer.
The Work
Christian
itself is
a composition of beautiful
simplicity.
From
the superstitions of
even the incomplete Popery of the ninth century, it is And, throughout, with clear altogether free.
ness and fidelity, of the Gospel.
it
So
far
Rome,
to the
universal
to the
universal
pretended successors
the Latin Pontiffs, Claude maintains the equal authority of Peter and of Paul in their respective
departments
Peter being at the head of the mis sion to the Jews and Paul, similarly and inde
:
at the
to the
Abseritibus
illis
Domino
quando cum
;
eis coritulit,
nihil
esset
eundem
Jesum Christum, qui sine personarum acceptione salvos facit, hoc dedisse Paulo ut ministraret gentibus, quod
etiam Petro dederat ut ministraret Judneis. Claud. Taurin. Enar.
in
Dom iiium
in
312
THE VALLENSES
doctrine of
[BOOK
III.
The
man
through
and not
by the works
moral, he strenuously asserts with the utmost ness and unreserve and precision *.
He
virtually,
imaginary
infallibility of
for
on the
that,
faith,
so the
also be
In
commune
cunctis Gentibus, Ecclesiam congregarent. Legimus enim, et a sancto Petro gentilem baptizatum fuisse Cornelium, et a
Paulo
sed
in Synagogis Judaeorum Christum saepissime praedicatum tamen plena auctoritas Petro, in Judaismi praedictione,
: ;
data dignoscitur
et
Gentium,
invenitur.
in praedicatione
sibi
comparat;
:
se quoquia primatum ipse accepit ad fundandam Ecclesiam que pari modo electum, ut primatum habeat in fundandis
Gentium
*
Ecclesiis.
fateri,
Ibid.
ii.
8. p. 72.
Coguntur legis operibus justificari hominem, sed Simul etiam nos cogit intelligere, omnes antiques patres, Claud. Taurin. qui justificati sunt, ex ipsa fide justificatos. in Bibl. Patr. vol. ix. par. Enarr. in Epist. ad Galat. iii. 16.
fide.
non
prior, p.
76.
esse peccatum,
Lex ostendebat
caecati,
quod
:
illi,
per consuetudinem
ut,
manu
esse salutem
suam, sed
in
manu
Mediatoris. Ibid.
iii.
21. p. 77.
et
et
cum
CHAP.
IV.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
313
then observed in the existing Churches at large*. With an evident reference to the state of
religion in his
own
time, he declares
is
that,
what
a departure from that inter pretation of Scripture which the sense of the Holy and he remarks, at the same Spirit demands
constitutes heresy,
:
time
may
be
Church
f.
Nunc
tota lege
generaliter comprehendit,
in
:
nihil
eos
in Christi
quacunque observatione
se
; et, quod gratis jam accepistis, non habentes, propriis vultis laboribus adipisci. Ibid, tanquam
v. 4. p.
83.
Non
in propria justitia vel doctrina, sed in fide crucis per mihi omnia peccata dimissa sunt. Ibid. vi. 14. p. 89.
si,
in
quo Christus Dominus loquebatur, Galatae sunt mutati; cum etiam nunc, cernamus in Ecclesiis id ipsum fieri. Claud.
Taurin.
iv.
sibi
f Hceresis autem Graece ab electione dicitur, quod scilicet earn unusquisque eligit disciplinam, quam putat esse meliorem.
igitur
aliter
Quicunque
recesserit,
Scripturam
intelligit,
quam
sensus
quo conscripta
est, licet
tamen
bus est eligens quae pejora sunt. Claud. Taurin. Enarr. in ad. Galat. v. 19 21. in Bibl. Patr. vol. ix. par. prior, Epist.
p. 86.
314
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
which touches the very point that divided that heresy from the true catholic doctrine the point,
:
to
wit,
that Christ,
is
adoption,
the
specially discriminating point, the Father and the Son are consubstantial*.
III.
is
words,
the
that
the never-changing genius of Popery considered, it will be obvious, that the bold
When
advocacy of primitive truth in such a declining age could not, in an ecclesiastic of Claude s high rank
and
pass without producing a considerable degree of annoyance to the pontifi cal faction nor was he himself to be exempted
influential character,
:
in reality, the
proper
Adoptionem propterea dixit, ut distinct^ intelligamus unicum Dei Filium. Nosenim, beneficio ct dignatione miserioordije ejus,
filii
Deisumus
ille,
NATURA,
est Filius
in
QUI HOC
EST
iv.
QIOD PATER.
o.
in
Epist. ad Galat.
wrote
this,
in the possession of Mr. Theyer, Dr. Allix gives, at considerable length, the sentiments of Claude u sputing the Eucharist. The following brief extract
From a manuscript
may
suffice.
in
Quia panis corpus confirmat, vinum vero sanguinem operatur came hie ad corpus Christi MYSTICE, illud refertur ad
:
sanguineiu.
in
Matt.
lib.
iii.
c. 14.
contains yet another proof, that Claude could not have been an Arian.
In tlaarllo positus, Patri gratias agit .EQUALIS.
Ibid.
CHAP. IF.]
AJCD ALBIGEXSE*.
315
pcnoas who assailed him was a steady adherent to the simply because he
innovators were the
soundness of Apostolical antiquity. You declare yourself to have been troubled, says he to the Abbot Theutmir. because a rumour res
pecting
Italy through all the Gaul* even to the very borders of Spain ; as if I had been preaching up some new sect, contrary to
the rule
of the Catholic Faith : a matter, which is It is no marvel, how utterly and absolutely false. ever, that Satan s members should say these things
of me, since he proclaimed our very Head himself to be a seducer and a demoniac. I, who hold the
teaching no new On the contrary, sects and schisms and super sect. stitions and heresies, I have atway, so far as in me
unity,
the truth,
am
lies,
crushed and opposed: and, through God s help, will never cease to crush and oppose. But, certes,
this trouble
sorely against
command of Louis the Pious, the Burden of a Bishopric, and when, contrary to the order of truth, Ifound all the churches at Turin stuffed full of vile and accursed
my
will,
I undertook,
at the
images,
tishly
worshipping.
alone began to destroy what all were sotTherefore it was, that all
opened their mouths to revile me : and, forsooth, had not the Lord helped me, they would have swallowed
me up
quick *.
Epbtoia* loan.
CM
316
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
IV. This universalising language, however, must be viewed, as respecting one division only of the
The citizens of Turin pious Bishop s people. and the inhabitants of the low country were ve
hemently against him indignant like Micah of old, that he should have taken away their gods
;
titorem
in
quod rumor
ex Italia de
est.
Nee mirum
est,
si
de
me
ista
ipsum Caput nostrum et seductorem et daemoniacum proclamaverunt. Ego enim non sectam doceo, qui unitatem teneo et
veritatem proclamo
:
atque
et
haereses, in
quantum
adjuvante,
expugnavi ; et expugnare, in quantum valeo, prorsus Deo non cesso. Hoc autem idcirco provenit quia,
:
postquam coactus suscepi sarcinam pastoralis oilicii, missus a Pio principe sanctae Domini Ecclesiae Catholicae filio Hludovico, et veni
basilicas,
in
inveni
omnes
contra
ordinem
veritatis,
sordibus
anathematum
imaginibus plenas.
truere solus coepi
:
Et, quia quod omnes colebant, ego deset, idcirco, aperuerunt omnes ora sua ad
et, nisi
blasphemandum me;
Theutmir.
in
Dominus
Claud. Taurin. Epist, ad. Abbat. Bibl. Patr. vol. ix. par. post. p. 876.
very indignant at the whole of this reference to its conclusion, he kicks the dead
is
Id
nulli,
nisi
tibi,
imputandum
est.
Debueras siquidem
eisque
CHAP.
IV.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
317
the Alpine mountains and in the Alpine Valleys, who had not forgotten the days of Vigilantius,
both symbolised and sympathised with their admirable Prelate themselves, in truth,
and
who
These things says he, in an extract from his Commentary on Leviticus published by Mabillon
:
These things are the highest and strongest myste ries of our faith they are the characters most
:
In standing up
sibi
sacrilegii
notam
inureres, traditionesque
quas
a sacrosanctis
non voto
Jon.
par.
gravitate
lib.
i.
magistra comprobare.
in
ix.
himself, as
we have
seen,
must be read
Thus, in the judgment of better instructed paid to images. Romanists, does the castigator of Claude actually tremble on On this curious and interesting topic the very verge of heresy.
Bossuet,
with
is
profoundly
silent.
Jonas, however, sorely enacting the Marplot, quotes, in favour of his dangerous and semi-heretical opinion, Origen and
Hence we
Ut enim
breviter,
et
omnia
definitione
Filium et Spiritum
Sanctum, impietatis est crimen. Ibid. lib. i. p. 95. Here, no doubt, Bellarmine and the Editors of the Bibliotheca
cautt.
318
for
THE VALLENSES
the conformation
[BOOK
III.
truths,
am
become a reproach
my
neighbours
insomuch
but
that those,
who
another, even point at us, God, likewise, the father of mercies and the author of all however,
one
to
consolation,
has comforted us in
all
our
afflictions
that, in like manner, we might be able to comfort those, who are weighed down with sorrow and afflic
tion.
We
rely
Here we perceive a
presided.
two
which he painfully
seems, were so
irri
Some
of his neighbours,
it
tated at the
they not only scoffed, but even the finger of scorn at him.
pointed
in like
Yet he had
to
manner with himself, were pressed down with sorrow and affliction. The distinction is marked with singular pre cision and its import, I think, can scarcely be
:
misunderstood.
In the scoffers, we may note the Riparii and the Desiderii of the day those genuine successors
:
in Levit.
ix. p. 79.
CHAP.
IV.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
correspondents,
319
their
of Jerome s
who deemed
lowland parishes or suffragan dioceses polluted by a too great vicinity to the mountains and valleys
of the Cottian Alps. In the partakers of holy Claude s affliction ; the objects, like himself, of ribald scorn and the
pointed finger of self-satisfied apostatic disdain men, who needed the evangelical consolations
;
so well qualified
which the troubles of their invaluable Bishop had him experimentally to communi
:
cate
in these strongly-characterised
members
of
we may
;
note the
those genuine
s furious
vitupera
;
kindred souls with the apostolic Claude theologians, whose faith and practice stand out
strongly reflected
their
and comforter.
unwilling to call this obvious application of Claude s language by the name of a mere conI
am
jecture.
From
cities
the Bishop
own
statement to the
its
idolatry.
already adduced,
large
evidence
that
one
portion
of
diocese,
the
valleys
and
less
vehemently
320
in question
;
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
the doctrines and practices of the Gospel and the Primitive Church.
When
see not
I really
what other
by
his
whom we
we wish
the fact, namely, that diocese of Claude was divided into two parts
to learn
the
;
the
who
the other part, comprehending those symbolised with him in doctrine and who
This book,
I Dungal
vowed
to dedicate
and com
pose, in honour of
the
God and
the
Emperor, against
of Turin
I sighed to behold the Lord s with malignant weeds ; but, lest I harvest overrun should seem only to beat the air, I long remained
into this country, while
silent.
people in this region are separated from each other, and are divided into two parts, concerning
the
The
observations
the
of the Church
that
is
to
say,
concerning
Lord s
images and holy picture of the Hence, with murmurs and conpassion.
CHAP.
IV.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
Catholics say
:
321
is
tentions,
the
and
that,
for instruction,
it
is
almost as profitable, as Holy Scripture itself. But the heretic, on the contrary, and the part seduced
by him, say
into error,
that
is
it is
not so
for
it is
a seduction
and
similar contention prevails respecting the cross. For the Catholics say : that it is good and holy ;
that
it is
a triumphal banner
and that
not so
it is
a sign
of eternal salvation.
their master, reply
it
:
But
that
it is
inasmuch as
s
Lord
passion
and
manner, concerning the commemoration of the Saints, there is a dispute, as to the approaching them for the sake of prayer, and as to the venerating For some affirm : that it a O of their relics. good *JU
In
and
religious custom to frequent the churches of the martyrs ; where their sacred ashes and holy bodies,
to their merits,
are deposited ;
and where, through their intervention, both corporal and spiritual sicknesses are, by the divine grace and
operation, healed most copiously and most presently. But others resist, maintaining : that the saints
being ignorant of what is can aid no one by their inter passing upon earth, cession ; and that, to their relics not a whit more
after
death,
,
their
as
reverence
is
due, than to
to
animals or
*
Hunc
322
After this
THE VALLENSES
specification,
[BOOK
in
III.
he proceeds,
to
his
rambling
trina
and
declamatory fashion,
answer
sanctorum patrum defloratas et excerptas continentem, sub et honore gloriosissimorum principum, christianissimorum Sanctze Ecclesiae rectoruni, domini Hludovici maximi ac sere-
nomine
filii
ego Dungalus,
in
Dei
et
eorum obsequio
dicandum compo-
nendumque
non quod ante jam dudum, ex quo in hanc terram advenerim, occasio mihi copiosa hac de re reclarinenis Episcopi naenias
mandi conquerendique assidue non occurreret, dum dominicam ubique messem malignis zizaniis lolioque infelici horrere cernendo suspirarem
silentii
;
sub
lensque
Christi,
murmur multum, antiquamque contentionem de corpore hoc est Ecclesia, in turbis fieri, qute quondam prrecessit
in
de capite.
Sequestrate ab invicem
in
est,
dominicae passionis et sancta pictura, murmurantes et contenbonam et utilem esse earn picturam ; et dentes, Catholici dicunt
:
et
Sacra
:
non
Haereticus, e contra, cum parte a se seducta, dicunt sed seductio est erroris et idololatria.
quod
bona
et sancta sit,
vexillumque
triumphale, et
siynum perpetuce
:
Pars adversa, cum suo magistro, non; sed opprobrium tantum passionis, et
salutis.
e contra respondet
irrisio mortis,
in ea
aliis
adfirmantibus
bonam
et
martyrum fre-
r/uentare
CHAP.
IV. J
AND ALBIGENSES.
of Claude
323
the Epistle
Theutmir
referred to
addressed to the Abbot some portions of which, specially by Dungal, Papirius Masson has pub-
Deo acceptabilia, in quibus omnigena tormenta sunt usque ad mortem perpessi, cum pro fide Christi honore eorum mentis congruo, condita habentur ; ubique, ipsis
venerabilia vasa a
intervenientibus, corporales ac spiritales quotidie lanyuores, divina
operante
manu
sanantur.
nullum adjuvare nullique posse intercedendo succ^trrere nihil eorum duntaxat scientes qua in terris geruntur ; illorumque reliquias nullam alicujus reverential gratiam comitari, sicut nee
ossa vilissima quorumlibet animalium, reliquamve terram com-
munem.
As
I give
it
DungaPs exordium at full length. He evidently thought a piece of very fine writing, fit to be placed in most advanta geous contrast with the straight-forward simplicity of Claude.
Nothing can be more amusing, than the complacency with which he speaks of his opponent. Licet autem incondito ac rustico, utpote ab hotnine doctrinalis
expertis scientiae,
sit
tamen
:
non magnopere de hoc excutiendo vel inquirendo curavi sed tantum sensus dispar, et catholicae contrarius fidei, adeo me
movit et conturbavit.
Ibid. p. 878.
This rambling and declamatory mode of writing, which occu pies with an endless Crambe recocta half-a-dozen pages where one would amply suffice, characterises all the modern popish
controversialists with
Bossuet.
Would
whom I am acquainted, save and except he were more honest but, unlike some
:
whom
pen.
knows how
to use his
324
lished
self*.
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
of
III.
and prefixed
I
to the
Work
Dungal him
that Claude
VI. Here
and
charge of innovation
ment
to
which Dungal
reply affords a very curious contrast, they exposed the unscriptural vanity of image-worship and
and idle pilgri cross-worship and relic-worship and papal mages to Rome and formal penances inherent in the chair of the Apostle. supremacy
culous
:
ridi
mented,
writing.
than
be
committed
to
the gravity
of
we are con
strained
Return to the propound foolish things. heart which you have left, ye wretched prevarica
:
tors
ye,
who
love vanity
who crucify afresh the even by whole open shame ; ye, who in this manner, miserable men the troops, have made the souls of
their companions of demons, alienating them from Creator through the nefarious sacrilege of images,
and are become vain ; ye, Son of God and put him to
into perpetual
damnalight-
Return, ye
which
eneth every one that comet h into the world: the light which shineth in darkness, and the darkness compre-
Patr. vol.
* See Claude. Taurin. Thentmir. Epist. ad Abbat, ix. par. post. p. 876, 877.
in
Bibl.
CHAP.
IV.]
it
AND ALBIGENSES.
not;
325
hendeth
are therefore and know not whither you go because darkness hath
blinded
your eyes
I
*.
VII.
to
remark
s
that, in
an
Dungal
not a
perpetual refer
striking
ence to Vigilantius
important.
little
and
He
charges
Claude and
his
Vallenses with
teaching and maintaining the same doctrines, as those taught and maintained by the eminent indi
vidual in question
:
and
his
whole
to
strain of
un
shew
that,
memory and
still,
in
the
unimpaired -f. Accordingly, while he forgets not to mention the birth of Vigilantius at the Lugdunum
Convenarum of the Pyrenees, he describes him, been certainly with much correctness, as having
the neighbour of Claude
:
though
it
may be
must not
doubtsuppress
is the singular felicity of Dungal s retort courteous. quite sure that all Claude s contempt for relics is bottomed upon mere
He
envy.
was but
dead bones and old rags as the richer cathedral of Rome truly Claude would then be as warm an advocate, as he is now an
opponent. Dungal. Respons. p. 888. have ever met with so palpable a hit.
I
do not recollect to
suppression of
it
The
sin
f Dungal. Respons.
326
ed,
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
whether, with equal correctness, he asserts Vigilantius to have been the author of Claude s
*.
madness
The madness
in
in
question,
as
holy
in
Scripture and
the Primitive Church, long before any of the con tending parties, either in the fifth century or in
the
century, had made their appearance upon the face of this nether world. Hence we may perfectly understand the immeasureable
ninth
wrath of Dungal, that Claude, to confound ido latry, should actually have dared to quote Scrip
ture f.
Here, then, we have evidence, both for the continued existence and for the resolute unchangeableness of the Vallenses at the beginning of the
ninth century. For, as it appears from a specific date in the Work of Dungal, Claude must have
written his epistle to Theutmir shortly before the
*
Cognovit, quod ilia (scil. Hieronymus) contra suum vicisuaeque auctorem insaniae Vigilantium haereticum scripserit.
num
Cum
omnium
non de
enitn
distincte
dicatur,
qua
qua sub
terra
solis similitudinibus
alienorum deorum
in
intelligitur
dictum,
Respons.
p. 880.
On
nist
tough morsel, his stupendously long-winded antago hammers, with most exemplary perseverance, through eight
this
CHAP. IV.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
327
year 820
either in,
and Dungal must have answered him, or shortly after, that same year *. The
therefore,
Vallenses,
in
their
native fastnesses, bearing their appointed testimo ny to scriptural truth and against paganising
idolatry,
at
the
commencement
it
of
the
ninth
century.
justly be said,
as
some have
the
that
preaching of Claude of Turin. No doubt, he greatly encouraged and strengthened them but, as we have had direct evidence to their long prior
:
enemy, has been found bring out the very same result.
bitter
conducted by a
to
and
connections
Vallenses
and
duction of two
the year 1632; year 1649.
Works
the one,
published in
in
the
Now
in
the
narrative of the introduction of Heresies into the Valleys, he states : that The Valdenses were so
ancient, as to afford no absolute certainty in regard to the precise time of their origination ; but, at all
*
Dungal. Respons.
p. 071).
328
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
they
sect *.
And, in the second of them, entitled Historical Memorials of the Introduction of Heresies, he makes some very important additions to his former
statement
;
for
he there
tells
us
that,
In the ninth
they were
century, so
sect,
ragers of opinions which had preceded them; further remarking, that Claude of Turin was to be reckoned
these fomenters and encouragers, inasmuch as he was a person, who denied the reverence due to the holy cross, who rejected the veneration and invo
among
cation of saints,
of images f.
si
setta.
puo haver certezza. Nel nono e Rorenc. Narrat. dell inMuston. Hist, des Vaud.
vol.
i.
ma
ben nuovo
vescovo di
Torino, discepolo di Felice, che negava la reverenza alia santa croce, come anche la veneratione ed invocatione de Santi, e fu
principale
destrutor delPimagini.
Rorenc.
Mernor.
Istoric.
vol.
i.
somewhat extraordinary, that neither of these Works of Rorenco is in the Bodleian Library but, as Dr. Muston gives
It is
:
Had
much
the
Works
by
been within
my
reach, I should
gratified
As
it
is,
CHAP. IV.]
I
AND ALBIGENSES.
329
unable to specify the nature and amount of the evidence, which brought the Prior to his conclusion. That it was over
am
whelming and
Bossuet,
it is
decisive,
is
certain
the ordinary
humour and
Romish
Valdo
or the latter
CHAPTER
V.
THE ANTIQUITY OF THE VALLENSES SHEWN FROM THE LANGUAGE OF ATTO OF VERCELLI.
ABOUT
we
Vercelli
distant
is
from Turin
the
constitutes
ecclesiastical
metropolis of
an
Of immediately contiguous diocese or province. this district, in the year 945, Atto was Bishop or Hence, from the mere circumstance Archbishop. of locality, he must have been fully aware of what
was
own
I.
own
Now
two of
his Epistles,
by describing and
neighbouring
CHAP.
V.]
331
fully laboured to
make
proselytes,
establish alike
both the prolonged existence of the Vallenses and their steady adherence to the system of doctrine
in
the time
of
The former
of these
two Epistles
is
couched
in
terms following.
Atto, by the grace
health
diocese.
and joy
to
all the
preached, God permitting, to those who were present a certain discourse, which we judge it necessary to
direct to yourselves also.
persons, who These despise the divine services of the Church. themselves to auguries or to signs of the apply
In your parts,
many
heavens or
to
not that
concerning
the
Jews.
generation, incredulous and perverse, seeketh a sign. Paul likewise, the blessed Apostle, exclaims: Beware,
lest
deceit,
to the
elements of the world, and not according to Christ. And elsewhere: Why turn ye again to
weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire The Psalmist, moreover, again to be in bondage ? says ; Ye Sons of men how long will you be heavy
in
heart,
and
again
love
:
vanity,
is
and
seek after
a
is
lie?"
And
Blessed
the
332
in
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
name of the Lord, and who has not looked to vanities and insane falsehoods. Farewell in the Lord*. 2. The latter of the two Epistles speaks the same language, and plainly refers to the same
the
subject.
At to, through
Bishop,
the
mother Church of
Vercelli.
Know ye,
that, both
Prophets and through the other holy Teachers, we have heard : that nume rous false prophets will come, who, what is most
*
.Atto, gratia Dei,
Nuper
qui
dirigere
in vigilia
Octavae Domini,
quemdam sermonem,
!
his
praesentes
erant,
Deo
donante, retulimus
necessarium
aestimamus.
Heu
vobis
in
seu vanas
praecantationes intendunt,
Judaeis ait
:
nee
metuunt
illud
quod Dominus de
generatio incredula et
Videte, ne quis vos reducat, per philosophiam et inanem fallaciam, secundum traditiones hominum, secundum elementa
mundi,
et
Et
alibi
Quomodo
conver-
Psalnaista quippe
;
dicit:
Filii
graves corde
Et iterum : Beatus
et
Valete
in
Domino.
p. 110,
in
viii.
CHAP.
V.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
333
aside
many
from
the
way of truth,
pretensions.
Whence
the
heart
is
not
so
easily
ye may
hasten
insomuch that
(alas,
most unhappy men!}, being deceived by diabolical error, and forsaking your holy mother the Church
or the Priests through whom ye ought to come to eternal salvation, you even distinguish those indivi
duals by the
been seen
or heard or known,
(ivhich
God
let
him
learn,
altogether
to
be condemned,
and that he
to eat
to
drink wine or
any
may
be adjudged to
make
satisfaction
and
to exhibit the
true humility of
penitence.
to
But, if any one, inflated by pride, shall attempt act against this our behest, let him know : that
is to
he
be driven
from
an
alien
from
the holy
communion
abominated by all the faithful, until he shall have submitted to the correction of the Holy Church,
to be
who
334
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
avert
/)
such an abomination
to
God*.
II.
and,
* Atto, Christi misericordia, humilis Episcopus, cuncto pomatris Vercellensis Ecclesiae. pulo nostrae dicecesis sanctae Noveritis igitur, quia, et per ipsum Christum Dominum atque
sanctos Apostolos seu Prophetas sive sanctos reliquos Doctores, audivimus, plurimos ventures esse pseudo-prophetas, qui, quod
gravissimum
est,
crediderint.
Unde
sini-
non tarn
plicia
facile justura
atque
bruta
;
omnino
festinetis
eosque,
lieu
;
diabolico
errore
relinquentes sanctam matretn decepti, prophetas nominetis vestram Ecclesiam seu Sacerdotes per quos ad aeternarn pervenire debetis salutera.
Quocirca, his
forte,
vestrum
sciat se
quod omnimodis damnandum, et non habeat licentiam manducandi quid coctum nisi panera nee bibendi vinura, quousque
absit,
scilicet
sciat se
Si quis autem, superbia inflatus, contra hoc agere tentaverit, ab Ecclesiae liminibus pellendum et a sancta commu-
nione extraneum
omnibusque
susceperit
fidelibus
abominandum, donee
tarn
ipse,
Sanctae
Ecclesiae
correptionem,
quara
CHAP. V.]
in
AND ALBIGENSES.
335
each of them, the Bishop is obviously speaking of one and the same body of individuals, whatever precise individuals may be intended.
omnes qui
rint.
ipsi
Sacerdotum vero,
siquis
quod Dens
avertat, tali
abominations pollutus fuerit imllum divinum audeat usurpare mysterium, donee dignam Deo, nostro judicio, persolvat satisfactionem. Atton. Vercell. Epist. iii. in Dacher. Spicil. vol.
viii.
p. Ill, 112.
The next
indicates
:
Epistle,
which
it is
somewhat
after the
into a festival,
as a fast.
They
refused, I suppose, to
obligation of its observance, because their opponents enjoined such observance as divinely binding upon the conscience.
it
is
worthy
of note, that Atto adopts the primitive interpretation of the Rock upon which Christ promises to build his Church. He
rightly
pronounces
institutionis
it
to
be the
Peter.
Cujus
Filius
exordium
in beatissimi
Dei
vivi.
:
cum ait ad Dominum Tu es Christus Pro qua etiam remuneratione audire inter
es et portce
caetera meruit
tioriem Christi,
et
in
45.
We have already
the
very same.
Certainly
336
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
The
teristics
They
hood
:
they despised the divine services of the dominant Church they uttered, what Atto
:
they deceived, by diabolical error, their proselytes: they induced them to forsake their holy mother
the
Church
desert
the
they ought to come to eternal salvation: and, from the nature of their
Priests,
through
whom
ministrations, they
people, by Instructors
the
;
name
them
phets,
to
who
is
be those numerous predicted false pro should come and study to turn aside
the
many from
Such
bours
:
way
s
of truth.
Atto
and,
when
difficult to specify
Vallenses be admitted
tation to the
still
then
we have
full attes
even within the pale of the Romish Church, the ancient inter pretation should have so long struggled with the favourite new
fangled gloss of the Papacy.
CHAP. V.]
lenses, locally
AND ALBIGENSES.
and theologically unchanged,
337
in the
middle of the tenth century. It will be said, that I have pretermitted one, and that not the least extraordinary, of the cha
racteristics
to
the
individuals in question
being sorcerers
who
magical incantations.
To
this
it
might be
ever
that
falsehood
is
inconsistent
with
itself
and
(agreeably to the axiom) that the very incongruity of the present charge demonstrates it to be nothing
their
more than a malignant calumny fabricated by inveterate and unscrupulous enemies the Romish Priesthood. Mere sorcerers, or mere pretenders to diabolical potency, would never, we
may be
quite sure, have troubled themselves with teaching their silly customers to despise the ser
vices of the ruling Church, or with injecting reli
gious doubts into their minds as to the security of their immortal souls in the hands of the Romish
Priesthood.
are not the arts or habits of repu ted or stimulated wizards and witches and votaries
clearly appertain to persons widely different principles and character.
Such
of Satan.
They
of
But
may
safely advance
beyond
this
suffi
The charge, preferred ciently-obvious argument. against the neighbours of Atto, was that of sor
cery.
charge was actually preferred against his alpine neighbours the Valthis identical
Now
338
lenses.
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
been preferred against the neighbours of Atto, serves only to confirm and establish the position,
that the Vallenses
lytisers
Through all the middle ages, the Vallenses of Piedmont were confidently reported to be an un
clean race of impious magicians. This prevalent notion of their sorcery was often of considerable use to them in their battles with
their enemies.
It
was devoutly
:
believed, that,
through special favour of the devil, they were proof against musquetry and it was even asserted
with an oath, that their Barbes or Clergy, after an action, gathered up the balls in their shirts by
handfuls, without their having received the slight est scratch. The approved mode of shooting-
Satan
s pupils
with
silver bullets
was,
suppose,
either then
to
unknown,
*.
or on trial
be too expensive
In a similar
spirit
of voracious credulity,
year 1488, gravely assured Duke Philip of Burgundy that the children of the terrific Vaudois were invariably born, with
:
hairy throats, with four rows of awfully black teeth in their heads, and (like the cyclopean
See Muston
Hist, des
Vaud.
vol.
i.
p.
515, 516.
CHAP.
V.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
339
Such sagacious individuals were indisputably of the same school as those writers, upon whose credit we have been more than once exhorted (for it were unfair to lay the whole burden of the kindly
exhortation upon the single back of Bossuet) to believe all the Manichean Diaboliads ascribed to
the old Paulicians and the later Albigenses. Yet, in regard to the concernments of the Vaudois with
the Evil One, so firmly persuaded was each mise rable dupe of the Romish Priesthood, that the
Muston
i.
p.
509, 510.
f From Vaulderie, I conclude, and thence ultimately from one of the regular official Vauldois, we must derive Baulder
,
black grimalkin just as Boggard, a northern provincial appellation of a foul fiend, evidently resolves itself
s
:
names of a witch
Bulgard or Bulgarian, a very common designation of the Albigenses whose Manicheism and dealings with Satan are
into
may
add, while on
subject of etymology, that many family names in this country clearly indicate the descent of their possessors from those Valdenses and Albigenses whom persecution served only to scatter all over Europe. Such, for instance, are Pickard,
Cotterel,
rally
derived seve
from Picardi, Cotterelli, Valdenses, Humiliati, Perfecti, and Boni Homines. In forming the last name, Boni Homines
passed into Bonomii.
citations.
This
is
est,
illis
Bonis
Z 2
340
Their
THE VALLENSES
faith rested
[BOOK
III.
upon the credible report of a shuddering Inquisitor and who shall doubt an
:
Inquisitor s veracity,
obstinate Heretic
that nought
when he
may be
down in When
malice.
they wish to go to the said Vaulderie, they
has given them. They then rub it with a very small rod of wood: and, with palms in their hands, they Thus prepared place the rod between their legs.
In that place,
they find tables ready set out, charged with wine and victuals : and a devil gives them the meeting in
,
an ape, or
tolorum
mundo de
?
confessiones audire
vol. xiii. p. 342.
Modus
An in Interrogavit Episcopus, quid vellet fieri de seipso ? coenobio Galliaci, an Candelii, an in ecclesia Albiensi, eligeret
sepeliri
?
super
his
Qui respondit Non oportet Episcopum curam habere cum ipse deliberasset, quid esset facturus. Episcopus
:
Ille
tandem respondit,
se velle
ad Bonomios deportari.
Pontifice vero in contrarium asserente, quod super hoc licentiam non haberet ille inquit Non ad hoc laboretis, quoniam,
:
si
31.
CHAP.
V.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
:
341
and homage and there they commit crimes so fetid and enormous, as well against
they offer oblation
against nature, that the said Inquisitor declared that he did not dare to name them *.
as
God
The
be
but, as to the poor victims of popish anticipated intolerance themselves, when they were brought
out to be burned, they declared, that they had never had any thing to do with Vaulderie, and
that they did not even know what idea was an nexed to the term. Nevertheless, the districts in
France, through which these reputed sorcerers were scattered, acquired so evil an odour, that
merchants scarcely dared to visit them, lest they should be branded with the hateful name of
Vauldois
III.
-\.
the people of Vercelli and its dio cese, the great success of the Vallensic Mission aries may be readily gathered from the very
Among
lamentations of Atto
and
his
of
Clergy adopting their theological sentiments, shews not obscurely, that many of the Priesthood were already in that unsatisfactory predicament.
* Memoires de Jacques Du-Clercq, in suppl. vol. ix. de la Collection des memoires relatifs a
I
his
histoire
Muston.
Hist, des
Vaud.
vol.
i.
p. 507, 508.
Du-Clercq was born in the year 1424. f Memoires de Jacques Du-Clercq, Vaud. vol. i. p. 509.
in
Muston
Hist, des
342
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
These were, I suppose, the most exemplary, the most religiously disposed, and the best informed,
of the Order
highly probable, that the notorious profligacy and the gross ignorance of their brethren may have led them to seek pure
:
and
it is
faith
Deacons and Clerks of every descrip tion, from resorting to those whom he stigmatises under the aspect of sorcerers and magicians
Priests and
:
while, on the other hand, he addresses two admo nitory Epistles to his Clergy on the fruitful sub
ject of their scandalous concubinage, which led them rapaciously to rob the Church in order to
acknowledged harlots
*.
aut certe augures, vel sortileges, vel eos qui profitentur artem magicam, aut aliquos eorum sirailia exercentes, consuluisse
fuerit
ab honore dignitatis suae depositus, deprehensus nasterium ingressus, poenam accipiat; ibique, perpetuae
:
mo-
pceni:
tentiae
deditus, scelus
admissum
sacrilegii
solvat.
Item
si
hanc cognitionem, ecclesiasticara conteinnens doctrinam, ad prophetas aut angelos vel aliquos sanctorum defunctorum quos aquivocos falso vocant abierit, eorumque pravis
quis, post
doctrinis inhaeserit,
c.
anathema
sit.
48.
in
viii.
CHAP.
V.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
343
The reprehensions
praiseworthy
:
of the Bishop are just and but what must have been the state
126132.
in his
ix., x. in Dacher. Spicil. vol. I subjoin a brief extract, that the Bishop
viii.
may
speak
in
own proper
person.
Praeterea,
tantum
siinul in
domo secum
degere, permittant.
quid postmodum subtrahere valent, ipsis non desinunt erogare. Et unde meretrices ornantur, Ecclesiae vastantur, pauperes tribulantur.
:
Hac
domos irrum-
ipsis quos punt genuerant spuriis, quasi sibi commissos, extrahere simulantes.
iion
cum
Id trepidant miseri,
viriliter vitia
et
et,
qui
et,
qui
omnium
declamare debuerant, de suis apud judicem quaeSic sacrae aedes publicantur, et a vulgo derirunt licentiam.
dentur
:
et
Solent etiam,
tali
Quoties pro scelere, vicinorum vicinarumque odium incurrere. mulieres vel earum spurii cum aliquibus namque hujuscemodi
litigant,
ipsi,
nunt
injurias et contumelias,
quas possunt,
inferre, et deteriora,
minantur.
Unde non
modicum
Epist. ix. in Dacher. Spicil. vol. viii. p. 127, 128. Let not the incautious reader imagine, that the Publicans,
mentioned
Paulicians
in this
whom
justly observes, they were either the public judges themselves or else their Serjeants. Publicani hie, aut judices publici, aut
certe
eorum
344
[BOOK
III.
of the Priesthood to require them ? Atto admits that, through the vices of the Clerical Order, the
:
of the Lord was blasphemed for these depraved men were actually not ashamed to play the part of judicial bullies on behalf of their strumpets and
bastards
*.
lenses taught his flock to doubt, whether such pastors were the surest guides to eternal salvation
!
CHAPTER
VI.
THE ANTIQUITY OF THE VALLENSES SHEWN FROM THE LANGUAGE OF PETER DAMIAN.
As
the
Romish Clergy,
:
if
we may
believe their
Bishop Atto of Vercelli, rejoiced in concubinage and a spurious progeny so the Clergy of the Valdenses claimed and exercised their undoubted
Christian right to enter into the holy estate of
matrimony. In the days of Jerome, as we have seen, the Bishops of the Cottian Alps even went so far as
to refuse ordination save to already married candi
and, in the middle of the eleventh century, or about a hundred years later than the time of Atto
dates
:
and
his
exemplary Priesthood, we
densic Clergy, in despite both of roman anger and of increasing superstition, still maintaining
their liberty,
and
still
of their forefathers*.
*
With
respect to the
speaking
learn
commencement of
we may perhaps
adoption.
346
1.
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
this
III.
The account
of
them under
aspect
is
upon the occasion to the Princess Adelaide appears, as Duchess of and as Marchioness of the Cottian Alps. Savoy
who
In the Epistle addressed to this great Lady by the blessed Peter Damian, Adelaide, under the
saint, is the
Deborah of the
day, while the less active Metropolitan of Turin performs the inferior part of the lagging Barak. The figurative Sisera, destined to be slain by the
joint efforts of the united avengers,
is
Sacerdotal
In the reign of Theodosius and toward the close of the fourth unhappy circumstances occurred, which, it
to
fessionals of a
be feared, too often disgrace and pollute the private con young and unmarried Priesthood. The affair
:
happened at Constantinople and the sacerdotal culprit, who had thus been guilty of a profligate abuse of his office, was
forthwith degraded.
satisfied
it
Nec:
was not a
little
perplexed what to do
Eudemon
wisely advised,
what
in
the
Greek
was abolished
Church was wisely adopted. Private confession to a Priest and each person was freely admitted to the holy
:
communion, according as, in the presence of God, he judged himself to be in a fit state of preparation. Socrat. Hist. Eccles.
lib. v. c.
19.
Sozomen.
Hist. Eccles.
lib. vii. c.
16.
But, though abolished in the Greek Church, the mischievous and soul-tainting practice was still retained in the western
in the
Church of Rome.
Sozo-
CHAP.
VI.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
:
347
Matrimony
unrelenting tyranny than the literal Sisera ever But afflicted the unhappy children of Israel.
relief is at
hand.
head,
come
to the rescue
episcopal warrior deals with the husbands ; let the ducal prophetess shew no mercy to the wives.
I ?
Wives,
16.
it
trow, they
men.
Hist. Eccles.
lib.
vii.
c.
directions
to the confessors
it still,
which
all
particularise,
as
we
know,
entire
bane
ful luxuriancy.
Now,
recently
with such
occurred at
case
Constantinople,
how would
the
pious
Bishops and People of the primitive Vallenses be likely to act, in order to prevent the inroads of profligacy and the occurrence
of disgraceful scandals
?
Why,
tion,
just as
Jerome
tells us,
Whether
the
lapse at Constantinople actually produced the vallensic regula I shall not pretend to determine.
it
But,
in
point of fact,
we
find
subsisting
among
s
unmarried Clergy in the neighbouring diocese of Vercelli, about the middle of the tenth century,
misconduct of Atto
would not
to
their
own Bishop
Priesthood would have been, to young women, a body of most edifying confessors.
348
THE VALLENSES
:
[BOOK
III.
but females are not, as holy Peter acutely argues of a most ancient, though non-descript, character.
With Mary, God acknowledges virgins ; with Anna, widoivs ; with Susanna, wives ; but who, I pray, Since God owns them not, let them in are these ?
continently be turned out of the temple*.
Here
of Sisera s enormity writer s happy which immediately follows the dismissal of the unrecognised females from church, albeit address* Sunt nonnulli rectores Ecclesiarum, qui
quodammodo
tune
coruscare incipiunt, cum ad corrigenda mala subjectorum quasi sed protinus extinguuntur ; quia, zelo se ultionis accendunt
:
vel
Unde
et ille
si
Si veneris mecum, vadam ; figuram gerens, aiebat ad Deboram nolueris venire, non peryam. Quapropter, sicut vir ille cum
se fulcientes auxisuis
:
agmini-
bus et nongentis
ita et vos,
luxuriae
est,
ducem, arma
Quatenus
et
corripite;
eumque
in
filios
Israel,
hoc
in
in
adminis-
trationis tuae
cb erceant:
das.
vigorem
Tres quippe tantummodo feminas Deus novit. Quae his Novit enim virgines plures sunt, in ejus notitiam non venerunt.
viduas,
cum Maria;
legali
cum Anna;
conjuges,
cum Susanna.
qui matrimonia nequeunt contrahere, non conjuges, sed concubinas potius sive jure
:
prostibula, congrue possumus appellare ideoque, quia a Deo B. non merentur agnosci, de templo Dei merentur excludi.
CHAP.
VI.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
349
ed
more honoured
Petri.
Damian. Oper.
lib.
vii.
epist.
16 ad Adelaidem Du-
cissam, et Marchionissam
Alpium
in
Cottiarura. p. 339.
Church of Milan.
and branded him
lib.
6, 9,
10, in
M Crie
literatures peritus,
Hence we
shall not
be
Of
this influence,
Pope, the
in
histo
Two
old
women
other
respects also specially ill conditioned subjects, had caught an unlucky buffoon, and had metamorphosed him into an ass. In the this unseemly disguise, they sold him to a rich citizen
:
animal being warranted to possess most extraordinary powers of entertainment, and thence being admirably qualified to set
the table on a roar and to promote the digestion of a liberal
dinner.
The apparent
ass
:
performed his part to the entire satis and his fame spread far and wide,
leaping into a pool of water, he suddenly reco vered his pristine human figure. Pope Leo heard the story from the late master of the ass
350
lory
[BOOK
III.
his Suffragan
Bishops on
have
much
inclination for
Alps or as Lady- Warden of the Vallensic Bound Peter Damian to ary-District, is exhorted by
coerce and to punish them.
and the master himself had
it from a trusty and wondering ser confirmed also by the actual confession of the two mis vant, His holiness, however, notwithstanding chievous old women.
such undeniable evidence to the fact, was somewhat sceptical but his literary friend, Peter Damian, by a clever inductive
:
argument from the true feats of Simon Magus as performed at Rome, convinced him that the tale was no less correct than
strange.
Dubitantem
peritus.
Papam
mirum,
si haec fieri possunt productoque exde Simone Mago, qui Faustinianum in Simonis figura emplo videri et a filiis horreri fecit, instructiorem de caetero in talibus
Non
reddidit.
lib.
ii.
c. 15.
The case of the Golden Ass of Apuleius, whence indeed the have afforded a figment has evidently been plagiarised, would but Peter, I suppose, deemed it not so more exact parallel
:
solid a basis
whereupon
to construct an argument.
CHAPTER
VII.
THE ANTIQUITY OF THE VALLENSES SHEWN FROM THE LANGUAGE OF RODOLPH OF ST. TRUDON.
next step must be over some seventy or and then we shall once more hear eighty years
:
OUR
of the
same
same moun
tainous region.
Trudon, was engaged in writing his Chronicle, from the year 1108 to the year 1136*.
Rodolph, Abbot of
St.
mem
bers of his Religious Fraternity were at Rome on the spiritual business of the Convent. When, at
length,
he
heard
that the
lib. ix. in
p. 455.
Who
quary sufficient to inform my into Tron : and he must, I conclude, have been somewhat of a
favourite in
Romish Scotland,
since
352
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
This circumstance
:
and,
difficul
he and
his
Basle.
From
companions
at
monks, rode on
horseback through
Burgundy
ping
From this
point, striking
over the country, suppose, he would reach his Monastery by a different course from that which
gundy*.
*
TJbi (scil.
et,
de
apostolico et
de his qui circa eum erant, viderent et intelligerent dicta sibi domi credere non vellent in diversas animi quae ferebantur Rodulfus Abbas, qui sibi bene plurimum partes
;
conscius erat pro quo terram egressus fuerat. Curaque vigilans nocte aliquando jaceret, etdie in ecclesiis solus Romae resideret,
diligent! cura et sollicito retractabat animo, quae peregrinationis
de ea revelata
religiosis viris
quid
in
eum hoc non parum ad ea quae cogitaverat, si essent explenda, cuncta ei jam surrepta fuerant necessaria. Praeterea terram, ad quam ulterius dispoab
eis.
Sollicitabat enim
eorum qui
viris,
nisi
sibi fuerant
libris
quod domi didicerat ex ecclesiastica disciplina et communibus tarn nobis quam illis. Super hoc accreverat
CHAP. VII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
%
:
353
is
Such
is
the narrative
it
and
it
not difficult to
is
collect from
described as
being polluted by an inveterate heresy concerning the body and blood of the Lord.
pursued by Rodolph and his company, lay through Now the course from Rome to Bur Burgundy.
gundy would
lie
and along
But, to avoid the polluted country, the holy Abbot kept to the east and thus, by a route which must
:
have carried him near Milan and through Switzer To understand the land, he reached Basle.
justice of these remarks, nothing
necessary than the simple consultation of a map. I. Now the remarks in question bring out two
negative;
more
is
the
At the time
Chronicle,
of Italy,
when
Rodolph
(as
composed
his
he
calls it)
concern-
ei
passio
appellate
jamdudum in clune, quain physici solent ciaticam ea, cum gressura ei perstringeret, equitare etiara sine
Quidmoror? Per multas animi Moncivitas Basilea.
:
tandem
Alex
ander inde remeavit eques per Burgundiam Rodulfus naufraChron. Abbat. S. Trudon. goso navigio usque prope Coloniam.
lib. xii. in
vii. p.
493, 494.
354
ing the
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
maintained: the
pied by the Vallenses ;_ and the region of Lombardy, irregularly colonised by the Publicans or Paulicians
or Cathari or (as they
in
France) Albigenses. Hence, on the first perusal of the passage in the Chronicle, we might doubt, as
to which of these
two provinces was the polluted intended by Rodolph. country Both the
narrative,
however, and the march, of the weary pilgrim, distinctly shew, that he could not have meant Lombardy for, in order to
:
avoid the polluted country, Lombardy itself was, in truth, the precise region through which he
travelled in his
If,
way
to Basle.
sprinkled with Paulicians, could not have been the land described by Rodolph as the polluted
country
it
polluted country in question, which the Abbot avoided, was the Alpine District inhabited by the
Vallenses.
II.
to
which we are
brought by the very necessity of the language employed in the Chronicle and, with them, will
:
exactly agree the respective conditions of the two countries, one or the other of which must be the
country intended by Rodolph. The Abbot speaks, not merely of certain indivi
duals scattered through a country, which in no wise
CHAP. VII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
355
generally symbolised with them in doctrine : but he speaks, of a whole country, that is to say, of the entire inhabitants of a whole country, as being pol luted to the very core with the alleged heresy.
Accordingly, the large province of Lombardy, including the Milanese, could, with no
propriety,
:
thus polluted for, as we learn from Reinerius, even a century later than the time of Rodolph, the Paulicians had no
itself
more than six Churches throughout the whole of Italy; and the amount of the associated members
in
five
hundred
But the region of the Cottian Alps was alto gether tenanted by the Vallenses so that, with the strictest accuracy, it would be described by
:
recesses,
which
the evil odour of sorcery and witchcraft, he cared not to trust either his person
in
were likewise
or his orthodoxy.
III.
tially,
Thus, both geographically and circumstan both negatively and positively, we are
driven
plant our feet upon the land of the Vallenses. Hence the testimony of Rodolph will run that,
:
xiii. p.
304.
2 A 2
356
III.
Vallenses
still
persevered
in maintaining their inveterate or ancient heresy the body and blood of the Lord.
concerning
CHAPTER
VIII.
Piedmont,
down
to
the
present point,
in their
relates
own County
or at most to the Vallenses occasionally penetrating into their own immediate Italian Neighbourhood.
The circumstance
I
am
their
is remarkable but, so far as no allusion to the Vallenses out of aware, own Country or to the Vallenses out of their
:
own
immediate
Neighbourhood occurs,
until
we
reach the days of Peter the rich Vallensic Mer chant of Lyons, Then, for the first time, through the institution of that peculiar Class of the Leonists
which was denominated The Fraternity of the Poor Men of Lyons, the Vallenses, who had hitherto
against apostolic corruption only in or near their own Alpine Valleys, became mission
testified
aries
to
a wonderfully
great extent*.
*
The
individuals,
who appeared
at
Arras
in
the year
1025 and
358
I.
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
Such being the case, there has a marked and somewhat curious
who
hitherto been
difference
of
of Gandulph, have sometimes been professed to be pupils adduced as affording a specimen of missions, undertaken by the Vallenses of Piedmont, more than a century prior to the time of
But the
sole
is
came from
:
Doubtless they came from that region but this does not prove them to have been Vallenses. They were evidently, I think,
a band of missionaries, not from the Cottian Alps, but from the
ses,
lowlands of Lombardy in other words, they were not Vallen but (as such religionists were afterwards called in France)
:
Albigenses.
I subjoin, in brief, the account of the matter from the Acts of the
it
Synod of Arras and, if the intelligent reader compares with what has already been said respecting the Albigenses or
:
me
in
regard to the
finally,
They
when
matters were fully explained to them, signed a confession drawn up by the Bishop of Arras.
Anno
siam Kamaracensis seu Attrebatensis urbis regente, contigit, ut idem Praesul per aliquot dies statiouem in sede Attrebatensi
facere deberet.
Ubi, cum de
pro opportunitate temporis tractaret, relatum est ei, quosdam ab Italiae finibus viros eo loci advenisse, qui quamdam novas
haereseos
quamdam
justi-
tiam praeferentes, hac sola purificari homines asserebant, nullumque in sancta Ecclesia aliud esse sacramentum, per quod ad
salutem pervenire potuissent.
Quaenam
cultura
:
est,
At
illi
se esse auditores
Gandulphi cujusdam ab
CHAP.
VIII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
359
Though,
in doctrine,
ab eo evangelicis maudatis et apostolicis informatos, nullamque praeter hanc Scripturam se recipere, sed hanc verbo et opere tenere. Veruin ad notitiam Episcopi
Italiae partibus viri, et
dominici corporis et
nullare, legitiraa
sanctis confesso-
ribus
donum
virtutis
apostolos et martyres
neminem debere
venerari
Lex
quam
a magistro accepi-
mus, nee evangelicis decretis nee apostolicis sanctionibus contraire videbitur, si quis earn diligenter velit intueri.
Haec nam-
que hujusmodi
centiis fraenare
nulli
;
est
mundum
in
Dacher.
veil of misrepresentation, it is easy to read here the true doctrines of the Albigenses. learn also from the narrative the additional matter, that they held, important
We
also held by their examiners themselves, the doctrine of Justification through faith in the alone merits of Christ.
The same
1101.
stock
.
classification, I think,
in
the
case of those,
who appeared
in
They were of
Ivodii,
est,
fuerunt eo
altari per sacerdotes benedicitur, in quze corpus Christi et sanguinem veraciter transmutari negabant nee baptismi sacra mentum parvulis ad salvationem pro fi core dieebant; et alia
;
360
bolised
;
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III,
whence, ultimately, without any mutual repulsion and without any serious difficulty, they
coalesced together into one undistinguishable race of antipontificial religionists yet, while the Val:
lenses long remained obscurely quiescent in the deep recesses of their native Valleys, the Albi-
genses reform
were
*.
the
very
Pelasgi
of
evangelical
After these extraordinary individuals had emi grated, under the name of Paulicians, from Asia
into Europe,
we
find
is
Their ecclesiastical establishments, for Reinerius unwilling to decorate those establishments with
the
name
in the twelfth
and
all
teenth century,
Bulgaria, to
the way, from Thrace and Gascony and the Pyrenees f their
:
perplura profitebantur erronea quac memoriae tradere nefas duxi. De his quatuor oblati sunt ei quorum duo Presbyteri reliqui
:
alter,
Laicorum
Histor.
dicebatur, Halmericus.
know not. Certainly, from the universal evidence of antiquity, they were the very pink of
changed
their place of residence, I
ramblers.
Herod. Hist.
lib.
i.
c.
56.
Nee imputas
xiii.
lector,
quod
ita vocant.
Reiner, de hieret.
p. 304.
CHAP. VIII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
361
were
so numerous, that Reinerius estimates forty and one in the diocese of Padua alone, attempting not
to
count those of
*
:
and,
of themselves, Treves,
we
at Orleans, at Arras, at
their
first
and even
(though
there
effort
to
obtain a settlement
was unsuccessful)
in
England. But, until the days of Peter Valdo, the moun taineers of the Cottian Alps seem never to have
moved from
save perad-
venture to mingle, in domestic efforts at proselytism, with the lowlanders of Turin or Vercelli.
Hence
their
in
France, nor
(I
in
Provincia,
quam
theologorum, et plures auditores, qui publice disputabant, et populum ad solennes disputationes convocabant, in foro et in
campis praedicabant et
in
tectis
et
non
impedire
et
computatae
sunt Scholae
haereticorum,
diocesi Pataviensi,
quadraginta et
una
in
Clemmaten, fuerunt
p.
decem Scholae.
Reiner, de haeret.
299.
He
then, in
without determining the number of the Schools themselves. How wonderful must have been the zeal and activity of these
Cathari or Paulicians,
assures us, the
fell
when
in the
number of
their associated
362
believe) in
after the
THE VALLENSES
any country beyond
their
[BOOK
III.
own,
until
the year
vered,
commencement of Peter s ministry about As far as hitherto has been disco 160.
in french or rather in english story,
:
it first,
for Walter Mapes, the appears in the year 1179 facetious Precentor of Lincoln and Archdeacon of
with certain Valdesians, so called from their Primate Valdes of Lyons who, Frenchmen
;
Rome
been
proselyted by that eminent Valdensian, wished, in the simplicity of their heart and the
Alexander
III.,
a licence to
act
as
missionary
to
A new
oldest
now
be given
the judgment of the Inquisitor Reinerius) to promote the cause of pure and undefiled religion and, through God s pro
heretics,
in
:
of
was the
indivi
dual noticed by Mapes, Peter the rich merchant of Lyons himself denominated Valdes from the
;
* Vidimus in Concilio
III.
primate ipsorum Valde dictos, qui fuerat civis Lugduni super Rhodanum. Gualt. Map. de Nugis. Curial. distinct, i. c. 31.
ex
MS.
in Biblioth.
c. viii.
12.
CHAP.
VIII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
363
country and people whence his family originated and where he had lived prior to his settlement,
and himself communicating to his french converts the name which he had received from his own
piedmontese descent and connection.
present, in tracing downward, from the apostolic age, the Vallenses of Piedmont, I am
II.
At
concerned only with the ultimate italian origin of the Valdenses of France for let us not, in defi
:
ance of
evidence, imagine with the interested Bossuet, that the Valdenses or Vallenses or Leonall
ists, in
point of their final theological pedigree, sprang only from Peter of Lyons in the twelfth
native french Valdenses, no doubt, might justly acknowledge him as their local foun der and, under this aspect, Reinerius classes the
century.
The
Lyons (who were also, no less than a much more ancient sect, denominated Leonists] as a race of modern heretics but, a Vaudois
Poor
of
:
Men
himself, he
new
was nothing more than the planter of shoot, the parent stock of which is to be
sought in the Cottian Alps of northern Italy. On this point, the point, I mean, of the italian theological origin of the Valdenses of France, Conrad of Lichtenau, Abbot of Ursperg at the
commencement
two new Religious Orders, that of the Minor Friars and that of the Preaching Friars, were instituted and the object
In the year 1212, he
tells us,
:
364
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
having long since sprung up in Italy, still, when the Abbot wrote, continued to exist. These two sects,
or rather these
sect,
were known by the names of The Humiliated and The Poor Men of Lyons : the former, I sup pose, being the more stationary and domestic
;
Vallenses of Piedmont
while the
latter,
profess
upon carrying the primitive doctrine of the Alpine Valleys to the very ends of the earth, were
evidently no other than the french proselytes of Peter the Valdo, though described as being,
Italian
Eo
tempore,
in
mundo jam
senescente,
exortae
sunt duae
;
videlicet,
Minorum
adhuc
Fratrum
et
:
Pr&dicatorum.
quia,
Quae
forte,
in
approbate
;
perdurant quorum alii Humiliatos, alii Pauperes de Lugduno, se nominabant. Quos Lucius Papa quondam inter haereticos
scribebat, eo
quod
superstitiosa
dogmata
et observationes in eis
In occultis quoque prsedicationibus, quas faciereperirentur. bant plerumque in latibulis Ecclesiae Dei et Sacerdotio derogabatur.
Cae.terum
dominus Papa,
quosdam
vit.
in
loco
Hi
cum
humilitatis
tatis,
tamen, postea attendentes, quod nonnunquam nimire nomen gloriationem importet, et de nomine paupermulti earn frustra sustineant, apud Deum vanius inde Minores Fratres quam Minores
in
locum Humiliatorum
CHAP.
VIII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
365
With
not
at
we
are
present
quite
immediately
is
concerned.
Our
object just
creduntur.
now
successisse
A. D. 1212.
Conrad. Abbat.
in
c. v. in Bibl.
p.
291.
the
In
character,
the
Abbot,
like
Pope
year 1184, appears to have somewhat confounded the Humiliated with the Poor Men pro For he describes the Minor Friars, as being perly so called.
specially opposed to the
tively
whom we
:
posi
know
to
while he
have thrust
Humiliated; who, though (as he speaks) they may sometimes their sickle into another man s harvest, do not seem,
Valdo,
to
have been
distin
guished by the characteristic of extensively bearing the Gospel beyond the limits of their native Valleys. The important part
of his testimony, however,
is this.
He
explicitly tells us
sects, into
that,
which the
OLIM
Valdenses were divided, sprang up, at a remote period, in Italy. duae sectae IN ITALIA exortae. This statement at once
my own
;
The
Poor Men of Lyons, through the active proselytism of Peter Valdo, sprang up in France but then Peter himself was one
of the Humiliated of Italy
so that the ultimate theological of each branch alike was Italian, not French. pedigree Such an account of the matter, thus happily preserved by
:
when,
in
one
and
to
yet,
Men
them
have had
founder an indivi
who
It will also
account
recorded by him
that
366
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
VIII.
disciples of Peter the Valdo with the Italian Valdenses ; that is to say, the modern Leonists (as
Reinerius speaks) with the ancient Leonists and the testimony of the Abbot of Ursperg fully ac
:
Men
of
and
disciples
we
all
know. Yet Conrad of Lichtenau, we see, distinctly that these Poor Men or Leonists or Valtells us denses, when viewed as a sect and when consi:
the
or the
to journey into
Lombardy, and
:
Item peregrinantur
Episcopos suos.
p. 301.
et ita,
Lombardiam
intrantes, visitant
Reiner, de haeret.
c. v. in Bibl.
Patr. vol.
xiii.
The
distinction, in short,
is
Valdenses,
specifically
est
drawn by himself
haeresi
Summa.
Pauperum de
Nunc dicendum
Lugduno.
de
Leonistarum, seu
in
;
Dividitur
autem
haeresis
Lombardi
et isti
descenderunt ab
illis.
Summ.
col.
de
1775.
By
the
Lombard
the Valdenses of only mean, as our modern geography speaks, Piedmont. He uses, I apprehend, the term Lombard, in its
The Kingdom of ancient and larger and proper sense. extended, from the Adriatic Sea, to the Cottian bardy
Lom
Alps
:
thus including both Turin and the still more westerly country of the Vallenses. See Gibbon s Hist, of Decline, chap. xlv.
vol.
viii.
p. 147, 148.
CHAP.
VIII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
367
theological
dered
origin,
in
becoming cele brated in France under the auspices and tutelage of the piedmontese merchant Peter.
willing to hope, the Vallenses, in their present settlements through the valleys of the Cottian Alps, have been clearly traced, from
III.
Thus,
am
the very times of the Primitive Church, down to an age when their existence can no longer be
doubtful.
CHAPTER
IX.
THE THEOLOGY OF THE VALLENSES DURING THE PERIOD OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY.
turn to the vitally important point of the Theology of the Vallenses.
I
NOW
In order, then, that we may have a full and distinct view of their Doctrinal System, it will be
several proper to exhibit it, as maintained at three the the period of the twelfth century periods
:
and the period period of the thirteenth century either at or immediately after the Reformation.
;
For,
if
we
the
same
as the Doctrinal
System
.
the Reformation,
we may
agree
ment
which pre Respecting the yet earlier period ceded all the three periods thus marked out a
;
which may be viewed, as times of Jerome on the one hand and the times a of Rodolph of St. Trudon on the other hand
period,
;
taking in the
commence period, therefore, extending from the to the earlier part ment of the fifth century down
369
century respecting this earlier be period, nothing more needs here to be said cause every requisite statement has, in truth,
:
twelfth
been anticipated. During this lengthened term, there can be no reasonable doubt, that the opi nions of Vigilantius and the opinions of Claude,
as they stood at the beginning of the fifth century and at the beginning of the ninth century, were,
dis
System of the Vallenses during the evolution of the period comprehended within the twelfth
century. To the very beginning of this age, or rather indeed to the last year of the preceding age, cer tainly one of the Valdensic Documents, which
us,
is
to
be referred
and,
them belongs
is
is
adduced,
it
may be
make
from Piedmont to England, several manuscripts, which purported to be Works of the ancient Vau_
dois of the Cottian Alps.
370
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
be specially noticed
Con
fession of Faith ; A Catechism ; A Treatise upon Antichrist ; and A Poem denominated the Noble
Lesson.
these four Compositions, two only are given in the Work of Perrin, published in the year 1618
:
Of
With
strikes
its
respect
to
its
me, from
and from
dence, that
one parcel
to the envelope of
had
1120: a
be a
fable,
I year. any intentional imposition on the part of him who but the action must, I think, be affixed the date
:
could not have belonged to that precise do not suppose, indeed, that there was
* Morland chap.
iv. p.
vii.
3037.
142
chap. v. p.
chap.
p.
177.
7293.
141.
178,
253333.
CHAP. IX.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
371
On
fined
the Catechism,
do not venture
:
to give
an
re
but, as
it is
more
and more speculative than the Catechism Church of England, I doubt its being the
;
production of a simple people at a remote age and, therefore, I shall not cite it in evidence to
the doctrines of the
Vallenses
in
the
twelfth
century f.
From
the Treatise on
Antichrist, provided
tise itself
we keep
strictly to the
Trea
its palpably spurious ad be viewed as probably genuine J. juncts, may Of the authenticity of the Noble Lesson, the
and dismiss
production of a confessedly there can, I think with the learned simple people, Raynouard, be no reasonable doubt entertained
beautifully
simple
* Let this Confession of Faith, as given by Morland, chap. iv. 30 34, be compared with the simple Creed or Symbol of p.
the Albigenses, as given
to the
as assigned
its
:
Symbol
upon our
belief.
ii.
chap. 9.
Hist, of
f
the
J
157178.
Morland
Hist. chap.
vii.
p.
142160.
Hist. chap.
vi. p.
99120.
2
372
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
Taking such a view of the four documents, I have no concern save with the two last that is to say, the Treatise on Antichrist and the Noble
:
Lesson.
I.
The
Treatise on Antichrist
was
tied
up
in
the same parcel with the Confession : and, as I have just observed, the whole packet was labelled
with the date of the year 1 120 *. 1. Now such a mode of affixing a single specific date to a whole parcel of severally undated papers
plainly incapable of giving the least authority Had the collecter of the docu to the date itself.
is
ments, after a careful examination, affixed to the parcel the general, though indefinite, date of the
some attention might have been But the single and definite date of the paid to it. year 1120, affixed conjointly to a mass of many papers, cannot in itself be viewed as carrying any weight or authoritativeness. Hence, if the Trea
twelfth century
:
date within
itself,
nal testimony,
may be
found to afford.
this
Adopting
mode
of
trial,
then,
we must im
articles
:
supplementary
mean
*
chap.
those,
which
treat of
Perrin.
vii.
Hist.
p.
253,
254.
note.
p. 142.
CHAP.
IX.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
373
In Invocation of the, Saints and the Sacraments. these supplementary articles, a reference is made
to
have been a compilation of the thirteenth century, under the name of the
is
what
known
to
Milleloquium of
St.
Austin.
Therefore, as Bossuet
off,
now remains
within
alone
can safely be ascribed to any particular age, the only ground of such ascription must be the internal evidence afforded by the
itself, if it
peculiarities of its
its
own
own
allusions.
Now
a very strong presumption, that the Treatise was written in the course of the twelfth age and, from its leading dogma that the Roman Church is
:
much
incline to
deem
it
the production of Peter the Valdo, and thence to place it shortly after the year 1160 which wit
livr. xi.
127.
We
of the
may compare the language of the Treatise, with that Poor Men of Lyons, and consequently with that of their
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
ment
full age of a perfect man : while yet it speaks, both of the mystical Babylon being divided, and likewise of many well-disposed persons devoting
themselves
to the
which,
it is
preaching of the Gospel, through hoped, that the Lord will consume that
spirit
of his mouth, notwith which had been set on foot standing the persecution against the members of Christ*.
Babylonia, o quarto, bestia, o meretrix, o home de pecca Jilli de La Sancta Gleisa se sia et es tengua per Synagoga : perdition. et la Synagoga de li malignant es predice per maire ben cresent
en la ley.
Treat, on Antich. in Perrin. p. 255, 264, 265.
non
sit
et
quod
ipsi sint
sit
Ecclesia Jesu
in
Christi;
et
quod Romana
Ecclesia
in
meretrix
xiii.
li
Apocalypsi. p. 300.
Reiner, de haeret. c. v.
Ma
creissent en
ses
hypocrit, et
de
li
sojet del
Car la soa potesta et authorita es amerma, e que lo Seignor Jesus occi aquest felon per lo sperit de la soa bocca, en moti home de bona volunta, e tramet potesta contraria a si et a li seo
amador,
et
decipa
li
CHAP.
IX.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
375
disconnected
it
perhaps
will not be
cita
licia.
La octava obra de
Antichrist
li
es,
que
et eyra et persec ct
An objection has, I the Treatise respecting Antichrist, on the that, When ground the inspired books are there cited or referred to, the chapters are specified ; though the division of the Bible into chapters did not
:
Now,
even
if
it
my own views
are concerned,
am myself inclined to place it. But, in truth, even upon the very face of it, never was there an imaginary For let us take a case in difficulty more childishly started.
point.
is
Claude
to
Commentary on
Galatians
known
Now
that
Commentary
six chapters.
objection,
the
was
the
work
either of a
modern
:
Patrum
and I suppose I need scarcely say, that the same remark equally applicable to the Valdensic Treatise on Antichrist.
After
all,
is
though I deem
was
incorrect.
376
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III
all
easy to discover any period, to which they may be referred, save the latter part of the twelfth
century. The notorious
by the name of Hildebrand, who had aimed at universal empire both in Church and in State,
and who had raised the Papacy to a degree of power as yet unheard of, sat in the pontifical
chair from the year 1073 to the year 1086. Yet, though, in his person, Antichrist (as the
Vallenses deemed the Pope) might well be said to have attained the full age of a perfect man
:
the eleventh century, was so divided against itself, that, between the year 1010 and the year 1086, there were no fewer than five papal
Rome,
in
schisms
and
all
down
to the years
by
of the
Church and the Empire. Still those schisms and quarrels prevented not
Martyrs were burned at Orleans, in the year 1017 were hanged in Germany, in the
secution.
;
of
order
is
of Durham, which was written by his some time between the years 1153 and 1194, and which
the Library of the Chapter,
is
chapters, though
chapters.
not
perfectly
coincident with
our
present
For a knowledge of
this fact I
am
indebted to
my
CHAP.
IX.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
;
377
year 1052 and were executed at Treves, shortly after the year 1101 while, in the year 1126, after a laborious ministration of near twenty years,
:
St.
confinement, or (as
During
all
this
time,
the
preaching of the
Gospel by well-disposed persons as the Treatise and, in the year expresses it, was going on
:
1160, by the spiritual conversion of Peter the Valdo and by his institution of those active mis
sionaries the Poor
Men
was given to that work, through which it was hoped that the Lord would speedily consume the Man of Sin by the breath of his mouth. Such are the facts, respecting which a writer
in the latter
half of the twelfth century might truly say, that they had either already occurred or were still in a course of actual occurrence.
be correct in referring the incidental allusions in the Treatise to this remarkable com
If,
then,
bination
of circumstances,
:
and that
probable author was no other than that devout merchant, whom Reinerius disparagingly owns to have been in some small measure learned, and
378
THE VALLENSES
zeal in
[BOOK
III.
whose
in
communicating the
New
Testament
the vulgar tongue would be very likely to produce such a Work as the Treatise upon Anti
christ*.
On
this supposition,
it
appearance of the Work among the Vallenses of Piedmont. Either the intercourse of
for the
Peter the Valdo with his compatriots of Italy would readily and quickly secure its reception or the emigration of persecuted among them
:
whether Albigenses or Vallenses or a mixture of both, from France into the Valleys of the Alps, which occurred in the year 1165, may
believers,
first
introduced
events,
it
into
is
the
country
-f.
At
all
there
small
Treatise
Each person
feel
judge of
dence, as he pleases
I
now
myself
at
produce some
Work,
sentiments of the Vallenses during the twelfth Of course, agreeably to its title, the century.
Treatise, with a reference to the specially discusses the
*
Church
of
Rome,
:
character of Antichrist
Cum
autem
Novi Testament!
in Bibl.
Reiner, de haeret. c. v.
300.
t Morland
Hist, of
iii.
p. 12.
CHAP. IX.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
379
was
Antichrist
of such a system is with all his ministers, great and small : and, inasmuch as they follow the law of an evil and blinded heart, such a Congregation, taken
together,
ANTICHRIST or BABYLON, or THE FOURTH BEAST, Or THE HARLOT, Or THE MAN OF SIN WHO IS THE SON OF PERDITION.
is
called
His
Jirst
work
to
is
properly due
God
to his
doings
to the
poor crea
man, for instance, male or female saints departed this life ; and to their images, or carcases, or relics.
of
God
God
alone*.
From this passage it appears, that the idolatrous worship of the Eucharist had been fully established when the Treatise
was
written, or, as I suppose, in the twelfth century.
The
doctrine of the preceding century exhibits a curious instance of the variation of the Roman Church in regard to the effect pro
in
Norman
of his contemporary
own
full
380
THE VALLENSES
is
:
[BOOK
III.
that he robs
and deprives
suffi
and regeneration
the Saviour
One
little
jew
boy, beheld, upon the altar, a child, torn limb from limb, and
thus severally divided to the people.
innocently told the story to his parents
:
who,
burning pile. Here he lay unhurt for several hours he was drawn out by the Christians. When The asked, how he escaped the effects of the fire, he said
him upon
until, at length,
beautiful
woman, whom
and whose
right
my
hand
and smoke.
sane credimus, post benedictionem ecclesiasticam, ilia adducti, mysteria esse verum corpus et sanguinem Salvatoris
:
Nos
Quale
terum Plegildum
et,
visibiliter
in
:
speciem pueri
in altari contrectasse,
astico
more, sumpsisse
et dicere speciosa certe Pax nebulonis, ut cui oris prgebuerat basium, dentium inferrat exi-
gium.
ara
qui,
in
ecclesiam
cum
in
puerum
membratim
populo dividi
id
cum
inno-
centia puerili parentibus pro vero assereret, in rogum detrusum, ubi occluso ostio aestuabat incendium, multis post horis, sine
CHAP. IX.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
381
and remission of sins and sanctification and confir mation and spiritual nourishment ; and imputes and
attributes them, to his
own
authority, or to a
form
;
quomodo
pond it
teram
Ilia
pulchra fcemina,
quam
vidi
sedere in cathedra,
ad dexsuo sub-
flammeas minus
et
movens.
De
it is
c.
27.
Now
by William with
implicit credulity and evidently with full approbation, could never have been constructed save on the basis of the recognised
orthodox theology of the eleventh century. Therefore the orthodox theology of the eleventh century must have been that, In each celebration of the Eucharist, the
:
entire coherent
body of
ONE
mass of bread was changed into the UNDIVIDED Christ: and that Such body, when distributed to
the communicants,
tions or
into
numerous por
communicant
leg or
WHOLE
PART only of a
might happen.
member according as
it
Yet, strange to say, what, in the eleventh century, was so preeminently orthodox as to be confirmed by the testimony of a
miracle, had become, in the sixteenth century, such a damnable heresy, that the infallible Fathers of the Tridentine Council
it
and
If any
one, say
deny, that, in the venerable sacrament of the Eucharist, the WHOLE Christ is contained under each species, and, when a
SEPARATION
let
Si quis negaverit,
in
unaquaque
specie, et
382
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
of words, or to his own performances, or to the saints and their intercession, or to the fire of Pur
gatory.
Thus
separatione facta, totum Christum contineri Concil. Trident, sess. xiii. c. 8. can. III.
anathema
sit.
Here
is
altogether irreconcileable
miracle attested
by
the
little
jew boy.
:
The
Christ
substantially contained,
when
;
a separation
made,
so that every communi under every particle of each species cant receives the whole Christ full and complete in all his
members.
Whereas the purport of the miracle, attested by the little jew boy, was that the whole Christ is NOT contained under for every particle of each species when a separation is made
: ;
the
altar,
this
divided state,
man by man,
But,
in the
we
learn from
sufficient
be good and
Transubstantiation
and,
in
was held
Roman
is
Church.
which DENIES
com
MAINTAINS
and the orthodoxy of the sixteenth century, which that the whole Christ is substantially received by
are
every communicant;
two
hence, the miracle which establishes the former, and the deci-
CHAP.
IX.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
to the things
383
already mentioned:
may
through Christ, hands ; and not through a living faith in God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, hut through the
sion which establishes the latter, stand so directly opposed to each other, that the decision even pronounces all those to be accursed who adopt the system established by the miracle.
not seek the things of Christ nor hut only the works of their own
We
it,
for the
itself
the
following
awkward
Church
in
dilemma.
Is the well-meaning the eleventh century
:
Romanist
Christ
are
substantial
?
body
divided into as
many
parts as there
communicants
is
Or
that
in
Christ
substantial body,
in
the
administration
of the
Eucharist,
ceives
NOT
divided
substantially the
?
:
WHOLE
all
his
members
If the former
so far from
being infallible, must have grievously and pre sumptuously erred, when they anathematised all those who
WHOLE
Christ
is
contained under
EVERY PART
from being
infallible,
then the Church of the eleventh century, so taught a grossly erroneous doctrine ;
and the miracle, which had such a convincing effect upon the mind of William of Malmsbury and his contemporaries,
could only have been a disgraceful figment, got up for the establishment of what the Council of Trent, in its infallible
to
be an accursed heresy.
is
At
all
palpably
384
will
THE VALLENSES
and
the
[BOOK
III.
to his
preaching that
deeds.
mans
is
:
own
outward faith ; and teaching, that, baptising children in that faith; by the mere work of the outward consecration of
Holy
Spirit to a dead
baptism, regeneration
may
be procured.
is:
gion of the people upon his Mass ; for, leading them to hear it, he deprives them of spiritual and
sacramental manducation.
His fifth work is : that he does everything, seen, and to glut his insatiable avarice.
to be
is
is
Holy Spirit, but by the secular power. His eighth work is : that he hates, and perse cutes, and searches after, and robs, and destroys,
the
the cloak
and
vestment of Antichrist, by which he covers his lying wickedness, lest he should be rejected as a pagan.
But
there
is
opinion of grace
cation
and
truth,
and
intercession,
taken
to
away from God, and which he has ascribet ceremonies and authorities and a mans own works and saints and purgatory.
CHAP
IX.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
385
As for Antichrist himself, he has already, by God s permission, long reigned in the Church *. II. I now pass on to an examination of the
Noble Lesson.
ancient manuscript of this Work was one of the Vallensic Documents, which Morland depo
1
.
An
University of
Cam
have already stated, has, since his time, disappeared. Happily, however, another ancient manuscript of the same Work is
I
preserved
the
by Morland, the
all, chiefly to
still,
important
Document.
Respecting the Noble Lesson itself, Mr. Raynouard, an indisputably competent judge, as he is styled by an able modern writer Mr. Hallam, has pronounced, purely on the strength of its dialect,
that
it
to
which
own
text refers
that
the
now
lost
Perrin
2 C
386
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
:
III.
from a copy more ancient than the Genevan and, Mr. Hallam observes,
that
Any
2.
Well have a thousand and a hundred years been completed entirely, since it was written, Now we are
in the
Last Time
"\.
passage, the precise term of eleven centuries is specified but the phraseo complete logy is such, that a doubt may be raised, whether
:
In this
those eleven centuries ought to be reckoned from the day when the words Now we are in the Last
Time were written by one or more of the inspired penmen, or whether they ought to be reckoned from the more familiar era of Christ s Nativity.
suppose, that they ought to be reckoned from the day when the words in question were written then the date, thus brought out, will be
If
:
we
either A. D.
A. D. 1180,
*
1149 or
A. D.
1164 or
A. D.
1170 or
poem
is
Raynouard
ii.
dours, vol.
pref.
cxxxvii
in
cxliii.
Hallam
Introduct.
i,
to the Literature of
Europe
33.
note. vol.
i.
p. 37, 38.
et cent
f Ben ha mil
fo scripta
L ora
CHAP.
IX.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
387
by Michaelis
or
by
Lardner
But,
is
adopted
*.
we suppose, that they ought to be reckoned from the more familiar era of Christ s then the date, thus Navitity brought out, will,
if
:
of course, be
A. D.
1100.
The
the
strict
letter of the
first
admission of the
mode, in which the eleven centuries are specified, would rather seem to demand the admission of the
second.
supposition may be urged the improbability, that the author of the poem should have reckoned a precise term of a thousand
first
Against the
exactly
description of the term) from a point of time, respecting the definite chronological settle ment of which he must, like even the much more
own
critical
for, in
accurately reckoned, what looks very like a physical impossibility, from an unknown point of
defined length
is
*
the
Peter
i.
20.
John
ii.
18.
According
to
Michaelis,
first
first
was
:
according to Lardner,
A. D. 64,
first
was written
and the
first
Epistle
2 C 2
388
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
time; while, somewhat strangely, a date is framed, upon the unusual and indeed unprecedented era of
the composition of an Epistle or Epistles, rather than upon the usual and perfectly familiar era of
Christ
s nativity *.
may be urged
the fact, that, however extraordinary and uncom mon such language may be, the author himself
declares his entirely completed eleven centuries to have been reckoned from the day, whatever that
it
was written
Now
we are
in the
Under these
only resort can be to internal evidence and this evidence, I think, requires the admission, that the
complete eleven centuries were, in truth, reckoned by the author from the common era of Christ s
the
Nativity, and consequently that the real date of poem is A. D. 1 100.
(1.) In the
liarity of
the date
that
it
the aspect of a formal and merely business-like date alone, as under the aspect of a
much under
Had
ABOUT
since it
was written
Now
we are
in the
Last Time
the present
:
but, supposition would have been reasonable and intelligible since he definitely says, WELL have a thousand and a hundred
years been
COMPLETED ENTIRELY,
;
since it
was written
Now we
myself
what
to
incomprehensible.
CHAP. IX.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
389
we know
century.
to
From
a chronological
a misinterpretation, as old
as
commentator Arethas, and prevalent down even to the days of Usher who adopts it and of Bossuet
who
inclines to
it it
interpretation,
from this chronological mis was, in the year 1000 and for
:
more than a century afterward, universally ex pected, that the world was drawing near to its termination. For St. John s thousand years were
reckoned from the Christian
result
era.
Whence
the
that Satan, having been bound during that millennium, was loosed in the year 1000: while,
;
was
from that
ed
the
result,
that,
saints,
freedom, through his special minister Antichrist, the world would be destroyed*.
*
There
is
i.
much on
vi.
de Eccles.
fol
Success, c.
Perhaps
may be allowed
to
add the
lowing to the authorities collected by the Archbishop. About the year 906, we find the Abbot of St. Germain
attesting the general expectation that the end of the world
s,
was
approaching, and adding the speculation that the Hungarians would be the predicted Gog and Magog.
390
THE VALLENSES
this opinion,
[BOOK
III.
the context of the passage, together with another parallel passage toward the close of the poem, evidently relates: and, since
the old Valdenses were not singular in pronouncing
To
saeculi
tempus, fineraque
esse
mundi
et idcirco
Gog
et
Magog
in
Hungros, qui
nunquam
ruerunt.
modo
From
pronouncing, by Gog and Magog, we ought rather to understand a formidable body of heretics who, at the instiga tion of Satan, should arise out of the allegorical corners and
that,
;
Abbat.
8.
in
Dacher. Spicil.
the
The
Edward
Con
death
in the
William of Malmesbury, has evidently the same reference. Septem dormientes in Cceli monte Stupenda, inquit, vidi
:
requiescere,
jam
omen.
Nam
omnia ventura
in
his septuaginta
annis, quae
famem
terrores de coelo,
in
et signa
magna
Christianos
victorias.
prompte
Gul.
cum
eis
must,
CHAP. IX.]
the
AND ALBIGENSES.
to
391
be the predicted Antichrist and the Babylonian Harlot, and since the author of the Noble Lesson perceived that a thousand years with
Papacy
an additional hundred years (as he remarkably expresses himself in the form of a double numera
tion)
had
fully elapsed
;
or
completed he, very naturally, both mentions the thousand years with their then centenary addition,
and, from the signs which he beheld, anticipates the speedy arrival of the end of the world and the approaching inauguration of the day of judgment.
Such,
think,
is
of his singularly expressed date. The specification of the apocalyptic thousand years, with an entirely
to
for
Gregory the
newly converted King Ethelbert, anticipates the approaching end of the world and the speedy commencement of the portents which should be its
great, in his Epistle to the
harbingers.
Praeterea scire vestram gloriam volumus, quod, sicut in scriptura sacra ex verbis
Domini Omnipotentisagnoscimus,
est, et
praesentis
quod nullo unquam poterit fine terminari. Appropinquante autem eodem mundi termino, multa imminent quae antea non
:
fuerunt
de
coslo, et
contra ordinem
temporum tempestates,
;
terrae motus per loca quae tamen non omnia nostris diebus ventura sunt, sed post nostros dies omnia subsequentur. Gregor. Magn. Epist. ad Edilbert. in Bed. Eccles. Hist. lib. i. c. 32.
p.
172.
392
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
spoken in manner following. The earlier times of Patriarchism and Legalism having passed away, we are now living in that last
of Christianity which was written of the But, as you all perceive Apostles Peter and John.
time
the thousand years of the
apocalyptic binding of have elapsed: and, after them, another century likewise has now been entirely completed. Satan, therefore, hath assuredly been loosed: and in
Satan,
strict
correspondence
the predicted
But we
of prophecy, been well fore-warned WHEN Antichrist shall come : namely, at the time when Satan, at the There end of the thousand years shall be loosed *.
,
fore, as we
now behold him enthroned in the mystic Babylon, we thence also see, that the world is near
end-\.
is
to its
for
the time
Consequently, we ought to covet little: short ; and but little now remains J.
* Esser
mot
avisa
CANT
venre
Antechrist.
Nos J Poc
t
veen aquest mont esser pres del chavon. deorian cubitar, che sen al remanent.
CHAP.
IX.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
393
greatly instrumental in leading both the Valdenses and the Albigenses so constantly to deem the Pope
Clergy Antichrist while, in the Roman Church, they beheld the Babylonian Harlot of the Apocalypse. No less than the Papists, they
and
his
supposed, that Satan was loosed and that Anti christ was revealed when a thousand years, reck
era,
had expired.
But,
afterward in the twelfth century, was a sure proof that Satan was loosed and that Antichrist was at
hand.
tent,
With
at
monstrous por
of a persecuting Priesthood
whose labours
commenced
expiration of the fated thousand years, and of an apostate Church seated precisely upon the seven
roman
hills
indication,
appeared
*
*.
Undecimo
saeculo,
ut vere
jam
Satanas videri queat (ut Joannes praedixit Apoc. xx.), nempe ut ex hac parte mysteriuni iniquitatis operosius operaretur et
plenius conficerit, multa et varia haereticorum turba exorta est.
Stapleton. Orat.
c.
iii.
Academ.
xxviii. in Usser.
de Eccles. Success.
7.
Haeretica sententia,
quae
somniis Berengarii
excitatur,
394
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
the prevalence of such opinions, the Noble and thus, from internal Lesson plainly refers
:
To
evidence,
entirely
establishes
the
supposition,
that
the
the
completed
thousand
years
with
appended
century are to be
omnes doctores
et
Ecclesiae
Patres secundi
Millenarii (nunc
octoginta annos,
aperte
affirmat,
fuisse
post
solutionem
Satanae; proferens, ex testimonio Apocalypsis, solutum fuisse Satanam post anuos Domini mille doctrinamque, quam com:
zizania Satanae
in
jam
soluti.
Usser. Ibid. c.
iii.
9.
Some suspicions, on the point complained of by Tissington, were entertained by others as well as by the Berengarians and Albigenses and Vallenses. Thus, in the year 992, when the
supposed thousand years of the binding of Satan were on the eve of expiring, Arnulph, Bishop of Orleans, addressed the Fathers of the Synod of Rheims in terms, which directly
applied to the Pope the delineated by St. Paul.
character of the
Man
of Sin
as
in
:
Nimirum,
tanquam
si
inflatur et extollitur,
Antichristus est,
sit
se ostendens
Deus.
Quod jam
religione
:
aperto
fit,
ut,
Romana
religionis
potentia
conquassata,
profligata,
noiuen
Dei frequentibus
cultus
perjuriis
etiam
c. xxviii. in
15.
CHAP.
IX. ]
AND ALBIGENSES.
395
era of the Nativity ; which will give, as the really intended date of the poem, the year 1100. 2. I may notice another matter, which, still
Work
to the
same early
a
period.
up people newly converted: Christians they were named, for they believed in But we find here what the Scripture says: Christ. sprang
that
the
Then
Jews
*.
grievously
During the eleventh century, the renovated Visigoths were fiercely struggling with the Sara cens in Spain; and, in the year 1099, Jerusalem
was taken by Godfrey of Bouillon and his confede rated crusaders. Thus thrown into active hostility
with determined enemies of the Christian name, the illiterate nations of the West knew of no other
Gentiles,
in
who might
to Christ
and the primitive Christians, enmity than the Paynim Saracens or, if some were better informed, they no more scrupled to adopt
:
the current phraseology of the day, than we scru ple to designate, either the islands of the American
Archipelago by the catachrestical name of the West Indies, or the aboriginals of the New World
by the
*
similarly abusive
name
of Indians.
Chro-
Ad
;
fo fayt
illi
nomina, che
tura di
Mot
396
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
nology and propriety were, indeed, alike set at defiance by such a nomenclature for, during the
:
middle ages and in the times of the crusades, those decided monotheists the Saracens were
resolutely set down, by the nations of the West, as a race of idolaters, who were said to worship
two
and who were viewed as largely dealing in the unhallowed arts of pagan sorcery *. But, in
applying the
name
who
concurrently with the Jews persecuted the Pri mitive Church, the writer of the Noble Lesson
and the
oriental exploits
of Godfrey, at the latter end of the eleventh age, and in the very country where these imaginary
afflicted Christ and the would naturally and readily early Christians, suggest such phraseology to an author who wrote
in the
year 1100
f.
Mahound
is
Mohammed
what
is
meant by Termagant) may not be quite so easy to determine. She was a Goddess, apparently of no very amiable character for, by etymologists, she is, I believe, generally deemed the
:
prototype of our english word termagant. f I am not without some suspicion, that the circumstance of
the Noble Lesson mentioning the five
is silent
wounds of
Christ, while
it
as to the
number of
nails
employed,
its
affords another
incidental
date.
is
century,
CHAP.
(3.)
IX.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
the whole,
it
397
On
ed
that the
end, affords,
may be generally remark entire poem itself, from beginning to through the medium of its extreme
continued mass of internal
;
simplicity, one
evi
dence
subject.
to its
remote antiquity
so that
it is
well
false
He
:
tells us,
many
opinions
and he specially enumerates, the alleged Docetism and the unsound tenet unauthoritatively advanced
by
other sectaries that three nails only were used in the cruci
fixion and that the left side (not the right side) of our
pierced by the spear.
Lord was
This last opinion was advocated from about the latter end of but Pope Innocent III finally and in the eleventh century
:
fallibly determined,
that the
roman
of Christ
a decision, which
of course stamped the brand of heresy upon Triclavianism. The judgment of the Pope was confirmed by a miracle and,
:
as a decisive proof that four nails were used and that the right
side
was
pierced, Lucas of
Tuy
case of St. Francis Assissi, upon whose body were preternaturally impressed the five wounds of our Saviour, in such a
in
manner, that the semblance of the heads of four nails appeared the inside of the two hands and on the outside of the two
while there was so real a
feet,
wound on
it
Now
this
which were started by Innocent III against the Humiliated and the Poor Men of Lyons and as a part of the project, he con
:
trived,
we
see,
to
mark himself
in
he was appointed specially to oppose. All parties five wounds but the semblance of four rusty acknowledged
those
:
whom
398
TH E VALLENSES
it,
[BOOK
III.
without a growing con viction at every step, that it is the production of a distant age and of a simple people*.
4.
To
of
proof positive, that four of the wounds were inflicted by four nails and not by three.
Such an argument would not have been used against those whom Francis was appointed to oppose, unless they had be
lieved that three nails only were
employed
and, accordingly
earlier,
suppose to have been a Triclavian, mentions the five wounds; but, probably in order to avoid giving needless offence
I
is
whom
silent as to the
number of the
nails,
and
specifies not
whether
was pierced.
Four wounds they gave him, beside other blows. After that, they gave him, a fifth, to make the completion : for one of the
knights came and opened his side
;
add, that the very phraseology here employed, still quite incidentally, refers the poem to the time specified in its own date. The side of the Saviour is pierced by a Cavalier or
I
may
li
ubere la costa.
Lucas of Tuy
tells us,
by
but this assertion ought salis. See Luc. Tudens, grano 11. in Bibl. Patr. vol. xiii. p.
L esprit
si
et recule;
primitive,
tolerance.
si
belle
p. 146.
CHAP.
IX.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
399
the Vallensic Theology in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, T shall subjoin some extracts from that
venerable
monument
own
1100.
ought always to watch and pray that the world is near to its end.
strive to do
We
for we
see,
to
We
see,
ought
good works
since
we
that the
world approaches to its termination. Well have a thousand and a hundred years been entirely completed, since it was written that we are
in the last times.
ought to covet little: for we are at what remains. Daily we see the signs coming to their
accomplishment, in the increase of evil and in the decrease of good. These are the perils, which the
We
which the Gospels have re counted, and which St. Paul mentions : that no
Scripture speaks
of,
man, who lives, can know the end. Therefore ought we the more to fear : since we are not certain, whe
ther death will overtake us to-day or to-morrow.
men
shall pass
to
the wicked,
and we ought to believe it that two ways ; the good, to glory ; torment. But, if any one shall not
:
let
him attend
to
Scripture
400
THE VALLENSES
the end to the
[BOOK
Since
III.
from
commencement*.
to the
Adam
may
From
this
recommendation
that
to its
own pretended
year 1100. Who, it has been asked, could then have thought of pro for, as no translation of the pounding such a recommendation
:
who
And, furthermore,
if
in
Bible
in
they already possessed a translation of the what occasion was there for Peter
to
Valdo
in
the
It
is
really marvellous,
ever have been seriously advanced. -According to the testimony of Peter Siculus, the Paulicians,
New
Testament, that
Petr. Sic. Hist,
its
perusal.
p.
Bibl. Patr.
vol.
ix.
par.
post.
31, 38.
The
sacred
volume, confessedly altogether uncorrupted, they brought with them into the West. Cedren. Hist. Compend. vol. i. p. 341.
And,
we
find a
converts of a
New
woman, charged with reading both the Old and the Testament only to deny the truth of their contents. Rolib.
iii.
c. 8.
sur
were so familiar with their translation of Scripture, that they could even say the entire New Testament by heart. Reiner,
de
haeret. c.
iii, viii.
in
xiii.
p. 299, 307.
tells
Nor
is this all.
William of Malmsbury
us:
that,
in
Bede put
forth an interpreta-
CHAP. IX.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
401
he Jind, if he will give his attention to it, that few are the saved in comparison with those that remain.
to
do good works,
John
Gospel
in
who were
imperfectly acquainted
Evangelium
lib.
i.
p. 12.
In
the
magne, the native son of England and the adoptive son of France, gives that precise recommendation, which occurs in
the Noble Lesson, and
its
fatal to
century.
the
knowledge of
contemplate himself, as in some mirror, what sort of Just so the reading of the Holy Scriptures : it person he is. cleanseth the reader s soul ; it bring eth into his mind the fear
man may
of hell-punishment; and it raiseth his heart to the joy above. The man, who wishes ever to be with God, he should often pray to him, and he should often read the Holy Scriptures. He is
very happy, who readeth the Holy Scriptures, if he tnrneth the words into works. All the Holy Scriptures are written for our
health, that
M.
S.
in
Bibl.
we may through them understand the truth. Publ. Cant. apud. Soames s Bampt.
A\c.
Lect.
p. 92, 93.
it is urged by the objector, that, if the Valdenses a translation of the Scriptures in the year 1100, Peter possessed Valdo would never have undertaken another translation in tho
II.
But
it
demonstrate the non-existence of any english translation of the Bible anterior to our common version put forth in the time of
King James
for, if
a translation of
402
he ought
to
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
He
ought likewise to call upon his glorious Son, the dear Son of Holy Mary ; as also upon the Holy
These who gives unto us a good way. one God, ought to be Holy Trinity, being invocated full of all power, and all wisdom, and
Ghost,
three, the
:
all
goodness
the Bible,
In truth,
built
when
sifted,
will
probably
bring out a result exactly opposite to that intended by its con The making of a french translation for the use of the triver.
French Converts of Valdo by no means implies, that the Italian Valdenses did not already possess a translation in their own
dialect.
On
the contrary,
if
the character of
Valdo
in
point of
literary attainments
be considered, I deem the production of his french translation, to afford something very like a proof of
Valdenses.
When
Reinerius
tells us,
he remarks
that he
was
only, aliquantulum literatus, slightly tinged with letters. Now the very circumstance of a person thus characterised, him
self all the while an Italian Valdensis, attempting such an arduous task as a translation of the Bible, though we may admit his being aided by a friend more learned than himself, imports,
the
be more
futile,
than to
At
all events,
nothing can
of a french transla
tion, in the
year 1160, a proof, that a vallensico-italian transla tion, could not have previously existed in the year 1100. In some of these remarks I have been anticipated by Dr. Gilly.
CHAP.
IX.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
403
This we ought often to pray for and request : that he would give us fortitude to encounter the enemies ; and that we may conquer them before our
end, to wit, the world, the devil,
and
the flesh
and
would give us wisdom accompanied with goodness, so that we may know the way of truth, and keep pure the soul which God has given us, both the soul and the in the way of body
that he
As we
to love
love the
Holy
;
we
it
:
our neighbour
evil.
for God
hath commanded
who do good
to us,
who do us
jirm
We
King,
Now
this
he,
who
shall not do
what
is
contained in
be received by the
silver,
who
love
gold and
who depre
ciate the promises of God, who keep neither his laws nor his commandments, and who suffer not good to keep them, but rather hinder them accord people
Adam
sinned
from
the beginning,
to others,
He gained death to himself and to who followed him. Well may we say, that was an evil morsel. But Christ hath redeemed
his passion.
in
this
2
the
good by
Now
we find,
Lesson, that
Adam
mis-
404
believed
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
God
his
Creator.
And we may
still
see like
now become
worse,
who abandon
God
the
believe in idols
to their
own
The author
then,
for
simple-minded and primitive scholars, proceeds to give a brief summary of the history of the Old Tes
tament; until, following the stream of chronology, he reaches the times of the Gospel Dispensation.
Then God
for she
Afterward, he went
Ghost shall
bear a son
deliver
offended.
Fear, not,
Mary ;
whom
he shall
his
people
from
that
Nine months
the glorious
him
in her
womb
and Joseph
also.
But
it,
we ought
to believe,
for
in
in the
manger when he was born, and enveloped him Here may repent rags, and poorly lodged him.
and
the avaricious,
the covetous
to
who
amass
riches.
Many
born
:
Lord was
it
for God
:
to the
shepherds appeared a star to the three men; glory also was given unto God in heaven,
and, in the east,
the good.
CHAP.
IX.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
little
405
:
Afterward, the
but the child
grew
in
grace and
He
named : and
be abandoned
better kept.
before given *.
:
Yet he changed
but he renewed
it
not, that
it,
that
it
might might be
it
and
tise
received baptism to give salvation : he said unto the Apostles, that they should bap
the nations
;
He
for they began the renovation. The ancient law well forbad fornication and adul
:
tery
but the
to
look
and
to lust.
The ancient law annulled matrimony., and permitted : but the new
put away, and says whom God hath joined.
is
law forbids to take her that that they should not be parted
* This passage strongly indicates the unbroken doctrinal descent of the secluded Vallenses from the Primitive Church.
It
Holy
Trinity,
who
upon
of the Virgin, was the Jehovah of the Levitical Dispensation, who delivered the Law at mount Sinai, and who often appeared under the temporary form of a
womb
title
their
catechumenically and by descent from generation to generation, rather than by any inde
In fact, the pendent investigatory deduction of their own. Nolle Lesson itself is an evidence, as to how the dogma was
transmitted.
406
THE VALLENSES
ancient law cursed the
:
[BOOK
III.
The
fruit
womb which
:
bears not
the
to
keep virginity.
the
The
new law says, Swear not at all, and let thy speech be only yea and The old law commanded to Jight against ene nay. but the new law mies, and to render evil for evil
ancient law forbad only perjury
:
says,
to the Avenge not thyself, but leave vengeance live in peace who do unto heavenly king, and let those
thee injury,
and thou shalt find pardon from the The old law said, Thou shalt love heavenly king. hate thine enemies : but thy friends, and thou shalt the new law says, Thou shalt do so no more, but love your enemies, and do good to them that injure
you,
and pray for them that persecute you and for them that seek an occasion against you, that you
may
be
the children
is
in
heaven.
The
old law
factors: but the and thou shaltfnd pardon from the Father Almighty ; thou shalt not Jind salva for, if thou pardonest not, None ought to kill or to hate any person : nor tion. and the poor, nor to ought we to scoff at the simple hold as vile the stranger who comes from another
country
Thus
This
that
we are all pilgrims. for, in this world, to serve God. ought all we, who are brethren,
;
is
the
we ought
then gives an account of the crucifixion and and, from of the first preaching of the Apostles
He
CHAP.
IX.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
which
407
were themselves then suffering from the pretended disciples of the Lord. Occur
sors the Vallenses
ring in and before the year 1100, when as yet the Vallenses had not become missionaries in foreign regions, they relate, I suppose, to some of those
local or domestic vexations
and
insults
and har-
which, through every age down to the present, they have experienced from the wretch ed bigotry of their government and their neigh
ryings,
bours.
The Apostles
ivere so
men and
with them, that for these things they ceased not either their doings or their sayings : for many of
to
Great
written, only because they shelved the way of Jesus Christ. But, as for those who persecuted them, it was not so
what
is
hold to the bad ; because they had not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ : like those,
to
who now take occasion and who persecute so much ; who ought to be Christians, but whose semblance is
Yet in this they ought to be reprehended, be cause they persecute and imprison the good : for in no lesson is it found, that the saints persecuted or
evil.
Now,
they
teachers
And
few
408
people.
THE VALLENSES
These greatly wish
to
[BOOK
III.
shew the way of Jesus Christ but they are so persecuted, that they can do So much are false Christians blinded only little.
:
with error ; and, more than all the others, those who
are their pastors. For they persecute and hate those, who are. better than themselves : and they let those
live quietly,
deceivers.
But by
:
this
we may know,
good pastors
be
cause they love not the flock, save for their fleece. Yet the Scripture says, and we may see it that, if
:
a person loves those who are good, he will wish to love God and to fear Jesus Christ ; and that he will
neither curse, nor swear, nor lye, nor commit adul
tery,
nor defraud his neighbour, nor revenge Nevertheless they say, himself upon his enemies. that such a person is a VAUDES and is worthy of nor
kill,
punishment: and they find occasion, through lyes and deceit, to take from him that which he has gotten by
his just labour *.
But
he,
who
is
thus persecuted,
strengthens himself greatly through the fear of the Lord: for the kingdom of heaven shall be given to
dicon quel es VAUDES e degue de punir, ban cayson menconias en engan, cusi illi li paysan toler yo quel ha de son just a fan.
Illi
The proof of the existence of a race of Italian Valdenses, long anterior to the time of Peter the rich merchant of Lyons, is, I think, quite independent of the occurrence of the term
VAUDES
poem
in the
if,
with
Rayshall
true date,
we
CHAP.
IX.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
409
end of the world. Then shall he have in the place of such dishonour *. great glory
him
at the
But, in
that those,
this, is
who
will curse
and
lye
out money to usury and kill and revenge themselves upon those who do evil to them, are said and reckoned to be good and loyal
such a person take heed, that he be not deceived at the end, when his mortal malady
men.
Yet
let
comes, when death seizes upon him, and when he is scarcely able to speak. Then he calls for the priest,
and wishes
*
to confess
to the
Respecting the persecutions undergone by the Piedmontese Vaudois anterior to the time of their countryman Peter, we
know
little
or nothing.
in
the fastnesses
in the
woman
lypse (to
whom,
Apoca com
God
ded much knowledge of them save among their immediate Italian neighbours. But, from the language both of Claude
and of Atto and of Damian and of Rodolph of St. Trudon, it is evident, that they were held in abhorrence as inveterate
and the concurring statement of the Noble Lesson shews, that, although, at the end of the eleventh century, they might not have been called upon to seal their faith with their
heretics
:
blood
yet were they exposed to those minor persecutions of and pillage and fraudulent calumny, which, from time rapine to time, impoverished them and harassed them and deprived
;
them of
I
their lawful
may
men
Noble
410
THE VALLENSES
;
[BOOK
III.
for
it
commands
and says, that thou shouldest confess while in sound health, and not wait to the last. The priest demands,
if he has
any
sin.
Two
The
he cannot be forgiven, if he does not restore all that he has taken from another and well examine his sins.
he hears this he has great trouble : and he thinks within himself; If he shall restore it entirely,
When
what
will
remain
to his children,
and what
will the
in the
Had
the
poem been
their
Founder
harried
those,
who could
all
escape, were
fain
to
disperse
themselves
through
parts of France
in
and
Italy.
But no persecution of
the
Noble Lesson.
On
the contrary,
imprisonment and loss of goods alone, not torture and loss of life, are mentioned as the trial to which the Vaudois were then
exposed.
Hence
I think
it
clear,
that the
which a rough calculation of about eleven centuries, from the day when it was written Now we are in the Last Time,
period, to
us.
On
La
lit
contianee.
CHAP. IX.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
411
world say ? Then he commands his children to ex amine their faults : and gives money to the priest,
that he himself
has
may receive absolution. Though he extorted from another a hundred pounds or per
haps two: yet the priest will pardon him for a hun dred pence, and sometimes for less when he can get
no more.
And
he
tells
:
him a long
will say
story,
and pro
for he
his forefathers.
Mass, both for Thus grants he pardon just or felonious : and he heads. But, when he leaves
:
for he makes
understand, that they have been very well Yet ill are they confessed, who are thus absolved.
to
them
faulty
and they will certainly be deceived by such an absolution and he, that makes them believe it,
;
:
sins mortally.
For I dare
:
found down to
all the
very true
and
it
will be
from
Sylvester
and
all the
Cardinals, and
Bishops, and all the Abbots, even all such put together, have no power to absolve or to pardon a single creature in regard to a single mortal sin ;
inasmuch as
do it*.
God
alone pardons,
* This reference
to
may
be
viewed as another internal and unintentional testimony to the genuine antiquity of the Noble Lesson.
Roman Church
itself,
and
Latin Churches
412
THE VALLENSES
those,
[BOOK
III.
who are pastors, ought to do this. They ought to preach to the people, and pray with them, and often feed them with divine doctrine, and
But
That
say they ought repent ance ; so that they should confess their sins without
:
to
to
admonish them
to
Wherefore, we Christians, unworthy of the name of Christians, who have sinned, and who have aban doned the law of Jesus Christ (for we have neither
to
confess our
and the
Pope, was
first
instituted
in
who
sat in the
1059
to A. D. 1061.
His
Constituimus
clesiae Pontifice,
mox
sibi
Clericos Cardinales
Hug.
s
See Mosheim
p.
483.
of Cardinals, with this prerogative, having been thus instituted only about forty years before the composition of the Noble Lesson, the reference to them, with their allocation
The College
between the Pope and the Bishops, was at once natural and
correct.
CHAP. IX.]
pride of
life,
AND ALBIGENSES.
through which we have done
ill.
413
Tlds
If we will love and follow keep. Jesus Christ, we must have spiritual poverty of heart, and love chastity, and serve God humbly : so
way we must
may we follow
the
so
may
describes the
man
three laws, which have been given from God to the unwritten patriarchal law the written
:
law of Moses
clusion.
and the
also written
law of Christ.
to its
poem
con
do
We
have only
to imitate
to
his pleasure,
and
to
commanded, and
his doings
to be well
may
or to his sayings. But, according to Scripture, there are many Antichrists : for all, who are contrary to Christ, are Antichrist.
Many
and
signs
shall be,
from
this
The heaven
and
again
die *.
Then
Every building
*
shall
be laid prostrate
and then
reference
is
here
made
to various
which the persuasion of the age construed to be signs of the Usher has collected a curious approaching end of the world.
multiplicity of examples.
c.
ii.
See his
Work
de Eccles. Success,
33. c.
iii.
3, 4. c. iv.
2, 3, 4, 5, 9.
414
[BOOK
III.
say
into
to the
wicked
the
infernal fire
From
sure
:
this
may God
deliver us, if
to
it
be his plea
say
to his people
Come
my
In that place, you shall beginning of the world. have delight and riches and honour.
May
that
it
please the
be
?
we may
in his courts
Lord who formed the world, of the number of his Elect to stand Thanks unto God. Amen.
CHAPTER
X.
THE THEOLOGY OF THE VALLENSES DURING THE PERIOD OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY.
the period of the twelfth century, scend to the period of the thirteenth
here,
FROM
we de
:
and,
Pilichdorf,
of Valdensic Errors,
I.
According
the Valdenses, who, through the unwearied mis sionary labours of Peter Valdo and his Gallican
Proselytes, had now, in their
various offshoots,
been spread
far
beyond the
:
They contended
the
saries,
corrupt
Romanists,
that
were
the
many
called *.
They maintained
Saints
The
et,
per paucos
complices tuos.
xiii. p.
Patr. vol.
315.
416
unable
to
THE VALLENSES
regard what
is
[BOOK
III.
done upon earth ; and that, Inasmuch as they cannot pray for us, they ought not to be invoked by us*.
contended
that
to be
he alone can help us ; that The merits of the Saints cannot be applied to us, because they belong only to themselves ; that, Since God well
knows what
be
is necessary for us, he requires not to moved by the prayers of the Saints ; that, What
We
ought not
to
God
exclu
sively
and
alone"\.
:
They
asserted
that,
After this
to the
life,
there are
departed ;
and, con-
et
Sanctos
in
quod
nihil possint
et,
nobis, quia
c. xix. p.
non
Vald.
etiara
317.
f Dicunt
haeretici
Valdenses:
sit
;
laiidandus, honorandus,
serviendum
et quod Sancti non orent pro nobis propter plenitudinem gaudiet quod, quia solus Deus redemit nos, orum, quam habent
;
non nobis
riura sit,
et,
non indiget Sanctorum precibus moveri et, quia, non oportet vult, hoc volunt omnes Sancti ergo quidquid ipse invocare Sanctos, sed solum Deum. Pilich. cont. Vald. c. xx.
:
p. 318.
CHAP. X.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
is
417
no greater benefit to be obtained by burial in a consecrated cemetery, than in any other place-\.
They taught
that There
is
that A Agreeably to this principle, they said material Church, dedicated or consecrated by a Romish Bishop, was neither better nor holier nor
:
worthier than any other house, since God both could be adored and ought to be adored everywhere^.
and
hanc vitam,
p.
et
non purgatorium.
320.
:
f Item dicunt haeretici Valdenses quod non sit melius, cor pus hominis defuncti sepeliri in ccemeterio, quam in alio quocunque agro vel loco. Pilich. cont. Vald. c. xxii. p. 322.
ecclesiam materialem ab episcopo catholico dedicatam seu consecratam non fore, quacunque
I
Dicunt Valdenses
haeretici
alia
domo, meliorem, sanctiorem, vel digniorem; cum ubique Deus possit ac debeat adorari et sibi serviri. Pilich. cont. Vald.
c. xxiii. p.
323.
I apprehend, did not so much object to the decent setting apart of a church to the service of God, as to the superstitious notion that our prayers would be more acceptable
The Valdenses,
in
a consecrated building
when
offered
in
up privately
in
an apartment of a dwelling-house. Among the Romanists, a notion has always been encouraged, that God may
our family
2
418
priests
:
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
ceme
teries, baptismal water, unctions of chrism and oil, palms, branches, and herbs; saying, that
Things thus consecrated derived no particular sanc tity from the woj^ds used, though the words them
selves
might be good*.
the indulgences of the pre
They reprobated
lates of the
Church, together with pilgrimages to the thresholds of saints and the year of jubilee
:
and
this
they did, as
we
reasoning of Pilichdorf, on the ground of rejecting the whole system of human meritoriousness, more
especially as
it
appears in
its
in
another
a fancy,
which runs directly counter to our Lord s own decision as to the See John iv. nature and principles of genuine Christian service.
20
24.
is,
that a
vvv rov
church
-rowov,
yap
aXXa
eVXe/crSi/,
fKK\y<r!av
KX.
Clem.
Alex. Strom,
et
omnium aliorum
:
quze per
et
etiam consecrationes
unctionum,
palmarum,
frondium, et herbarum
nihil
omnino
singularis sanctitatis ex
xxv.
p.
325.
CHAP.
X.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
419
All images and the worship of them they utterly abominated and, for this, as Pilichdorf admits,
:
they seemed to have authorities from Scripture though, ludicrously enough, he is quite satisfied,
;
annum
:
jubi-
laeum.
sicut, exigente
homo
quia, divina justitia, per peccatum mortale, perdit gaudia crelestis regni, et meretur poetiam auternam sic,
:
Nunc
poenae
diminutionem et
coelestis
praemii
tamen infmita
solummodo
adepta
praemii et
Et
ilia
rum peccatorum
de
illo
tamen
ita sufficienter in
tuerunt,
quod
cum
:
adhuc
in
eorum
et
operibus meritoriis,
illud
solummodo
praemii augmentationem
totum
cedit in
Ecclesiae thesaurum.
Et
sic patet,
quo-
modo
commisit ipse
praelatis Ecclesiae,
et minu?.
To
this
argument,
2 E 2
420
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
them
all
apparent difficulty*. To oaths of every description they objected f. II. The Author of the Index of Valdensic Errors,
to the Work of Pilichdorf, subjoined by Gretzer has contributed some important additional notices. In the beneficial potency of the sign of the
cross, the
Valdenses had no
faith
for
they were
wont
the
to declare, that
nor the very cross upon which Christ hung, crown of thorns, nor the nails, nor the spear, nor
could behold garment without seam, even if they inasmuch the really genuine articles themselves ; as the veneration of all such things is vain and
the
being merely contrived by the priests for the sake offilthy lucre J.
useless,
To
*
Saints
they paid
no
Item reprobant
Et
haeretici
quantumcunque
credunt
asserentes,
quod uec
in
riec
vanam
341.
et
inutilem,
error.
quod
Ind.
Patr. vol.
xiii. p.
CHAP.
X.]
AND ALB1GENSES.
421
regard, except in so far as they might be confir for they admitted only matory to their own sect
:
the authority of the New Testament they observed to the very letter *.
and
this
performed in the
Church of God
they utterly
saints,
that The
Pope
is
they reprobated
Mass, and all the preparations appertaining to the Mass, beyond the simple words of consecration, are
of error
* ^[.
nihil curant, nisi
:
eorum confortanta
sed tantum
Novum
ad literam observant.
Ind. error.
Vald.
p. 341.
fiunt
in
Ecclesia
Dei Sanctorum
Item dicunt
Papam
omnium
tarn
haeresiarcharum.
monachorum quam
Ind. error.
et
omnia praeparamenta
tionis.
422
III.
THE VALLENSES
Various other matters of less
:
[BOOK
III.
moment have
been omitted
and
if
as to the import of the last specified particular, it is effectually solved by their own explanatory
language as reported by Conrad of Magdenberg. They blaspheme, says he, the Priesthood of
Church of God, by way of mockery and derision, GOD-MAKERS. Nevertheless, the Priests themselves make not God:
Christ^ styling the Presbyters in the
but only, through the words of consecration institu ted by Christ, tinder the species of bread and wine
mixed with water, they make, our Lord Christ to be corporeally present who was not corporeally
present before, the Holy Spirit operating the transubstantiation of this oblation so as to make God*.
Conrad
is
Pighards or Picards.
ing in the neighbour
abound
the
f.
province of Picardy,
Christi,
presbyteros in
illusive
Ecclesia
derisorie
quasi
Deum
facientes,
sen
nominando.
Cum
aqua
misti,
Spiritu
Sancto
deifice operante.
xiii. p.
lib. vi.
p.
221.
CHAP. X.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
423
Consequently, there can be no doubt touching the As for specific religionists, to whom he alludes.
his language,
it is
useful to let a
Romanist himself
naked deformity.
CHAPTER XL
THE THEOLOGY OF THE VALLENSES AT AND IM MEDIATELY AFTER THE TIME OF THE REFORM
ATION.
FOR
the
century, the testimony, to wit, of Claude Scyssel Arch bishop of Turin about the year 1500; and the
confession, presented, in the year 1542, to Francis I. of France, through the medium of Cardinal
shall
Sadolet.
The testimony of Scyssel respects the Val lenses, who continued to occupy their ancient settlements in Piedmont, and who thence were
I.
geographically comprehended within the limits of the Archbishop s diocese. Scyssel s Work, against what he calls the Errors and Sect of the Valdenses, is written, both with
much
bitterness,
to
for
while he stoutly
425
Heretics, as brute beasts quite unfit through their barbarous ignorance to enter into he nevertheless, in the same any argument
;
in
the citation of
Holy Scripture
exhibiting also
to establish their
own
some specimens of opinions, their reasoning which certainly shew no defect either in knowledge or in dexterity*.
Their doctrines, he claims, of course, after the usual self-laudatory method of popish controver sialists, to have refuted and exposed and, for this
:
them
their
purpose, he gives those doctrines, as professed by at the beginning of the sixteenth century.
Now, upon
examination,
we
shall find
in
that
theological
principles had,
no respect,
Nempe ignavum
est et
Sed,
quum
nee sanctorum doctorum respousiones admittunt; verum, cortici Jiterae inhaerentes, quicquid adversus eorum opinionem affertur
depravasse,
scilicet,
Pontifices
Romanes
bus
sacram
scripturam
avariciae
literae
causa,
et
in
rem
suatn
convertisse,
pervertisse.
verumque
Rationibus vero suis, quamvis, apertissimis in adversum argumentis, revincantur, tenaciter adeo obstinateque
adhaerent, ut, nullis demonstrationibus nullaque rei evidentia,
convinci se patiantur.
sect.
Valdens.
fol. 6, 7.
For a specimen of
by Scyssel
15, et alibi.
426
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
They acknowledged no
faith save the Bible
:
authoritative
rule
of
expressly said by
Apostles, and rejecting the glosses of the popish doctors, they followed it, in its plain and obvious
sense, according to the letter *.
of
Rome
the Babylonian
to
their
own Church
be
Church of
Christ, they
paid no regard to the ecclesiastical censures of the Popish Prelates and Clergy f.
*
See the
last note.
Quicquid expresse dictum, aut ab Apostolis traditum, non invenerint etiam si hoc in sacris generalibus,
a
Christo
Synodis
sit
definitum,
oruniaque
in
Evangeliis
sint
et Epistolis aut
conscripta,
quae,
unumquemque
caeteris
et
quod non
Ibid
sit in
fol. 10.
t Inde
fit,
uti
Praelatorum
et
se
et
Magnam
Errorum Omnium
Ibid. fol. 9.
et
Qui
igitur se
Episcopos
CHAP. XI.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
427
The
the Saints,
men required not the suffrages of Christ only being to all abundantly
;
affirming that departed spirits passed immediately to a state either of happiness or of misery and they pro
:
nounced, that the payment of money, in reference to the expiation of the souls of the deceased by
penal
sufferings,
;
is
foolish
and
destructive
superstition
vented by
the whole fable having been in the Priests for their own sordid emolu
ment
esque
(-.
affirraant,
:
dicant,
cujus
Ecclesiae,
vel
civitatis,
et
provinciae
turn
ab omnibus exclusi
et ipsi
Romanam
Falso
*
sequuntur.
illos
nomen
Sanctorum prreterea
eodem
non colunt
mortales
non indigeant,
Scyssel.
Christo
sufficiente.
adv. Vald.
Nee
alio pertinet,
quam
impiissime asserunt
quicquid,
inane, perditum, superstitiosumque, esse ; parique cupiditate, hanc, ut ipsi praedicant, fabulam a sacerdotibus fuisse confictam.
aeterna vel
Aiunt, defunctorum animas, nulla purgatione exanimatas, ad gaudia vel supplicia, quum corporibus exeunt, conrecipi
;
festim
ecclesiasticosque viros,
confinxisse.
cupiditate excaecatos,
animarum purgatorium
428
THE VALLENSES
that,
[BOOK
III.
They maintained,
is
matrimony
freely
open
to all degrees of
men
The power
of absolution
by the
Priests,
and the
them, they entirely necessity disallowed f. All worship of the Virgin and the Saints they and thence they threw rejected, as idolatry
:
of confession
to
which had
Church
J.
Se duas
*
ex
Ibid
fol.
G6.
Matrimonia
libeie in orani
uno aut altero ad sum mum exceptis; quasi in reliquis prohibendi nullam Pontifices habuerint potestatem. Scyssel. adv.
Vald.
fol. 7.
f Sed
et,
dimittendorum peccatorura
nullam
:
sacerdotes
et,
nostros potestatem
proinde,
neque illis confitendum esse affirmant, neque sacramenta reliqua ab his suscipienda ; neque constitutionem Ecclesiae, qua ad sacramentalem confessionem sacramque communionem singulo
ipsi recipiunt.
multis
ut gloriosae
et summorum Ecclesiae doctorum caeterorumque confessorum authoritati detraherent, qui, ut fidelium mentes ad Deum vehementius inflamtnarent, varias, et quidem potissimas ad Deum et Sanctos ejus, praesertim Mariam \7 irginem, orationes
abrogarent,
CHAP. XI.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
429
The tenet of Transubstantiation they denied and derided and, though Scyssel describes them as mere babblers upon this point, he waives all
:
argument with these dreadfully inconclusive reathat even the faithful soners, on the ground themselves and the most skilful theologians, so far
;
constat,
composuerunt, ex quibus sacrosanctae Missae pars maxima quam hoc pacto fere totam abrogant atque abjiciunt. Virginem et Sanctos reliquos adorari colique, nefas dicunt.
Scyssel. adv. Vald. fol. 54, 55.
Porro et hoc Valdensis non admittit, ut, qui cum Christo regnant in patria, quae in hoc saeculo mortales faciant, intelligere possint, utique de
his
ad Christi Matrem caeterosque Sanctos preces nostras, superstitiosamque esse illorum adorationem.
Ibid. fol. 68.
ipsam Christi Genetricem, honorandos negant, illisque ceremoniarum cultum prohibent exhiberi hoc pacto, divinae majestati derogatum iri reputantes
:
et
quod
ipse dixit
adorabis, et
illi soli
servies.
Claude,
the
as
in reply, employs the usual popish subterfuge, that Romanists do not honour the Saints with the same worship
God.
He
admits,
the
existence of the
idolatrous
abuse, which
the sure consequence of what the Papists are to contradistinguish by the name of Dulia. Hae, in pleased Dei Sanctorumquehonorem, introductae feriae hie cultus ; haec
:
religio.
Quibus
:
si
immorigeri
eo,
abuntuntur
num, ex
Deum
vandos, arbitrabimur
? Corrigi certe magis, atque emendari, Ibid. fol. 74. abusus nostros oportet. It is vain to talk of correcting abuses, when the very practice itself of Saint- Worship is an abuse to be abolished.
430
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
from being capable of understanding so deep a mystery, were unable even to deliver it to others*.
All benedictions of cemeteries and holy water and oratories and ecclesiastical ornaments they
affirmed to be utterly useless f
.
* Quae vero, de Eucharistiae sacramento, deque ejus substantia et veritate, nonnulli ex ea secta, quo se caeteris doctiores
ostendant, derident, seu garriunt potius
quam
quando quidem
ipsi,
t.amque arcana, ut et fideles quidem vix capere, minime vero tradere adv. Vald. fol. 55.
caeteris,
Scyssel.
Claude rightly supposes, that such rustic barbarians as the Vallenses would never comprehend the force of an orthodox catholic statement; and he recommends it, as by far the best
plan, to submit ourselves implicitly to the decision of the
Holy
Catholic Church;
we
provided only, as he judiciously subjoins, the Holy Catholic Church to be the Roman. acknowledge
hi,
Neque
vel eo
scioli
fol.
55.
ultra
Ne
quam dictum
est inquirant
mysteriorum
illo
difficul-
omniaque sub
tantum
ut
articulo includant
ulla
sunt
facturi,
Romanam
haric
esse
t Haec superstitiosa esse affirmant, et ad extorquendas ab imperitis pecunias, a pseudo (ut ipsi appellant) sacerdotibus
adinventa, sicuti et indulgentias, et ecclesiarum consecrationes,
CHAP. XI.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
431
The
posed
:
and Scyssel himself admits, that, if they stated the practice of the Romanists fairly, their
sentiments would be correct
*.
poured upon them by the Arch bishop, on the ground, that they made no scruple of contracting marriages, which the Romanists
abuse
is
Much
deemed incestuous f
but he
is
constrained to
Scyssel.
adv. Vald.
bellui-
norum hominum
authoritati
ilia assertio,
derogent,
indoctissime
Propterea, neque
ecclesiastica,
neque aquam, neque oratoria, neque ornamenta neque reliqua quae de more benedici solent, ex
Scyssel.
adv. Vald.
56.
* Multo vero magis imagines detestantur, et crucis signum hanc idololatriae speciem reputantes quod nos adoramus
;
:
deorum
Quod
ita fiat
in
Scyssel. adv. Vald. fol. 68. vero imaginum adorationes in nobis arguunt, hoc, si id ut ipsi intelligunt, non adversamur. Neque ignoramus,
Ecclesiae Principes et Pastores, baud parva contentione disceptatum fuisse, an prohibendus esset, ex toto,
ventibus, inter
statuarum atque imaginum usus multosque non levis doctrinae nee contemnendae authoritatis viros in earn partem subscripsisse:
;
scilicet,
tatis
memoria
ne ad idololatriam homines, alioquin ex recenti gentiliIbid. fol. 75. satis proni, paulatim redirent.
est,
et
apud
filiae,
432
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
admit, that their conduct was exemplary. They he, lead a purer life than other commonly, says
Christians.
name of God
in poverty,
in
:
vain.
good faith
and,
they protest,
life
that
the apostolical
and
doctrine.
On
this
account,
Church resides with themselves, as power being the innocent and true disciples of Christ : for whose faith and religion, to live in poverty, and to
of the
suffer persecution
from
us,
and glorious*
II.
at
et commatris,
nuptiis abstinendum
esse
caeterarum
divina non
sit prohibitum, neque potuisse humana prohiberi. adv. Vald. fol. 48. Scyssel. They scrupled I suppose, to obtain a popish dispensation to
marry an aunt
not
to authorise
them
to
quam
caeteri Christiani,
vitam
in
Non
enim,
nisi coacti,
vanum
proferunt,
implent
et, in
paupertate pars maxima degentes, apostolicam vitam doctrinamOb idque, potestatem que servare se solos protestantur.
Ecclesiee
apud
se,
residere affirmant; pro cujus fide religioneque in egestate vivere et a nobis ducunt. et persecutionem
pati,
pulchrum
gloriosum
fol. 9.
CHAP. XI.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
:
433
the beginning of the sixteenth century I shall now pass to the Confession, presented, in the year 1542, to the King of France.
To
there
is
In the year 1342, a date brought out by the specification of two centuries before the year
colony of the Vallenses of Piedmont planted themselves at Merindol and Cabriere on the western side of the Cottian Alps and there
:
1542, a
by dint of hard labour, brought an uninhabited desert into a state of such high cultivation, that
Provence with corn, wine, honey, almonds, flocks, and herds *.
they supplied
all
oil,
case,
their
Confession
may
:
justly be viewed, as connecting the latter part of the middle ages with the times of the Reformation
for
may be considered, as exhibiting the faith of the Vallenses, on either side of the Cottian Alps,
it
;
or from through a period of two entire centuries the year 1342 when the emigration took place, down to the year 1542 when the Confession was
to the
French King by
Of this
the articles.
Crispin.
Act.
et
Moniment. Martyr,
2 F
lib.
iii.
fol.
88,
100, 110.
434
THE VALLENSES
and confess : that as contained in the Old and
all believe
[BOOK
the
III.
We
ture,
Holy Scrip
Testament,
New
inspiration.
From
confess
same Scripture, we
is
and
believe: that
there
one
:
God;
the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost distinct in three persons, and subsisting in one spiritual and
eternal essence
:
in
and
still
preserves
We
into
hold
this
for certain : that the Son of God came world, and voluntarily submitted to be
it
flesh ; on which thing alone the mystery of the Christian Religion is constituted: for, in that name, our whole hope and faith rest
clothed in
human
upon Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Lord, the admirable God, the author of eternal life, the sole saviour and justifier and sanctifier and interpreter
Also we no need of a successor. : he is truly God and truly that for certain
is
man.
We
believe
and confess
that
man, as the angel announced before his conception ; in order that he, whose pro creation ought to be free from all sin, might be born holy and upright.
We
out
believe
and confess
any
was born
in
Bethlehem
CHAP. XI.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
435
from
Virgin Mary; and that he assumed a body, like unto our bodies in all things, sin only excepted, to which he could not be obnoxious.
the
We
believe
and confess
Pilate,
under Pontius
buried,
was
dead,
and
for our sins ; and that he alone is the true Paschal Lamb, offered as a victim, that he might
snatch us
from
the
jaws of
:
the devil.
We
hell.
believe
and confess
and
confess
We
believe
that our
Lord Jesus
the dead
from
We
to
believe
and confess
that
and withdrew
and confess
:
from
We
We
believe
the quick
and
judgment.
We
is
that the
Holy Ghost
the
Father and the Son, proceeding from the same Father and Son, and equal to each of them.
We
believe
and confess
which
that there
the
is
one Holy
Catholic Church,
is
Congregation and
Assembly of faithful and elect of God, who have been from the beginning of the
2 F 2
43G
world,
THE VALLENSES
and shall
is
[BOOK
III.
be
to
the end;
of which Church
a free re
Jesus Christ
the head.
:
We
believe
and confess
that there
is
from
the
;
for our sins, the just for the unjust; who our sins in his own body upon the cross
away who is
our advocate with God, the price of our reconcili whose blood cleanses our consciences from ation ;
dead works, that we should serve the living
God ;
so that
who
alone
made
satisfaction
their sins are not imputed to them, as to the unbe * lieving and the reprobate
.
sanctam Scripturam,
afflatu plane
inin-
Ex
et
credimus
in
unum Deurn
Patrem,
;
Filium, et Spiritura
Sanctum;
tribus
distinctum personis
sed
eadem una,
spiritual!,
aequabili, per-
petua, nullum neque principium neque divinitatis exitum habente, essentia praeditum qui, maxima potentia sua infinitaque
:
Certum habemus, Dei Filium in hunc mundum venisse, et humanae carnis involucre tegi voluisse qua in re una, Christianae Religionis mysterium est constitutum, eoque nomine spem
:
in
Domino
Deo
sit
opus
eumque
Deum,
tum conceptum
Credimus atque confitemur, Dominum nostrum Jesum Chris esse ex Spiritu Sancto, opere virili in totum
CHAP. XI.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
that there
is
437
We
believe:
a resurrection of the
to
of God,
of heaven for ever ; cursed of God, to perpetual fire and torment. We believe also : that souls are immortal ; but that the
souls of the faithful, as soon as they migrate from this body, pass immediately to the glory of heaven ;
of the unbelieving and the as soon as they depart from their bodies, reprobate, pass to the torments of hell until the day of judg
that the souls
and
so, both
quemadraodum angelus
ante conceptionem
idque eo consilio potissimum, uti sanctus intenasceretur; cujus procreationem, ab orani labe deformagerque tioneque vacuam esse, necessarium esset.
Credimus
et confitemur,
ruptione, ex virgine
Jesum Christum, orani detracta corMaria natum in Bethleem civitate, corpussimilitudinem, excepto peccato,
potuit.
que sumpsisse ad
cui obnoxius esse
nostri plan&
minimi
Credimus
et confitemur,
passum, crucifixum, mortuum, sepultum, pro peccatis nostris : ilium enim ununi Agnum vere Paschalem esse, in victimam
oblatum, ut nos ex diaboli faucibus eriperet.
Credimus
ad
inferos.
Credimiis et confitemur,
tertio postea die
tram.
submovisse.
Credimus
omnipotentis.
438
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
may
be eternally tormented in
gehenna of unextinguishablefire.
We
life,
believe
that eternal
life is
offered to us by
the grace of
through Christ, who is truly our and who endured death that the faithful might
life.
:
God
We
Christ,
believe
and confess
that
having abolished Circumcision, instituted Baptism, through which we are received into the
Church of
the people of
God.
This outward
Bap
tism exhibits to us another inward Baptism; namely., the Grace of God which cannot be seen with the
eyes.
the
Credimus
iu
Spiritum Sanctum, tertiam ejusdem cum Patre personam, ex eodem Patre Filioque
mananteru, utrique eorum aequalem. Credimus et confitemur sanctam Ecclesiam Catholicam, quae
est Congregatio et Coetus
omnium
electorum Dei, qui fuerunt a principio mundi et erunt usque ad finem cujus quidem Ecclesiae Jesus Christus est caput.
:
Credimus
et confitemur remissionem
peccatorum gratuitam, a
profectam
ille
;
Domini
nostri Christi,
nostris, Justus
qui mortuus
est
pro
;
in-
ad crucem
qui
nostrae
apud Deum, ipse est pretium reconciliaab sanguis ejus mundat conscientias nostras
Deo vivo
>qui
quemadmodum
Crispin.
Confess.
10G.
Vald.
in
Act.
Martyr,
lib.
iii.
fol,
104
CHAP.
XI.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
word of God
439
in order to
:
Church
the
a sacrament
but
Christ, the chief shepherd, alone gives the increase, and causes that we may receive
the things signified.
Lord Jesus
They greatly
err,
.
who deny
Baptism
to the children
We
believe
Christ afterward ordained the sacrament of the Supper, which is the giving of thanks and the
things
that
is to
sins
Christ offered upon the cross for the remission of our and for the reconciliation of mankind with God.
Whosoever
believeth, that
body and shed his blood for the remission of sins : he eats the flesh and drinks the blood of the Lord,
considering the agreement, of those things which are subjected to the eyes, and of the food by which the body is sus
:
with spiritual food. For, as the body, in this life, is strengthened with bread ; and as wine recreates
the heart of
man
so,
likewise,
Christ delivered unto death, and his blood shed for us, nourish and confirm and refresh the sad and
afflicted soul.
But
is
let
visible
sign
440
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
be
The opinion of some, therefore, is received, who believe, that the true and
exist
natural body of Christ, his Jlesh and his bones, and lie hid in that bread of the Supper, or that any transmutation of the one into the other is
effected.
For
this opinion is
and
sitteth at
the right
hand of God
the
to
Father Almighty ;
the quick
is
judge
and
But
the
Lord
Jesus Christ
present in
Supper ;
and faithful.
for the Jlesh,
is
They
also,
who
is
of Christ
when
eaten,
nothing
it
the
Spirit,
which quickeneth. Therefore, the truly faithful of Jesus Christ eat his Jlesh and drink his blood
spiritually in their hearts*.
* Credimus resurrectionem carnis benedictorum Dei, ad pos-
sidendum regnum coeleste in aeternum maledictorum vero Dei, ad ignern et cruciatum perpetuum. Credimus item, animas esse
;
immortales
mum
fidelium autern ac filiorum Dei animas, quampriex hoc corpore migrarunt, ad gloriam ccelestem transire ;
:
CHAP. XI.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
:
441
of
and
in the
it. The end commandment is, to obey God in true charity, from a pure and upright heart and a good con science and faith without dissimulation.
of the
anima
in
perpetuum
gehenna Credimus, vitam seternam, nobis, gratia Dei per Christum, oblatam qui vere vita est, ac mortem confecit, ut fideles vitae
torqueantur
:
in
ignis inextincti.
Credimus
et confitemur,
Dei, quae
non potest. Apostoli atque alii ministri Ecclesiae baptisant, prolato verbo Dei ad sacramentum ac signum visibile tantum donant Dominus vero Jesus Christus, af^itot^v,
; :
incrementum dat; et facit, ut res signatas percipiamus. Errant etiam graviter, qui pueros Christianorum a Baptismo removent.
solus
Credimus
et confitemur,
Dominum
deinde ordinasse sacramentum Cosnae, quae gratiarum est actio, et memoria mortis ac passionis Jesu Christi, in coetu populi Dei In quo quidem panis et vinum distribuuntur et rite celebrata.
sumuntur, ut
visibilia signa
et
cruce oblati pro peccatorum nostrorum remissione, et generis humani cum Deo reconciliatione. Quisque credit Jesum Chris
tum, tradidisse corpus suum, et profudisse sanguinem, ad remissionem peccatorum ille comedit carnem e bibit sanguinem
;
442
THE VALLENSES
confess
:
[BOOK
III.
knowledge of sin comes from an understanding of the Law, which points out to us our own imbecility, so that no mortal can per
that
the
We
fectly fulfil
it ;
for
all
men are
sinners.
has pre pared that we should walk in them, and which God has propounded in his word, ought to be done and
Domini,
et
We
God
utriusque
fit
particeps
considerans convenientiam
quo corpus istud rebus quae non videntur atque cibo spirituEtenim, ut corpus in hac vita pane corroboratur, vinum-
cum
iis
ita
niorti
animam
tristem et afflictam.
timet,
bilis,
signum visibile, cum re per id significata quae est invisiadeo conjungi aut conglutinari, ut disjungi aut dissolvi
quin
nequeant,
unum
sine
altero
esse
possit.
Nam
Judas
rem vero
signiticatam et
et sanguinis
non eo modo accipiendum quo nonnulli Atqui opinati sunt, verum Christi corpus et naturale, carnem et ossa,
in
pane
illo
eum
converti
nam
cum
verbo Dei, et
coelos,
ad judicandum vivos
sed
sacramento Ccenae adest, potentia, virtute, atque praesentia, Errant Spiritus sui, in cordibus electorum suorum et fidelium.
etiam, qui affirmant, in Ccena Christi corpus cornedi corporaliter caro enim nihil prodest; Spiritus est, qui vivificat. Fideles
:
igitur vere
spiri-
tualiter in
ipsorum cordibus.
iii.
Confess. Vald.
in Crispin.
Act.
Martyr,
lib.
106108.
CHAP. XI.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
:
443
studiously accomplished
not,
indeed,
at
God s
fear of eternal perdition, but for that duty and which we ous:ht to bear to our common Father. C7
We
divine
and confess : that, agreeably to the commandments, we must, in all things, pre
believe
;
mere purpose of afflicting the flesh, but for the purpose of making us more lively and more fit for
the
prayer.
We
confess
that, in
the
Old Testament,
certain
foods are prohibited ; but that, through Christy the free use of them is granted to Christians.
We
trates,
confess
and Magis
arc persons constituted of God ; in order to bear the sword, for the defence of the good, and for
the
Obedience, therefore,
is
due
wrath s
We
confess
that Ministers
to be
Church ought
the faithful,
in
discourse,
faith, and chastity ; being preeminent iti preaching the word of God and in persevering in sincere doc
trine.
But
covetous Pastors
false doctrine
who profane
;
temple of God,
making
it
a den of thieves
444
able,
THE VALLENSES
for money,
;
[BOOK
III.
as they speak
redeem souls out of purgatory, who, for a price, promise pardon and
to
;
remission of sins
tors, sacrilegers,
ity
who
and
sell
bad works
these impos
author
to
be
removed from
ought
to be
their degree
substituted*.
Credimus
et confitemur, sincerum
in
omnem
nostram diligen-
quoad
in nobis
Porro
Deo
obedire
in vera charitate,
ex puro
et fide
non simulata.
Legis intelligentia nostram, quasi digito, ostendit imbecillitatem, quae proficisci quum nemo sit mortalium qui earn implere valeat omnes enim
; :
in iis
am-
bularemus, quaeque in verbo ejus proposita sunt, fieri debere non quidem spe promerendi aliquid atque studiose impleri apud Deum,aut metu aeterni exitii; sed ex officio atque amore,
:
quo communem omnium nostrum Patrem amplecti oportet. Credimus et confitemur, sobrietatem et continentiam nobis,
ex praeceptis divinis,
in
Jejunium
afflicti-
reddamur.
Confitemur etiam,
fuisse prohibitos,
Veteri quidem Testamento certos cibos quorum tamen, apud Christianos, liber mansit
in
Deo
Confitemur, reges, principes, ac magistratus, personas esse a constitutas, ut gladium gestent ad bonorum defensionem
CHAP. XI.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
445
at
doctrines,
handed
down and
mitive
line of ancestors,
preserved among them, through a long from the very days of the Pri
Church Catholic.
Previous to their delivering their Confession to Cardinal Sadolet, through the Court of the Pro
vince and the Bishop of Cavillon, they professed
themselves willing to abjure any point, which, from God s word, could be proved heretical *.
And,
cited
after
it
in
and duly
re
preparatory King, an honest Doctor in Theology, employed by the Bishop of Cavillon to examine it, fairly
confessed
nished as
had never been so much asto he was, when he had duly weighed the
that he
Ideoque eis obedientia debeatque punitionem facinorosorum. tur, non modo propter iram, sed etiam propter conscientiara.
Confitemur, ministros et Ecclesiae pastores, exemplo gregi
et fidelibus esse oportere, in sermone, consuetudine, charitate,
fide, et
castimonia
aliis
praelucere, concionando
verbum Dei,
et perseverando
in
sincera doctrina.
qui
;
mas
atque idololatrae,
locum substituendi
lib.
iii.
forent.
Con
Vald.
in Crispin.
Act. Martyr,
iii.
fol.
108110.
fol.
111.
44G
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
and had diligently compared them with the testimonies of Holy Writ which
articles of their faith,
were adduced
fession
life,
:
of their
Con
whole
he had not
made such
divine Writings, as he
had done
the eight days, during which he had been com pelled to examine the passages of Scripture cited in those articles *.
Harassed and persecuted as the Vallenses had long been, and reduced perpetually as they
III.
were
and thence to that comparative which attends upon the want of a regu ignorance
to poverty
lar education,
they obtained,
siderable degree of improvement, in the accurate and scholastic statement of their doctrines, from
the more logical and better instituted reformers of Thus far, we may readily the sixteenth century.
concede to Bossuet,
Vallenses of Merindol
tells us,
in
f.
we
with a beautifully ready acknowledgment of their incompetence, sparing no pains to acquire religious
information and instruction J.
*
Crispin. Act. Martyr, lib.
fol.
iii.
livr. xi.
119, 120.
ad pedem Alpium, et qui Merindolii Cabrieraeque, degit, ita pi& ac modeste semper vixit, ut, in eorum tota consuetudine ac
vitae ratione,
summa
fides et justitia
CHAP. XI.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
447
rowed
little
goodness of arrangement, is, I think, plain, from the consistent and never-varying evidence which
has already been produced. Accordingly, as the same Crispin distinctly informs us, they steadily
claimed, without any infection of heresy, to have ALWAYS taught and maintained the pure doctrine
of the Gospel
*.
view of the matter, their own lan Ever prophesying guage perfectly corresponds. in sackcloth, and driven by brutal persecution to
With
this
take refuge in dens and caves of the earth, the confession of their deputation to (Ecolampadius, in
the year 1530, bespeaks,
perspecta
dederat,
fuerit.
quam Dominus
id,
eis
in
earn unain
curam incumbebant, ut
quod habe-
homines optituo ingenio praediti, in doctrina pietatis instituendi, sive hue illucque mittendi etiam usque ad extremas mundi partes, ubi aliquem lucis salutaris radium exortum esse audiverant.
Crispin. Act. Martyr, lib.
*
iii.
fol.
88.
Itaque, quod antea saepius professi sunt, id etiam nunc confirmant nempe, si, idonea inquisitione habita, probentur in se, aliquo errasse, aut ex verbo Dei haereseos convincantur
:
absque ulla cunctatione, abjuraturos esse quicquid in ipsonim Confessione reperietur quod cum sacrosancta Dei doctrina non
consentiat
:
contra,
si,
macula
infectos, constat
;
nam SEMPER
docuisse et coluisse
ad canendam palinodiam errorum quibus obnoxii non pelli aut ulla vi cogi. Crispin. Act. Martyr, lib. iii.
im111.
448
THE A^ALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
the Vallenses, rather a want of regular education, than any theological or biblical ignorance in the
strict
We
we
are, of a certain
Yet, in all
unworthy and poor little people things, we agree with you: and, from
.
the very time of the Apostles, our sentiments re specting the faith have been the same as your own.
In this matter alone we differ that through our own fault and through the slowness of our genius, we do not understand the inspired writers so accu
:
rately as yourselves *.
There
is
singularly savouring of primitive evangelical hu mility, in this language on the part of a most re
title
of a Reformed Church, on the honourable ground that it had never needed reformation Bossuet, |.
indeed,
rance
pleads strenuously for Vallensic igno but they, who are aware that an intimate
-
and deeply
*
practical
may
Sumus qualescunque
pusillae.
et,
a tern-
pore .Apostolorum, semper de fide, sicut vos, sentientes concordavimus: in hoc solo differentes; quod, culpa nostra,
ingeniique
nostri pigritia, scriptores, tarn recte
quam
ligimus.
Scultet.
A. D.
1530.
p. 161, 163.
t See Preface to Glorious Recov. p. 13, 14, translated by Acland. See also s Mem. of Neff. Introd. 21.
Gilly
p.
CHAP. XI.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
449
possession of a regular scholastic education, will be apt to think that those, whose ancestors are
;
recorded by an enemy to have had the whole of the New Testament by heart with considerable
portions of the
Old Testament
;
also,
undervalued
themselves through modesty and that, merely because they did not adopt the overweening style of self-satisfied conceit, their words are not to be
taken with
all
interpretation*.
*
quia
:
Novum
sic
et
Vetus Testa-
mentum
Audivi
transtulerunt
et
docent et discunt.
verbo ad verbura
quendam rusticum idiotam, qui Job recitavit de et plures, qui totum Novum Testamentum
:
Et, quia sunt laici idiotae, false et corrupte Reiner, de haeret. c. iii. p. 299. Scripturam exponunt. nos vero rarus est vir vel fetnina, qui textum non sciat Apud
perfecte sciverunt.
vulgariter recitare.
Ibid. c.
viii. p.
307.
This extraordinary intimacy with Scripture was in the early part of the thirteenth century and, if I mistake not, the account
:
very
on either
The remark of the present excellent Bishop of Chester, Dr. Sumner, exactly applies to the old Vallenses. Spiritual has this peculiar characteristic : it has little con knowledge
nexion with superior education or cultivation of mere intellect.
Charge
A. D. 1832. p. 25.
CHAPTER
RESPECTING THE
XII.
POOR
MISSIONARY VALDENSES OF
Piedmont,
brought
down
the twelfth century, they stand connected with the Vallenses of France *. Resuming the subject,
I shall
now
give
by the
Inquisitor
Reinerius Sacco.
of ecclesias Perhaps, through the whole range tical story, there can scarcely be mentioned an been more individual, who in the hand of God has
than the rich eminently an instrument for good, and holy merchant Peter of Lyons. This illustrious reformer began his labours about
the year 1160: and he is commonly thought to have died about the year 1 179. He was the foun der of the comparatively modern Society of the Poor Men of Lyons; and to them he imparted
the
name
own
agno-
iii.
chap. 8.
CHAP.
XII.]
men
or Valdius
for, in all
does the agnomen occur *. I. Thus far, the matter is but, perfectly clear Peter communicated to his new Society although
:
the
title
still
remains,
whence he himself derived his own agnomen. With respect to this question, the very form of
that
that
sufficient
clearness,
viewed as the proper family name of the wealthy merchant that is to say, as
;
cannot be
his family
name
after the
manner
is
names
now borne. It from some town, or from some posed, people, or from some country, or from some cirare
either
* Petrus Valdus, locuples civis Lugdunerisis, anno Christi Valdensibus nomen dedit. 1170, Is, dorao ac bonis
circiter
relictis,
et prophe-
tarura
curaverat.
se haberet
;
apostolorum scripta, popular! lingua vertenda, Cum jam multos sectatores, exiguo tempore, circa
eos,
gandum,
vol.
i.
in
tanquam discipulos, ad evangelium promulomnes partes ablegat. Thuan. Hist. lib. vi. 16.
p.
221.
31. apud Usser. de Eccles. Success, c. viii. 5. Valdenses dicuntur a suo haeresiarcha, qui Valdius dicebatur
c.
Deo
Quorum
ii.
jam
per diversas
mundi
lib.
5.
452
THE VALLENSES
s
[BOOK
III.
own
religious
that he received the Accordingly, we are told name from a town or district named Valdis or
:
is
indifferently said to
for,
in the
the term march was applied to all tries; whence the Count or Warden of the Marches
received the
title
of
Margrave
On
there
rent
:
this
:
point,
agreement
is
I a slight apparent variation. say appa because, in reality, when one account, that
divitias reliquit,
ut pauper fieret et
servaret.
perfectionera
Sed, errore pravae intelligentiae Scripturarum abductus a veridemens, ipse et ejus sequaces, ab uriitate et obedientia
Guid.
Perpin.
c. viii.
in
Summa
in
de
haeres.
apud
TJsser.
de Eccles. Success,
5.
Insurrexit
qui, re-
Apostoli servarunt
gregationem
magnam virorum
mulierum
fecit.
Hi
vocantur
Vo
cantur etiam Pauperes de Lugduno, a civitate Lugdunensi unde Nic. traxerunt originem, et quia vitam elegerunt pauperem. Direct. Tnquisit. par. ii. quaest. 14. apud Usser. de Eymeric.
Eccles. Success, c.
viii.
5.
CHAP. XII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
453
sents his family, as having originated from that place or district ; and when another account, that
given by John Masson, speaks of him, as having and when yet a third been himself born there that given by Pilichdorf, describes him, account,
;
as having once
there
is
nothing at
incongruous or irreconcileable in these several statements *. Rather, indeed, I apprehend that they each convey a portion of the
all
,
:
truth
so that, from
them
all
combined,
we
learn
that Peter
was born
in Valdis or
Valden of a family
belonging
to that country,
merchant
at
Lyons.
Now,
viewed
*
Petrus quidam Valdensis, ab oppido Valdis sito in marchia Galliae, unde erat oriundus, sic appellatus. Centur. Magd. apud
Usser. de Eccles. Success,
c. viii.
5.
:
Petrus
ei
nomen
fuit
Valdo,
cognomen
est
Vaudra; eo quod,
apud Usser. de Ec
talis
est.
populari lingua,
Valdo
et sectarii ejus
Vaudois cognominarentur.
Notan-
dum, quod,
fere
octingentis annis
post
Papam
Sylvestrum,
in finibus
in civitate
Valden, quae
Dominum
dixisse
quidam cuidam
Putabat
Petrus Valdensis,
vita apostolica
cum hanc
jam non
quod
esset in terra.
Unde, cogitabat
454
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
Peter received his agnomen from some place called Valdis or Valden or Vaudra vaguely described as
situated somewhere near the extensive frontier of
France
conduct,
vitally
when
his
mind
first
impressed with the importance of religion. Luther, trained a Papist from his childhood, and having at the age of about twenty years
hap pened one day to walk in the fields with an in A violent thunder timate friend and associate. and his companion, by a stroke storm came on
:
of lightning,
was
This awful
occurrence
produced a mighty
:
but,
effect
et,
datis, coepit
compuncti sunt,
pertate
et
quod videntes, quidam alii corde fecerunt similiter. Cum autem diu in pauinceperunt cogitare, quod etiam Apostoli erant pauperes, imo etiam praedicatores :
stetissent,
verbum Dei.
p. 312, 313.
in
xiii.
is,
What Masson
Peter
s
means,
I suppose,
this.
The place of
:
nativity
was
originally called
Valden or Valles
and
thence he and his disciples were styled Valdenses or Vallenses. But, since the French called the men Vaudois ; they similarly,
and on the same principle of lingual alteration, called the place Vaudra. The term Vauderie, by which the pretended sorcery
of the Vaudois
was described,
is
formed
in a
manner
strictly
analogous.
CHAP. XII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
455
Precisely in such a demonstration, as might have been anticipated from the School of Theology in which he had been nurtured. He determined to
to enter into
a monastery at Erfurt. His father strongly re but the son was inflexible, as to monstrated
:
what he deemed a manifest vocation from heaven and the result was his taking upon himself the vows of monasticism.
Now, by
Reinerius,
we
are informed,
that a
very similar occurrence befell the opulent mer chant of Lyons, whose name indeed he does not
mention, but
describing
by him as the founder of the sect of the Poor Men, and by afterward specifying a sect
sufficiently identifies,
whom
he
When, on
some public occasion, the more wealthy or the more dignified citizens were assembled together, it happened, that one of the number suddenly dropped down dead. By this event the mind of Peter was as much impressed, as that of Luther was by the instantaneous removal of his friend
:
and, since the same causes usually produce pretty much the same effects, we may safely infer that,
;
previous sentiments of Peter had been identical with the previous sentiments of Luther, in that case, just as the poor student Luther,
if
the
monk,
so,
456
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
voted his wealth to the erection of an Abbey, and would himself have become (what the Papists
call)
own
munificent
foundation
we may
fairly infer
was
Instead of
rank
like
Luther
devoted himself altoge the poor caused the ther to the profession of the Gospel
stance
among
Scriptures to
eagerly to
make
is
proselytes to
(so far
plainly
etiam
qui
modo
orta est.
Cum
cives majores
eis
Lugduno,
contigit,
quendam ex
mori subito
coram
statim
eis.
territus,
quod
magnum thesaurum pauperibus erogavit. Et ex hoc maxima multitude pauperum ad eum confluxit, quos ipsedocuit
habere voluntariam paupertatem et esse imitatores Christi et
Apostolorum. Cum autem esset aliquantulum literatus, Novi Testament! textum docuit eos vulgariter. Reiner, de haeret. c.
v. in Bibl. Patr. vol. xiii. p. 300.
According
Peter,
Priests,
in his
to
work of
employed two
the one, dic Stephen de Ansa and Bernard Ydros and the other, writing them tating the words of the translation down from his mouth. He professes to have received the
;
to
nesses, and especially from Ydros himself. Steph. Borbon. aliter Bellavill. de Septem Donis Spiritus S. par. iv. c. 30. in
c.
i.
5.
CHAP. XII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
;
457
and
to
them
whole world,
all
denounce the
the
Roman Church
to
as the
Babylon of
against of her abominations *. partaking Here we have a case totally different from that
Apocalypse, and
warn
men
of Luther.
Peter had speculatively held senti ments the very opposite to those which Luther
entertained
tery
to
:
when he threw
be practically operative, the result was that which has been stated. On evangelical princi
ples,
we
find
agnomen of Valdes or Valdensis or Valdius or (as the word would be expressed in French) Le
Vaudois.
before us,
we
shall, I think,
view the preceding statements, as intimating some thing much more definite and particular than
family
origination, or of his own personal nativity, or of his early residence in the way of his mercantile
business.
The place, or district, it seems, was called Valdis or Valden or (in a gallican form) Vaudra ;
1.
Ecclesia sit meretrix in Apocalypsi quod caput omnium errorum quod ipsi sint Ecclesia Jesu Christi. Reiner, de haeret. c. v. in Bibl. Patr. vol. xiii.
:
Quod Romana
sit
Papa
p.
300.
458 and
it
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
was
situated in the
borders of France.
this place
definitely
and precisely
name
its
us descriptive geographical situation, alike refer to the Valleys or the Valden of Piedmont and
the ancient or proper Vallenses, those primeval Leonists whom Reinerius notes to be the oldest of all known sects, occupied the
Dauphiny
for
Valleys on either side of the Cottian Alps. Originally, on the breaking up of the Western
kingdom of Aries,
of the
itself
:
Burgundians
and, thence,
became a
it
fief
in the
But,
was
annexed
march country
the Valleys of the Cottian Alps were always a for, situated as they were on the
:
borders of France and Savoy, they constituted the marches, as the phrase ran, of both those neigh
Hence, in the eleventh bouring Sovereignties. century, we find Peter Damian addressing the Dutchess Adelaide of Savoy, as the Marchioness
or the
Ad
Adelaidera,
Ducissara,
et
Marchionissam
Alpium
Cottiarum.
16. p. 339.
CHAP.
XII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
459
Here, then, was that march or border country of France whence, either from birth, or from
:
family origin, or from early inhabitation, Peter received his agnomen of Valdo or Valdcs or Valdensis
or
Le
Vaudois.
The march-land
region,
was plainly no
than the
Such, in whatever precise mode, being the connection of Peter with the Vallenses of Dau-
we
shall
now have no
:
in
sudden
religious impression
assumed
a form, so
essentially different
produced by the papally superstitious spirit of the Either by birth, or by age in which he lived.
by early inhabitation, the wealthy mer chant was a Valdensis or Vaudes or Vaudois. With the pure and primitive doctrine of the pious Dalesman, he had long, most probably from his
origin, or
but the full been acquainted occupation of successful traffic, and the consequent increase of worldly opulence and worldly respect
very childhood,
:
had choked the word, so that it became unfruitful in a thorny soil of mere speculative
ability,
knowledge.
I doubt,
what
whence
460
for the individual
THE VALLENSES
:
[BOOK
III.
pose
and, through him, had a pur also of great and abiding, and extensive
Church. An awful dispensa witnessed by the merchant, while seated tion, among his brother burgesses of Lyons in all the
good
to his sincere
pride
of place municipal,
decisive.
It spake to his sleeping conscience, with a voice of thunder. And the result was
precisely in accordance with the previous specu lative illumination of his understanding.
In point of connection, here it is, that Peter and his new French Society join themselves to the
2.
and thus, agreeably ancient Vallenses of Italy to the explicit testimony of Conrad of Ursperg,
:
that The Valdenses, in both their divisions, origina ted, at a remote period, in Italy, they appear as a
gallican branch springing out of the parent stock
which had long flourished in the Valdis or Valden or Vaudra of the bordering Cottian Alps*.
liar
This circumstance fully accounts for the pecu language of Reinerius in his Treatise concern
:
ing Heretics
language, which, with some modern writers, has led, most unfortunately, to blunders
and misapprehensions of no ordinary magnitude. The Leonists, he tells us, are to be ranked
in Italia
alii
^xortae,
adhuc perdurant
quo
rum
alii
Humiliates,
Conrad.
book
iii.
chap. 8.
CHAP.
XII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
;
among
or
for
they
Manicheans
any other of the seventy sects which had once existed, but which had then become extinct
:
while the poor men of Lyons, who are also, as well as the members of the older sect from which
De
sectis
ANTIQUORUM
haereticorum,
de quarto nota
septuaginta
;
quod
quam
qua?
omnes, per Dei gratiam, deletae sunt, praeter sectas Manichaeorum, Arianorum, Runcariorum, et Leonistarum, quae
Alemanniam
infecerunt.
Inter
omnes has
sectas, quae
adhuc
quam
Leonista
rum
et hoc, tribus
de causis.
Prima
est,
NIOR.
secta
De
sectis
MODERNORUM
haereticorum,
Pauperum de Lugduno, qui etiam Leonistte dicuntur, modo orta est. Reiner, de haeret. c. iv. v. p. 299, 300.
In his
tali
to the
same purpose
though here he reduces all the then existing sects under the two principal heads of Cathari and Leonists; identifying the
latter
with the Poor Men of Lyons, because the more modern French Valdenses were a branch or offset from the ancient
Cum
sectae haereticorum
modo inveniuntur
in
quorum
Lugduno, Summ.
v. col.
Frat. Reiner,
1761.
The
462
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
Though, on the first survey, these two state ments are apparently discordant they will, on
;
who were
previously members of the Roman Church, were no older than Peter the Valdo but, in point of
:
de
Valdenses upon the ancient Piedmontese Valdenses by Mr. la Rogue, as cited by Bossuet for the purpose of shewing its erroneousness, with submission to the is, nevertheless,
Pierre
Valdo ay ant trouve des peuples entiers separes de la communion de 1 Eglise Latine, il se joignit a eux avec ceux qui
le suivoient,
pour ne
faire
qu un
m6me
societe par
unite d une
meme
doctrine.
The
entire bodies of
men
Roman
Church, to which Peter Valdo and his disciples joined them those very selves, were assuredly the Piedmontese Valdenses
:
ancient
connecting link of their founder himself a Valdensis, the more modern French Leonists were derived, and with whom, consequently, they
were
in
communion.
made by Mr.
Reinerius,
who
perfectly agrees with the classification of describes the Leonists as being the oldest of all
sects, and who yet says that the Poor Men of Lyons under the same name of Leonists were founded by Peter the
known
Valdo as
But Bossuet impugns this very just assertion of his country man, on the ground that, Anterior to the time of the mer chant Peter, there were no bodies of men in a state of separation
:
CHAP. XII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
463
ultimate theological pedigree, when considered as a branch or continuation of the ancient Vallenses
of
to
Dauphiny and Piedmont, they were, agreeably their own true and perpetual allegation, as old
Hence,
until
:
France, the
after the
the
first
name of Valdenses occurs not commencement of Peter s ministry writer who mentions the name as
for
sec-
from
the
Roman Church,
save
the
various
branches of the
result,
that
Reformed.
91.
The
foundation.
Anterior to
the
time of
Peter
the
Valdo,
the
ancient
Valdenses of Piedmont had long been in a state of separation from the Roman Church and they confessedly were never Manicheans. Therefore, previous to the twelfth century, the
:
Cathari or
Albigenses,
alleged
by Bossuet
to
have
been
Manicheans, were not the only entire bodies of men that were
separatists.
of
And, even if the Albigenses had been the only entire bodies men that were separatists, and even if Peter and his french
had exclusively joined themselves
:
disciples
existing religionists
still
the Bishop
Rogue would
sequitur; for
it
exhibit nothing
were not
chap.
1.
iv.
464
tarially
THE VALLENSES
[fiOOK
is
III.
Walter
Thus we
rical
see,
is
how
testimony
The Valdenses so owed their origin to Peter Valdo, as to have had no existence in any part of the world
previous to his time f. Thus also, on the specific ground taken up by himself, we may perceive the absolute childish
Some unknown
collector,
he
states,
ascribes
the Treatise to an early part of the twelfth cen But the very founder of the Valdenses did tury.
not
commence
1160.
his ministry until after the year Therefore the antiquity of the Treatise
or be
at all
events,
objection, which is insecurely based, partly upon the mere guess of an unknown collector,
Val
denses corporate! y are not older than the time of Peter of Lyons, furnishes no proof that it is a
modern fabrication.
The
Treatise,
admit,
is
not
i.
e.
31. apud
12.
2, 3, 73.
126.
CHAP.
XII.]
?
AND ALBIGENSES.
465
having erroneously ascribed it to an early part of the twelfth century, even if, on Bossuet s theory, Peter of Lyons were really the
founder of the entire Church of the Valdenses, would afford no very satisfactory evidence that it
for instance,
who
flourished subsequently
During many centuries, as I have already observed, the old Vallenses seem rarely to have departed from their native Valleys. Their testi
mony was,
immediate papalising neighbours : and there, as we have seen, their existence was well known to the governing powers and to the influential mem
bers of the
But, a simple and primitive race, strongly attached to their mountain fastnesses, we hear not of them out of their own
direct vicinage for, as Bossuet justly remarks, it was an error of Gretser (and, I may add, of Mari
:
Roman Church.
ana
also,
and of other
Jesuits),
in a
much
later
age, unskilfully and vaguely to apply the name of Valdenses to those who were really Albigenses *.
With Peter the Vaudois, however, a new suc cession of ages commences and, what his alpine
:
brethren (his brethren, apparently, after the flesh, as well as after the spirit) had hitherto wanted,
k
livr. xi.
46.
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
the Christian zeal of the enlightened and liberal merchant amply supplied. Under the name of
the Poor
Men
generation to generation, should go forth, like the wandering Albigenses, into the world at large, and should thus carry the Gospel to every quarter of Europe*.
of quietly vegetating at
home from
Of this peculiarity in the new local sect of MODERN Heretics, as Reinerius styles and de scribes them, we have abundant historical tes
1
.
timony
*
-\.
Ultimately, I believe, either directly or indirectly, they did thus carry the Gospel to every quarter of Europe: and, hence, the language of Reinerius, even in the thirteenth century,
will scarcely be
in
qua
hcec secta
deemed an exaggeration Fere nulla est terra, non sit. But the south of Europe, as we may
;
gather from the obviously far too diminishing allegations of Pilichdorf, was the chief theatre of their missionary labours.
Licet tu, Valdensis haeretice,
damnationem, ostendam tibi tamen gentes, tribus, et linguas, ubi, per Dei gratiam, sunt omnes Catholici, populos, et omnes homines sunt immunes, a tua secta penitus conservati
aeternam
:
scilicet, Angliam, Flammingiam, Flandriam, Brabantiam, Garlandriam, Westphaliam, Daciam, Sueciam, Norwegiam, Prus-
siam,
et
regnum Cracoviae,
What
fere
enim nulla
c. iv. qua must undoubtedly be understood of the Leonists as he p. 299), viewed them in the middle of the thirteenth century, after the
Reiner, de haeret.
CHAP.
(1.)
XII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
467
The
is
composed of members
of two different descriptions. Some of them are distinguished by the name of The Perfect but, of these, the strictly proper de
:
signation
is,
of
Lyons
*.
Into
education,
others.
that so they
to
teach
These say, that they possess nothing as individual property, neither houses nor lands nor certain man
sions
:
and
they leave.
the Apostles
ters
They
:
of
Mas
and
the
To
these,
minister
full
time of the holy merchant, the Vallenses, so far from being spread over the whole world like the Paulician Albigenses,
in their
It
is
The
Valdo were
called The
to
The
468
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
Into whatever place they come, things necessary. their Laity contrive mutually to insinuate among
Then
the purpose of secretly hearing and seeing : them, congregate to them in some place of safety
many, for
and there they send to them the best meat and drink. Here they appoint to the disciples collections of the said Poor Money, to be made for the support of Men and their Masters and their students, who are unable to supply their own evpences ; or indeed, like
wise,
in order to allure
money draws
*
fecti
to their sect *.
Duo
eorum
et hi proprie vocantur
Nee omnes ad
tur,
Hi
nihil
nee domos, nee possessiones, nee certas mansiones Hi dicunt se conjuges, si quas ante habuerunt, relinquunt. Apostolorum successores; et sunt magistri aliorum et confeshabere,
sores
:
los in errore.
His ministrant
In discipuli necessaria.
mutuo adventum
illoruni.
quocunque Conve;
niunt ad eos plures in tuto loco in latibulis audire eos et videre Et indicunt cibi et potus. et mittunt eis illuc
optima quaeque
discipulis
collectas
nunimorum
et
pro
sustentatione
eorundem
se magistrorum suorum et studentium, qui per Pauperum non habent vel etiam ad alliciendum aliquos, quos sumptos nummi trahit ad sectatn eorum. Auctor. Anon, de
;
cupiditas
haer.
vol.
in
Marten.
Thesaur. Anecdot.
The gratuitous slander, that these poor persecuted people is so tempted proselytes to join them by pecuniary bribery,
CHAP.
(2.)
XII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
469
Walter Mapes similarly exhibits the Poor of Lyons or the Perfect Brethren under the aspect of Preachers or Missionaries, when, in the
Men
name
of Val-
saw, in the Council of Rome celebrated under Pope Alexander III. certain illiterate individuals, called from their Primate Valdes who had been a
citizen
We
of Lyons upon
the.
Rhone,
VALDESIANS.
to the
Tongue ; wherein were con and gloss of the Psalter and likewise
:
and,
much urgency,
of preaching might be confirmed to them ; for though they had lived mere sciolists, they seemed to
themselves to be skilful and well-instructed clerks.
/,
been
of their
and,
whom
palpably absurd upon the very face of it, that it could deserve no notice save as exhibiting the genuine animus of a true popish
priest
and
inquisitor.
Accordingly,
it
for, as
from Usher,
par.
it
Summa
an
of Ivonet,
ii.
The
writer
whom
Marten
styles
anonymous author,
rius.
I believe,
now
ascertained to
be Reineis
placed
immediately
Inquisitor.
the
Summa
of that
well-known apostate
470
that supreme
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
fessions,
I shot an arrow
mark.
For,
many
two Valdesians, who seemed the chief of their sect, were brought to me, that they might
dispute
with
me concerning
love
the faith
not,
however,
from
any of inquiring after truth ; but purely that I might be confuted, and that my mouth might be
stopped as if
considerable feel-
ing of timidity, lest, for my sins, the grace of speech should be denied to me in so great a Council. But
the Prelate
commanded me
:
to set to
against them
tions
I propounded the most trifling ques such as no person ought to be ignorant of: ; as knowing, that, when an ass is munching thistles,
First, then,
he
is
God the Father ? They answered: And in God the Son? They an swered: We believe. And in the Holy Ghost ? Still they answered: We believe. / then reiter ated And in the mother of Christ ? Again they
Believe ye in
believe.
We
gave the same answer : We believe. Upon this, with a manifold clamour, they were
in confusion. And do so : for they were ruled well, indeed, they might by none ; and yet, like Phaethon who did not so
derided by all
much
to be
as
know
the
names of
rulers themselves.
CHAP. XII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
471
These men have no where any fixed domiciles ; but they travel about two and two, naked as to their
feet, clad in coarse woollen garments,
having nothing,
the
holding
all
things
in
common
like
Apostles,
following naked a naked Christ. They begin, at with the utmost humility; because they present, cannot get in a single foot : but, if once we admit
them, we shall soon be ourselves expelled*.
*
Vidimus
in
Concilio
III.
primate ipsorum Valde dictos, qui fuerat civis Lugduni super Rhodanum) qui librum Domino Papae praesentaverunt lingua
;
conscriptum gallica,
in
quo textus
rumque Legis
Hi multa
:
pete-
sibi confirmari
quia
cum
Ego multorum
:
millium,
super eorum
a
vocatusque
confes-
quodam magno
maxiraus
Papa
sionum curam injunxerat, conjeci sagittam ad signum. Multisque legis peritis et prudentibus adscitis, deducti sunt ad me duo
Valdesii, qui sua videbantur in secta praecipui, disputaturi
me-
cum de
non amore veritatis iuquirendae, sed ut, me conTimidus, victo, clauderetur os incum quasi loquentis iniqua. fateor, sedi ne, peccatis exigentibus, in Concilia tanto mihi
fide
: ;
Jussit
me
Primo, igitur, proposui levisqui respondere parabant. nemini licet ignorare sciens, quod, asino cardones sima, quae
:
Creditis in
Deum
:
Patrem
runt
:
Responderunt
Credimus.
Et
in Filium ?
Responde-
Credimus. Et in Spiritum Sanctum ? Credimus. Iteravi In matrem Christi? Et illi item: Credimus. Et ab omnibus
sunt
multiplici
clamore
derisi.
Gualter.
Mapes. de
Nugis
472
(3.)
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
these
Papal Court in the year 1179, which Walter Mapes seems most unaccountably
good
men
at the
to
have mistaken
for
wit,
did
not deter
their
in
successors from
the year 1212. description of it is given by Conrad of Lichtenau, Abbot of Ursperg and it is
:
marked by the same characteristics of the disciples of Peter, as those which were associated with the The statement of Conrad is former application.
yet further important:
observed,
it
because, as
have already
French Community
distinct,
i.
c.
31.
Success,
Mapes, when he Timidus, fateor, sedi ; ne, peccatis exigentibus, in Con says That is to say, 1 cilia tanto mihi gratia negarctur sermonis. am not quite certain whether he means, that he felt some
1
am
:
qualms, lest, the grace of eloquence being denied to him, he should thence make but a bad figure in this examination of the
Valdenses
lest the
or whether he
would
intimate, that he
was
afraid
permission of speaking and of thus honourably distin guishing himself should be denied on account of his compara
tive obscurity.
former, perhaps, in the case of any other for to examine is, in man, would not be an unlikely sense
:
The
effect, to
be examined.
self-
may
peradventure
stem better
In
to accord
I
my
translation,
to
and thence, probably, is his real meaning. have copied the ambiguity of the original.
a
Walter seems
have had
shrewd guess, as
to the ultimate
CHAP.
XII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
473
continue to exist.
:
One of these
bears the
name
of the Humiliated
of Lyons.
the other, that of the Poor Men Lucius once enrolled them among Pope
because certain superstitious opinions and In their secret practices were found among them.
:
Heretics
from
the
Church
At that time, in the year 1212 to wit, we *ome of the number of those, who were called Poor
sau>
Men
and
master of
as
think,
these petitioned,
and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and world worshipped. The sacred image that fell from heaven was as much jeopardied in one case, as in the other.
the
On
"AyaXpa
of the
200.
and, afterward, for his rare merits, I suppose, was, made Archdeacon of Oxford.
in
Archidiaconus Oxoniensis
efficitur.
Nicol.
One
often, I dare
474
THE VALLENSES
truly,
[BOOK
III.
led the life of the Apostles and that, neither to possess any thing nor to have any wishing
:
;
But the through the villages and to the castles. Lord Pope objected to them certain superstitious
matters in their conversation
:
as,
they preached in shoes which covered only the upper part of the foot, walking as it were with their feet
wore certain
caps as if belonging to some Religious Order, they polled the hair of their heads only in the same
This also seemed opprobrious that men and women walked together
way, and commonly remained together in the same house ; so that it was said of them, that they
sometimes slept together in the same bed. All which things nevertheless, they asserted to have descended
to
*.
Olim dure
alii
rum
Humiliates,
occultis
dogmata quoque praedicationibus, quas faciebant plerunque in Vidimus latibulis, Ecclesiae Dei et Sacerdotio derogabatur.
eo quod In
tune temporis (anno scilicet 1212) aliquos de numero eorum, qui dicebantur Pauperes de Lugduno, apud Sedem Apostolicam,
ut puto, Bernhardo
et hi petebant,
sectam suam a Sede Apostolica confirmari et privilegiari. Sane ipsi, dicentes se gerere vitam Apostolorum, nihil volentes possi.
CHAP. XII.]
AND ALBIQENSES.
475
The women, no doubt, who shocked the concubinarian purity of the Romish Priesthood by thus
travelling with
men
that
though, from the inconvenience attendant upon such a practice, they had, shortly afterward (we have seen) when the Inquisitor
missionaries
:
it.
Yet, as
it
was
was
apostolical.
very well read Valdenses, might, as appears from the turn of his phrase ology, be ignorant of the biblically- recorded cir cumstance *. But the Poor Men of Lyons had
inferior
Conrad, indeed,
scripturist to
read the question propounded by St. Paul and thence felt themselves authorised in asserting,
:
superstitiosa, in conversatione
eisdem
objecit
videlicet,
pedem
terea,
cum
portarent
religionis, capillos
capitis
non attondebant,
videbatur,
Hoc quoque
:
probro-
quod viri et mulieres simul ambulabant in et de eis dicevia, et plerumque simul manebant in una domo Quae retur, quod quandoque simul in lectulis accubabant. tamen omnia ipsi asserebant ab Apostolis descendisse. Conrad.
in eis
sum
in A. D.
xiii. p.
291.
(scil. pontificios),
continuata
nos vero
Novi Testamenti
(scil.
literaliter
sciat
vir
de corde.
vel
Apud
qui
Valdenses)
rarus
est
femina,
textum non
307.
sciat
vulgariter recitare.
Reiner, de haeret.
c. viii. p.
476
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
that the practice of travelling with their lawful wives had descended to them from the Apostles *.
2.
by papal persecution
well observes,
but, as Archbishop
Usher
other persecution produced effect, than that, which, of old, resulted from the a matter, murder of the protomartyr Stephen
;
no
fully attested
by the
Inquisitor
Eymeric
in the
fourteenth century.
When
from
the
fearing the
Poor men could not rest at Lyons, Archbishop and the Church, they fled
being dispersed through the had very many ac parts of France and Italy, they to the present day, they complices ; and, down even
that city: and,
have in various
errors f.
districts
Thus, on amply sufficient evidence, the his torian Thuanus was induced to write in manner
3.
following.
Peter Valdo, the ringleader of the Valdcnses, : and, leaving his own country, went into Belgium
Have we
as other Apostles,
1
not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?
Corinth, ix. 5.
et
f Qui enim Lugduni quiescere non poterant, Archiepiscopum Ecclesiam metuentes, inde fugerunt atque, per partes Fran:
cite et
Italiae dispersi, quamplures complices habuerunt; et, Eymeric. usque hodie, errores suos hinc inde seminaverunt. Direct. Inquis. par. ii. quaest. 14. apud Usscr. de Eccles. Suc
5)
cess, c. viii.
10.
CHAP. XII.]
in
AND ALBIGENSES.
477
Picardy, as they now call the province, obtained Passing thence into Germany, he many followers
.
long sojourned
settled in
among the Vandalic States, and finally Bohemia where those, who, at the present
:
day,
origin of the
Poor
Men
of
* Petrus Valdus,
eorum antesignanus,
in
gium venit
dalices
atque,
sectatores nactus,
cum
inde in
Germaniam
transiisset, per
Van-
civitates diu
;
Boemia
16.
consedit
Thuan. Hist.
lib. vi.
p. 221.
into
hence some have supposed that the word denotes Beggars from But Pighard so evidently forms the transi the verb Beggen.
tion link
little
doubt,
though it is not unlikely, that Pighard may have passed into Bey hard with an allusion to the missionaries subsisting by voluntary alms or contribu
I
etymology
tions.
We
must
not,
The mendicant Friars of hards with the Franciscan Beguins. Francis Assisi were one of the two Orders set up by Inno St.
cent III. in express opposition to the Humiliated and the
Poor
See Conrad. Abbat. TJrsperg. Chron. in A. D. 1212, and Luc. Tudens. adv. Albig. lib. ii. c. 11. It was evi dently against the Valdensic Beghards or Picards in Germany,
of Lyons.
Men
who ridiculed the doctrine of Transubstantiation and who called the Romish Priests, God-makers, that Conrad of Magdenberg
wrote his Treatise, a part of which was edited by Gretser, at The fragment will be the end of the Work of Pilichdorf. found
in
xiii. p.
342, 343.
478
Lyons,
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
little
III.
we
shall probably
be not a
surprised
the
at the grave
When
:
from
Church, they had only very few dogmas contrary to Their sys our own perhaps, indeed, none totally.
tem was, in truth, a species of Donatism *. Certainly, if such were the case with the rich
Valdensic merchant and his proselytes, at least to the extent specified by the Bishop of Meaux, we
cannot view them, at the time when their labours commenced, as continuing the perpetuity of the
faithful
Church, however justly we may claim the Vallenses of Piedmont. The allegation, however,
so remarkable, that
it
is
fully
examined.
far as I
So
three
can
find,
gation, as
points
Poor Men,
preachers
;
to
the Pope,
and
the
from
those of
1.
not state so
For he mentions
* Lorsqu ils se sont s^pares, ils n avoient encore que tres-peu de dograes contraires aux notres, et peut-etre point du tout. C etoit one espece de Donatisme. Boss. Hist, des Variat.
livr. xi.
livr. xi.
83, 93.
CHAP.
XII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
479
only their application to Pope Innocent III. in the year 1212, as recorded by the Abbot of
Ursperg
strengthened his point, by intimating, that this was in truth the second application a former one
;
having been made in the year 1179 to Pope Alex ander III., as recorded by Walter Mapes.
course, the double fact, the particulars of which I have fully stated above, is readily admit
Of
:
ted
but
we have
to inquire,
how
far it
can be made
The
individuals,
who
were not native Piedmontise Subalpines, who had inherited their tenets from the most remote anti
quity,
their
and who thence felt no more scruples upon minds respecting the self-entitled Catholic Church and its Pontifical Head than we Catholics
in
communion with
:
the English
Church
feel at
present
Popery, who
but they were French Proselytes from thence, as we may well suppose,
could not, even in the course of several years, shake off the hereditary sense of dutiful subjection
which they had been educated. who This was precisely the case with Luther long wished to draw a line, between the imagined
in
;
the gross doctrinal corruptions of its managers and adherents*. Whence, if that wonderfully strong*
The
state of Luther s
480
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III
minded man,
culty in
shaking surely small wonder, that the French Proselytes of Lyons should honestly labour under a similar delusion,
it is
(if
it
own
/ permit
gences for
the publication of
my
may
it
propositions against
indul
this
may
be
attributed to
eyes.
own
contemptible I was,
and
in
when
and, as
were, by surprise.
for me
to retreat,
And, when it became impossible I made many concessions to the Pope : not,
points
;
however, in
many important
In fact, how despised and time, I adored him in earnest. wretched a monk was I then ; more like a lifeless body, than a Whereas, in regard to the Pope, how great was The potentates of the earth dreaded his nod. How distressed was my heart, in that year 1517, and in the following ; how submissive my mind then was to the hierarchy,
being
!
human
his
Majesty
nay, how I was almost driven to despair, through the agitations of care and fear and doubt: those secure spirits little know, who at this day insult the majesty of the
not feignedly but reallij
;
But
I,
who
then alone
I
was ignorant of many tilings, which now, by the grace of God, I understand, I disputed : and I was open to conviction. Not
finding satisfaction in the books of theologians and canonists, I wished to consult the living members of the Church itself.
CHAP.
XII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
avowed opposition
481
to his
In the year 1212, when the second application was made, we may well suppose, that the feeling
of hereditary
prescriptive
veneration
would be
greatly abated, or, in old converts, perhaps alto but there is small difficulty gether extinguished
:
propositions
There were indeed some godly souls, who entirely approved my : but I did not consider their authority as of weight with me in spiritual concerns. The Popes, Cardinals, Bishops,
the objects
was
so overloaded
with cares,
of my confidence. I waited for and continued eagerness and that I became almost stupid or
distracted.
At
length, after
I scarcely knew, when I was asleep, or when awake. I became enabled to answer every objection that
me from
:
CHURCH
ought
to be obeyed.
By
the grace
of
difficulty also.
Most
Roman Church,
day, with a perverse spirit of opposition, extol Popery so exceed Pref. in Luther. Oper. vol. i. cited by ingly against me.
Milner
332.
in
iv.
p.
330
So
little
do I speculate
in
s
very nature of things, I am fully satisfied, that something strictly analogous must be the internal process expe rienced by every serious and devout person who is led honestly
to
work
his
painful
way from
to the
the
Roman Church
glorious
Gospel.
2
I
482
THE VALLENSES
it
[BOOK
III.
would think
proper to
periment (perhaps too in deference to the less matured convictions of younger converts), before
they finally separated themselves from Rome, as
utterly
apostatic,
mere
(an impression, which, we know, long influenced the mighty mind of the Saxon Reformer), the second application, I sup
pose,
Under
was made
absolutely refused, of Friars were instituted with the direct object of counteraction the pious and scrupulous French
;
feel, that,
that
am
the more
we
any step of
Peter
in the
was taken
first
in the life-time of
himself.
The
application
:
was made
Thus, in
disciples
when
he himself
Now
this is precisely
Peter, born and educated a Vaudois, though long possessed of knowledge merely speculative, had
*
xviii. 6.
CHAP.
XII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
:
483
no hereditary scruples to master he, therefore, to work, without the least or hesitation; stay and, while he lived, he had sufficient influence
went
with his converts to prevent any act of submission to Rome. But, as soon as he died, the honest fears and doubts of those who were only prose lytes very naturally prevailed and, to satisfy weak consciences, an attempt was made to procure the Nor was it, until after the failure papal sanction. of yet a second attempt, that the French Val:
satisfied,
and darkness,
of Bossuet to
differed little
Thus shew
:
valueless
that the
is
the
first effort
French Valdenses
Romanists
2. Nor is his second effort much more cogent o and powerful than his first. The Poor Men of Lyons, he contends, on the au thority of Reinerius, so far from denying the doc
maintained it. have great doubts, whether Reinerius says really any such thing, as the Bishop puts into his
mouth
for,
after a
mode not
is
altogether
uncom
mon
Even
if
deny, he would
Reinerius favoured his opinion, which I venture to still have to contend with the decisive testimony
2
I
484
According
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
ing heretics, the Poor Men of Lyons said, indeed as the Bishop correctly states that Transubstan:
in
the
But then, what the Bishop forgets to state, these same Poor Men, according to the same Reinerius in the same place of the same Treatise, also said that the Mass is nothing
:
because the Apostles had it not, and because it is celebrated for the sake of lucre ; and that, beyond the precise words of Christ himself in the vulgar
tongue, they could not receive the canon of the
Mass ;
of Stephen of Borbon, who flourished from the year 1223, to the year 1264. This writer says expressly, that the Valdenses refused to adore that which the Romanists believed to be the
body of
of expression, which clearly imports, that the Valdenses did not believe the consecrated elements to
Christ
:
mode
stantiation,
be the body and blood of Christ through any material transuband that they consistently refused on that precise
ground to offer to them any religious worship. Item solum Deum adorandum dicunt omni genere adorationis
et dicunt peccare eos, qui
Corpus
Christi, adorant
crucem, vel illud quod nos credimus vel Sanctos alios a Deo, vel eorum
imagines.
Steph. Borbon. de Septem Donis Spiritus Sanct. in Richin. Dissert, de Valdens. c. iii. 4. artic. 17.
non credunt
of necessity imports the Illi non credunt: is the obvious cause of the Illi non
Item dicunt
quod
manu
in-
Reiner, dehaeret.
xiii. p.
300.
CHAP. XII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
made by Priests
in the
485
and that
is
the oblation,
Mass,
:
nothing and profits nothing*. This I apprehend, looks somewhat suspicious and when we recollect that the term Transubstantiation
into
authorised
while the
proselytism of the Poor Men was in active progress from the year 1160 to the year 1179, we are strongly tempted to conjecture, that Reinerius
reported them rather in the phraseology of his adopted Church, than in their own proper phrase
ology
that
we
are strongly
really
tempted
said was,
to
conjecture,
bene-
what they
that a
not
but
upon the
worthiness of the devout recipient. Be It will be said, that this is conjecture. it so. Yet Bossuet, since he cites Reinerius as
edited by the Jesuit Gretser,
hand was in, have also cited Reinerius as edited Marten for there is, I believe, no doubt, that the by Treatise, published by Marten as the Work of an anonymous author, and placed by him in his The
his
:
Summa
of Reinerius,
t Item dicunt
quod Missa
nihil sit,
quod
oblatio, quae
fit
in
neque
proficit.
Reiner, de hreret.
300.
486
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
Now, according to Reinerius, as speaking in this Work, the Poor Men of Lyons viewed the
Eucharist in the same manner as
all
the Reformed
They
and blood
of Christ are truly present, but only blessed bread ; which, in a certain Jigure, is called The Body of Christ as it is said, That rock was Christ, and
:
the like *.
*
Corpus Christi
et
esse, sed
tantura
panem benedictum;
figura
quadarn, dicitur
Corpus Christi : sicut dicitur, Petra autem erat Chris tus, et similia. Auctor. Anon. (scil. Reiner.) de hrer. Pauper, de
Lugdun.
in
v. col.
1779.
expression,
by
Gretser, uses an
cum Valdensibus
fere in
omnibus,
quod recipiunt
301.
Siscidenses,
Eucharistiae Sacramentum.
Reiner, de
haeret. c. vi. p.
The
it
Eucharist.
fore,
In
this,
There
by
receive
it.
the Valdenses, so far as I am aware, are never charged and Bossuet with rejecting altogether the supper of the Lord even on the professed authority of Reinerius, contends, himself,
:
Now
that they
tiation
went so
far as
Transubstan
What,
then,
it
that
to this
CHAP. XII.]
3.
AND ALBIGENSES.
487
now, perhaps hear no more of the French Valdenses being stout Transubstantialists
shall
:
We
but
still, if
we may
first
Meaux,
when they
separated themselves, they main tained very few dogmas, perhaps indeed not a single one, contrary to those of Rome.
He
builds,
question,
is
that
They
of the Eucharist
;
according
to its definition in
the
in
Roman Church
almost
its
while the
all
popish definition.
In
Bossuet
felt
the
difficulty
it,
of this
passage
its
and thence
;
attempted
that
be simply by asserting The Sisddenses readily received the Eucharist from the hands of a Romish Priest, while the Valdenses, on the plea of
to get over
import to
that
Priest
unworthiness,
livr. xi.
iii.
would not
receive
it
from him.
:
The
but
it is
When
recipio
Reinerius, as in the present passage, uses the word he uses it only in the sense of nakedly and absolutely
;
some book
or doctrine
Thus, in the very same chapter as that wherein the present passage occurs, he says : Scripta Patrum non recipiunt ; and Istos (scil. Matthaeum, Marcum, Lucam, et Joannem) dicunt
recipiendos, et ipsi eos recipiunt
;
recipit
totam
c. vi.
The
Consequently,
tously affix to
THE VALLENSES
Reinerius, as edited
[BOOK
:
III.
by Marten
a supposition,
which, if correct, involves the point, that he knew Reinerius to have mentioned the rejection of Transubstantiation by the Poor
Men
of Lyons, though
he has thought
ledge.
it
expedient to suppress
such know
Be
this,
however, as
it
may, Reinerius
was
says only, that The contempt of ecclesiastical power their Jirst heresy, which, under the influence of
Satan, precipitated them into innumerable errors : and those errors, or pretended errors, he after
ward
his Treatises,
the slightest hint that, at their first separation under the teaching of Peter Valdo, they differed
little,
if
much
*
later
fuit
growth
prima
hoc,
f.
Haec
haeresis
traditi
potestatis.
in
Ex
errores innumeros.
Auctor. Anon.
in
Reiner.) de haer.
v.
Lugdun.
to
have
suspected,
at
that they
from the
from
it.
Roman Church
the
time of
16.
lib. vi.
vol.
i.
p. 221.
Bossuet means only, that the French Proselytes of Peter the Vaudois did not instantaneously renounce all the
f If
errors
Roman
by
may speak correctly, though ignorant of the existence of any precise evidence for the direct
to the truth
am
CHAP.
XII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
489
ed papalising Valdenses are recorded to have held and, that the inquiry may be quite unexception
able,
I
The Valdenses say: that the Roman Church not the Church of Jesus Christ: but that it
a Church of Malignants, and that it fell away under Sylvester when the venom of temporal
posses
sions
was infused
:
into the
Church
*.
They say
of Christ,
Church
the
and examples of
They erroneously contend: that all vices and sins are in the Church ; and that they themselves alone
live
justly J.
In that case, their progress would only resemble the progress of Luther. Yet it would, I because Luther had painfully to suppose, be far more rapid
:
way by
who
being born
sit
Ecclesia Jesu
defecerit sub
sit
et
quod
Sylvestro, quando venenum temporalium infusum est in Ecclesiam. Reiner de haeret. c. v. in Bibl. Patr. vol. xiii. p. 300.
f Dicunt
quod
ipsi sint
Ecclesia Christi
Secundus error
est
quod oinnia
vitia et
peccata
in
Eccle-
490
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
They falsely say : that, except themselves, al most no one preserves evangelical doctrine in the
Church
*.
They say : that they are the truly poor in spirit ; and that, on account of righteousness and faith,
they suffer persecution -\. They say : that they are the
Christ^..
Church of Jesus
on account
They say
Apocalyse
the
that the
Roman Church,
is
They say : that they despise all the statutes of Church, because they are burdensome and too numerous
||.
They say
errors
51"
that
the
Pope
is
the
head of
all
sia sint, et
quod
ipsi soli
just6 vivant.
Reiner, de haeret.
c. v.
p. 300.
* Tertius est
300.
f Quartus
quod
300.
ipsi sint
Reiner, de
Sextus
sit
meretrix
in
Apocac. v. p.
Reiner, de haeret.
Septimus
quod omnia
quia
sunt gravia et plurima. Reiner, de haeret. c. v. p. 300. IT Octavus: quod Papa sit caput omnium erroium. Reiner,
de
haeret. c. v, p.
300.
CHAP. XII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
491
;
They say : that the Prelates are the Scribes and the Religious Orders, the Pharisees *.
They say
that the
Pope and
all the
Bishops are
homicides on account of the wars which they stir up f. : that we are not to obey the Prelates, They say but God alone J.
all the
that the
forbid
marry\. preached which cannot be proved by the text of the Bible, they deem it a mere fable
If any thing
be
and they say, that Holy Scripture in the vulgar tongue has quite as benejicial an effect, as it has in
the Latin language
;
Nonus
quod Praelati
c. v. p.
sint Scribae
et Religiosi, Pharisrei.
Reiner, de haeret.
300.
et
t Decimus
propter bella.
quod Papa
Reiner, de haeret.
300.
J Undecimus, quod non sit obediendum Praelatis, sed tantum Deo. Reiner, de haeret. c. v. p. 300.
Omnia sacramenta
c. v. p.
Ecclesiae damnant.
Reiner, de hzeret.
This only means, that they condemn the sacra ments as administered and defined by the Romish Priesthood.
300.
Accordingly, they themselves administered Baptism and the Lord s Supper; though it was truly said of them, Omnes exorcismos et benedictiones baptismi reprobant
nihil sit, quia Apostoli earn
c. v. p.
||
and,
Quod Missa
non habebant.
Reiner, de haeret.
300.
prohibendo.
IF
Item, quod Ecclesia erraverit, dicunt matrimonium Clericis Reiner, de haeret. c. v. p. 300.
492
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
III.
New
and, adhering to the text alone, they with the sayings and reject decretals and decrees expositions of the Saints*.
of the Old
gard absolution f. They reject the indulgences of the Church : and and believe not, that a breach deride dispensations
:
of Monastic Rule
alone
but
pray
to
God
exclu
tura
quam
in latino.
Unde
Reiner, de
et expositiones
Reiner, de haeret.
300.
;
et absolutioneiri
non curant.
J
Reiner, de haeret.
c. v. p.
300.
:
Item, indulgentias
Ecclesiae respuunt
et dispensationes
Reiner, de
haeret.
nisi
Apostolos.
Reiner, de
Nullum sanctum
invocant,
nisi
Deum
solum.
Reiner, de
haeret. c. v. p. 300.
CHAP. XII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
493
They
and vigils,
of the Saints *.
at the superstition of the Laity, in choosing tutelar Saints by lot at the altar f.
They laugh
: and they disbelieve the legends of the Saints J. ^4,s the miracles of the Saints, for they make a mock at them and their relics they despise The holy cross they deem no better than a log of
:
.
common wood
.
||
They abhor the sign of the cross on account of Christ s punishment : nor do they ever sign them selves with it ^[. They say
:
that the
doctrine of Christ
and
the
is
salvation
and that
the tradition
of the Church
*
is
sanctorum,
contemnunt.
c. v. p.
301.
:
credunt.
Item, Letaniam nunquam legunt legendas sanctorum non Reiner, de haeret. c. v. p. 301. They objected not
blasphemous trumpery,
Item,
Item
miracula sanctorum
subsannant.
reliquias
sanctorum contemnunt.
||
Reiner, de haeret.
c. v. p.
301.
ner,
II
de
Rei
Christi
Item, signum sanctae crucis horrent, propter supplicium nee unquam signant se. Reiner, de haeret. c. v. p. 301.
:
494
They despise
THE VALLENSES
all ecclesiastical
:
[BOOK
III.
tion
Sunday, the Reconcilement of Penitents, the adora of the Cross on Good-Friday, the Feast of
Easter, and the
Festivals
Saints*.
They despise,
dictions
likewise,
all
and bene
flesh, palms,
than simple
to
be idola
ad salutem
quod
traditio Ecclesiae
c. v. p.
Pharisaeorum.
consuetudines
Reiner, de haeret.
Ecclesiae
:
301.
Omnes
approbatas,
quas
in
Festum Luminum, Evangelio non legunt, contemnunt Palmarum, Reconciliationem Prenitentium, Adorationem Crucis in Parascene, Festum Paschse, Christi et Sanctorum Festa,
sicut
spernunt.
Reiner, de hseret.
c. v. p.
301.
Agni
salis,
et aquas.
Reiner,
Aquam
benedictam dicunt
301.
esse, ut
simplicem.
Reiner, de
hseret. c. v. p.
hseret. c. v. p.
||
Reiner, de
CHAP. XII.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
495
oblations
at funerals,
visitations
of
way
All these errors they hold, because they deny Pur : that there are only two gatory saying, ways ; one,
of the
elect
to
heaven
They say
that one
Pater Noster
bells
is
worth more,
and
Mass
p.
Rogationum
301.
*
et funerura,
respuunt.
Reiner, de haeret.
c. v.
temnunt.
t Item dicunt, quod exequiae mortuorum, Missae defunctorum, oblationes funerum, testamenta, legata, visitatio sepul-
chrorum,
suffragia,
I
vigiliae
lectae,
anniversarius,
tricesimus,
septimus,
Reiner, de haeret.
c. v, p.
301.
:
Hos omnes
habent,
;
quia
negant Purgatorium
scilicet,
unam, electorum, ad
Reiner, de haeret.
Item dicunt, quod unum Pater Noster plus valeat, quam quam Missa. Reiner, de
may
summary of
their
doc
which has been given by Thuanus. Eorum haec dogmata ferebantur Ecclesiam Romanam, verse Christi fidei renunciaverit Babylonicam Merequoniam
trines,
:
quam
496
THE VALLENSES
dutiful
[BOOK
III.
must
whom
well-merited eulogium.
Poor men of Lyons, says the Bishop of Meaux, separated themselves from the Church, they had only very few dogmas contrary to our own
the
:
When
mind
is
proinde minimi parendum Pontifici et Episcopis, qui ejus errores fovent ; monasticam vitam Ecclesise sentinam ac plutonium esse vana illius vota, devovit at revellendam esse prsecepit
;
;
nee
nisi fcedis
puerorum amoribus
templorum encaenia, cultum sanctorum, ac pro mortuis propitiatorium, Satanae commenta esse. His praecipuis ac certis eorum doctrinre capitibus
alia afficta, et
de
cibis.
de conjugio,resurrectione, animai statu post mortem, Thuan. Hist. lib. vi. 16. vol. i. p. 221.
BOOK
IV.
SUPPLEMENTAL MATTER.
CHAPTER
I.
SINCE on
all
hands
it
is
lenses were not Manicheans, whatever might have been the case with the Albigenses it is, I think,
:
palpably clear, that, if the latter had really been Manicheans (as the Papists delight to represent them), they never could have had any religious
intercourse with the former, and
still
less
could
ever have finally been absorbed into their Society. Yet both these matters rest upon historical testi
mony.
Hence we
:
conclusion
been Manicheans.
have more than one notice, that the Albigenses and the Vallenses mingled with each
I.
We
498
other, in the
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
IV.
way
to
their
final
country.
1.
About
five
1655, or (to specify the precise time) in the year 1165, a large body of Frenchmen, driven from
their
own country by
in
chiefly
that of Pignerol where they were kindly received as brethren, and where they settled among the ancient Vallenses without any objec
:
tion
being contrived *. Now who could these gallican sufferers from persecution have been ?
Certainly, they could not have been the French For he himself only Proselytes of Peter Valdo.
exchanged a barren hereditary speculation for a and it spiritual personal faith in the year 1160:
is
highly improbable, that his converts in the course of five years, even if he made any in the lapse of that period, should either be so numerous
or attract such attention, as to emigrate in a large
* Morland s Hist, of the
Church of Piedra.
p.
12, 289.
:
he
falls into
of styling, as it Gretser and Mariana, all the dissident religionists of France, by the general name of Valdenses, as if they had universally
the mistake, so justly pointed out by Bossuet, had become common in the time of the Jesuits
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
.
499
Accord
tells
us,
that the sect of the French Valdenses or the Poor of Lyons, as instituted by Peter the Valdo, did not commence until the year 1170*. This is
Men
what we should expect. In the first suppose, the pious merchant s converts were neither very abundant in number nor very complete in organisation. They were a small if and feeble flock and, they drew any notice, would probably be deemed nothing more they
precisely
instance, I
:
than the germ of one of those Religious Orders which the Roman Church has ever sagaciously patronised as the safety-valves of fanaticism. But,
in
the
year
11 70, they
embodied as a Society of Missionaries. Whence that year was not unnaturally pitched upon, as
affording a satisfactory date for the commence ment of the French Valdenses under the aspect
of an organised sect of new heretics. Such a chronological view of the matter precludes the
possibility,
mont
year 1165 could have been proselyted It may be added too, of Peter Valdo. disciples that a permanent settlement of this description was directly contrary to the very plan of the
in the
institution of the
*
Poor
Men
of Lyons.
They were
circiter
Petrus Valdus, locuples civis Lugdunensis, anno Christi Thuan. Hist. lib. vi. 1170, Valdensibus nomen dedit.
i.
16. vol.
p.
221.
2
500
strictly a
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
IV.
body
of settled
and,
as
Apostles of old whom they professed to imitate, the Lord might have a work for them to perform. Agreeably to this studied arrangement, when per
up against them at Lyons, instead of settling corporately in some one less disturbed district, they were dispersed, as
secution
was
at length stirred
Nicolas Eymeric the Inquisitor assures us, through the various regions of France and Italy, where
they made numerous converts, and where, in this province and in that province, they dissemina
ted what that pontifical agent denominates their
errors *.
But,
*
if
et
et Italiae dispersi,
quaest.
24
in
viii.
is
was the country of the This would very naturally be the case for here they Alps. would join their brethren, the more ancient Vallenses of Pied
particular that their chief place of refuge
:
mont.
Omnibus
inter
Alpes, effunduntur; ubi, tutissimum perfugium nacti, complures annos latuerunt. Thuan. Hist. lib. vi. 16. vol. i.
p.
221.
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
501
the year 1165 were not French Valdenses, they could only have been French Cathari or Albi-
genses,
who
fled
during the first half of the twelfth century, against the Petrobrusians and the Henricians.
a distinct case, of the ready amalgamation of the Vallenses of Piedmont and the Albigenses of France an
Here,
then,
we have
which,
few years
still
earlier
of the year 1165, we find Peter of Clugny giving a very intelligible hint, that the barbarous theo
logy (as he terms it) of the Cottian Alps was substantially the same as that of the Petrobrusians
or Albigenses.
The impious
says he, addressing himself to the Archbishops of Aries and Embrun, through the grace of God exciting and assisting your desires, has somewhat
removed
Yet, as
itself
the
country.
have heard,
has prepared
may
to
retreat,
in the province
of Gascony and
stirs
This report
:
me up
the
more
my present undertaking
to wit ; that the slippery snake, having or rather through your prosecution having escaped,
the report,
502
been expelled,
to
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
IV.
from your
districts,
;
the province of
Narbonne
and that
mere
timid sibilations
among you, in deserts and in petty have been changed into daring predications villages,
in large assemblies
and
in populous cities.
once
thought : that the cold Alps, and their rocks covered with perpetual snows, had introduced among your
all people this barbarism ; and that a land, unlike other lands, had created a race unlike all other
races
whence, through the clownish and untaught manners of the individuals, a foreign dogma might
:
more
have crept
But
this
RJione,
and by
a
and by
bours
:
of Toulouse, more populous than its neigh which ought to be the more cautious
who frequent
it
it,
and by
its trial
of
manifold doctrines,
* Stulta
ilia
may
impia haeresis (sell. Petri de Bruis), more sed, gratia Dei pestis validac, multos interfecit, plures infecit concitante et adjuvante studia vestra, a vestris regionibus sese
et
:
Migravit tamen, sicut audivi, ad loca satis paululiuu removit. vobis contigua: et, a Septimania vestra, vobis persequentibus,
expulsa,
in
provincia
nuper relata quod scilicet anguis lubricus, de regionibus vestris elapsus, iimno vobis prosequentibus expulsus, ad Narbonensem Provinciam sese contu lcrit; et, quod apud vos
:
in desertis et villulis
cum
CHAP.
1.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
503
So
far as I
:
imports
can judge, language such as this both that the existence of a barbarous
theology (as the refined Abbot of Clugny speaks), in the Cottian Alps bordering upon the diocese of
to Peter the
Venerable
resem
bled that of the Petrobrusians or Albigenses, as to produce, at the first blush, an impression of the
Albigenses themselves having borrowed their reli gious system from the Subalpines or Vallenses.
3.
As
for the
Poor
Men
of
Valdenses, they, from the very first, so intermin gled themselves with the Albigenses, and became so identified with them both in community of
teachers and in identity of doctrine, that, on one
memorable occasion, we
of nomenclature.
find also
an interchange
In the years 1205 and 1207, at Verfeuil and Pamiers and Montreal and other places in the
ventibus et populosis urbibus audacter praedicat. Putabam, Alpes gelidas, et perpetuis nivibus opertos scopulos, incolis
vestris
terris
:
omnibus
terrain
itaque, agres-
hominum moribus, peregrinum dogma facilius Sed, hanc opinionem meam, ultima rapidi Rhodani
urbs vicinis
populosior,
expurgat
;
quae,
adversus falsum
dogma, tanto
popu-
lorum, et experientia multiplicium doctrinarum, doctior esse Petr. Vener. Cluniac. cont. Petrobrus. in Bibl. Patr. potuit.
vol. xii. par.
ii.
p.
206, 208.
504
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
IV.
we may view
dissident
religionists,
Dauphiny and Languedoc and Guienne and Gascony, and who were protected by the then power ful houses of Toulouse and Foix and Comminges. (1.) Now who were these dissident religionists? That they were Albigenses, there cannot be a
demonstrated, both by their geographical locality, and by the circumstance of the disputations immediately preceding the
doubt
horrid popish
conducted, under the auspices of Innocent III. and his successors, by that blood-stained disgrace
Accordingly, Nicolas Vignie r, who gives a full account of the disputation held at Montreal in the year 1207, that the speakers on the antidistinctly tells us
:
to
Papa
tria
missus fuerat
Primo
Romanam
;
Sponsam nee
insti-
sanctam Ecclesiatn
de qua
in
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
505
also gives an account of the previous disputation at Pamiers in the year 1205, tells us, no less distinctly, that it was held by the Romanists against the Valdenses
specially
while he adds, without any absolute distinction of the parties concerned, that the dis
:
putation at Verfeuil, in the same year, was main tained against the pontifical faction of his own
Politiam illius non esse bonam neque sanctam Secundo neque a Jesu Christo stabilitam. Tertio Missam, eo raodo quo celebratur hodie, non esse, vel a Jesu Christo, vel ab Apostolis ejus, institutam.
:
Novo Testamento
confir-
Auzerbensi, R. de Bot,
Postquam
decim concedi
dies,
scripto mandaret:
sarii
et
quibus thesium suarum probationes Arnaldus Hot, octo dies, quibus adver-
scripto responderet.
Reversi die praestituto, ad quatriduum colloquium produxerunt quo tempore Episcopo prsesto fuerunt, legati duo, P. de
:
Castronovo,
M. Radulphus
plures.
Demum,
istis
asserente Episcopo
:
Ea,
ea esse auferenda
controversiis constitutum.
A.D. 1207.
apud
TJsser.
de Eccles. Success,
22.
is
To
their
the Pontificals, in
due
for
semblance of moderation.
The
fact
was
the Albigenses
and
and overbear
were compelled to
This
fairly
pitted disputants.
506
friends
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
IV.
heresiarchs generally, who openly (to the great scandal of mild and tolerant Popery)
by
assembled under the evident protection of their lords, and whom he boasts to have been confounded
their opponents,
not converted
may perhaps be
said
that this
is
nothing
and
for
party,
although privileged by
the
Dominic, found that they required arguments somewhat more the sword of de Montfort was felicitously cogent than verbal
:
Bishop
in
tion,
Hot and
*
ipse,
qui sagittas
ad hoc opus produxit electos Dei pugiles dominum Didacum Episcopum Uxamensem, et virum per omnia benedictum (sanc
:
ejus
Dominicum, Canonicum
Duo
igitur isti
Uxamensis)
aggregatis
et beatus
illis
superstitiones
omni humilitate,
et congredi
:
abstinentia, et patientia, coeperunt procedere non pomposa aut equestri multitudine, sed calle pedestri, ad indictas disputationes contra haereticos, de castro in
castrum, nudis plantis et pedibus ambulantes. Fuitque una de priniis congregationibus apud Viridefolium
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
507
more than the confusion, into which the Jesuits Gretser and Mariana fell in a later age, and which led them erroneously to apply the name of Valdenses to those
who were
really Albigenses.
So, perad venture, at the first sight, it might But the language of William of Puyappear.
for
he
tells
palam
haeresiarchiae
Altera verofuitapud Appamias specialiter contra Valdenses et quidara ex ipsis ad qui, arbitri electi judicio, succubuerunt
:
Demum
quas
in diversis
una
fuit
solemnior apud
Montem Regalem
Domini 1207
Fulco
Tholosanus, et Didacus Uxamensis Episcopus, et B. Dominicus, ac venerabilis vir dominus frater Petrus de Castro Novo Cisterciencis
Apostolicae Sedis legatus, ac collega suus raagister Radulphus ; contra plures haeresiarchas, ibidem con
Ordinis
gregates.
aliis
pluribus, disputatum,
coram quatuor arbitris laicis a partibus electis. Gulielm. de Podio Laurent. Chronic, in A.D. 1205, 1207, apud Usser. de
Eccles. Success,
c. x.
20, 21.
The episcopal
Exovensis:
by Usher.
and Puy-Laurens, still worse, writes it Exoniensis. the spelling of Nicolas Trivett, Didacum Oxomensem Probably Didacus, I Episcopum, is the best. Chron. in A.D. 1204.
suppose,
or
Osma
:
in
of the
Romish College
of Bishops.
508
us, as
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
IV.
we have
that,
as, in
the general series of disputations which were pro longed at different places through two years, the
and
allies
so,
in
was agreed, that the business tion at Pamiers, of the day should be conducted by the Valdenses or the Missionary Poor Men of Lyons exclusively. Nor is this all. While, on some occasions, the
it
For the
somewhat
;
large
upon the manifold excellences of the blessed Dominic from whom it may briefly be said: Ccepit odor sanctitatis ejus circumquaque diffundi. Chron. in A.D. 1203. The same author
records a miracle, which
was wrought
but
it
Eo
produced no effect upon the stubborn Albigenses. tempore, quo Episcopus Didacus cum beato Dominico
ut
apud
Montem-Regalem cum praedicatoribus catholicis hseretici disUnus autem de nostris, Dominions nomine, socius putarent.
Episcopi Oxomensis, sicut in gestis viri nobilis nominatique Simonis Comitis Montis- Fortis legitur, auctoritates, quas in
medium produxerat,
tradidit
redegit in scriptis,
et
cuidam
haeretico
schedulam ut super objectis deliberans responderet. Qui, nocte ad ignem sedens cum sociis, de eorum assensu schedulam
projecit in ignem
:
si
combureretur,
immo
perfidia
si
vero incombusta
maneret, fidem, quern praedicabant Catholici, veram esse fatesed rentur. Projecta schedula in ignem, non tantum semel
iterum et
tertio,
in
totiens resiluit
etiam incombusta.
Nicol.
Trivett. Chron.
A.D. 1205.
Albig.
c. viii.
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
509
; and, on other occa the Albigenses acted separately likewise : on one memorable occasion, that of the dispute at Montreal in the year 1207, they joined their forces their Pastors as the joint Pastors and appearing,
sions,
Representatives of both Churches *. (2.) This last matter deserves a somewhat more
full elucidation.
Upon the two parallel narratives of Popliniere and Vignier, evidence of a very peculiar kind is
goes to prove, that one of the leading Pastors at the disputation, though cer tainly a Pastor of the Albigenses because he was
:
attendant
for
it
viously follow
both that the French Valdenses were mingled with the French Albigenses and
:
being a form of Manicheism (as the popish writers, and their followers even among Protestants, ab*
A similar
the year
ario, inter
Colloquium Carcassone habitum est A. D. 1203 mense FebruCatharos atque Valdenses ex una, et Carcassonem
Episcopura
Pontificis
Radulphum
et
Nuncios ex
altera,
c. viii. $ 17.
510
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
IV.]
surdly pretend), was, in truth, substantially the same as the doctrine of the former.
Pastor, in question, was Arnold Hot or Arnold Ottho or Arnotdtot, as his agnomen, in con
The
name
Arnold,
is
variously ex
:
pressed by Vignier and Ribeira and Popliniere the last of whom gives us the information, that he
where, as we have seen from Roger Hoveden, the remarkable exami nation of the Albigenses took place in the year
of
Lombers
1177, and where their memorable and orthodox profession of faith was publicly recited*.
in the disputations
1205 and 1207, he was a leading Pastor among the Albigenses and that, while his wider sphere of ministration was the province of
of the years
;
Languedoc and
*
its vicinity,
his settled
and pecuVig-
appellatura.
Nomina
haeresiarcharum
haec
Ponticus
Jordanus,
Arnoldus Aurisanus, Arnoldus Otthonus, Philabertus CastrenJacob, de Rebir. in Collect, de sis, Benedictus Thermus.
c. x.
21.
Ex
Aparniensem Episfol.
copum
habita.
Magistrum Arnoltotum
lib.
Lombrensem ministrum,
xxxviii. vol.
ii.
245.
apud Usser. de Eccles. Success, c. x. 16. For the narrative of Roger Hoveden, see above, book
chap. 9.
ii.
CHAP
liar
I.]
AND ALBIGKNSES.
511
at
But, in addition to these positively-known par ticulars, we may say, unless I greatly mistake,
and proselyte and of the venerable Peter Valdo fellow-missionary At least, both in name, and in charac himself.
also the
that he
was
friend
ter,
and
in
ministerial locality,
and
in the vital
who was
the
Pas
at Montreal.
Peter
ringleader of the
Valdenses,
Belgium
and, in
Passing thence province, obtained many followers. into Germany, he long sojourned among the Vandalic
States,
and finally
settled in
Bohemia: where
are,
Valdo,
for
This person, journeying in a different direction, descended into Languedoc ; and fixed himself at Albi : from which
his associate,
also
had
had Arnold.
place the Albigenses derived their name, who, in a short time, pervaded the whole of Toulouse and
sectatores nactus,
cum
inde in
Germaniam
transiisset,
per
dalicas civitates
VanBoe mia
consedit
512
THE VALLENSES
identity of
[BOOK
IV.
The
name and
Arnold the
Valdensis
of Lyons
Habuerat Valdus
socium Arnaldum, qui diverse itinere in Septimaniam descendit, et Albae Augustae sive Helviorurn olim dictae haesit unde Albigei, qui Tolosates, Rutenos, Caet
:
durcos, Aginnates,
lib. vi.
brevi
tempore pervaserunt.
at
Thuan. Hist.
16. vol.
i.
p. 221.
As
tbe Valdensian
a minister among the Albigenses; so Thuanus very reasonably considers the Albigenses, as differing, in no material point,
either from the
Huss and Jerome of Prague and Luther at a later period for, when they were dispersed by the crusade of Simon de Montfort
during the
in
first
manner following. Cum hue illuc ab eo tempore dispersi ubique exagitarentur, tamen exstitere semper per intervalla, qui eorum doctrinam intermortuam renovarent
:
Joannes Wiclevus
in
Anglia,
;
in
Bohe
nostra vero Hieronymus Pragensis aetate, postquam Lutheri doctrina obvio tarn multorurn favore
et
accepta est, reliquiae illorum ubique sparsae colligi, et, crescente Lutheri nomine, vires et auctoritatem sumere co3perunt praeci;
pue
in
Alpibus
vicinis.
Ibid,
p. 223.
To
this
likewise,
their
brethren the
French Valdenses, when scattered by persecution from Lyons, very naturally resorted, and there, in the bosom of their ancient
mother Church, found, at
security.
least for a season,
concealment and
Omnibus
cipue
inter
ubi,
tutissimum
perfugium
Ibid. p. 221.
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
513
close to Albi,
vious.
No
in
immediately
remark, therefore,
is
necessary, save a
In truth,
who,
in
Albigenses.
sixteen
France, were finally distinguished by the name of It is an interesting circumstance, that one of the
in the
thirteenth centuries,
twelfth and
at Bagnolo,
which
lies
in
Reiner, de haeret.
c. vi.
Patr. vol.
xiii.
p. 304.
All these matters shew the early intercourse and connection of the Albigenses or Cathari with the ancient Vallenses of the
Cottian Alps
:
and thus,
incidentally,
they really been Manicheans, could never have harmonised with the Vallenses either of they France or of Piedmont: for Manicheism and the sincere Gospel
Had
can never amalgamate. Accordingly, if I may again refer to Thuanus, that great historian will tell us, that the Cathari or
Albigenses of France doctrinally answered to the Puritans of England nay, so little difference could he discover between
:
many
others, he
;
even identifies these two symbolising classes of religionists for he supposes, that the Cathari were yet additionally called
Leonines or Leonists from their theological correspondence with
the iconoclastic
Emperor Leo.
Cathari dicuntur; quibus respondent, qui hodie in Anglia lidem Leonini rursus appuriorem doctrinam prae se ferunt. ab eo Leone, qui nihilomitius justi ac prudentis pellati sunt,
principis, a
Zonara
ipso, qui,
cum
haereticse
pravitatis accusat,
i.
elogium meruit.
Thuan. Hist.
lib. vi.
16. vol.
p.
221, 222.
intercommunity of doctrine,
2 L
514
single one
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
IV.
upon the
vital point of
chronology, in or
der to bring out the quadruple presumption, that the two Arnolds were one and the same individual.
Peter of Lyons became a spiritual instead of a merely speculative, Christian, in the year 1160:
began to attract notice, as a sect, in the year 1170: and he himself is supposed to have finished his labours, and to have been called
his to his rest, in the year 1179.
Poor
Men
Hence,
for his
in order to allow
for the
formation of his band of missionaries at Lyons and subsequent journeys which terminated in
Bohemia, we may fairly assume the mean year 1 174 to have been about that in which he and his
on their respective pilgrim ages, himself choosing Picardy and Belgium and Germany, while Arnold bent his steps southward
friend
Arnold
set out
to
In the year
1174, then, reasonably say, that Arnold would be about thirty years of age. On such a
is
we may
distinctly noticed
flourished
Postea,
in
cum
aliis haereticis
se admiscentes, et errorem
eorum bibentes
et
serentes, haeretici
sunt judicati.
c.
Steph. Borbon. de Sept. Don. Spir. S. par. iv. 5. 30. in Ricchin. Diss. de Valdens. c. i.
Alii Hcpretici of
The
Cathari or Albigenses.
this
acknow
From such
abundantly obvious.
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
515
supposition, he would have been sixty three years old in the year 1207, when the disputation was
an age, which fully agrees with the circumstances at that time attendant upon Arnold the Pastor of the Albigenses at Lombers
:
held at Montreal
we may be sure, that, to manage an important disputation, men of full age and ripened experience
for
in
theology would be
The
is
large
Men
yet further evident, not from the error of Gretser and Mariana who in a later age pro
nounced the Valdenses and Albigenses to be absolutely identical, but from authoritative docu
ments of the very period respecting which we are
now
treating.
These documents mix up together, as heretics closely associated in the same country, and as
holding with some small differences the same faith, both the Cathari or Paterines or Arnoldists on the
one hand, and the Insabbattati or Humiliati or Poor Men of Lyons or Valdenses on the other
the Arnoldists being evidently so called from the zealous Valdensic Pastor of the Albi
;
hand
speaks the decree of Pope Lucius III. in the year 1184, when he met the Emperor Frederick I. at Verona.
(1.)
To
this effect
2 L 2
516
THE VALLENSES
to abolish the
[BOOK
IV.
In order
modern
ought
which, throughout
times,
to
begun
to pullulate, ecclesiastical
of imperial fortitude, both the prater vity of heretics in the very efforts of their falsehood may be dashed
to
pieces,
and
res
to
plendent in
be
from
all execration
of false
We, therefore, supported by the presence and vigour of our most dear son Frederic
alike
always
Augustus the illustrious Emperor of the Romans, agreeably to the common counsel of our brethren, with other Patriarchs and Archbishops
Empire ;
upon
our
whom
diverse falsehoods
appellations
;
has
by
conferred
and,
series
apostolic
through
the
rolled.
In
we decree:
that
the
Cathari, and Paterines, and those who falsely call themselves the Humiliated or the Poor Men of
Lyons, and the Passagines, and the Josephines, and the Arnoldists, are subjected to a perpetual anathe
ma.
piety,
thereof, claim to
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
517
ing (^though the same Apostle asks, How shall they preach, unless they be sent?J : therefore we bind, by the knot of a perpetual anathema, all, who, either
prohibited or not sent, shall either publicly or pri vately presume to preach, without authority re
ceived either
from
;
the
Apostolic See or
from
the
concerning the other ecclesiastical sacraments, shall not fear to think or to teach otherwise than the holy
Roman Church
over,
in
and more
general, whomsoever the same Roman or the several Bishops through their res Church,
pective dioceses with the advice of their Clergy, or the Clergy themselves during the vacancy of the See
to
be heretics.
Furthermore, we decree
defenders,
and
and
all
equally who
to the
patronage or favour
purpose of cherishing in them the pravity of heresy ; whether such heretics be called the Consoled or the
Perfect, or whether they be distinguished by any other superstitious names ; shall be subjected to the
same
*
sentence.*
in
Decretal. lib.
viii.
11.
apud Usser.
Eccles.
Success, c.
39.
518
(2)
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
IV.
To
King of Aragon, Count of Barcelona, Marquis of Provence; to all Archbishops, Bishops, and other Ecclesiastical
Prelates of the
Kingdom;
to
Counts,
Viscounts,
Knights ; and to all the Commonalty of his King dom and Sovereignty ; health and a sound observance
of the Christian Religion. Since God has willed that we should preside over
his people,
tion
it is
and defence of
to
same
people,
we should,
our power, feel a continual solicitude. Wherefore, in imitation of our predecessors, and in due obedience to the canons ; since they have judged
according
that heretics,
who are
cast out
from
the sight
of
God and
of
all Catholics,
Christ and the Christian Religion, and as public foes both of ourself and of our Kingdom, we com
mand forthwith
those
who
of Lyons, and all other heretics without number who have been anathematised by the Holy
Poor
Men
;
Church
still
more pre-
Aldefons. Aragon. Diplom. apud Marian. Praefat. in LucTudens. adv. Albigens. error, in Bibl. Patr. vol. xiii. p. 230.
CHAP.
cisely,
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
519
speaks the Decretal Epistle of Pope Innocent III. addressed, in the year 1199, to the Prelates of Aix, Narbonne, Vienne, Aries, Em-Tarascon, have heard
brun,
their several
suffragans.
your province, certain persons who are called Valdenses and Cathari and Pater ines, or who are distinguished by any other
names whatsoever, have pullulated
extent,
to so
We
that in
vast
an
and
to corrupt by the ferment of their falsehood, an innumerable multitude of people. Since, therefore, to
yard of
diversity indeed
we have thought
it
the
phantasms of the magicians, our beloved son Friar Reinerius, a man of approved life and honest con
through the divine gift powerful in deed and in word, and with him our beloved son Friar
versation,
Guy, a man fearing God and studying the works of we commit them, through the apostolic charity and strictly charge you, writings, to your fraternity,
:
that,
receiving
you do so assist them against the heretics, that by their means they may be recalled to the Lord from the error of their way ; or if, by chance, any
affection,
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
IV.
drawn
*.
These early interminglings and associations prepared the way for the final geographical and
amalgamation, of the joint French Valdenses and Albigenses of Languedoc, with the primeval Vallenses of Piedmont and Dauphiny on
ecclesiastical
large
Valdenses,
harassed by incessant persecution, emigrated about the middle of the fourteenth century and took up their abode with their brethren, the Vallenses of
the Cottian Alps, in the Valleys of Piedmont and
into the dioceses of Turin
Dauphiny, which, eastward and westward, stretch and Embrun. Here the great body of them settled but, still
:
Poor
of Lyons, they shot forth, as the Inquisitor expresses it, their sad branches into Liguria and
Italy
*
Men
into
Apulia
f.
lib.
i.
p. 56, 57.
apud Usser.
et
de Eccles. Success,
7.
in
Christo
patri
;
domino,
vobisque, reCistaricensi
dominis,
Fratri
Laurentio
Official!,
Cornmis-
ad Regia causam eorum Pauperum de Lugduno, quos vulgus Valdenses appellat, dictos a Valdeo cive Lugdunensi, in loco dicto vulet Dalphinali auctoritate suffultis,
^aritcr
Val yrant
moram
faciente.
CHAP.
It is
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
:
521
worthy of note
Inquisitor exhibits,
readily explained from the general and extended view of the old Vallenses
for
at least a century,
and
Qui homo
inventor fuit,
cians, coepit, cum suis complicibus, vitam apostolicam cum cruce et paupertate ducere. Et, experrectis viris ecclesiasticis, multos sibi discipulos sociavit, qui inde dicti sunt Pauperes de
Lugduno.
Qui, dicentes vivere sub obedientia apostolica, ab
se
ilia
tamen
cum
redarguerentur,
Magis
hominibus.
Fuerunt tandem, et merito, per militantem Ecclesiam damnati, sed non radicitus extirpati. Quia, Lugduno fugientes ad
ultimas Dalphinatus partes, se transferentes in Ebredunensi et Taurinensi dioecesibus in Alpibus et intra concava montium accessu
difficilia,
plures ibi ex
illis
habitaverunt
ubi, paulatim
:
numero excreverunt
et
et
demum
Liguriam, Italiam,
Script.
ultra
Romam
324.
Apuliam, transmiserunt.
Inquis.
cujusp.
p.
anon, de Valdens.
Peter Valdo with the Valleys of the Cottian Alps is duly He is said to have once lived in the region com mentioned.
or
522
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
IV.
at
first,
to
be
scarcely compatible
ciled.
century of inhabitation respects the French Valdenses or the Poor Men of Lyons who, at
:
The
the beginning of the instrument, are said to have been driven from France into the Valleys by stress of persecution.
time beyond the memory of man respects the native aboriginal Vallenses who had been settled
The
the range of the Cottian Alps from the very days of primitive Christianity.
in
After
this,
doctrinal system.
That system,
same, Vallenses
tit
as the system
need only add, is precisely the which was ever held by the
to
Hence
serves
corroborate
the
evidence
* Imprimis ponit et dicit, ac probare intendit quod ipsi homines vallis Frayxineriae fuerunt, a centum annis citra ultra.
:
mulieres
vallis
omnes
mares
teriae
Inquis. anon, apud Allix on the Church of Piedm. p. 325. t Script. Inquis. anon, apud Allix on the Church of Piedm.
p.
326
329.
is
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
523
and shortly
to
after the
Reforma
Albi-
With respect
it
the
much enduring
it
genses,
history.
is
no part of
my
For
my own
object,
be
sufficient
them
and
fled
detestable
fires
Simon de Montfort and from the racks of the still more detestable Popish In
* For an account of these papal horrors during the whole course of the protracted crusade, or rather succession of crusades, the reader
may
consult
Perrin
s History of the Crusades This last work has very seasonably Albigenses. and forms one thin volume 8vo. been translated into English
Work) Sismondi
:
against the
Wightman and Cramp. London. 1826. The singular merit of the blessed Dominic,
who
(as Trivett
his friend Simon speaks) wielded the spiritual sword while managed the secular, procured for him an equally singular re
Transitusautem
fuit
ejus, Fratri
Gualx
ejusdem
civitatis
visionem.
Eadem
Episcopus, revelatus est per hujusmodi namque hora qua beatissimi Patris anima
vidit aperturam migravit a corpore, sicut postea compertum est, candidse scalae duae in coslo, per quam dimittebantur quarum
:
alterius,
mater
angeli
autem
lucis discurrebant,
Et, ecce, inter utramque scalam, sedes posita est in imo; et, similis erat Fratri habenti supra sedem, sedens et, qui sedebat, faciem velatam capucio, quemadmodum in Ordine moris est
:
524
For
this
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
IV.
purpose, I shall avail myself of the testimony afforded by the historian Thuanus. When exquisite punishments were of no avail
against them
;
when
em
applied;
and when
their
number
daily increased:
regular armies were at length enrolled ; and a war of no less magnitude, than that which had previously been carried on in opposition to the Saracens, was
Fratres mortuos sepelire. Trahentibus autem scalas illas Christo
secies pariter
cum
sedente
donee,
cum
Receptis eo qui in sede fuerat collocatus, cceli aperNicol. Trivett. Chronic, in A.D. 1221.
the Prior thus beheld translated,
igitur in
coelum
was of
What became
beatus
Dominic
order
opened sepulchre, afforded an ample warrant for the celestial nobility conferred upon him by the patent of Pope Gregory IX.
See Nicol. Trivett. Chron.
reason, Ricchini,
saint
in
A.D. 1233.
who wrote
in the
and his spiritual offspring the Inquisition while he justly thinks foul scorn of our Dr. Cave, for vilipending the one, and for making Hell the true In these liberal parent of the other.
days, a Protestant will doubtless be much refreshed in spirit by the decisive language of the learned Preaching Friar. Jam vero, ne recrudesceret in posterum malum, aut impia
hseresis
repullularet
ex cineribus
suis,
saluberrimo consilio,
Officium, auctore S.
Romani
Pontifices Sanctae
:
Inquisitionis
Dominico, instituerunt
CHAP.
T.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
Its
525
:
end was
that
they
were slaughtered,
their property
this
routed,
everywhere despoiled of
and
and
their dignities,
in
and scattered
in
direction
that
direction,
rather than
to repentance.
at Jirst had defended them with arms, being finally conquered by arms,
who
fled into Provence and the neighbouring Alps of the French territory : where they found secure conceal
Part migrated ment, both for life and for doctrine. and there they remained, down even into Calabria :
to the Pontificate
of Pius IV.
Part
retired into
ut sensim,
primis ejusmodi sectanee ulla haeresis, aut noviter procusa aut renopestilentia Scio equidem, advata, apud Italos radices amplius egerit.
cum
rum
ita
effuse atque impotenter Haereticorum omnium odia, eoque nomine S. Dorninicum conviciis proscindere ut Albigensium Carnificem vocare non
:
dubitent
pellent,
et
ipsum vero Inquisitionis Officium gravissimum apab Oreo pelitum, Christiana Religionis dedecus,
simul et flayellum conscientiarum et carnificinam, summczque tyrannidis et crudelitatis officinam, qua Siculi non invenere
Tyranni majus tormcnta. Ita Cavaeus. At, si, quantum res animi turbaipsa momenti habeat, mature ac sine praejudicati
tione expenderetur,
caeci
homines acci-
perent,
tyrannidem vocant.
5, 6.
our english lips water for the establishment of the Holy Office in each of the two legal
make
British Islands.
526
THE VALLENSES
:
[BOOK
IV.
Germany
and fixed
in
their seats in
Bohemia and
in
Others, directing their course westward, found a refuge in Britain *. From this time, so far as I am aware, we hear
Poland and
Livonia.
no more of the Albigenses separately and collec and they them Their name was lost tively.
:
selves
into
the sister
Upon
*
Contra quos
proficerent
Albigenses)
cum
exquisita supplicia
parum
fuerat,
et remedio,
;
malum
justi
exacerbaretur
ceret:
nee minoris
gesut,
molis bellum,
serant,
quam quod antea nostri adversus Saracenos contra eosdem decretum est. Cujus is exitus fuit
bonis ac dignitatibus ubique spoliati, atque potius csesi, fugati, hue illuc dissipati sint, quam erroris convicti resipuerint. Itaque,
qui armis se initio luctati fuerant, postremo armis victi, in Provinciam apud nos et Gallicae Ditionis Alpes vicinas confugerunt; latebrasque vitae ac doctrinae suae,
iis
in locis, repererunt.
Pars
in
Calabriam concessit
in
eaque
diu,
usque ad Pii
transiit
:
IV
ad
pontificatum, se continuit.
Pars
in
Germaniam
atque,
apud Boemos in Polonia et Livonia, larem fixit. Occidentem versi, in Britannia perfugium habuerunt.
Praefat. Hist. vol.
i.
Alii,
Thuan.
p. 7.
I have not heard, that any Manicheans were ever discovered in Britain after the middle of the thirteenth century : which,
however, must certainly have been the case, had the Albigensic Refugees been really votaries of the ancient Oriental Heresy.
Be
this as
it
may, we
find
much
the
same statement
in
the
General History of Languedoc, with the additional particular, that the expatriated Albigenses organised themselves into a
French Church
in
Lombardy.
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBTGENSES.
.527
able degree of light is thrown by the testimony of Vincent Ferrier. In the year 1405, that person
out of Dauphiny into the Valleys of for the purpose of Piedmont, preaching Popery to the inhabitants and from him we learn, that the
travelled
:
two Churches of the Vallenses and the Albigenses, amicably (since the crusade of Simon de Montfort)
subsisting together in the
trict,
same mountainous
dis
;
had,
fit,
down
s
Cela
que,
les
:
ils
pa is d
heretiques,
sectaires n
et
publiquement
que
ils
de tomber entre
en Lombardie, ou
sonnes.
Gener. de Langued.
xx.
82.
is
By Lombardy,
as the
word
used by Reinerius
whom
the
Benedictine adduces as his authority, we must, I think, agree ably to a remark which I have already made, understand the
Adriatic Sea.
whole region which extended from the Cottian Alps to the Most probably, this Lombard Church was the
With
has given an interesting though mournful account of their condition and final extermination in the sixteenth century.
M Crie
See Hist, of the Reform, in Italy, chap. v. p. 299308. No where does the brutal and odious superstition of Popery appear
in
blacker colours.
in
What, however,
is
specially to
my own
Mani-
purpose, as
528
for
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
IV.
he found there, not only the Valdenses, but likewise a numerous body of the Cathari or AlbiYet, subsequently to the year 1405, the absorption has at length, become complete and
genses.
:
no organic separation, under the discriminating names of Albigenses and Vallenses, I believe, now
subsists
among
the
Valleys.
The whole of this is precisely what we should expect. Each sister Church would, very naturally, for a season be attached to its own familiar, though
theologically
indifferent,
peculiarities
but the
even pretended to have been discovered, among the pious emigrants in the day of their ex Crie calls them Valdenses; nor, in his Dr. tirpation.
is
for they was the title altogether improper were composed of Albigenses mingled both with French and with Piedmontese Valdenses ; and the name of Albigenses, lost and swallowed up in that of Valdenses since the bloody crusade
present narrative,
now become
is
evident
from
their
Thuanus
tells
us;
Albigenses,
M Crie
authorities states;
they came
Valley of Angrogna near Savoy. Clearly, must first have taken refuge with their brethren therefore, they the Valdenses of Piedmont and, afterward, a mixed company,
:
must thence have migrated into Calabria, where they were deemed and styled Valdenses. Crie s description of Dr.
and behaviour, when they first heard the glad tidings of the Reformation of the sixteenth century, well
their religious state
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
529
fellowship perpetual persecution would gradually form, into a single united Communion, the members of the two sub
stantially
symbolising
:
Societies.
Accordingly,
during the space of three cen turies anterior to the visit of Ferrier in the year 1405, the French Valdenses, who began to emi
that,
we
are told
Piedmont in the twelfth century, en countered no disturbance. And, in perfect congrate into
gruity with such a circumstance, we are also told that, down to that year, the Albigensic Refugees had continued to possess the character of distinc:
tiveness.
secutions
But,
when
:
and the two harmless and equally suffering Churches of the Piedmontese Valleys, like two drops of rain, were soon drawn and blended together by a perfectly intelligible
power of
attraction *.
* For ray acquaintance with this interesting testimony of Ferrier, I am indebted to Ricchini, the editor of the large
eamque
e latibulis
omnibus
Quaesitorum Fidei vigilantia diligentissime extruderet, ut jam nulla pateret ei secura mansio, in Cottiarum Alpium Valles,
velut certum tutumque asylum,
locorum
Regionis
jam
pene desertae
solum
530
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
IV.
subactum, alendis sustentandisque multis Valdendeinceps suffecit, quo, tributis oneriab omnibus negligerentur, nee quispiam de eorum fidem ac religionem diligentius inquireret.
facilius
sium millibiis eo
busque ferme
iis
soluti,
sollicitus in
Valdensium religionem
et fidem
plerumque
profitentes,
quan-
quam
tionis
Nam
S. Vincentius
proximo Delphinatu ad eas Valles praedicacausa descenderat A. D. 1405, in Epistola quam dedit ad reverendissimum Johannem de Pedonatis Ordinis Praedicatorum
Ferrerius, qui e
tune Generalem Magistrum apud Fontanam (Mon. Dominic, par. ii. c. 1.) testatur plures ibidem reperisse Gazaros seu
;
illuc
;
additque
se accepisse
ab earum Vallium
praedicasse
in
nullum ab annis
triginta
Valdenses heereticos, qui ad ea loca ex Apulia bis 1. veniebant. Ricchin. Dissert, de Valdens. c. v.
anno
visited
and the very circumstance of those Preachers being styled Valdenses shews the complete doctrinal intercommunion of the two Churches.
:
suppose the reader will not imagine, that St. Peter the Martyr, mentioned by Ferrier, is the same person as St. Peter
I
the Apostle.
He
Chasteau Neuf, whose tragical death, ascribed by the infallible decision of Pope Innocent lit. to Count Raymond of Tou
louse, brought on the
against
what
CHAP.
I.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
of their Church,
531
just representative
formed an
inseparable union, both doctrinal and geographical, with the primitive Church of the Vallenses so
:
that,
from
this
title
of the
Church seated
Dauphiny became, if I mistake not, THE CHURCH OF THE UNITED VALLENSES AND ALBIGENSES.
CHAPTER
II.
TURAL PROMISES OF PERPETUITY TO A SINCERE CHURCH, IN THE CASE OF THE TWO ANCIENT CHURCHES OF THE VALLENSES AND THE ALBIGENSES.
AT
an early stage of the present inquiry, it was stated that Christ has made two distinct pro
:
respects
its
perpetuity
under
the aspect of a Church, immoveably built upon the rock of Peter s doctrinal confession.
similarly respects its perpe but under the additional aspect of a Church, tuity
:
always (so far as respects the grand essentials) pure both in doctrine and independent practice,
and always thus exemplifying the spiritual pre sence of the Lord even unto the end of the world.
Hence
it
was inferred
its accom some particular Branch or Branches of the Visible Church Catholic inasmuch as
plishment in
common
consent of
all
CHAP.
II.]
Church Catholic,
in
every Branch, has not corresponded with the full terms of the complex promise in question.
it
Furthermore, in corroboration of this inference, was remarked that the concurrent voice of
:
Prophecy completely and definitely establishes inasmuch as Prophecy describes a its propriety state of things, in which the Sincere Church
;
limits,
while the
Body
should be apostasy of a very marked character, or a suc brought under the dominion of a person
cession of persons emphatically denominated The of Sin and The Son of Perdition *.
Man
I.
At the point where we have now arrived, the last remark, which at the beginning of the present illustrative discussion, was thrown out as a mere im hint, assumes a high degree of applicatory
portance and interest. 1 By the prophet of the Apocalypse, our Lord s as of a doctrinal per promise of a spiritual as well is explained after a petuity to his Sincere Church manner which bears so upon the sub
.
peculiarly that the coincidence can ject of our late inquiries not be overlooked. and dark period of 1260 prophetic a
a period, to be reck
we
*
by Daniel
i.
chap. 1, 2.
534
THE VALLENSES
St.
[BOOK
IV.
John, from a delivering of the saints, into the hand of a most remarkable Ecclesiastical
and
Power, by the concurrence of ten Kingdoms, among which the Western Roman Empire was doomed to be partitioned during this long and
:
dark period, the visible Church General is de scribed as being a Harlot under the government
and the nature of her har of a False Prophet lotry is exhibited under the perfectly intelligible imagery of a relapse into the superstition of the
;
Gentiles, characterised by a worship of demons or canonised dead men, and by an insane veneration
of idols of gold and silver and brass and stone and wood which can neither see nor hear nor walk.
While this dreary period evolves, where is Christ s promise of his perpetual spiritual presence to his sincere Church built immoveably upon the
rock of Peter
s doctrinal confession
is
?
un
accomplished.
The new
forty
race of Gentiles,
term of
and two prophetic months but the temple and the altar and they that worship at it are care
measured
;
fully
while the outer court, like the city itself, remains unmeasured.
the
worshippers within the measured precincts, that stand so broadly distin guished from the idolatrous Gentiles of the un
then,
Who,
are
city
CHAP.
II.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
535
Clearly, they are the persons, in whom alone we can deem Christ s promises to have been ac
complished.
respect, not
Assuredly they do
;
that, during the evolution spired seer intimates of the 1260 years, the Lord would give power to
his
two
in
witnesses,
sackcloth,
who
should
courageously,
though
prophesy, or propound, in
Who
The
that they are two Candle sticks standing before the God of the earth and, at the same time, leaves us in no doubt as to the
:
intended meaning of the symbol, by distinctly a teaching us, that a Candlestick represents
Church *. Such being the case, the two Witnesses, who are defined to be two Candlesticks, are thence, of also to be two Churches. plain necessity, defined
Consequently, the Revelation of Jesus Christ, or the Revelation communicated by Jesus Christ
to his servant
John, distinctly and unequivocally of the Lord to explains to us, HOW the promises
*
Compare Rev.
i.
536
his
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
IV.
to receive their
accom
plishment.
The perpetuity
sound
in the great
and as privileged with the unceasing spiritual presence of the Divine Head, is described, as being effected in the channel of two visible
confession,
Churches: which, abhorring the apostasy of the gentilising tenants of the outer court and the de
graded holy
city,
the true Gospel in chronological concurrence with a state of things widely marked by the worship of
their images. the explanation of Christ s own pro mises, as afforded in Christ s own Revelation *.
The circumstance of precisely two witnessing Churches being foretold, united with our Lord s general prophecy that the gates of Hades or the Invisible State shall never prevail against
*
his
tion
that
religion,
must look for a continuance of sound and spiritual throughout all the middle ages, in a VISIBLE and OR
or succession of Churches.
We
GANISED Church
It
is
and
St.
strain
John cannot, without a most arbitrary and unnatural in which they are conveyed, be said to
have been accomplished in a mere succession of detached and unconnected individuals, jointly constituting what some have So manifestly are Churches styled The INVISIBLE Church.
VISIBLE and TANGIBLE spoken of, that, if the prophecies have not been accomplished in such actually subsisting Communions,
they have never been accomplished at all. INVISIBLE Church can here have no place.
The figment of an
CHAP.
2.
II.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
537
centuries have elapsed, since ten gothic nations erected ten several kingdoms on the platform of the divided Western Empire and
;
Now many
it is
mere naked
his-
I mean not to assert, that, with a proper explanation, the but I certainly must assert, that, in phrase can never be used
:
now
before ns
As for those Protestants, who strangely labour to malign the Vallenses and the Albigenses, they do not seem to perceive the inevitable tendency of their worse than bootless efforts.
We
must
either
Rome
is
a per
or we must produce some fectly sound and spiritual Church in which the succession of doc VISIBLE Church or Churches, trinal soundness and abiding spirituality has been preserved.
Now,
latter
if,
as these ill-judging
:
we must acknowledge
Roman Church
own
sentence.
Writers of the stamp alluded to preclude themselves from to answer the argument of Bossuet and thence, even all
:
ability
by
their
own theological
position.
The question
ed ; why do you
ritual Church, in
be a sound and spi always run If Rome which the promises of Christ have been fulfill ? dissent from her, and renounce her communion
:
where is the VISIBLE Church, If you deny to her this character; have been accomplished? in which Christ s promises of the Vallenses and the Albi How the
protestant maligners
this question, I
am
at a
lo,ss
to perceive.
538
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
IV.
and practices of the visible Church General, whether in the Western or in the Eastern Patriarchate, have but too faith
torical fact, that the doctrines
announcements of descriptive
in
all
its
prophecy.
were
so,
come to nought. While both the East and the West were playing the harlot after a new race of tutelary Baalim or Demon-Gods, exactly two Churches were found
to protest, even unto the death of the protesting
One
of them,
itself
Church
built
upon the
very principle of reformation, and by an extraor dinary providence of God collecting many of its
those who had once pro a paganising heresy of the worst descrip fessed tion, sprang up in the East during the course of
but, expelled
by incessant
persecution brought on by its firm testimony against the rapidly-increasing corruption of the and there also, in times, it migrated into Europe
;
shewed
itself a
faithful
the
CHAP.
II.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
539
truth in opposition to the still more gross olatry of the Western Patriarchate.
demon-
of them, justly claiming and honestly glorying in the title of an Unreformed Church, was always a denizen of Europe and, while the
:
The other
the middle ages, acted the part of resolute witnesses on behalf of the Gospel ; this Occidental Society, under the pre
all
cise aspect of a
it
never
required
forms
the
chain,
which, in an unbroken series, connects the Re formed Churches of the sixteenth century with
the Apostolic Primitive Church, and thus exem of our Lord s plifies the accurate accomplishment
two-fold or complex promise. 3. With these facts under our eyes while the roll of prophecy lies unfolded before us, it is, I
think, well nigh impossible not to conclude
:
that
the two Churches of the Albigenses and the Vallenses are the two symbolical Candlesticks or the
two Witnessing Churches of that Apocalypse, which at once predicts the future fortunes of the entire Church Catholic and authoritatively ex
plains
the
mode
in
which Christ
promises of
be perpetuity and purity would two Churches be not the two In truth, if these
fulfilled.
not where, between apocalyptic Churches, I see the decuple partition of the Western Empire and
the times in which
latter
we
are
now
living,
the two
:
in
History
and
540
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
IV.
thence, since the apocalyptic prophecy is evidently a virtual comment upon our Lord s promises, I see
not,
how
been accomplished.
Their pretended fulfilment, in a Church so no
corrupt and apostatic and secularised and blood-stained and unscriptural as the Roman, is, both to the Bible and to common sense, too
toriously
monstrous an insult to be
for
moment
tolerated
and almost as
the supposition of their accomplishment in the Greek Church or in any one of its dependent Asiatic or African
little
can
we endure
Churches
*.
:
But prophecy teaches us that the promised perpetuity and purity were to be carried on and transmitted through the instrumentality of two Churches characterised, in a manner which in stantaneously excludes the gorgeous and tempo
;
rally prosperous
Roman Church, by
a long-con
and
afflicted
and de
And
both circumstantially and locally and chronologi and cally, have actually appeared upon earth
;
On
Gibbon
chap, xlix.,
CHAP.
II.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
all
541
the
middle
conclusion from such premises is obvious I perceive not how it can be avoided, so likewise I perceive not how it can be rejected
:
The
and, as
they were not accomplished through the medium of the Vallensic and Albigensic Churches:
For,
if
let
any Protestant,
if
he be able
in
consistency
with his
principles, point out, how they were accomplished, during the period which elapsed,
own
between the days of the uncorrupted Primitive Church, and the times of the sixteenth century. II. But, in the prophetic account of the two
Witnessing Churches, there is a very remarkable circumstance announced, which will throw yet
upon the present subject. They are exhibited under the two-fold aspect for they of two not precisely identical conditions
further light
:
preaching and they are also pressed and afflicted condition exhibited under the aspect, of bearing their marto martyrdom tyria, or of attesting the truth even
;
itself.
Now we
are told
that,
542
city,
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
IV.
for in
that their
unburied,
or
should not be
consigned to invisibility
and obli
vion, during the time of three prophetic days and a half or three natural years and a half, upon the
is
spiritually
called Sodom and Egypt, and which mystically bears the name of Babylon ; that, at the end of
three years and a half, the breath of life from God should enter into them, so that they should stand again upon their feet, or that they should
be restored
Churches
to
and
in
that,
finally,
heaven
cloud
before
enemies, or should obtain a legalised establish ment, though still under the cloud of affliction,
inasmuch
as
they had
still
to
accomplish the
during which
they
very peculiar and very distinctly marked circumstances nor is it easy to conceive, how they could ever occur in strict simultaneity,
These are
all
unless the two Churches had previously, in point of geographical location, been so amalgamated, as
form one mingled Church of both the AlbiBut exactly such an genses and the Vallenses.
to
CHAP.
II.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
543
popish crusade conducted by Simon de Montfort. Hence, if the two Churches of History be the two
Churches of Prophecy, we may expect a congruity, in regard to the above-mentioned circum stances, at some indefinite time after the middle
of the thirteenth century *. It is obvious, from the very terms of the predic tion that the absolute martyrdom, or the testifi
:
on the part of the two Witnesses or the two Churches, is brought to a close, when the announced circumstances occur
cation
even unto
death
notwithstanding, even after their legal establishment, they still continue to prophesy in
so that,
sackcloth,
they are no
longer exposed
to
the
the
by Romish Priesthood and perpetrated by the Romish Laity. Hence, if we find indications
we may con
clude
supposition of the two historical Churches being the two prophetical Churches, must have already
occurred.
* In to History, not with saying this, I speak with reference In the latter, the circumstances are reference to
Prophecy.
defined, as occurring synchronically with a great allegorical of the mystical earthquake which throws down a tenth part
city
second woe.
of the Babylon, and immediately before the passing away These synchronisms are noted and explained in
book
iv.
chap. 7.
II. 5,
and book
v.
chap.
2.
III. 2.
544
1.
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
IV.
we
In order to satisfy ourselves on this point, must, in the first instance, recur to the annals
against the
The exterminating
crusade,
waged
Albigenses in the thirteenth century, with its re markable effects, has already been noticed. At
this
point,
we must
with
carried
on
Valdenses,
whom
they had
now become
inseparably amalgamated. A recent historian of the Vallenses has given a very useful list of the successive persecutions to
which
this
his
people
and, as
I
may
In
the various bloody assaults, to which the united Vallensic and Albigensic Church of
brief,
the Cottian Alps was exposed, from an early part of the thirteenth century down to the latter part of the seventeenth century, comprising a term of
number
to
about twenty-six, and consequently average about five in each century, or about one in every twenty
years
*.
through divine mercy, they are and nothing, save vexation brought to a close and bigotted annoyance, has occurred subse
here,
:
But
See Muston
i.
p.
322, 323.
CHAP.
II.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
545
the year 1698, which proscribed a portion of the who had advanced, I suppose, beyond Vallenses,
their strictly limited boundaries
:
it is
true,
more
over, that, in the year 1730, Victor Amadeus banished from his dominions all save the native
But, as Dr. Muston styles this the last persecution which a they had to undergo
Vallenses.
;
persecution, however, not amounting to martyr dom so Mr. Acland, speaking of persecutions
:
with the blood of the martyrs, justly remarks, that that, which commenced with the
stained
year 1686, was the LAST and most oppressive per secution of the Vaudois ; and he subsequently
adds,
that,
who were
not natives,
are resignation to an oppressive government and adherence to their faith and the practices inculcated
by it*.
facts,
it
seems clear
that
the blood-stained testimony or martyrdom two Churches ceased at the latter end of the
of the
Hence, the circumstances, of their violent ecclesiastical extinction, and of their complete ecclesiastical revival at the end of three years and a half, and their legal though
seventeenth century.
* Muston
lat.
Hist, des
Vaud.
vol.
i.
p.
323.
Acland
210.
Trans-
vi.
Sequel, p.
54G
afflictive
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
IV.
establishment subsequent to their revival, must apparently, if the two Churches of History be the two Churches of Prophecy, have occurred,
when
to its
2.
the seventeenth century was drawing near conclusion. a question, question, therefore, now is the ques observed, of naked matter of fact
The
be
it
tion
now
is
Whether,
?
at
that time,
any such
circumstances occurred
This question must, of course, be answered by a simple appeal to the record of History.
the 31st day of January, then, in the year 1686, the Duke of Savoy, at the instigation of the French King, issued an edict by which, on pain of death, he forbad to the Vaudois the exer
:
On
banished
and commanded
destroyed.
their
The
effect,
barbarous description,
France and Savoy let loose their blood-hounds mur upon an innocent and unoffending people
ders and rapes and every abomination followed and, the Valleys in a very short space of time having been wholly depopulated by the expulsion
:
tives
of their former inhabitants, the place of the fugi was supplied by the colonising adherents of
Churches
a calamity,
CHAP.
II.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
547
:
which
yet,
no former period had ever befallen them scattered far and wide, their fragments,
at
still
re
In the course
they were not suffered to vanish utterly from off the face of the earth they were not suffered to be lost and absorbed in the
:
several
Communions
of those
Reformed
States,
within whose territorial dominions they had taken refuge. On the contrary, though the two Churches
their members were from complete annihilation. individually preserved In this state they continued, during the space of three years and a half.
politically dissolved,
were
But, at the end of that period, the spirit of life entered into them and they began once more to
:
act corporately
and simultaneously.
Under the
very extraordinary man, Henry Arnold one of their Pastors, eight hundred of the most intrepid among them, having assembled in
the Swiss Territory, secretly, on the night of the 16th of August in the year 1689, crossed the lake
of
in
conduct of a
Geneva
their
and entering Savoy with their swords hands, and thence advancing to the
:
mountains of Piedmont, drove from their native Valleys the intrusive Romanists, and recovered
by main
force
their
ancient avital
possessions.
In this wonderful enterprise so complete was their success, that ere the month of April in the year 1690 had commenced, after a series of victories
2
548
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
IV.
over the disciplined troops of France and Savoy, they had firmly established themselves in the seats
of their ancestors.
Nor did
course of
that the
their
God s Duke
was
and, in consequence of this new an edict dated the 4th political arrangement, by 1 690, he recalled and reestab of June in the year
French Interest
now mixed
Vallenses
granting to them henceforth, though with many vexatious restrictions, the ex ercise of the religion of their forefathers.
and Albigenses
act
of the civil power, in those identical valleys of the Cottian Alps, where the Albigensic Church, when driven out of the South of France by the
crusade of the
joined
Yet,
itself to
thirteenth
the sister
Church
though
Whiston
part.
iii.
p.
238
241. Jones
Gilly s p. The reader may particularly consult Narrat. p. 171 178. Arnold s Glorious Recovery, as translated and illustrated and
ii.
vol.
406444.
beautifully edited
by Mr. Acland.
would
also refer
him
to
my own
of the synchronisms prophetically connected with these particu III. lars, book v. chap. 2.
CHAP.
II.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
heaven
;
549
allegorical
longer bearing the testimony of a blood-stained martyrdom to the truths of the everlasting Gospel: they still, agreeably to the divine oracle, continue
to
prophesy
in
sackcloth
or
to
perform their
such as
sist
:
it is, the united Churches at present sub but instead of merely excluding them from
perpetual succession of very serious injuries, short indeed of persecution to death, but utterly destructive of
political
power,
it
exposes them
to a
social comfort
and
civil prosperity.
The Vallenses
:
are forbidden
to
reside
or to
purchase land beyond the limits of certain speci nor can a minister visit a sick fied boundaries
person
who happens
and, even then, his stay must not exceed twentyfour hours.
All correspondence with foreign ministers is and, in order that no books should be prohibited
:
introduced
duties are
im
Any
or notary,
550
THE VALLENSES.
[BOOK
IV.
Valleys
*.
They
are
forbidden
to
inclose
their
burial
We
of
political
liberty, vie
:
cruelly deceived.
the first thing,
The Code
and
that struck us
on opening the book, u as a legislative enactment which throws us back at least two centuries. The Protestants are placed, by
the
new Code,
in a condition inferior to
regards
civil rights.
draw up deeds
in
favour of
Protestants,
property.
such as acts for the alienation or purchase of Persons of that persuasion are no longer to be
allowed
to
is
Popery,
it
apocalyptic oracle.
I will give
prophesy a thousand
in sackcloth*
and they
shall
The
prophesy
in a state
CHAP.
II.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
Vaudois
551
for the
purpose of proselytism, or
public streets
if
he insult him
in the
by
calling
him dog or
heretic,
the
They
work on
all
popish festivals, though they themselves have never been followers of the Pope s religion and
:
representing some
ridiculously
carried
saint real or
in
reputed,
its
when
These are
the
tender
mercies of
:
dominant
all
Popery
in its mildest
form
and, as
the well-grounded boast of is, that it The tiger, as in France, may be never changes.
but, in nature and coerced, by the civil power disposition, the tiger is the tiger still.
:
we Romanism
know,
here detailed by the voice of History, requires but little comment. So far as simple coincidence, between the facts and the prophecy, is concerned, a denial of such
III.
The
series of facts,
simple coincidence
is
when we
recollect,
552
[BOOK
IV.
deem
concurrence
of
coincidences
purely
the
two Churches of
shall then,
History are the two Churches of Prophecy, we by a necessary consequence have the plain attestation of Scripture to the important
:
position
in the long
Purity to his faithful Church were accomplished, unbroken line of the Vallenses, and
(on the principle of ecclesiastical agglomeration) in the shorter line of the Paulicians or Albigenses and that, through their intermediation and more
;
especially through the intermediation of the never reformed Vallenses, the Reformed Churches of
the sixteenth century stand directly connected with the holy Primitive Church Catholic.
CHAPTER
III.
POLITY OF THE
As
further
contend,
against
Bossuet,
that the
Vallenses, in a more especial manner, constitute that Visible Church which connects the Churches
of the Reformation with the
it
Primitive
Church
may be expected, that I should say something, as to their right to be considered Churches at all,
ing the apostolical succession. I readily confess, that I am not able to demon
strate
the circumstance of
their
possessing an
apostolical succession,
mitted by episcopal ordination, or as less regu larly handed down by the simple imposition of the hands of the Presbytery *.
* It
the
554
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
IV.
demonstration of
too rigidly insist upon the absolute necessity of a transmission through the medium of Bishops exclusively.
Succession,
if
we
of
In the year 558, Pelagius was actually consecrated Bishop Rome herself, not by three Bishops, but by two Bishops and
a Presbyter.
Dura non
eum
et
ordinarent,
inventi sunt
et
Bonus de Ferentino,
Andreas, Presbyter de Ostia et ordinaverunt eum Pontificem. Tune enim non erant in Clero, qui poterant eum promovere.
Anastat. Biblioth. Lib. Pontifical,
in vit.
Pelagii I.
On
ment,
this case,
may
which, according to the amount of our require or may not vitiate the entire Apostolical Succession
it
is
obvious to remark
Andrew
power of transmission.
If he did
:
is
forthwith conceded.
then his concurrence and cooperation with the two Bishops was an idle and inexplicable mockery though a which, under such an aspect, might justly be pro mockery,
If he did not
;
nounced
to nullify the
whole transaction.
:
it, with any decent shew of argument, be alleged that the Presbyter acted merely by the warrant of the two
Nor
can
Bishops, that he possessed no inherent power of his own, and that he really himself did nothing whatsoever toward the trans
mitting of the episcopate.
is
plain.
possessed not the right of continuing the Aposto lical Succession ; and if, for that continuance, the joint agency
Andrew
of three Bishops was essentially necessary: then the consecra tion of Pelagius by only two Bishops and a Presbyter was, to
intents and purposes, invalid and, consequently, nothing could have been more strangely absurd, than for the two Bishops
all
;
CHAP.
III.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
555
obscu
to call in, as their officially equal coadjutor, one, whom all the while they themselves knew to possess no legitimate authority
of transmission.
Nor
that
yet will
it
affair, to assert
as
three Bishops.
For
quite plain
Church
at large entertained
because,
if
they
had, they would have proceeded forthwith to the consecration And it without in any wise calling in the Presbyter Andrew.
is
likewise plain
have been
if
fully believed
by them
to reside in the
because, they had not believed it, they would never, both of Pelagius, Bishops and Clergy and People of the faction in the consecration of Pelagius. have invited him to join In short, from this remarkable transaction, we seem to learn:
that, in the
the judgment of the Church of the sixth century, to a legi was indeed deemed essential Apostolical Succession
;
but that,
in
a case of
be canonically transmitted by necessity, such succession might the hands of a Presbyter as well as by the hands of a Bishop.
a the major case of the consecration of a Bishop by we may turn to the minor case of the concurring Presbyter, similar ordination of Presbyters themselves. with the In our own church, the concurrence of Presbyters those who are themselves in laying hands upon presiding Bishop, about to be ordained Presbyters, is familiar and notorious.
From
Now
the presbyterate.
If they
If they have
:
have not
55G
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
IV.
have been thus rendered impracticable, and thence in common fairness, cannot be rigidly demanded
:
The whole
circumstance
:
transaction
that,
in
is
rendered
still
more
striking,
by
is
the
no
to
Whence
be
judgment of the Anglican Church, a single without the concurrence of Presbyters, cannot legiti Bishop, but that mately transmit the higher order of the presbyterate
:
that, in the
no such concurrence
is
necessary
in
Order of Deacon.
On
rical attestation of
much light is thrown by the histo who flourished about a century and Jerome,
tells us
:
He
that,
From
and Presbyters were, in point of Order, the same though, in Church Polity, it had been deemed expedient to set one point of
Presbyter over
his brethren, in the capacity of a Bishop or and with the right of ordination or rather (as Superintendent, I gather from the context) with the special right of presidency
in ordination.
Audio, quendam in tantam erupisse vecordiam, ut Diaconos Nam, cum Apos_ Presbyteris, id est, Episcopis, anteferret.
tolus perspicu
doceat,
Eosdem
eos se tumidus
ut supra unus electus est, postea qui caeteris praeponeretur, in schismatis remedium factum est ne unusquisque, ad se trahens, Christi Ecclesiam rumperet.
copos
quis patiatur,
mensarum
?
viduarum Minister
eft erat
Quod autem
Nam
et
in
si
et
Dionysium Episcopos, Presbyteri semper unum ex se electum, celsiori gradu collocatum, Episcopum nominabant quo modo,
:
exercitus Imperatorem faciat; aut Diaconi eligant de se quern industrium noverint, et Archidiaconum vocent. Quid nam facit,
excepta ordinatione, Episcopus, quod Presbyter non faciat Hieron. Epist. Ixxxv. Oper, vol. ii. p. 259, 260.
CHAP.
III.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
557
we may
that, in
nevertheless,
come
Idem
Episcopus
et,
antequam,
comrauni
Presbyterorum
Christi
in
Postquam,
toto
orbe decretuna
est,
ut unus, de Presbyteris
Presbyterum unum
officii
:
esse
et
aliud
aetatis
aliud
esse
;
nomen
Paulus
et
pax.
Philippi una
est
civitate plures, ut
nuncupantur,
Episcopi esse
pore quos
non poterant.
et Presbyter-os
illo tern
propterea
indifFerentur
de Episcopis, quasi de
alicui videatur
Adhuc hoc
ambiguum,
testimonio coraprobetur.
In Actibus Apostolorum
scriptura est,
miserit quod, cum venisset Apostolus Miletum, Ecclesiae ejusdem, quibus Presbyteros Ephesum, Attendite vobis et omni gregi, postea inter caetera sit locutus: in quo vos Spiritus Sanctus posuit Episcopos pascere Ecclesiam Et hoc diligenDomini, quam acquisivit per sanguinem suum.
et vocaverit
tius observate,
civitatis
Ephesi Presbyteros
Haec propterea, ut
ostenderemus
Apud
evellerenEpiscopos: paulatim vero, ut dissentionum plantaria ad unum omnem sollicitudinem esse delatam. Sicut, ergo, tur,
ei
ita
consuetudine,
quam
dispositionis
558
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
IV.
of the assured existence of precisely two Witness ing Churches during all the middle ages, we may
esse majores, et in
regere.
Hieron.
Comment, in Tit. i. 5. Oper. vol. vi. p. 198, 199. The statement of Jerome seems to be confirmed by early testimony of Clement of Rome.
This Father,
the very
who
model of the High-Priest and the Priests and the Hebrew Church. This arrangement was of But still, while in the Church Catholic institution. apostolical
after the
Levites of the
Clement,
in
Preaching through countries and cities, says he, the Apostles appointed the first-fruits of their conversions to be BISHOPS and
MINISTERS
Nor was this any new thing : was written concerning BISHOPS and seeing that, long before, DEACONS. For thus saith the Scripture in a certain place: I
OVERSEERS
Clem.
in righteousness,
and
i.
their
MINIS
TERS
in faith.
Rom.
Epist. ad Corinth,
42. Che-
vallier s Translat.
specified,
word
Presbyters: and
all possibility
of misapprehension
s affirmation,
is
avoided
foretold in a prophecy
which
spiri
Emtr/coVoi^) in
righteousness,
and
their
it
MINISTERS
(Aa/coVou$)
in faith.
In
point of evidence,
CHAP.
III.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
559
deem
it
ecclesiastical purposes.
Under the simple the prophecy itself correctly or incorrectly. of testimony to a. fact, had the Church in Clement s time aspect
universally understood and believed that three distinct Orders of
Clergy had been appointed, that Father could never have asserted such a form of Ecclesiastical Polity to be foretold in a
prophecy which announced the appointment of no more than two sorts of officers described as being Overseers and Ministers.
Jerome
that
Church.
Jerome, that Bishops and Presbyters are in point of Order the same, and that The setting of one Bishop or Presbyter over his fellows was only done for the prevention
The
attestation of
of schism, and for the better government of the Church which had hitherto been ruled (communi Presbyterorum consilio) by
the
common
to the
key
counsel of Presbyters, probably affords the true remarkable language of Ignatius in his seven genuine
Epistles.
one Presbyter was placed authoritatively both over other Presbyters and over a whole Church, such is the pride of
When
human
nature, that a strong disposition to resistance, or (to say the least) a strong inclination to undervalue and depreciate the
novel Superior even though apostolically appointed, would be In fact, from the charge of St. Paul very apt to shew itself.
to or Overseer of the Timothy, whom he had appointed Bishop Church of Ephesus, we may learn, not equivocally, that this to command and was the case for, when he directed him
really
no man despise thy youth, teach, he would scarcely have said Let a spirit of resistance and insubordina unless he had anticipated
tion.
I
Tim.
iv.
11, 12.
Ignatius,
who, like Timothy and had received his supervisal Titus and Clement and Polycarp,
560
I.
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
IV.
the Vallenses.
authority from
the
impression
full
upon
Take,
It
is
for
to
Father.
dering his
As
power of God the I perceive your holy Presbyters do, not consi youthful appearance, but, as men prudent in God,
also
;
submitting to him
and not
to
to the
It
Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Bishop of us all. therefore, to be obedient with all sincerity,
becomes you,
in
honour of him
whose pleasure
it is
that ye should do
so.
Some
call a Bishop by
the name of his office : yet do all things without him. But such men appear to me void of a good conscience since they are not gathered together firmly, according to God s commandments.
:
3, 4, Chevallier s Translat.
effect.
formity of
ecclesiastical
of avoiding schism, and for the greater uni government; what benefit can be derived
should matters be transacted
from
without any regard to them, and should they be viewed in any other light than that of the delegated representatives of him who
is
the true
This, so far as respects the episcopate, is the very clear and and hence arose his very reasonable argument of Ignatius which might seem to have passed into a sort of proverb ; saying,
:
Let no one do anything, which belongs to the Church, separately Unless the 8. from the Bishop. Ignat. Epist. ad Smyrn.
authority of the Bishop were respected, he might just as well never have been With this key, thus furat all.
appointed
CHAP.
III.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
561
With respect
by Jerome, let us read those numerous statements of Ignatius which some have deemed so extravagantly high:
sistent.
and the whole, I think, will appear natural and con are little more than sermons upon St. Paul s text to a newly-appointed Bishop Let no man despise thy
church
They
youth
for
they
all
was not
renced.
to be undervalued,
With
the
same key
s
we may open
wise admonition to the youthful the very delicate matter of dealing with his Prelate, touching subject Presbyters many of whom, no doubt, exceeded him in age. Rebuke not a Presbyter: but admonish him as a
;
father.
Tim.
v.
1.
As
if
he had said,
in
toward those who are older than thyself: for, though Presbyters,
are by a custom henceforth to be introduced into the Church,
subjected to thee
Presbyters,
verity
to
yet know, that thou art greater than thy rather by this ecclesiastical custom than by the
;
,
of the Lord s disposition and therefore that thououghtest govern the Church in common with them.
Jerome, I
am
in
another
If he really made any such declaration, so far as I can perceive, directly contradict himself. would, in But, in truth, his language, when cited to this effect, is given
When
in
given in
of the word, but only of different degrees of rank with reference to the many mansions which our Lord declares
tical sense
autem
mansiones, quomodo, et
in
Veteri
2 O
562
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
IV.
we
between the Cottian Alps and the Adriatic Sea, have the express testimony of Jerome that,
:
at the
beginning of the
fifth
regularly organised under Bishops, and thence, of course, under a body of inferior Clergy also though he laments, that those Bishops should
;
have opposed themselves, to what he esteemed the orthodoxy of the age, and to what they esteem
unscriptural and corrupt innovation. later period, in the ninth century, they constituted a part of the provincial flock of the
ed
its
At a
holy Claude, Archbishop or Metropolitan of Turin. Whence, from the known ordinary constitution of the Church, we may be morally sure, that, in
Testamento
Sacerdotes,
et
in
Novo, alium
Levitae,
lib.
ii.
alium
alium Janitores,
c. 15.
alium CEditui
Does Jerome here speak of Porters and Churchwardens con stituting two additional apostolic Orders ?
Certainly, to depart from the divinely-appointed
model by
overbearing necessity, would, I think, be unwarrantable and presumptuous and not improbably in the event dangerous. Yet,
when
the departure had occurred, I cannot, with some, under take to say, that, in such circumstances, the transmission of the I Apostolical Succession was an ecclesiastical impossibility.
rather, until better informed, express
would
myself as
in the text.
by
the simple
imposition of the hands of the Presbytery, they themselves so back having previously received the imposition of hands, and
ward
less
regular
CHAP.
III.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
563
point of immediate government, they were ruled by inferior Bishops, the suffragans of the Arch
*.
Accordingly, when they became completely separated from the Roman Church and entered
upon
two
Apocalyptic Witnesses, they still retained that primitive form of Ecclesiastical Polity, which or
dains the authoritative government of the Church to be vested in Presbyters, employing Deacons as
their subordinated assistants, while
they them
selves
acknowledge the superintendence of a Bishop or General Overseer. Of this, a remarkable instance occurred about
who wrote
in
that
The Bohemian
cession
have
regular suc
from
to
Preachers
dois
;
Apostles,
sent
three
and
the three ferred the vocation and ordination, upon Pastors, by the imposition of hands |.
still Bishops century afterward, there were for, in a Confession in the Valdensian Church of Faith, presented in the year 1544 to Francis I.
:
King
of France,
is
we
This point
held
among us asjirmly
iii.
determined, that
chap. 4.
p. 74.
Excurs. to
Piedm.
2 O 2
564
the Bishops
THE VALLENSES
and
[BOOK
IV.
and
in their
morals
*.
historical
notices,
the
venerable Peyrani, when asked by Dr. Gilly in the year 1823, whether, in the Vaudois Church,
there had not formerly been Bishops properly so Yes : and I should now called, readily answered
:
for my office is virtually episcopal; but it would be absurd to retain the empty title, when we are too poor to support the dignity, and have
little
be styled Bishop,
jurisdiction save
to
that
:
which
is
voluntarily
submitted
is,
ourselves
the term
Moderator
more con
us, as being
sistent with
II.
our humiliation f.
or Paulicians,
which
next proceed to consider, is somewhat more difficult than that of the Vallenses it shall,
:
however, be fairly distinctly exhibited. While in Armenia, the Church of the Paulicians,
as described
far as form is
and
by Peter
Siculus,
was
evidently, so
concerned, episcopal.
:
Constantine
:
acted as the
and, after
Simeon was the second Bishop him, are enumerated many others in
first
regular succession, among whom is specially men tioned the famous Sergius or Tychicus J. When the Paulicians in a body, or at least a
chap. 1.
CHAP.
III.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
565
Asia into Europe, we still find them subsisting under an Episcopal Polity. In Bulgaria, they
and,
when they
we
named Mark, who first received his ordination from Bulgaria, but who is said to have afterward received a new ecclesiastical mission from Nicetas
the Paulician Patriarch of Drugaria *. Descending to the time of Reinerius,
who du
ring several years of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was one of their members, we find their
form of Ecclesiastical Polity marked out very dis Their Clergy consisted of tinctly by that writer.
Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons but the Order of Presbyters they divided into two classes, that of
:
the seniors, and that of the juniors -\ All these are simple historical facts
.
but,
when
* Vetust. Auctor.
in
primo
qui
in
secundo,
vocatur Filius Major. Qui in tertio, Films Minor. Qui in et ultimo, vocatur Diaconus. Cseteri, qui sunt sine quarto
ordine, vocantur Christiani et
Christiana.
Officiura Episcopi
in est, semper tenere prioratum in omnibus quae faciunt, scilicet in fractione panis, et in incipiendo orare : impositions manus, et Filius qua; quidem servant, Filius Major absents Episcopo, Reiner, de haeret. c. vi. in Bibl. Patr. Minor absente
vol. xiii. p.
Majore. 304.
we should
566
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
IV.
we come
we
rest purely
upon conjecture.
that the
It is recorded,
Church
of the Pauli-
This
is
all
that
we
positively
know, as
to the
first
the
Bishop of the Paulicians, and in their separate line the head or commencement of their succes
have been a Bishop, or he may a Presbyter, or he may simply have have been been a Layman. On the point of his ecclesiastical Hence we can character, Peter Siculus is silent.
sion.
He may
resort to nothing more than probabilities deduced from the facts which have been recorded.
The
facts, then,
and the
following.
Constantine, while residing at Mananalis, hos pitably entertained a Deacon, who was returning home from his captivity in Syria and, in conse
:
quence of his receiving from this Deacon the four Gospels and the fourteen Epistles of St. Paul, with which, though a Christian (such was the
lamentable darkness of the age and country), he
was previously unacquainted, he forthwith col lected a Church out of his neighbours, many of whom had hitherto been Manicheans.
Now,
gather
so far as probability is concerned, I should from these facts, that Constantine was
:
CHAP.
III.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
567
where, pursuant to the fashion of the times, he had preached, what (according to Peter Siculus) afterward became a special abomination to the
Paulicians, the superstitious worship of the Virgin
Dea
when
travelling
much
of the
Laity, as of the Bishops and Presbyters, bringing with him his letters of commendation or introduc
tion *.
Hence the natural presumption is, that Constantine was a Cleric and not a Laic. With this presumption, both his subsequent
conduct, and the ready acceptance of him by his numerous proselytes in the capacity of their Bishop
or Ecclesiastical Governor, perfectly correspond.
In the seventh century, lay-teaching, I should suppose, would be a thing unheard-of and un
known.
The
men
and, in this manner also, I apprehend, ori ginated the so-called heresy of the Paulicians.
:
Constantine himself, by his very language, seems to intimate as much. Shewing to his people the
sacred volume which he had received from the
Deacon, he exclaimed
Ye
are Macedonians
am
In these words,
lib. iv. c.
22.
568
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
IV.
we may
suppose him, at once to open his com You ask me, mission, and to answer objections. how I come to preach so differently from my clerical
brethren
:
so doing.
The reason
as ignorant of
was car
Paul and Sylvanus. Now I have received light from the word of God himself; from the four Gospels and from the
Epistles of St. Paul, which
tained,
I have
unexpectedly ob
and which
I have
diligently studied.
to
There
fore, you, as I have hitherto longer preach done, the superstitious veneration of the Saints and
I no
the Cross
sent
to
and
the Virgin.
you a new race of Macedonians, by Paul himself, whose Epistles I hold in my hand; I now
upon you
to
call
turn
from
all
such vanities
to
the
pure worship of the living God through Christ the Ye, brethren, have only Saviour and Mediator.
been blind, as well as myself : but, henceforth, the glorious light of the Gospel shall shine upon you.
quite ready to allow, that this is conjec ture, save only the recorded address of ConstanI
am
:
tine
to
sent ; lam Sylvanus, But it is a conjecture, which Paul. you by falls in with the history more naturally than any
Ye are Macedonians
CHAP.
III.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
I
569
unsatisfactory,
hesitate not,
matter, under
all
plain will and over-ruling providence of God. Man, in all ordinary cases, is bound: God, in
no
less
through the agency of miracles, is free *. We know, that God himself bestowed the name
*
On
I should say that we establishment incapable of evidential have here a case directly in point to the present statement. From the Condition of the dominant Church, whether in the
West, during the long and dreary period of the middle ages, it would have been impossible for any Society of serious and enlightened Christians, circumstanced as the suppo sition makes them to be circumstanced, to have obtained at
East or
in the
nay, so far as
seen,
were actually made, without success, to obtain the papal sanc tion and authority. How, then, by the hypothesis, would such Communities be
situated
?
remain within the awfully pre Inevitably, they must either dicted Church of the Apostasy, and thence, under the souldestructive guidance of the
Man
of Sin,
;
partake of
all
its
in order
that they
:
may
or else they Succession enjoy the privilege of an Apostolical must relinquish the privilege of an Apostolical Succession ; in God, in separate assemblies, with order that
they
may
worship
570
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
IV.
of Candlesticks or Churches
nions,
upon two
Commu
in
sackcloth
paganising corruptions of
the dominant Church throughout all the middle ages we know, that the two Communions of the Vallenses and the Albigenses discharged this pre
:
and we
further
know,
that
it is
and which part of it is to be chosen by these seven thousand men, who resolve not to bow the knee to Baal ?
:
Truly, unless I altogether mistake, the Spirit of God himself and has thus, still on the supposi has answered the question
:
tion
now
by
the
ye be not partakers of her of her plagues. For her sins have and God hath remembered her iniquities.
people, that
s
To
Babylon, the unconditional command, we see, is to This command must, at all hazards, be obeyed
COME OUT.
:
and,
when
weighed against the duty of implicit obedience, every ulterior ecclesiastical consequence, and every difficult and curious ques
tion
which may be raised upon it, are but as dust in the balance. Thus, even on an extreme supposition, which yet can never
verified, I should say, that the Vallenses
:
be
of
God
s providential dispensation, I
whose
office
was
to
prophesy
in
votaries of a
new form
of Paganism.
CHAP.
III.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
Communions, which, during
571
two
that pre that precise function. cise period, discharged Such being the case, I cannot but think, that
visible
we have
the very highest moral evidence as to the Communions with the two identity of those two if Witnessing Churches of the Apocalypse. And,
this
be admitted,
who
shall
name and
nions,
Commu
which God himself has declared to be Churches, however they originated, and however
?
CHAPTER
RESPECTING
IV.
THE OCCASIONAL DISCREPANCE OF CHURCHES OF THE VALLENSES AND THE THE CHURCHES OF THE ALBIGENSES FROM THE
REFORMATION.
that, in person I suppose, will imagine compliance with the captious and unreasonable
:
No
demand
of Bossuet,
the Vallenses and the Albigenses, either as agree ing in all points great and small with the various
Churches
of
the
Reformation,
I
or
as
That some of these opinions are untenable, I readily admit but, that they affect those primary
:
which are
indispensably necessary to the due accomplish ment of our Lord s promises, I strenuously deny.
The
from the Gospel in any of its grand requisites and they so naturally sprang up under the pecu
liar
two persecuted
573
Churches were placed, that they very readily may be excused and pardoned.
My meaning
I.
will
be better understood by an
adduction of instances.
The enormous corruption and determined profligacy of the Romish Priesthood, fully acknow
ledged and duly censured (as we have seen) by Atto of Vercelli, caused the Dissidents to feel
:
that
it
receive
with
impossibility benefit from such instructors, any spiritual whom they too clearly saw that Christ was
was a moral
for
them
to
not spiritually present. But they erred in carrying this feeling to the extent of maintaining, if indeed they ever really
did maintain, the opinion
:
the present point, it will be observed, I for I can, in speak with considerable hesitation no wise, adopt the positive language of Bossuet
:
On
That the Romanists make the respecting it*. to depend upon the efficacy of the Sacraments
intention
know:
Council anathematise
who
assert
that in the
administration of the Sacraments, the intention of the Priest, to do what the Church does, is not
requisite |.
*
But
do not
on
93, 96.
t Si quis dixerit,
dum
sacramenta conficiunt et
574
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
IV.
the legitimate principle of adequate historical tes timony, that the Vallenses, and their fraternal
the personal holiness of the administrator essential to the effi
conreligionists the Albigenses,
made
Some
rently
is,
indeed, appa
laid
their
charge
by
is
Reinerius
so loose,
and and
misapprehension
in regard
to those
who
spared
so easy,
that I do not feel myself justified in adopting the confident assertion of Bossuet *.
In
ened,
my
doubts, moreover,
I
am
greatly strength
when
any such opinion on the part of the Dissidents, who, in the year 1176, were publicly examined at Lombers. This open disavowal is faithfully re
corded by Roger Hoveden:
and,
though
the
it,
we may
to
it
is
far too
unambiguous
be rapidly
quod
facit,
Ecclesia
85.
anathema
sit.
vii.
can. 11. p.
may judge of their value in regard to evidence. Quidara autem hoc dicunt tantum per bonos fieri alii, per
:
sciunt.
cum
ipse sit
quod
CHAP.
IV.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
who
eats not
;
575
the
We
Christ,
body of
the
and that
save in
body
of Christ
not
consecrated,
the
Church, and that it is not consecrated save by a Priest, whether good or bad; and that it is not more
effectually consecrated by
bad one
absolvere
*.
Reiner, juxta poenitentiam injungere. Coussord. cont. Vald. p. 126. De sacramento Eucharistiae dicunt, quod sacerdotes in mortali non De sacramento Pcenitentiae dicunt, possint conficere.
valeat et
quod nullus
sit
possit absolvi a
malo sacerdote
item,
malo
sacerdoti.
Reiner de
300.
:
haeret.
juxta Gretser.
sunt
Obloqueris etiam sacerdotibus Ecclesiae, dicens Fornicarii usurarii sunt ; tabernarii sunt; et alia multa vitia con;
in
jectas
eos.
Respondeo
Quid ergo
Numquid
ideo
sacerdotes
non sunt?
non aufert
ipsum.
Sed
dicis, haeretice
Tamen
dixit
Christus ad discipulos ;
tuntur
eis.
Ergo
sacerdos,
est
quando fornicarius
:
Etsi Presbyter criminosus charitatem non habet Respondeo aut Spiritum Sanctum, ut homo singularis ; nihilominus dignum
est
ejus
sacerdotium,
dignum
est
ejus
ministerium,
quoad
a digno, sive indigno, Presbytero conferantur. Pilich. cont. Valdens. c. xvi. in Bibl. Patr. vol. xiii. p. 316.
*
Credimus
57G
In the
is
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
IV.
way
be so frequently and so pertinaciously As we receive the allega brought against them. tion, upon which Bossuet builds with so much
knew
confidence, purely from the determined and ex asperated enemies of the Vallenses so it may be
:
remark, that not a yet additionally vestige of the opinion attributed to them appears either in the Noble Lesson, or in the Treatise on
useful
to
any
my own
rise to
observation
such an attribution,
we
find,
perhaps in
all
those Works, a
warm
and likewise
direct
mish
Doctrine
Ro
Sa
is
craments
depends
upon
their
right
sacerdotal
is
that
Church of
England, which makes the spiritual efficacy of the Sacraments to depend upon the fitness or worthi-
Christi
sia; et
et
quod corpus
nisi
non
nee melius
per bonum,
quam
Hoveden. Annal.
par. poster, in A. D.
H76.
fol.
319.
CHAP.
IV.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
577
obscurely gather, even from the blundering state ment of Reinerius, that such also was the real
so,
in the
lono
(who, according to Eneas Sylvius, adopted the Faith of the Valdenses, though they rejected the name), presented to King Ladislaus in the year 1508, we
find that Doctrine distinctly stated
the
Bohemian
Brethren
and explicitly
maintained
If,
f.
of the Sacraments depends upon the perso nal holiness of the administrator : I can only say, that they laboured under an error. At the same
efficacy
time,
would add
was an
error,
which, among
the less educated of them, might easily spring up under the peculiar and very trying circumstances
which they were placed. As the inspired Preacher truly said Surely oppression maketh a wise man mad.
in
:
of the Church, had transmuted the Roman Pon they perceived, tiff and many of his Bishops into sovereign
II.
temporal Princes
Art. xxv.
in
t Reiner, de
haeret. c. v.
Bibl.
Patr. vol.
xiii.
p.
300.
Bohem. Confess.
Morland
Hist, of the
Churches of Piedm.
2 P
578
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
IV.
Order, they had introduced, among an unmarried Clergy, the most offensive luxury, the most undis guised debauchery, the most palpable secularity,
and the most jealous and persecuting tyranny. But the Valdenses All this was reprehensible.
erred, in carrying their objection so far, as to
endowment
of the
deny Church a
:
notion, at once, absurd in itself, pregnant with the worst species of mischief, and involving a
both by its direct absurdity is evinced in the abstract, to God s own temporal opposition, arrangement of the Levitical Church, which never
Its
:
could have been instituted, had ecclesiastical en dowments, in themselves, been an abomination
by Kings should
its
nursing mothers
by
its
who minister
is
at the altar,
an endowed Church
Church), that, in a quietly settled country, any unendowed Church could supply the
poor
s
man
wants of poverty-stricken and thinlypeopled rural districts, however it might be pre cariously and insultingly supported by the grudged
spiritual
and penurious and reluctant voluntary contribu tions (if I may combine together terms, contradic
tory in speech, but not contradictory in practice) of opulent and thickly-inhabited cities.
CHAP.
Its
IV.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
to
579
direct tendency
is
kind
evinced
both by
general certainty of
producing an ignorant and ill-educated Clergy, studiously selected from among the least intellec
members of a family, confined altogether to the inferior ranks of society, and by their habits unfitted to exercise any wholesome and legitimate influence over their flocks, who would be more
tual
be blind leaders of the blind, than skilful dividers of the word and able defenders of the
likely to
faith
when
by
its
and
also
depriving
God
ministers of
independence, by which with all freedom they may rebuke as well as exhort, and
that
fearless
faithfully
without, respects poor weak humanity, the strong temptation to please the perverted humour of their dictatorial people, by handling the word of the Lord deceitfully, lest some governing chil
dren
of
Diotrephes should
either
tyrannically
cashier them, or
meanly
and
their families.
involution of a national profession of infi by its actual basement upon delity is evinced the unhallowed principle, that nations, as such,
Its
:
ought to uphold no religion nationally, but that they ought impartially to view all modes of faith
with philosophic indifference, deeming them alike
equally false or equally true or equally unim portant; a principle, in the working of which, the
2
p 2
580
individual
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
IV.
members of a nation may indeed peradventure be Christians, but the nation itself is
assuredly of no religion, and thence neither recog nises the authority nor looks for the support and blessing of the Deity.
1.
Perhaps
it
may be asked
be
If
the system of
ineffi
Non- Endowment
its
condemned as practically
and complete, the true point now under consideration, I readily answer that It did
:
very
ill.
pervadence, agreeably to the eloquent de clamation of Tertullian, was, no doubt, in some sort, universal : but, in the way of leavening the
Its
whole mass,
it
was not
complete
nor,
under such
circumstances, without a standing miracle, either could it or can it be thus complete. During the
first
ages, the chief spread of Christianity was in populous cities, or in commercial districts, or in
regions where
together.
tially
It
congregated
penetrate into the villages and fields of Asia Minor * but, in the rural tracts, from the very necessity of things as they then stood, it made
:
small progress.
*
Neque enim
lib. x.
pervagata
est.
Plin.
Epist. ad
Trajan,
CHAP.
in
IV.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
his
581
one place of
boast of universality,
is
totally
and remarkably
among
the rustic
We sprang up
of general assem
decuries,
the
very camp
itself,
tribes,
the
palace, the senate, the forum -\. does not the orator include the country in his enumeration ? Clearly, because the country
Why
formed no
In
tricts
part, or at least
no considerable
of
part, of
that
the
inhabitants
rural
dis
had penetrated
Empire,
of
is
town of the
Pagans in its acquired or ecclesiastical sense. The word Pagani itself simply means Villagers or Countrymen or Peasants : and it acquired its
* Obsessam vociferantur civitatem
insulis, Christianos:
;
in agris, in castellis, in
omnemsexum,
aetatem,conditionera, etiam
801. Apol. adv. Gent. Oper. p. Hesterni sumus, etornniavestraimplevimus: urbes, insulas, f
castella,
municipia, conciliabula, castra ipsa, tribus, decurias, Tertull. Apol. Oper. p. 874. palatium, senatura, forum.
582
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
IV.
now
ters,
purely from the notorious circumstance, that the Pagans or Rustics held to their ancient ido
latry
long after the Gospel had, as Tertullian speaks, widely and generally pervaded the camp
and the forum and the small trading islands and the crowded boroughs and the densely populated
cities.
God, in his moral administration, usually works by second causes alone, it requires
Now,
the
as
not
of prophecy to foretell that the universal introduction of what now is called The
gift
:
tion of the
Voluntary System, by turning the whole predica Gospel into a matter of individual buy
ing and selling through the agency of which the poor must either personally pay the expense of a
stated minister or go without him, would rapidly transmute the people of rural districts into a new
race of
Pagani
or, at least,
Where
the
ma
chinery of superstition or fanaticism is not em ployed, still the most honest and the most zealous
possesses an inde pendent private fortune, which is rarely the case with the Clergy) subsist without an extrinsic pro
when he
vision
of food
and raiment
and,
though the
CHAP.
IV.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
583
Christ
to
made by
;
his
deprived of a regular standing ministry, which, by reason of an endowment, can offer the Gospel to the poor
yet,
if
without
price,
and which
to
at
wants and
to
and
manage
would absolutely
:
be the case in every rural district because, occa a truly devout proprietor might stand in sionally, the gap, and stay the moral pestilence. But
such, or something similar, would, in the very way of cause and effect, be most generally the
case.
As
who
fled to
the alpine
mountains
escape persecution, they will form no exception which can be universally reduced to a practical account. They were animated with
to
all
tual suffering
but no such
if,
spirit
would pervade
persecution, a regular stated ministry were sud and the result would be a denly withdrawn
;
speedy declension into something, which, to say the very least, would not be genuine Christianity.
2.
It
that, if eccle
siastical
endowments were
abolished,
we should
584
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
IV.
much more spiritual Clergy no one then would enter into the ministry, because as a mere profession, or from consciously merce
be blessed with a
;
nary motives.
But this is a great delusion. It does not follow, that, what would cease to be a temptation to some, would cease to be a temptation to all. The Clergy
might be lowered in rank by such an expedient but it is not equally clear, that they would be
:
raised in spirituality.
To men
of an inferior class,
who had no
In that case, the cheap talent of a depraved and noisy oratory would, in the way of barter, be
regularly brought to the oppidan market, mere grimace usurping the seat of genuine scriptural
and, while the prospect of turning the penny, by collecting large audiences in chapels let out for regular rents (which, of course, the
piety
:
slighted poor
would be unable
to pay),
would be
duly calculated by the ill-taught trader in his own lungs the thinly-peopled country, which, in
;
the
way
of an income,
worth the speculatist s attention, would be turned over to the cheerless prospect of a resuscitated
Paganism. Meanwhile,
in towns,
CHAP.
IV.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
585
purchase the services of those who might wish to sell them, what would be the inevitable operation of such a system? The fancied more spiritual
confidently pushed themselves forward into publicity, while modest worth sensi tively shrank into the background, must please the humour of their wayward and tyrannical con
ministers,
who had
the legitimate evangelical places of the teachers and the taught would be exactly inverted: the diotrephic lovers
:
of preeminence, like their recorded predecessors when the infant and persecuted Church was com
pelled to
contributions,
would
readily,
when
their
slightest
whim was
thwarted, treat the successors of St. John, as their spiritual forefathers treated the holy Apostle him
self
*
:
faithlessly adul
terating the Gospel, as the Gospel has evidentially been delivered down from the times of Primitive
*
How vivid
the
what,
ciple.
is St. John s picture of a Church, which, during of Paganism, could not subsist otherwise than on
is
but Diotrephes,
who
loveth to
NOT. preeminence among them, his deeds which he Wherefore, if I come, I will remember not content doeth, prating against us with malicious words : and,
have
the
RECEIVETH
us
10.
that Scripture
written for our adraoni-
586
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
IV.
Christianity, to suit the ever-varying taste of the a temptation, day, would be constantly present
;
resisted at the
;
expence of
but yet a
of insolent dismissal
yet another account, nothing can be more idle than to say that spiritual pas tors, and none save spiritual pastors, would enter
is this all.
:
Nor
On
into
the
The
taking of such a step does not altogether depend upon a young person s own choice, how
ever both zealous and disinterested he
may
be.
A parent s
obtained
:
consent must be previously asked and and, with no prospect before him save
that of eleemosynary dependence (for, of course, un der a voluntary system, there can be no such being as an independent Divine, unless indeed he be a
man
of sufficient private fortune, and thence not relying for his bread upon the meagreness of lay liberality), a prudent father would be very apt, to
withhold his consent, and to refuse to his son the expensiveness of an education necessary to qualify
him
for
becoming a competent
;
religious instructor
of others
tion,
upon
whom
come
Here, even
while the living authority of an Apostle subsisted, we behold, painted to the life, the genuine workings of coarse tyrannical
Voluntarism
CHAP. IV.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
587
who may
either dispense entirely with all theological attain ments, or who, somewhat incomprehensibly,, are
theologians
by
instinct,
any preparatory education. Yet, if Tertullian could say, that Men are made Christians, not born
Christians
:
we may perhaps
truth, that
Men
*.
Theologians
3.
taken
:
by the modern admirer of the voluntary scheme and then it is urged that, in all trades, wants create their own level and that the demand will
;
Now
who
acutely perceives, when his bodily frame is disordered, or when the security of his property is hence the demand for physicians endangered
:
man
and
for
full
supply
of those very necessary and important individuals. But the precise spiritual disorder of fallen man,
the precise actual insecurity of his alienated con dition, is an insensibility to his true state and a
*
tull.
De
vestris fuimus
fiunt,
Ter-
588
lioration
THE VALLENSES
and
religious
it
;
[BOOK
IV.
the
demand
all
most of
demand
:
for
it
whatsoever.
In our lapsed
to our doors
for
an
indifference to, or a dislike of, the true remedy, is inherent in the very nature of our disease or
;
rather,
we may
itself.
is
well
say, constitutes
the very
disease
Nay, such
culation, I
may
the absurdity of the present spe add that, on the voluntary prin
:
ciple, various cases may easily be supposed to occur, where there might really be an honest demand associated with the moral impossibility
of such
seeing the benefit of oppidan Christianity even as degraded by the whims and humours of tyrannical democratic intervention,
rural
On
the
how
?
the Laity, can subsist upon air neither, like the Israelites in the wilderness, do they enjoy the miraculous privilege, that, through forty long
years of ministerial labour, their clothes should not wax old upon them, nor their shoes wax old
upon
their feet.
CHAP.
IV.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
589
but poverty, on both sides, forbids the Of supply. the poor man, more especially of the poor man in
the country, the peculiar proprietary Church is, specially aud solely, the regularly endowed and
parochially established
Church.
Let
such a
friends
of the poor and, in the very way of cause and effect, those friends shew their friendship, by
tearing remorselessly from
life,
and by dashing unrelentingly from their lips the cup of salvation. Justly may we say, that like the Jews of old, they please not God, and are con
trary
III.
to all
men
is
*.
There
and Albigenses, which, before the subject be dismissed, may very briefly be noted.
lenses
Profane swearing of the most offensive descrip tion, such as detestable colloquial oaths by God s
teeth or
by God
blood or by
God s wounds
or
by
the sacramental Pix and Ousel, prevailed, they well knew, to an awful extent, among the adher
while yet no person, on that account, thought the worse of these daring blas
ents of the
Papacy
phemers.
Those,
who
will curse
and
lye
and swear,
says the ancient author of the Noble Lesson, are said and reckoned to be good and loyal men.
Thessal.
ii.
15.
590
Lord
[BOOK
IV.
they deemed
all oaths,
even though
promotion of truth before the lawful authorities, to be utterly and when they thence proceeded to prohibited
;
God and
for the
the conclusion, that every oath of every descrip tion was to be utterly rejected by a Christian man
then, however innocently, they erred. Yet, surely, these errors, much as
wonder
that,
with honest
generally sound judgment, they should have pre vailed (if, indeed, they all did prevail), affect not
the grand essentials of either faith or practice for even the worst of them, that, which, by assert
ing
:
what
is
now
called the
at once
undermines
every nation (as a nation) which adopts it, might be held without, on the part of those who held it,
any consideration or perception of its true, character and consequences and I need scarcely say, that
;
the error, as maintained in simplicity of heart, differs widely from the same error, as entertained
to serve the purposes of faction,
in the
all
or as inculcated
spirit of
in short, of
On
we may
safely
and
reasonably view the old Vallenses and Albigenses, notwithstanding such minor errors, as the ap
pointed channel in which Christ s promises to his sincere Church were destined to be fulfilled.
CHAPTER
V.
CONCLUSION.
preceding Discussion is, I trust, fully sufficient to extract its sting from the very plausisible
THE
Bishop of Meaux.
Agreeably to the promises of our Saviour Christ, which it has been my object to explain
I.
through the medium of an historical verification, there has never been wanting, from the very first promulgation of the Gospel, a spiritual visible
Church of faithful worshippers. Through all the worst and darkest periods, even through that century which Baronius himself calls the iron and leaden and obscure age, such a Church
has incessantly existed, though often, to all ap pearance, on the very brink of destruction*.
in the
boasted immu-
In
novum
sterilitate
inchoatur saeculum, quod, sua asperitate ac boni ferreum, malique exundantis deformitate plumbeum,
Annal.
592
table
THE VALLENSES
[BOOK
IV.
communion of the
was
at so
the evolution of his leaden age, is fain to pro nounce Christ himself asleep, while the mystic
ship of the Church Catholic was overwhelmed by the waves and, what he thinks even yet worse
:
than the alleged somnolency of the omniscient Redeemer, the ecclesiastical mariners snored so
who might rouse their were no where to be found *. sleeping Lord, He, however, that keepeth Israel, neither slum Profound as might be the bered nor slept.
soundly, that the disciples,
drowsiness of the whole Latin Church, respecting which Baronius so justly and so honestly com
widely extended as might be the great apostasy from the faith, which St. Paul has so
plains
;
characteristically foretold
Christ,
nevertheless,
fully
awake, and
Cardinal
What the
was unable
to
Vast Obscure
of the Papal Dominions, and the want of which might well nigh seem to have frustrated the pro
still
continued to
sopore Christus,
cum
deerant, qui
Dorninum
sic
Annal.
in A. D.
912.
CHAP.
V.]
AND ALBIGENSES.
593
incessantly harassed and persecuted by the tools of the Papacy, yet, through all those
Though
middle ages which preceded the Reformation of the sixteenth century, the Vallenses were never, either exterminated by the sword of violence, or
enslaved to the
Latin
Church.
confession of an Archbishop of Turin in the earlier part of the sixteenth age, though perpetually
attacked by an enemy of surpassing power, still, of all expectation, the Vallensic in mockery
Heretic of the Alps came off victorious or, at least, if not absolutely victorious, he shewed him
:
unconquered and unconquerable *. II. With the Reformed Catholics of the six teenth and nineteenth centuries, the visible united
self
which, at the very beginning of the fifth century, not to speak of even a yet earlier period, subsisted
*
praeter
opinionem
prius,
audacior fit insolentior atque et, formidabat, repulsum facile deinceps contemnit. Idque ttiftc Claud. hostis conatus saepius inanes fuere. magis contigit, quum
Scyssel. Taurin. adv. Valdens. fol. 1.
2 Q
594
THE VALLENSES.
[BOOK
IV,
where it still subsists, in the region geographically defined by the angry Jerome as lying between the waters of the Adriatic Sea and the Alps of King
stand connected with the purity of the Primitive Church. In despite of the lawless in
Cottius,
we
novations of the papacy, innovations which are condemned by the testimony of the earliest eccle
siastical writers, the
problem has been proposed by the Bishop of Meaux. That problem, I am In the willing to hope, has now been solved.
Valleys of the Alps, by a pure visible Church, the Ancient Faith of Christianity has been pre
served, through
superstition,
all
was
it
:
consumed.
The Angel
of the Lord
its
protection.
could not destroy it and the enemy was unable to wear it out by violence. AOSA EN r*-i2TOi2 esn.
APPENDIX.
I HAVE stated, that the earliest occurrence name Valdes or Valdensis or Vallensis is
of the
in the
Noble Lesson
poem, so
the
far as I can judge, to A.D. 1100. Since that statement was made, I have met
with a very curious passage cited by Mr. Palmer in his Treatise on the Church, which certainly
deserves attention, and which here fitly subjoined.
may
therefore be
In the year 1054, Michael Cerularius, Patri arch of Constantinople, was excommunicated by Cardinal Humbert the Papal Legate, who left
the instrument of excommunication upon the altar of St. Sophia. This instrument contains the fol
lowing passage. Michael abusivus Patriarcha neophytus, atque cum eo Leo Acridanus Episcopus, et omnes
sequaces eorum in pra?fatis erroribus et prsesumptionibus, sint Anathema Maranatha, cum Simonaicis,
Severianis,
Nazarenis,
diabolo et
angelis
iii.
forte
resipuerint.
s
Canisii Thesaur.
326.
in
Palmer
Treatise
596
APPENDIX.
i.
chap.
9.
sect. II.
vol.
i.
were these VALLESII, here mentioned as being already excommunicated along with Arians and Manicheans ?
Who
know, that the common charge brought against the Albigenses or Cathari was that of With Arians and Manicheism and Arianism.
Manicheans, the VALLESII, whoever they might If they were be, are coupled in the anathema.
the Vallenses of Piedmont, we, in that case, find
the occurrence of the
We
name
and, since in that year the VALLESII had already been excommunicated as notorious heretics they
;
must, under that designation, have already been well and familiarly known to the Clergy of the
Romish Church.
I
wish that
my
would endeavour
upon
and
to ascertain
?
They
I
my
memory,
:
as enumerated in
any
list
of
ancient heretics
but, as
traction of
London,
all
may
taken.
At
24
<
fUE END
1 I n