PREFACE 1 La doctrine de l’Eglise Catholique consiste en quatre points, dont l’enchainement est inviolable.

L’un: que L’Eglise est visible .

L’autre: qu’Elle est toujours .

Le troisieme: que La verite de l’Evangile y est toujours professee par toute la Societe .

Le quatrieme: qu’Il n’est pas permis de s’eloigner de sa doctrine ; ce qui vaut dire, en autres termes, qu’Elle est infaillible .

Le premier point est fonde sur un fait constant; c’est, que Le terme d’EGLISE signifie toujours, dans l’Ecriture, et en suite dans le langage commun des fideles , UN SOCIETE VISIBLE . — Le second point, que L’Eglise est toujours , n’est pas moins constant: puisqu’il est fonde sur les Romesses de Jesus-Christ, dont on convient dans tous les partis.

De la on infere tres-clairement le troisieme point; que La Verite est toujours professee par la Societe de l’Eglise car, l’Eglise n’etant visible que par la profession de la verite, il s’ensuit, que, si elle est toujours, et qu’elle soit toujours visible; il ne se peut, qu’elle n’enseigne et ne professe toujours la verite de l’Evangile.

D’ou suit aussi clairement le quatrieme point, qu’Il n’est pas permis de dire que L’Eglise soit dans l’erreur, ni de s’ecarter de sa doctrine .

Et tout cela est fonde sur la Romesse, qui est avouee dans tous les partis: puisqu’enfin la meme Romesse, qui fait que L’Eglise est toujours, fait qu’Elle est toujours dans l’etat qu’emporte le terme d’EGLISE : par consequent, toujours visible, et toujours enseignant la verite.

Il n’y a rien de plus simple, ni de plus clair, ni de plus suivi, que cette doctrine.

Cette doctrine est si clair, que les Protestans ne l’ont pu nier: elle emporte si clairement leur condamnation, qu’ils n’ont pu aussi la reconnoitre.

C’est pourquoi ils n’ont songe, qu’a l’embrouiller. Hist. des Variat. livr. 15:3, 4. 2 Matthew 28:19,20. In other parts of his Work, he specially adduces these two texts. Whence I conclude, that I am not mistaken in supposing them to be here tacitly referred to. 3 Bossuet, we may observe, like the rest of his fraternity, claims for the Church the prerogative of Infallibility: and, since he limits the Catholic 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 contradistinguished from the diocesan Roman Church.

May I be allowed to ask, on what authoritative decision of what Ecumenical Council do Bossuet and Trevern and other Popish Ecclesiastics claim for their Church this same prerogative of Infallibility?

If there be any such decision, it would run I suppose, in some such terms as the following. The Catholic Church is infallible. Therefore, if any one shall assert, that the Catholic Church either has erred or can err in defining the faith: let him be anathema .

Now where does any such canon of an Ecumenical Council exist ?

In the eleventh century, during which no Ecumenical Council was sitting, the famous Hildebrand, who played the part of Pope by the style and title of Gregory VII, decided, indeed, that the Roman Church has never erred and never will err: but this can only serve the turn of those, who hold the individual Infallibility of the Pope; nor will it serve even their turn, unless they can produce the infallible decision which infallibly assigns to the Pope the privilege of individual Infallibility.

Nothing can be more distinct and precise than the dictate of Pope Gregory himself.

Romana Ecclesia nunquam erravit: nec in perpetuum, testante Scriptura, errabit. Dictat. Pap. Gregor. VII. in Epist. lib. 2. epist. 55.

Labb. Concil. vol. 10. p. 110, 111.

But, still, does the constant Romish claim of Infallibility rest solely upon the individual dictate of Gregory? Or does it claim to repose upon some other authoritative document?

Romanists often object, to members of the Reformed Churches: that The faith of those, who reject the authority of the Latin Communion rests only upon moral evidence; while the better faith of themselves rests upon the sure foundation of absolute Infallibility .

Where does there exist the canon of an Ecumenical Council, in which the possession of Infallibility is decreed to the Church of Rome? 4 I do not object to the mode, in which Bossuet puts this point.

Nommer quelques docteurs, par-ci par-la, et temps en temps, que vous pretendiez avoir enseigne votre doctrine; quand le fait seroit avoue, ce ne seroit rien: car c’etoit un corps d’Eglise qu’il falloit montrer, un corps ou l’on prechat la verite, et ou l’on administrat les sacremens; par consequent un corps compose de pasteurs et de peuples; un corps a cet egard toujours visible. Voila ce qu’il faut montrer, et montrer par consequent dans ce corps visible une manifeste succession et de la doctrine et du ministere. — La difficulte restoit toujours de nous montrer une Eglise et une Societe de pasteurs et de peuple ou l’on trouvat la saine doctrine toujours conservee jusqu’au temps de Luther.

Hist. des Variat. livr. 15. Section 6, 11.

But the Bishop is not content with thus putting the point. He advances a step beyond it: and, with a considerable measure of triumph, propounds, to the French Protestants, a question which he evidently deems altogether unanswerable.

Mes freres, donnez gloire a Dieu. Quand on a commence votre Reforme, y avoit-il, je ne dis pas quelque Eglise (car il est deja bien certain qu’il n’y avoit aucune), mais du moins y avoit-il un seul homme, qui en se joignant a Luther, a Zuingle, a Calvin, a qui vous voudrez, lui ait dit en s’y joignant: J’ai toujours cru comme vous; je n’ai jamais cru ni a la messe, ni au Pape, ni aux dogmes que vous reprenez dans l’Eglise Romaine? Mes chers freres, pensez-y bien, vous a-t-on jamais nomme un seul homme qui se soit joint de cette sorte a votre Reforme? En trouverez-vous quelqu’un dans vos annales, ou l’on a ramasse autant qu’on a pu tout ce qui pouvoit vous justifier contre le reproche de la nouveaute, qui etoit le plus pressant et le plus sensible?

Donnez gloire a Dieu encore un coup: et, en avouant que jamais vous n’avez rien oui dire de semblable, confessez, que vous etes dans la meme cause que les Sociniens, et que tout ce qu’il y a jamais eu d’heretiques. Troisieme Avertiss. sur les Lettres de M. Jurieu. section 30.

An answer to this question is promptly afforded by the address of the Vallensic Clergy to the leading Reformers in the year 1530.

Sumus qualescunque doctores cujusdam plebis indignae et pusillae. — In omnibus tamen vosbiscum convenimus: et, a tempore Apostolorum, semper de fide, sicut vos, sentientes, concordavimus: in hoc solo differentes; quod, culpa nostra, ingeniique nostri pigritia, scriptores, tam recte quam vos, neutiquam intelligimus. Scultet. Annal. Evangel.

Renovat. in A.D. 1530. p. 161, 163. 5 Pastorini’s Gen. Hist. of the Christ. Church. p. 325, 326. This severe trial of the Church occurs, according to Pastorini, during the reign of the expected Antichrist.

The whole account of that terrific personage, agreeably to the received notions of the Romanists, as given at considerable length by Roger Hoveden, is extremely curious: and, in many points, purely by a following out of the declarations of prophecy, he is exhibited as bearing a most ominous resemblance to the Sovereign Pontiff in the plenitude of his power.

Antichrist, we are told, will be born from a father and mother, like other men: not, as some fancy, from a virgin. Yet the Devil will descend into the womb of his mother: so that the child, born from her by the joint cooperation of the man and the fiend, shall be altogether evil; whence he is fitly styled The Son of Perdition. When arrived at full age, he will send his nuncios and his preaching through the whole world: and his preaching and his power shall be eminently catholic, reaching from north to south and from east to west. Many wonderful miracles he will perform, so as, if possible, to seduce the very elect into error. Against real Christians, he will stir up an universal persecution: and he will labor to corrupt the faithful by the three modes of terror and bribery and miracles. Riches, in abundance, he will give to those who believe in him: and those, whom he cannot seduce either by bribery or by terror or by miracles, he will cruelly, in the sight of all, put to various deaths of marvelous torture. Then every faithful Christian, if he shall refuse to deny his God, will perish, either by the fire of the furnace, or by the sword, or by some other mode of torment. This dreadful persecution will continue, through the world, during the space of three years and a half. Antichrist, moreover, will sit in the temple of God, that is to say, in the Holy Church itself, inflicting martyrdom upon all sound Christians: and he will become very great; because in him shall be the Devil, the head of all evil. But, lest he should come without warning, and thus deceive and ruin the entire human race, two prophets, Enoch and Elijah, will be sent into the world, who, through the same term of three years and a half, will strengthen and prepare the faithful servants of God.

Nascetur ex patris et matris copulatione, sicut et alii homines; non, ut quidam dicunt, de sola virgine. Sed tamen in peccatis totus concipietur, in peccato generabitur, et in peccato nascetur. In ipso suae conceptionis initio, Diabolus simul introibit in uterum matris: et, ex virtute Diaboli, confovebitur et contuebitur in ventre matris: et virtus Diaboli erit semper cum illa. Et, sicut in matrem Domini nostri Spiritus Sanctus supervenit, et eam sua virtute obumbravit, et divinitate replevit; ut de Spiritu Sancto conciperet, et quod nasceretur divinum esset et sanctum: ita quoque Diabolus in matrem Anti-Christi descendet, totamque eam replebit, totam circumdabit, totam tenebit, totam interius et exterius possidebit; ut, Diabolo per hominem cooperante, concipiat, et quod natum fuerit totum sit nocivum, totum malum, totum perditum. Unde et ille homo Filius Perditionis appellatur: quia, in quantum poterit, genus humanum perdet, et ipse in novissimo perdetur. — Per universum mundum mittet nuncios et praedicatores suos. Praedicatio autem ejus et potestas tenebit a mari usque ad mare, ab oriente usque ad occidentem, ab aquilone usque ad septentrionem. Faciet ergo signa multa, miracula magna et inaudita: ita ut in errorem inducantur, si fieri potest, etiam electi. — Excitabit enim persecutionem sub omni coelo supra Christianos et omnes electos.

Eriget itaque se contra fideles tribus modis: id est, terrore, et muneribus, et miraculis. Dabit, in se credentibus, auri et argenti copias.

Quos enim muneribus corrumpere non poterit, terrore superabit: quos autem terrore non poterit, signis et miraculis seducere tentabit: quos nec signis nec miraculis, in conspectu omnium, mirabili morte cruciatos crudeliter necabit. — Tunc omnis, fidelis Christianus qui inventus fuerit, aut Deum negabit; aut, per ferrum, sive per ignem fornacis, seu per serpentes, sive per bestias, sive per aliud quodlibet tormenti genus interibit, si in fide permanserit. Haec autem tam terribilis et timenda tribulatio, tribus annis et dimidio, in toto mundo manebit. — Sed etiam in templo Dei sedebit Antichristus, id est, in sancta Ecclesia, omnes Christianos faciens martyres: et elevabitur, et magnificabitur; quia in ipso erit omnium malorum caput Diabolus, qui est rex super omnes filios superbiae. Sed, ne subito et improvise Antichristus veniat, et totum simul humanum genus suo errore decipiat et perdat, ante ejus ortum duo magni prophetae mittentur in mundum, Enoc et Elias, qui contra impetum Antichristi fideles Dei divinis armis praemunient, et instruent eos, et comfortabunt, et praeparabunt electos ad bellum, docentes et praedicantes tribus annis et dimidio. Roger. Hoveden.

Annal. par. poster, in A. D. 1190. fol. 389.

This is followed by a strange document purporting to be a direct communication from our Lord to St. John, and duly fabricated upon genuine popish principles. 6 Surgent quaedam gentes iniquae, quae dicuntur Gog et Magog ; et destruent Ecclesiam Dei; et subvertent gentem Christianam: et tunc erit dies judicii. Sed, in tempore hujus Antichristi, multi Christianorum in cavernis terrae et in solitudinibus petrarum morantes, Fidem Christianam in timore Domini servabunt, usque ad consummationem Antichristi. Et hoc est, quod dicit: Mulier fugit in solitudinem Aegypti, ubi habet locum paratum a Deo, ut ibi pascant earn diebus mille et ducentis et sexaginta , Joachim. Curacens. apud Roger. Hoveden. Annal. par. poster, in A. D. 1190. fol. 388.

It is remarkable, that Joachim undesignedly describes, as with the hand of a painter, both the very seats and the very location of the Vallenses.

Their seats were the wild rocky solitudes of the alpine wilderness: their location was in the desert bordering upon the spiritual Egypt.

In fact, they were almost irresistibly led to apply the prophecy to themselves. The Vaudois , says Henri Arnaud, are descended from those refugees from Italy, who, after St. Paul had there preached the Gospel, abandoned their beautiful country, and fled, like the woman mentioned in the Apocalypse, to these wild mountains, where they have to this day handed down the Gospel, from father to son, in the same purity and simplicity as it was preached by St. Paul . Preface to the Glorious Recovery, p. 14. 7 Dicunt, quod Romana Ecclesia non sit Ecclesia Jesu Christi, sed sit Ecclesia Malignantium : — et dicunt, quod Ipsi sint Ecclesia Christi; quia Christi doctrinam, Evangelii et Apostolorum verbis et exemplis, observent . — Tertius error est: quod Doctrinam evangelicam paene nullus servet in Ecclesia, praeter eos . — Quintus: quod Ipsi sint Ecclesia Jesu Christi . Sextus: quod Romana Ecclesia sit meretrix in Apocalypsi . Reiner. Opusc. de Haeret. c. 5. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 13. p. 300.

Valdensis haeretice, — per vocatos et multos , intelligis Catholicos: et, per paucos electos, intelligis complices tuos. Pilich. cont. Valdens. c. 14. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 13. p. 315.

Dicunt: Papam esse caput omnium haeresiarcharum . — Item, vocant nos Christianos vulgariter alienos, et se notos: quasi Deus non nos, sed tantum ipsos, noscat, quoad comprobationem. — Item dicunt: quod Illa secta sit vera et unica fides catholica, extra quam nullus possit salvari . Refut. Error. Valdens. ad calc. Pilich. cont. Valdens. in Bibl.

Patr. vol. 13. p. 340, 341. 8 Hist. des Variat. livr. 11. Section 7-10. 9 Hist des Variat. livr. 11. Section 2, 72, 73, 86. 10 Reiner. de Haeret. c. 6. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 13. p. 304. 11 Dr. M’Crie has fallen into the same error: and, as his Work on the Reformation in Italy relates to a comparatively modern period, most probably his mistake has originated from the same cause. In the twelfth century, says he, those Christians, known in History, under the SEVERAL names of Vaudois, Waldenses, and Albigenses, as the hereditary witnesses for the truth against the corruptions of Rome, penetrated through the Alps into Italy .

Hist. of the Reformat. in Italy, chap. 1. p. 4.

If I rightly understand Dr. M’Crie, this passage involves yet another mistake.

His language would imply; that the Vaudois OR Albigenses sprang up in France , and thence migrated into Italy . Accordingly, he adds, in immediate consecution; As early as the year 1180, they had established themselves in Lombardy and Puglia, where they received frequent visits from their brethren in other countries .

Whereas, in regard to the Albigenses (as they came finally to be denominated in France from the town of Albi), the course of their migration was precisely the reverse : and they had appeared in Italy at least as early as the very beginning of the eleventh century; for an emissary of theirs from Lombardy had made numerous and important converts at Orleans, both laic and clerical, in the year 1017. While, in regard to the entirely distinct Vaudois or Valdenses, the disciples of Peter the Valdo did indeed spring up in France and were themselves native Frenchmen: but the proper Vaudois or Valdenses , one of whom was the Lyonese Peter, were always, from the most remote antiquity, Italians of Piedmont; though some of them, from the circumstance of their dwelling also in the Valleys on the western side of the Cottian Alps, might be deemed inhabitants of France.

In consequence of this error (which, however, so far as the Vaudois are concerned, he afterward corrects, or apparently corrects, by stating that they had for centuries fixed their residence in Piedmont), he has fallen, I apprehend, into yet another error.

He ascribes the rapid spread of the Reformation of the sixteenth century throughout the Milanese, among other causes, to the circumstance of its bordering upon Piedmont, the ancient land of the Vaudois. Ibid. chap. in. p. 128, 129.

The real cause was: that the Milanese had been prepared for the doctrines of the Gospel by the numerous Churches of the Paterines or Albigenses, which in the middle ages had been planted through the whole of Lombardy, and which (to the amount of sixteen, as Reinerius testifies) formed a chain that extended from Bulgaria to the Atlantic.

I may add, that Dr. M’Crie similarly confounds the Valdenses and the Albigenses in his later Work oil the Reformation in Spain, chap. 1:p. 28.

BOOK CHAPTER - 1 Kai< galuyin, ejpi>gnonta aujtomwna pro>teron kalou>menon, ejpwno>mase Pe>tron. Kai< UiJommenon aujtomasi tw~n ajposto>lwn aujtou e]contev, kai< UiJogontev, nenoh>kamen o]nta kai< pro< pa>ntwn poihma>twn, ajpo< tou~ Patromei aujtou~ kai boulh~| proe>lqonta. Justin Martyr. Dial. Cum Tryph. A. D. 137. Oper. p. 255. 2 See my Apostolicity of Trinitarianism, book 2 append. 2. numb. 10. 3 Poetis fere omnibus id saepenumero usu venit, ut, vel occasione inducti, vel necessitate prope coacti, in eum locum incidant, in quo, multo cum ornatu et amplificatione, utpote in re gravi magnaque, describendi sunt Inferi, sive Vita Functorum Status: hoc est, id clare explicandum, quod quale sit, nemini mortalium concessum est omnino mente percipere aut conjectura consequi. — Quid vero vates Hebraei? — Nimirum idem hoc in loco fecisse videntur, quod in caeteris omnibus: nam, quae palam et in aperto essent, vulgoque constarent, de mortuis, hoc est, de mortuorum cadaveribus, ex iis generalem quandam imaginem confecerunt, quam, in describendo vita functorum statu, unice et constanter usurpant; quatoque, si modo fas sit, appellare possumus Hebraeorum Infernum Poeticum. Sheol ipsi vocant; Graeci, Haden ; Latini, lnferum sive etiam Sepulchrum : neque sane aliunde sumpta est Hebraeis tota haec imago, quam de more rituque sepulturae apud ipsos recepto; qui ejusmodi erat, ut materiam praeberet ornatui poetico satis accommodatam. Hebraeorum enim sepulchra, saltem honestiora, quaeque familiis principibus patria erant ac gentilitia, speluncae erant amplae, sub terrain, ex nativa rupe, arte manuque excavatae; laqueare testudinato; quaedam tam spatiosae, ut columnis suffulcirentur. Ad latera, circumquaque, excidebantur cellae recipiendis sarcophagis. Ii, sculptili opere, apte ornati erant: singulique, singulis cellis, condebantur. Nullam omnino lucem admittebat specus: quippe, angusto aditu, quique advoluto saxo obstruebatur. Malta hujusmodi conditoria etiamnum in Judaea visuntur: duo prae caeteris magnifica, quae regum habentur sepulchra; alterum in ipsis Hierosolymis, cellas habens viginti quatuor; alterum, bis totidem continens, in urbis pomoerio.

Quod si eos locos omnes excutimus, quibus sacri vates Inferos ornatu poetico describunt, liquido, nisi valde fallor, apparebit, eos mentem in hujusmodi sepulchrorum imagine per omnia intentam et defixam habuisse. — Cum viderent corpora vita functa in terram cadere, eoque modo, quo dictum est, sepulchro condi; percrebuit apud Hebraeos, ut apud caeteros, etiam, opinio quaedam popularis, agi sub terra vitam mortuorum deinceps consequentem: quam ut adsciscerent vates sacri etiam necesse erat, si modo de hac re omnino loqui et intelligi vellent.

Lowth. de Sacra Poesi Hebraeor. praelect, 7. p.86-90.

Our Lord’s promise, I believe, is very commonly understood to intimate, that Satan, with all the banded powers of hell, 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 announced by Christ. The promise is, that the Church should never die and be buried, so as to become invisible: as the dead became invisible, when consigned to those gloomy sepulchral caverns which were deemed the images of Sheol or Hades . Accordingly, our Savior no doubt said, in his native tongue, that the gates of Sheol should never prevail against his Church: and, thence, St. Matthew has justly and accurately expressed the Hebrew Sheol by the Greek Hades . The same ideal language is employed in the Apocalypse respecting the two witnessing Churches. Their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city: — and they of the people — SHALL SEE, their dead bodies three days and a half; and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put into A SEPULCHRAE.

Revelation 11:8,9. That is to say: the two Churches may be corporately dissolved as Churches; but they shall not pass into a state of defunct invisibility, as a body passes when consigned to one of the sepulchral caverns of the East. 4 Even Bossuet himself makes the very important admission: that, The perpetuity of the Christian Religion depends not upon the preservation of any particular locality or of any particular race of mankind .

Dans la Religion Cretienne, il n’y aucun lieu ni aucune race qu’on soit oblige de conserver a peine de laisser perir la Religion et l’Alliance.

Avertiss. 5. sur les Lettres de M. Jurieu. 25.

Bossuet says this, to extricate himself from Jurieu’s theological vindication of the House of Orange. But he perceives not, that, while he is avoiding Charybdis, he is running foul of Scylla. For, if the fact be as he states: then, by a plain consequence, the preservation of Rome in her asserted character of The Mother and Mistress of all Churches and in her alleged function of The Centre of Ecclesiastical Unity , is quite unnecessary to the preservation of Christianity. Should the mere superfluous adjunct be destroyed, Christianity, according to the Bishop of Meaux, would still continue to flourish, in unabated strength, in immortal rigor, and in heaven-born vivaciousness.

With an expression of such sentiments it seems scarcely consistent to maintain, that the promises of Christ must needs be accomplished in the Roman Church and in no other: and the inconsistency is heightened, when the remarkable phraseology of Scripture itself is considered.

In the figured language of prophecy, a Church is symbolically represented by a Golden Candlestick, bearing an ignited candle, and thus communicating light throughout the whole extent of its action. See Revelation 1:12,20.

Now a Candlestick is not a fixture: on the contrary, both it and the light which it bears are capable of removal from one place to another place. Accordingly, in strict adherence to this ideality, the Savior actually threatens such a removal, in the event of flagrant and hardened unfaithfulness. Revelation 2:5.

Such being the case, unless Rome can show scriptural cause for pleading an exemption from the common possible lot of all other Churches, nothing can be 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 all other branches.

I may here remark, by the way: that the argument, through which Bossuet would fain overwhelm all the sound Protestant Churches of the Reformation, most effectually and most tremendously tells against the arbitrary fantasy of Socinianism or (as its adherents delight to term it) Unitarianism.

If this utterly unsupported speculation be indeed the mind of the Gospel and the doctrine of the Apostles: then, agreeably to the tenor of Christ’s promises, it must have been faithfully held, during all the middle ages of corrupt apostasy to the dogma of the Trinity (as Dr.

Priestly speaks), by some one or more Visible Church or Churches; for, otherwise, the requisite ecclesiastically-doctrinal connection, between the asserted Socinianism of the Primitive Church and the real Socinianism of these latter days, can by no possibility be established.

But no such Visible Church or Churches can be shown, from history, to have existed, throughout 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. And, conversely, if Christ’s promises relative to the perpetual preservation of such a Church have not failed: then Socinianism cannot be the true sense of Scripture.

The dilemma, in short, is this.

We must either reject Socinianism: or we must confess, that Christ’s promises have not been accomplished. 5 Walmesley’s General History of the Christ. Church, under the name of Pastorini . p. 326. 6 I beg it to be here understood: that, in strict accordance with what the nature of my subject requires, I speak of Churches collectively , not of Church-members individually . Corruptions, which shut out the very idea of Christ’s approving spiritual presence with an apostatic Church collectively, and which (it is to be feared) operate as deadly poison upon the great bulk of the erring members of such a Church, may, nevertheless, through the mysterious agency of god’s grace, prove innocuous to particulars , who, in the midst of superstitions sincerely though mistakenly received, have been sanctified by the blessed spirit, and who thence are animated by a living principle of interior religion.

With these holy persons individually , Christ is spiritually present: though, from their Church collectively , his spiritual presence has been withdrawn.

If, in this view of the matter, I be inconsistent, as some may think:

I must even be content to symbolize with the inconsistency of our judicious hooker. See disc. of Justificat. Section 9-20.

The true rational 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 upon the Doctrine of the united Divinity and Humanity of the Messiah.

Such being the case, a departure from evangelical truth in subordinate particulars constitutes nothing more than a corruption more or less intense: but a departure from the Rock of Peter’s confession is an absolute digging up of the very foundation of the Church . Hence, wherever the foundation is held, grievous as may be the apostatic declension of the collective Communion which holds it; still, in such Communion, God, through his own mighty working and in harmony with the very principle of a foundation, has never ceased to have a people individually . They are not all faithless , says the wisely discriminating hooker, that are weak in assenting to the truth or stiff in maintaining things opposite to the truth of Christian doctrine. But, as many as hold the FOUNDATION which is precious, though they hold it but weakly and as it were with slender thread, although they frame many base and unsuitable things upon it, things that cannot abide the trial of the fire: yet shall they pass the fiery trial and be saved, which indeed have builded themselves upon the ROCK which is the FOUNDATION of the Church . — If the name of FOUNDATION do note the principal thing which is believed, then is that the FOUNDATION of our faith, which St. Paul hath to Timothy ; God manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit: 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 savior of the world. He, that directly denieth this, doth utterly raze THE VERY FOUNDATION OF OUR FAITH. — Forasmuch, therefore, as it may be said of the Church of Rome; she hath yet a little strength, she doth not directly deny the FOUNDATION of Christianity: I may, I trust, without offense, persuade myself; that thousands of our fathers in former times, living and dying within her walls, have found mercy at the hands of God . Disc. of Justificat. Section 14, 16, 17.

This view of the matter will, I apprehend, teach us the true principle and full import of the language, which St. John has employed respecting Antichrist and the Spirit of Antichrist.

The precise and accurately distinctive characteristic of Antichrist and the spirit of Antichrist is a DENIAL OF THE FOUNDATION: whether such denial be heightened, it may be, into absolute atheism; or whether it be variously modified, in different ages and societies, by a formal rejection, sometimes of the humanity, and sometimes of the Divinity, of Christ. This, then, is explicitly stated and defined to be the badge or characteristic of Antichrist.

Now the very name of Antichrist imports a direct and formal opposition to Christ: and, accordingly, the Apostle carefully limits that opposition to A DENIAL OF THE FOUNDATION. He is Antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father. — every spirit, that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God: and this is that spirit of Antichrist, whereof ye have beard that it should come, and even now already is it in the world. — Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. In we know, that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true: and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This person (Gr. Ou=tov ) is the true God and eternal life . 1 John 2:22,23; 4:2, 3, 15; 5:20.

No Communion, therefore, which holds the FOUNDATION, can be legitimately deemed a branch of Antichrist, as the character of Antichrist is defined by St. John. And, thence, in a Communion which does hold the FOUNDATION, grossly corrupt in doctrine as such a Communion may be collectively , there is no moral impossibility, that god should have, individually , a holy and salvable people.

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 apprehension, as something very like a contradiction in terms. 7 Hist. des Variat. livr. 15:3.

CHAPTER - 1 Chrysost. Serm. de Pentecost. Oper. vol. 6. p. 233. Hilar. de Trin. lib. 6.

Oper. p. 903. Athan. Unum esse Christ. Orat. Oper. vol. 1. p. 519, 520. Hieron. Comment. in Matthew 16:18. lib. 3. Oper. vol. 6. p. 33.

August. Expos. in Evan. Johan, Tract. 124. Oper. vol. 9. p. 206. 2 Cyprian. de Unit. Eccles. Oper. vol. 1. p. 106-108. Tertuil. de Pudic.

Oper. p. 767, 768. Chrysost. Homil. 69. in Petr. Apost. et Eliam Prophet. Oper. vol. 1. p. 856. 3 De tua nunc sententia, quaetro, unde hoc jus Ecclesiae usurpes? Si, quia dixerit Petro Dominus; Super hanc petram aedificabo Ecclesiam meam, tibi dedi claves regni coelestis ; vel Quecunque alligaveritis vel solveritis in terra, erunt alligata vel soluta in coelis : idcirco praesumis, et ad to derivasse solvendi et alligandi potestatem, id est, ad omnem Ecclesiam Petri propinquam: qualis es, evertens atque commutans manifestam Domini intentionem PERSONALITER hoc Petro conferentem? Super TE, inquit, aedificabo Ecclesiam meam . Tertull. de Pudic. Oper. p. 767, 768.

On this very important passage I may remark, that, to make out a decent case of identifying the Rock even personally with Peter , Tertullian, when he repeats his citation of the famous text, in Matthew 16:18, gives the words of our Lord inaccurately.

Christ NO WHERE says: Super TE aedificabo Ecclesiam mean .

The inserted TE may, indeed, express Tertullian’s view of the text: but he ought not to have introduced it with an inquit ; when, all the while Christ says no such thing.

My quotation, however, from this ancient Father, is amply sufficient for the purpose, on account of which it has been made. It distinctly shows: both that The Primitive Church knew nothing of the modern Romish interpretation of the text ; and also that, As soon as ever that interpretation was started by an ambitious Prelate of Rome, it was promptly rejected as a groundless and unheard of and unscriptural novelty.

With the primitive exposition before him, the reader will perhaps be amused to see the exordium of an Epistle, written in the year 1178 by Pope Alexander III., To the celebrated individual of the middle ages familiarly denominated Prester John : such Epistle, with the delicate charge of discovering the local habitation of the said Christian monarch of India, being entrusted to the Pope’s own friend and physician Prudent Master Philip ; who had heard, that John wished to have a Church and altar at Jerusalem for the better apostolical institution of his subjects who might piously resort thither.

Alexander Episcopus, servus servorum Dei, charissimo in Christo filio, illustri et magnifico Indorum regi, sacerdotum sanctissimo, salutem et apostolicam benedictionem. Apostolica Sedes, cui licet immeriti praesidemus, omnium in Christo credentium caput est et magistra:

Domino attestante, qui ait beato Petro, cui licet indigni successimus, Tu es Petrus, et super hanc petram aedificabo Ecclesiam meam . Hanc siquidem petram Christus esse voluit in Ecclesiae fundamentum, quam praeconat nullis ventorum turbinibus nullisque tempestatibus quatiendam. Et ideo non immerito beatus Petrus, super quem fundavit Ecclesiam, ligandi atque solvendi specialiter et praecipue inter Apostolos alios meruit accipere potestatem. Cui dictum est a Domino: Tibi dabo claves regni coelorum, et portae inferi non pravalebunt adversus eam; et Quodcunque ligaveris super terram, erit ligatum et in coelis; et, quodcunque solveris super terram, erit solutum et in coelis .

Audiveramus utique jampridem, referentibus multis, et in fama communi, quomodo, cum sis Christianum nomen professus, piis vel operibus indesinenter intendere, et circa ea tuum animum geras quae Deo grata sunt et aceepta. Epist. Alex. Papae ad Johannem Regem Indor. in Roger. Hoveden. Annal. par. post. in A. D. 1178. fol. 331, 332.

Whether Master Philip succeeded in discovering Prester John and in duly executing his commission, does not appear. 4 Hist. des Variat. livr. 15:3. The whole of Bossuet’s inviolable chain depends upon that Petitio Principii , in which the Romanists have always specially rejoiced. 5 See my Difficult. of Roman. 2d edit. 6 On this point let us hear the sound decision of the apostolic Ireneus in the second century.

Ubi Ecclesia, ibi et Spiritus: et, ubi Spiritus Dei, illic Ecclesia et omnis gratia. Spiritus autem veritas. Iren. adv. haer. lib. 3. c. 40. p. 226.

Ireneus, we see, in strict accordance with the purport of our Lord’s second promise, lays it down, as a ruled case, that the presence of God’s Spirit, or the spiritual presence of Christ, is essential to the character of the true Church, and thence, of course, essential to that legitimate ecclesiastical perpetuity which is expressed in the words, Lo! I am with you always, even unto the end of the world . The conclusion is inevitable. What sane person can believe, that Christ never ceased to be spiritually and approvingly present with a Church, of which he spoke by his Spirit, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues , and which he described by the voice of his angel, as the habitation of demons and the hold of every foul spirit and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird ?

It is not unimportant to remark, that the language of Ireneus is that of a strict correlativeness. He not only says, Where the Church is, there is the Spirit : but he also says, Where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church and all grace . He acts, therefore, as a guide to us, under a twofold aspect. We learn from him, both where we are not to seek the true Catholic Church, and where we are to seek it. 7 See Bossuet’s Hist. des Variat. livr. 11. Section 1-148.

BOOK CHAPTER - 1 Boss. Hist. des Variat. livr. 11:7-70. Mosh. Eceles. Hist. cent. 9: par. 2. chap. 5. 6. Of the Manicheism of the Albigenses Bossuet is so sure, that he defies all the Protestants in 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. 11:91. 2 Fuit, imperante Constantino (seu Constante) Heraclii nepote, non procul a Samosatis, Armeniae indigena quidam, Constantinus nomine, vicum incolens Mananalim, quem ad hunc usque diem habitant Manichaei.

Hic diaconum quendam captivum, qui e Syria in patriam revertebatur et Mananalim forte praeteribat, tecto excepit, aluitque dies aliquot domi suae. Diaconus ergo, ut hanc quasi gratiam hospiti suo rependeret, codices duos, quos e Syria secum tulerat, Evangelium scilicet, Paulique Epistolas, dono dedit Constantino. Petri Siculi Hist. de vana et stolid. Manichaeor. haer. in Biblioth. Patr. vol. 9. par. post. p. 36. 3 At ille, qui jam pridem nefariam atque impuram haeresim suam propter impia dicta foedaque flagitia, quae Manichaeorum scriptis continentur, omnibus odio atque horrori esse animadverterat, uti pietatem, magnopere pestem illam renovare iterum ac latius diffundere, in animum induxit; daemone, ut par est, instigante, librum deinceps, praeter Evangelii et Apostoli codices, nullum attingere: hoc spectans nimirum, ut mali labem universam, eorum ope, obtegeret; quemadmodum, qui noxia pocula propinant, eadem melle obliniunt atque obducunt. Et quidem ille, cum Manichaeorum libris omnes jam cujusque impietatis artes percepisset, tantum mox Satanae ope assecutus est, ut, Evangelii Apostolique sensus perperam interpretando, facile omnes in rem suam, quo vellet et pro libidine, detorqueret. — Sylvanum se illum jactabat, cujus mentio in Pauli Epistolis, quique, tanquam fidus discipulus, a Paulo missus est in Macedoniam: ostendensque discipulis suis Apostoli codicem quem a diacono accepterat: Vos, aiebat, Macedones estis; ego, Sylvanus, ad vos a Paulo missus. Atque id ille, post sexcentos annos quam a Paulo haec scripta sunt, dicere non dubitabat. Petr. Sic. Hist. p. 36.

Ut a nobis in prolixlore opere commemoratum, cum de Paulo et Joanne Samosatenis, Callinices filiis, ageremus: de illo, inquam, Paulo, a quo Paulliani pro Manichais, mutato nomine, appellari coeperunt. Ibid. p. 37.

This Paul was an ancient Manichean of Samosata, long prior to Constantine-Sylvanus: and, as the proselytes of Constantine rejected for a purer faith the Manicheism of their forefathers; so, consistently, they declared, that Constantine, not Paul the Manichean, was the teacher from whom they derived their doctrinal system.

Ou=toi, meta< cro>nouv polloulou, e[teron e]scon dida>skalon Kwnstanti~non kalou>menon, tonta Silouanon. Tou~ton e]cousin ajrchgo Compend. vol. 1. 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 themselves Paulicians from him, but must have assumed the name from that Apostle whose writings they peculiarly esteemed and whose disciples they eminently professed themselves to be. Their adversaries, however, regardless of the palpable inconsistency, and bent upon pronouncing them to be Manicheans, 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 Siculus goes still further: for he states, that they not only disowned, but even directly condemned, the very Paul, from whom he nevertheless asserts them to have borrowed their appellation. A curious effect is produced, by placing in immediate juxtaposition the two singularly incongruous statements of Peter Siculus.

Promptissime etiam damnant Paulum Samosatenum. Petr. Sic. Hist. p. 31.

Cum de Paulo et Joanne Somasatenis, Callinices filiis, ageremus: de illo, inquam, Paulo, a quo Paulliani pro Manichais, mutato nomine, appellari coeperunt. Ibid. p. 37.

They derived their name, it seems, from a person whom they condemned and whose Manicheism they abjured! Certainly calumniators ought to have good memories.

I suppose I need scarcely say, that this Paul of Samosata was an entirely different person from the more famous Paul of Samosata, who was Bishop of Antioch in the third century, and who speculated heretically on the doctrine of the Trinity. 4 As a somewhat curious specimen of the style in which Peter Siculus delights to expatiate, I subjoin his own precise words.

Sergius, ille diaboli maximus propugnator: Sergius, qui multos ex ovibus lupos fecit, et per eos Christi ovilia dissipavit: Sergius, acer ipsc sub ovina pelle lupus, virtutum fraudulentus simulator, quippe hac arte multis fucum faciebat: Sergius, inimicus crueis Christi; os impietatis; in Christi Matrem Sanctosque contumeliosus: Sergius, Christi Apostolorum adversarius, qui et Prophetas odio habuit, et, a divinis literis versus, ad fabulas et mendacia se convertit: Sergius, Christi osor, Ecclesiae perdueills, qui Dei Filium conculcavit, et sanguinem Testamenti pollutum duxit, et Spiritui gratiae contumeliam fecit. Petr. Sicul. Hist. p. 38.

The Sergius, thus energetically vilipended, was a most laborious successor of Constantine and a diligent teacher of the doctrine which was derived from the confessedly unadulterated New Testament itself.

Iisdem, quibus apud nos sunt, verbis, is the acknowledgment of Peter himself respecting the several books of the New Testament used by the Paulicians. Ibid. p. 33. 5 Omnia quippe omnes Evangelii et Apostoli testimonia praedicant: sed illi soli capiunt et intelligunt fraudem haereticorum, qui din multumque in sacrae literaturae disciplina sunt versati. Illi enim impuri, quando primum cum aliquo in disputationis certamen descendunt, quandam prae se ferentes morum sanctimoniam, omnia Catholicorum dogmata per astum comprobant pronunciantque. Et aiunt, se sanctissimam Trinitatem Deum profiteri: cum impie prorsus imperiteque omnia, per allegorias, apud se taciti interpretentur; quando, sancram Trinitatem inficiantes, etiam detestantur. Incarnationem Domini Dei nostri in Virgine, quanquam alio et impio sensu,, fatentur; sequiusque sentientes damnant: omnia tamen Incarnationis mysteria, aliter ore, aliter corde, Manetem et asseclas illius imitati, exponunt. Promptissime etiam damnant Paulum Samosatenum. Petr. Sic. Hist. p. 31.

Manichaeorum itaque scripta idciro protinus abjecit: et, hanc etiam maxime ob causam, quod multos videbat eo nomine gladio caedi. Ibid. p. 36.

Egregius autem Manetis discipulus Constantinus, quo facilius auditores suos in fraudem ac periculum induceret, et probabiliora redderet quae docebat, Valentini primum blasphemias ac portentosa de triginta aeonibus diisque dogmata, totam item Curbicii fabulam de pluvia quam ex formosi adolescentis virginem 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 impietatem profligaret, sed quo plures ad se doctrinamque suam pertraheret. Ibid. p. 36.

It seems rather odd, that the most effectual mode of gaining the Manicheans of the old school should be an open rejection of their creed as absurd and incredible. We may pardon the historian, however, both for his gross inconsistencies, and for his uncharitably gratuitous ascription of motives, since he has recorded the vital facts: that Constantine 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. 6 Iidem vero sunt, nec quiequam divertunt a Manichaeis Pauliciani, qui hasce recens a se procusas haereses prioribus adsuerunt, et ex sempiterno exitii barathro effoderunt. Petr. Sic. Hist. p. 31.

Adeo ut, quotquot nunc sunt Manichaei, technam istam et artificium ignorantes, Scythianum ac Buddam et Manetem ipsum, qui totius sectae principes fuerunt, promptis animis respuant et detestentur:

Constantinum vero hunc, qui Sylvani quo-que nomen assumpsit, aliosque qui post eum exorti, in Christi Apostolorum numero habeant, et Paulo pares in honore ducant. Ibid. p. 36.

Simeon autem, ne quid regii mandati praeteriret, Constantini discipulos, quo ad saniorem mentem revocarentur, Ecclesiis commendat. Sed illi haud quaquam conversi sunt: malueruntque in errore suo impie mori, quam Deum sibi poenitentia placare salutetoque consequi sempiternam. Ibid. p. 37.

Itaque, extructo ad acervum ingenti rogo, incensi et cremati omnes fuerunt. Ibid. p. 37. 7 Basilidis vero infanda flagitia et impuritates, caeterorumque omnium tetrum ac graveolens coenum, amplectens, novus repente perniciosae pestis ductor exiliit. Petr. Sic. Hist. p. 36.

Hic igitur (Sergius), cum juvenis adhuc esset, in foeminam quandam casu incidit, moribus infamem, secta Manichaeam. Ila vero Diaboli sectatrix, ut callida erat ac subdola, sic juvenem est allocuta. Audio, domine Sergi, te literarum scientia et eruditione praestantem esse, ac bonum praeterea virum usquequaque. Dic ergo mihi: cur non legis sacra evangelia? Quibus ille verbis allectus, nec occultum potius intuens nequitiae venenum quod latebat, ita respondit. Nobis profanis ista legere non licet, sed sacerdotibus duntaxat. At illa, non ita est, inquit, ut putas: nec enim personarum acceptio est apud Deum; omnes siquidem homines vult salvos fieri Dominus, et ad agnitionem veritatis venire. At sacerdotes vestri, quoniam Dei verbum adulterant et mysteria occulunt quae in Evangeliis eontinentur, idcirco vobis audientibus omnia non legunt quae scripta sunt; sed quaedam legunt, quaedam omittunt: ne possitis pervenire ad aginitionem veritatis. — Eodemque filo singula percurrens Evangelii verba, et cujusque vocis sensum, prout capere illum videbat, mirifice depravans, brevi aptum reddidit diaboli instrumentum. Ibid. p. 38.

The person, thus converted to unacknowledged Manicheism by reading the New Testament, became afterward one of the most eminent successors of Constantine. His books were held in high veneration by the Paulicians. Ibid. p. 33, 39. 8 Qui tametsi a Manichaeorum impuritatibus se alienos dictitant, sunt tamen dogmatum ipsorum vigilantissimi custodes et propugnatores.

Petr. Sic. Hist. P. 31.

Quandam prae se ferentes morum sanctimoniam. Ibid. p. 31.

Hic vero, rejectis omnibus illorum flagitiis ac libidinibus (de Sergio Manichaeisque pristinis loquitur), blasphemias, veluti salubria dogmata, complexus, virtutes nonnullas callide simulabat. Ibid. p. 38. 9 Ego Tibricae novem menses versatus, ea, quae supra nobis commemorata sunt, accurate perscrutatus, jussisque sanctissimis piorum et orthodoxorum principum, quamvis indignus et ultimus, multa cum cura obsecutus, omnibus palam facere enixe contendi. Petr. Sic. Hist. P. 40. 10 Pietatis specie, velut ovina pelle, lupum tegens, pietatis autem abnegans virtutem, iis, qui ipsum norant, certissimus salutis ductor videbetur.

Petr. Sic. Hist. p. 38. 11 Hoc siquidem, ad caetera sua egregia facinora, divini atque orthodoxi Imperatores addiderunt, ut Manichaeos Montanosque capitali puniri sententia juberent; eorumque libros, quocumque in loco inventi essent, flammis tradi: quod, si quis uspiam eosdem occultasse deprehenderetur, hunc eundem mortis poenae addici, ejusque bona in fiscum inferri. Petr. Sic. Hist. p. 36. 12 Cum eo loci annos septem et viginti versatus esset (Constantinus Sylvanus) multosque ex incolis in errorem impulisset, dignum magisterio et doctrina sua vitae finem sortitus est. Nam Imperator, postquam de hominis insolentia, nescio qua ratione, certior factus est, palatinum quendam Simeonem protinus ablegavit cum mandatis, quibus ipsum, ut improbitatis artificem, lapidare jubebatur, ejus vero discipulos, quos nempe induxerat ignorantia, per Dei Ecclesiam erudiendos convertendosque dispergere, quanquam illi corrigi prorsus noluerunt. Nec mora jussis intercessit. Advolans enim Simeon, simul ac destinatum locum attigit, comprehendi omnes, et in australem Coloniensis Castri pattem duci, jussit. Quo loco, miserum illum ejusque discipulos ex adverso destituens, signum dat illico, ut unum omnes lapidibus incessant. Verum hi, magistro suo, ut qui a Deo ad ipsos missus esset, parcentes, lapidibus arreptis, manus quidem ad balteos suos per speciem adducebant, clam autem lapides in terga vibrabant. Adoptarat ante plures annos Sylvanus Justum quendam, eumque Manichaei haeresi cum primis imbuerat; tunc vero, educationis doctrinaeque suae congruentem, ab illo mercedem tulit: palatini enim jussis obsequens, sumpto in manu saxo, Sylvanum, quasi alterum Goliath, vi magna percussit et occidit. In quem apte cecidit vox illa Davidica: Lacum aperuit, et effodit eum; et incidit in foveam, quam fecit. Petr. Sic. Hist. p. 36, 37. 13 Quos quidem dum temere nimis excutit et auscultat Simeon, ut qui divinae institutionis expers erat ac plane rudis atque (ut verius dicam) 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, relictis omnibus, clam excessit, Cibossam petens. Ubi, convocatis collectisque hinc inde Constantini discipulis, ejusdem impietatis successor effectus est: et ut nomini suo famam, eadem qua predecessores arte conciliaret, Titum se appellavit. Petr. Sic. Hist. p. 37. 14 Gliscente igitur inter Justum et Simeonem contentione, proficiscitur Justus ad Episcopum Coloniae: atque, ut de Apostoli sensu quod cupiebat audiret, omnia mox de se sociisque, et quam inter se disciplinam tenerent, liquido exposuit. Re comperta, Episcopus, nihil in his sibi cunctandum ratus, de singulis e vestigio refert ad Justinianum Augustum, qui post Heraclium Imperii sceptra gubernavit.

Qui quidem ut audiit, omnes statim in unum cogi Manichaeos seorsimque interrogari jussit, atque flammis tradi quotquot essent in errore pertinaces. Itaque, extructo ad acervum ingenti rogo, incensi et cremati omnes fuerunt. Petr. Sic. Hist. p. 37. 15 Incensi et cremati omnes fuerunt, praeter Paulum quendam, genere Arabem, cui duo filii erant, Genesius et Theodorus, quibuscum fuga se proripuit pater, et Epispalim abiit jam dudum. — Producit ergo alter hic Paulus, ad impietatis scholam, filium Genesium, cui Timothei nomen imposuit. Petr. Sic. Hist. p. 37. 16 Petr. Sic. Hist. p. 37, 38. 17 The violent declamation of Peter Siculus against this individual, as well as the account of his conversion through the agency of 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 his female instructor, that the Gospel was too sacred a book to be read by profane Laics, and that it was reserved for the exclusive perusal of the Clergy. Pert. Sic. Hist. p. 38. 18 Edoctus ergo ab exitiosa foemina, diaboli propugnator Sergius, cum haeresim altius imbibisset, crederetque omnes homines, qui sinceram et illibatam Christianorum fidem nostram ac pietatem colunt, in pernicie versari: zelo satanico insurgit, et novus praeco fit erroris; cognomentumque assumens Tychici, cujus nomen est celebre in Epistolis Pauli, Pauli discipulum se vulgo jactavit, et ab eo missum ad praedicandum, non Dei verbum, sed haeresim perniciosam. Itaque civitates singulas regionesque, in quibus Apostolus veritatis verbum ante octingentos annos promulgarat, impigre circumcursans, multos ab orthodoxa fide avertit, et diabolo adjunxit. Quod ipsemet, in quadem epistola, gloriatur, his verbis: Ab Oriente, inquit, usque ad Occasum, a Borea ad Austrum, cucurri, nuncians Evangelium Christi, et genibus meis laborans. Triginta enim et quatuor annorum spatio, ab Irenae Augustae imperio usque ad Theophilum Imperatorem persistens, conflavit illam, quae etiamnum obtinet, defectionem, quam Paulus Apostolus Thessalonicensibus praedixerat, quaque iste magnam Ecclesiae partem graviter afflixit. Petr. Sic. Hist. p. 39.

Habent porro Sergii magistri sui, invisas superis, omnisque superbiae et impietatis plenas, epistolas. Ibid. p. 33. 19 Justo tandem Dei judicio, securi dissectus, ut qui Ecclesiam Dei dissecuerat, in ignem missus est sempiternum. Petr. Sic. Hist. p. 40. 20 Petr. Sic. Hist. p.40. 21 Sacra quatuor evangelia, et Sancti Pauli Apostoli denas quaternas Epistolas, recipiunt: Jacobi item Catholicam, ternas Joannis, Catholicam Judae, cum Actis Apostolorum, iisdem, quibus apud nos, verbis. Petr. Sic. Hist. p. 33.

Cedrenus, the copyist of Peter Siculus at a considerably later period, similarly admits, that the 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 Testament of the entire Catholic Church: but he states, that they interpreted it perversely. ‘Wv gaphtai, th~| grafh~| kai< toi~v lo>goiv, ou[twv ejisillakta, tamata diastre>fousi .

Cedren. Hist. Compend. vol. 1. p. 343.

In the days of Cedrenus who flourished during the twelfth century, any interpretation of the New Testament, which ran counter to the prevailing superstition, would be deemed a perversion. 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 New Testament, to serve the purposes of the Manichean heresy, bad ever been attempted by the Paulicians. Yet, to extract Manicheism out of the genuine and unadulterated New Testament, is, I conceive, a moral impossibility. 22 Petr. Sic. Hist. p. 33. 23 In the midst of much violent declamation and of assumptions alike uncharitable and gratuitous, every one of the subsequently specified particulars will be found in the History of the Paulicians written by Peter Siculus. 24 I have not had an opportunity of reading the work of Photius against the Manicheans: but, as I learn from Mosheim, he also, like Peter Siculus, admits, that the Paulicians expressed the utmost abhorrence both of manes and of his doctrine. Phot. cont. Manich. lib. 1. p. 17, 56, 65. See Mosheim’s Eccles. Hist. cent. 9. par. 2 chap. 5 Section 5 vol. 2 p. 367.

The historical 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, whence our knowledge of them is derived. Photius died sixteen years after the visit of Peter Siculus. 25 See Tertull. adv. Marcion. lib. 4. Oper. p. 222-225. Marcion substantially held the same doctrines as the Manicheans. 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 might well be termed a new Gospel. 26 I subjoin the six articles, under which Peter Siculus arranges the pretended Manicheism of the Paulicians. The prudent reader of course will exercise his own discretion in judging how far they truly set forth the doctrine of the acknowledged rejecters of Manes and his whole system.

Primum illorum axioma est: duo rerum esse principia; Deum malum, et Deum bonum: aliumque hujus mundi conditorem ac principem; et alium, futuri aevi.

Secundum: quod Deiparam semperque Virginem, atque infinitis laudibus concelebrandam, per odium abjiciant, nulloque inter bonorum hominum coetum numero vel loco dignentur; neque Christum ex illa natum, ut qui corpus e coelo secum detulerit; Josephumque ex illa, post Domini partum, plures liberos suscepisse dicant.

Tertium: quod, e sacris mysteriis, divinam ac tremendam corporis et sanguinis Domini nostri Jesu Christi conversionem negent, aliaque de hoc mysterio doceant; a Domino nempe non panem et vinum in coena discipulis propinatum, sed figurate symbola tantum et verba, tanquam panem et vinum, data.

Quartum: quod formam atque vim venerandae et vivificae crucis non solum non agnoscant, sed infinitis etiam contumeliis onerent.

Quintum: quod Veteris Instrumenti tabulas non admittant, prophetasque planos et latrones appellent: aut sola duntaxat sacra quatuor Evangelia, et S. Pauli Apostoli denas quaternas Epistolas, recipiant, Jacobi item Catholicam, ternas Joannis, Catholicam Judae, cum Actis Apostolorum, iisdem, quibus apud nos, verbis.

Sextum: quod arceant ab Ecclesiae administratione presbyteros et seniores: aiunt enim, quod seniores adversus Dominum congregati sint.

Petr. Sic. Hist. p. 33.

In the third of these articles, their doctrine of the Eucharist has evidently been perverted and misrepresented: whence we may judge of the bigoted historian’s accuracy in other matters. According to Peter Siculus, they maintained: that Our Lord did not, in the institution of the Holy Supper, set before his disciples bread and wine; but that symbols only and words, as if they were bread and wine, were ,figuratively given. This palpable perversion, he, that runs, may read.

What they really taught, as in truth appears from the very necessity of the entire third article itself, was this: that, The eucharistic bread and wine are not literally transmuted into the body and blood of Christ; but that, in the words of consecration, they are given, figuratively as symbols or representations of the thing signified. The vein, indeed, of determined misrepresentation, which runs through the whole document, is so manifest, that it can scarcely escape even the most careless observation. 27 Monachos complures, et moniales quae virginitatem suam Christo devoverant, per discipulos suos corrupit: et, a monastica vita revocans, a Deo simul alienavit. Multos denique sacerdotes et levitas ab orthodoxa religione avellens, et ex ovibus lupos faciens, hominivoros esse docuit. Petr. Sic. Hist. p. 39.

Like their theological descendants in Europe, they deemed, I suppose, monastic vows absurd and unscriptural and tending only to concealed impurity.

The most singular humor of Peter Siculus, in his dealing with the luckless Sergius (the special object of his vituperation in the preceding passage), is: that he not only heaps upon his devoted head a profusion of the most palpable and ridiculous calumnies, but that he actually charges him with all the consequences of his apostleship, in the shape of persecutions and troubles and captivity and the like; strangely describing him as being the person, who sold his disciples into bondage, and who put them to death. It seems, that the suffering Paulicians sometimes retaliated upon their persecutors. Of this, also, Sergius was destined to bear the blame, though he had expressed his decided disapprobation of such proceedings, and had admonished his followers to practice forbearance. If he could not restrain his suffering flock from occasional retaliation; if he could not always make them obey his exhortations to meekness and submission: he ought not, argues the candid historian, to have erected himself into their teacher.

By that single action, he makes himself responsible for all the misdemeanors of his people. Ibid. p. 39.

CHAPTER - 1 Tibricae igitur, legationis obeundae caussa, apud Paullicianos diu moratus, saepe disputando cum illis sum congressus, illorumque arcana omnia per Catholicos etiam ibi degentes curiose investigavi: atque ab ipsismet impiis et delirantibus cognovi; quod, e suo conciliabulo, missuri essent, qui in Bulgaria quoscunque possent a Catholica Religione ad suam exsecratam et nefariam sectam averterent. A sacris enim literis facto praeonii sui initio, praesidentes opinantur facile se posse purae sinceraeque sementi infelix lolium haereseos permiscere.

Amant enim hoc impii saepenumero factitare, ut omnem moveant funem, nullumque recusent periculum, quo damnatarum opinationum suarum pestem quibuscumque possint, infundant. Petr. Hist.

Archepisc. Bulgar. nuncupat, p. 31.

The reader will not fail to observe, in this passage, two important admissions on the part of Peter Siculus: the one, that he picked up some of his tales respecting the Paulicians from the neighboring Catholics, as prejudiced bigots, no doubt, as himself; the other, that these hated religionists made the Sacred Scriptures the basis of all their attempts at proselytism.

It will be recollected, that the Sacred Scriptures, thus systematically made the basis of their zealous preaching, are those 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 with the accredited copies used by the great Body of Christians in the Church at large.

Thus perpetually does falsehood defeat its own ends by its own inconsistency: and thus wisely is it ordered by the righteous moral Governor of the Universe, that, to fabricate a lie, which shall so compactly hang together in all its parts as to laugh at detection, is perhaps nothing less than an impossibility. 2 The progress of the Paulicians westward is very well given by usher: but, without any sufficient grounds, so far as I can judge, he adopts the familiar calumny, that they and their successors in Europe were Manicheans. See Usser. de Eccles. Success. c. 8 Section 17-22. Those successors I have, throughout this work, styled Albigenses: a name, sufficiently definite, and certainly of all others the most familiar to modern ears. As to the time when it was first imposed, different opinions have been entertained. The Benedictine, who wrote the General History of Languedoc, contends, that it is not older than the year 1208, having been given to the religionists of Southern France at the commencement of the crusade against them. He supposes, that they were thus denominated from the circumstance of their having been condemned as heretics in the Council held in the year 1176 at Lombers in the diocese of Albi. Hist. Gener. de Langued. livr. 19:4. vol. 3. p. 4. It is 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 diffusion of the Paulicians through well nigh the whole of western and middle Europe. Ricchin. Dissert. de Cathar. c. 1, 2. Like the rest of his fraternity, relying on the somewhat insecure authority of Bossuet, he rapidly decides, that the Albigenses were incontrovertibly Manicheans. Ibid. c. 1 Section 1. c. 2:5. 3 In partibus Tolosae damnanda haeresis dudum emersit, quae paulatim more cancri ad vicina loca se diffundens, per Guasconiam et alias provincias, quamplurimos jam infecit. Concil. Turon. can. 4. Labb.

Concil. vol. 10. p. 1419. sive in Gul. Neubrig. Rer. Anglican. lib. 2. c. 15.

Inter quos, in provincia vestra, quosdam, qui Valdenses, Cathari, et Paterini, dicuntur, et alios quoslibet quibuscunque nominibus appellatos, in tantum jam accepimus pullulasse, ut innumeros populos sui erroris laqueis irretierint, et fermento corruperint falsitatis. Innoc.

III. Epist. Decretal. lib. 1. p. 56, 57.

Cum enim in partibus istis pestis haeretica, antiquitus seminata, nostris partibus usque adeo succrevisset, quod cultus divinus ibidem haberetur omnino in opprobrium et derisum: — factum est, ut, — in parte maxima destructis adversitatibus et erroribus universis, terra, dudum a cultoribus horum dogmatum conculcata, demum divino cultui assuescat. Archiepis. Narbon. Epist. in Labb. Concil. vol. 11. par. 1. p. 86.

Quia haeretici longo tempore virus suum in vestris partibus 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 ecclesiasticam personam quae potestatem habeat, condemnati, indilate animadversione debita puniantur. Ludov. IX. Epist. in Labb. Concil. vol. 11. par. 1. p. 423. 4 Sunt autem sedecim omnes Ecclesiae Catharorum. — In toto mundo non sunt Cathari utriusque sexus quatuor millia, sed Credentes innumeri.

Reiner. Opusc. de haeret, c. 6 in Biblioth. Patr. vol. 13. p. 304.

The actual Cathari were probably the physical descendants of the Paulician Emigrants, while the Believers were the native proselytes whom they made in Europe. I may observe, that, in this citation, I have given the work of Reinerius its real title as prefixed by himself.

He calls it generally and accurately Opusculum de Hereticis. The Jesuit Gretser, by way of implicating the Valdenses in the charge of Manicheism brought against the Cathari, has thought fit to style it Liber contra Valdenses Haereticos. 5 Tales dicuntur Catharri, id est, diffluentes per vitia; a Catha, quod est fluxus: vel Cathari, quasi Casti; quia se justos et castos faciunt: vel Catari dicuntur a Cato; quia osculantur posteriora cati, in cujus specie, ut dicunt, appareret eis Lucifer. Alan. cont. haeret. lib. 1. c. 63. apud Usser. de Eccles. Succ. c. 8 Section 16.

This Alanus, in the fashion of the day, was styled Magnus and Doctor Universalis. He is one of Bossuet’s witnesses, upon whose credit we are invited to believe, that the Albigenses were abandoned Manicheans.

Another of his witnesses hereafter to be produced, is Lucas of Tuy.

This remarkable Prelate, for he was in truth a Bishop, introduces the cat under a totally different aspect from that of an avatar of Lucifer. In his plastic hands, the creature appears 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 presumptuously denied the truth of that doctrine. See Luc. Tudens. adv. Albig. lib. 3. c. 14. in Biblioth. Patr. vol. 13. p. 283.

The same veracious author assures us, in verbo Episcopi, that, in the province of Burgundy, the body of a burned heretic was preternaturally transmuted into a huge toad of the species Crapaldus.

Ibid. lib. 3. c. 15. p. 283.

These were the arguments, wherewithal the Romish Clergy did battle against the hated Albigenses: cats and calumnies, crapauds and cremations.

It is really sickening to see such miserable specimens, either of rank dishonesty or of besotted credulity, gravely brought forward as good and sufficient evidence to convict the Albigenses of Manicheism. 6 Nam nefanda et obscoena dicuntur agere in secreto, siquidem et vulpium posteriora foetent. Bernard. super Cant. serm. 65. Oper. p. 760.

In operimentum turpitudinis, continentiae se insigniere voto. Ibid. serm. 66. p. 762.

Cum foemina semper esse, et non cognoscere foeminam, nonne plus est quam mortuum suscitare? Quod minus est, non potes: et, quod majus est, vis credam tibi? Quotidie latus tuum, ad latus juvenculae, est in mensa; lectus tuus, ad lectum ejus in camera; oculi tui, ad illius oculos in colloquio; manus tuae, ad manus ipsius in opere: et continens vis putari? Esto, ut sis: sed ego suspicione non careo. Ibid. serm. 65. p. 760. 7 Ex sanguine infantis et farina conficiunt panem; qui infans, si moritur, martyr habetur; si vivit, sanctus dicitur. Adamitae, ab Adam, nudi conveniunt ad orandum, viri et foeminae. Reiner. de haeret, c. 6. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 13. p. 307. 8 Multi Credentes, tam viri quam mulieres, non timent magis ad sororem suam, et filium sive filiam, fratrem, neptem, consanguineam et cognatam, accedere, quam ad uxorem et virum proprium. Reiner. de haeret. c. 6. p. 303. 9 Communis opinio omnium Catharorum est, quod matrimonium carnale semper fuerit mortale peccatum, et quod non puniatur aliquis gravius in futuro propter adulterium et incestum quam propter legitimum conjugium. Reiner. de haeret, c. 6. p. 302. 10 Probatur etiam manifeste, quod non dolent de peccatis suis, quae ante professionem suae haeresis commiserunt, pro eo, quod nulli restituunt usuram, furtum, vel rapinam: imo reservant ea, vel potius relinquunt filiis et nepotibus in saeculo remanentibus; quia dicunt, usuram nullum esse peccatum. Reiner. de haeret, c. 6. 303. 11 Haeretici cognoseuntur per mores et verba. Sunt enim in moribus compositi et modesti. Superbiam in vestibus non habent: quia, nec preciosis, nec multum abjectis, utuntur. Negotiationes non habent, propter mendacia et juramenta et fraudes vitandas: sed tantum vivunt de labore, ut opifices. Doctores etiam ipsorum sunt sutores. Divitias non multiplicant, sed necessariis sunt contenti. Casti etiam sunt: maxime, Leonistae. Temperati etiam sunt in cibo et potu. Ad tabernas non eunt, nec ad choreas, nec ad alias vanitates. Ab ira se cohibent.

Semper operantur, discunt, vel docent: et ideo parum orant. Item ad ecclesiam ficte vadunt: offerunt, et confitentur, et communicant, et intersunt praedicationibus, sed ut praedicantem capiant in sermone.

Cognoscuntur etiam in verbis praecisis et modestis. Cavent etiam a scurrilitate, et detractione, et verborum levitate, et mendacio, et juramento. Reiner. de haeret. c. 7. p. 307. 12 Vile nempe hoc genus, et rusticanum, ac sine literis, et prorsus imbelle.

Bernard. super Cantic. serm. 65. Oper. p. 762. 13 Lat. Infernum. I have translated the word into Hell: but Reinerius may perhaps mean only Purgatory, described as a Lower Region. 14 Reiner. de haeret, c. 8. p. 307, 308. 15 Si fidem interroges, nihil christianius: si conversationem, nihil irreprehensibilius; et, quae loquitur, factis probat. — Jam, quod ad vitam moresque spectat, neminem concutit, neminem circumvenit, neminem supergreditur. Pallent insuper ore jejuniis: panem non comedit otiosus; operatur manibus, unde vitam sustentat. Ubi jam vulpes? — Mulieres relictis viris, et item viri dimissis uxoribus, ad istos se conferunt. Clerici et sacerdotes, populis ecclesiisque relictis, intonsi et barbati; apud eos, inter textores et textrices, plerumque inventi sunt. Bernard. super Cantic. serm. 65. 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 improbability, that numerous priests, who possessed whatever knowledge was then possessed, should forsake their all to join a body of absurdly unscriptural and despised and proscribed Manicheans: for such, if we may credit Bossuet’s extraordinary band of witnesses, were the old Cathari or Albigenses.

I have used the expressive proverbial phrase cock-on-a-bell, familiarly corrupted into cock-and-a-bull, in its true and genuine 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. During the middle ages, as we learn incidentally from Reinerius, Gallus-supercampanam was the ecclesiastical hieroglyphic of a Romish Priest: and, as the gentlemen of that fraternity dealt somewhat copiously in legends rather marvelous than absolutely true, the contempt of our English Protestantism soon learned proverbially to distinguish any idle figment, such, for instance as the tales respecting Albigensic Manicheism, by the burlesque name of a cockon- a-bell-story, or, as we now say, a cock-and-a-bull-story. 16 Minucius Felix, in his Octavius, gives a very full account of the calumnies, which, by the Pagans, were excogitated and propounded against the Primitive Christians: promiscuous incest in the darkness of their private assemblies; an indecent worship paid to the presiding priest; an adoration of the head of an ass; and the murder of a young child, for the purpose of drinking his blood and devouring his mangled flesh. See Minuc. Fel. Octav. p. 70-90.

These senseless slanders have been duly plagiarized by the popish priests: and, with some trifling variations, as if the servile herd of imitators were, in their profitable trade of mendaciousness, unwilling to relinquish all claim to originality of invention, have, for the benefit and edification of the credulous, been transferred to the Paulician Albigenses. The reader will perhaps be amused with a few specimens of such romish figments: for which he still is indebted to the several workshops, of Conrad von Magdenberg; of an Inquisitor, who seems to have had grace sufficient to conceal his name; and of Lucas of Tuy, 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 confidence, the testimony of such credible witnesses.

Quia vero illorum deus venter est, qui Veneris ingloriem speciali quadam celebritate colere nituntur: itaque nonnulli ex eis, commessationibus, ebrietatibus, et hujusmodi carnis illecebris, inhiantes, in libidines spumant, ut cum reverentia loquar, spurcissimas; adeo etiam ut, contra naturam, exercitia pessima committere crebris ausibus sint reperti. Conrad. de Mont. Puellar. cont. Beghard. in Biblioth. Patr. vol. 13. p. 343.

Tenent quosdam diabolicos articulos: quorum paucos subscribam.

Primo, adorant Luciferum: et credunt eum esse Dei fratrem, injurios de coelo detrusum, et se cum eo regnaturos. Pueros eorum ei immolant: ipsumque pro divitiis rogant. — Ad loca subterranea conveniunt: promiscuas concupiscentias et abominabiles luxurias exercent. Ind.

Error. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 13. p. 341.

Dicunt eis haeretici: Omnia, quae in hoc mundo visibilia sunt, a diabolo facta sunt. Unde non refert, in lucro pecuniarum, utrum bene acquirentur vel male: quia nec bona adquisitio illarum salvat, nec mala damnat. Nihil prodest alicui bona facere, nec obest agere mala: quia omnis homo pari poena damnatur, si extra nostrum ordinem moritur.

Haec dicentibus haereticis, vani homines tribuunt miserabiliter fidem: et se, fraudibus, homicidiis, latrociniis, et usuris, committunt.

Efferuntur effraenes per varia desideria carnis: et nulla est nociva delectatio, quam non pertranseat eorum luxuria. Abutitur filius matrem: frater, fratrem: et pater in filia turpitudinem operatur. — Tales, per ministros suos haereticos, diabolus edocet: quos, in praesenti, diversis immundicitiis et foetore infamiae polluit; et, in futuro, aeternae damnationis flammis comburit. Haec ab illis accepimus, qui fuerunt quondam coeno faecis haereticae obvoluti; et per gratiam Dei ad gremium sanctae matris Ecclesiae redierunt. Luc. Tudens. adv. Albig. lib. 3. c. 5. in Bibl. Petr. vol. 13. p. 279.

It were easy to multiply specimens of similar fabrications, all relentlessly pilfered from the original manufactory of paganism: but these, at least for the present, may suffice. 17 Taceo, quae negarent. Bernard. super Cantic. serm. 65. Oper. p. 760.

Plerumque fideles, injectis manibus, aliquos ex eis ad medium traxerunt.

Quaesiti fidem, cum, de quibus suspecti videbantur, omnia prorsus suo more negarent, examinati judicio aquae, mendaces inventi sunt. Cumque jam negare non possent, quippe deprehensi, aqua eos non recipiente, arrepto, ut dicitur, freno dentibus, tam misere quam libere, impietatem non confessi, sed professi, sunt, palam pietatem astruentes, et pro ea mortem subire parati, nec minus parati inferre qui astabant. Ibid. serm. 66. p. 766.

From the very mode in which Bernard tells his story, I think it evident, that, what they rather professed than confessed, was not the truth of the allegations brought against them in regard to faith and practice, but the system which he indeed called impiety, but which they knew to be the Gospel. 18 Saint Bernard fait voir, que leur piete n’etoit que dissimulation. Boss.

Hist. des. Variat. livr. 11:35.

Saint Bernard leur fait voir, que leur vertu n’etoit qu’une vaine ostentation. — Ne croyez jamais rien de bon de ceux qui outrent la vertu. Ibid. Section 60.

C’est d’eux, que Saint Bernard a dit: Leurs moeurs sont irreproachables; ils n’oppriment personne; ils ne font de tort d personne; leurs visages sont mortifies et abattus par le jeune; ils ne mangent point leur pain comme des paresseux; et ils travaillent pour gagner leur vie. Qu’y a-t-il de plus specieux que ces heretiques de Saint Bernard? Mais, apres tout, c’etoit des Manicheans, et leur piete n’etoit que feinte. Regardez le fond: c’est l’orgueil; c’est la haine contre le clergy; c’est l’aigreur contre l’Eglise; c’est par-la qu’ils ont avale tout le venin d’une abominable heresie. Ibid. Section 143. 19 Avouant et jurant tout ce qu’on vouloit, pour se sauver du supplice.

Boss. Hist. des Variat. livr. 11 Section 41. 20 I subjoin the originals, that full justice may be done to this curious and perhaps unique specimen of Latin ratiocination.

S’ il (le diable) avoit bien pu porter Judas a se donner la mort a luimeme, il pouvoit bien porter ces heretiques ‘a la souffrir de la main des autres. Boss. Hist. des Variat. livr. 11 Section 147.

Mirabantur aliqui, quod, non modo patienter, sed et laeti, ut videbatur, ducerentur ad mortem: sed qui minus advertunt, quanta sit potestas diaboli, non modo in corpora hominum, sed etiam in corda, quae semel permissus possederit. Nonne plus est sibimet hominem injicere manus, quam id libenter ab alio sustinere? Hoc autem in multis potuisse diabolum, frequenter experti sumus, qui seipsos aut submerserunt aut suspenderunt. 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. Nihil ergo simile habent, constantia martyrum, et pertinacia horum: quia mortis contemptum in illis pietas, in istis cordis duritia, operatur. Bernard. sup. Cantic. serm. 66. Oper. p. 766, 767.

Quorundam haereticorum mentes in tantum invasit diabolus, ut, dum, propter haeresim capti ducuntur ad mortem, nullatenus tristari, sed gaudere potius, videantur. — Qui autem non patitur pro justitia sed pro haeresi, in hoc, quod dicit se corporis non sentire dolorem, ostendit se ad Christi corpus minime pertinere, qui pro nobis cum dolore sustinuit passionem. — Est ergo a diabolo ejus insensibilitas, cum coecus mente dat se praecipitem morti: quod, in pluribus impiis, non solum legimus, verum etiam vidimus, praecessisse. — Saul et armiger ejus gladiis ceciderunt: et Achitophel suspensus occubuit, quia nutu Dei dissipatum est consilium ejus. Judas etiam Iscariotes laqueo se suspendit: et multi alii, seducti a diabolo, sponte se mortis praecipitio tradiderunt. De hac autem materia pulchrius beatus Bernardus fideles instruit. Luc. Tudens. adv. Albig. lib. 3. c. 21. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 13. pp. 285, 286.

Much in the same manner argued the Pagans respecting the martyrdoms of the primitive Christians. They were actuated by no philosophical love of truth, like the noble-minded stoics: 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. Verily, Lucas of Tuy would have forfeited his charter, had he acted otherwise. 21 Humanum corpus factum a diabolo mentiuntur. Luc. Tudens. Praefat. adv. Albig. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 13. p. 324.

Alia plura, ut oppugnent veritatem, proferunt haeretici, qui philosophorum seu naturalium nomine gloriantur. Quorum finis est Manichaeorum inducere sectam, et duos fateri Deos: quorum malignus, ut procaciter mentiuntur, creavit omnia visibilia. Ibid. lib. 3. c. 1. p. 277.

Dicunt eis haeretici: Omnia, quae in hoc mundo visibilia sunt, a diabolo facta sunt. Unde non refert, in lucro pecuniarum, utrum bene adquirantur vel male. Ibid. lib. 3. c. 5. p. 279.

Asserentes, Praelatos Ecclesiae, Christi animabus mortuorum fidelium, remissionum indulgentiis, non posse ullatenus subvenire; nullius sancti animam, ante diem judicii, coelum ascendere; atque nusquam pati poenas animas, nisi tantummodo in inferno; neque habere notitiam etiam eorum, quos, dum viverent, in saeculo dilexerunt. Praefat. in Ibid. p. 234. 22 Tales sunt hodie haeretici Manichaei, qui sua haeresi patriam Agennensem maculaverunt: qui mentiuntur se vitam tenere Apostolorum; dicentes, se non mentiri, nec omnino jurare; sub praetextu abstinentiae et continentiae, escas carnium et nuptias damnantes. Dicunt, enim, tantum flagitium esse accedere ad uxorem, quantum ad matrem vel filiam. Damnant etiam Vetus Testamentum: de Novo, vero, quaedam accipiunt, quaydam non. Et, quod gravius est, duos praedicant rerum auctores: Deum invisibilium, Diabolum visibilium, auctorem credentes. Unde et occulte adorant Diabolum, quem sui corporis credunt creatorem. Sacramentum vero altaris purum panem esse dicunt. Baptismum negant. Neminem posse salvari, nisi per suas manus, praedicant. Resurrectionem etiam corporum negant.

Radulph. Ard. Serm. in Dominic. post Trinit. 8. apud Usser. de Eccles.

Success. c. 8 Section 22. 23 E vestigio exorti sunt per Aquitaniam Manichaei, seducentes promiscuum populum a veritate ad errorem. Suadebant negare Baptismum, signum Sanctae Crucis, Ecclesiam, et ipsum Redemptorem saeculi, honorem Sanctorum Dei, conjugia legitima, esum carnium: unde et multos simplices averterunt a fide. Fragment. Hist. Aquit. in Baron.

Annal. vol. 11. A. D. 1017. col. 63. 24 Haeresis illorum, quos Publicanos vel Catharos vel Paterinos vocant, quae Christi abnegat sacramenta, clam quidem pluribus in 1ocis irrepserat, sed palam in Guasconia maxime populos occuparat. Illic, namque, a catholica communione praecisi, castra habent quam plurima adversus Catholicos communita: catholico ritu posthabito, suis adinventionibus inservienites; earumque virulentia, quos potuerint, toxicantes. Quocirca, ad eorum retundendam vesaniam, missus ab Alexandro Papa vir linguae disertae, Henricus ex Abbate Claraevallis Episcopus Albanensis: quae, praedicationis verbo, militum peditumque copias undecunque contraxit, praefatosque haereticos expugnavit.

Verum id frustra: nam, ut sui compotes facti sunt, se in erroris pristini volutabro revolverunt. Robert. Altiss. Chronolog. in A. D. 1181. apud Usser. de Eccles. Success. c. 8 Section 37.

The same readily understood charge of denying the sacraments is brought against them by Nicolas Trivett in his Chronicle.

Haeretici, quos Albigenses vocant, et alii multi, conveniunt circa Tolosam, male sentientes de sacramento altaris, de matrimonio, et aliis sacramentis: ad quorum confutationem Petrus Romanus, et multae aliae personae religiosae, cum praedictis regibus, licet parum profecerint, convenerunt. Nicol. Trivett. Chronic. in A. D. 1178. in Dacher. Spicil. vol. 8. p. 478. 25 Innoc. III. Epist. Decretal. lib. 1. p. 56, 57, 58. As I have stated in the text, it is commonly said, that Reiuerius wrote about the year 1254: but his work, I think, affords a strong internal presumption, that he really wrote it in the year 1230. From a date which occurs in the Work itself, his Inquisitorship must have continued at least down to the latter mentioned year: and the wording of the passage, which contains the date, seems to indicate, that, in that same year, the Work was composed.

Prima pars tenet opiniones antiquiores, quas omnes Cathari antiquiores habebant in annis DominiCURRENTIBUS mille ducentis triginta. Reiner.

Opusc. de haeret. c. 6. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 13. p. 304.

Somewhat awkwardly, the date is given in cardinal, rather than in ordinal, numbers: but it is hard to say, what the termCURRENT can import, unless it be used for the purpose of intimating, that the year 1230 was then actually current, when Reinerius was engaged in the composition of his Treatise.

If, then, Reinerius was seventy years old in the year 1230 when I suppose his Work to have been written, he would have been thirtynine years old in the year 1199, when a certain Friar Reinerius was employed by Innocent III. As his Inquisitor in the South of France and in the North of Spain, now the Reinerius of Pope Innocent, and the Reinerius sirnamed Sacco, correspond, both in name, and in office, and in the country where that office was exercised. But, if these two Reinerii be one and the same individual: then, from the calculated age of thirty-nine, we must deduct seventeen years, for the seventeen years during which Reinerius Sacco was one of the Cathad. This process will leave twenty-two years, for the time before Reinerius became a Catharus, and for the time after he ceased to be one up to the year 1199. Let us suppose, that he joined the Cathari at the age of eighteen.

In that case, he must have left them at the age of 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 need scarcely remark, that it was the barbarous though sagacious policy of the Roman Church to employ recent converts from reputed heresy in the task of hunting out and persecuting their former associates.

But, even if we retain the year 1254 as the date of the work, the identity of the two Reinerii will still chronologically be quite possible.

For, let Reinerius Sacco have been eighty-five years old in the year 1254, and let him have joined the Cathari at the age of twelve: and, according to such an hypothesis, he might easily have been acting as an Inquisitor in the year 1199. 26 Communes opiniones omnium Catharorum sunt, videlicet: Quod diabolus fecerit hunc mundum, et omnia quae in eo sunt. Item, quod omnia sacramenta Ecclesiae, scilicet sacramentum Baptismi aquae materialis et caetera sacramenta, nihil prosint ad salutem; et quod non sint vera sacramenta Christi et ejus Ecclesiae, sed deceptoria et diabolica et Ecclesiae malignantium. Item, communis opinio omnium Catharorum est: quod matrimonium carnale semper fuerit mortale peccatum; et quod non puniatur aliquis gravius in futuro propter adulterium et incestum, quam proper legitimum conjugium. Item, omnes Cathari negant carnis resurrectionem futuram. Item credunt, quod comedere carnes, ova, vel caseum, etiam in urgente necessitate, sit mortale peccatum. Item, quod potestates seculares peccent, mortaliter puniendo malefactores vel haereticos. Item, quod nemo possit salvus fieri, nisi per ipsos. Item, quod omnes parvuli etiam, non baptizati, non levius aeternaliter puniantur, quam homicidae et latrones. Item, quod omnes negant Purgatorium. Reiner. Opusc. de haeret. c. 6. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 13. p. 302. 27 Opiniones istorum, praeter communes supra scriptas, sunt istae. Quod duo sunt Principia a Deo: videlicet, boni et mali. Item, quod Trinitas, scilicet Pater et Filius et Spiritus Sanctus, non est unus Deus: sed quod Pater major est Filio et Spiritu Sancto. Item, quod utrumque Principium, sive uterque Deus, creavit angelos suos et suum mundum: et quod iste mundus est creatus, factus, et formatus, a malo Deo; et omnia, quae sunt in eo. Item, quod diabolus cum suis angelis ascendit in coelum: et, facto ibidem praelio cum Michaele archangelo, angelus boni Dei extraxit inde et partem creaturarum Dei; et infundit eas quotidie in humanis corporibus et brutis et etiam de uno corpore in aliud, donec dictae creaturae reducantur in coelum. Item, quod Filius Dei non assumpsit humanam naturam in veritate, sed ejus similem, ex beata Virgine, quam dicunt fuisse angelum: et quod non vere comedit et bibit, nec vere passus est, nec mortuus, nec sepultus; nec ejus resurrectio vera fuit: sed quod haec fuerunt putativa: similiter, de omnibus miraculis, quae Christus fecit. Item, quod Abraham, Isaac, et Jacob, Moyses, et caeteri plures patres antiqui, et beatus Joannes Baptista, fuerunt inimici Dei et ministri diaboli. Item, quod diabolus fuerit auctor totius Veteris Testamenti, exceptis his libris: scilicet, Job, Psalterio, libris Salomonis, Sapientiae filii Sirach, Isaiae, Hieremia, Ezeckiel, Daniel, et duodecem Prophetarum. Item, quod mundus iste nunquam habebit finem. Item, quod judicium futurum jam factum est, nec amplius fiet. Item, quod infernus et ignis teternus, sive poenae aeternae, sunt in isto mundo, et non alibi. Reiner. de haeret, c. 6. in Biblioth. Patr. vol. 13. pp. 304, 305. 28 Ego autem, frater Reinerius, olim haeresiarcha, nunc Dei gratia, sacerdos in ordine Fratrum Praedicatorum, licet indignus, dico indubitanter, et testificor coram Deo, quia non mentior, quod illorum trium non est aliquod inter Catharos, sive in poenitentia eorum. Reiner. de haeret. c. 6. p. 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 be a faithful witness to real facts, he would never have thought of saying, Non mentior. His whole phraseology and manner clearly import, that his injured brethren had charged him with gross falsehood and determined misrepresentation. Like Peter when he denied his lord, he rebuts the charge with oaths and violent asseverations: but, unlike Peter, the unhappy man repented not of his enormous and aggravated wickedness. He lied: and he knew that he lied. 29 Quia, heu, jam multi sunt haeretici, idcirco, ad laudem Dei et cautelam fidelium, ego frater Reinerius, olim haeresi — archa, nunc, Dei gratia, sacerdos in ordine Fratrum Praedicatorum, licet indignus, praesens Opusculum de haereticis compilavi. Reiner. de haeret. Praefat. in Bibl.

Patr. vol. 13. p. 298.

Praeterea dico, quod, in septemdecim annis, quibus, heu, conversatus sum cum eis, non vidi aliquem ex eis orare secreto seorsim ab aliis, aut ostendere se tristem de peccatis suis, seu lachrymari, vel percutere pectus suum. Ibid. c. 6. p. 303.

The third instance of uneasy reference to his apostasy is given above. 30 Apud nos; says one of the Cathari, as his words are given uncontradictedly by Reinerius himself: Apud nos, rarus est vir vel femina, qui textum non sciat vulgariter recitare. Reiner. de haeret. c. 8. p. 307. 31 The mischievous Paulicians seem to have amused themselves, perhaps not very wisely, with playing upon the voracious credulity of Peter Siculus in regard to their most absurdly pretended manichean belief in two independent Principles!

We are Christians, said they to Peter: you are Romans. You believe in the creator of the world: we believe in him concerning whom our Lord speaks in the Gospel; Ye have neither heard his voice, nor seen his shape. John 5:37.

Peter greedily interpreted their confessedly bantering language in his own way: and forthwith set them down as acknowledging their difference from the Romans to be; that they believed one God to be the Creator of the world, and another God to be the heavenly Father excluded from the administration of the world and ruling in eternity alone. Yet their bantering words, which he luckily gives us as well as his 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 saepe licet in illis observare, quando, urbanitatis causa, cum aliquo liberiores facti, produnt libere, quisnam sit, qui cum illis sermocinetur.

Age, dic, inquit, quid nos a Romanis secernit? — Vos creditis in mundi opificem: nos vero in illum, de quo in Evangeliis Dominus loquitur; Quoniam vocem ejus non audistis, neque speciem ejus vidistis.

These expressions of the bantering Paulicians Peter gravely interprets as an admission, that they held the manichean doctrine of two independent Principles!

Asserunt autem, sejunctionem suam a nobis in hoc consistere: quod ipsi quidem alium aiunt esse Deum, mundi conditorem; et alium, quem Patrem Coelestem vocitant, exclusum a mundi administratione, solaque in aeternitate dominantem. Pet. Sic. Hist. in Biblioth. Patr. vol. 9. par. post. p. 33.

From what part of the words of the Paulician does Peter deduce his Asserunt? 32 Quaesiti fidem, cum, de quibus suspecti videbantur, omnia prorsus SUO MORE negarent, examinati judicio aquae mendaces inventi sunt. Bernard. super Cant. serm. 66. Oper. p. 766. 33 Mais la marque la plus certaine pour connoitre ces heretiques etoit le soin qu’ils avoient de se cacher, non-seulement en recevant les sacremens avec nous, mais encore en repondant comme nous, 1orsqu’on les pressoit sur la foi. Cetoit l’esprit de la secte des son commencement; et nous l’avons remarque des le temps de saint Augustin et de saint Leon. Pierre de Sicile, et apres lui Cedrenus, nous font voir le meme caractere dans les Pauliciens. Non-seulement ils nioient en general qu’ils fussent Manicheens; mais encore, interrogas en particulier de chaque dogme de la foi, ils paroissoient Catholiques en trahissant leurs sentimens par des mensonges manifestes, ou du moins en les deguisant par des equivoques pires que le mensonge, parce qu’elles etoient plus artificieuses et plus pleines d’hypocrisie. Boss.

Hist. des Variat. livr. 11:31.

CHAPTER - 1 According to the plan adopted by the Inquisitors of Languedoc, it was morally impossible for any of the accused Albigenses to escape.

By the twenty-second canon of the Council of Narbonne, which sat in the year 1244 for the purpose of aiding and abetting the recentlyestablished Holy Office of Holy Dominic in its 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; that the testimony of infamous persons, of criminals, and of those who confessed themselves to have been accomplices, should be received in the process of the inquisition against the Albigenses: and, by the twenty-sixth 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 should deny the truth of the allegation. Hist. Gener. de Langued. par un Benedictin. livr. 25 Section 81. vol. 3. p. 445.

Deeply steeped in infamy as is the pontifical church, we can scarcely theorise a lower depth than this glaring and scandalous prostitution of justice. One benefit, however, may be said to result from it: for good occasionally springs even out of evil. No rational being can, by any conceivable possibility, believe a syllable of the tales of Manicheism related of the Albigenses, when those tales rest upon such a foundation as that which has been laid by the Council of Narbonne. For, in sooth, how stands the case? A man of infamous character charges an unoffending individual with Manicheism: the name of the wretch, who lays the accusation, is concealed: the accused, however, flatly denies the truth of the charge, avowing his firm belief in all the articles of the Christian faith: but still the charge, though in matters secular the word of the accuser would not be taken for a single farthing, is held to have been fully established; and the accused shall be dealt with as a clearly convicted heretic. Such is the evidential basis, on which rests the pretended Manicheism of the Albigenses!

It must in all fairness be admitted: that, through their supreme contempt for the doubtless very miserable superstitions of popery, the Albigenses were, at times, sufficiently provoking to the romish clergy. Of this we have a whimsical instance given us, with most amusing simplicity, by that zealous heretic-hater, good Bishop Lucas of Tuy. The story, in brief, runs to the following effect:

Through some ingenuity of management on the part of agents employed by the mischievous Albigenses, a fountain was found to work most surprising miracles, healing alike the blind and the halt, and ejecting demons from the persons of the possessed. Such a display must needs result from an adequate theological cause: 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 odor of sanctity, close to the wonder-working fountain. The whole country, sacerdotal as well as laic, was in a state of triumphant agitation: but the secret was far too good a secret to remain a secret. The laughter-loving Albigenses had contrived to deposit the remains of a condemned heretic and of an executed murderer, in the somewhat novel character of a catholic martyr and of a beatified abbot, near to the sacred fountain: and the bones of those two respectable individuals were found to be quite as efficacious in the performance of miracles, as the bones of the most approved saint in the pontifical calendar. From such premises, the logic of the Albigenses drew a most heterodox conclusion. They dared to hint, that popish miracles, as performed by the Hohenlohes of the day, were not a whit better than those which they themselves had got up. Quid plura? Says honest Lucas. Quod callide fecerant quibusdam detegentes, haeretici deridebant Fidem Catholicam: et, simili artijficio fieri miracula in Ecclesia coram Sanctorum corporibus, affirmabant. Unluckily, this albigensic argumentum ad hominem was not unsuccessful; for Lucas goes on to say; Non defuerunt aliqui, qui crederent illis, quibus profana consilia revelaverant, et in haeresin laberentur. But the progress of the malady was soon stopped by a judicious application of the regular popish medicine, for such eases had and provided. After an appeal to heaven somewhat on the plan of that of Elijah and the Baalites, which, Lucas assures us, was eminently successful, in despite of the blast of a trumpet credibly said to have been sounded by Lucifer himself: a simple deacon, fervent in the faith, effectually settled the entire controversy, in the good old way of persecution. The moral of the whole, as summed up by the Prelate of Tuy, runs thus: Haec idcirco scripsi, ut ab astuta calliditate haereticorum fideles caveant: quia multae sunt eoram insidiae, quibus intendunt, pervertere fidem Christi.

Luc. Tudens. adv. Albig. lib. 3. c. 9, 10. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 13. p. 280, 281. 2 Rarus est doctor inter eos, says one of these heretics, qui tria capitula continuata Novi Testamenti literaliter sciat corde. Apud nos vero rarus est, vel vir vel femina, qui textum non sciat vulgariter recitare: et, quia veram fidem Christi habemus, et sanctam vitam et doctrinam docemus omnes nos; ideo Scribae et Pharisaei gratis persequuntur nos ad mortem, ut Christum. Reiner. de haeret, c. 8. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 13. p. 307. 3 Indueunt illud, quod dicitur Matthew 15:13: Omnis plantatio, quam non plantavit Pater meus coelestis, eradicabitur. Ergo aliqua plantatio est, quam Pater Jesu Christi non plantavit: et ita Diabolus plantavit illam: et ita Diabolus est creator vel factor creaturarum. Monet. adv. Cathar. et Valdens. lib. 1. c. 1. Section 2. p. 11.

Ad idem inducunt illud, quod legitur Joan. 1:12. Quotquot autem receperunt eum, dedit eis potestatem filios Dei fieri: qui, non sanguinibus, neque in voluntate carnis, neque ex voluntate viri, sed ex Deo, nati sunt. Illi ergo tantum sunt filii Dei, qui non sunt nati ex sanguinibus. Sed homo exterior ex duobus sanguinibus natus est. Ergo homo exterior non est ex Deo natus; et, ita, a Diabolo. Ergo Diabolus est creator vel factor carnis. Ibid. p. 12.

Ad idem inducunt illud, quod legitur Joan. 8. 44. Vos ex patre Diabolo estis, et desideria patris vestri vultis facere. Diabolus erat pater illorum. Ergo creavit eos: et ita iterum ut prius. Ibid. p. 13.

Ad idem objiciunt illud Joan. 14. 30. Venit Princeps mundi hujus: et in me non habet quidquam. Si Princeps, ergo creator vel factor creaturarum. Ibid. p. 14, 15.

Ad idem objiciunt illud Joan. 18. 36. Regnum meum non est de hoc mundo. Ergo mundus iste non est a Deo creatus vel factus. Ibid. p. 15.

Ad idem illud Romans 8:8. Qui autem in carne sunt, Deo placere non possunt. Ex quo innuitur, quod caro sit mala: et, ita, creator vel factor malus. Ibid. p. 17.

In this way, throughout his large work, does Moneta represent the Albigenses themselves as arguing: and then does he gravely confute the arguments, which he puts into their mouths, and which he never could have heard them advance because (by the standing attestation of their very enemies) they constantly denied that they were Manicheans, and constantly rejected the tenets of Manicheism. 4 Quidam Cathari credunt eam coelestem; et ipsum Christum, indutum illa carne, intrasse in Mariam, et cum ipsa de ea exivisse. Illud autem volunt habere ex illo verbo Joan. 6:51, ubi Christus ait: Ego sum panis vivus, qui de coelo descendi. Monet. adv. Cathar. et Vald. lib. 3. c. Section 4. p. 246.

Est et alia aliorum Catharorum: — qui dicunt, quod Christus in ea, non de ea materialiter, carnem assumpsit hujus massae carnalis, quia eam credunt a Diabolo fabricatam. Dicunt enim quod non habuit vere corpus humanum, sed phantasticum; id est, quod apparebat nostrae naturae: et ex hoc oportet eos dicere, quod non fuit vere homo; id est, ejusdem speciei nobiscum. Dicunt ergo, quod corpus spirituale accepit operatione Spiritus Sancti, ex alia materia fabricatum: quo corpore mediante, Filius Dei Jesus Christus videbatur a conversantibus cum eo. — Quandoque autem, se spirituale corpus habere ostendebat, cum ambulabat super mare, ut habetur Matthew 14:25. Et, Luc. 4:29, 30. Et surrexerunt: ipse autem, transiens per medium illorum, ibat; qui eum inde praecipitare volebant, sed eum comprehendere non poterant. Ibid. p. 247, 248. 5 Ad idem inducunt illud Act. 1:5. Joannes quidem baptizavit aqua; vos autem baptizabimini Spiritu Sancto, non post multos hos dies. Ecce, quod, in baptismo aquae, non dabatur Spiritus Sanctus. Monet. adv.

Cathar, et Vald. lib. 4. c. 1 Section 11. p. 282.

Ad idem inducunt illud testimonium Marc. 16:16. Qui credideret, et baptizatus fuerit, salvus erit: qui vero non crediderit, condemnabitur.

Parvulus ergo non credit. Ergo condemnabitur. Ibid. 4. Section p. 283.

Negant etiam omnia sacramenta Ecclesiae Romanae, — Matrimonium.

Ibid. lib. 1. c. 1. p. 5.

Ad probandum autem matrimonium esse illicitum inducunt illud Matthew 5:27,28. Audistis quod dictum est antiquis, non maechaberis. Ego autem dico vobis, quia omnis, qui viderit mulierem ad concupiscendum eam, jam maechatus est eam in corde suo. Sed ille, qui habet uxorem, videt mulierem ad concupiscendum eam. Ergo ipse moechatus est. Ibid. lib. 4. c. 7 Section 1. p. 315.

Item. Luc. 20:34, 35, habetur. Filii hujus saeculi nubunt et traduntur ad nuptias. Illi vero, qui digni habebuntur saeculo illo et resurrectione ex mortuis, neque nubunt, neque ducunt uxores. Dicit haereticus: vide, quod ista verba, nubunt et ducunt uxores, praesentis temporis sunt: ille ergo, qui volunt esse digni futura gloria, in praesenti non debent nubere.

Ibid. p. 319. 6 Est autem opinio eorum detestanda: dicunt enim, quod panis non transubstantiatur in corpus Christi, nec vinum in sanguinem ipsius.

Cujus opinionis causa prima est: quia istum materialem panem et vinum mala esse dicunt, asserunt enim quidam eorum a Diabolo creata esse. Alii vero, facta esse a terra, unde hujusmodi cibaria oriuntur.

Monet. adv. Cathar. et Valdens. lib. 4. c. 3 Section 1. p. 295.

Alii autem aliter intelligunt illa verba Domini: Hoc est corpus meum. Id est, significat: sicut habetur 1 Corinthians 10:4, Petra autem erat Christus; id est, significabat Christum. Ibid. p. 296.

Nemo ex eis credit, quod ex illo pane conficiatur Christi corpus. Reiner. de haeret, c. 6. p. 303. 7 Impugnant imagines Ecclesiae et crucis adorationem. Monet. adv. Cath. et Vald. lib. 1. c. 1. p. 5.

Nunquam etiam implorant patrocinium Angelorum, vel Sanctorum, seu Beatae Virginis: neque se muniunt, signo crucis. Reiner. de haeret, c. 6. p. 303. 8 Credunt etiam, quod Satan, a Michaele dejectus de coelo, animas praedictas corporibus istis veluti carceribus inclusit et quotidie includit. Monet. adv. Cathar. et Vald. lib. 1. c. 1. p. 4. See also Reiner. de haeret, c. 6. p. 304. The passage is cited above, book 2. chap. 2. Section 1. (5.) 9 Omnes Cathari negant carnis resurrectionem futuram. Reiner, de haeret. c. 6. p. 302.

Isti negant horum omnium corporum resurrectionem, ponentes resurrectionem esse corporum coelestium, de quibus jam locuti sumus.

Monet. adv. Cathar. et Vald. lib. 1. c. 1. p. 5.

Thus speaks Moneta in his exordium. In a subsequent part of his Work, he notices the texts by which they demonstrated, that We are buried a carnal body, and rise again a spiritual body: and then, from such their demonstration, he clearly, at great length, shows them to have been truculent Manicheans. Ibid. lib. 4. c. 7 Section 1. p. 346-353. 10 Isti negant liberum arbitrium. Monet. adv. Cathar. et Vald. lib. 1. c. 1. p. 5.

Ad idem inducunt illam auctoritatem quae habetur Romans 7:15. Non enim quod volo BONUM, hoc ago: sed, quod odi MALUM, illud facio.

Facit ergo homo, qui de bona creatione est, malum invitus. Ergo non habet liberum arbitrium ad malum. Ibid. lib. 1. c. 5 Section 1. p. 65.

I have thus largely used the Work of Moneta, because I never met with a book which more completely illustrates the principle adopted throughout the present chapter. Like his commentator and editor Richini after him, he seems, first, to have diligently raked up, from the old heresiographers, all the peculiarities of ancient Manicheism; next, to have saddled them upon the Cathari, with a reference to the alleged arguments 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 favor of Manicheism, constantly, 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 flourished about the year 1230. Hence he was a contemporary of Reinerius. 11 Regem adoravit; non lignum utique, quia hic gentilis est error et vanitas impiorum: sed adoravit illum, qui pependit in ligno. Ambros. de obit.

Theodos. Imperat. Oper. col. 498.

To a popish bigot such language as this would have afforded quite sufficient proof, that the Albigenses were Manicheans who trampled upon the Cross and who renounced the Savior. 12 Bossuet, as if internally distrusting his uncomely array of witnesses, would attempt to 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 they cannot be supposed to have entertained much greater affection. Whence it must be inferred, that a charge, so strictly discriminating, could not but have rested on a solid foundation. Hist. des Variat. livr. 11:51.

To this argument of the ingenious and acute Prelate, whose sagacity never overlooks even an apparent advantage, the preceding statement of theGROUNDS of the charge of Manicheism against the A1bigenses affords, I trust, a full and sufficient reply.

The enemies of the Albigenses had it in their power to make out a plausible case against that body of religionists: because they were known to be the theological descendants of the Paulicians, whose ancestors had, in a great measure, been Manicheans, though, in truth, they themselves were converts from Mauicheism to the pure truths of their confessedly unadulterated copies of the New Testament.

But the equal enemies of the Valdenses could make out no such case against them: for they had no connection with the Paulicians; and they had never migrated westward out of Armenia and Bulgaria.

Consequently, had their enemies attempted any such calumny, the very notoriousness of the falsehood would have forthwith defeated its own purpose. The Romish Priests, verily, were not such bunglers in their calling as to charge the Valdenses with Manicheism. Thus the Monk of Vaux-Sernay, after triumphantly relating the most absurd and incredible tales respecting the Albigenses, immediately alters his tone when he comes to speak of the French Valdenses; who, nevertheless, were mingled with the Albigenses throughout Languedoc; and who, as evidently appears from the records of the day (particularly, I may remark, from the account of the famous conference at Montreal), were in strict amity and communion with them.

There were many other heretics besides the Albigenses, says this veracious writer, who were called Valdenses from a certain Lyonese named Valdensfis. These were bad: but, in comparison of the others, they were far less perverse; for, on several points, they agreed with us.

Petr. Vallisarnens. Hist. Albig. c. 3.

CHAPTER - 1 I subjoin Bossuet’s statement of the matter: because, as we proceed, a reference to it may be found not altogether useless. Its scantiness of correct information affords to the Bishop ample room for a redundancy of illustration.

Il est constant, que l’heresie manicheenne jeta de profondes racines dans la Bulgarie: et c’est de la, qu’elle se repandit bientot apres dans le reste de l’Europe; qui fit donner, comme nous verrons, le nom de Bulgares aux sectateurs de cette heresie.

Mille ans s’etoient ecoules depuis la naissance de Jesus-Christ: et le prodigieux relachement de la discipline menacoit l’Eglise d’Occident de quelque malheur extraordinaire. C’etoit peut-etre aussi le temps de ce terrible dechainement de Satan, marque dans l’Apocalypse, apres mille ans; ce qui peut signifier d’extremes desordres: mille ans apres que le fort arme, c’est-a-dire le demon victorieux, fut lie par Jesus-Christ venant au monde. Quoi qu’il en soit, dans ce temps et en 1017, sous le roi Robert, on decouvrit a Orleans des heretiques d’une doctrine qu’on ne connoissoit plus il y avoit long-temps parmi les Latins.

Une femme italienne avoit apporte, en France cette damnable heresie.

Deux chanoines d’Orleans, l’un nomme Etienne ou Heribert, et l’autre nomme Lisoius, qui etoient en reputation, furent les premiers seduits.

On eut beaucoup de peine a decouvrir leur secret. Mais enfin un Arifaste, qui soupconna ce que cetoit, s’etant introduit dans leur familiarite, ces heretiques et leurs sectateurs confesserent avec beaucoup de peine qu’ils nioient la chair humaine en Jesus-Christ; qu’ils ne croyoyent pas que la remissione des peches fut donnee dans le Bapteme, ni que le pain et le vin pussent etre changes au corps et au sang de Jesus-Christ. On decouvrit, qu’ils avoient une Eucharistie particuliere, qu’ils appeloient la viande ce1este. Elle etoit cruelle et abominable, et tout-a-fait du genie des Manicheens quoiqu’on ne la trouve pas dans les anciens. Mais outre ce qu’on en vit a Orleans, Gui de Nogent la remarque encore en d’autres pays. Il ne faut pas s’etonner, qu’on trouve de nouveaux prodiges dans un secte si cachee, soit qu’elle les invente, ou qu’on les y decouvre de nouveau.

Voila de vrais caracteres de Manicheisme. On a vu, que ces heretiques rejetoient l’Incarnation. Pour le Bapteme, saint Augustin dit expressement, que les Manicheens ne le donnoient pas, et le croyoient inutile. Pierre de Sicile, et apres lui Cedrenus, nous apprennent la meme chose des Pauliciens: tous ensemble nous font voir que, les Manicheens avoient une autre Eucharistie que la notre. Ce que disoient les heretiques d’Orleans, qu’il ne fallait pas implorer le secours des saints, etait encore de meme caractere, et venoit, comme on a vu, de l’ancienne source de cette secte.

Ils ne dirent rien ouvertement des deux principes: mais ils parlerent avec mepris de la creation et des livres ou elle etoit ecrite. Cela regardoit l’Aucient Testament: et ils confesserent dans le supplice, qu’ils avoient eu de mauvais sentimens sur le Seigneur de l’Univers. Le lecteur se souvient bien, que c’est celui que les Manicheens croyoient mauvais. Ils allerent au feu avec joie, dans l’esperance d’en etre miraculeusement delivres: taut l’esprit de seduction agissoit en eux. Au reste, c’est ici le premier exemple d’une semblable condamnation. On sait, que les lois romaines condemnoient a mort les Manicheens: le saint roi Robert les jugea dignes du feu. Bossuet. Hist. des V ariat, livr. 11 Section 16-20.

Such is the history which Bossuet gives of the Canons of Orleans: and, in his margin, he barely refers to the Acts of the Council of Orleans and to the History of Rodulphus Ginbet. But, while he thus treats his unsuspecting readers with nothing beyond a meagre reference for the authority on which he gives his narrative, he cautiously abstains from saying a syilable, as to the essential discrepances in the two accounts to which he refers. On the contrary, he makes up a very plausible and very respectable tale of his own out of the two, suppressing every incredible circumstance and every palpable absurdity which might shake its credit, preserving a profound silence as to the recorded language of the prisoners themselves which is totally incompatible with the idle figment of their Manicheism, and omitting the important fact that the examination was made with closed doors, and that we know nothing of the pretended confession of the accused, save what we have received from their interested enemies.

That Bossuet himself had read the two jarring accounts to which he refers, and therefore that he could not have sinned from ignorance, is evident: because, in his garbled amalgamated statement, he says; that one of the Canons was called Stephen OR Heribert. The fact is: that one account gives this person the one name; and the other account, the other name. 2 Tertio de vicesimo, infra jam dictum millesimum, anno, reperta est, apud praefatam Aurelianensem urbem, cruda nimium atque insolens haeresis: quae, scilicet, diutius occulte germinata, in perditionis segetem male pullulans, plures in suae coecitatis praecipitavit laqueum. Fertur namque, a muliere quadam ex Italia procedente, haec insanissima haeresis in Galliis habuisse exordium: quae, ut erat diabolo plena, seducebat quoscumque volebat non solum idiotas et simplices, verum etiam plerosque qui videbantur doctiores in clericorum ordine. Quae, scilicet, veniens in civitatem Aurelianensem, dum moraretur per aliquot spatium temporis, veneno suae nequitiae plures infecit. — Fuerunt nempe hujus perversi dogmatis haeresiarchae duo (heu proh dolor), qui in civitate putabantur genere ac scientia valentiores in Clero: quorum unus Heribertus, alter Lisoius, dicebatur. — Qui, non solum in praedicta urbe, sed, etiam in vicinis urbibus, malignum dogma spargere tentabant: dum quendam sanae mentis in Rothomagorum civitate presbyterum cupientes suae consortem facere vesaniae, missis legatis, qui et omne secretum hujus perversi dogmatis explanantes docerent.

Dicebant nempe, fore in proximum, in illorum scilicet dogma populum cadere universum.

Quibus compertis, presbyter sollicite perrexit ad christianissireurn Comitem ejus civitatis Richardum: exposuit ei omnem rei, ut compererat, ordinem. Qui, videlicet, Comes protinus misit celeriter ad Regem, palam ei faciens clandestinam in regno proprio Christi ovium pestem. Ut autem cognovit Rex, scilicet Robertus, — moerens nimium effectus est. — Idcirco, quantocyus Aurelianos properans, convocatis plurimis episcopis et abbatibus ac religiosis quibusque laicis, acerrime coepit perscrutari, qui essent auctores hujus perversi dogmatis.

Facta igitur perscrutatione inter Clericos, quomodo unusquisque sentiret et crederet ea, quae Fides Catholica per doctrinam apostolicam incommutabiliter servat et praedicat: iili duo, videlicet Lisoius et Heribertus, statim se aliter sentire non negantes, quales diu latuerunt, manifestarunt. Deinde vero plures post illos se parti istorum profitebantur haerere, nec ulla ratione se posse affirmabant ab illorum segregare consortio.

Quibus compertis, tam Rex quam Pontifices, tristiores effecti, 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 praesumptio accidisset, hujusmodi dederunt responsum: Hoc enim diu est, quod sectam, quam vos jam tarde agnoscitis, amplectimur; sed tam vos, quam caeteros, cujuscunque legis vel ordinis, in eam cadere expectavimus: quod etiam adhuc fore credimus.

His dictis, continuo, palam exposuerunt omnium antiquarum stultissimam ac miserrimam nempe sui deceptricem haeresim. Dicebant ergo, deliramenta esse, quicquid, in Veteri ac Novo Canone, — de trina unaque Deitate, beata confirmat auctoritas. Coelum pariter ac terram, ut conspiciuntur, absque auctore initii, semper extitisse, asserebant. — Omne Christianorum opus, pietatis duntaxat et justitiae, quod aestimatur pretium remunerationis aeternoc, laborem superfluum judicabant esse. - Dictum est eis, quoniam, nisi celerius ad sanam fidei mentem redeant, Regis jussu, et universae plebis consensu, igne essent protinus cremandi. -Cernens quoque Rex et universi qui aderant, minus posse illos revocari ab insania, jussit accendi non longe a civitate ignem permaximum, ut, vel eo forte territi, a sua malignitate desinerent. Ad quem cum ducerentur, rabida adacti dementia, se omnimodis hoc velle proclamabant, ac sese ultro ad ignem trahentibus inferebant. Quibus ad ultimum numero tredecim igni traditis, cum jam coepissent acrius aduri, coeperunt, voce qua poterant, ex eodem igne clamare; se, pessime deceptos arte diabolica, nuper de universorum Deo ac Domino male sensisse; et, ob hanc ab iisdem illatam ei blasphemiam, illos temporali atque aeterna ultione torqueri. His vero, plures e circumstantibus, auditis, humanitatis pierate permoti, accedentes, ut vel semivivos ab igne eriperent, minime valuerunt; quoniam, vindice flamma consumente illos, continuo in pulverem fuerunt redacti. Si qui vero postmodum hujus perversitatis sectatores fuerunt reperti, simili ultionis vindicta ubique fuerunt perditi. Rodulph. Glab. Hist. lib. 3. c. 8. in Baron.

Annal. ad A. D. 1017. vol. 11. col. 61, 62, 63. 3 Alanus Magnus, as we have seen above, determines, with laudable precision, the favored Bestiola, which was specially selected as the vehicle of Lucifer, to have been a catus or male cat. 4 A divinitate devia. I can only understand the word divinitas, as here used, to be a sort of low latin translation of the greek qeolo>gia . We have adopted the term divinity into our own language, precisely in the same sense. 5 Rursum quoque duxi dignum memoriae tradendum de praefato viro, scilicet Arefasto, quomodo, in Aureliana urbe, divina ope, suique ingenii salubri acumine, haereticam pravitatera, latenter pullulantem, jamjamque per Galliarum provincias nefandi erroris venena exitialia propinantem, non solum deprehenderit, sed etiam omnino compresserit.

Hic, in domo sua, quendam clericum habuisse dicitur, nomine Herbertum: qui, leetionis gratia, Aurelianam urbem adire decreverat.

Vetum, dum veritatis auctores quaerere satageret, coeco itinere in totius haeresis barathro dilabitur. Nam, ea tempestate, in eadem civitate, duo clerici, Stephanus et Lisoius, apud omnes sapientia clari, sanctitate seu religione magnifici, eleemosynis largi, opinione habebantur vulgi.

Eosdem memo-ratus expetiit clericus, et, parvo temporis interstitio, docilis discipulus cum divini verbi dulcedine ab eis debriatur, mortifero nequitiae haustu: qui, dementia et errore diabolico irretitus, totius divinitatis expers, sapientiae arcem conscendisse se credidit. Qui, patriam repetens, dominum suum, quem singulari affectu diligebat, subtilitate verborum in erroris viam sensim admovendo, secum attrahere cupiebat; testificans Aurelianam urbem, prae caeteris urbibus, coruseare luce sapientiae atque sanctitatis lampade. In cujus verbis, dominus ejus, intellectuali auditu, ipsum animadvertit a via justitiae devium; et cito Comiti Richardo causam innotuit, atque rogavit, ut Rodberto Regi, litteris, pestem in regno ejus adhuc latitantem, antequam propagaretur, patefaceret, et ut Rex eidem Arefasto ad expellendam eam opportunum auxilium non denegaret.

Igitur, Aurelianis deveniens, uti edoctus fuerat, quotidie sacra communione ac supplici oratione munitus, ad eorum doctrinam veniens, ad instar rudis discipuli, ultimus intra domum erroneorum adsidebat.

At ille, de omni verbo quod proferebant, semper Deo gratias referebat: unde rati sunt eum conversum esse in eorum errorem; jamque suae nequitia sentinam, verbis divinorum librorum, ante coopertam, securi aperiunt, dicentes: Christum de Virgine Maria non esse natum, neque pro hominibus passum, neque vere in sepulchro positum, nec a mortuis resurrexisse: addentes, In baptismo nullam esse scelerum ablutionem, neque sacramentum corporis et sanguinis Christi in consecratione sacerdotis. Sanctos Martyres atque Confessores implorare, pro nihilo ducebant.

Cumque haec et alia execranda perditi et miserrimi homines a foetido pectore evomerent, Arefastus sic ad eos dixisse fertur: Si, in his quae enumerastis, salus hominum, quae speratur, nulla, ut dicitis, esse potest; a vobis obnixe rogo, mihi aperire in quibus sperari poterit, ne meus animus, in dubio positus, cito cadat in desperationis ruinam.

Proculdubio, frater, inquiunt, in charybdi falsae opinionis hactenus cum indoctis jacuisti: nunc vero, erectus in culmine totius veritatis, integrae mentis oculos ad lucem verae fidei aperire coepisti. Pandemus tibi salutis ostium, quo ingressus, per impositionem videlicet manuum nostrarum, ab omni peccati labe mundaberis, atque Sancti Spiritus dono repleberis. — Deinde, coelesti cibo pastus, — videbis persaepe nobiscum visiones angelicas.

Sed, antequam ad conflictum veniamus, de cibo illo, qui coelestis ab illis dicebatur, quali arte conficiebatur, nescientibus demonstrare curabo.

Congrebabantur, siquidem, certis noctibus in domo denominata, singuli, lucernas tenentes in manibus; et, ad instar letaniae, daemonum nomina declamabant: donec subito daemonem, in similitudine cujuslibet bestiolae, inter eos viderent descendere. Qui, statim ut visibilis illa videbatur visio, omnibus extinctis luminaribus, quamprimum quisque poterat, mulierem, quae ad manum sibi veniebat, ad abutendum arripiebat, sine peccati respectu: et, utrum mater, aut soror, aut monacha, haberetur, pro sanctitate et religione ejus concubitus ab illis aestimabatur. Ex quo spurcissimo concubitu infans generatus, octava die, in medio eorum copioso igne accenso, piebatur per ignem more antiquorum paganorum, et sic in igne cremabatur. Cujus cinis tanta veneratione colligebatur atque custodiebatur, ut christiana religiositas Corpus Christi custodire solet aegris dandum de hoc solo exituris ad viaticum. Inerat enim tanta vis diabolicae fraudis in ipso cinere, ut quicumque de praefata haeresi imbutus fuisset, et de eodem cinere quamvissumendo parum praelibavisset, vix umquam postea de eadem haeresi gressum mentis ad viam veritatis dirigere valeret.

Igitur, illis introductis ante Regem et Episcoporum conventum Arefastus ait: — Docuistis equidem me nullam in baptisto 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 operatione effici videtur sacramentum, converti posse in corpore et sanguine Christi.

Cumque haec Arefastus viva vote perorasset, Guarinus Belvacensis Praesul interrogavit Stephanum et Lisoium, qui hujus erroris videbantur esse magistri, si ita sentirent et crederent quae ab Arefasto erant memorata.

At illi, cum diabolo in inferno jam mansionem paratam habentes, vera esse memorata, et ita se sentire ac credere, constanter adserunt.

Ista illis narrare potes qui terrena sapiunt, atque credunt figmenta carnalium hominum scripta in membranis animalium: nobis autem, qui legem scriptam habemus in interiore homine a Spiritu Sancto, et nihil aliud sapimus, nisi quod a Deo omnium Conditore didicimus, incassum superflua et a divinitate devia profers. Idcirco, verbis finem impone: et, de nobis, quicquid velis, facito. Jam Regem nostrum, in coelestibus regnantem, videmus: qui, ad immortales triumphos, dextera sua, nos sublevat: dans superna gaudia.

Cumque, ab hora diei prima usque ad horam nonam, multifariam elaborarent omnes, ut illos a suo errore revocarent; et ipsi, ferro duriores, minime resipiscerent: jussi sunt singuli sacris vestibus indui in suo ordine, statimque ab Antistibus a proprio honore sunt depositi.

Et, Rege jubente, Constantia Regina ante valvas basilicae stetit, ne populus eos intra ecclesiam interficeret. Et sic, de gremio Sanctae Ecclesiae, ejecti sunt. Qui cum ejicerentur, Regina, Stephani, sui olim confessoris, cum baculo, oculum eruit. Deinde, extra civitatis educti muros, in quodam tuguriolo copioso igne accenso, praeter unum clericum atque unam monacham, cum nefario pulvere de quo supra diximus, cremati sunt. Gest. Synod. Aurelian, A. D. 1017. in Dacher.

Spicil. vol. 2. p. 670-676. 6 Eo tempore, decem ex Canonicis Sanctae Crucis Aurelianis probati sunt esse Manichaei: quos Rex Robertus, cum nollent ad catholicam converti fidem, igne cremari jussit. Simili modo, apud Tholosam, inventi sunt Manichaei: et ipsi igne cremati sunt. Et, per diversas Occidentis partes, Manichaei exorti, per latibula sese occultare coeperunt, decipientes quoscunque poterant. Hist. Aquitan. Fragment. in Baron. Annal. ad A. D. 1017. vol. 9. col. 63. 7 Volo vos interea scire de haeresi, quae, die Sanctorum Innocentium, fuit in Aurelianensi civitate: nam verum fuit, si aliquid audistis. Fecit Rex Robertus vivos ardere, de melioribus Clericis sive de nobilioribus Laicis, prope quatuordecim ejusdem civitatis: qui, Deo odibiles, perosique coelo et terrae, abnegando abnegabant, sacri baptismi gratiam, dominici quoque corporis et sanguinis consecrationem. Cum hoc, post perpetrata scelera vitiorum, negabant posse recipi veniam peccatorum. Enim vero, cum his assertionibus, nuptiis detrahebant: a cibis, etiam, quos Deus creavit et adipi, tanquam ab immunditiis, abstinebant. Joan. Floriac. Epist. ad Oliv. Auson. in Masson. Annal.

Franc. lib. 3. apud Usser. de Eccles. Succes. c. 8 Section 21. 8 From the brutal rage of this woman against her former Confessor Stephen or Heribert, I suspect, that, in the spirit of the martyred Baptist, a new Herodias had been admonished of 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. Hugh de Beauvais, Count Palatine and Prime Minister, enjoyed the confidence of his master: and to him the King communicated the anxiety and uneasiness which he experienced from the impropriety of his wife’s conduct. This was sufficient to make that nobleman an object of her hatred and revenge. She, accordingly, had him assassinated in the presence of her husband, who, in vain, endeavored to save the life of his favorite. Gifford’s Hist. of France, vol. 1. p. 274.

Now Heribert had been the Confessor of Constance: but, before his martyrdom, he had ceased to be her Confessor. Hence it is evident, that he had been dismissed from his situation. The cause of his dismission and of her hatred 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, without either hesitation or discrimination, the Crambe recocta of pagan calumnies which equally fitted the case of the primitive Christians and of the more modern Albigenses, this author speaks of such men as Heribert and Lisoye under the title of leaders of a voluptuous sect. Verily, a voluptuous Confessor would have been quite secure from the hatred of a voluptuous Queen. Such an Ecclesiastic would not have merited and obtained the mh~niv of Constance. 9 Voce qua porerant. 10 If we could smile in the midst of romish horrors, there is certainly something not a little amusing in the even-handed justice, dealt out by the Papacy, to the persecuted Cathari on the one side, and to the persecuting Inquisitors on the other side.

When, on the score of his religion, a Catharus was put to death: nothing could be more laudable and more equitable and more meritorious than such a procedure on the part of his butchers.

But, should an Inquisitor, in the discharge of his humane and highly christian duty, happen, through the resistance of worn-out patience, to be unluckily slain: as all undoubted saint and martyr, he was forthwith canonized.

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.

Beatus Petrus Veronensis ex Ordine Fratrum Praedicatorum, prosequendo inquisitionem pravitatis haereticae sibi ab Apostolica Sede commissam, ab ipsorum haereticorum Credentibus, inter Cumas (ubi Fratrum suorum Prior erat) et Mediolanum occisus, martyrio coronatur. In cujus canonizationis literis quae eodem anno facta est Perusii, testatur Papa Innocentius, ipsum fere annos triginta vixisse in Ordine fultum caterva virtutum; virginitatis etiam florem illibatum servasse, nulliusque mortalis criminis unquam sensisse contagium, suorum probatum testimonio Confessorum: cujus religiosa sanctitas, crebris et in vita et in morte miraculis, noscitur claruisse. Nicol.

Trivett. Chron. in A. D. 1252.

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 showed some ingenuity in beating up for recruits to their ghostly regiment: a specimen of which is, by Nicolas Trivett, carefully handed down to the due admiration of all succeeding ages.

A Scholar of Bologna, who had been not quite so correct a liver as might have been desirable, dreamed, that he was suddenly, in the midst of a vast plain, caught by a tempest.

Thus distressed, he knocked at the door of a house for admittance, lain Justice, said the Mistress thereof: and I cannot, with any regard to my consistency of character, take in such a notorious rogue as your worship.

He knocked at a second door, I am Truth, quoth the tenant: and we have no lodgings here for liars.

A third door was tried. I am Peace: and I harbor no swaggering gallants and ruling swashbucklers. But perhaps my sister, who lives at the next door, may take you in.

Thus admonished, the Scholar made a fourth trial. I am Mercy, said the sister of Peace: and the best direction, which I can give you, is this. Go your ways to St. Nicolas, where the Preaching Friars live: and there you shall find, 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, and Joseph profiting, and the child Jesus saving thee.

Devoutly, when he awoke, ruminating on these matters, and filled with compunction for the crop of wild oats which he had sown, he lost no time in obeying the behests of his dream. And thus, to the confusion of all heretics, was added a Holy Brother to the Order of Preaching Friars.

Nicol. Trivett. Chron. in A. D. 1238. 11 These are duly enumerated by Reinerius, as they were subsisting in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

Ecclesia Albanensis vel de Sensano; Ecclesia de Contorezo; Ecclesia Bagnolensium sive de Bagnolo; Ecclesia Vicentina vel de Marchia; Ecclesia Florentina; Ecclesia de Valle Spoletana. — Albanenses morantur Veronae et in pluribus civitatibus Lombardiae: et sunt numero fere quingenti, utriusque sexus. Illi autem de Contorezo sunt fere per totam Lombardiam: et sunt bene mille quingenti, vel etiam plures. Bagnolenses morantur in Mantua, Brixia, Bergomi, et in Comitatu Mediolanensium, sed pauci, et in Romaniola: et sunt fere ducenti. Ecclesia de Marchia nihil habet Veronae: sed sunt circiter centum et quinquaginta. Reiner. de haeret. c. 6 in Bibl. Patr. vol. 13. p. 304.

In Italy, as usual, and (I doubt not)with the very same measure of truth, the Paulicians or Cathad, during the Pontificate of Innocent III or at the beginning of the thirteenth century, were charged with Manicheism by the Inquisitor Nicolas Eymeric, who pretends to sum up their faith in fourteen several articles. Eymeric. Director. Inquisit. par. 2. quaest. 13. See Allix on the Anc. Church of Piedm. chap. 15.

Twelve out of the fourteen articles are there given at length. Valeant quantum valere possunt.

CHAPTER - 1 Berengarius, novae heresis de corpore Domini auctor, eo tempore deficiens, abiit in locum suum: qui, licet eandem haeresin saepissime in Synodo abjuravit, ad vomitum tamen suum, canino more, non expavit redire. Nam, et in Romana Synodo canonice convictus, haeresin suam, in libro a se descriptam, combussit, et abjuratam anathematizavit: nec tamen postea dimisit. Bertold. in A. D. 1083. apud Usser. de Eccles.

Success. c. 7 Section 34. 2 Ita resipuit, ut, sine retractatione, a quibusdam sanctus habeatur. Gul.

Malmes. de Gest. Anglor. Contin. lib. 3. c. 27. p. 342: sive, sub alio titulo, Gul. Malmes. de Gest. Reg. Anglor. lib. 3. fol. 63. Vide Nicol.

Trivett. Chron. in A. D. 1136. 3 Fuit eo tempore Berengarius Turonensis haeresiarcha, qui, panem et vinum in altari apposita, post consecrationem sacerdotis, verum et substantiale corpus Domini, sicut Sancta Ecclesia praedicat, esse denegabat. Jamque scatebat omnis Gallia ejus doctrina, per egenos scholares, quos ipse cotidiano stipe sollicitabat, disseminata: unde, soliditati catholicae timens, sanctae memoriae Leo Papa, Vercellis contra eum instituto concilio, tenebras nebulosi erroris, evangelicorum testimoniorum fulgure, depulit. Sed, cum, post obitum Leonis, virus haereseos, diu in sinibus quorundam nebulonum confotum, iterum erumperet: Hildebrandus, cum esset Archidiaconus Turonis, mox Papa, Romae adunatis conciliis convictum, ad dogmatis sui anathema compulit. — Porro, licet Berengarius primum calorem juventutis, aliquantarum haeresium defensione, infamaverit, aevo austeriore ita resipuit, ut, sine retractatione, a quibusdam sanctus habeatur, innumeris bonis maximeque humilitate et eleemosynis approbatus.

Largarum possessionum, dispertiendo, dominus: non, abscondendo et adorando, famulus. Foeminiae venustatis adeo parcus, ut nullam conspectui suo pateretur admitti; ne formam videretur delibasse oculo, quam non pruriebat animo. Non aspernari pauperem: non adulari divitem. Secundum naturam vivere: habens victum et vestitum, juxta Apostolum, his contentus esse. Gul. Malmes. de Gest. Anglor. Cont. lib. 3. c. 27. p. 342: sive lib. 3. fol. 63.

Clandestinis colloquiis, primum imperitorum animos in suam sententiam traxit: tum egenos quosque scholares, praesertim theologiae studiosos, quotidiana stipe, cum opulentus esset, ita sollicitavit, ut, eorum opera, omnis pene Gallia ac vicinae gentes eo malo quam citissime laborarent. Alan. de Euchar. lib. 1. c. 21. apud Usser. de Eccles. Success. c. 7 Section 57.

Eodem tempore, Berengarius Turonensis, in haereticam prolapsus pravitatem, omnes Gallos, Italos, et Anglos, suis jam pene corruperat pravitatibus. Matt. Westmonast. Hist. Roffens. in A. D. 1087. apud Usser. Ibid.

Imprimis autem afficiebatur omnis Gallia ejus doctrina: siquidem, per egenos scholares, quos quotidianis stipendiis sustentabat, eandem passim divulgabat. Matt. Paris. Hist. Mag. ad A. D. 1087. apud Usser.

Ibid. 4 Berenger n’attaqua jamais que la presence reelle: et laissa tout le reste en son entier. Boss. Hist. des Variat. livr. 11 Section 1. 5 Damnatus est Berengarius eam ob fidem, quam nos, ut pure et perfecte evangelicam, sectamur. Quia, nimirum, realem corporis et sanguinis Christi praesentiam ex Eucharistia auferebat: tum etiam quia Ecclesiam Romanam, Ecclesiam Malignantium, Concilium Vanitatis, et Sedem Satanae, voeabat; et Leonem nonum, communi hominum opinione Pontificem bonum, immo sanctitate et miraculis (ut fertur) perinsignem, Pompificem et Pulpificem dictitabat, cum nec appellatione Pontificis aut Episcopi dignatus. Gul. Reginald. Calvino- Turcism. lib. 12. c. 5. apud Usser. de Eccles. Success. c. 7 Section 24. 6 Primurn calorem juventutis, aliquantarum haeresium defensione, infamaverit. Gul. Malmes. de Gest. Anglor. Cont. lib. 3. c. 27. p. 342: sive lib. 3. fol. 63. 7 Die Lunae, Octob. secundo, A. D. 1207, in oppido Montis Regalis prope Carcassonem in Comitatu Tolosano, habitum est memorabile colloquium, inter Episcopum Exovensem Hispanum qui a Papa missus fuerat cum S. Dominico et allis pluribus, et Arnaldum Hot Pastorem Albigensium appellatum, qui ad haec tria expresse asserebat. Primo:

Romanam Ecclesiam non esse Christi Sponsam, nec sanctam Ecclesiam; sed turbulentam, Satanoe doctrina institulam; adeoque Babylonem esse illam de qua in Apocalypsi loquitur B. Joannes, matrem fornicationum et abominationum, sanguine sanctorum, et martyrum Jesu Christi inebriatam. Secundo: Politiam illius non esse bonam neque sanctam, neque a Jesu Christo stabilitam. Tertio:

Missam, eo modo quo celebratur hodie, non esse vel a Jesu Christo vel ab Apostolis ejus institutam. Vignier. Hist. Eccles. in A. D. 1207. apud Usser. de Eccles. Success. c. 10 Section 22.

Item sunt (doctores Romanae Ecclesiae) divites et avari, quibus dicitur:

Vae vobis divitibus, qui habetis hic consolationem vestram. Nos vero, habentes victum et vestes quibus possumus tegi, his contenti sumus.

Reiner. de haer. c. 8. p. 307. 8 Praedicatum est evangelium in omnibus gentibus. Credidit mundus: facta est Ecclesia. Crevit, fructificavit: sed, imperitia male intelligentium, postea erravit et periit. In nobis solis, et in iis qui nos sequuntur, sancta in terris Ecclesia remansit. Lanfranc. Epist. 3. ad Alex. II. apud Baron. Annal. in A. D. 1072. 9 Ecclesiam Romanam dicunt Meretricem. Unde, Domino Papae, et omnibus Episcopis, Sacerdotibus, et Clericis, catholicis, contradicunt: dicentes; Se Ecclesiam Dei, et illos mundi seductores. Reiner. de haeret, c. 6. p. 306.

CHAPTER - 1 Boss. Hist. des Variat. livr. 11 Section 65-69. 2 Dominis et Patribus, Magistris Ecclesiae Dei, Arelatensi, Ebredunensi, Archiepiscopis; Diensi et Wapicensi Episcopis; Frater Petrus humilis Cluniacensium Abbas, salutem et obsequium.

Scripsi nuper epistolam reverentiae vestrae, contra haereses Petri de Bruis disputantem: sed, innumeris et magnis negotiis, a dictando animum, a scribendo stylum, retardentibus, huc usque mittere distuli.

Mitto nunc tandem eam prudentiae vestrae, ut, per vos, haereticis contra quos scripta est, et etiam Catholicis quibus forsitan prodesse poterit, innotescat. Vobis etiam mitto, quoniam, in partibus vestris aut circa easdem, stulta illa et impia haeresis, more pestis validae, multos interfecit, plures infecit. Sed, gratia Dei concitante et adjuvante studia vestra, a vestris regionibus sese paululum removit. Migravit tamen, sicut audivi, ad loca satis vobis contigua: et, a Septimania vestra, vobis persequentibus, expulsa, in provincia Novempopulana, quae vulgo Gasconia vocatur, et in partibus ei adjacentibus, sibi foveas praeparavit: in quibus nunc se timore occultans, nunc de ipsis audacia assumpta prodiens, quos potest decipit, quos potest corrumpit; et, nunc istis, nunc illis, lethalia venena propinat. Vestrum est, igitur, ad quos praecipue, tam ex officio, quam ex singulari scientia, in partibus illis cura Ecclesiae Dei spectat, et quibus ipsa velut fortibus columnis maxime innititur: vestrum est, inquam, et, a locis illis in quibus se latibula invenisse gaudet, et praedicatione, et etiam (si necesse fuerit) vi armata per Laicos, exturbare. — Et, quia prima erronei dogmatis semina, a Petro de Bruis per viginti fere annos sata et aucta, quinque praecipua et venenata virgulta produxerunt: contra illa maxime, ut potui, egi. Petr. Cluniac. Tract. contra Petrobrusian. in Biblioth. Patr. vol. 12. par. post. p. 206. 3 Quia sanctis Ecclesiae doctoribus fidem praebere dedignamini, ad purissimum rivulorum omnium fontem mihi est revertendum: et, de Evangelicis, Apostolicis, seu Propheticis, dictis, testimonia, si tamen vel ista suscipitis, sunt proferenda. Videndum est, utrum hi, qui tantis orbis terrarum magistris non cedunt, saltem Christo, Prophetis, vel Apostolis, adquiescant. Hoc ideo dico, quoniam, nec ipsi Christo, vel Prophetis, aut Apostolis, vos ex toto credere, fama vulgavit: ipsique majestati Veteris ac Novi Testamenti, quae jam ab antiquo totum orbem subdidit, vos detrahere, si tamen verum est, indicavit. Sed, quia fallaci rumorum monstro non facile assensum praebere debeo, maxime cum quidam vos totum divinum Canonem abjecisse affirment, alii quaedam ex ipso vos suscepisse contendant, culpare vos de incertis nolo; sed necessario totum Canonem, qui ab Ecclesia suscipitur, vos suscipere debere, certis auctoritatibus probo. Petr. Cluniac. Tract. cont. Petrobrus. p. 209. 4 Post rogum Petri de Bruis, quo, apud Sanctum Egidium, zelus fidelium, flammas dominicae crucis ab eo succensas, 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, doctrinam diabolicam non quidem emendavit, sed immutavit; et, sicut nuper in tomo, qui ab ore ejus exceptus dicebatur, non quinque tantum, sed plura, capitula edidit. Contra quae animus accenditur rursus agere, et verbis daemonicis, divinis sermonibus, obviare. Sed, quia eum ita sentire vel praedicare nondum mihi plene fides facta est, differo responsionem, quousque et horum, quae dicuntur, indubiam habeam certitudinem. Petr. Cluniac. Tract. cont.

Petrobrus. p. 207. 5 Si enim, quod omnes affirmant, Evangelium etiam tantum suscipitis; necessario, ut dictum est, et reliqua omnia suscipietis. Nec enim potestis Evangelio credere, et de his, quae idem Evangelium suscipit, dubitare. Petr. Cluniac. cont. Petrobrus. p. 209.

Evangelium toti Veteri Instrumento testimonium dat: et, ejus insuper auctoritatibus, ea ipsa, quae praedicat, confirmat. Ibid. p. 212. 6 Christi baptismate. The meaning of this expression, I suppose, must be, not the baptism which Christ himself submitted to, but the baptism which he ordained to be received by others. 7 The Abbot’s statement of this point is evidently a mere perversion of a very just allegation on the part of his opponents.

The gross superstition of the day was not content with the 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 phraseology of the age, spoke of it, as the Locus Benedictus Cluniacensis or the Locus Benedictus Clarovallensis.

Arguing against this gross and mischievous superstition, the more evangelically enlightened Petrobrusians, I suppose, urged the words of our Lord to the woman of Samaria: The hour cometh, when, neither in this mount nor yet at Jerusulem, ye shall worship the Father; — but the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

Throughout his long defense of good substantial churches of stone and timber, the Venerable Peter, as usual, is combating a demon of his own evocation. That the Petrobrusians were for pulling down all the churches in the country and having no churches whatsoever, was purely a matter of ignorant blundering hearsay. The very mode, in which the figment is told, shows us how it originated.

Ecclesiam Dei unitate fidelium congregatorum constare, et vos, ut audio, dicitis, et omnibus clarum est: locorum autem sacrorum aedificia fieri non debere, et facta subrui oportere, vos quidem affirmatis; sed nos, toto mundo nobis adjuncto, contradicimus. Petr. Cluniac. cont.

Petrobrus. p. 220.

The persecuted heretics, 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 popish enemies would have permitted them. But such was not the case: and hence they were fain to worship their God, in dens and caves of the earth, or in stables, or anywhere else where they could conceal themselves. Under these circumstances, it is rather too much, that their very latebrae, their unwilling latebrae, should 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 timore occultat, nunc de ipsis, audacia assumpta, prodit. Petr. Cluniac. cont. Petrobrus. p. 206.

Ubi apostolica forma et vita, rejoins Bernard addressing the poor sufferers, quam jactatis? Illi clamant: vos susurratis. Illi in publico: vos in angulo. Illi, ut nubes, volant: vos in tenebris ac subterraneis domibus, delitescitis. Bernard. super Cant. serm. 65. Oper. col. 760.

Unluckily, Bernard seems not to have recollected the pathetic eloquence of one of those very Apostles, whom he would place in such strong contradistinction to the afflicted Albigenses.

St. Paul would not have despised their fovea and tenebrae and domus subterraneae. Nay, since he actually lauds those, who wandered about in sheep-skins and in goat-skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented: it may fairly be doubted, whether he would have fully entered into the spirit of Bernard’s Vile nempe hoc genus et rusticanum ac sine literis et prorsus imbelle. Ibid. col.762.

Fiat experimentum in corpore vili: said the learned physician to his attendant surgeon. Nullum corpus est tam vile, replied the supposed illiterate patient, pro quo Christus non est dedignatus mori.

We all know St. Paul’s unrivalled parenthesis: Of whom the world is not worthy. 8 Primum haereticorum capitulum negat, parvulos, infra intelligibilem aetatem constitutos, Christi Baptismate posse salvari; nec alienam fidem posse illis prodesse, qui sua uti non possunt: quoniam, juxta eos, non aliena fides, sed propria, cum baptismate salvat, Domino dicente:

Qui crediderit et baptizatus fuerit, salvus erit; qui vero non crediderit, condemnabitur.

Secundum capitulum dicit, templorum vel ecclesiarum fabricam fieri non debere, factas insuper subrui oportere: nec esse necessaria Christianis sacra loca ad orandum; quoniam aeque, in taberna et in ecclesia, in foro et in templo, ante altare vel ante stabulum, invocatus Deus audit, et eos qui merentur exaudit.

Tertium capitulum, cruces sacras confringi, praecipit, et succendi: quia species illa vel instrumentum, quo Christus tam dire tortus, tam crudelitur occisus, est, non adoratione, non veneratione, vel aliqua supplicatione, digna est; sed, ad ultionem tormentorum et mortis ejus, omni dedecore dehonestanda, gladiis concidenda, ignibus succendenda, est.

Quartum capitulum non solum veritatem corporis et sanguinis Domini, quotidie et continue per sacramentum in Ecclesia oblatum, negat: sed, omnino illud nihil esse, neque Deo offerri debere, decernit.

Quintum capitulum, sacrificia, orationes, eleemosynas, et reliqua bona, pro defunctis fidelibus, a vivis fidelibus facta, deridet: nec, ea aliquem mortuorum, vel in modico, posse juvari, affirrnat. Petr. Cluniac. cont.

Petrobrus. p. 206, 207. 9 Dixistis: Nec Baptismus, sine propria fide; nec propria fides, sine baptismo; aliquid potuit. Neutrum enim, sine altero, salvat. Petr.

Cluniac. cont. Petrobrus. p. 217. 10 Praevenistis scelestis operibus celeritatem verborum: et, profundis in religionem odiis, quod vel cogitare scelus fuerat, insigne nostrae fidei tollere attentastis. Quod tunc factum est, quando, ad inauditam Divinitatis contumeliam, magno de crucibus aggere instructo, ignem immisistis, pyram fecistis, carnes coxistis, et, ipso passionis dominicae die paschalem dominicam praecedente, invitatis publice ad talem 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 pieces the brazen serpent which the Israelites had began idolatrously to fumigate with incense: the same also as that of Epiphanius, when, at Anablatha, he indignantly rent the veil on which was represented the image of some saint or peradventure of Christ himself: the same also as that of holy Serenus of Marseilles, who, in the time of Pope Gregory I, brake in pieces the contemptible puppets, from the insensate worship of which he was unable to restrain the people. Strong cases require strong remedies: 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 bigots. Ye have taken away my gods which I made: and what have I more? has been the piteous complaint and angry question of more than Micah of Mount Ephraim. 11 Si haeresis haec vestra Berengariis limitibus contenta esset, quae veritatem quidem corporis Christi, sed non sacramentum vel speciem aut figuram, negabat: facile me hujus capituli labore expedirem. — Isti, inquam, libri, vos et corrigere, et ad recipiscendum cogere, possent, si nihil deterius Berengarianis Haereticis sentiretis. Sed, quia, ut dixi, errorem errore, haeresim haeresi, nequitiam nequitia, superastis: non tantum veritatem carnis et sanguinis Christi, sed et sacramentum, speciem, ac figuram, negatis; et sic, absque summi et veri Dei sacrificio, ejus populum esse censetis. Pert. Clun. cont. Petrobrus. p. 228.

What Peter means, by saying, that the heretics went beyond Berenger himself, it is not easy to determine. But, from his making the excess to consist in so defining the species and figure of the sacrament as to leave the people without any sacrifice of the true God; which, therefore, implies, that Berenger, though he denied the substantial presence, did not altogether reject the idea of a sacrifice: I am inclined to think, that the difference was this. Berenger, like Justin and Ireneus, was willing to deem the elements, when presented upon the table, to be a sort of sacrifice or oblation to God of the first-fruits of the earth.

Justin. Mart. Apol. 1. Oper. p. 76, 77. Dial. cum Tryph. Oper. p. 269, 270. Iren. adv. haer. lib: 4. c. 32. p. 261. Bruis, finding this concession abused to the 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 by the Romanists. The declamatory rhapsodies of that violent 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 unanalyzed. 12 Ce n’est pas nier seulement la verite du corps et du sang; mais, comme les Manicheens, rejeter absolument l’ Eucharistie. Boss, Hist. des Variat. livr. 11:66.

Whenever it suits his purpose, the Bishop either devoutly believes, or at least affects devoutly to believe, all that Peter the Venerable is pleased to tell him: but, when the Abbot unluckily says anything incompatible with the hypothesis of Petrobrusian Manicheism; then the wise practice of Bossuet is the Prudens praetereo. 13 Negat corpus Christi et sanguinem, divini verbi virtute, vel sacerdotum ministerio, confici: totumque inane ac supervacuum esse, quicquid, in altaris sacramento, altaris ministri agere videntur, affirmat. Petr. Clun. cont. Petrobrus. p. 228.

Sacramentum speciem ac figuram negatis: et sic, absque summi et veri Dei sacrificio, ejus populum esse censetis. Ibid. p. 228. 14 Verba vestra, quae ad nos pervenire potuerunt, ista sunt. Nolite, O populi, Episcopis, Presbyteris, seu Clero vos seducenti, credere: qui, sicut in multis, sic et in altaris officio, vos decipiunt; ubi, corpus Christi se conficere, et vobis ad vestrarum animarum salutem se tradere, mentiuntur. Mentiuntur plane. Corpus enim Christi semel tantum, ab ipso Christo, in coena ante passionem, factum est: et semel, hoc est, tunc tantum, discipulis datum est. Exinde, neque confectum ab aliquo, neque alicui datum, est. Petr. Clun. cont. Petrobrus. p. 228. 15 Dixistis: Nec baptismus, sine propria fide; nec propria fides, sine baptismo: aliquid potuit. Petr. Clun. cont. Petrobrus. p. 217. 16 Praedicatis enim templa superfluo fabricari: cum Ecclesia Dei non constet multitudine sibi cohaerentium lapidum, sed unitate congregatorum fidelium.

Dicitis, crucem Domini honorandam vel adorandam non esse: quoniam species, quae dominicorum cruciatuum et mortis instrumentum fuit, abjicienda, non veneranda; ignibus concremanda, non stultis supplicationibus res insensibilis invocanda est.

Assetiris, corpus Domini, in sacramento altaris, Ecclesiam non habere, et quicquid in eo a sacerdotibus fit, inane prorsus et absque aliquo veritatis effectu: quoniam Christus, non futuris Christianis semper, sed praesentibus tantum discipulis, illud semel dederit.

Affirmatis, vanum esse orare, vel quicquam boni facere, pro defunctis: quia eos vivorum bona juvare non possunt, qui totum meritum suum, cui nihil addi possit, secum, quando hinc transiere, tulerunt.

Additis, irrideri Deum cantibus ecclesiasticis: quoniam, qui soils affectibus sanctis delectatur, nec altis vocibus advocari, nec musicis modulis, potest, mulceri. Petr. Cluniac. cont. Petrobrus. p. 219. 17 Genebrard. Chronol. apud Allix on the Albig. chap. 18. p. 196. 18 From the language of the Abbot Peter, we may gather, that, at this time, even some good Catholics, most probably from their converse with the heretical Albigenses, entertained doubts in no wise satisfactory to their ghostly teachers, respecting both the worship of the cross and the efficacy of any good deeds of the living to profit the dead.

Cum ergo, irrefragabili auctoritate et invicta ratione, honoranda, collaudanda, glorificanda, crux Christi a Christianis esse probetur: quod et adorari debeat, sicut a quibusdam haereticis negatur; sic, utrum fieri debeat, a quibusdam Catholicis quaeritur. Petr. Clun. cont. Petrobrus. p. 226.

Quod bona vivorum mortuis prodesse valeant, et hi haeretici negant, et quidam etiam Catholici dubitare videntur. Ibid. p. 240.

These acknowledgments are very curious. Notwithstanding Peter’s logical arguments in favor of idolatry and human meritoriousness, with which he himself at least is evidently quite satisfied, the leaven continued to ferment through all the middle ages until the mass was sufficiently prepared for the glorious Reformation of the sixteenth century. 19 Parvulis Christianorum Christi intercluditur vita, dum baptismi negatur gratia: nec 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 upon the administration of the outward and visible sign in baptism. This was construed into a denial of baptism itself to infants. Bernard, accurately enough, reported the true doctrine of Henry in the words, Baptismi negatur GRATIA; Henry himself, by the term gratia, meaning the inward grace of Baptism: but I do not think, that Bernard so understood the phraseology which he reported. 20 Non est hic homo a Deo, qui sic contraria Deo et facit et loquitur. Proh dolor, auditur tamen a pluribus: et populum, qui sibi credat, habet. — Nescio qua arte diabolica, persuasit populo stulto et insipienti, de re manifesta, nec suis credere oculis, fefellisse priores, errare posteros, totum mundum etiam post effusum Christi sanguinem perditum iri, et, ad solos quos decipit, totas miserationum Dei divitias et universitatis gratiam pervenisse. Bernard. Epist. 240. ad Ildefonsum Comitem Sancti Egidii de Henrico haeretico. Oper. col. 1591, 1592.

CHAPTER - 1 Saint Bernard assure, que cet heretique et ses sectateurs ne recevoient que l’Evangile: mais Pierre le Venerable n’en parle qu’en doutant. Boss.

Hist. des Variat. livr. 11 Section 655.

Why, for the satisfaction of his readers, could not Bossuet cite, in his margin, the precise words of Bernard? That writer does NOT say of the Petrobrusians, that ne recevoient que l’Evangile. 2 Stat nempe Scripturae veritas: Gloria regum celare verbum; gloria Dei revelare sermonem. Non vis tu revelare? Non ergo vis Deum gloriare.

Sed forte non recipis Scripturam hanc. Ita est. Solius Evangelii se profitentur aemulatores, et solos. Bernard. super Cant. serm. 65. col. 760. 3 I give the text in the Latin Vulgate; which, I suppose, would of course be Bernard’s book of reference.

Gloria Dei est CELARE verbum: et gloria regum investigate sermonem.

Proverb. 25:2.

In what part of Bernard’s citation, Gloria Dei REVELARE sermonem, lies his Stat Scripturae veritas? I suspect, that the inveterate heretics, who, as Reinerius tells us, had well nigh the entire New Testament by heart, and who, I shall venture to believe, were reasonably well acquainted with the Old Testament to boot, must have smiled alike, if in the midst of their suffering they could smile, both at the faithfully laid premises, and at the logically drawn conclusion, of the zealous preacher’s argument. They sometimes, we are assured, attended church like good Catholics: but it was unluckily discovered, that they did so only to pick holes in the sermon, Intersunt praedicationibus: sed ut praedicantem capiant in sermone. Reiner. de haeret, c. 7. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 13. p. 307. 4 The Benedictine, who wrote the General History of Languedoc, assures us: that Bernard, in the year 1147, induced the greater part of these heretics to renounce their errors, either by the force of his eloquence, or by the diverse miracles which God wrought through his hands.

Unluckily, however, neither the eloquence nor the miracles of the Saint produced any permanent conviction. The historian very honestly subjoins: Mais ils les reprirent bien-tot apres. After this he acknowledges, that the peculiarly christian logic of the two successive Cardinals, Peter of St. Chrysogon and Henry of Albano, was not a whit more successful than Bernard’s eloquence and miracles. La mission, que le Cardinal de S. Chrysogone fit en 1178 dans les memes pais, 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 severes qu’il imposa a ceux qui furent convaincus, et la confiscation de leurs biens qui s’ensuivit, ne firent qu’irriter les esprits, et ne changerent rien a la disposition des coeurs. Enfin, le Cardinal Henri Eveque d’Albano, etant venu en 1181 dans le haut Languedoc, a la tete d’un corps de troupes, pour reduire les heretiques, autant par les armes que par la persuasion, fit d’abord quelques foibles progres: mais il n’eut pas plutot termine son expedition, que la crainte ne faisant plus d’impression sur les peuples, ils preterent l’oreille comme auparavant aux discours seducteurs de leurs faux apotres, et que l’erreur, au lieu de diminuer, ne fit que prendre de nouvelles forces.

Hist. Gener. de Langued. livr. 21 Section 1. vol. 3. 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 Puy-Laurens, a writer of that period, as stating it to be a common proverb among the heretics: I had rather be a Priest, than have done such a thing. Ibid. 2. p. 129. 5 Videte detractatores, videte canes. Irrident nos, quia baptizamus infantes, quod oramus pro mortuis, quod sanctorum suffragia postulamus.

Bernard super. Cant. serm. 66. col. 765. 6 Non credunt autem ignem purgatorium restare post mortem; sed statim animam, solutam a corpore, vel ad requiem transire, vel ad damnationem. Bernard. super Cantic. serm. 66. col 766. 7 Nempe jactant se esse successores Apostolorum, et Apostolicos nominaut: nullum tamen apostolatus sui signum valentes ostendere.

Bernard. super Cantic. serm. 66. col. 765.

On this point Bernard hits them hard; smiting them, without mercy, both hip and thigh.

To the exclusion of the apostatic Romanists, they claimed to be alone the body of Christ: meaning, no doubt, that mystical body of which Christ is the mystical head. But, in spite of their boast, says the victorious Saint, let those of them believe this, who believe also that they have the power of consecrating the body and blood of Christ to nourish them so that they shall become the body and members of Christ.

Non ignoro, quod se et solos Corpus Christi esse glorientur. Sed sibi hoc persuadeant, qui illud quoque persuasum habent, potestatem se hubere quotidie in mensa sua corpus Christi et sanguinem consecrandi ad nutriendum se in corpus Christi et membra. Ibid. col. 765.

The heretics believed that they could figuratively consecrate the body and blood of Christ to the nourishing of them into Christ’s mystical body and members, no less effectually at their own humble table, than Bernard himself at the gorgeous high altar of his own conventual church of Clairvaux: and he boldly ridicules the idea, that they could produce, by their beggarly consecration, the literal body and blood.

Precious Apostolicals these, who claim to BE the body of Christ, and yet cannot MAKE it!

By the way, so perpetually does the truth look in upon us, we have here again an incidental proof that the Albigenses could not have been Manicheans. The old Docetae, as we learn from Ignatius, abstained from the Eucharist: because, denying our Lord to have had a substantial body, they of course could not admit the Eucharist, which was his body sacramentally or figuratively. Ignat. Epist. ad Smyrn. 7.

But the Albigenses of Gascony, as we are unwittingly told by Bernard, so far from rejecting the Eucharist, were fully persuaded (whereat, the Saint thought foul scorn of them); that, at their own tables, they could consecrate the body and blood of Christ to nourish them into Christ’s mystical body and members. Now all this they never could have done, which yet his words plainly imply that they were in the constant habit of doing, if they believed, that Christ never had a material body, 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 key to a strange story told by William of Newbury.

When Pope Eugenius, 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 upon the appellation Eun, he claimed to be Him who should come to judge both the quick and the dead. Quum, sermone gallico, Eun diceretur, ad suam personam pertinere crederet, quod in ecclesiasticis exorcismis dicitur: scilicet, Per Eum qui venturus est judicare vivos et mortuos.

Both the name and the story, so far as the claim of being Christ is concerned, I believe to be pure figments; built, however, upon one of the peculiarities of Gnosticism and derivative Manicheism.

The Priscillianists of Spain, a race of new Manicheans in the fourth century, borrowed from the older Gnostics the doctrine of Eons or Divine Emanations; a doctrine, which asserted Christ to be a principal Eon. Hence, I suppose, originated the name of Eun or Eon, imposed upon Eudo: and hence, likewise, proceeded 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.

Eudo was evidently hostile to the romish will-worship of Monasticism; for he is described, as a special enemy to churches and monasteries: ecclesiarum maxime ac monasteriorum infestator. He himself perished in prison, after no very long confinement: and his disciples, at least, showed their sincerity, by submitting to the flames, that ultima ratio papistarum, rather than renounce their doctrinal opinions, whatever those opinions might really have been. Curiae prius et postea ignibus traditi, ardere potius, quam ad vitam corrigi, maluerunt. Gulielm. Neubrig. Rerum Anglican. lib. i.c. 19. 8 Hi nubere prohibent: hi a cibis abstinent, quos Deus creavit. Nunc autem videre, si non proprie daemonum et non hominum ludificatio haec, secundum quod praedixerat Spiritus, quaere ab illis suae sectae auctorem: neminem dabunt. Quae haeresis non ex hominibus habuit proprium haeresiarcham? Manichaei Manem habuere, principem et praeceptorem: Sabelliani, Sabellium: Ariani, Arium: Eunomiani, Eunomium: Nestoriani, Nestorium. Ita omnes caeterae hujusmodi pestes, singulae singulos magistros, homines habuisse noscuntur: a quibus originem simul duxere et nomen. Quo nomine istos titulove censebis? Nullo. Quoniam non est ab homine illorum haeresis, neque per hominem illam acceperunt; absit tamen, ut per revelationem Jesu Christi: sed, magis et absque dubio, uti Spiritus Sanctus praedixit, per immissionem et fraudem daemoniorum, in hypocrisi loquentium mendacium, prohibentium nubere. Bernard. super Cantic. serm. 66. col. 763.

Strange it is, that this intemperate mall should not have been conscious of his own absurdity. The very circumstance, which he foolishly alleged against them, was precisely that, which afforded one of the strongest arguments in their favor. They knew themselves to be a sound Branch of the Primitive Church Catholic: and, therefore, whatever 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 Paulicians.

I regret, that I should be obliged to speak in such terms of Bernard: 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 he was too prejudiced to inquire fairly and to act with impartiality. 9 Monachi, ad ducendas uxores, terroribus sunt ac tormentis compulsi.

Petr. Clun. cont. Petrobrus. p. 208.

Die ipso passionis dominicae, publice carnes comestae. Ibid. p. 208.

Sacerdotes et Monachos potius debere uxores ducere, quam scortari.

Cocc. Thesaur. Cathol. lib. 8. artic. 6. apud Usser. de Eccles. Success. c. 8 Section 28.

With respect to the employment of force, so justly reprobated 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: that the luckless 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, these formidable Apostolicals were, after all, a very harmless and peaceable sort of people; quite unfit, the more the pity, to furnish soldiers in the stirring age of the first crusade: vile genus et rusticanum et PRORSUS IMBELLE. And he further tells us, that a great company of Clerks and Priests, leaving their parishioners and their churches, joined themselves, freely and spontaneously, to these despised and persecuted religionists: Clerici et Sacerdotes, populis ecclesiisque relictis, intonsi et barbati, apud eos, inter textores et textrices, plerumque inventi sunt. Bernard. super Cant. serm. 65. Oper. col. 761.

Hence, unless we can gravely believe Peter the Venerable, that the unhappy Monks were dragged bodily out of the religious houses by a terrific raid of weavers, male and female, for the purpose of marrying them to a corresponding number of females; whence procured, the zealous Abbot is not careful to inform us: we must, I fear, suspect, that no great compulsion was necessary to induce them to exchange their character of Benedictines for that of Benedicts. At all events, the Petrobrusians must have been very unsound and imperfect Manicheans, if they either compelled or persuaded the Monks to enter into a state, professedly, as Bassuet again and again reminds us, abhorred and abjured by Manicheism. The whole serves to show, how badly the miserable figment of Albigensic Manicheism hangs together.

Perpetually the pretended Manicheans are described as doing, what real Manicheans, on their own principles, never could have done.

CHAPTER - 1 Boss. Hist, des Variat. livr. 11 Section 43. 2 Iisdem diebus erronei quidam venerunt in Angliam, ex eorum (ut creditur) genere quos vulgo Publicanos vocant.

Hi, nimirum, olim ex Gasconia incerto auctore habentes originem, regionibus plurimis virus suae perfidiae infuderunt.

Quippe, in latissimis Galliae, Hispaniae, Italiae, Germaniaeque, provinciis, tam multi hac peste infecti esse dicuntur, ut, secundum prophetam, multiplicati esse super numerum arenae videantur.

Denique, cum a Praesulibus Ecclesiarum et Principibus Provinciarum in eos remissius agitur, egrediuntur de caveis suis vulpes nequissimae: et, praetenta specie pietatis seducendo simplices, vineam Domini Sabaoth, tanto gravius quanto liberius, demoliuntur. Cum autem adversus eos igne Dei fidelium zelus succenditur, in suis foveis delitescunt, minusque sunt noxii: sed tamen, occultum spargendo virus, nocere non desinunt. Homines rusticani et idiotae, atque ideo ad rationem hebetes, peste veto illa semel hausta ita imbuti, ut ad omnem rigeant disciplinam: unde rarissime contingit, eorum aliquem, cum e suis latebris proditi extrahuntur, ad pietatem converti.

Sane, ab hac et ab aliis pestibus haereticis, immunis semper exstitit Anglia; cum, in aliis mundi partibus, tot pullulaverint haereses. Et quidem haec insula, cum propter incolentes Brittones Britannia diceretur, Pelagium, in Oriente haeresiarcham futurum, ex se misit; ejusque in se, processu temporis, errorem admisit: ad cujus peremptionem Gallicanae Ecclesiae pia provisio, semel et iterum, beatissimum direxit Germanum. At, ubi, hanc insulam, expulsis Britonibus, natio possedit Anglorum, ut non jam Britannia sed Anglia diceretur: nullius unquam ex ea pestis haereticae virus ebullivit; sed nec in eam aliunde, usque ad tempora Regis Henrici secundi, tanquam propagandum et dioblatandum introivit. Tunc vero, Deo propitio, pesti, quae jam irrepserat, ita est viatum, ut de caetero hanc insulam ingredi vererentur.

Erant autem, tam viri quam foeminae, paulo amplius quam triginta: qui, dissimulato errore, quasi pacifice, huc ingressi sunt, propagandae pestis gratia; duce quodam Gerardo, in quem omnes, tanquam praeceptorem ac principem, respiciebant. Nam solus erat aliquantulum litteratus: caeteri vero, sine litteris et idiotae, homines plane impoliti et rustici, nationis et linguae Teutonicae. Aliquamdiu in Anglia morantes, unam tantum mulierculam, venenatis circumventam susurris, et quibusdam (ut dicitur) fascinatam praestigiis, suo caetui aggregaverunt.

Non enim diu latere potuerunt: sed quibusdam curiose indagantibus, quod peregrinae essent sectae, deprehensi tentique sunt in custodia publica.

Rex veto, nolens eos indiscussos vel dimittere vel punire, episcopale praecepit Oxoniae Concilium congregari: ubi, dum solemniter de religione convenirentur, eo, qui litteratus videbatur, suscipiente causam omnium, et loquente pro omnibus, Christianos se esse et doctrinam apostolicam venerari, responderunt. Interrogati per ordinem de sacrae fidei articulis, de substantia quidem superni Medici recta, de ejus vero remediis, quibus humanae infirmitati mederi dignatur, id est, divinis sacramentis, perversa dixerunt: sacrum Baptisma, Eucharistiam, Conjugium, detestantes; atque unitati catholicae, quam haec divina imbuunt subsidia, ausu nephario derogantes.

Cumque sumtis de Scriptura divinis urgerentur testimoniis, se quidem, ut instituti erant, credere, de fide vero sua disputare nolle, responderunt. Moniti, ut poenitentiam agerent et corpori Ecclesiae unirentur, omnem consilii salubritatem spreverunt. Minas quoque, ut vel metu resipiscerent, deriserunt; verbo illo dominico abutentes: Beati, qui persecutionem patiuntur propter justitiam; quoniam ipsorum est regnum coelorum.

Tunc Episcopi, ne virus haereticum latius serperet praecaventes, eosdem, publice pronunciatos haereticos, corporali disciplinae subdendos catholico Principi tradiderunt. Qui praecepit, haereticae infamiae characterem frontibus eorum inuri, et, spectante populo, virgis coercitos urbe expelli: districte prohibens, ne quis, eos vel hospitio recipere vel aliquo solatio convovere, praesumeret.

Dicta sententia, ad poenam justissimam ducebantur gaudentes, non lentis passibus; praeeunte magistro eorum, et cantante: Beati eritis, cum vos oderint homines. In tanturn, deceptis a se, mentibus seductorius abutebatur spiritus.

Illa quidem muliercula, quam in Anglia seduxerant, metu supplicii discedens ab eis, errorem confessa, reconciliationem meruit.

Porto, detestandum illud collegium, cauteriatis frontibus, justae severitati subjacuit: eo, qui primatum gerebat in eis, ob insigne magisterii, inustionis geminae, id est in fronte et circa mentum, dedecus sustinente. Scissisque cinculo tenus vestibus, publice caesi, et flagris resonantibus urbe ejecti, algoris intolerantia (hiems quippe erat), nemine vel exiguum misericordiae impendente, misere interierunt.

Hujus severitatis plus rigor non peste illa, quae jam irrepserat Angliae regnum, purgavit: verum etiam, ne ulterius irreperet, incusso haereticis terrore, praecavit. Guliel. Neubrig. Rer. Anglicar. lib. 2. c. 13. p. 390, 391.

In this last sentence, the word solum, I suspect, ought to be inserted between the words non and peste: but I have not ventured to make any alteration in the text.

It might seem, that Henry afterward repented of his barbarity to these poor unoffending strangers: for, at a subsequent period, though the Publicans abounded in his French Dominions of Guienne and its dependencies, he would not resort to the extreme punishment of burning. To the memory of this great prince it is only an act of justice to say, that the language of Roger Hoveden strongly expresses his abhorrence of the practice, which in other parts of France then prevailed very extensively.

Tempus vero, in quo haec visio coutingerat, erat tunc, quando Publicani comburebantur in pluribus locis per regnum Franciae: quod rex nullo modo fieri permisit in terra sua, licet ibi essent perplurimi.

Roger Hoveden Annal. par poster. in A. D. 1182. fol. 352. 3 Avoir en horreur l’Eucharistie, aussi bien que le Bapteme et le Mariage: trois caracteres visibles du Manicheisme. Boss. Hist. des Variat. livr. 11 Section 43. 4 Bossuet’s translation runs as follows.

On fit entrer ces heretiques dans le Concile assemble a Oxford. Girard, qui etoit le seul qui sut quelque chose, repondit bien sur la substance du Medecin Celeste: mais, quand’on vint aux remedes qu’il nous a laisses, ils en parlerent tres-mal, ayant en horreur le Bapteme, l’Eucharistie, et le Mariage, et meprisant l’unite catholique. Boss. Hist. des Variat. livr. 11:43.

I subjoin, for the convenience of the reader’s comparison, the original of William of Newbury, in immediate juxta-position.

Interrogati per ordinem de sacrae fidei articuls, de substantia quidem Superni Medici recta, de ejus vero remediis, quibus humanae infirmitati mederi dignatur, id est, divinis sacramentis, perversa dixerunt: sacrum Baptisma, Eucharistiam, Conjugium, detestantes; atque unitati catholicae, quam haec divina imbuunt subsidia, ausu nephario derogantes.

The original and the translation convey two quite different ideas. 5 Ivodii, quod Trevericae Dioecesis appenditium est, fuerunt co tempore haeretici, qui substantiam panis et vini, quae in altari per sacerdotes benedicitur, in corpus Christi et sanguinem veraciter transmutari negabant; nec Baptismi sacramentum parvulis ad salvationem proficere, dicebant: et alia perplura profitebantur erronea. Hist. Trevir. in Dacher. Spicil. vol. 2. p. 221.

Among these sundry other matters deemed erroneous, we may doubtless rank A denial that Marriage is a sacrament. 6 In the Auctarium Aguicinctinum, edited by Miraeus, there is it curious account of the examination of four heretics at Arras in the year 1183: that is to say, twenty-three years after the examination of the German Publicans at Oxford. The Bishop of Arras was unluckily laid up with the palsy: but his place was supplied by the Archbishop of Rheims, 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 confession, most unclean heretics. Like Bernard’s friends in Gascony, they would call themselves by the name of no heresiarch. Hence the Archbishop and the Count were fairly 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, decided the point by calling them Paterines: but, still the two judges had to learn what doctrines the Paterines avowed. They settled the matter, however, very satisfactorily, by determining: that, let them be what they might, they stood self-convicted of being heretics specially distinguished for their uncleanness. Accordingly, the culprits were sentenced to the flames: and, as, under such circumstances, they could no longer have any occasion for their worldly substance, the Priest and the Count amicably agreed to divide the spoil. This, I suppose, is another distinct proof of the undoubted Manicheism of the Albigenses.

Quatuor haeretici, in Atrebatensi civitate deprehensi, a Frumaldo, ejusdem civitatis Episcopo, in carcere sunt reclusi: quorum unus dicebatur Adam, litteratus; alter, Radulphus, eloquentissimus laicus.

Sequentium nomina nescimus. Horum judicium Episcopus, jam paralysi laborans, Archiepiscopo reservavit. Transactis diebus Nativitatis Dominiae, Wilhelmus Remensis Archiepiscopus, et Comes Flandriae Philippus, in civitate Atrebatensi, de secretis suis locuturi, conveniunt. Ibi multarum haeresium fraudes, per quandam mulierem, in terra Comitis sunt detectre. Isti haeretici nullius haeresiarchae muniuntur praesidio. Quidam dicunt illos Manichmaeos: alii, Cataphrygas: nonnulli, vero, Arianos. Alexander autem Papa vocat eos Paterinos. Sed, quicquid sint, oris proprii confessione convicti sunt haeretici immundissimi. Multi sunt, in praesentia Archiepiscopi et Comitis, accusati: nobiles, ignobiles, clerici, milites, rustici, virgines, viduae, uxores. Tunc decretalis sententia ab Archiepiscopo et Comite praefixa est: ut, deprehensi, incendio traderenter; substantiae vero eorum Sacerdoti et Principi resignarentur. Auctar. Aquicinct. in A. D. 1183, p. 236.

Alexander himself, however, saving his presence, was but a blind guide to the Knight and the Prelate: for, infallible as he was, he did not know very well what to call them; and, as for their doctrinal errors, 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 system of exclusive dealing and attacked without loss of time at the point of the sword. This precious document issued from the third Lateran Council in the year 1179: so that it appeared just in time to enlighten the judges of heretical pravity at Arras in the year 1183.

Sicut ait beatus Leo, Licet ecclesiastica disciplina, sacerdotali contenta judicio, cruentas effugiat ultiones: Catholicorum tamen Principum constitutionibus adjuvatur; ut saepe quaerant homines salutare remedium, dum corporale super se metuerint evenire supplicium.

Eapropter, quia in Wasconia, Albigesio et aliis locis, ita haereticorum, quos alii Cataros, alii Publicanos, alii Paterinos, alii aliis nominibus, vocant, invaluit damnata perversitas, ut jam non in occulto, sicut alibi, nequitiam suam exerceant; sed errorem suum publice manifestent, et ad concensum suum simplices attrahant et infirmos: eos et defensores eorum et receptores anathemati decernimus subjacere; et sub anathemate prohibemus, ne quis ipsos in domo vel in terra sua tenere vel fovere vel negotiationem cum eis exercere praesumat. — Illis autem cunctisque fidelibus in remissionem injungimus omnium peccatorum, ut tantis cladibus se viriliter opponant, et contra eos armis tueantur populum christianum. Confiscentur quoque bona eorum: et liberum sit principibus hujusmodi pestilentes homines subjicere servituti. Concil.

Later. III. can. 10. in Roger Hoveden. Annal. par. post. in A. D. 1179, fol. 334.

When the Archbishop and the Count appropriated the substance of the heretics at Arras, they acted, we see, quite correctly.

CHAPTER - 1 Un historien du temps, Roger Hoveden, recite au long ce Concile: et donne un fidele abrege des acres plus amples qu’on a recouvres depuis.

Voici, comme il commence son recit. Il y avoit dans la province de Tolouse des heretiques qui se faisoient appeler Les Bons Hommes, maintenus par le soldats de Lombes. Ceux la disoient, qu’ils ne recevoient, ni la loi de Moise, ni les prophetes, ni les psaumes, ni l’ancient Testament, ni les docteurs du nouveau; a la reserve des Evangiles, des Epitres de saint Paul, des sept Epitres Canoniques, des Acres, et de l’Apocalypse. C’en est assez, sans parler davantage du reste, pour faire rougir nos Protestans des erreurs de leurs ancetres.

Boss. Hist. des Variat. livr. 11 Section 38. 2 Erant itaque in provincia Tolosana quidam haeretici, qui se appellari faciebant Bonos Homines, quos manu tenebant milites de Lumbertio; proponentes, et docentes populum, contra Fidem Christianam: dicentes etiam, quod non recipiebant Legem Moisi, neque Prophetas, neque Psalmos, neque Vetus Testamentum, neque Doctores Novi Testamenti; nisi solummodo 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 sumebant, et si magis vel melius consecrabatur per bonum, quam per malum; et de matrimonio, si poterant salvari, si carnaliter jungebantur vir et mulier: responderunt, quod, de fide sua et de baptismo parvulorum, non dicerent; neque dicere cogebantur. De corpore et sanguine Domini dicebant: quod, qui digne sumebat, salvabatur; et, qui indigne, adquirebat sibi damnationem. De matrimonio autem 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 in Epistola sua. Dixerunt etiam: quod Paulus praedicebat, quod essent ordinandi in Ecclesia Episcopi et Presbyteri; et, si tales non ordinabantur quales praecipiebat, non essent Episcopi nec Presbyteri, sed lupi rapaces, hypocritae, et seductores, amantes salutationes in foro, primas cathedras, et primos accubitus in coenis, volentes vocari Rabbi, contra praeceptum Christi, ferentes albas et candidas vestes, gestantes in digitis aureos annulos et gemmatos, quos non prancepit Magister eorum. Et, idcirco, quia tales Episcopi et Presbyteri erant quales fuerunt presbyteri qui tradiderunt Jesum, non debebant illis obedire, quia mali erant.

Auditis, itaque, utrinque allegationibus coram Girardo Albiensi Episcopo; electis etiam et statutis judicibus ab utraque parte; et consentientibus, et assidentibus praefato Episcopo Girardo Albiensi, et Rogero Castrensi Abbate, et Petro Abbate Ardurellensi, et Abbate de Candilio, et Arnaldo Narbone, in praesentia bonorum virorum, tam Praelatorum et Clericorum quam Laicorum, videlicet, Domini Petri Narbonensis Arehiepiscopi atque aliorum Episcoporum et Abbatum, et Archidiaconorum, necnon et Comitum et Virorum Potentum numero viginti illius provinciae, et fere totius populi Albiae et Lumberci: contra quae praedicti haeretici proponebant, et inductae sunt Novi Testamenti multae autoritates, a Domino Petro Narbonensi Arehiepiscopo, et a Neumacensi Episcopo, et a Petro Ceudracensi Abbate, et Abbate de Fonte Frigido; praefati enim haeretici nolebant recipere judicium, nisi per Novum Testamentum. Roger. Hoveden. Annal. par. post. in A. D. 1176. fol. 317. 3 Roger Hoveden. Annal. fol. 317-319. 4 Non recipiebant Legem Moisi, neque Prophetas, neque Psalmos, neque Vetus Testamentum. Roger. Hoveden. Annal. fol. 317. 5 Confessi sunt etiam isti haeretici, se recipere Moysen et Prophetas et Psalmos, in his tantum testimoniis quae inducuntur a Jesu et Apostolis, et non allis. Non enim dicimus: quod, si instrumentum vel scriptum testimonium in aliqua parte sui creditur, debet totum credi, vel in nulla parte sui recipi. Roger. Hoveden. Annal. fol. 318.

The learned Benedictine, who, in the earlier part of the eighteenth century, published the large History of Languedoc, states the confession of the Albigenses to have been: that They rejected the Law of Moses and the other Books of the Old Testament, and received nothing save the New.

L’Eveque de Lodeve interrogea ensuite les heretiques au nom de l’Eveque d’Albi, qui, comme Diocesan, avoit la principale autorite sur eux: et leur demanda, s’ils recevoient la Loi de Moyse et les autres livres de l’Ancien Testament. Ils repondirent: qu’ils n’admettoient que le Nouveau. Hist. Gener. de Langued. livr. 19 Section 2. vol. 3. p. 3.

I can only say, that, in regard to their confession on this point, I have faithfully given the precise words, in which Roger Hoveden records the statement of it, as made by the acting Bishop himself.

In the narrative of Roger Hoveden, the Bishop, who acted by the 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 favor of the second. This, I suppose, was the opinion of the Benedictine: for he speaks of the acting Prelate, as being Gaucelin Bishop of Lodeve. It is a matter of no great consequence in itself: I have, however, in the text, thought it best to refrain from giving either christian name or episcopal title to the spokesman. 6 Expresse vero declarabant, canonicos se, tam Veteris quam Novi Testamenti, libros recipere. Vignier. Hist. Eccles. in A. D. 1206. See below, book 2 chap. 10 Section 11. 7 Videntes haeretici, se esse convictos atque confusos, converterunt se ad omnem plebem, dicentes: Audite, O boni viri, fidem nostram quam confitemur: nunc confitemur autem propter amorem et gratiam vestram. Respondit Episcopus praedictus: Vos dicitis, quod non propter Deum dicatis, sed propter gratiam populi. Et illi inquiunt:

Nos credimus unum Deum, trinum et unum; Patrem, et Filium, et Spiritum Sanctum.

Et Fillum Dei carnem nostram suscepisse; baptizatum esse in Jordane; jejunasse in deserto; praedicasse salutem nostram; passum, mortuum, atque sepultum; ad inferos descendisse; resurrexisse tertia die; ad coelos ascendisse; Spiritum Paracletum, in die Pentecostes, misisse; venturum, in die judicii, ad judicandum vivos et mortuos; et omnes resurrecturos.

Cognoscimus etiam: quia, quod corde credimus, ore debemus confiteri.

Credimus: quia non salvatur, qui non manducat corpus Christi; et quod corpus Christi non consecratur, nisi in Ecclesia; et non nisi a Sacerdote, sive bono sive malo; nec melius fieri per bonum quam per malum.

Credimus etiam: quod non salvatur quis, nisi qui baptizatur; et parvulos salvari per baptisma.

Credimus etiam: quod vir et mulier salvantur, licet carnaliter misceantur; et poenitentiam debeat unusquisque accipere ore et corde et a Sacerdote, et in Ecclesia baptizari.

Et si quid amplius posset eis ostendi, per Evangelia vel Epistolas, illi crederent et confiterentur. Roger. Hoveden. Annal. fol. 319.

The Benedictine Historian of Languedoc, in his general narrative of this transaction, is far 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. But he, at least, mentions it: and, on the contested articles, namely, the articles wherein they were charged with manicheanising, he distinctly owns, that they spoke soundly, even as Catholics themselves would have spoken.

Les heretiques, se tournant alors vers le peuple: Ecoutez, dirent-ils, gens de bien, notre profession de foi. Ils parlerent ensuite sur les articles contestes, comme les Catholiques. Hist. Gener. de Langued. livr. 19 Section 2. vol. 3. p. 3.

It may be proper to state: that, according to our Benedictine, the Council, before which these Albigenses were examined, was held, not in the year 1176 but in the year 1165, and not at Lombez on the Save in the Toulousain (as Bossuet supposes) but at Lombers which is distant only about two leagues from Albi. Ibid. p. 4. Locality, I think, determines Lombers to have been the place: but, so far as my purpose is concerned, such a variation of time and place is of no consequence.

He further states very justly: that the Albigenses of Lombez or Lombers, whichever town may have been the real seat of the council, were Henricians. That is to say, they professed the same religious principles as Henry and his master Peter de Bruis. Ibid. p. 3, 4. It will be remembered, that the idle and unsubstantiated charge of Manichi, ism was similarly preferred against both of those pious and eminent reformers. See above, book 2. chap. 6. Such a charge more or less served the purpose of the day and the priesthood. If its utter and hopeless falsehood be not completely established by the distinct and unequivocal confession of faith, publicly made by the Albigenses at Lombers, and duly handed down to us by Roger Hoveden, I am at a loss to understand what greater and more precise historical testimony can be required for the establishment of a fact. 8 Subjunxerunt etiam haeretici illi: quod: Episcopus, qui sententiam dederat, haereticus erat, et non ipsi; et quod inimicus eorum erat; et quod lupus rapax erat, et hypocrita, et inimicus Dei; et quod non bene judicaverat. Nec, de fide sua, respondere voluerunt, quia cavebant se ab eo, sicut eis praeceperat Dominus in Evangelio; Attendite a falsis prophetis, qui veniunt ad vos in vestimentis ovium; intrinsecus autem sunt lupi rapaces: et quod ipse erat persecutor eorum fraudulentus; et parati erant ostendere per Evangelia et Epistolas, quod non erat bonus pastor, nec ipse, nec caeteri episcopi vel presbyteri, sed potius mercenarii. Respondit episcopus, dicens: quod sententia in eos de jure erat dictata, et hoc paratus erat probate in curia Domini Alexandri Papae Catholici vel in curia Ludovici Regis Francira vel in curia Raimundi Comitis Tolosani, — quod recte fecerat judicatum, et quod ipsi manifeste essent haeretici, et quod haeresi notati. Roger. Hoveden.

Annal. fol. 319. 9 Denique indixere, ut dicitur, latebras sibi: firmaverunt sibi sermonem nequaquam; Jura, perjura, secretum prodere noli. Enimvero alias, ne tenuiter quidem, jurare ullatenus acquiescunt, propter illud de Evangelio: Non jurate, neque per coelum, neque per terram. Bernard. super Cantic. serm. 65. col. 759, 760.

In spite of Bernard’s prudent ut dicitur, Bossuet, for the good of his Church and with a most magnanimous disregard of his own digestion, swallows bodily, at one brave gulp, the whole of this most ridiculous and most self-contradictory figment. Hist. des Variat. livr. 11 Section 32. The Abbot of Clairvaux, I suppose, had either read or heard of the maxim, which, according to Augustine, was patronized by the Manichean Priscillianists: and thence, without further ceremony, though not without telling us that the whole was pure hearsay, he very liberally, on the grave authority of his talebearers, made a present of it to the conscientiously over-scrupulous religionists of Gascony who would not take an oath even in a court of justice. Meanwhile Bossuet is quite sure, that these men, who, notwithstanding their alleged maxim that a person might allowably either swear or forswear himself at pleasure, would actually suffer death rather than confirm the truth of their confession by an oath: Bossuet is quite sure, that they must have borrowed their philoepiorcian maxim from some lurking remnant of the Priscillianists, who flourished in Spain in the time of Augustine.

Priscillianistae, quos in Hispania Priscillianus instituit, maxime Gnosticorum et Manichaeorum dogmata permixta sectantur. Quamvis, et ex aliis haeresibus, in eas sordes, tanquam in sentinam quandam, horribili confusione confluxerint. Propter occultandas autem contaminationes et turpitudines suas, habent, in suis dogmatibus, et haec verba: Jura, perjura, secretum prodere noli. August. de haeres, ad Quodvultdeum. Oper. vol. 6. p. 12.

The transfer might have been very plausible, no doubt, if the Priscillianists, however inconsistently, had made a conscience of taking an oath, as we know the ancient Albigenses to have done: but Augustine gives no hint, that they entertained any scruples of the sort.

On the contrary, as they allowed both swearing and forswearing in a good cause (some specimens of which by the way, we have recently seen in certain religionists, who would not acknowledge themselves to be disciples of Priscillian): a fortiori, they could not be expected to strain at a mere simple falsehood.

Porro, inter alia dogmata eorum quae subvertenda sunt, etiam hoc est utique: quod dogmatizant, ad occultandam religionem, religiosos debere mentiri in tautum, ut, non solum de aliis rebus ad doctrinam religionis non pertinentibus, sed de ipse quoque religione, mentiendum sit, ne patescat alienis: ut, videlicet, negandus sit Christus, quo possit inter inimicos suos latere Christianus. August. cont. mendac. ad Consent. c. 11. Oper. vol. 4. p. 19.

Had the confessors of Lombers been Priscillianists, as Bossuet either wildly or wickedly supposes, would they have fallen into the snare which was so cunningly laid for them by Bishop Gilbert? Would they not at once have disappointed him and kept their secret, by swearing, according to their alleged maxim, that they believed the truth of their confession? Happily it is so ordered by Providence that malice is not always so sharp-sighted as to avoid inconsistencies in its labor of calumny. 10 Interrogavit etiam eos praedictus Episcopus, si jurarent, se tenere fidem istam, et credere, et siquid amplius deberent confiteri: quia male senserant et praedicaverant ante. Respondentes dixerunt: quod nullo modo jurarent; quia, contra Evangelium et Epistolas, facerent. Roger.

Hoveden. Annal. fol. 319. 11 Videntes, itaque, quod super hoc erant convicti, dixerunt: quod Episcopus Albericus fecerat eis pactum, quod non cogeret eos jurare.

Roger. Hoveden. Annal. fol. 320. Was there ever such a conviction in a court of law, save where law 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 not precisely the synonymn of conviction. 12 Quod et Albiensis Episcopus negavit. Roger. Hoveden. Annal. fol. 320. 13 Hanc sententiam ratam habemus: et istos haereticos esse scimus, et eorum sententiam improbamus. Roger. Hoveden. Annal. fol. 320. 14 Auditis igitur UTRINQUE allegationihus. Roger. Hoveden. Annal. fol. 317.

CHAPTER - 1 Albigensium religionem parum admodum ab ea discrepasse quam hodie profitentur Protestantes, tam ex pluribus fragmentis et monumentis quae antiqua patriae illius lingua de horum temporum historia conscripta sunt, quam ex publica et solenni disputatione inter Apamiensem Episcopum et Magistrum Arnoldum Hot Lombrensem Ministrum habita: cujus Acta integra, ad hunc usque diem, extant, lingua, ad Catalanicum potius quam patrium sive Francium idioma accedente, conscripta. Imo plures mihi pro certo dixerunt, vidisse se ARTICULOS FIDEI IPSORUM, veteribus quibusdam tabulis quae Albii sunt incisos, doctrinae Protestantium usquequaque conformes. Popliner.

Hist. Franc. lib. 38. fol. 245. apud Usser. de Eccles. Success. c. Section 15. 2 Homo quidam fide dignus, e Gallia Novempopulana, mihi affirmavit: legisse se UNAM EX CONFESSIONIBUS EORUM, veteri lingua Gasconica conscriptam, ac Cancellario Hospitalio paulo ante secundas Galliae turbas oblatam; quae cure Valdensium doctrina plane consentiebat, nullo omnino Manicheismi comparente vestigio. Expresse vero declarabant: Canonicos se, tam Veteris quam Novi Testamenti, Libros recipere; omnemque doctrinam rejicere, quae in eis fundamentum non haberet, aut aliquid eis contrarium contineret. Indeque omnes Romanae Ecclesiae ceremonias, traditiones, et ordinationes, repudiabant ac condemnabant: dicentes, eam speluncam esse latronum et meretricem apocalypticam. Vigner. Hist. Eccles. in A. D. 1206. apud Usser. de Eccles. Success. c. 10 Section 15. 3 Anno gratiae 1178, — pervenit ad aures illorum (scil. Petri Cardinalis Apostolicae Sedis Legati et assessorum ejus), quod quidam falsi fratres, Raimundus videlicet, et Bernardus Raimundi, et quidam alii haeresiarchae, transfigurantes se in angelos lucis cum sicut Sathanae, et Christianae Fidei contraria praedicantes, multorum animas falsa praedicatione sua decipiebant et secum traxerant ad inferos. Qui cum invitati fuissent, ut ad praesentiam Cardinalis sociorumque ejus venirent, ut fidem suam confiterentur, responderunt: se ad illorum praesentiam venturos, si eundi et redeundi haberent securitatem. Data itaque eis securitate eundi et redeundi, venerunt coram praedicto Cardinali et Episcopis et Comitibus et Baronibus et Clero et Populo qui aderant: et in medium protulerunt quandam char-tam, in quaFIDEI SUAE ARTICULOS conscripserant. Quam cum prolixius perlegissent, quaedam verba videbantur in ea suspecta existere, et, nisi plenius exponerentur, haeresim quam praedicaverant possent velare. — Itaque, de Articulis Fidei Christianae examinati, responderunt super omnibus Articulis Fidei ita sane et circumspecte, ac si Christianissimi essent.

Quod cum Comes Tolosae, et caeteri qui prius audierant ipsos Christianae Fidei contraria praedicasse, audissent; vehementi admiratione commoti, Christianae Fidei zelo succensi, surrexerunt, et eos plane in caput suum mentitos fuisse manifestius convicerunt: dicentes, se audisse a quibusdam illorum, quod duo Dii existerent, alter bonus et alter malus; bonus, qui invisibilia tantum, et ea quae mutari aut corrumpi non possunt, fecisset; malus, qui coelum, terram, hominem, et alia visibilia, condidisset. Alii autem affirmaverunt: se, in illorum praedicatione, audisse, corpus Christi non confici per ministerium sacerdotis indigni aut aliquibus criminibus irretiti. Alii autem dicebant: se audisse ab eis, in praedicatione sua, virum cum uxore non posse salvari, si alter alteri debitum reddat. Alii autem dicebant: se ab eis audisse baptismum parvulis non prodesse; et alias quamplures contra Deum et Sanctam Ecclesiam atque Catholicam Fidem blasphemias protulisse, quas pro abominabili earum enormitate tacere utilius est quam referre. Haerctici autem illi haze contradicebant, illos falsum dixisse adversus eos testimonium. Dicebant enimPUBLICE, coram predicto Cardinali et Episcopis et universis astantibus; et confitebantur; et firmiter asseruerunt: quod Unus Deus Altissimus omnia visibilia et invisibilia condidisset; et penitus denegabant duo esse Principia. Confessi sunt etiam: quod sacerdos, sive bonus sive malus, justus vel injustus, et talis etiam quem adulterum aut alias criminosum indubitanter esse scirent, corpus et sanguinem Christi posset conficere; et, per ministerium hujusmodi sacerdotis, et virtute divinorum verborum quae a Domino prolata sunt, panis et vinum in corpus et sanguinem Christi vere transubstantiabantur. Asseruerunt quoque: quod parvuli vel adulti, nostro baptismate baptizati, salvantur; et nullus, sine eodem baptismo, potest salvari: omnino inficiantes, se aliud baptisma aut manus impositionem, sicut eis imponebatur, habere.

Affirmaverunt nihilominus: quod vir et mulier, matrimonio copulati, si aliud peccatum non impediat, licet carnaliter alter alteri debitum reddat, propter bonum matrimonii excusati, salvantur. Haec omnia, licet prius dicerentur negasse, juxta sanum intellectum se intelligere asserentes, praedictus Cardinalis et Episcopi praeceperunt, quod ipsi jurassent, se ita corde credere, sicut confitebantur. Ipsi vero, sicut homines tortae mentis et intentionis obliquae, tandem haeresim nolerunt relinquere, ubi, crassum et sopitum intellectum eorum alicujus auctoritatis superficies videbatur juvare, occasione verbi illius, quod Dominus in Evangelio dixisse legitur: Nolite omnino jurare. Quod cum illi, in arcum pravurn conversi et mente perdita indurati, facere recusarent, praedictus Cardinalis et praenominati Episcopi, in conspectu totius populi, eos iterum, accensis candelis, una cum praefato Pictavensi Episcopo et aliis religiosis viris qui cum illis in omnibus astiterunt, excommunicatos denunciaverunt, et ipsos, cum suo auctore Diabolo, condemnaverunt. Roger. Hoveden. Annal. fol. 327, 328. Vide etiam Epist. Petr. Cardin. de S. Chrysog. Ibid. fol. 328, 329.

CHAPTER - 1 I may here remark, that the tales, associated with witchcraft, have evidently been borrowed from the older figments respecting the Albigenses; and they rest, [suppose, upon equal trust-worthiness of evidence. If the Albigenses had their infernal orgies; the witches had their diabolical sabbaths: if Lucifer visited the Albigenses under the form of a cat, which Bossuet’s witnesses assure us was the case; he presented himself, as we all know, to the witches, under the aspect of the very same respectable animal: if the Albigenses worshipped the devil; the witches were not a whir behind them in selling their souls to the prince of darkness and in adoring him as a present and potent deity. In short, the witches were the plagiarized Albigenses of an age not very remote from that, in which, without the least fear of sorcery before our eyes, we ourselves securely expatiate. In the reign of Charles II. when 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 the growing Sadducism of the times: yet, though in the very title of his book, as some other clerks on other topics have also done, he claims a decided victory over the sceptics; still, in despite of his learned and ingenious Sadducismus Triumphatus, witches themselves, with the belief in their existence, have totally vanished out of the !and, and our faith is no longer required to be shown by the strenuous vexing of black cats and the resolute tormenting of old women. I have certainly done my best to send the chatharistic cat of Alanus Magnus and the clerical bestiola of the Actuary of Orleans after the familiar deliciae of the witches: and, if I do not absolutely venture to style my tractate Bossuetismus Triumphatus, I am not without hopes, that in future we may be allowed to doubt, notwithstanding the positive asseveration of Peter of Vaux-Sernay, whether it was an article of faith with the Albigenses, that John the Baptist was one of the larger devils, that Christ and Satan were brothers, and that the good God had two wives, hight Colla and Coliba, by whom he became the happy parent of a numerous and hopeful family. Petr. Vallisarn. Hist. Albig. c. 2. If any curious inquirer wishes to see a caricature of the persecuted Albigenses, let him read the second chapter of the History penned by Peter of Vaux-Sernay.

This same Monk, I may observe in passing, is one of Bossuet’s cherished witnesses, on whose credit we are invited to believe that the Albigenses were rank Manicheans. 2 Gulielmus Paradinus, quasdam se historias vidisse, ait; in quibus Albigenses eorumque Principes eodem modo excusantur: quod hujusmodi, scilicet, vitia et errores afficta illis fuerint et malitiose imposita; nec quicquam illi fecerint eorum quorum falso accusarentur, praeterquam quod vitia et corruptelas Praesulum liberius reprehenderint. Paradin. Annal. Burgund. ad A. D. 1209. lib. 2. p. 247, 248. apud Usser. de Eccles. Success. c. 10 Section 15. 3 Eorum partes secuti sunt Comites Tolosae, Convenarum, Bigerronum, et Carmanii, ipseque Rex Tarraconnensium. Et, quamvis pravis imbuti fuerint opinionibus, non hoc tamen tantum Papae et magnorum Principum odium in eos concitabat, quantum libertas orationis, qua dictorum Principum atque Ecclesiasticorum vitia et mores dissolutos culpare, ipsiusque Papae 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. Rex Augustus, a regni sui Clericis excitatus (qui Albigenses, ob hoc, omnis generis haeresium insimulabant, quod ipsorum vitia insectarentur et assusarent), Innocentium III. Pontifficem rogavit, ut suam hic vellet authoritatem interponere et haereticos ad frugem bonam reducere conaretur. Girard. Histor. Franc. lib. 10. apud Usser. de Eccles. Success. c. 10 Section 15.

The theological abuse, poured upon these Princes by the monastic historiographer of Vaux-Sernay, for resisting, on behalf of their oppressed subjects, what he humorously calls The business of Jesus Christ and The affair of the Faith, is in the highest degree amusing and characteristic. In the same spirit, if the pious Crusaders devoutly burn the Albigenses alive: nothing can be more proper and more humane and more christian. But, if, in reprisal, the Albigenses simply hang,NOT BURN, that unnatural rebel and odious persecutor Count Baldwin:

Peter incontinently breaks forth; O unheard-of cruelty! O deed worse than that of the first murderer Cain! Petr. Vallisarnens. Hist. Albig. c. 133. Cain is brought in to enliven the Monk’s exclamations: because, without a shadow of evidence even by his own showing, the death of the traitor Baldwin is charged by him upon the pretended orders of his brother Count Raymond.

CHAPTER - 1 Allix’s Remarks on the Anc. Church of the Albig. chap. 1-10. p. 1-109, 2 Allix on the Albig. chap. 11. p. 109. 3 Among the names which have 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 or Carbeas or Chrysocheris, though all these names were famous among the Paulicians of Asia. 4 Reiner. de haeret, c. 6. p. 304. Their Priests were divided into senior and junior. 5 Lector, dicas secure, quod in toto mundo non sunt Cathari utriusque sexus quatuor millia; sed Credentes, innumeri. Et dicta computatio pluries facta est inter eos. Reiner. de haeret. c. 6. p. 304. 6 Haec Tolosa, tota dolosa, a prima sui fundatione, sicut asseritur, raro vel unquam expers hujus pestis vel pestilentiae detestabilis hujus haereticae pravitatis, a patribus in filios successive veneno superstitiosae infidelitatis diffuso. Petr. Vallisarn. Hist. Albig. c. 1. In another place, the Monk breaks out: O Toulouse, mother of heretics!

O tabernacle of robbers. Ibid. c. 108.

Exactly to the same purpose, somewhat earlier, or in the year 1178, speaks Henry of Clairvaux. From his statement, indeed, it might appear, that the very Clergy, as well as the Laity, determinately worshipped God in the way which the Abbot called Heresy.

Audite coeli, quod plangimus: scias terra gemitum cordis nostri.

Doleant vices Christi catholici christiani! et, ad detrimenta fidei, fidelis populus ingemiscat. Quique terrigenae et filii hominum humanae salutis damna deplorent: et generalis vitae nostrae subversio ab omnibus viventibus generaliter lugeatur. Stat contra phalangas Israel novus nostri temporis Philistaeus, haereticorum ordo, exercitus perversorum, qui agminibus Dei viventis irreverenter exprobrat, et Deum majestatis in prima praesumptione blasphemat. Quid dubitas, O David? Quid trepidas, ira fidelis? Sume tibi fundam et lapidem. Percuriatur protinus in fronte blasphemus: et caput nequam, quod impudentur erigitur, suo tuis manibus mucrone tollatur. — Surgite, inquam, surgite, viri patres, duces gentium, principes populorum, abigite feras pessimas, quas vidimus, quas monstramus: vel saltem vulpes parvulas effugare et capere quidem melius. Sed, ad hoc, quis idoneus? Non habent certos aditus: semitas ambulant circulares: et, in quodam fraudium suarum labyrintho, monstra saevissima reconduntur. Tanquam damula, de manu diffugiunt: et, instar colubri tortuosi, quo eo plus astrinxeris, facilius elabuntur. — Contigit nuper, ad imperium Domini Papae, et hortatu piissimorum Principum Ludovici Francorum et Henrici Anglorum Regum, dominum Petrum Apostolicae Sedis Legatum, virosque venerabiles Pictavensem et Bathonensem Episcopos, nosque in comitatu eorum, urbem adire Tolosam: quae, sicut erat civitas maximae multidudinis, ita etiam dicebatur esse mater haeresis et caput erroris. Perreximus ergo ad illam: ut sciremus, si, juxta clamorem qui ascendit, esset dolor ejus. Et, ecce, inventa est plaga ejus magna nimis: ita ut, a planta pedis usque ad verticem capitis, vix esset in eo sanitas.

Vere enim tertia pars nobis nunciata non fuerat de omnibus abominationibus suis malis, quas civitas illa nobilis, in incredulitatis suae gremio, confovebat. Locum in ea sibi abominatio desolationis invenerat: et propheticorum similitudo reptilium in latibulis ejus domicilium obtinebat. Ibi haeretici principabantur in populo, dominabantur in Clero: eo Quod populus, sic sacerdos; et, in interitum gregis, ipsa configurabatur vita pastoris. Loquebantur heretici: et homnes admirabantur. Loquebatur catholicus: et dicebant, Quis est hic? in stuporem et miraculum deducentes, si esset aliquis inter eos, qui de verbo fidei auderet aliquid vel mutire. In tantum praevaluerat pestis in terra, quod illi sibi non solum sacerdotes et pontifices fecerant, sed etiam evangelistas habebant, qui corrupta et cancellata evangelica veritate nova illis evangelia cuderent, et de corde suo nequam recentia dogmata seducto populo proedicarent. Epist. Henric. Abbat. Clarevall. in Roger. Hoveden. Annal. A. D. 1178, par. post. fol. 329, 330.

The various particulars, set forth in this most graphical exhibition both of the temper of popery and of the state of religion in and round Toulouse, will readily account for the circumstance, noted, with so much wrath, by Peter of Vaux-Sernay. He tells us, that the greater part of the Barons and Nobles loved and protected the heretics, in opposition to the Catholic Church, far more ardently than was consistent with their duty. Petr. Vallisarnens. Hist. Albig. c. 1. 7 Ecce quidam latibulosi homines, perversi et perversores, qui per multa tempora latuerunt et occulte fidem christianam in multis stultae simplicitatis hominibus corruperunt, ita per omnes terras multiplicati sunt, ut grande periculum patiatur Ecclesia Dei a veneno pessimo, quod undique adversus eam effundunt: nam sermo eorum serpit ut cancer, et quasi lepra volatilis 1onge lateque discurrit, pretiosa membra Christi contaminans. Hos nostra Germania, Catharos; Flandria, Piphles Gallia, Texerant ab usu texendi; appellat. Sicut de eis praedixit Dominus, dicunt In penetralibus esse Christum: quid, veram fidem Christi et verum cultum Christi non alibi esse, dicunt, nisi in conventiculis suis, quae habent in cellariis et in textrinis et in hujusmodi subterraneis domibus. Apostolorum vitam agere se dicunt: sed contrarii sunt fidei sanctae et sanae doctrinae, quae a sanctis Apostolis et ab ipso Domino Salvatore nostro tradita sunt. Eckbert. adv. Cathar. serm. 1. in Biblioth. Patr. vol. 12. p. 898.

In the estimation of the Romanists, these widely-spreading religionists perverted sound doctrine, because, among other matters, as Eckbert testifies, they rejected prayers and masses for the dead, denied the existence of a purgatory, and disbelieved the doctrine of Transubstantiation. Ibid. serm. 9. p. 913. serm. 11. p. 922. Eckbert flourished A. D. 1160.

Bernard, as we have seen, speaks very contemptuously of the textores and textrices; who contrived, nevertheless, to seduce numbers even of the Clergy from their allegiance to their sovereign lord the Pope.

Bernard. super Cantic. serm. 65. col. 761. 8 Primis temporibus, quibus haeresis Catharorum in Lombardia multiplicari coepit, primum habuerunt Episcopum quendam Marcum nomine; sub cujus regimine Lombardi et Tusci et Machiani regebantur. Iste Marcus ordinem suum habebat de Bulgaria. Veniens, autem, quidam Papa, Nicetas nomine, a Constantinopoli in Lombardiam, coepit accusare ordinem Bulgariae quem Marcus habebat. Unde Marcus Episcopus, haesitare incipiens, relicto ordine Bulgariae, suscepit ab illo Papa Niceta ordinem Druguriae cum suis complicibus, et tenuit per multos annos. Vet. Auct. in Vignier. Hist. Eccles. in A. D. 1023. apud Usser. de Eccles. Success. c. 8 Section 18.

The Druguria of these early writers seems probably to be Hungary.

Hence one branch of the Community bore the local name of Runcarii: which I take to be a corruption of Hungarii. See Reiner. de haeret, c. 4. p. 299. c. 6. p. 301.

Some further divisions produced another metropolitanship in Slavonia: so that the European Paulicians, at an early period, had three of those superior Episcopates.

Ex his porro aliae divisiones ortae, processu temporis, in tres sectas desierunt: quarum unaquaeque suum seorsim habebat Episcopum.

Prima suum ordinem e Bulgaria, secunda e Druguria, tertia ex Slavonia, accepit. Usser. de Eccles. Success. c. 8 Section 18.

The Albigenses of Aquitaine, however, it might appear, preferred the more ancient and original connection with Bulgaria.

Aliquam quoque inter Bulgaros et Albigenses intercessisse necessitudinam, ex eo colligitur: quod Albigenses papam, in finibus Bulgarorum, Croatiae, et Dalmatiae, sibi constituisse, ex epistola Conradi Portuensis Episcopi, tradat in Majore Historia, ad A. D. 1223, Matthaeus Parisius: et Albigenses Galliae, in Roberti Altissiodorensis et Gulielmi Nangiaci Chronologia, ad A. D. 1207, appellentur Bulgari.

Ibid. 19. See also Hist. Gener. de Langued. livr. 23:74.

The connection, I suppose, was broken, when the Albigenses were well nigh exterminated in the Crusade of Simon de Montfort. What finally became of the Paulicians of Bulgaria and Hungary and Slavonia, I know not. Apparently, they gradually wasted away, and became extinct. According to Eneas Sylvius, some of them still existed in the fifteenth century. 9 For the extraordinary moral influence, which the Albigenses exercised over the minds both of the Count of Toulouse and of the Count of Foix, see Petr. Vallisarnens. Hist. Albig. c. 6, 7. 10 Introd. to Translat. of Sismondi’s Hist. of the Crusades against the Albig. p. 18.

BOOK CHAPTER - 1 De sectis antiquorum haereticorum nota: quod sectae haereticorum fuerunt plures quam septuaginta; quae omnes, per Dei gratiam, deletae sunt, praeter sectas Manichaeorum, Arianorum, Runcariorum, et Leonistarum, quae Alemanniam infecerunt. Inter omnes has sectas, quae adhuc sunt vel fuerunt, non est perniciosior Ecclesiae, quam Leonistarum: et hoc, tribus de causis. Prima est; Quia est diuturnior: aliqui enim dicunt, quod duraverit a tempore Sylvestri; aliqui, a tempore Apostolorum. Secunda; Quia est generalior: fere enim nulla est terra, in qua haec secta non sit. Tertia; Quia, cum omnes aliae sectae; immanitate blasphemiarum in Deum, audientibus horrorem inducant, haec, scilicet Leonistarum, magnam habet speciem pietatis; eo quod, coram hominibus, juste vivant, et bene omnia de Deo credant et omnes articulos qui in Symbolo continentur: solummodo Romanam Ecclesiam blasphemant et Clerum; cui multitudo Laicorum facilis est ad credendum. Reiner. de haeret. c. 4. in Biblioth. Patr. vol. 13. p. 299.

Respecting the Church of the comparatively modern French Leonists or Poor Men of Lyons, which was founded in the twelfth century by Peter the Valdes, and which is fully described by Reinerius in the fifth or immediately following chapter of his Tractate, see below, book in. chap. 8. 11. and book 3. chap. 12. Section 1. 2.

Speaking of these French Valdenses, whose founder is recorded to have been an Italian Valdensis, and who thus through him stand connected as an offshoot with the remotely ancient Vallensic or Leonistic Church of Piedmont, Moneta, the contemporary of Reinerius, says, no doubt, with much truth:

Non multum temporis est quod esse coeperunt; quoniam, sicut patet, a Valdesio cive Lugdunensi exordium acceperunt: qui hanc viam incepit, non plures sunt quam octoginta anni. Monet. adv. Cathar. et Valdens. lib. 5. c. 1. Section 4. p. 402.

A good deal of confusion has sometimes arisen from want of attention to the accurate distinction which Reinerius makes between the ANCIENT Leonists and the MODERN Leonists. 2 Dicentes (scil. Valdenses): Sectam eorum durasse a temporibus Sylvestri Papae. Pilich. cont. Valdens. c. 1. in Biblioth. Patr. vol. 13. p. 312.

I ascribe Pilichdorf to the thirteenth century, on the authority of the Editors of the Cologne Bibliotheca Patrum. See the Catalogue prefixed to Bibl. Patr. Colon. vol. 13. Bossuet, on what authority I know not, places him a century later. See Hist. des Variat. livr. 11 Section 95. So far as concerns my own use of this author here and elsewhere, it is a matter of no great consequence, whether he belonged to the one century or to the other. 3 Nonnulli haeresis hujus assertores, ad adblandiendum apud vulgares et historiarum ignaros favorem, hanc eorum Sectam, Constantini Maximi temporibus, a Leone quodam religiosissimo initium sumpsisse fabulantur: qui, execrata Sylvestri Romanre Urbis tunc Pontificis avaritia et Constantini ipsius immoderata largitione, paupertatem in fidei simplicitate sequi maluit, quam, cum Sylvestro, pingui opulentoque sacerdotio contaminari. Cui cum omnes, qui de Christiana Religione recte sentiebant, adhaesissent, sub Apostolorum regula viventes, hanc per manus ad posteros verae religionis 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 favor 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 the Arians who sprang up in the fourth century, and the Manicheans who succeeded the Gnostics in the third century. This, at all events, he could not have done from a wish to promote the respectability and interest of the Valdenses. Therefore we may safely conclude, that his statement was extorted from him simply by the irresistible force of overwhelming evidence. 4 De sectis modernorum haereticorum, nota, quod secta Pauperum de Lugduno, qui etiam Leonistae dicuntur, tali modo orta est. Reiner de haeret. c. 5. p. 300. He then sets forth their foundation by Peter. 5 D’Anville’s Anc. Geog. vol. 1. p. 74. 6 Nimirum respondet generi suo; ut qui de latronum et convenarum natus est semine: quos Cneius Pompeius, edomita Hispania, et ad triumpham redire festinans, de Pyrenaei jugis deposuit, et in unum oppidum congregavit. Unde et Convenarum urbs nomen accepit. Hieron. adv.

Vigilant. c. 2. Oper. vol. 2. p. 159.

Quia ad radices Pyrenaei habitas, vicinusque es Iberiae. Ibid. p. 159. 7 Frustra autem est Plessaeus, cum fictitiae Valdensium antiquitati advocatum adsciscit Reinerium. Non, enim, ex sua, sed ex aliorum sententia, cap. 4, ait: sectam Valdensium, a temporibus S. Sylvestri Papae vel etiam ipsorum Apostolorum, durasse. Gretser. Prolegom. in Scriptor. cont. sect. Valdens. Bibl. Patr. vol. 13. p. 296.

It may be doubted, whether Du Plessay was quite so much frustra, as Gretser alleges. 8 Claude Scyssel of Turin, who mentions (as we have seen) that the old tradition respecting Leo still existed in Piedmont at the beginning of the sixteenth century, speaks, with curious inconsistency, respecting the origination of the Vallensic Church and Creed.

He would have us believe, that, about three centuries and a half before the time when he wrote, Peter Valdo 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 yesterday, as being all the while a most ancient heresy.

Valdensis quippe, ut aiunt, appellabatur; et Lugdunensis urbis municeps fuit: unde et prima hujus pestis contagio pullulavit. Claud.

Scyssel. adv. Valdens. fol. 5. In spem maximam eliminendae haeresis hujus antiquissimae erecti proculdubio sumus. Ibid. fol. 3.

His ascription of it to Valdo clearly enough sprang from the circumstance of many of the French Valdenses having taken permanent refuge from persecution among their elder brethren of the Cottian Alps; an emigration, which he places about two hundred years before his own time: but nothing can be more amusing than his demonstration, that no primeval individual named Leo, could have been concerned with this most ancient heresy. Even those retired anchorites, he remarks, Antony and Hilary, are duly mentioned by ecclesiastical writers: but, respecting Leo, all such writers are silent. Ibid. fol. 2, 6.

We shall perhaps find, in the sequel, that the true Leo or Leonist of Valdensic Tradition is noticed most abundantly and 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 Scyssel detects, both the apocalyptic harlot, and the ten horns of the seven-headed wild beast.

Synagogam Sathanm, Ecclesiam Malignanturn, et Scottum vilissimum Meretricemque omni turpitudine infamem, vel Bestiam ascendentem de mari habentem capita septem et cornua decem. Ibid. fol. 39. Truly, the Archbishop well repays the heretics in their own current coin.

Scyssel charges the Valdenses with dissembling or concealing their doctrine: and professes to think, that, on their principles, Peter’s denial of the Lord might be excused. But his own statement of their language evidently shows their sole offense to have been, that they were not forward in disputing with those whose minds they perceived to be impenetrably hardened against conviction.

Hi perditi hypocritae illam Salvatoris sententiam, in suam excusationem, adducunt; Non est bonum sanctum dare canibus, neque sunt inter porcos seminandae margaritae: quasi vero nos incapaces sumus veritatis evangelical. Ibid. fol. 47.

In his time, it seems, they claimed to themselves exclusively the title of The Catholic Church: thus asserting their true prophetic character of the Communion, in which the two promises of Christ should be fulfilled.

Se solos evangelicam atque apostolicam doctrinam servare profitentur: ob eamque maxime causam, Ecclesiae Catholicae nomen, intoleranda impudentia, sibi usurpant. Ibid. fol. 46.

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 peace was made at Rome for such a slip, I know not.

Petro dixit: Tu es Petrus; et super hanc Petram aedificabo Ecclesiam meam, Non super ipsum Petrum aedificaturum se Ecclesiam intellexit; sed super seipsum, qui est vera Petra, sicut dicit Paulus. Petra, inquit, erat Christus: et Lapis angularis, et Petra scandali, sicut dicit Petrus.

Ibid. fol. 25.

Dungal gives the same interpretation in the ninth century. Dung. adv.

Claud. Taurin. in Bibl. Parr. vol. 9. par. post. p. 891. 9 M. Raynouard, a la page 137 de ses Monumens de la Langue Romane (Choix des poesies originales des troubadours, tom. 2.), appelle le vaudois Une Langue Romane primitive, idiome intermdiaire entre la decomposition de la langue des Romains et l’etablissement d’une nouveau systeme grammatical: circonstance, qui atteste la haute antiquite de cet idiome dans le pays que ce peuple habitait. Et, dans le lettre de lui, parlant de la Nobla Leytcon, qui montre pourtant la date assez ancienne de l’an 1100, et qui par cela meme doit etre anterieure a la plupart des ecrits des troubadours, il s’exprime de la sorte: Le langage m’en parait etre d’une epoque deja eloignee de sa formation: ou y remarque la suppression de quelques consonnes finales; ce, qui annonce que les mots de la langue parlee depuis long-temps, avaient deja perdu quelque chose de leurs desinences primitives. Muston. Hist. des Vaudois, livr. 2. note 3. vol. 1. p. 361, 362. 10 Arnold’s Preface to Glorious Recov. p. 13, 14, translated and edited by Acland. 11 Boyer. Abrege de l’Hist. des Vaudois. p. 23. 12 Leger. Hist. des Vaud. par. 1. p. 163. 13 Muston Hist. des Vaud. livr. 2. note 101. Scultet. Annal. Evangel.

Renovat. in A. D. 1530. p. 163. Leger. Hist. des Vaud. par. 1. p. 164.

Gilly’s Waldens. Research. p. 40.

CHAPTER - 1 This evidence, however, in brief, has twice appeared in print. I communicated it to Dr. Gilly who introduced it into the second edition of his Memoir of Felix Neff: and Dr. Gilly communicated it to Dr.

Muston, who, on the strength of his authority, has similarly introduced it into his recently published History of the Vaudois. See that Work, book 2. note 15. vol. 1. p. 178. 2 Hieron. adv. Vigilant. c. 2. Oper. vol. 2. p. 159. Epist. 75. vol. 2. p. 251, 252. 3 Hieron. adv. Vigilant. ad Ripar. Oper. vol. 2. p. 157. Hieron. adv.

Vigilant. cap. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6. Oper. vol. 2. p.158-161. 4 Hieron. Epist. 53. Hieron. adv. Vigilant. Oper. vol. 2. p. 157-161. 5 Ego vidi hoc aliquando portentum: et, testimoniis Scripturarum, quasi vinculis Hippocratis, volui ligare furiosum. Sed abiit; excessit; evasit; erupit: et, inter Hadriae fluctus Cottiique Regis Alpes, in nos declamando clamavit. Hieron. Epist. 53. Oper. vol. 2. p. 158. 6 The wisdom of God works not miraculously, when the natural operation of second causes may serve as the substratum of his high purposes.

Seclusion within a mountainous district has a physical tendency to preclude change and innovation. Opinions and practices are handed down from father to son: and, until an intercourse is opened with the lower world at their feet, one generation is but the faithful reflection of another. Hence, in the course of God’s providence, the alpine mountains and valleys were selected as the retreat, where, unchanged from the first ages, pure Christianity was to be preserved.

When persons, imitatively nurtured in these solitudes, first emerge into an ever-fluctuating world, their feelings are not unlike those of the fabled sleepers of Ephesus. Retiring, like the ancestors of the Vaudois, from the persecution of Decius, they concealed themselves in a spacious cavern. Here they were overpowered by a sleep of one hundred and eighty-seven years. When they emerged, they themselves remained consciously the same, faithfully reflecting the feelings and habits and opinions of a period long since passed away: but, meanwhile, what a change in the world! Christianity, trampled upon and persecuted, was now triumphant. Every thing was new: every thing was strange. Their tale of the Primitive Church was recited: their benediction was bestowed: and, their appointed task being accomplished, they forthwith expired. The application of the tale is easily made: and the Cottian Alps are not the only land of mountains, in which it has been practically exemplified.

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, was the Emperor Leo Isauricus. In his unsophisticated native mountains, the practice had as yet obtained no footing: and Leo, at Constantinople (surely the name is destined to be fatal to Popery), was shocked and surprised to find a system of idolatry, so utterly unlike that primitive and simple form of Christianity to which he and his fathers before him had been accustomed.

Such were the natural feelings of this iconoclastic Sovereign. Now, unless I altogether mistake in what, subordinately to God’s providential dispensation, may be called the philosophy of the matter, the unchanging character of the secluded Alpine Mountaineers is accurately exhibited in the similarly unchanging character of the Mountaineers of Isauria. The inhabitants of the cities and of the richer provinces of the Roman Empire gradually apostatized from the sincerity of the Gospel: but the very character of their country was, in the hand of God, the secondary cause which led the sequestered Vallenses to persevere 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, they marveled to find: that the Gospel, which they had carried away with them from pagan persecution, had become rank heresy; and that they had only to bear their testimony to the doctrines and practices of the Primitive Church, and then, like the seven resuscitated sleepers of Asia, meekly bow down their heads in death. 7 Miror, sanctum episcopum, in cujus parochia esse presbyter dicitur, acquiescere furori ejus, et non virga apostolica virgaque ferrea confringere vas inutile, et tradere in interitum carnis ut spiritus salvus fiat. Hieron. Epist. 53. Oper. vol. 2. p. 158. 8 Auctores sunt hujus dictatiunculae meae sancti presbyteri Riparius et Desiderius, qui parochias suas vicinia istius scribunt esse maculatas: miseruntque libros per fratrem Sisinnium, quos inter crapulam stertens evomuit: et asserunt, repertos esse nonnullos, qui, faventes vitiis suis, illius blasphemiis acquiescant. Hieron. adv. Vigilant. c. 2. Oper. vol. 2. p. 159. Alas, poor Vigilantius, that his whole heresy should have been produced by an unlucky fit of indigestion!

Incurset Galliarum Ecclesias, portetque nequaquam vexillum Christi, sed insigne diaboli. Hieron. adv. Vigilant. c. 2. Oper. vol. 2. p. 159. 9 Proh nefas! episcopos sui sceleris dicitur habere consortes: si tamen episcopi nominandi sunt, qui non ordinant diaconos, nisi prius uxores duxerint. Hieron. adv. Vigil. c. 1. Oper. vol. 2. p. 158. 10 Male ergo facit Romanus Episcopus, qui super mortuorum hominum, Petri et Pauli, secundum nos ossa veneranda, secun dum te vilem pulvisculum, offert Domino sacrificia, et tumulos eorum Christi arbitratur altaria: et non solum unius urbis, sed totius orbis, errant episcopi, qui, cauponem Vigilantium contemneutes, ingrediuntur basilicas mortuorum? Hieron. adv. Vigil. c. 3. Oper. vol. 2. p. 160.

CHAPTER - 1 For the dates of the establishment of the ten gothic kingdoms upon the platform of the Western Roman Empire, see my Sacred Calendar of Prophecy, book in. chap. 2. Section 4. 1. (4.) 2 The true import and etymology of this title was still, at the beginning of the thirteenth century, preserved by the pious individuals who bore it: though, spiritualizing, on account of persecution, their merely descriptively local name, they professed, as we learn from Everhard de Bethune, to call themselves Vallenses, because they abode upon earth in a Valley of tears.

Vallenses se appellant, eo quod in Valle lachrymarum maneant.

Eberhard. Bath. Antihaer. c. 25.

In thus mysticizing their usual designation, they alluded, I suppose, to that of the Psalmist in the familiar translation of the Latin Vulgate.

Beatus vir, cujus est auxilium abs te: ascensiones in corde suo disposuit, in valle lachrymarum, in loco quem posuit, Psalm 84:5,6. 3 Valdenses dicunt: quod socius Sylvestri, tempore Constantini, noluit consentire, quod Ecclesia, Constantini temporibus, ditaretur; et ex hoc a Sylvestro recesserit, viam paupertatis tenendo: apud quem etiam, suis adhaerentibus in paupertare degentibus, Ecclesia permansit; et Sylvestrum, cum sibi adhaerentibus, ab Ecclesia dicit cecidisse. Item: quod, post annos trecentos a Constantino, surrexit quidam e regione Valdis, Petrus nominatus; qui similiter viam paupertatis docuit. A quibus secta Valdensis est orta. Pilich. cont. Pauper. de Lugdun.

Fragment. in Biblioth. Patr. vol. 13. p. 333, 334.

Pilichdorf does not quarrel with any part of this tradition in the abstract: but he, somewhat ludicrously, twits the Vaudois with their inability to demonstrate its truth by miracles: whereas the whole world rang with the undoubted miracles of the holy Pope Sylvester.

Sed quae signa virtutum praedictis perhibent testimonium? Cum tamen facta celeberrima et miracula Sylvestri totum mundum non latuerint.

Ibid. p. 334. 4 Pilich. cont. Valdens. c.1. Reiner. de haer. c. 5. in Biblioth. Patr. vol. 13. p. 300, 312, 313.

CHAPTER - 1 Claude de Turin etoit Arien et disciple de Felix d’Urgel, c’est-a-dire, Nestorien de plus. Boss. Hist. des Variat. livr. 11 Section 1.

I subjoin the precise words of Jonas: for Bossuet, according to his established custom, never gives the originals.

Ut relatione veridica didici, non modo error (de quo agitur) in discipulorum suorum mentibus reviviscit, quin potius (co dicente) haeresis Arriana pullulare deprehenditur, de qua fertur quaedam monumenta librorum congessisse, et ad simplicitatem et puritatem fidei catholicae et apostolicae oppugnandam in armario episcopii sui clandestina calliditate reliquisse. — Sufficere namque Claudio poterat, ad cumulum miseriarum suarum, error quem secutus est duorum scilicet haereticorum, Eustathii et Vigilantii. Sed, his geminis pestibus minime contentus, altiori perditionis suae baratro sese praecipitem dedit, dum infestissimi hostis sanctae Dei Ecclesiae, Arrii se sectatorem discipulumque, et in vita, et in morte, extitisse monstravit: in vita quidem, docendo et praedicando; in morte quoque, in nefandis codicibus suis eundem errorem a se scriptum relinquendo. Secta quippe ejusdem Arrii, olim a sanctis patribus 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 lucem perferenda, et cum resuscitatore suo ab ecclesiasticis viris rursus sanctarum scripturarum telis ferienda atque frustranda. Jon. Aurelian. de cult. imag. praefat, in Biblioth. Patr. vol. 9. par. prior, p. 91.

It may be observed, that, as Jonas waited for the death of Claude ere he brought his charge of Arianism, so, even then, he adduces it purely as a matter of hearsay: fertur; dicitur.

In justice to Jonas it ought to be stated: that, although, in the ninth century, he composed a work against Claude and in favor of images; he has merited and received the censure of more advanced Romanists, at a later period, because he labored under the grievous error of his age, in denying to them all religious adoration. Hence this pillar of the Church, as Bellarmine remarks, must be read cautiously by all good Catholics.

Jonas Episcopus Aurelianends, imperante Ludovico Pio, scripsit libros tres, qui extant, adversus Claudium Episcopum Taurinensem pro defendone sacrarum imaginum et signi sanctae crucis et peregrinationum ad loca sancta. Sed hic tamen auctor caute legendus est, quoniam laborat eodem errore, quo Agobardus et reliqui ejus aetatis Galli, qui negabant sacris imaginibus ullum debere cultum religiosum. Bellarm. de Scriptor. Eccles. in Biblioth. Patr. vol. 9. par. prior, p. 91.

The editors of the Bibliotheca piously follow ill the track of the Cardinal.

Etsi Jonas laude dignus extiterit, quod, adversus iconomachos sacras imagines demolientes, strenue veritatem catholicam, de retinendis et conservandis imaginibus, propugnaverit: et in eo merito rejiciendus, quod nullam sacris imaginibus adorationem aut venerationem deferendam existimaverit, qui fuit error nonnullorum gallicanorum magni nominis theologorum, uti praediximus. Ob id, scripta ista Ionte magno cum judicio et caute legenda. Ibid. p. 90. 2 Dungal has written a long and angry answer to what he calls the perverse sentiments of Claude of Turin: and, though he manifestly wished to speak all the evil of him that he could 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, which Claude maintained, and which he (not very wisely for a man of such limited powers and such a rambling illogical head) had undertaken by the aid of mere verbose declamation to confute: but this error, against which he directs the whole of his small strength, is the rejection of image-worship, and saint-worship, and relic-worship, and cross-worship, and foolish pilgrimages to Rome, and perhaps still more foolish acknowledgments of papal supremacy in the chair of the Apostle; not the heresy either of Arius or of Nestorius. He simply says: in magisfro hujus erroris Felice. Dungal.

Respons. cont. pervers. Claud. Tanrim sentent, in Bibl. Parr. vol. 9:par. poster, p. 878. The hic error, is the subject of the entire Treatise, which extends through twenty two very closely printed folio pages. On this same Hic error, Dungal is very full and very angry: but not a syllable has he to say upon either the Nestorianism or the Arianism of the mad blasphemer and the hissing serpent, whose head, for the good of the Church and the preservation of the faith, he had undertaken to crush. Possibly some allowance ought to be made for the exuberance of his indignation: for the zealous Claude, disgusted, like Vigilantius, with the unscriptural folly of the cinder-men and boneworshippers, certainly did not mince the matter. Dungal, at the close of his Treatise, reminds him, how he refused to attend a Convention of Bishops on the not very complimentary ground of their being a Congregation of Asses. Propter istam antem insanissimam perversitatem, renuit ad Conventum occurrere Episcoporum; vocans illorum Synodum Congregation era Asinorum. Dungal. cont. Claud.

Taurin. in Bibl. Patr. par. post. vol. 9. p. 895. 3 Absentibus illis qui priores facti erant Apostoli, Paulus a Domino perfectus est, ut, quando cum eis contulit, nihil esset quod perfectioni ejus adderent; sed potius viderent, eundem Dominum Jesum Christum, qui sine personarum acceptione salvos facit, hoc dedisse Paulo ut ministraret gentibus, quod etiam Petro dederat ut ministraret Judaeis.

Claud. Taurin. Enar. in Epist. ad Galat. 2:6. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 9. par. prior, p. 71.

In commune vero hoc eos habuisse propositi, ut Christo, ex cunctis Gentibus, Ecclesiam congregarent. Legimus enim, et a sancto Petro gentilem baptizatum fuisse Cornelium, et a Paulo in Synagogis Judaeorum Christum saepissime praedicatum: sed tamen plena auctoritas Petro, in Judaismi praedictione, data dignoscitur; et Pauli perfecta auctoritas, in praedicatione Gentium, invenitur. — Petrum solum nominat, et sibi comparat; quia primatum ipse accepit ad fundandam Ecclesiam: se quoque pari modo electum, ut primatum habeat in fundandis Gentium Ecclesiis. Ibid. 2:8. p. 72. 4 Coguntur fateri, non legis operibus justificari hominem, sed fide. Simul etiam nos cogit intelligere, omnes antiquos patres, qui justificati sunt, ex ipsa fide justificatos. Claud. Taurin. Enarr. in Epist. ad Galat. 3. 16. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 9. par. prior, p. 76.

Lex ostendebat esse peccatum, quod illi, per consuetudinem caecati, possent putare justitiam: ut, hoc modo humiliati, cognoscerent, non in sua manu esse salutem suam, sed in manu Mediatoris. Ibid. 3. 21. p. 77.

Perdit ergo gratiam Christi, et evangelium quod tenuerat amittit, qui in aliqua observatione legis se justificari putat: et cum gratiam amisserit, a Christi fide destruitur, et in ejus opere conquiescit. — Nunc tota lege generaliter comprehendit, nihil eos in Christi opere proficere, qui in quacunque observatione se crediderint justificandos, dicendo: Si ergo in lege spem ponitis, infirmam Christi gratiam judicatis; et, quod gratis jam accepistis, tanquam non habentes, propriis vultis laboribus adipisci. Ibid. v. 4. p. 83.

Non in propria justitia vel doctrina, sed in fide crucis per quam mihi omnia peccata dimissa sunt. Ibid. 6:14. p. 89. 5 Nec mirum, si, recedente Apostolo, vase electionis, et in quo Christus Dominus loquebatur, Galatae sunt mutati; cum etiam nunc, cernamus in Ecclesiis id ipsum fieri. Claud. Taurin. Enarr. in Epist. ad Galat. 4:18. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 9. par. prior, p. 81. 6 Haeresis autem Graece ab electione dicitur, quod scilicet eam sibi unusquisque eligit disciplinam, quam putat esse meliorem. Quicunque igitur aliter Scripturam intelligit, quam sensus Spiritus Sancti flagrat, quo conscripta est, licet de Ecclesia non recesserit, tamen haereticus appellari potest, et de carnis operibus est eligens quae pejora sunt.

Claud. Taurin. Enarr. in Epist. ad. Galat. 5:19-21. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 9. par. prior. p. 86. 7 Adoptionem propterea dixit, ut distincte intelligamus unicum Dei Filium.

Nos enim, beneficio et dignatione misericordiae ejus, filii Dei sumus: ille,NATURA, est Filius;QUI HOC EST QUOD PATER. Claud. Taurin.

Enarr. in Epist. ad Galat. 4:5. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 9. par. prior, p. 79.

The man who wrote this, could by no possibility have been an Arian.

From a manuscript in the possession of Mr. Theyer, Dr. Allix gives, at considerable length, the sentiments of Claude respecting the Eucharist.

The following brief extract may suffice.

Quia panis corpus confirmat, vinum vero sanguinem operatur in carne: hic ad corpus Christi MYSTICE, illud refertur ad sanguinem. Claud.

Taurin. Comment. in Matt. lib. 3. c. 14.

The same passage contains yet another proof, that Claude could not have been an Arian.

In flagello positus, Patri gratias agit AEQUALIS. Ibid. 8 Epistolam tuam, cum adjunctis subter capitulis, plenam garrulitate atque stoliditate per quendam accepi rusticum portitorem: in quibus capitulis, denuncias, to esse turbatum, eo quod rumor abierit ex Italia de me per omnes Gallias usque ad fines Hispaniae, quasi ego sectam quandam novam praedicaverim contra regulam Fidei Catholicae; quod omnino falsissimum est. Nec mirum est, si de me ista dixerunt diaboli membra, qui ipsum Caput nostrum et seductorem et daemoniacum proclamaverunt. Ego enim non sectam doceo, qui unitatem teneo et veritatem proclamo: sed sectas et schismata et superstitiones atque haereses, in quantum valui, compressi, contrivi, et pugnavi, et expugnavi; et expugnare, in quantum valeo, prorsus Deo adjuvante, non cesso. Hoc autem idcirco provenit: quia, postquam coactus suscepi sarcinam pastoralis officii, missus a Pio principe sanctae Domini Ecclesim Catholicae filio Hludovico, et veni in Italiam civitatem Taurinis, inveni omnes basilicas, contra ordinem veritatis, sordibus anathematum imaginibus plenas. Et, quia quod omnes colebant, ego destruere solus coepi: et, idcirco, aperuerunt omnes ora sua ad blasphemandum me; et, nisi Dominus adjuvisset me, forsitan vivum deglutissent me. Claud. Taurin. Epist, ad. Abbat. Theutmir. in Bibl.

Patr. vol. 9. par. post. p. 876.

Jonas of Orleans is very indignant at the whole of this passage: and, in reference to its conclusion, he kicks the dead lion with all the energy of a popish controversialist.

Id nuili, nisi tibi, imputandum est. Debueras siquidem cavere, ne sectatores Christi tam infauste reprehenderes, eisque sacrilegii notam inureres, traditionesque quas sibi a sacrosanctis patribus traditas sancta simpliciter tenet Ecclesia, etsi non voto tuo, saltem silentio, gravitate magistra comprobare. Jon. Aurelian. de cult. imag. lib. 1. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 9. par. prior. p. 94.

Good Jonas however, himself, as we have seen, must be read cautiously, because he denies that any adoration ought to be paid to images. Thus, in the judgment of better instructed Romanists, does the castigator of Claude actually tremble on the very verge of heresy. On this curious and interesting topic Bossuet, with much sound judgment, is profoundly silent. Jonas, however, sorely enacting the Marplot, quotes, in favor of his dangerous and semi-heretical opinion, Origen and Augustine and Lactantius. Hence we are warned. I suppose, against the following sufficiently distinct statement, which the Prelate of Orleans makes his own by adoption.

Ut enim breviter, et omnia in unum collecta, definitione dicamus:

Adorare alium, praeter Patrem et Filium et Spiritum Sanctum, impietatis est crimen. Ibid. lib. 1. p. 95.

Here, no doubt, Bellarmine and the Editors of the Bibliotheca would place a Lege caute. 9 Claud. Taurin. Comment. in Levit. apud Allix on the Anc. Church of Piedm. chap. 9. p. 79. 10 Hunc itaque libellum, responsiones ex auctoritate ae doctrina sanctorum patrum defloratas et excerptas continentem, sub nomine et honore gloriosissimorum principum, christianissimorum Sanctae Ecclesiae rectorum, domini Hludovici maximi ac serenissimi Imperatoris, ejusque filii nobilissimi Augusti Hlotharii, ego Dungalus, in Dei et eorum obsequio esse dicandum componendumque devovi, contra insanas blasphemasque Claudii Taurinenis Episcopi naenias: non quod ante jam dudum, ex quo in hanc terram advenerim, occasio mihi copiosa hac de re reclamandi conquerendique assidue non occurreret, dum dominicam ubique messem malignis zizaniis lolioque infelici horrere cernendo suspirarem; sed ne conatus nostri, aerem, ut dicitur, verberando, incertave pro certis adfirmando, deluderentur; sub silentii diutina anxiaque obseratione ora continui, moerens dolensque murmur multum, antiquamque contentionem de corpore Christi, hoc est Ecclesia, in turbis fieri, quae quondam praecessit de capite. - Sequestrato ab invicem in hac regione, ac diviso in duas partes, populo, de observationibus ecclesiasticis, hoc est, de imagine dominicae passionis et sancta pictura, murmurantes et contendentes, Catholici dicunt: bonam et utilem esse eam picturam; et pene tantundem proficere ad eruditionem, quantum et Sacrae Literae. Haereticus, e contra, cum parte a se seducta, dicunt: non; sed seductio est erroris et idololatria.

Talis de cruce contentio habetur, catholicis dicentibus: quod bona et sancta sit, vexillumque triumphale, et signum perpetuae salutis. Pars adversa, cum suo magistro, e contra respondet: non; sed opprobrium tantum passionis, et irrisio mortis, in ea continetur et ostenditur ac memoratur.

Pari ratione, de memoriis sanctorum causa orationis adeundis, et reliquiis eorum venerandis, obnituntur, aliis adfirmantibus: bonam et religiosam esse consuetudinem basilicas martyrum frequentare; ubi eorum sacri cineres et sancta corpora, quasi quaedam venerabilia vasa a Deo acceptabilia, in quibus omnigena pro fide Christi tormenta sunt usque ad mortem perpessi, cum honore eorum meritis congruo, condita habentur; ubique, ipsis intervenientibus, corporales ac spiritales quotidie languores, divina operante manu et gratia coruscante, copiosissime et praesentissime sanantur. Alii vero resistunt, dicentes: sanctos post obitum nullum adjuvare nullique posse intercedendo succurrere, nihil eorum duntaxat scientes quae in terris geruntur; illorumque reliquias nullam alicujus reverentiae gratiam comitari, sicut nec ossa vilissima quorumlibet animalium, reliquamve terram communem. Dungal. Respons. cont. pervers. Claud. Taurin. sentent. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 9. par. post. p. 878.

As a specimen of his intolerably turgid and wearisome style, I give Dungal’s exordium at full length. He evidently thought it a piece of very fine writing, fit to be placed in most advantageous 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 homine doctrinalis expertis scientiae, sit haec edita contextu epistola; 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 occupies with an endless Crambe recocta half-a-dozen pages where one would amply suffice, characterizes all the modern popish controversialists with whom I am acquainted, save and except Bossuet. Would he were more honest: but, unlike some whom I could mention, he assuredly knows how to use his pen. 11 See Claude. Taurin. Epist. ad Abbat. Theutmir. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 9. par. post. p. 876, 877. 12 Claud. Epist. ad Theutmir. p. 877. I must not suppress the singular felicity of Dungal’s retort courteous. He is quite sure that all Claude’s contempt for relies is bottomed upon mere envy. If the Cathedral of Turin was but as well stocked with 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. I do not recollect to have ever met with so palpable a hit. The suppression of it would have been a sin without benefit of Clergy. 13 Dungal. Respons. p. 880, 881, 883, 888, 893, 895. 14 Cognovit, quod illa (scil. Hieronymus) contra suum vicinum suaeque auctorem insaniae Vigilantium haereticum scripserit. Dungal. Respons. p. 883. 15 Claude’s appeal to Scripture runs, as follows: — Cum enim distincte dicatur, non faciendam similitudinem omnium quae in coelo sunt aut quae in terra vel quae sub terra; non de solis similitudinibus alienorum deorum intelligitur dictum, sed de coelestibus creaturis aut quae in honore Creatoris humanus sensus potuit excogitare. Claud. Taurin. apud Dungal. Respons. p. 880.

On this tough morsel, his stupendously long-winded antagonist hammers, with most exemplary perseverance, through eight closelyprinted and double-columned folio pages. 16 Dungal. Respons. p. 879. 17 Della loro origine non si puo haver certezza. — Nel nono e decimo secolo, non era nuovo setta. Rorenc. Natrat. dell’in-trodutt, delle heresie nella valli, in Muston. Hist. des Vaud. vol. 1. p. 165. 18 Nel nono secolo, non vi fu nuova setta, ma ben nuovo fomentatore delle precedenti: fra quali fu Claudio, vescovo di Torino, discepolo di Felice, che negava la reverenza alla santa croce, come anche la veneratione ed invocatione de Santi, e fu principale destrutor dell’imagini. Rorenc.

Memor. Istoric. dell’introdutt, delle heresie, in Muston. Hist. des Vaud. vol. 1. p. 166.

It is somewhat extraordinary, that neither of these Works of Rorenco is in the Bodleian Library: but, as Dr. Muston gives the precise words of the author, I cannot reasonably doubt his accuracy. Had the Works been withill my reach, I shotlid have been much gratified by the perusal of them. As it is, I am unable to specify the nature and amount of the evidence, which brought the Prior to his conclusion. That it was overwhelming and decisive, is certain: because, as in the case of Bossuet, it is the ordinary humor and practice of the Romish Divines to assert, that none of the Valdenses could claim a higher antiquity than the times of Peter the Valdo or the latter half of the twelfth century.

CHAPTER - 1 Atto, gratia Dei, humilis Episcopus, cunctis fidelibus in nostra parochia consistentibus, salutem et gaudium.

Nuper in vigilia Octavae Domini, quemdam sermonem, his qui praesentes erant, Deo donante, retulimus: quem vobis dirigere necessarium aestimamus, Heu! quia sunt multi in vestris partibus, qui divina servitia contemnunt, et auguria vel coeli signa seu vanas praecantationes intendunt, nec metuunt illud quod Dominus de Judaeis ait: O generatio incredula et perversa, signum quaerit. Beatus quoque Paulus clamat Apostolus: Videte, ne quis vos reducat, per philosophiam et inanem fallaciam, secundum traditiones hominum, secundum elementa mundi, et non secundum Christum. Et alibi:

Quomodo convertimini iterum ad infirma et egena elementa, quibus denuo servire vultis? Psalmista quippe dicit: Filii hominum, usquequo graves corde; ut quid diligitis vanitatem, et quaeritis mendacium? Et iterum : Beatus vir, cujus est nomen Domini spes ejus; et non respexit in vanitates et insanias falsas. Valete in Domino. Atton. Vercell. Epist. 2. in Dacher. Spicil. vol. 8. p. 110, 111. 2 Atto, Christi misericordia, humilis Episcopus, cuncto populo nostrae dioecesis sanctae matris Vercellensis Ecclesiae.

Noveritis igitur, quia, et per ipsum Christum Dominum atque sanctos Apostolos seu Prophetas sive sanctos reliquos Doctores, audivimus, plurimos venturos esse pseudo-prophetas, qui, quod gravissimum est, subvertere a via veritatis multos studebunt, ita ut eos in perniciem perducant, qui illis crediderint. Unde — non tam facile justum habetur cor, ut etiam quibusdam, simplicia atque bruta referentibus tantummodo verba, credere omnino festinetis; eosque, heu miserrimi, diabolico errore decepti, prophetas nominetis; relinquentes sanetam matrem vestram Ecclesiam seu Sacerdotes per quos ad aeternam pervenire debetis salutem.

Quocirca, his visis litteris auditis vel cognitis, si quis vestrum forte, quod absit, deinceps hujuscemodi nefas perpetraverit, sciat se omnimodis damnandum, et non habeat licentiam manducandi quid coctum nisi panem nec bibendi vinum, quousque ad suam sanctam matrem scilicet Vercellensem Ecclesiam nostramque praesentiam, ad satisfactionem veramque poenitentiae humilitatem, judicandus adveniat.

Si quis autem, superbia inflatus, contra hoc agere tentaverit, sciat se ab Ecclesiae liminibus pellendum et a sancta communione extraneum omnibusque fidelibus abominandum, donec Sanctae Ecclesiae susceperit correptionem, tam ipse, quam omnes qui ipsi communicant postquam eum talem cognoverint.

Sacerdotum vero, siquis fortasse, quod Deus avertat, tali abominatione pollutus fuerit: nullum divinum audeat usurpare mysterium, donec dignam Deo, nostro judicio, persolvat satisfactionem. Atton. Vercell.

Epist. 3. in Dacher. Spicil. vol. 8. p. 111, 112.

The next Epistle, which it is superfluous to quote at length, indicates: that these perverse religionists, somewhat after the manner of the Petrobrusians, turned Good Friday into a festival, because the Romanists observed it as a fast. Epist. 4. p. 112, 113. They refused, I suppose, to acknowledge the scriptural obligation of its observance, because their opponents enjoined such observance as divinely binding upon the conscience.

Though not immediately to the present purpose, 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 it to be the Faithful Confession of St. Peter.

Cujus institutionis exordium in beatissimi Petri fideli confessione credimus fundatum, cum ait ad Dominum: Tu es Christus Filius Dei vivi. Pro qua etiam remuneratione audire inter caetera meruit: Et ego dico tibi, guia tu es Petrus; et super hanc petram aedificabo Ecclesiam meam, et portae inferi non praevalebunt adversus eam. Edificata est ergo sancta Ecclesia supra petram in soliditate Apostolicae Fidei, per fidem et dilectionem Christi, et perceptionem sacramentorum, et observantiam mandatorum ejus. Att. Vetcell. Libell. de pressur, ecclesiast, par. 1. in Dacher. Spicil. vol. 8. p. 45.

We have already seen, that Dungal and Claude Scyssel do the very same. Certainly it is somewhat remarkable, that, even within the pale of the Romish Church, the ancient interpretation should have so long struggled with the favorite newfangled gloss of the Papacy. 3 See Muston’s Hist. des Vaud. vol. 1. p. 515, 516. 4 Muston’s Hist. des Vaud. vol. 1:p. 509, 510. 5 From Vaulderie, I conclude, and thence ultimately from Vauldois, we must derive Baulder; one of the regular official names of a witch’s black grimalkin: just as Boggard, a northern provincial appellation of a foul fiend, evidently resolves itself into Bulgard or Bulgarian, a very common designation of the Albigenses whose Manicheism and dealings with Satan are notorious to all persons of an easy faith. I may add, while on the subject of etymology, that many family names ill 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, Waldy, Humble, Perfect, and Bonomi: derived severally from Picardi, Cotterelli, Valdenses, Humiliati, Perfecti, and Boni Homines. In forming the last name, Boni Homines passed into Bonomii. This is evident from the two following citations.

Quotiens es tu confessus haeresiarchis, id est, illis Bonis Hominibus, qui ad te venerunt occulte dicentes, se loco Apostolorum in mundo de loco ad locum ambulare, praedicare, et confessiones audire? Modus examin. haeret. in Biblioth. Patr. vol. 13. p. 342.

Interrogavit Episcopus, quid vellet fieri de seipso? An in coenobio Galliaci, an Candelii, an in ecclesia Albiensi, eligeret sepeliri? Qui respondit: Non oportet Episcopum curam habere super his; cum ipse deliberasset, quid esset facturus. Episcopus nihilominus insistebat, quo trium istorum locorum eligeret sepeliri. 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 secus non possem, ad eos reptando quadrupedaliter festinarem. Bertrand. de gest. Tholoson. fol. 31. 6 Memoires de Jacques Du-Clercq, in suppl. vol. 9. de la Collection des memoires relatifs a l’histoire de France, cited by Muston. Hist. des Vaud. vol. 1. p. 507, 508. This Jacques Du-Clercq was born in the year 1424. 7 Memoires de Jacques Du-Clercq, in Muston’s Hist. des Vaud. vol. 1. p. 509. 8 Si quis Episcopus aut Presbyter sive Diaconus, vel quilibet ex Ordine Clericorum, magos, aut aruspices, aut ariolos, aut certe augures, vel sortilegos, vel eos qui profitentur artem magicam, aut aliquos eorum similia exercentes, consuluisse fuerit deprehensus: ab honore dignitatis suae depositus, monasterium ingressus, poenam accipiat; ibique; perpetuae poenitentiae deditus, scelus admissum sacrilegii solvat. Item: si quis, post hanc cognitionem, ecclesiasticam contemnens doctrinam, ad prophetas aut angelos vel aliquos sanctorum defunctorum quos aequivocos falso vocant abierit, eorumque pravis doctrinis inhaeserit, anathema sit. Atton. Vercell. Capitular. c. 48. in Dacher. Spicil. vol. 8. p. 18, 19. Vide etiam Atton. Vercell. Epist. 9., 10. in Dacher. Spicil. vol. 8. p. 126-132. I subjoin a brief extract, that the Bishop may speak in his own proper person.

Praeterea, quod dicere pudet, tacere autem periculum, quidam in tantum libidini municipantur, ut obscoenas meretriculas sua simul in domo secum habitare, una cibum sumere ac publice degere, permittant. — Ecclesiae gremio sunt recepti. Inde quid-quid postmodum subtrahere valent, ipsis non desinunt erogare. Et unde meretrices ornantur, Ecclesiae vastantur, pauperes tribulantur. Hac occasione Publicani Clericorum domos irrumpunt: non ipsos, sed commanentes mulieres, cum ipsis quos genuerant spuriis, quasi sibi commissos, extrahere simulantes. Id trepidant miseri, et munera quaeque promittunt: et, qui adorari poterant, cunctos adorare coguntur; et, qui omnium viriliter vitia declamare debuerant, de suis apud judicem quaerunt licentiam. Sic sacrae aedes publicantur, et a vulgo deri-dentur: et nomen Domini blasphematur. Solent etiam, tali pro scelere, vicinorum vicinarumque odium incurrere. Quoties namque hujuscemodi mulieres vel earum spurii cum aliquibus litigant, ipsi, abjecta omni sacerdotali reverentia, sese opponunt; injurias et contumelias, quas possunt, inferre, et deteriora, minantur. Insuper, ut talis ditetur familia, ipsi cupidi, rapaces, usurarii, avari, et invidi, ac fraudulenti, efliciuntur.

Unde non modicum Christi Ecclesia patitur detrimentum. Atton.

Vercell. Epist. 9. in Dacher. Spicil. vol. 8. p. 127, 128.

Let not the incautious reader imagine, that the Publicans, mentioned in this passage, were those persecuted Publicans or Paulicians whom their immaculate enemies charged with Manicheism and with every evil word and work. As Dacherius justly observes, they were either the public judges themselves or else their serjeants. Publicani hie, nut judices publici, aut certe eorum ministri vulgo servientes dicti. 9 See the preceding note.

CHAPTER - 1 With respect to the singular ecclesiastical arrangement mentioned by Jerome, when we recollect that he is speaking of the commencement of the fifth century, we may perhaps learn from history the reason of its adoption.

In the reign of Theodosius and toward the close of the fourth century, one of those unhappy circumstances occurred, which, it is to be feared, too often disgrace and pollute the private confessionals of a 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. But husbands and fathers and brothers were not altogether satisfied with a punishment, which affected an individual only, while it left untouched the palpable evils and temptations attendant upon private confession itself. Nectarius, the Patriarch, was not a little perplexed what to do: but the Presbyter Eudemon wisely advised, what in the Greek Church was wisely adopted. Private confession to a Priest was abolished: 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. 5. c. 19. Sozomen. Hist. Eccles. lib. 7. c. 16.

But, though abolished in the Greek Church, the mischievous and soultainting practice was still retained in the western Churches, and more especially in the Church of Rome. Sozomen. Hist. Eccles. lib. 7. c. 16.

There, associated with directions to the confessors which it were more decorous not to particularize, it still, as we all know, subsists in its entire baneful luxuriancy.

Now, with such a case before them as that which had recently occurred at 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, just as Jerome tells us, they did act. Whether the lapse at Constantinople actually produced the vallensic regulation, I shall not pretend to determine. But, in point of fact, we find it subsisting among the Cottian Bishops immediately after the occurrence of the lapse in question: and the recorded misconduct of Atto’s unmarried Clergy in the neighboring diocese of Vercelli, about the middle of the tenth century, would not afford to their successors any very strong inducement to patronize the ordinance of Clerical Celibacy. Truly, from their own Bishop’s account of them, the unmarried Vercellese Priesthood would have been, to young women, a body of most edifying confessors. 2 Sunt nonnulli rectores Ecclesiarum, qui quodammodo tunc coruscare incipiunt, cum ad corrigenda mala subjectorum quasi zelo se ultionis accendunt: sed protinus extinguuntur; quia, qualibat adversitate fracti, vel torpore desidiae resoluti, cito deficiunt. Unde et ille Barach, desidis ac resoluti pastoris figuram gerens, aiebat ad Deboram: Si veneris mecum, vadam; si nolueris venire, non pergam. Quapropter, sicut vir ille cum femina, Barach scilicet cum Debora, mutuis se fulcientes auxiliis, contra Sisaram praelium susceperunt, cumque suis agminibus et nongentis falcatis curribus funditus debellarunt: ita et vos, tu scilicet et Taurinensis Episcopus, contra Sisaram luxuriae ducem, arma corripite; eumque in filios Israel, hoc est, in Clericos Ecclesiae, dominantem, miseratione pudicitiae, jugulate. Quatenus et Episcopus, immo omnes Episcopi qui in administrationis tuae finibus commorantur, sacerdotali Clericos disciplina coerceant: et tu, in feminas, vigorem terrenae potestatis extendas. Tres quippe tantummodo feminas Deus novit. Quae his plures sunt, in ejus notitiam non venerunt. Novit enim virgines cum Maria; viduas, cum Anna; conjuges, cum Susanna. Illorum vero Clericorum feminas, qui matrimonia nequeunt legali jure contrahere, non conjuges, sed concubinas potius sive prostibula, congrue possumus appellare: ideoque, quia a Deo non merentur agnosci, de templo Dei merentur excludi. B. Petri. Damian. Oper. lib. 7. epist. 16 ad Adelaidem Ducissam, et Marchionissam Alpium Cottiarum. p. 339.

Shortly after this time or in the year 1074, the notorious Pope Gregory VII attempted to enforce celibacy upon the Clergy of the hitherto independent Ambrosian Church of Milan. But those ecclesiastics rejected his decree, and branded him and his adherents as heretics.

Arnulph. Hist. Mediolan. lib. 4. c. 6, 9, 10, in M’Crie’s Hist. of the Reform. in Italy, chap. 1. p. 2.

Peter Damian was a literary character: literaturae peritus, as William of Malmsbury speaks. Hence we shall not be surprised at the intellectual influence which he exercised over the mind of his contemporary Pope Leo IX. Of this influence, so creditable to Peter and so beneficial to the Pope, the historian gives an instance alike remarkable and edifying.

Two old women near Rome, noted sorceresses and in other respects also specially ill conditioned subjects, had caught an unlucky buffoon, and had metamorphosed him into an ass. In this unseemly disguise, they sold him to a rich citizen: the 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 satisfaction of his purchaser: and his fame spread far and wide, until, at length, leaping into a pool of water, he suddenly recovered his pristine human figure.

Pope Leo heard the story from the late master of the ass: and the master himself had it from a trusty and wondering servant, confirmed also by the actual confession of the two mischievous old women. His holiness, however, notwithstanding 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 Papam confirmat Petrus Damianus literaturae peritus.

Non mirum, si haec fieri possunt: productoque exemplo de Simone Mago, qui Faustinianum in Simonis figura videri et a filiis horreri fecit, instructiorem de caetero in talibus reddidit. Gul. Malmes. Gent.

Anglor. Continuat. lib. 2. c. 15.

The case of the Golden Ass of Apuleius, whence indeed the figment has evidently been plagiarized, would have afforded a more exact parallel: but Peter, I suppose, deemed it not so solid a basis whereupon to construct an argument.

CHAPTER - 1 Chron. Abbat. S. Trudon. lib. 9. in Dacher. Spicil. vol. 7. p. 455. Who the tutelary St. Trudon was, I am not antiquary sufficient to inform my reader. His name is abbreviated into Tron: and he must, I conclude, have been somewhat of a favorite in Romish Scotland, since two churches, now severally denominated The Tron Church, appear to have been dedicated to him in Edinburgh and Glasgow. 2 Ubi (scil. Romae) cum, per aliquot dies, moraretur; et, de apostolico et de his qui circa eum erant, viderent et intelligerent quae dicta sibi domi credere non vellent: in diversas animi partes ferebantur; plurimum Rodulfus Abbas, qui sibi bene conscius erat pro quo terram egressus fuerat. Cumque vigilans nocte aliquando jaceret, et die in ecclesiis solus Romae resideret, diligenti cura et sollicito retractabat animo, quae peregrinationis suae fuisset intentio, et de ea revelata religiosis viris quid in itinere dedicisset ab eis. Sollicitabat enim eum hoc non parum ad ea quae cogitaverat, si essent explenda, cuncta ei jam surrepta fuerant necessaria. Praeterea terram, ad quam ulterius disposuerat peregrinari, audiebat pollutam esse inveterata haeresi de corpore et sanguine Domini: sed et, de consilio animae suae et eorum qui sibi fuerant commissi, nihil aliud audierat a religiosis viris, nisi quod domi didicerat ex ecclesiastica disciplina et libris communibus tam nobis quam illis. Super hoc accreverat ei passio jamdudum in clune, quam physici solent ciaticam appellare: ea, cum gressum ei perstringeret, equitare etiam sine continuo cruciatu non sinebat. Quid moror? Per multas animi tribulationes, per multas corporis passiones, per exitialia Montis-Jovis pericula, recepit eos tandem civitas Basilea. Alexander inde remeavit eques per Burgundiam: Rodulfus naufragoso navigio usque prope Coloniam. Chron. Abbat. S. Trudon. lib. 12. in Dacher.

Spicil. vol. 7. p. 493, 494. 3 Reiner. de haeret, c. 6. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 13. p. 304.

CHAPTER - 1 The individuals, who appeared at Arras in the year 1025 and who professed to be pupils of Gandulph, have sometimes been adduced as affording a specimen of missions, undertaken by the Vallenses of Piedmont, more than a century prior to the time of Peter the Valdes.

But the sole ground for such an opinion is the circumstance, that they came from the borders of Italy. 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 lowlands of Lombardy: in other words, they were not Vallenses, but (as such religionists were afterwards called in France) Albigenses.

I subjoin, in brief, the account of the matter from the Acts of the Synod of Arras: and, if the intelligent reader compares it with what has already been said respecting the Albigenses or Paulicians, he will probably agree with me in regard to the true classification of these missionaries. They finally, when matters were fully explained to them, signed a confession drawn up by the Bishop of Arras.

Anno dominicae incarnationis 1025, Domino Gerardo Ecclesiam Kamaracensis seu Attrebatensis urbis regente, contigit, ut idem Praesul per aliquot dies stationem in sede Attrebatensi facere deberet. Ubi, cum de ecclesiasticis functionibus satis pro opportunitate temporis tractaret, relatum est ei, quosdam ab Italiae finibus viros eo loci advenisse, qui quamdam novae haereseos sectam introducentes, evangelicae atque apostolicae sanctionis disciplinam pervertere tentabant, et quamdam justitiam praeferentes, hac sola purificari homines asserebant, nullumque in sancta Ecclesia aliud esse sacramentum, per quod ad salutem pervenire potuissent. - Quaenam est, inquit (Episcopus) doctrina vestra, lex, atque cultura: quisve auctor est disciplinae vestrae?

At illi referunt: se esse auditores Gandulphi cujusdam ab Italics partibus viri, et ab eo evangelicis mandatis et apostolicis informatos, nullamque praeter hanc Scripturam se recipere, sed hanc verbo et opere tenere. Verum — ad notitiam Episcopi pervenerat, illos sacri baptismaris mysterium penitus abhorrere, dominici corporis et sanguinis sacramentum respuere, negare lapsis poenitentiam post professionem proficere, Ecclesiam adnullare, legitima connubia execrari, nullum in sanctis confessoribus donum virtutis spectare, praeter apostolos et martyres neminem debere venerari. - Lex et disciplina nostra (aiebant), quam a magistro accepimus, nec evangelicis decretis nec apostolicis sanctionibus contraire videbitur, si quis eam diligenter velit intueri. Haec namque hujusmodi est: mundum relinquere; carnem a concupiscentiis fraenare; de laboribus manuum suarum victum parare; nulli laesionem quaerere; caritatem cunctis, quos zelus hujus propositi teneat, exhibere. Synod. Attrebat. Act. in Dacher. Spicil. vol. 13. p. 2, 3, 4.

Through the usual veil of misrepresentation, it is easy to read here the true doctrines of the Albigenses. We learn also from the narrative the additional important matter, that they held, what indeed was then also held by their examiners themselves, the doctrine of Justification through faith in the alone merits of Christ.

The same classification, I think, must be adopted also in the case of those, who appeared in the diocese of Treves in the year 1101. They were of the Albigensic, not of the Vallensic, stock.

Ivodii, quod Trevericae Diocesis appenditium est, fuerunt eo tempore (A. D. 1101.) haeretici, qui substantiam panis et vini, quae in altari per sacerdotes benedicitur, in corpus Christi et sanguinem veraciter transmutari negabant; nec baptismi sacramentum parvulis ad salvationem proficere dicebunt; et alia perplura profitebantur erronea quae memoriae tradere nefas duxi. De his quatuor oblati sunt ei: quorum duo Presbyteri; reliqui vero duo erant Laici. Presbyterorum unus, Fredericus: alter, duobus vocabatur nominibus, Dominicus Willelmus. Laicorum vero alter, Durandus: alter dicebatur, Halmericus.

Histor. Trevir. in Dacher. Spicil. vol. 12. p. 243. 2 What Herodotus means by saying, that the Pelasgi never changed their place of residence, I know not. Certainly, from the universal evidence of antiquity, they were the very pink of ramblers. Herod. Hist. lib. 1. c. 56. 3 Sunt sedecim omnes Ecclesiae Catharorum. Nec imputas mihi, O lector, quod eas appello Ecclesias, sed potius eis qui se ita vocant. Reiner. de haeret. c. 6. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 13. p. 304. 4 In omnibus vero civitatibus Lombardiae, et in Provincia, et in allis regnis et terris, plures erant scholae haereticorum 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 erat, qui eos impedire auderet, propter potentiam et multitudinem fautorum ipsorum. Inquisitioni et examinationi haereticorum frequenter interfui: et computatae sunt Scholae haereticorum, in diocesi Pataviensi, quadraginta et una; in loco, qui dicitur Clemmaten, fuerunt decem Scholae. Reiner. de haeret, c. 3. p. 299.

He then, in Germany and elsewhere, specifies no fewer than forty-one places where there were Schools of these heretics, without determining the number of the Schools themselves.

How wonderful must have been the zeal and activity of these Cathari or Paulicians, when in the whole world, as Reinerius assures us, the number of their associated members of both sexes fell short of four thousand. Ibid. c. 6. p. 304. 5 Vidimus in Concilio Romano, sub Alexandro Papa III celebrato (A. D. 1179.), Valdesios, homines idiotas illiteratos, a primate ipsorum Valde dictos, qui fuerat civis Lugduni super Rhodanum. Gualt. Map. de Nugis. Curial. distinct, 1. c. 31. ex MS. in Biblioth. Bodleian. apud Usser. de Eccles. Success. c. 8. Section 12. 6 Eo tempore, mundo jam senescente, exortae sunt duae Religiones in Ecclesia, cujus, ut aquilae, renovatur juventus; etiam e Sede Apostolica sunt confirmatae: videlicet, Minorum Fratrum et Praedicatorum. Quae forte, hac occasione, sunt approbatae: quia, olim duae sectae in Italia exortae, adhuc 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 reperirentur. In occultis quoque praedicationibus, quas faciebant plerumque in latibulis Ecclesiae Dei et Sacerdotio derogabatur. — Caeterum dominus Papa, in loco eorum, exurgentes quosdam alios, qui se appellabant Pauperes Minores, confirmavit. — Hi tamen, postea attendentes, quod nonnunquam nimiae humilitatis nomen gloriationem importet, et de nomine paupertatis, cum multi eam frustra sustineant, apud Deum vanius inde gloriantur, maluerunt appellari Minores Fratres quam Minores Pauperes. Alii, videlicet Praedicatores, in locum Humiliatorum successisse creduntur. Conrad. Abbat. Ursperg. Chron. in A. D. 1212. apud Gretser. Proleg. in Script. cont. Valdens. c. 5. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 13. p. 291.

In point of habits and character, the Abbot, like Pope Lucius III before him in the year 1184, appears to have somewhat confounded the Humiliated with the Poor Men properly so called. For he describes the Minor Friars, as being specially opposed to the Poor Men of Lyons; whom we positively know to have been a body of missionaries: while he exhibits the Preaching Friars, as being specially opposed to the Humiliated; who, though (as he speaks) they may sometimes have thrust their sickle into another man’s harvest, do not seem, at least before the time of Peter Valdo, to have been distinguished 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: that, In point of ultimate origination, the two sects, into which the Valdenses were divided, sprang up, at a remote period, in Italy.OLIM duae sectae IN ITALIA exortae. This statement at once agrees with, and confirms, my own view of the matter. 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 pedigree of each branch alike was Italian, not French.

Such an account of the matter, thus happily preserved by Conrad, will explain what Reinerius meant; when, in one breath (as it were), he speaks of the Leonists as being the oldest of all heretical sects; and yet, under the name of the Poor Men of Lyons, asserts them to have had for their founder an individual who flourished not more than seventy years before himself. It will also account for the singular fact recorded by him: that the Poor Men of Lyons, or the French Valdenses, were wont to journey into Lombardy, and there visit their Bishops.

Item peregrinantur: et ita, Lombardiam intrantes, visitant Episcopos suos. Reiner. de haeret, c. 5. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 13. p. 301.

The distinction, in short, between the French and the Italian Valdenses, is specifically drawn by himself in his Summa.

Nunc dicendum est de haeresi Leonistarum, seu Pauperum de Lugduno.

Dividitur autem haeresis in duas partes. Prima pars vocatur Pauseres Ultramontani; secunda vero, Pauperes Lombardi: et isti descenderunt ab illis. Reiner. Summ. de Cath. et Leon. in Marten. Thesaur. Anecdot. vol. 1. col. 1775.

By the Lombard or Cismontane Valdenses, Reinerius can only mean, as our modern geography speaks, the Valdenses of Piedmont. He uses, I apprehend, the term Lombard, in its ancient and larger and proper sense. The Kingdom of Lombardy extended, from the Adriatic Sea, to the Cottian Alps: thus including both Turin and the still more westerly country of the Vallenses. See Gibbon’s Hist. of Decline, chap. 45. vol. 8. p. 147, 148.

CHAPTER - 1 Morland’s Hist. of the Churches of the Valleys of Piedm. chap. 4. p. 30- 37. chap. 5. p. 72-93. chap. 6. p. 94-141. chap. 7. p. 142-177. Perrin.

Hist. des Albig. p. 157-178, 253-333. 2 Let this Confession of Faith, as given by Morland, chap. 4. p. 30-34, be compared with the simple Creed or Symbol of the Albigenses, as given by Roger Hoveden, and as assigned to the year 1176; the Confession of Faith, according to its pretended date, being fifty-six years older than the Symbol: and, I think, the spuriousness of the Confession will irresistibly force itself upon our belief. See above, book 2. chap. 9.

Section 1. (2.) 3 Perrin. Hist. des Alb. p. 157-178. Morland’s Hist. of the Church of Piedm. chap. 5. p. 75-84. 4 Perrin. Hist. p. 253-295. Morland’s Hist. chap. 7. p. 142-160. 5 Morland’s Hist. chap. 6. p. 99-120. 6 Perrin. Hist. p. 253, 254. note. Morland’s Hist. chap. 7. p. 142. 7 Bossuet. Hist. des Variat. livr. 11. Section 127. 8 We may compare the language of the Treatise, with that of the Poor Men of Lyons, and consequently with that of their teacher Peter the Valdes.

Aital congregation, ensemp presa, es appella Antichrist, o Babylonia, o quarta bestia, o meretrix, o home de pecca filli de perdition. — La Sancta Gleisa se sia et es tengua per Synagoga: et la Synagoga de li malignant es predice per maire ben cresent en la ley. Treat. on Antich. in Perrin. p. 255, 264, 265.

Primo dicunt (Pauperes de Lugduno), quod Romana Ecclesia non sit Ecclesia Jesu Christi, sed Ecclesia malignantium; — et quod ipsi sint Ecclesia Jesu Christi; — et quod Romana Ecclesia sit meretrix in Apocalypsi. Reiner. de haeret, c. 5. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 13. p. 300. 9 Ma creissent en li ses membres, zo es en li menistre cec et hypocrit, et de li sojet del mond, et el meseime creisec entro a baron parfait en pleneta daita. Treat. on Antichr. in Perrin. p. 258, 259.

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 seo luoc e possessions, et depart aquesta cita de Babylonia en laqual tota generacion hac vigor de malicia. Ibid. p. 262.

La octava obra de l’Antichrist es, que et eyra et persec et acaisonna, roba e mortifica, li membre de Christ. Ibid. p. 269.

An objection has, I believe, been made to the antiquity of the Treatise respecting Antichrist, on the ground: that, When the inspired books are there cited or referred to, the chapters are specified; though the division of the Bible into chapters did not take place until the middle of the thirteenth century or about the year 1250.

Now, even if the validity of this objection were admitted, it would do nothing more, so far as my own views are concerned, than induce a necessity of placing the Treatise about a century later than I am myself inclined to place it. But, in truth, even upon the very face of it, never was there an imaginary difficulty more childishly started. For let us take a case in point. Claude’s Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians is known to have been written in the ninth century. Now that Commentary exhibits the Epistle as being regularly divided into six chapters. Therefore, clearly, on the principle of the present objection, the Commentary, instead of having been written in the ninth century, is a mere comparatively modern fabricator. I suppose [need scarcely state the obvious solution to be, that the division into chapters was the work either of a modern transcriber or of the editors of the printed Bibliotheca Patrum: and I suppose I need scarcely say, that the same remark is equally applicable to the Valdensic Treatise on Antichrist.

After all, though I deem it by no means essential for the meeting of the present somewhat idle objection, the assertion, that the Bible was first divided into chapters about the middle of the thirteenth century, is incorrect. The manuscript Bible of Hugh Pudsey, Bishop of Durham, which was written by his order some time between the years 1153 and 1194, and which is now in the Library of the Chapter, is actually divided into chapters, though not perfectly coincident with our present chapters. For a knowledge of this fact I am indebted to my learned and persevering friend Dr. Gilly. 10 Cum autem esset aliquantulum literatus, Novi Testamenti texture docuit eos vuigariter. Reiner. de haeret, c. 5. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 13. p. 300. 11 Morland’s Hist. of Church of Piedm. chap. 3. p. 12. 12 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 produced by the words of the Priest in the consecration of the elements.

William of Malmsbury, who flourished during the reigns of our three first Norman Kings, after censuring the pretended heresy of his contemporary Berenger, professes his own full belief; that, after the ecclesiastical benediction, the elements are the true body and blood of the Savior: and he says, that he was induced thereto, both by the ancient authority of the Church, and likewise by many newly displayed miracles.

One of these convincing miracles was the following.

A little Jew boy, entering into a church with a Christian boy, beheld, upon the altar, a child, torn limb from limb, and thus severally divided to the people. Returning home, he innocently told the story to his parents: who, in a rage, threw him upon a burning pile. Here he lay unhurt for several hours: until, at length, he was drawn out by the Christians. When asked, how he escaped the effects of the fire, he said:

The beautiful woman, whom I beheld sitting on a throne, and whose son was divided to the people, always stood at my right hand in the furnace, turning aside with her robe the volume of fire and smoke.

Nos sane credimus, post benedictionem ecclesiasticam, illa mysteria esse verum corpus et sanguinem Salvatoris: adducti, et veteri Ecclesiae auctoritate, et multis noviter ostensis miraculis. Quale fuit, quod beatus Gregorius exhibuit Romae. Quale, quod Pascasius narrat contigisse in Alemannia, Presbyterum Plegildum visibiliter speciem pueri in altari contrectasse, et, post libata oscula in panis similitudine, conversum ecclesiastico more, sumpsisse: quod, arroganti cavillatione, ferunt Berengarium carpere solitum, et dicere; speciosa certe Pax nebulonis, ut cui oris praebuerat basium, dentium inferrat exigium.

Quale, de pusione judaico, qui, in ecclesiam cum aequaevo christiano forte et ludibunde ingressus, vidit puerum in ara membratim discerpi et viritim populo dividi; id cum innocentia puerili parentibus pro veto assereret, in rogum detrusum, ubi occluso ostio aestuabat incendium, multis post horis, sine jactura corporis exuviarum et crinium, a christianis extractum; interrogatusque, quomodo voraces ignium globes evaserit, respondit: Illa pulchra foemina, quam vidi sedere in cathedra, cujus filius populo dividebatur, semper mihi in camino ad dexteram astitit, flammeas minas et fumea volumina peplo suo submovens. De Gest. Anglor. Continuat. lib. 3. c. 27.

Now it is clear, that this figment, detailed by William with implicit credulity and evidently with full approbation, could never have been constructed save on the basis of the recognized 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 mass of bread was changed into the UNDIVIDED body of ONE Christ: and that Such body, when distributed to the communicants, was afterwards DIVIDED into numerous portions or fragments, so that each communicant received, not the WHOLE Christ, but a PART only of a leg or an arm or any other member according as it might happen.

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 actually subjected the unlucky holder of it to all the pains and penalties of a formal anathema.

If any one, say these unerring settlers of the Faith, shall deny, that, in the venerable sacrament of the Eucharist, the WHOLE Christ is contained under each species, and, when a SEPARATION is made, under EVERY PART of each species : let him be anathema.

Si quis negaverit, in venerabili sacramento Eucharistiae, sub unaquaque specie, et sub singulis cujusque speciei partibus, separatione facta, totum Christum contineri: anathema sit. Concil. Trident. sess. 13. c. 8. can. 3.

Here I submit, that the decision of the Tridentine Fathers is altogether irreconcilable with the necessary purport of the miracle attested by the little Jew boy.

The decision of the Tridentine Fathers asserts: that the whole Christ is substantially contained, when a separation is made, under every particle of each species; so that every communicant 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 isNOT contained under every particle of each species when a separation is made; for the boy beheld the child Christ on the altar, under the hands of the Priest, torn limb from limb, and distributed in this divided state, man by man, to the people.

But, in the eleventh century, the miracle, as we learn from William of Malmesbury, was held to be good and sufficient evidence of the soundness of the doctrine then inculcated respecting the practical results of what was afterward styled Transubstantiation: and, in the sixteenth century, the decision of the Tridentine Fathers was held to be a good and sufficient establishment of the entire doctrine of Transubstantiation under all its various aspects, which has ever since been devoutly held by each true son of the Roman Church.

Hence, the orthodoxy of the eleventh century, which DENIES that the whole Christ is substantially received by every communicant; and the orthodoxy of the sixteenth century, which MAINTAINS that the whole Christ is substantially received by every communicant; are two entirely different systems: and, hence, the miracle which establishes the former, and the decision 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.

We have here, I take it, a very ugly business: for the matter finally resolves itself into the following awkward dilemma.

Is the well-meaning Romanist to believe, with his Church in the eleventh century: that in the administration of the Eucharist, Christ’s substantial body is divided into as many parts as there are communicants?

Or is he to believe, with his Church in the sixteenth century: that Christ’s substantial body, in the administration of the Eucharist, is\parNOT divided; but that every communicant receives substantially the\parWHOLE Christ complete in all his members?

If the former: then the Fathers of the Tridentine Council, so far from being infallible, must have grievously and presumptuously erred, when they anathematized all those who denied, that theWHOLE Christ is contained under EVERY PART of each species.

If the latter: then the Church of the eleventh century, so far from being infallible, 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 wisdom, has since pronounced to be an accursed heresy.

At all events, the doctrine of the eleventh century is palpably irreconcilable with the doctrine of the sixteenth century. 13 Treatise on Antichrist, in Perrin’s Hist. des Albig. p. 253-287. 14 Raynouard’s Choix des Poesies Originales des Troubadours, vol. 2. pref. p. 137-143. Hallam’s Introduct. to the Literature of Europe in the Middle Ages, chap. 1. 33. note. vol. 1. p. 37, 38. 15 Ben ha mil et cent anez compli entierement, que fo scripta L’ora car sen al derier temps. 16 1 Peter 1:20. 1 John 2:18. According to Michaelis, the first Epistle of St.

Peter was written A. D. 49, and the first Epistle of St. John A. D. 70: according to Lardner, the first Epistle of St. Peter was written A. D. 64, and the first Epistle of St. John A. D. 80. 17 Had the author said, ABOUT eleven centuries have elapsed, since it was written Now we are in the Last Time; the present supposition would have been reasonable and intelligible: but, since he definitely says, WELL have a thousand and a hundred years been COMPLETED ENTIRELY, since it was written Now we are in the Last Time; the supposition involves what to myself at least is incomprehensible. 18 There is much on this curious subject in Usser. de Eccles. Success. c. 1- 4. Perhaps I may be allowed to add the following to the authorities collected by the Archbishop.

About the year 906, we find the Abbot of St. Germain’s, attesting the general expectation that the end of the world was approaching, and adding the speculation that the Hungarians would be the predicted Gog and Magog.

Dicunt enim nunc esse novissimum saeculi tempus, finemque imminere mundi; et idcirco Gog et Magog esse Hungros, qui nunquam ante auditi sunt, sed modo in novissimo tempo apparuerunt.

From this then fashionable speculation he himself dissents: pronouncing, that, by Gog and Magog, we ought rather to understand a formidable body of heretics; who, at the instigation of Satan, should arise out of the allegorical corners and caverns of error, and should grievously persecute the Church. Abbat. S. German. Epist. ad Episc.

Virdum. in Dacher. Spicil. vol. 12. p. 352, 353.

The singular legend of the second sight of Edward the Confessor, shortly before his death in the year 1066, as detailed by William of Malmesbury, has evidently the same reference.

Stupenda, inquit, vidi: — Septem dormientes in Coeli monte requiescere, jam ducentis annis in dextro jacentes latere, sed tunc, ipsa hora risus sui, latus invertisse sinistrum. Futurum, ut septuaginta quatuor annis ita jaceant, dirum nimirum mortalibus omen. Nam omnia ventura in his septuaginta quatuor annis, quae Dominus circa finem mundi praedixit discipulis suis: gentem contra gentem surrecturam, et regnum adversus regnum; terrae notus per loca, pestilentiam, et famem; terrores de coelo, et signa magna; regnorum mutationes, Gentilium in Christianos bella, item Christicolarum in Paganos victorias. Talia mirantibus inculcans, passionem septem dormientium et habitudines corporum singulorum, quas nulla docet litera, ita prompte disseruit ac si cum eis cotidiano victitaret contubernio. Gul. Malines. de Gest.

Anglor. Contin. lib. 2. c. 34. p. 324.

It must, I suppose, have been on the same principle of interpretation, that, even at the close of the sixth century, Pope Gregory the great, in his Epistle to the newly converted King Ethelbert, anticipates the approaching end of the world and the speedy commencement of the portents which should be its harbingers.

Praeterea scire vestram gloriam volumus, quod, sicut in scriptura sacra ex verbis Domini Omnipotentis aguoscimus, praesentis mundi jam terminus juxta est, et sanctorum regnum venturum est quod nullo unquam poretit fine terminari. Appropinquante autem eodem mundi termino, multa imminent quae antea non fuerunt: videlicet, immutationes aeris, terroresque de coelo, et contra ordinem temporum tempestates, bella, fames, pestilentiae, 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. 1. c. 32. p. 172. 19 Esser mot avisa CANT venre l’Antechrist. 20 Nos veen aquest mont esser pres del chavon. 21 Poc deorian cubitar, che sen al remanent. 22 Undecimo saeculo, ut vere jam post mille annos solutus Satanas videri queat (ut Joannes praedixit Apoc. 20.), nempe ut ex hac parte mysterium iniquitatis operosius operaretur et plenius conficerit, multa et varia haeretieorum turba exorta est. Stapleton. Orat. Academ. 28. in Usser. de Eccles. Success. c. 3. Section 7.

Haeretiea sententia, quae a somniis Berengarii excitatur, omnes doctores et Ecclesiae Patres secundi Millenarii (nunc modo loquendi eorum utamur), id est, qui fuerunt infra trecentos et octoginta annos, aperte affirmat, fuisse post solutionem Satanae; proferens, ex testimonio Apocalypsis, solutum fuisse Satanam post annos Domini mille: doctrinamque, quam communiter tenemus esse fidem Ecclesiae de benedicta Eucharistia, astruit, non esse rectam, sed errorem, imo haeresim ac lolium et zizania Satanae jam soluti. Joan. Tissington.

Confess. A. D.1830. in Usser. Ibid. c. 3. 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 character of the Man of Sin as delineated by St. Paul.

Quid hunc, reverendi Patres, in sublimi solio residentem, veste purpurea et aurea radiantem: quid hunc, inquam, esse censetis?

Nimirum, si charitate destituitur, solaque scientia inflatur et extollitur, Antichristus est, in templo Dei sedens, et se ostendens tanquam sit Deus. — Quod jam in aperto fit, ut, Romana potentia conquassata, religione profligata, nomen Dei frequentibus perjuriis impune humilietur: ipsiusque divinae religionis cultus etiam a summis sacerdotibus contemnatur. Act. Synod. Rhemens. c. 28. in Usser. de Eccles. Success. c. 2. Section 15. 23 Ad fo fayt un pobie de novel converti. Chrestian foron nomina, che illi creyan en Christ. Ma co troben, que l’Escriptura di; Mot fort perseguian Jusios e Saracins. 24 Mahound is evidently no other than 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. 25 I am not without some suspicion, that the circumstance of the Noble Lesson mentioning the five wounds of Christ, while it is silent as to the number of nails employed, affords another incidental testimony to the correctness of its date.

Lucas of Tuy, in the thirteenth century, is very large on this subject, lie tells us, that the world had turned to many false opinions: and he specially enumerates, the alleged Docetism of the Albigenses which denied that Christ had truly suffered in the flesh, and the unsound tenet unauthoritatively advanced by other sectaries that three nails only were used in the crucifixion and that the left side (not the right side) of our Lord was pierced by the spear.

This last opinion was advocated from about the latter end of the eleventh century: but Pope Innocent III finally and infallibly determined, that four nails were used, and that the roman soldier pierced the right side 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 brings forward the remarkable case of St.

Francis Assissi, upon whose body were preternaturally impressed the five wounds of our Savior, in such a manner, that the semblance of the heads of four nails appeared in the inside of the two hands and on the outside of the two feet, while there was so real a wound on the right side that it often emitted blood.

Now this impostor was the founder of one of the two Orders which were started by Innocent III against the Humiliated and the Poor Men of Lyons: and as a part of the project, he contrived, we see, to mark himself in such a manner, as to bear a sort of practical testimony against the old triclavian heresy of those whom he was appointed specially to oppose. All parties acknowledged five wounds: but the semblance of four rusty nail-heads on the hands and feet of Francis were, of course, 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 believed that three nails only were employed: and, accordingly more than a century earlier, the author of the Noble Lesson, whom I suppose to have been a Triclavian, mentions the five wounds; but, probably in order to avoid giving needless offense is silent as to the number of the nails, and specifies not whether the right side or the left side 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; and forthwith there flowed out blood and water mingled together.

I may 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 Savior is pierced by a Cavalier or Knight.

Un de Cavalier vene, e li ubere la costa.

Lucas of Tuy tells us, that the heretics were confounded by the practical argument of Francis: but this assertion ought perhaps to be received cum grano salis. See Luc. Tudens, adv. Albig. error. lib. 2. c. 11. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 13. p. 262, 263. 26 L’esprit de ce poeme est tout-a-fait celui d’un age simple et recule; d’un peuple nourri sans alteration de la pure doctrine primitive, si touchante dans ses naivetes, si belle dans sa tolerance. Muston. Hist. des Vaud. vol. 1. p. 146. 27 From this recommendation to study Scripture, an occasion, I believe, has been taken to assert: that The Noble Lesson could not, agreeably to its own pretended date, have been written in the year 1100.

Who, it has been asked, could then have thought of propounding such a recommendation: for, as no translation of the Bible into the vulgar tongue then existed, who could then have acted upon it? And, furthermore, in the particular case of the Valdenses, if they already possessed a translation of the Bible in the year 1100, what occasion was there for Peter Valdo to make, or cause to be made, another translation in the year 1160?

I. It is really marvelous, that so futile an objection could ever have been seriously advanced.

According to the testimony of Peter Siculus, the Paulicians, even before they emigrated from Armenia, both possessed and so familiarly read the greater part of the New Testament, that even females were accustomed to its perusal. Petr. Sic. Hist. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 9. par. post. p. 31, 88. The sacred volume, confessedly altogether uncorrupted, they brought with them into the West. Cedren. Hist.

Compend. vol. 1. p. 341. And, so early as the year 1017, we find a branch of them, the converts of a woman, charged with reading both the Old and the New Testament only to deny the truth of their contents. Rodulph. Glab. Hist. lib. 3. c. 8. Hence we need not be surprised at the statement of Reinerius, that, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, most of those who were called heretics, were so familiar with their translation of Scripture, that they could even say the entire New Testament by heart. Reiner. de haeret, c. 3, 8. in Bibl.

Patr. vol. 13. p. 299, 307.

Nor is this all. William of Malmsbury tells us: that, in the eighth century, the venerable Bede put forth an interpretation of St. John’s Gospel in English for the benefit of those who were imperfectly acquainted with Latin. Evangelium quoque Johannis, quod difficultate sui mentes legentiam exercet his diebus, lingua interpretatus anglica, condescendit minus imbutis latina. Gul. Malines. de gest. reg. Anglor. lib. 1. p. 12. In the same eighth century also, Alcuin, the friend of Charlemagne, the native son of England and the adoptive son of France, gives that precise recommendation, which occurs in the Noble Lesson, and which has rapidly been deemed fatal to its claim of having been written in the last year of the eleventh century. The reading of Holy Scriptures, says he, is the knowledge of everlasting blessedness.

In the Holy Scriptures man may contemplate himself, as in some mirror, what sort of person he is. Just so the reading of the Holy Scriptures: it cleanseth the reader’s soul; it bringeth into his mind the fear 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 turneth the words into works.

All the Holy Scriptures are written for our health, that we may through them understand the truth. Ale. M. S. in Bibl. Publ. Cant. apud. Soames’s Bampt. Lect. p. 92, 93.

II. But it is urged by the objector, that, if the Valdenses possessed a translation of the Scriptures in the year 1100, Peter Valdo would never have undertaken another translation in the year 1160.

This objection, as it stands, will clearly, mutatis mutandis, 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 we Anglicans had already a translation of the Bible, what need could there be of another? In truth, however, the objection before us is built upon a gross confounding of the ancient Italian Valdenses with the comparatively modern French Valdenses: and, when sifted, it will probably bring out a result exactly opposite to that intended by its contriver. The making of a French translation for the use of the 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 the anterior existence of a translation in the dialect of the Italian Valdenses. When Reinerius tells us, that he translated the Scripture into the vulgar French tongue, he remarks: that he was only, aliquantulum literatus, slightly tinged with letters. Now the very circumstance of a person thus characterized, himself 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, both his own previous acquaintance with Scripture, and his taking as the basis of his French version an older version in the familiar dialect of his own country. At all events, nothing can be more futile, than to make the production of a French translation, in the year 1160, a proof, that a vallensico-italian translation, could not have previously existed in the year 1100.

In some of these remarks I have been anticipated by Dr. Gilly. 28 This passage strongly indicates the unbroken doctrinal descent of the secluded Vallenses from the Primitive Church.

It was a constant dogma of the early Christians, that the second Person of the Holy Trinity, who at length took upon him our nature from the womb 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 man bearing the economic title of The Messenger of Jehovah.

The doctrine is clearly the doctrine of Scripture: but the Vallenses, I apprehend, so far as we may judge from their character and habits, received it catechumenically and by descent from generation to generation, rather than by any independent investigatory deduction of their own. In fact, the Noble Lesson itself is an evidence, as to how the dogma was transmitted. 29 Illi dicon, quel es VAUDES e degne de punir, ban cayson menconias en engan, cusi illi li paysan toler co quel ha de son just a fan.

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 termVAUDES in the Noble Lesson: though, certainly, if, with Raynouard and agreeably to the internal evidence afforded by the poem itself, we receive the year as its true date, we shall have a powerful confirmation of the fact. 30 Respecting the persecutions undergone by the Piedmontese Vaudois anterior to the time of their countryman Peter, we know little or nothing. Their long seclusion in the fastnesses of the Alps, where, like the beleaguered woman in the Apocalypse (to whom, indeed, their descendants were fond of comparing them), they had a place in the wilderness prepared of God for their nourishment both spiritual and temporal, precluded much knowledge of them save among their immediate Italian neighbors. 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 heretics: and the concurring statement of the Noble Lesson shows, that, although, at the end of the eleventh century, they might not have been called upon to seal their faith with their blood; yet were they exposed to those minor persecutions of rapine and pillage and fraudulent calumny, which, from time to time, impoverished them and harassed them and deprived them of their lawful and hard-earned substance.

I may remark, that the very sort of persecution, here mentioned, forms another point of internal evidence, that the Noble Lesson was written in the year 1100, and not during the latter half of the twelfth century.

Had the poem been written after the time when Peter began his ministration, persecution of a worse kind than that of plunder and imprisonment would assuredly have been mentioned: for so violently were the French Vaudois and their Founder harried by the Archbishop and the Church of Lyons, that those, who could escape, were fain to disperse themselves through all parts of France and Italy. But no persecution of this sort is specified in 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 poem cannot consistently be referred to the latter half of the twelfth century: a period, to which a rough calculation of about eleven centuries, from the day when it was written Now we are in the Last Time, would of necessity conduct us.

On the whole, I can have no hesitation in subscribing to the judgment of the learned Raynouard, respecting the age of the Noble Lesson.

La date de l’an 1100, qu’on lit dans ce poeme, merite toute confiance. 31 This reference to Cardinals, in the year 1100, may be viewed as another internal and unintentional testimony to the genuine antiquity of the Noble Lesson.

The mere name of Cardinal had long existed, both in the Roman Church itself, and in others also of the Latin Churches: but the College of Cardinals, with the power of electing the Pope, was first instituted in the Pontificate of Nicolas II, who sat in the Papal Chair from A. D. 1059 to A. D. 1061.

His edict, to this effect, runs as follows.

Constituimus: ut, obeunte hujus Romanae Universalis Ecclesiae Pontifice, imprimis Cardinales Episcopi, diligentissima simul consideratione tractantes, mox sibi Clericos Cardinales adhibeant, sicque reliquus Clerus et Populus ad consensum novae electionis accedant. Hug. Floriac. in Baluz. Miscell. vol. 4. p. 62. See Mosheim’s Eccles. Hist. vol. 2. p. 483.

The College 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 between the Pope and the Bishops, was at once natural and correct. 32 A reference is here made to various phenomena, which are said to have occurred in the course of the eleventh century, and which the persuasion of the age construed to be signs of the approaching end of the world. Usher has collected a curious multiplicity of examples. See his Work de Eccles. Success. c. 2. Section 33. c. 3. Section 3, 4. c. 4.

Section 2, 3, 4, 5, 9.

CHAPTER - 1 Per vocatos et multos, intelligis Catholicos: et, per paucos electos, intelligis complices tuos. Pilich. cont. Valdens. c. 14. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 13. p. 315. 2 Tenent Valdenses haeretici; beatam Virginem Mariam et Sanctos in patria tantis impletos esse gaudiis, quod nihil possint cogitare de his quae in terris fiunt; et, per consequens, eos non esse invocandos a nobis, quia non possunt orare pro nobis. Pilich. cont. Vald. c. 19. p. 317. 3 Dicunt etiam haeretici Valdenses: quod solus Deus sit laudandus, honorandus, et invocandus, et sibi soli serviendum; et quod Sancti non orent pro nobis propter plenitudinem gaudiorum, quam habent; et quod, quia solus Deus redemit nos, ideo solus possit juvare nos; et Sancti sibi ipsis meruerunt, et non nobis; et, quia Deus per se bene scit quod nobis necessarium sit, non indiget Sanctorum precibus moveri; et, quia, quidquid ipse vult, hoc volunt omnes Sancti: ergo non oportet invocare Sanctos, sed solum Deum. Pilich. cont. Vald. c. 20. p. 318. 4 Item dicunt haeretici Valdenses: solum esse duas vias post hanc vitam, et non purgatorium. Pilich. cont. Vald. c. 21. p. 320. 5 Item dicunt haeretici Valdenses: quod non sit melius, corpus hominis defuncti sepeliri in coemeterio, quam in alio quocunque agro vel loco.

Pilich. cont. Vald. c. 22. p. 322. 6 Dicunt Valdenses haeretici: ecclesiam materialem ab episcopo catholico dedicatam seu consecratam non fore, quacunque alia domo, meliorem, sanctiorem, vel digniorem; cum ubique Deus possit ac debeat adorari et sibi serviri. Pilich. cont. Vald. c. 23. p. 323.

The Valdenses, 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 and more efficacious when offered up in a consecrated building than when offered up privately in our closet or conjointly with our family in an apartment of a dwelling-house. Among the Romanists, a notion has always been encouraged, that God may be better worshipped in one place than in another; a fancy, which runs directly counter to our Lord’s own decision as to the nature and principles of genuine Christian service.

See John 4:20-24. Clement of Alexandria well teaches us: that a church is, not the building, but the worshippers. Ouj gapon, ajlla< to< a]qrisma tw~n ejklektw~n, ejkklhsi>an kalw~ . Clem. Alex.

Strom. lib. 7. Oper. p. 715. 7 Item reprobant Valdenses haeretici consecrationes vestium sacerdotalium et pontificalium, aquae, salis, cinerum, candelarum, ciborum tempore paschali, et omnium aliorum quae per episcopos et sacerdotes consecrantur: et etiam consecrationes episcoporum, sacerdotum, ecclesiarum, altarium, coemeteriorum, aquae baptismalis, chrismatis et olei unctionum, palmarum, frondium, et herbarum; dicentes, illas res, taliter consecratas, nihil omnino singularis sanctitatis ex illis verbis percipere, licet verba in se sancta sint et bona. Pilich. cont. Vald. c. 25. p. 325. 8 Item reprobant haeretici Valdenses indulgentias praelatorum Ecclesiae, peregrinationes ad limina sanctorum, et annum jubilaeum. — Nunc etiam advertamus merita sanctorum Dei: quia, sicut, exigente divina justitia, per peccatum mortale, perdit homo gaudia coelestis regni, et meretur poenam aeternam: sic, exigente divina clementia et misericordia per opus meritorium factum, postquam, per veram contritionem, confessionem, satisfactionem, poena illa aeterna intransitoriam fuerit mutata, meretur illius temporalis poenae diminutionem et coelestis praemii salutem et accidentalem augmentationem. Sed, quia beata Virgo Maria nunquam aliquam poenam meruit, et tamen infinita opera meritoria in ferventissima fecit charitate, ideo solummodo adepta est augmentationem praemii et non poenae diminutionem. Et illa secunda pars cessit in thesaurum Ecclesiae: unde multorum peccatorum et multarum peccatricum poenam diminuit meritum beatae Mariae: et de illo thesauro dantur indulgentiae. Similiter, sancti Apostoli, martyres, et multi perfecte justi, etsi prius peccatores fuerint, tamen ita sufficienter in hac vita poenituerunt, quod nullins poenae obnoxii permanserunt, etiam cum adhuc in hac vita mortali fuerunt; et sic adepti sunt, eorum operibus meritoriis, solummodo praemii augmentationem: et illud totum cedit in Ecclesiae thesaurum. Et sic patet, quomodo Ecclesiae thesaurus non potest exhauriri. Et hujus thesauri dispensator noluit esse ipse Christus Dominus solus: imo commisit ipse praelatis Ecclesiae, secundum tamen plus et minus.

Pilich. cont. Vald. c. 30. p. 328, 329.

To this wretched unscriptural trash, the views of the enlightened Valdenses, by the very necessity of Pilichdorf’s argument, stood directly opposed. 9 Item reprobant haeretici imagines et earum venerationem. Et videntur habere pro se multas authoritates diversarum Scripturarum, quae postea adducentur et solventur. Pilich. cont. Vald. c. 33. p. 329. 10 Item dicunt Valdenses haeretici: quod omne juramentum, quantumcunque judicialiter et veridice factum, sit peccatum et reprobatum. Pilich. cont. Vald. c. 36. p. 331. 11 Item, de signo crucis, nihil credunt: asserentes, quod nec venerentur illam crucem in qua Christus pependit, nec spineam coronam, nec clavos, nec lanceam, nec tunicam consutilem, si viderent; quorum omnium venerationem dicunt esse vanam et inutilem, et quod sacerdotes invenerunt propter lucra. Ind. error. Vald. ad calc. Pilich. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 13. p. 341. 12 Item dicta sanctorum nihil curant, nisi quantum pro secta eorum confortanta retinent: sed tantum Novum Testamentum ad literam observant. Ind. error. Vald. p. 341. 13 Item confessionera generalem nihil advertunt. Ind. error. Vald. p. 341. 14 Item miracula, quae fiunt in Ecclesia Dei Sanctorum meritis, omnino abjiciunt. Ind. error. Vald. p. 341. 15 Item dicunt: Papam esse caput omnium haeresiarcharum. Ind. error.

Vald. p. 340. 16 Item improbant omnes Religiones, tam monachorum quam sanctimonialium, dicentes esse superfluas et inanes. Ind. error. Vald. p. 341. 17 Item dicunt: omnia verba Missae et omnia praeparamenta ad Missam spectantia, esse de errore, praeter verba consecrationis. Ind. error.

Vald. p. 340. 18 Blasphemant insuper sacerdotium Christi, presbyteros in Ecclesia Dei, Deifices, quasi Deum facientes, illusive seu derisorie nominando. Cum tamen non Christum faciant sacerdotes; sed, per verba consecrationis a Christo instituta, sub speciebus panis et vini aqua misti, Christum Dominum nostrum esse praesentem faciunt corporaliter ubi corporaliter non fuerat prius, Spiritu Sancto hujus oblationis transubstantiationem deifice operante. Conrad. de Mont. Puell. cont.

Beghard. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 13. p. 343. 19 See Thuan. Hist. lib. 6. 16. vol. 1. p. 221.

CHAPTER - 1 Nempe ignavum est et belluinum hoc genus hominum, neque ad disputationes aptum. Sed, quum sunt coeteris acutiores, nonnullas suo sensu ex sacris literis citant authoritates nec sanctorum doctorum responsiones admittunt; verum, cortici literae inhaerentes, quicquid adversus eorum opinionem affertur una responsione absolvunt; depravasse, scilicet, Pontifices Romanos caeterosque sacerdotes suis dogmatibus et glossematibus sacram scripturam avariciae causa, et in rem suam convertisse, verumque literae sensum excaecatos cupiditate pervertisse. Rationibus vero suis, quamvis, apertissimis in adversum argumentis, revincantur, tenaciter adeo obstinateque adhaerent, ut, nullis demonstrationibus nullaque rei evidentia, convinci se patiantur.

Claud. Scyssel. Taurin. adv. error. et sect. Valdens. fol. 6, 7.

For a specimen of their reasoning, as exhibited by Scyssel himself, see Ibid. fol. 11-15, et alibi. 2 Scyssel. adv. Vald. fol. 6. See the last note.

Quicquid a Christo expresse dictum, aut ab Apostolis traditum, non invenerint etiam si hoc in sacris generalibus, Synodis sit definitum, hoc nulla lege introduci a posteris potuisse, obstinate contendunt: quasi nullam posterior Ecclesia habuerit statuendi authoritatem; omniaque in Evangeliis et Epistolis aut Actibus Apostolorum aperte distincteque sint conscripta, quae, particulatim unumquemque et generatim omnes, singulis temporibus, et cum caeteris hominibus et cum semetipsis, sint facturi. Ita ut nihil ad mores vel ad religionem statui possit aut servari debeat, quod non sit in his ipsis sacris scripturis speciatim expressum.

Ibid fol. 10. 3 Inde fit, uti neque censuram ecclesiasticam metuant, neque Praelatorum et Sacerdotum authoritati tribuant quicquam. Scyssel. adv. Vald. fol. 7.

Catholicam Ecclesiam apud se solos consistere credunt: et Romanam Sedem, Meretricem Magnam et Errorum Omnium Magistram, appellant. Ibid. fol. 9.

Qui igitur se Episcopos et Apostolorum Vicarios Successoresque affirmant, dicant, cujus Ecclesiae, vel civitatis, et provinciae: tum enim nullam Ecclesiam constituunt, quum sunt ab omnibus exclusi; et ipsi omnes reprobas dicunt, eo quod Romanam sequuntur. Ibid. fol. 39.

Falso illos nomen Ecclesiae sibi usurpare. Ibid. fol. 43. 4 Sanctorum praeterea festivitates, eodem errore, non colunt: utpote quorum suffrugio mortales non indigeant, Christo omnibus ad omnia abunde sufficiente. Scyssel. adv. Vald. fol. 7. 5 Nec alio pertinet, quam impiissime asserunt: quicquid, ad defunctorum animas purgatoriis poenis expiandas, impenditur, inane, perditum, superstitiosumque, esse; parique cupiditate, hanc, ut ipsi praedicant, fabulam a sacerdotibus fuisse confictam. Scyssel. adv. Vald. fol. 7, 8.

Aiunt, defunctorum animas, nulla purgatione exanimatas, ad aeterna vel gaudia vel supplicia, quum corporibus exeunt, confestim recipi; ecclesiasticosque viros, cupiditate excaecatos, animarum purgatorium confinxisse. Ibid. fol. 66.

Se duas tantum vias, ex sacris scripturis post praesentis vitae exitum, didicisse dicunt. Ibid fol. 66. 6 Matrimonia libere in omni gradu contrahi posse, affirmant, uno aut altero ad summum exceptis; quasi in reliquis prohibendi nullam Pontifices habuerint potestatem. Scyssel. adv. Vald. fol. 7. 7 Sed et, dimittendorum peccatorum nullam sacerdotes nostros potestatem habere, aperte protestantur: et, proinde, neque illis confitendum esse affirmant, neque sacramenta reliqua ab his suscipienda; neque constitutionem Ecclesiae, qua ad sacramentalem confessionem sacramque communionem singulo quoque anno astringimur, ipsi recipiunt. Scyssel. adv. Vald. fol. 8. 8 A multis eoram Barbis hoc fuerit saepenumero praedicatum, ut gloriosae Virginis Mariae et caeterorum Sanctorum cultus abrogarent, et summorum Ecclesiae doctorum caeterorumque confessorum authoritati detraherent, qui, ut fidelium mentes ad Deum vehementius inflammarent, varias, et quidem potissimas ad Deum et Sanctos ejus, praesertim Mariam Virginem, orationes composuerunt, ex quibus sacrosanctae Missae pars maxima constat, 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 curam ullam gerant, aut a Deo impetrare quicquam pro nobis possint; Et, proinde, inanes esse ad Christi Matrem caeterosque Sanctos preces nostras, superstitiosamque esse illorum adorationem.

Ibid. fol. 68.

Quin Sanctos electos Dei, immo et ipsam Christi Genetricem, honorandos negant, illisque ceremoniarum cultum prohibent exhiberi: hoc pacto, divinae majestati derogatum iri reputantes quod ipse dixit; Dominum Deum tuum, adorabis, et illi soli servies. Ibid. fol. 72, Claude, in reply, employs the usual popish subterfuge, that the Romanists do not honor the Saints with the same worship as God.

Ibid. fol. 72.

He admits, nevertheless, the existence of the idolatrous abuse, which is the sure consequence of what the Papists are pleased to contradistinguish by the name of Dulia. Hae, in Dei Sanctorumque honorem, introductae feriae: hic cultus; heac religio. Quibus si immorigeri mortales prava corruptela abuntuntur: num, ex eo, Deum Sanctosque ejus, honore privandos, arbitrabimur? Corrigi certe magis, atque emendari, abusus nostros oportet. Ibid. fol. 74.

It is vain to talk of correcting abuses, when the very practice itself of Saint-Worship is an abuse to be abolished. 9 Quae vero, de Eucharistiae sacramento, deque ejus substantia et veritate, nonnulli ex ea secta, quo se caeteris doctiores ostendant, derident, seu garriunt potius quam loquuntur, persequenda hoc loco non videntur: quando quidem tam alta sunt tamque arcana, ut et fideles quidem ipsi, vel peritissimi theologi, vix capere, minime vero tradere caeteris, possint. Scyssel. adv. Vald. fol. 55.

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; provided only, as he judiciously subjoins, we acknowledge the Holy Catholic Church to be the Roman.

Neque hi, ad quos nobis habendus est sermo, sane rustici agrestes, montani, literarumque prorsus ignari, idonei sint, qui, vel eo modo quo nos catholici tenemus, vel eo quem eorum scioli Barbae tradunt, rem ipsam percipere possunt. Ibid. fol. 55.

Ne ultra quam dictum est inquirant: sed, Ecclesiae Sanctae Catholicae decisioni, casteras hujus sacramenti, et aliorum fidei nostrae articulorum, ecclesiasticorumque mysteriorum difficultates absolute relinquant, omniaque sub illo articulo includant Credo in Sanctam Ecclesiam; quod proculdubio absque ulla controversia sunt facturi, tantum ut Romanam hanc esse fateantur. Ibid. fol. 56. 10 Haec superstitiosa esse affirmant, et ad extorquendas ab imperitis pecunias, a pseudo (ut ipsi appellant) sacerdotibus adinventa, sicuti et indulgentias, et ecclesiarum consecrationes, caeterasque sacerdotales benedictiones. Scyssel. adv. Vald. fol. 7.

Irridenda vero est potius quam impugnanda horum belluinorum hominum illa assertio, qua, ut Praelatorum et Ecclesiae authoritati derogent, indoctissime affirmant, benedictiones sacerdotum virtutem habere omnino nullam. Propterea, neque coemeteria, neque aquam, neque oratoria, neque ornarnenta ecclesiastica, neque reliqua quae de more benedici solent, ex ea benedictione quicquam percipere. Scyssel. adv. Vald. fol. 56. 11 Multo vero magis imagines detestantur, et crucis signum quod nos adoramus; hanc idololatriae speciem reputantes: quasi nos imagines Christi et Sanctorum, velut pagani deorum suorum simulachra, colamus. Scyssel. adv. Vald. fol. 68.

Quod vero imaginum adorationes in nobis arguunt, hoc, si id ita fiat ut ipsi intelligunt, non adversamur. Neque ignoramus, in generalibus quoque conciliis, publicisque Christianorum conventibus, inter Ecclesiae Principes et Pastores, haud parva contentione disceptatum fuisse, an prohibendus esset, ex toto, statuarum atque imaginum usus; multosque non levis doctrinae nec contemnendae authoritatis viros in eam partem subscripsisse: scilicet, ne ad idololatriam homines, alioquin ex recenti gentilitatis memoria satis proni, paulatim redirent. Ibid. fol. 75. 12 Quippe hoc a plerisque eorum extortum est, et apud assectatores est manifestum, suadere illos, a matris tantum filiae, et commatris, et fortassis etiam sororis, nuptiis abstinendum esse: caeterarum matrirnonia non improbare, quasi hoc lege divina non sit prohibitum, neque potuisse humana prohiberi. Scyssel. adv. Vald. fol. 48.

They scrupled I suppose, to obtain a popish dispensation to marry an aunt after the portuguese fashion; though they might not deem such an instrument necessary to authorize them to marry a cousin. 13 In reliquis ferme puriorem, quam caeteri Christiani, vitam agunt. Non enim, nisi coacti, jurant: raroque nomen Dei in vanum proferunt.

Promissaque sua, bona fide, implent: et, in paupertare pars maxima degentes, apostolicam vitam doctrinamque servare se solos protestantur. Ob idque, potestatem Ecclesiae apud se, velut innoxios et veros Christi discipulos, residere affirmant; pro cujus fide religioneque in egestate vivere et a nobis persecutionem pati, pulchrum et gloriosum ducunt. Scyssel. adv. Vald. fol. 9. 14 Crispin. Act. et Moniment. Martyr. lib. 3. fol. 88, 100, 110. 15 Credimus et confitemur universi: sanctam Scripturam, inclusam Veteri Novoque Testamento, divino afflatu plane instinctuque coelitus infusam. - Ex ejusdem Scripturae disciplina, confitemur et credimus in unum Deum; Patrem, Filium, et Spiritum Sanctum; tribus distinctum personis; sed eadem una, spirituali, aequabili, perpetua, nullum neque principium neque divinitatis exitum habente, essentia praeditum: qui, maxima potentia sua infinitaque bonitate, creavit omnia, eaque vegetet, tueatur, et conservet. - Certum habemus, Dei Filium in hunc mundum venisse, et humanae carnis involucro tegi voluisse: qua in re una, Christianae Religionis mysterium est constitutum, eoque nomine spem nostram totam et fidem in Jesu Christo, Filio Dei, Domino nostro, Deo admirabili, authore aeternae vitae, solo salvatore, justificatore sanctificatore, solo interprete et patrono generis humani, solo sacrificatore, cui successore non sit opus: eumque vere Deum, ac vere hominem, existere.

Credimus atque confitemur, Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum conceptum esse ex Spiritu Sancto, opere virili in totum detracto sublatoque, quemadmodum angelus ante conceptionem ipse nunciavit: idque eo consilio potissimum, uti sanctus integerque nasceretur; cujus procreationem, ab omni labe deformationeque vacuam esse, necessarium esset.

Credimus et confitemur, Jesum Christum, omni detracta corruptione, ex virgine Maria natum in Bethleem civitate, corpusque sumpsisse ad nostri plane similitudinem, excepto peccato, cui obnoxius esse minime potuit. - Credimus et confitemur, Jesum Christum, sub Pontio Pilato passum, crucifixum, mortuum, sepultum, pro peccatis nostris: illum enim unum Agnum vere Paschalem esse, in victimam oblatum, ut nos ex diaboli faucibus eriperet. - Credimus et confitemur, descendisse illum ad inferos. — Credimus et confitemur, Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum tertio postea die suscitatum a mortuis, ad justificationem nostram.

Credimus et confitemur, Dominum nostrum, Jesum Christum, quadraginta post resurrectionem suam diebus, in coelum ascendisse, corporeamque praesentiam suam ex his inferioribus locis submovisse. - Credimus et confitemur, sedere illum ad dexteram Dei Patris omnipotentis. - Credimus, Jesum Christum judicatum venturum superstites ac mortuos semel aliquando extremo ipso judicii die. - Credimus in Spiritum Sanctum, tertiam ejusdem cum Patre et Filio divinae essentiae personam, ex eodem Patre Filioque manantem, utrique eorum aequalem. - Credimus et confitemur sanetam Ecclesiam Catholicam, quae est Congregatio et Coetus omnium vere credentium, fidelium, et 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 misericordia et mera bonitate Domini nostri Christi, profectam; qui mortuus est semel pro peccatis nostris, justus ille pro injustis; qui tulit peccata nostra in corpore suo ad crucem; — qui noster est advocatus apud Deum, ipse est pretium reconciliationis nostrae; — sanguis ejus mundat conscientias nostras ab operibus mortuis, ut serviamus Deo vivo; — qui solus pro fidelibus satisfecit, quibus peccata non imputantur quemadmodum incredulis atque reprobis. Confess. Vald. in Crispin. Act. Martyr. lib. in. fol. 104-106. 16 Credimus resurrectionem carnis benedictorum Dei, ad possidendum regnum coeleste in aeternum; maledictorum vero Dei, ad ignem et cruciatum perpetuum. Credimus item, animas esse immortales: fidelium autem ac filiorum Dei animas, quamprimum ex hoc corpore migrarunt, ad gloriam coelestem transire; — infidelium vero ac reproborum animas, cum e corporibus discedunt, ad inferorum cruciatus se conferunt usque ad diem judicii et resurrectionis carnis, ut ibi corpore et anima in perpetuum torqueantur in gehenna ignis inextincti.

Credimus, vitam aeternam, nobis, gratia Dei per Christum, oblatam: qui vere vita est, ac mortem confecit, ut fideles vitae aeternae haeredes fiant. - Credimus et confitemur, Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, abolita Circumcisione, instituisse Baptismum, per quem in populi Dei Ecclesiam recipimur. — Baptismus vero exterior alium quoque interiorem nobis exhibet, Gratiam scilicet Dei, quae cerni his oculis non potest. — Apostoli atque alii ministri Ecclesiae baptisant, prolato verbo Dei ad sacramentum; ac signum visibile tantum donant: Dominus vero Jesus Christus, ajrcipoi>mhn , solus incrementum dat; et facit, ut res signatas percipiamus. — Errant etiam graviter, qui pueros Christianorum a Baptismo removent.

Credimus et confitemur, Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum deinde ordinasse sacramentum Coenae, quae gratiarum est actio, et memoria mortis ac passionis Jesu Christi, in coetu populi Dei rite celebrata. In quo quidem panis et vinum distribuuntur et sumuntur, ut visibilia signa et monimenta rerum sacrarum: corporis videlicet et sanguinis Jesu Christi suspensi atque in cruce oblati pro peccatorum nostrorum remissione, et generis humani cum Deo reconciliatione. Quisque credit Jesum Christum, tradidisse corpus suum, et profudisse sanguinem, ad remissionem peccatorum; ille comedit carnem e bibit sanguinem Domini, et utriusque fit particeps: considerans convenientiam earum rerum quae oculis subjiciuntur et cibi quo corpus istud sustentatur, cum iis rebus quae non videntur atque cibo spirituali. Etenim, ut corpus in hac vita pane corroboratur, vinumque cor hominis recreat: ita etiam corpus Jesu Christi morti traditum, ejusque sanguis pro nobis effusus, nutrit, confirmat, et reficit, animam tristem et afflictam.

Coeterum nequis existimet, signum visibile, cum re per id significata quae est invisibilis, adeo conjungi aut conglutinari, ut disjungi aut dissolvi nequeant, quin unum sine altero esse possit. Nam Judas signum quidem cepit, rem vero significatam et fructum non percepit, nec unquam corporis et sanguinis Jesu Christi particeps factus est. — Atqui istud non eo modo accipiendum quo nonnulli opinati sunt, verum Christi corpus et naturale, carnem et ossa, in pane illo Coenae esse ac delitescere, aut in eum converti; nam haec opinio pugnat cum verbo Dei, et fidei nostrae articulis est contraria, in quibus clare habemus, Christum ascendisse ad coelos, sedere ad dexteram Dei Patris omnipotentis, unde et venturus est ad judicandum vivos et mortuos: sed Dominus Jesus Christus sacramento Coenae adest, potentia, virtute, atque praesentia, Spiritus sui, in cordibus electorum suorum et fidelium. — Errant etiam, qui affirmant, in Coena Christi corpus comedi corporaliter: caro enim nihil prodest; Spiritus est, qui vivificat.

Fideles igitur vere Jesu Christi carnem edunt et sanguinem bibunt spiritualiter in ipsorum cordibus. Confess. Vald. in Crispin. Act.

Martyr. lib. 3. 106-108. 17 Credimus et confitemur, sincerum Dei cultum consistere in eo, ut voluntati ejus pareamus, atque omnem nostram diligentiam, operam, ac studium, conferamus in hoc, ut, quoad in nobis erit, eam consequamur. — Porro finis praecepti est Deo obedire in vera charitate, ex puro et integro corde, et conscientia bona, et fide non simulata. — Confitemur, agnitionem peccati ab ipsa Legis intelligentia proficisci; quae nostram, quasi digito, ostendit imbecillitatem, quum nemo sit mortalium qui eam implere valeat: omnes enim homines peccatores sunt. - Confitemur, bona opera, quae Deus praeparavit ut in iis ambularemus, quaeque in verbo ejus proposita sunt, fieri debere atque studiose impleri: non quidem spe promerendi aliquid 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 omnibus rebus servandam. Jejunium quoque nobis in Scriptura injunctum est, quod corporis affiictione atque humiliatione constat, non id quidem ut tantummodo caro affligatur, sed ut alacriores, magisque ad precandum idonei, reddamur. - Confitemur etiam, in Veteri quidem Testamento certos cibos fuisse prohibitos, quorum tamen, apud Christianos, liber mansit usus per Jesum Christum. - Confitemur, reges, principes, ac magistratus, personas esse a Deo constitutas, ut gladium gestent ad bonorum defensionem atque punitionem facinorosorum. Ideoque eis obedientia debetur, non modo propter iram, sed etiam propter conscientiam. - 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. Contra, vero, pastores avari, qui, turpis lucri causa, sub praetextu nihilominus cultus Dei, falsas doctrinas comminiscuntur; — qui templum Dei prophanant, ut speluncam latronum efficiant; qui pecunia se animas e purgatorio, ut vocant, redimere posse confirmant; atque, accepto pretio, veniam et peccatorum remissionem promittunt; qui mala opera venditant: tales, inquam, impostores, sacrilegi, atque idololatrae, de gradu demovendi regum ac magistratum authorirate, aliique in ipsorum locum substituendi forent. Confess. Vald. in Crispin. Act. Martyr. lib. 3. fol. 108-110. 18 Crispin. Act. Martyr. lib. 3. fol. 111. 19 Crispin. Act. Martyr. lib. in. fol. 112. 20 Bossuet. Hist. des Variat. livr. 11. 119, 120. 21 In his tantis calumniis et criminibus, reliquus populus, qui ad pedem Alpium, et qui Merindolii Cabrieraeque, degit, ita pie ac modeste semper vixit, ut, in eorum tota consuetudine ac vitae ratione, timor Dei maxime eluxerit, summa fides et justitia perspecta fuerit. In exigua cognitionis luce quam Dominus eis dederat, in eam unam curam incumbebant, ut id, quod habebant, magis quotidie accenderent, nullis rebus aut facultatibus suis parcentes, sive libri Scripturae Sacrae parandi essent, sive homines optimo ingenio praediti, in doctrina pietatis instituendi, sive huc illucque mittendi etiam usque ad extremas mundi partes, ubi aliquem lucis salutaris radium exortum esse audiverant. Crispin. Act. Martyr. lib. 3. fol. 88. 22 Itaque, quod antea saepius professi sunt, id etiam nunc confirmant: nempe, si, idonea inquisitione habita, probentur in aliquo errasse, aut ex verbo Dei haereseos convincantur; se, absque ulla cunctatione, abjuraturos esse quicquid in ipsorum Confessione reperietur quod cum sacrosaneta Dei doctrina non consentiat: contra, si, ipsos, nullo errore ductos, nullave haereseos nota vel macula infectos, constat puram Evangelii doctrinam SEMPER docuisse et coluisse; non esse consentaneum, se ad canendam palinodiam errorum quibus obnoxii non sint, impelli aut ulla yi cogi. Crispin. Act. Martyr. lib. 3. fol. 111. 23 Sumus qualeseunque doctores cujusdam plebis indignae et pusillsae. — In omnibus tamen vobiscum convenimus: et, a tempore Apostolorum, semper de fide, sicut vos, sentientes concordavimus: in hoc solo differentes; quod, culpa nostra, ingeniique nostri pigritia, scriptores, tam recte quam vos, neutiquam intelligimus. Scultet. Annal. Evangel.

Renovat. in A. D. 1530. p. 161, 163. 24 See Preface to Glorious Recov. p. 13, 14, translated by Acland. See also Gilly’s Mem. of Neff. Introd. p. 21. 25 Tertia causa haeresis est: quia Novum et Vetus Testamentum vulgariter transtulerunt: et sic docent et discunt. Audivi et vidi quendam rusticum idiotam, qui Job recitavit de verbo ad verbum: et plures, qui totum Novum Testamentum perfecte sciverunt. Et, quia sunt laici idiotae, false et corrupte Scripturam exponunt. Reiner. de haeret. c. 3. p. 299.

Apud nos vero rarus est vir vel femina, qui textum non sciat vulgariter recitare. Ibid. c. 8. p. 307.

This extraordinary intimacy with Scripture was in the early part of the thirteenth century: and, if I mistake not, the account very faithfully reflects the condition of the Vallenses, on either side of the Cottian Alps, at the time of the Reformation.

The remark of the present excellent Bishop of Chester, Dr. Sumner, exactly applies to the old Vallenses. Spiritual knowledge has this peculiar characteristic: it has little connection with superior education or cultivation of mere intellect. Charge A. D. 1832. p. 25.

CHAPTER - 1 See above, book 3. chap. 8. 2 Petrus Valdus, locuples civis Lugdunensis, anno Christi circiter 1170, Valdensibus nomen dedit. Is, domo ac bonis relictis, totum se evangelicae professioni devoverat; et prophetarum atque apostolorum scripta, populari lingua vertenda, curaverat. — Cum jam multos sectatores, exiguo tempore, circa se haberet; eos, tanquam discipulos, ad evangelium promulgandum, in omnes partes ablegat. Thuan. Hist. lib. 6. 16. vol. 1. p. 221.

Valdesios, a primate ipsorum Valde dictos, qui fuerat civis Lugduni super Rhodanum. Gualt. Mapes. de Nugis Curial. distinct. 1. c. 31. apud Usser de Eccles. Success. c. 8. 6.

Valdenses dicuntur a suo haeresiarcha, qui Valdius dicebatur: qui, suo spiritu ductus, non a Deo missus, novam sectam invenit. — Quorum discipuli, id est, muscipulae, jam per diversas mundi partes, simplices seducunt a via. Alan. cont. Valdens. lib. 2. c. 1. apud Usser. de Eccles.

Success. c. 8. Section 5.

Fuit quidam civis Lugdunensis, nomine Valdensius seu Valdensis, qui dives existens divitias reliquit, ut pauper fieret et Christum sequeretur et evangelicam perfectionem servaret. Sed, errore pravae intelligentiae Scripturarum abductus a veritate demens, ipse et ejus sequaces, ab unitate et obedientia Ecclesiae alienati, per schisma in haeresim sunt prolapsi. Guid. Perpin. in Summa de haeres. apud Usser. de Eccles.

Success. c. 8. Section 5.

Insurrexit in partibus gallicanis, in archiepiscopatu et civitate Lugdunensi, quidam vocatus Valdensius seu Valdensis; qui, relictis omnibus, proposuit servare evangelicam paupertatem, sicut Apostoli servarunt: qui plures sibi adhaerentes habuit, et congregationem magnam virorum et mulierum fecit. — Hi vocantur Valdenses, a Valdense eorum magistro errorum et auctore. Vocantur etiam Pauperes de Lugduno, a civitate Lugdunensi unde traxerunt originem, et quia vitam elegerunt pauperem. Nic. Eymeric. Direct. Inquisit. par. 2. quaest. 14. apud Usser. de Eccles. Success. c. 8. Section 5. 3 Petrus quidam Valdensis, ab oppido Valdis sito in marchia Galliae, unde erat oriundus, sic appellatus. Centur. Magd. apud Usser. de Eccles.

Success. c. 8. 5.

Petrus ei nomen fuit; Valdo, cognomen: natus in vico, qui, prisco nomine postea mutato, dictus est Vaudra; eo quod, populari lingua, Valdo et sectarii ejus Vaudois cognominarentur. Masson. Praefat. in Alan. cont. Valdens. apud Usser. de Eccles. Success. c. 8. Section 5.

Ortus et origo Valdensium haereticorum talis est. — Notandum, quod, fere octingentis annis post Papam Sylvestrum, tempore Innocentii Papae II, in civitate Valden, quae in finibus Franciae sita est, fuit quidam civis dives, qui vel ipse legit vel audivit, Dominum dixisse cuidam adolescenti, Si vis perfectus esse, vade et vende omnia quae habes, et da pauperibus. — Putabat ille Petrus Valdensis, cum hanc audiret aut legeret scripturam, quod vita apostolica jam non esset in terra. Unde, cogitabat eam innovare: et, omnibus venditis et pauperibus datis, coepit vitam pauperem ducere; quod videntes, quidam alii corde compuncti sunt, et fecerunt similiter. — Cum autem diu in paupertate stetissent, inceperunt cogitare, quod etiam Apostoli Christi non solum erant pauperes, imo etiam praedicatores: coeperunt et ipsi praedicare verbum Dei. Pilich. cont. Valdens. c. 1. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 13. p. 312, 313.

What Masson means, is, I suppose, this. The place of Peter’s 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. 4 Nota, quod secta Pauperum de Lugduno, qui etiam Leonistae dicuntur, tali modo orta est. Cum cives majores pariter essent in Lugduno, contigit, quendam ex eis mori subito coram eis. Unde quidam inter eos tantum fuit territus, quod statim magnum thesaurum pauperibus erogavit. Et ex hoc maxima multitudo pauperum ad eum confluxit, quos ipse docuit habere voluntariam paupertatem et esse imitatores Christi et Apostolorum. Cum autem esset aliquantulum literatus, Novi Testamenti textum docuit eos vulgariter. Reiner. de haeret, c. 5. in Bibl.

Patr. vol. 13. p. 300.

According to Stephen de Borbon, what seems not unlikely, Peter, in his work of translating the Scriptures, employed two Priests, Stephen de Ansa and Bernard Ydros: the one, dictating the words of the translation; and the other, writing them down from his mouth. He professes to have received the account, both from many who claimed to have been eye-wit-nesses, and especially from Ydros himself.

Steph. Borbon. aliter Bellavill. de Septem Donis Spiritus S. par. 4. c. 30. in Ricchin. Dissert. de Valdens. c. 1. Section 5. 5 Quod Romana Ecclesia sit meretrix in Apocalypsi: — quod Papa sit caput omnium errorum: — quod ipsi sint Ecclesia Jesu Christi. Reiner. de haeret. c. 5. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 13. p. 300. 6 Ad Adelaidem, Ducissam, et Marchionissam Alpium Cottiarum. Pet.

Damian. Oper. lib. 7. epist. 16. p. 339. 7 I doubt, what (I believe) has sometimes been proposed, the derivation of Valden from the Teutonic Walden: whence our English Wild and Would and Wilderness. 8 Olim duae sectae in Italia exortae, adhuc perdurant: quorum alii Humiliatos, alii Pauperes de Lugduno, se nominabant. Conrad. Abbat.

Ursperg. Chron. in A. D. 1212. See above, book 3. chap. 8. Section 2. note. 9 De sectis ANTIQUORUM haereticorum, de quarto nota: quod sectae haereticorum fuerunt plures quam septuaginta; quae omnes, per Dei gratiam, deletae sunt, praeter sectas Manichaeorum, Arianorum, Runcariorum, et Leonistarum, quae Alemanniam infecerunt. Inter omnes has sectas, quae adhuc sunt vel fuerunt, non est perniciosior Ecclesiae, quam Leonistarum: et hoc, tribus de causis. Prima est, quia est DIUTURNIOR. — De sectis MODERNORUM haereticorum, nota: quod secta Pauperum de Lugduno, qui etiam Leonistae dicuntur, tali modo orta est. Reiner. de haeret. c. 4. 5. p. 299, 300.

In his Summa, Reinerius speaks much 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 stock of the Piedmontese Valdenses.

Cum sectae haereticorum olim fuerint multae, quae omnino fere destructae sunt per gratiam Jesu Christi, tamen duae principales modo inveniuntur: quorum altera vocatur Cathari sive Paterini; altera, Leonistae seu Pauperes de Lugduno. Summ. Frat. Reiner. in Marten.

Thesaur. Anecdot. vol. 5. col. 1761.

The view, taken of the engraftation of the modern French Valdenses upon the ancient Piedmontese Valdenses by Mr. de la Rogue, as cited by Bossuet for the purpose of showing its erroneousness, is, nevertheless, with submission to the learned Prelate, perfectly correct.

Pierre Valdo ayant trouve des peuples entiers separes de la communion de l’Eglise Latine, il se joignit a eux avec ceux qui le suivoient, pour ne faire qu’un meme corps et une meme societe par l’unite d’une meme doctrine.

The entire bodies of men already separated from the Roman Church, to which Peter Valdo and his disciples joined themselves, were assuredly the Piedmontese Valdenses: those very ancient Leonists, from whom, through the connecting link of their founder himself a Valdensis, the more modern French Leonists were derived, and with whom, consequently, they were in close and immediate communion.

Such obviously, is the import of the statement made by Mr. de la Rogue: and it perfectly agrees with the classification of Reinerius, who describes the Leonists as being the oldest of all known sects, and who yet says that the Poor Men of Lyons under the same name of Leonists were founded by Peter the Valdo as late as the twelfth century.

But Bossuet impugns this very just assertion of his countryman, on the ground: that, Anterior to the time of the merchant Peter, there were no bodies of men in a state of separation from the Roman Church, save the various branches of the Cathari or Albigenses, all of whom, with whatever minor variations, were alike fundamentally Manicheans.

Whence, if any such engraftation, as that asserted by Mr. de la Rogue, took place: it will serve only to bring out the not very satisfactory result, that The Manicheans were the spiritual ancestors of the Reformed. Boss. Hist. des Variat. livr. 11. 91.

The attack of Bossuet rests, throughout, upon an entirely false 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.

And, even if the Albigenses had been the only entire bodies of men that were separatists, and even if Peter and his French disciples had exclusively joined themselves to those previously existing religionists: still the Bishop’s attack upon Mr. de !a Rogue would exhibit nothing better than a complete Non sequitur; for it has been fully shown, and will hereafter yet further be inductively shown, that the Albigenses were not Manicheans. See above, book 2; and below, book 4. chap. 1. 10 Gualter. Mapes. de Nugis Curial. distinct. i.e. 31. apud Usser de Eccles.

Success. c. 8. Section 12. 11 Boss. Hist. des Variat. livr. 11. Section 2, 3, 73. 12 Boss. Hist. des Variat. livr. 11. Section 126. 13 Boss, Hist. des Variat. livr. 11. Section 46. 14 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 deemed an exaggeration; Fere nulla est terra, in qua haec secta non sit. But the south of Europe, as we may gather from the obviously far too diminishing allegations of Pilichdorf, was the chief theater of their missionary labors.

Licet tu, Valdensis haeretice, minimos credentes habeas ad aeternam damnationem, ostendam tibi tamen gentes, tribus, populos, et linguas, ubi, per Dei gratiam, sunt omnes Catholici, et omnes homines sunt immunes, a tua secta penitus conservati: scilicet, Angliam, Flammingiam, Flandriam, Brabantiam, Garlandriam, Westphaliam, Daciam, Sueciam, Norwegiam, Prussiam, et regnum Cracoviae, pene nullos habens Valdenses. Pilich. cont. Vald. c. 15. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 13. p. 315. 15 What Reinerius says of the Leonists being spread over the whole world (Secunda est, quia est generalior: fere enim nulla est terra, in qua haec secta non sit. Reiner. de haeret. c. 4. p. 299), must undoubtedly be understood of the Leonists as he viewed them in the middle of the thirteenth century, after the missionary labors of Peter and his Poor Men had been full seventy or eighty years in active operation: for, previous to the time of the holy merchant, the Vallenses, so far from being spread over the whole world like the Paulician Albigenses, were known only in their own immediate neighborhood. It is very probable:, that Peter borrowed from the ever-migratory Albigenses, the idea of a select missionary establishment. 16 Reinerius very justly says, that such is their strictly proper designation.

The disciples of Peter the Valdo were called The Poor Valdenses of Lyons in evident contradistinction to The Poor Valdenses of Piedmont. 17 Duo sunt genera sectae ipsorum. Quidam dicuntur Perfecti eorum: et hi proprie vocantur Poure Valdenses de Lion. Nec omnes ad hanc formam assumunt: sed prius diu informantur, ut et alios sciant docere. Hi nihil proprium dicunt se habere, nec domos, nec possessiones, nec certas mansiones: conjuges, si quas ante habuerunt, relinquunt. Hi dicunt se Apostolorum successores; et sunt magistri aliorum et confessores: et circuunt per terras, visitando et confirmando discipulos in errore. His ministrant discipuli necessaria. In quocunque loco veniunt, insinuant sibi mutuo adventum illorum. Conveniunt ad eos plures in tuto loco in latibulis audire eos et videre; et mittunt eis illuc optima quaeque cibi et potus. Et indicunt collectas nummorum discipulis pro sustentatione eorundem Pauperum et magistrorum suorum et studentium, qui per se sumptos non habent; vel etiam ad alliciendum aliquos, quos cupiditas nummi trahit ad sectam eorum. Auctor. Anon. de haer. Pauper. de Lugdun. in Marten. Thesaur. Anecdot. vol. 5. col. 1781.

The gratuitous slander, that these poor persecuted people tempted proselytes to join them by pecuniary bribery, is so 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 appears to have been somewhat of a favorite among the Romish divines: for, as I find from Usher, it again turns up, totidem verbis, in the Summa of Ivonet, par. 2. c. 2. The writer whom Marten styles an anonymous author, is, I believe, now ascertained to be Reinerius. In the collection of Marten, the Tractate is placed immediately after the Summa of that well-known apostate Inquisitor. 18 Vidimus in Concilio Romano, sub Alexandro Papa III celebrato (A. D. 1179), Valdesios, homines idiotas illiteratos (a primate ipsorum Valde dictos, qui fuerat civis Lugduni super Rhodanum); qui librum Domino Papae praesentaverunt lingua conscriptum gallica, in quo textus et glossa Psalterii plurimorumque Legis utriusque librorum continebatur.

Hi multa petebant instantia, praedicationis authoritatem sibi confirmari: quia periti sibi videbantur, cum vix essent scioli. — Ego multorum millium, qui vocati fuerunt, minimus, deridebam eos, quod super eorum petitione tractatus fieret vel dubitatio: vocatusque a quodam magno pontifice, cui et ille maximus Papa confessionum curam injunxerat, conjeci sagittam ad signnum. Multisque legis peritis et prudentibus adscitis, deducti sunt ad me duo Valdesii, qui sua videbantur in secta praecipui, disputaturi mecum de fide: non amore veritatis inquirendae, sed ut, me convicto, clauderetur os meum quasi loquentis iniqua. Timidus, fateor, sedi; ne, peccatis exigentibus, in Concilia tanto mihi gratia negaretur sermonis. Jussit me pontifex expediri adversus eos, qui respondere parabant. Primo, igitur, proposui levissima, quae nemini licet ignorare: sciens, quod, asino cardones edente, dignam habent labra lactucam. Creditis in Deum Patrem?

Responderunt: Credimus. Et in Filium? Responderunt: Credimus. Et in Spiritum Sanctum? Credimus. Iteravi: In matrem Christi? Et illi item:

Credimus. Et ab omnibus multiplici sunt clamore derisi. Gualter.

Mapes. de Nugis Curial. distinct, 1. c. 31. apud Usser. de Eccles.

Success. c. 8. Section 12.

I am not quite certain as to the intention of Mapes, when he says:

Timidus, fateor, sedi; ne, peccatis exigentibus, in Concilio tanto mihi gratia negaretur sermonis. That is to say, I am not quite certain: whether he means, that he felt some qualms, lest, the grace of eloquence being denied to him, he should thence make but a bad figure in this examination of the Valdenses; or whether he would intimate, that he was afraid lest the permission of speaking and of thus honorably distinguishing himself should be denied on account of his comparative obscurity. The former, perhaps, in the case of any other man, would not be an unlikely sense: for to examine is, in effect, to be examined. But, with the evident comfortable self-conceit of the facetious Presbyter, the latter may peradventure seem better to accord: and thence, probably, is his real meaning. In my translation, I have copied the ambiguity of the original.

Walter seems to have had a shrewd guess, as to the ultimate tendency of the preaching of these Valdenses. They were bringing the roman craft into danger of being set at nought: so that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshipped. The sacred image that fell from heaven was as much jeopardized in one case, as in the other. On the curious subject of the imitative DiopeteRome, p. 197-200.

This same Walter, the wit of his age, was precentor of Lincoln: and, afterward, for his rare merits, I suppose, was, in the year 1197, made Archdeacon of Oxford.

Walterus Map, de quo multa referentur jocunda, ex Praecentore Lincolniensi Archidiaconus Oxoniensis efficitur. Nicol. Trivett. Chron. in A. D. 1197.

One of the jocunda of this vir lepidissimus was, doubtless, his humorous banter of the Valdenses: a good story, often, I dare say, waggishly recited by the Archdeacon himself. 19 Olim duae sectae, in Italia exortae, adhuc 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 reperirentur. In occultis quoque praedicationibus, quas faciebant plerunque in latibulis, Ecclesiae Dei et Sacerdotio derogabatur. Vidimus tunc temporis (anno scilicet 1212) aliquos de numero eorum, qui dicebantur Pauperes de Lugduno, apud Sedem Apostolicam, cum magistro suo quodam, ut puto, Bernhardo: et hi petebant, sectam suam a Sede Apostolica confirmari et privilegiari.

Sane ipsi, dicentes se gerere vitam Apostolorum, nihil volentes possidere aut certum locum habere, circuibant per vicos et castella. Ast Dominus Papa quaedam superstitiosa, in conversatione ipsorum, eisdem objecit: videlicet, quod calceos desuper pedem praedicabant, et quasi nudis pedibus ambulabant. Praeterea, cum portarent quasdam cappas, quasi religionis, capillos capitis non attondebant, nisi sicut Laici. Hoc quoque probrosum in eis videbatur, quod viri et mulieres simul ambulabant in via, et plerumque simul manebant in una domo: et de eis diceretur, quod quandoque simul in lectulis accubabant. Quae tamen omnia ipsi asserebant ab Apostolis descendisse. Conrad. Abbat.

Ursperg. Chron. in A. D. 1212. apud Gretser. Proleg. c. 5. in Bibl.

Patr. vol. 13. p. 291. 20 Rarus est doctor inter eos (scil. pontificios), qui tria capitula continuata Novi Testamenti literaliter sciat de corde. Apud nos vero (scil.

Valdenses) rarus est vir vel femina, qui textum non sciat vulgariler recitare. Reiner. de haeret. c. 8. p. 307. 21 Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other Apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas? 1 Corinthians 9:5. 22 Qui enim Lugduni quiescere non poterant, Archiepiscopum et Ecclesiam metuentes, inde fugerunt: atque, per partes Franciae et Italiae dispersi, quamplures complices habuerunt; et, usque hodie, errores suos hinc inde seminaverunt. Eyrmeric. Direct. Inquis. par. 2. quaest. 14. apud Usser. de Eccles. Success. c. 8. Section 10. 23 Petrus Valdus, eorum antesignanus, patria relicta, in Belgium venit: atque, in Picardia quam hodie vocant, multos sectatores nactus, cum inde in Germaniam transiisset, per Vandalices civitates diu diversatus est, ac postremo in Boemia consedit; ubi etiam hodie ii, qui eam doctrinam amplectuntur, Picardi, ea de causa, appellantur. Thuan. Hist. lib. 6. 16. vol. 1. p. 221.

The Germans corrupted Picards into Pighards and Beghards: hence some have supposed that the word denotes Beggars from the verb Beggen. But Pighard so evidently forms the transition link between Picard and Beghard, that there can be little doubt, I think, of the true etymology: though it is not unlikely, that Pighard may have passed into Beghard with an allusion to the missionaries subsisting by voluntary alms or contributions. We must not, however, confound the Vallensic Beghards with the Franciscan Beguins. The mendicant Friars of St. Francis Assisi were one of the two Orders set up by Innocent III. in express opposition to the Humiliated and the Poor Men of Lyons. See Conrad. Abbat. Ursperg. Chron. in A. D. 1212, and Luc.

Tudens. adv. Albig. lib. 2. c. 11. It was evidently against the Valdensic Beghards or Picards in Germany, 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 end of the Work of Pilichdorf. The fragment will be found in Bibl. Patr. vol. 13. p. 342, 343. 24 Lorsqu’ils se sont separes, ils n’avoient encore que tres-peu de dogmes contraires aux notres, et peut-etre point du tout. — C’etoit une espece de Donatisme. Boss. Hist. des Variat. livr. 11. Section 73, 86. 25 Boss. Hist. des Variat. livr. 11. Section 83, 93. 26 The state of Luther’s mind, during the progress of his dispute with the Pope, cannot be better described than in his own words.

I permit the publication of my propositions against indulgences for this reason: that the greatness of my success may be attributed to God, and that I may not be exalted in mine own eyes. For, by these propositions, it will appear, how weak and contemptible I was, and in how fluctuating a state of mind, when I began this business. I found myself involved in it alone, and, as it were, by surprise. And, when it became impossible for me to retreat, I made many concessions to the Pope: not, however, in many important points; though certainly, at that time, I adored him in earnest. In fact, how despised and wretched a monk was I then; more like a lifeless body, than a human being!

Whereas, in regard to the Pope, how great was his Majesty! 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, not feignedly but really; 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 Pope with much pride and arrogance. But I, who then alone sustained the danger, was not so certain, not so confident. I was ignorant of many things, 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. There were indeed some godly souls, who entirely approved my propositions: but I did not consider their authority as of weight with me in spiritual concerns.

The Popes, Cardinals, Bishops, and Monks, were the objects of my confidence. I waited for divine instruction with such ardent and continued eagerness and was so overloaded with cares, that I became almost stupid or distracted. I scarcely knew, when I was asleep, or when awake. ,it length, after I became enabled to answer every objection that could be brought against me from the Scriptures, one difficulty still remained, and only one: namely, that the CHURCH ought to be obeyed. By the grace of Christ, I at last, overcame this difficulty also. Most certainly I had formerly a much greater veneration for the Roman Church, than those have; who, at this day, with a perverse spirit of opposition, extol Popery so exceedingly against me. Pref. in Luther. Oper. vol. 1. cited by Milner in Hist. of Church, cent. 16. chap. 3. vol. 4. p. 330-332.

So little do I speculate in supposing such to have been the mental operations of Peter’s French Converts from Popery, that, in the very nature of things, I am fully satisfied, that something strictly analogous must be the internal process experienced by every serious and devout person who is led honestly to work his painful way from the darkness and bondage of the Roman Church to the glorious light and liberty of the Gospel. 27 Even if Reinerius favored his opinion, which I venture to deny, he would still have to contend with the decisive testimony 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 Christ: a mode of expression, which clearly imports, that the Valdenses did not believe the consecrated elements to be the body and blood of Christ through any material transubstantiation, and 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 crucem, vel illud quod nos credimus Corpus Christi, adorant; vel Sanctos alios a Deo, vel eorum imagines. Steph. Borbon. de Septem Donis Spiritus Sanct. in Richin. Dissert. de Valdens. c. 3.

Section 4. artic. 17.

The Nos credimus of necessity imports the Illi non credunt: and the Illi non credunt is the obvious cause of the Illi non adorant. 28 Item dicunt: quod transubstantiatio non fiat in manu indigne conficientis, sed in ore digne sumentis. Reiner. de haeret. c. 5. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 13. p. 300. 29 Item dicunt: quod Missa nihil sit, quia Apostoli eam non habebant, et fiat propter quaestum. Item Canonem Missae non recipiunt, nisi tantum verba Christi vulgariter. — Item dicunt: quod oblatio, quae fit in sacerdotibus in Missa, nihil sit, neque proficit. Reiner. de haeret. c. 5. p. 300. 30 Corpus Christi et sanguinem non credunt vere esse, sed tantum panem benedictum; qui, in figura quadam, dicitur Corpus Christi: sicut dicitur, Petra autem erat Christus, et similia. Auctor. Anon. (scil. Reiner.) de haer. Pauper. de Lugdun. in Marten. Thesaur. Anecdot. vol. 5. col. 1779.

Reinerius, even as edited by Gretser, uses an expression, which implies, of necessity, that the Valdenses rejected the doctrine of transubstantiation.

Siscidenses concordant cure Valdensibus fere in omnibus, nisi quod recipiunt Eucharistiae Sacramentum. Reiner. de haeret. c. 6. p. 301.

The Siscidenses, it appears, received the Sacrament of the Eucharist. In this, they differed from the Valdenses. Therefore, by the very turn of the expression, the Valdenses did not receive it.

Now the Valdenses, so far as I am aware, are never charged with rejecting altogether the supper of the Lord: and Bossuet himself, even on the professed authority of Reinerius, contends, that they went so far as to hold the doctrine of Transubstantiation.

What, then, can the passage mean: and what was it that the Valdenses did reject?

The only reasonable answer, which can be given to this question, is: that They rejected the Sacrament of the Eucharist according to its definition in the Roman Church; while the Siscidenses, agreeing with them in almost all points save this, received that sacrament according to its popish definition. In other words the Valdenses denied the doctrine of Transubstantiation.

Bossuet felt the difficulty of this passage: and thence attempted to get over it, by asserting its import to be simply; that The Siscidenses readily received the Eucharist from the hands of a Romish Priest, while the Valdenses, on the plea of that Priest’s unworthiness, would not receive it from him. Hist. des variat. livr. 11. Section 3.

The gloss bears the impress of Bossuet’s ingenuity: but it is not, therefore, the less inadmissible.

When Reinerius, as in the present passage, uses the word recipio nakedly and absolutely; he uses it only in the sense of receiving or admitting or acquiescing in some book or doctrine or ordinance.

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; and Idem Joannes recipit totam Bibliam. Reiner. de haeret, c. 6. p. 302, 305.

The several expressions all convey one and the same idea.

Consequently, the sense, which Bossuet would here gratuitously affix to the word, must be rejected. 31 Haec fuit prima haeresis eorum, contemptus ecclesiasticae potestatis. Ex hoc, traditi Satanae praecipitati sunt ab ipso in errores innumeros.

Auctor. Anon. (scil. Reiner.) de haer. Pauper. de Lugdun. in Marten.

Thesaur. Anecdot. vol. 5. col. 1779.

Thuanus seems never once to have suspected, that they scarcely differed from the Roman Church at the time of their first separation from it. See Thuan. Hist. lib. 6. 16. vol. 1. p. 221. 32 If Bossuet means only, that the French Proselytes of Peter the Vaudois did not instantaneously renounce all the errors and heresies of the Roman Church, but that they were gradually brought to the truth by their fully enlightened teacher: he very probably at least may speak correctly, though I am ignorant of the existence of any precise evidence for the direct establishment of such an opinion. In that case, their progress would only resemble the progress of Luther. Yet it would, I suppose, be far more rapid: because Luther had painfully to search out the scriptural way by himself; whereas the French Proselytes had the advantage of an instructor, who being born and bred a Vaudois, had known in speculation the sincere Gospel from his very childhood. 33 Dicunt: quod Romana Ecclesia non sit Ecclesia Jesu Christi, sed sit Ecclesia Malignantium; et quod defecerit sub Sylvestro, quando venenum temporalium infusum est in Ecclesiam. Reiner de haeret. c. 5. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 13. p. 300. 34 Dicunt: quod ipsi sint Ecclesia Christi; quia Christi doctrinam, Evangelii et Apostolorum verbis et exemplis, observent. Reiner. de haeret, c. 5. p. 300. 35 Secundus error est: quod omnia vitia et peccata in Ecclesia sint, et quod ipsi soli juste vivant. Reiner. de haeret, c. 5. p. 300. 36 Tertius est; quod doctrinam evangelicam prone nullus servet in Ecclesia, praeter eos. Reiner. de haeret. c. 5. p. 300. 37 Quartus: quod ipsi sint vere pauperes spiritu, et persecutionem patiuntur propter justitiam et fidem. Reiner. de haeret. c. 5. p. 300. 38 Quintus: quod ipsi sint Ecclesia Jesu Christi. Reiner. de haeret, c. 5. p. 300. 39 Sextus: quod Romana Ecclesia sit meretrix in Apocalypsi propter superfluum ornatum. Reiner. de haeret. c. 5. p. 300. 40 Septimus: quod omnia statuta Ecclesiae contemnunt, quia sunt gravia et plurima. Reiner. de haeret. c. 5. p. 300. 41 Octavus: quod Papa sit caput omnium errorum. Reiner. de haeret. c. 5. p. 300. 42 Nonus; quod Praelati sint Scribae; et Religiosi, Pharisaei. Reiner. de haeret, c. 5. p. 300. 43 Decimus: quod Papa et omnes Episcopi sunt homicidae propter bella.

Reiner. de haeret, c. 5. p. 300. 44 Undecimus, quod non sit obediendum Praelatis, sed tantum Deo. Reiner. de haeret. c. 5. p. 300. 45 Omnia sacramenta Ecclesiae damnant. Reiner. de haeret. c. 5. p. 300.

This only means, that they condemn the sacraments as administered and defined by the Romish Priesthood. Accordingly, they themselves administered Baptism and the Lord’s Supper; though it was truly said of them, Omnes exorcismos et benedictiones baptismi reprobant; and, Quod Missa nihil sit, quia Apostoli eam non habebant. Reiner. de haeret. c. 5. p. 300. 46 Item, quod Ecclesia erraverit, dicunt matrimonium Clericis prohibendo.

Reiner. de haeret, c. 5. p. 300. 47 Item, quicquid praedicatur, quod per textum Bibliae non probatur, pro fabulis habent. Item dicunt, quod Sacra Scriptura eundem effectum habeat in vulgari, quam in latino. Unde etiam conficiunt in vulgari, et dant sacramenta. Reiner. de haeret. c. 5. p. 300. 48 Item, Testamenti Novi textum, et magnam partem Veteris, vulgariter sciunt corde. Item, decretales et decreta et dicta et expositiones sanctorum respuunt, et tantum inhaerent textui. Reiner. de haeret. c. 5. p. 300. 49 Item, excommunicationem contemnunt; et absolutionem non curant.

Reiner. de haeret, c. 5. p. 300. 50 Item, indulgentias Ecclesiae respuunt: et dispensationes derident.

Irregularitatem non credunt. Reiner. de haeret. c. 5. p. 300. 51 Item, nullum sanctum credunt, nisi Apostolos. Reiner. de haeret, c. 5. p. 300. 52 Nullum sanctum invocant, nisi Deum solum. Reiner. de haeret, c. 5. p. 300. 53 Item, canonizationes, translationes, et vigilias, sanctorum, contemnunt.

Reiner. de haeret. c. 5. p. 300. 54 Item, Laicos, qui sorte sanctos eligunt in altari, derident. Reiner. de haeret. c. 5. p. 301. 55 Item, Letaniam nunquam legunt: legendas sanctorum non credunt.

Reiner. de haeret, c. 5. p. 301. They objected not to Litanies in the abstract, but to such blasphemous trumpery, I suppose, as the Litany of the Virgin and the like. 56 Item miracula sanctorum subsannant. Item, reliquias sanctorum contemnunt. Reiner. de haeret. c. 5. p. 301. 57 Item, sanctam crucem reputant, ut simplex lignum. Reiner. de haeret. c. 5. p. 301. 58 Item, signum sanctae crucis horrent, propter supplicium Christi: nec unquam signant se. Reiner. de haeret. c. 5. p. 301. 59 Item dicunt, quod doctrina Christi et Apostolorum, sine statutis Ecclesiae, sufficiat ad salutem; quod traditio Ecclesiae sit traditio Pharisaeorum. Reiner. de haeret. c. 5. p. 301. 60 Omnes consuetudines Ecclesiae approbatas, quas in Evangelio non legunt, contemnunt: sicut Festum Luminum, Palmarum, Reconciliationem Poenitentium, Adorationem Crucis in Parascene, Festum Paschae, Christi et Sanctorum Festa, spernunt. Reiner. de haeret. c. 5. p. 301. 61 Item, omnes dedicationes, benedictiones, et consecrationes, candelarum, carnium, palmarum, chrismatis, ignis, cerei, Agni Paschalis, mulieris post partum, peregrinorum, sacrorum locorum, sacrarum personaram, vestium, salis, et aquae. Reiner. de haeret. c. 5. p. 301. 62 Aquam benedictam dicunt esse, ut simplicem. Reiner. de haeret. c. 5. p. 301. 63 Imagines et picturas dicunt esse idolatricas. Reiner. de haeret. c. 5. p. 301. 64 Item, processiones festivas ut Paschae, et lugubres ut dies Rogationum et funerum, respuunt. Reiner. de haeret. c. 5. p. 301. 65 Item, sepulchrum Domini, et sepulchra sanctorum, contemnunt. Reiner. de haeret. c. 5. p. 301. 66 Item dicunt, quod exequiae mortuorum, Missae defunctorum, oblationes funerum, testamenta, legata, visitatio sepulchrorum, vigiliae lectae, anniversarius, tricesimus, septimus, suffragia, non prosint animabus.

Reiner. de haeret. c. 5. p. 301. 67 Hos omnes errores habent, quia negant Purgatorium: dicentes, tantum duas vias esse; scilicet, unam, electorum, ad coelum; aliam, damnatorum, ad infernum. Reiner. de haeret. c. 5. p. 301. 68 Item dicunt, quod unum Pater Noster plus valeat, quam sonus decem campanarum, et plus quam Missa. Reiner. de haeret. c. 5. p. 301.

It may not be useless to subjoin the summary of their doctrines, which has been given by Thuanus.

Eorum haec dogmata ferebantur: Ecclesiam Romanam, quoniam verae Christi fidei renunciaverit Babylonicam Meretricem esse, et arborem illam sterilem quam ipse Christus diris devovit at revellendam esse praecepit; proinde minime parendum Pontifici et Episcopis, qui ejus errores fovent; monasticam vitam Ecclesiae sentinam ac plutonium esse; vana illius vota, nec nisi foedis puerorum amoribus servientia; Presbyterii Ordines magnae bestiae, quae in Apocalypsi commemoratur, notas esse; ignem purgatorium, solemne sacrum, templorum encaenia, cultum sanctorum, ac pro mortuis propitiatorium, Satanae commenta esse. His praecipuis ac certis eorum doctrinae capitibus alia afficta, de conjugio, resurrectione, animae statu post mortem, et de cibis. Thuan. Hist. lib. 6. 16. vol. 1. p. 221.

BOOK CHAPTER - 1 Morland’s Hist. of the Church of Piedm. p. 12, 289. Morland erroneously speaks of these emigrants as Valdenses: for he falls into the mistake, so justly pointed out by Bossuet, of styling, as it had become common in the time of the Jesuits Gretser and Mariana, all the dissident religionists of France, by the general name of Valdenses, as if they had universally sprung from the disciples of Peter Valdo. 2 Petrus Valdus, locuples civis Lugdunensis, anno Christi circiter 1170, Valdensibus nomen dedit. Thuan. Hist. lib. 6. Section 16. vol. 1. p. 221. 3 Qui enim Lugduni quiescere non poterant Archiepiscopum et Ecclesiam metuentes, inde fugerunt: atque, per partes Franciae et Italiae dispersi, quamplures complices habuerunt; et, usque hodie, errores suos, hinc inde, seminaverunt. Eymeric. Direct. Inquis. par. 2. quaest. 24 in Usser. de Eccles. Success. c. 8. Section 10.

The same account is given by Thuanus, with the additional particular that their chief place of refuge was the country of the Alps. This would very naturally be the case: for here they would join their brethren, the more ancient Vallenses of Piedmont.

Omnibus invisi et execrabiles facti, passim exules, sine lare per provinciam Narbonensem, Galliam Cisalpinam, ac praecipue inter Alpes, effunduntur; ubi, tutissimum perfugium nacti, complures annos latuerunt. Thuan. Hist. lib. 6. Section 16. vol. 1. p. 221. 4 Stulta illa et impia haeresis (scil. Petri de Bruis), more pestis validae, multos interfecit, plures infecit: sed, gratia Dei concitante et adjuvante studia vestra, a vestris regionibus sese paululum removit. Migravit tamen, sicut audivi, ad loca satis vobis contigua: et, a Septimania vestra, vobis persequentibus, expulsa, in provincia Novempopulana quae vulgo Gasconia vocatur, et in partibus adjacentibus, sibi foveas praeparavit. — Incitat magis ad haec, et velut adjectis dorso stimulis acrius instigat, fama nuper relata: quod scilicet anguis lubricus, de regionibus vestris elapsus, immo vobis prosequentibus expulsus, ad Narbonensem Provinciam sese contulerit; et, quod apud vos in desertis et villulis cum timore sibilabat, nunc in magnis conventibus et populosis urbibus audacter praedicat. Putabam, Alpes gelidas, et perpetuis nivibus opertos scopulos, incolis vestris barbariem invexisse, et dissimilem terris omnibus terram dissimilem caeteris omnibus populum creavisse: itaque, agrestibus et indoctis hominum moribus, peregrinum dogma facilius irrepsisse. Sed, hanc opinionem meam, ultima rapidi Rhodani littora, et circumjacens Tolosm planicies, ipsaque urbs vicinis populosior, expurgat: quae adversus falsum dogma, tanto cautior ease debuit; quanto, assiduitate frequentantium populorum, et experientia multiplicium doctrinarum, doctior esse potuit. Petr. Vener. Cluniac. cont. Petrobrus. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 12. par. 2. p. 206, 208. 5 Die Lunae, 2 Octobr. A. D. 1207, in oppido Montis Regalis prope Carcassonem in Comitatu Tolosano, habitum est memorabile colloquium, inter Episcopum Uxamensem Hispanum qui a Papa missus fuerat cum S. Dominico et aliis pluribus, et Arnaldum Hot Pastorem Albigensium appellatum qui heac tria expresse asserebat.

Primo: Romanam Ecclesiam non esse Christi Sponsam nec sanctam Ecclesiam; sed turbulentam, Satanae doctrina institutam, adeoque Babylonem esse illam de qua in Apocalypsi loquitur B. Joannes, matrem fornicationum et abominationum, sanguine sanctorum et martyrum Jesu Christi inebriatam.

Secundo: Politiam illius non esse bonam neque sanctam neque a Jesu Christo stabilitam.

Tertio: Missam, eo modo quo celebratur hodie, non esse, vel a Jesu Christo, vel ab Apostolis ejus, institutam.

Contrarium suscepit Episcopus, ex Novo Testamento confirmandum; coram B. de Villanova, B. Auzerbensi, R. de Bot, et A. Riberia, delectis arbitris.

Postquam triduo durasset disputatio, petiit Episcopus quindecim concedi sibi dies, quibus thesium suarum probationes scripto mandaret: et Arnaldus Hot, octo dies, quibus adversarii scripto responderet.

Reversi die praestituto, ad quatriduum colloquium produxerunt: quo tempore Episcopo praesto fuerunt, legati duo, P. de Castronovo, M.

Radulphus Candelensis Abbas, P. Bertrandus Prior Auteribi, Prior Palatii, atque alii plures.

Demum, asserente Episcopo; Ea, quae non sunt de Missa, ex ea esse auferenda: dimissa est concio; nec quicquam aliud de istis controversiis constitutum. Vignier. Histor. Eccles. in A.D. 1207. apud Usser. de Eccles. Success. c. 10. Section 22.

To the Pontificals, in this disputation, no credit is due for their semblance of moderation. The fact was: the Albigenses securely discussed the points at issue, under the protection of their territorial lords; and their usually insolent and overbearing adversaries, instead of sitting as judges, were compelled to meet them on equal terms as fairly pitted disputants. This readily accounts for the abrupt breaking up of the conference and for the discontinuance of the controversies. The papal party, although privileged by the presence of the blessed Dominic, found that they required arguments somewhat more cogent than verbal: the sword of de Montfort was felicitously substituted for the less effectual tongue of the presiding Spanish Bishop: and holy Dominic found himself much more at home in managing the merciful concerns of his offspring the Inquisition, than in discussing points of theology with the acute Arnold Hot and his Albigensic associates. 6 Sub anno Domini 1205, Dominus Deus ipse, qui sagittas electas providentiae suae conservat pharetra, duos de Hispania ad hoc opus produxit electos Dei pugiles: dominum Didacum Episcopum Uxamensem, et virum per omnia benedictum (sanctum postea declaratum) socium ejus Dominicum, Canonicum suae Uxamensis Ecclesiae regularem.

Duo igitur isti Episcopi (Fulco scilicet Tholosenus et Didacus Uxamensis) et beatus Dominicus, mittentes manus ad fortia, aggregatis illis Abbatibus duodecim Cisterciencis ordinis, contra superstitiones haereticorum in altitudine Satanae gloriantium, omni humilitate, abstinentia, et patientia, coeperunt procedere et congredi: 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 primis congregationibus apud Viridefolium: ubi palam haeresiarchiae ad disputandum contra nostros convenerunt; et confusi fuerunt, non tamen conversi.

Altera vero fuit apud Appamias specialiter contra Valdenses: qui, arbitri electi judicio, succubuerunt; et quidam ex ipsis ad cor et poenitantiam redierunt.

Demum inter alias plurimas disputationes, quas in diversis locis nostri contra haereticos illo tempore habuerunt, una fuit solemnior apud Montem Regalem dioececis Carcassonensis anno Domini 1207: cui interfuerunt praedicti Christi pugiles, Fulco Tholosanus, et Didacus Uxamensis Episcopus, et B. Dominicus, ac venerabilis vir dominus frater Petrus de Castro Novo Cisterciencis Ordinis Apostolicae Sedis legatus, ac collega suus magister Radulphus; contra plures haeresiarchas, ibidem congregatos. Fuitque, praescripta die et 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. 10. Section 20, 21.

The episcopal style of the Spanish Didacus I have uniformly written Uxamensis, as corrected by Usher. Vignier writes it Exovensis: and Puy-Laurens, still worse, writes it Exoniensis. Probably the spelling of Nicolas Trivett, Didacum Oxomensem Episcopum, is the best. Chron. in A. D. 1204. Didacus, I suppose, was Bishop of Oxuma or Osma in Spain. It is, however, a point of no great consequence: nor do I claim to be at all particularly skilled in the nomenclature of the Romish College of Bishops.

For the satisfaction of the curious, Trivett is somewhat large upon the manifold excellences of the blessed Dominic; from whom it may briefly be said: Coepit odor sanctitatis ejus circumquaque diffundi. Chron. in A. D. 1203. The same author records a miracle, which was wrought at this famous conference: but it produced no effect upon the stubborn Albigenses.

Eo tempore, quo Episcopus Didacus cum beato Dominico insistebat praedicationi in partibus Tolosanis, contigit, ut apud Montem-Regalem cum praedicatoribus catholicis haeretici disputarent. Unus autem de nostris, Dominicus nomine, socius Episcopi Oxomensis, sicut in gestis viri nobilis nominatique Simonis Comitis Montis-Fortis legitur, auctoritates, quas in medium produxerat, redegit in scriptis, et cuidam haeretico tradidit schedulam ut super objectis deliberans responderet.

Qui, nocte ad ignem sedens cum sociis, de eorum assensu schedulam projecit in ignem: facta protestatione, quod, si combureretur, vera esset fides haereticorum, immo perfidia; si vero incombusta maneret, fidem, quem praedicabant Catholici, veram esse faterentur. Projecta schedula in ignem, non tantum semel sed iterum et tertio, totiens resiluit etiam incombusta. Nicol. Trivett. Chron. in A. D. 1205. See also Petr.

Valsarn. Hist. Albig. c. 8. 7 A similar junction of the Albigenses and the Valdenses had already occurred in the year 1203 when a disputation was held at Carcasson.

Colloquium Carcassone habitum est A. D. 1203 mense Februario, inter Catharos atque Valdenses ex una, et Carcassonem Episcopum Radulphum et Petrum de Castronovo Romani Pontificis Nuncios ex altera, coram Petro Aragonum Rege. Ricchin. Dissent. de Cathar. c. 8.

Section 17. 8 Arualdum Hot, Pastorem Albigensium appellatum. Vigner. Histor.

Eccles. in A. D. 1207. apud Usser. de Eccles. Success. c. 10. Section 22.

Nomina haeresiarcharum haec sunt: Ponticus Jordanus, Arnoldus Aurisanus, Arnoldus Otthonus, Philabertus Castrensis, Benedictus Thermus. Jacob. de Rebir. in Collect. de Urbe Tolos. apud Usser de Eccles. Success. c. 10. Section 21.

Ex publica et solemni disputatione, inter Apamiensem Episcopum et Magistrum Arnoltotum Lombrensem ministrum, habita. Poplinier Hist. Franc. lib. 38. vol. 2. fol. 245. apud Usser. de Eccles. Success. c. 10. Section 16.

For the narrative of Roger Hoveden, see above, book 2. chap. 9. 9 Petrus Valdus, eorum antesignanus, patria relicta, in Belgium vetlit: atque, in Picardia quam hodie vocant, multos sectatores nactus, cum inde in Germaniam transiisset, per Vandalicas civitates diu diversatus est, ac postremo in Boemia consedit; ubi etiam hodie 2, qui eam doctrinam amplectuntur. Habuerat Valdus et socium Arnaldum, qui diverso itinere in Septimaniam descendit, et Albae Augustae sive Helviorum olim dictae haesit: unde Albigei, qui Tolosates, Rutenos, Cadurcos, Aginnates, brevi tempore pervaserunt. Thuan. Hist. lib. 6.

Section 16. vol. 1. p. 221.

As the Valdensian Arnold fixed himself at Albi and became a minister among the Albigenses; so Thuanus very reasonably considers the Albigenses, as differing, in no material point, either from the Valdenses of that day, or from Wickliff and 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 first half of the thirteenth century, he speaks of them in manner following.

Cum huc illuc ab eo tempore dispersi ubique exagitarentur, tamen exstitere semper per intervalla, qui eorum doctrinam intermortuam renovarent: Joannes Wiclevus in Anglia, in Bohemia Joannes Hussus et Hieronymus Pragensis; nostra vero aetate, postquam Lutheri doctrina obvio tam multorum favore accepta est, reliquiae illorum ubique sparsae colligi, et, crescente Lutheri nomine, vires et auctoritatem samere coeperunt; praecipue in regionibus Alpinis et provinciis Alpibus vicinis. Ibid. p. 223.

To this same alpine country, 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 least for a season, concealment and security.

Omnibus invisi et execrabiles facti, passim exules sine lare per provinciam Narbonensem, Galliam Cisalpinam, ac praecipue inter Alpes, effunduntur; ubi, tutissimum perfugium nacti, complures annos latuerunt. Ibid. p. 221.

In truth, in the very country of the old Piedmontese Vallenses, there was, from a most remote period, a mixture of those, who, in France, were finally distinguished by the name of Albigenses. It is an interesting circumstance, that one of the sixteen Churches of the Cathari was seated, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and doubtless at a much earlier time also, at Bagnolo, which lies in the most southern district of the country of the Piedmontese Vallenses. Reiner. de haeret, c. 6. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 13. p. 304.

All these matters show the early intercourse and connection of the Albigenses or Cathari with the ancient Vallenses of the Cottian Alps: and thus, incidentally, tend to exhibit their freedom from Manicheism.

Had they really been Manicheans, they could never have harmonized with the Vallenses either of France or of Piedmont: for Manicheism and the sincere Gospel 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 them and the Leonists or Valdenses, that, like many others, he even identifies these two symbolizing 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 puriorem doctrinam prae se ferunt. Iidem Leonini rursus appellati sunt, ab eo Leone, qui nihilominus justi ac prudentis principis, a Zonara ipso, qui, cum haereticae pravitatis accusat, elogium meruit. Thuan. Hist. lib. 6.

Section 16. vol. 1. p. 221, 222.

The ready intermixture of the Valdenses with the Cathari of Provence and Lombardy, and their intercommunity of doctrine, is distinctly noticed by Stephen de Bourbon who flourished during the earlier part of the thirteenth century.

Postea, in Provinciae terra et Lombardiae, cum aliis haereticis se admiscentes, et errorem eorum bibentes et serentes, haeretici sunt judicati. Steph. Borbon. de Sept. Don. Spir. S. par. 4. c. 30. in Ricchin.

Diss. de Valdens. c. 1. Section 5.

The Alii Haeretici of Provence and Lombardy are clearly the Cathari or Albigenses. Yet, notwithstanding this acknowledged intercommunity of doctrine, it is not pretended that the Valdenses were ever Manicheans. From such a fact, the conclusion is abundantly obvious. 10 Papae Lucii III. Decret. in Bernard. Papiens. Collect. Decretal. lib. 5. C. 11. apud Usser. de Eccles. Success. c. 8. Section 39. 11 Aldefons. Aragon. Diplom. apud Marian. Praefat. in Luc. Tudens. adv.

Albigens. error. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 13. p. 230. 12 Innoc. III. Epist. Decretal. lib. 1. p. 56, 57. apud Usser. de Eccles.

Success. c. 9. Section 7. 13 Ut vobis, reverendissimo in Christo patri et domino, domino Rostagno Ebredunensi Archiepiscopo; vobisque, reverendis patribus et dominis, Fratri Laurentio Cistaricensi Episcopo, et Thomae Paschalis Orlianensi Officiali, Commissariis Apostolicis, Regia et Dalphinali auctoritate suffultis, ad causam eorum Pauperurn de Lugduno, quos vulgus Valdenses appellat, dictos a Valdeo cive Lugdunensi, in loco dicto vulgariter Val grant moram faciente.

Qui homo dives haeresiarcha primus haeresis sectae Valdensium inventor fuit, secundum Scripturam bonis temporalibus renuncians, 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 illa tamen se separantes, pertinaciter respondebant cum redarguerentur, Magis esse Deo obediendum quam 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 procurante satore zizaniae, in copioso numero excreverunt: et demum palmites suos tristes in Liguriam, Italiam, et ultra Romam in Apuliam, transmiserunt. Script. Inquis. cujusp. anon. de Valdens. apud Allix on the Church of Piedm. p. 324.

It is observable, that here also the original connection of Peter Valdo with the Valleys of the Cottian Alps is duly mentioned. He is said to have once lived in the region commonly called Val grant or ( I suppose) The Great Valley. 14 Imprimis ponit et dicit, ac probare intendit: quod ipsi homines vallis Frayxineriae fueruut, a centum annis citra ultra.

Cujus siquidem damnatissimae haeresis cultores, quibus viri et mulieres vallis Clusionis Taurinensis dioecesis, et omnes mares et foeminae vallis Frayxineriae, ac plures vallium Argenteriae et Loysiae Ebredunensis dioecesis, a tanto tempore quod non est memoria hominum, in contrarium fuerunt proni. Script. Inquis. anon. apud Allix on the Church of Piedm. p. 325. 15 Script. Inquis. anon. apud Allix on the Church of Piedm. p. 326-329.

The whole document is extremely curious, but too long for insertion. 16 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 Histoire des Albigeois and (as a more modern Work) Sismondi’s History of the Crusades against the Albigenses. This last work has very seasonably been translated into English: and forms one thin volume 8 vo. Wightman and Cramp. London. 1826.

The singular merit of the blessed Dominic, who (as Trivett speaks) wielded the spiritual sword while his friend Simon managed the secular, procured for him an equally singular reception into heaven.

Transitus autem ejus, Fratri Gualae Priori Brixiae, qui postea fuit ejusdem civitatis Episcopus, revelatus est per hujusmodi visionem.

Eadem namque hora qua beatissimi Patris anima migravit a corpore, sicut postea compertum est, vidit aperturam in coelo, per quam dimittebantur candidae scalae duae: quarum unius summitatem tenebat Christus Dominus; alterius, mater ejus: angeli autem lucis discurrebant, adscendentes per eas. Et, ecce, inter utramque scalam, sedes posita est in imo; et, supra sedem, sedens: et, qui sedebat, similis erat Fratri habenti faciem velatam capucio, quemadmodum in Ordine moris est Fratres mortuos sepelire. Trahentibus autem sealas illas Christo Jesu et matre, trahebatur et sedes pariter cum sedente: donec, psallentibus angelis, coelo illatus est. Receptis igitur in coelum scalis, et sede cum eo qui in sede fuerat collocatus, coeli apertura clausa est. Nicol.

Trivett. Chronic. in A. D. 1221.

The Brother, whom the Prior thus beheld translated, was of course holy Dominic, What became of Simon, cui admodum familiaris erat beatus Dominicus propter communem zelum adversus haereticorum perfidiam, Trivett does not inform us. Ibid. in A. D. 1209. Dominic’s canonisation followed in regular order: and the miraculous fragrancy, which issued from his opened sepulchre, afforded an ample warrant for the celestial nobility conferred upon him by the patent of Pope Gregory IX. See Nicol. Trivett. Chron. in A. D. 1233. Hence, with much reason, Ricchini, who wrote in the year 1743, lands both the saint and his spiritual offspring the Inquisition: while he justly thinks foul scorn of our Dr. Cave, for vilipending the one, add for making Hell the true parent of the other. In these liberal 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 haeresis repuilularet ex cineribus suis, saluberrimo consilio, Romani Pontifices Sanctae Inquisitionis Officium, auctore S. Dominico, instituerunt: eidemque beato viro et Fratribus Praedicatoribus praecipue detulerunt. — Et quidem, sacrorum Fidei quaesitorum cura, zelo, ac diligentia, factum est; ut sensim, post A. D. 1300, decreverit in Italia cun primis ejusmodi sectarum pestilentia; nec ulla haeresis, aut noviter procusa aut renovata, apud Italcs radices amplius egerit. — Scio equidem, adversus Sanctissimum Fidei Tribunal effuse atque impotenter ferri Haereticorum omnium odia, eoque nomine S. Dominicum, ita conviciis proscindere ut Albigensium Carnificem vocare non dubitent: ipsum vero Inquisitionis Officium gravissimum appellent, et ab Orco petitum, Christianae Religionis dedecus, simul et flagellum conscientiarum et carnifcinam, summaeque tyrannidis et crudelitatis officinam, qua Siculi non invenere Tyranni majus tormenta. Ita Cavaeus. — At, si, quantum res ipsa momenti habeat, mature ac sine praejudicati animi turbatione expenderetur, SUMMI BENEFICII LOCO caeci homines acciperent, quod gravissimam carnificinam et tyrannidem vocant. Ricchin. Dissert. de Cathar. c. 7. 5, 6.

Ricchini will absolutely make our English lips water for the legal establishment of the Holy Office in each of the two British Islands. 17 Contra quos (scil. Albigenses) cum exquisita supplicia parum proficerent; et remedio, quod intempestive adhibitum fuerat, malum exacerbaretur; numerusque eorum in dies cresceret: justi tandem exercitus conscripti sunt; nec minoris molis bellum, quam quod antea nostri adversus Saracenos gesserant, contra eosdem decretum est.

Cujus is exitus fuit: ut, potius caesi, fugati, bonis ac dignitatibus ubique spoliati, atque huc 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 IV pontificatum, se continuit. Pars in Germaniam transiit: atque, apud Boemos in Polonia et Livonia, larem fixit. Alii, ad Occidentem versi, in Britannia perfugium habuerunt. Thuan. Praefat. Hist. vol. 1. 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 organized themselves into a French Church in Lombardy.

Cela fit, que, s’ ils ne purgerent pas entierement le pais d’ heretiques, les sectaires n’ oserent plus du moins se montrer publiquement: et que plusieurs, pour eviter de tomber entre leurs mains, se refugierent dans les pais etrangers, et surtout en Lombardie, ou ils formerent une Eglise particuliere appellee L’Eglise de France composee d’ environ cent cinquante personnes. Il n’en resta gueres davantage dans le pais. Hist.

Gener. de Langued. livr. 20. Section 82.

By Lombardy, as the word is used by Reinerius whom the Benedictine adduces as his authority, we must, I think, agreeably to a remark which I have already made, understand the whole region which extended from the Cottian Alps to the Adriatic Sea. Most probably, this Lombard Church was the Church of Bagnolo, which was a Church of the Cathari, and which locally was situated in the southern part of the country of the Vallenses.

With respect to the Calabrian Albigenses, who, as Thuanus observes, subsisted down to the Pontificate of Plus IV, Dr. M’Crie has given an interesting though mournful account of their condition and final extermination in the sixteenth century. See Hist. of the Reform. in Italy. chap. 5. p. 299-308. Nowhere does the brutal and odious superstition of Popery appear in blacker colors. What, however, is specially to my own purpose, as in Britain so in Calabria, not a vestige of Manicheism can be discovered, or is even pretended to have been discovered, among the pious emigrants in the day of their extirpation.

Dr. M’Crie calls them Valdenses; nor, in his present narrative, was the title altogether improper: for they 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 of Simon de Montfort and the Inquisition, had now become extinct. That such was their national composition, is evident from their whole history. Thuanus tells us; that they were Albigenses, who had escaped from the butchery of Languedoc: and one of Dr.

M’Crie’s authorities states; that they came originally from the Valley of Angrogna near Savoy. Clearly, therefore, they must first have taken refuge with their brethren the Valdenses of Piedmont: and, afterward, a mixed company, must thence have migrated into Calabria, where they were deemed and styled Valdenses. Dr. M’Crie’s description of their religious state and behavior, when they first heard the glad tidings of the Reformation of the sixteenth century, well deserves the attention of the devout reader. 18 For my acquaintance with this interesting testimony of Ferrier, I am indebted to Ricchini, the editor of the large Work of his ancient Confrater Moneta.

Cum late grassantem Valdensium Sectam cohibere severius Catholici Principes instituissent, eamque e latibulis omnibus Quaesitorum Fidei vigilantia diligentissime extruderet, ut jam nulla pateret ei secura mansio, in Cottiarum Alpium Valles, velut certum tutumque asylum, plurimae eorum reliquiae, ex Italia et finitima Gallia pulsae, sese receperunt, difficili locorum accessu fretae ac securae. Regionis jam pene desertae solum sterile illud quidem atque infoecundum, diuturno improboque labore ab iis subactum, alendis sustentandisque multis Valdensium millibus eo facilius deinceps suffecit, quo, tributis oneribusque ferme soluti, ab omnibus negligerentur, nec quispiam de iis sollicitus in eorum fidem ac religionem diligentius inquireret. — Ibi, per tria ferme saecula, pacatissime incubarunt, priorum Valdensium religionem et fidem plerumque profitentes, quanquam alterius Sectae haereticis intermixti. Nam S. Vincentius Ferrerius, qui e proximo Delphinatu ad eas Valles praedicationis causa descenderat A. D. 1405, in Epistola quam dedit ad reverendissimum Johannem de Pedonatis Ordinis Praedicatorum tunc Generalem Magistrum apud Fontanam (Mon. Dominic. par. 2. c. 1.) testatur; plures ibidem reperisse Gazaros seu Catharos, ex quorum grege illuc olim se receperant interfectores S.

Petri Martyris: additque; se accepisse ab earum Vallium incolis, nullum ab annis triginta Verbum Dei ibidem praedicasse nisi Valdenses haereticos, qui ad ea loca ex Apulia bis in anno veniebant, Ricchin.

Dissert. de Valdens. c. 5. Section 1.

The Barbs, who visited them from Apulia, were doubtless the Clergy of the mingled Valdensic and Albigensic Colony of Calabria: and the very circumstance of those Preachers being styled Valdenses shows the complete doctrinal intercommunion of the two Churches.

I suppose the reader will not imagine, that St. Peter the Martyr, mentioned by Ferrier, is the same person as St. Peter the Apostle. He was doubtless the preacher Brother Peter de Chasteau Neuf, whose tragic death, ascribed by the infallible decision of Pope Innocent III to Count Raymond of Toulouse, brought on the bloody crusade of Simon de Montfort against what his holiness appropriately styles The bloody and perverse generation of the Provincials, meaning thereby the horrible Albigenses. See Petr. Vallisarn. Hist. Albig. c. 9.

CHAPTER - 1 See above, book 1. chap. 1, 2. 2 Compare Revelation 1:20, with Revelation 11:4. 3 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 Sincere Church, finally and distinctly establishes the position: that We must look for a continuance of sound and spiritual religion, throughout all the middle ages, in a VISIBLE and ORGANIZED Church or succession of Churches.

It is clear, I think, that the concurrent predictions of Christ and St.

John cannot, without a most arbitrary and unnatural strain upon the terms 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 styled TheINVISIBLE Church. So manifestly are ChurchesVISIBLE andTANGIBLE spoken of, that, if the prophecies have not been accomplished in such actually subsisting Communions, they have never been accomplished at all. The figment of anINVISIBLE Church can here have no place.

I mean not to assert, that, with a proper explanation, the phrase can never be used: but I certainly must assert, that, in the present case, the very terms of the prophecies now before us forbid its introduction as affording a sufficient explanation of the accomplishment of Christ’s promises.

As for those Protestants, who strangely labor 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 admit, that the Church of Rome is a perfectly sound and spiritual Church: or we must produce someVISIBLE Church or Churches, in which the succession of doctrinal soundness and abiding spirituality has been preserved.

Now, if, as these ill-judging men endeavor to show, the latter be impossible: then, unless we admit the promises of Scripture to have never been fulfilled, we must acknowledge the truth of the former; and, in that case, our reformation and separation from the Roman Church stand condemned by our own sentence.

Writers of the stamp alluded to preclude themselves from all ability to answer the argument of Bossuet: and thence, even by their own showing, can never vindicate their own theological position.

The question will always run: If Rome be a sound and spiritual Church, in which the promises of Christ have been fulfilled; why do you dissent from her, and renounce her communion? If you deny to her this character; where is the VISIBLE Church, in which Christ’s promises have been accomplished?

How the protestant maligners of the Vallenses and the Albigenses can answer this question, I am at a loss to perceive. 4 On this point, see Gibbon’s Hist. of Decline and Fall, chap. 49., 1. vol. 9. p. 113, 114, 115, 261, 262. 5 In saying this, I speak with reference to History, not with reference to Prophecy. In the latter, the circumstances are defined, as occurring synchronically with a great allegorical earthquake which throws down a tenth part of the mystical city Babylon, and immediately before the passing away of the second woe. These synchronisms are noted and explained in my Sacred Calendar of Prophecy, book 4. chap. 7. Section 2. 5, and book 5. chap. 2. Section 3. 2. 6 See Muston’s Hist. des Vaudois, vol. 1. p. 322, 323. 7 Muston’s Hist. Des Vaud. vol. 1. p. 323. Acland’s Translat. of Glorious Recovery, Pref. p. 6. Sequel, p. 210. 8 Whiston’s Essay on the Revelation part. 3. p. 238-241. Jones’s Hist. of the Christ. Church. vol. 2. p. 406-444. Gilly’s Narrat. p. 171-178. The reader may particularly consult Arnold’s Glorious Recovery, as translated and illustrated and beautifully edited by Mr. Acland. I would also refer him to my own Sacred Calendar of Prophecy, for a full establishment of the synchronisms prophetically connected with these particulars, book 5. chap. 2. Section 3. 9 The oppressiveness of this particular seems recently, in the true spirit of the ever tyrannical and persecuting Popish Church, to have been increased. In the Nouvelliste Vaudois of September 22, 1837, is contained the following article.

We have been impatiently expecting this long time the publication of the new Civil Code, which a Committee of jurists has been laboring at during the last seven years. We had hoped, that, in the absence of political liberty, we should at least be blessed with a good civil legislation: but our expectations, I am sorry to say, have been most cruelly deceived. The Code in question has just appeared: and the first thing, that struck us on opening the book, was a legislative enactment which throws us back at least two centuries. The Protestants are placed, by the new Code, in a condition inferior to that of the Jews, as regards civil rights. A circular has lately been addressed to all public notaries, forbidding them to draw up deeds in favor of Protestants, such as acts for the alienation or purchase of property. Persons of that persuasion are no longer to be allowed to give evidence as witnesses. In short we are replaced under the law of 1610. Behold how we proceed in the walk of civilization!

Disgraceful as such conduct is on the part of the minions of Popery, it serves only to display the wonderful accuracy of the apocalyptic oracle.

I will give power unto my two witnesses: and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and three score days, clothed in sackcloth.

Revelation 11:3.

The fated period has not yet evolved. Therefore the witnessing Churches still prophesy in a state of insult and injury and oppression. 10 See Brief Observ. on the present state of the Valdenses, by Gorges Lowther, Esq.

CHAPTER - 1 It may perhaps endanger the whole System of Apostolical Succession, if we too rigidly insist upon the absolute necessity of a transmission through the medium of Bishops exclusively.

In the year 558, Pelagius was actually consecrated Bishop of Rome herself, not by three Bishops, but by two Bishops and a Presbyter.

Dum non essent Episcopi qui eum ordinarent, inventi sunt duo Episcopi, Joannes de Perusio et Bonus de Ferentino, et Andreas, Presbyter de Ostia: et ordinaverunt eum Pontificem. Tunc enim non erant in Clero, qui poterant eum promovere. Anastat. Biblioth. Lib.

Pontifical. in vit. Pelagii I.

On this case, which, according to the amount of our requirement, may or may not vitiate the entire Apostolical Succession of at least the Western Patriarchate, it is obvious to remark: that the Presbyter Andrew either did, or did not, possess the power of transmission.

If he did: then the point in litigation is forthwith conceded. If he did not: then his concurrence and cooperation with the two Bishops was an idle and inexplicable mockery; though a mockery, which, under such an aspect, might justly be pronounced to nullify the whole transaction.

Nor can it, with any decent show of argument, be alleged: that the Presbyter acted merely by the warrant of the two Bishops, that he possessed no inherent power of his own, and that he really himself did nothing whatsoever toward the transmitting of the episcopate.

For, should this ground be taken, the answer is plain.

If Andrew possessed not the right of continuing the Apostolical Succession; and if, for that continuance, the joint agency of three Bishops was essentially necessary: then the consecration of Pelagius by only two Bishops and a Presbyter was, to all intents and purposes, invalid; and, consequently, nothing could have been more strangely absurd, than for the two Bishops to call in, as their officially equal coadjutor, one, whom all the while they themselves knew to possess no legitimate authority of transmission.

Nor yet will it very materially mend the affair, to assert: that two Bishops can transmit the succession just as well as three Bishops.

For it is quite plain; that neither the two Bishops nor the Church at large entertained any such opinion: because, if they had, they would have proceeded forthwith to the consecration without in any wise calling in the Presbyter Andrew. And it is likewise plain; that the right and power of transmission must have been fully believed by them to reside in the Presbyter: because, if they had not believed it, they would never, both Bishops and Clergy and People of the faction of Pelagius, have invited him to join in the consecration of Pelagius.

In short, from this remarkable transaction, we seem to learn: that, in the judgment of the Church of the sixth century, the Apostolical Succession was indeed deemed essential to a legitimate discharge of the Clerical Office; but that, in a case of necessity, such succession might be canonically transmitted by the hands of a Presbyter as well as by the hands of a Bishop.

From the major case of the consecration of a Bishop by a concurring Presbyter, we may turn to the minor case of the similar ordination of Presbyters themselves.

In our own church, the concurrence of Presbyters with the presiding Bishop, in laying hands upon those who are themselves about to be ordained Presbyters, is familiar and notorious.

Now here, again, the very same reasoning palpably applies.

Presbyters either have, or have not, a power of transmitting the presbyterate. If they have: then the point is conceded, If they have riot: then their joint imposition of hands is an unmeaning and nugatory ceremonial.

The whole transaction is rendered still more striking, by the circumstance: that, in the ordination of deacons, there is no concurrence of the Presbyters. Whence the inference seems to be: that, in the judgment of the Anglican Church, a single Bishop, without the concurrence of Presbyters, cannot legitimately transmit the higher order of the presbyterate; but that no such concurrence is necessary in conferring the very inferior Order of Deacon.

On this difficult question much light is thrown by the historical attestation of Jerome, who flourished about a century and a half before the consecration of Pelagius by two Bishops and a Presbyter. He tells us: that, From the beginning, Bishops and Presbyters were, in point of Order, the same; though, in point of Church Polity, it had been deemed expedient to set one Presbyter over his brethren, in the capacity of a Bishop or Superintendent, and with the right of ordination or rather (as I gather from the context) with the special right of presidence in ordination.

Audio, quendam in tantam erupisse vecordiam, ut Diaconos Presbyteris, id est, Episcopis, anteferret. Nam, cum Apostolus perspicue doceat, Eosdem esse Presbyteros quos et Episcopos: quis patiatur, mensatum et viduarum Minister ut supra eos se tumidus efferat? — Quod antem postea unus electus est, qui caeteris praeponeretur, in schismatis remedium factum est: ne unusquisque, ad se trahens, Christi Ecclesiam rumperet. Nam et Alexandriae, a Marco Evangelista usque ad Heraclem et Dionysium Episcopos, Presbyteri semper unum ex se electum, in celsiori gradu collocatum, Episcopum nominabant: quo modo, si exercitus Imperatorem faciat; aut Diaconi eligant de se quem industrium noverint, et Archidiaconum vocent. Quid nam facit, excepta ordinatione, Episcopus, quod Presbyter non faciat?

Hieron. Epist. 85. Oper. vol. 2. p. 259, 260.

Idem est ergo Presbyter, qui et Episcopus: et, antequam, diaboli instinctu, studia in religione fierent, et diceretur in populis, Ego sum Pauli, ego Apollo, ego autem Cephae; communi Presbyterorum consilio Ecclesiae gubernabantur. Postquam, vero, unusquisque eos, quos baptizaverat, suos putabat esse, non Christi: in toto orbe decretum est, ut unus, de Presbyteris electus, superponeretur caeteris, ad quem omnis Ecclesiae cura pertineret, et schismatum semina tollerentur.

Putet aliquis, non Scripturarum, sed nostram, esse sententiam, Episcopum et Presbyterum unum esse; et aliud aetatis aliud esse nomen officii: relegat Apostoli ad Philippenses verba dicentis; Paulus et Timotheus, servi Jesu Christi, omnibus sanctis in Christo Jesu qui sunt Philippis, cum Episcopis et Diaconis, gratia vobis et pax. Philippi una est urbs Macedoniae: et certe in una civitate plures, ut nuncupantur, Episcopi esse non porerant. Sed, quia eosdem Episcopos illo tempore quos et Presbyteros appellabant, propterea indifferentur de Episcopis, quasi de Presbyteris, est locutus. Adhuc hoc alicui videatur ambiguum, nisi altero testimonio comprobetur. In Actibus Apostolorum scriptum est, quod, cum venisset Apostolus Miletum, miserit Ephesum, et vocaverit Presbyteros Ecclesiae ejusdem, quibus postea inter caetera sit locutus: Attendite vobis et omni gregi, in quo vos Spiritus Sanctus posuit Episcopos pascere Ecclesiam Domini, quam acquisivit per sanguinem suum. Et hoc diligentius observate, quo modo unius civitatis Ephesi Presbyteros vocans, postea eosdem Episcopos dixerit. — Haec propterea, ut ostenderemus Apud veteres eosdem fuisse Presbyteros, quos et Episcopos: paulatim vero, ut dissentionum plantaria evellerentur, ad unum omnem sollicitudinem esse delatam. Sicut, ergo, Presbyteri sciunt se, ex Ecclesiae consuetudine, ei qui sibi praepositus fuerit esse subjectos: ita Episcopi noverint, se, magis consuetudine, quam dispositionis dominicae veritate, Presbyteris esse majores, et in commune debere Ecclesiam regere. Hieron. Comment. in Tit. 1:5. Oper. vol. 6. p. 198, 199.

The statement of Jerome seems to be confirmed by the very early testimony of Clement of Rome.

This Father, who flourished in the first century, incidentally gives us a very distinct account of the Ecclesiastical Polity which had then been established. In each Church there was a presiding Bishop with his subordinate Presbyters and Deacons, after the model of the High- Priest and the Priests and the Levites of the Hebrew Church. This arrangement was of apostolical institution. But still, while in the Church Catholic there were thus three divinely appointed Classes of spiritual officers, Clement, in a mode which cannot be misunderstood, intimates, that there were only two Orders.

Preaching through countries and cities, says he, the Apostles appointed the first-fruits of their conversions to be BISHOPS and MINISTERS over such as should afterward believe, having first proved them by the Spirit. Nor was this any new thing: seeing that, long before, it was written concerning BISHOPS and DEACONS. For thus saith the Scripture in o certain place: I will appoint their OVERSEERS in righteousness, and their MINISTERS in faith. Clem. Romans Epist. ad Corinth. 1. 42. Chevalier’s Translat.

Here, we may observe, no more than two Orders are specified, the word Bishops being plainly used as equipollent to the word Presbyters: and all possibility of misapprehension is avoided by the circumstance of Clement’s affirmation, that the appointment of these two Orders was foretold in a prophecy which announced the appointment of exactly two descriptions of spiritual officers. I will appoint their OVERSEERS ( jEpisko>pouv ) in righteousness, and their MINISTERS ( Diako>nouv ) in faith. In point of evidence, it matters nothing, whether Clement applied the prophecy itself correctly or incorrectly. Under the simple aspect of testimony to a fact, had the Church in Clement’s time 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. Hence Clement seems to confirm the statement of Jerome: that the creation of superintending Bishops did not introduce a third and additional Order into the Church.

The attestation of 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 of schism, and for the better government of the Church which had hitherto been ruled (communi Presbyterorum consilio) by the common counsel of Presbyters, probably affords the true key to the remarkable language of Ignatius in his seven genuine Epistles.

When one Presbyter was placed authoritatively both over other Presbyters and over a whole Church, such is the pride of 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 very apt to show itself. In fact, from the charge of St. Paul to Timothy, whom he had appointed Bishop or Overseer of the Church of Ephesus, we may learn, not equivocally, that this was really the case: for, when he directed him to command and teach, he would scarcely have said Let no man despise thy youth, unless he had anticipated a spirit of resistance and insubordination. 1 Timothy 4:11,12.

Under such circumstances, Ignatius, who, like Timothy and Titus and Clement and Polycarp, had received his supervisal authority from the immediate hands of an Apostle, would naturally write, to the Churches which he addresses, with this impression full upon his mind.

Take, for example, his address to the Magnesians.

It is your duty not to despise the youth of your Bishop, but to yield all reverence to him, according to the power of God the Father. As also I perceive your holy Presbyters do, not considering his youthful appearance, but, as men prudent in God, submitting to him; and not to him indeed, but to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Bishop of us all. It becomes you, therefore, to be obedient with all sincerity, in honor 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. Ignat.

Epist. ad Magnes. Section 3, 4, Chevalier’s Translat.

Ignatius, I take it, speaks to the following effect.

If Bishops, who often may chance to be younger men than several of the subjected Presbyters, have been introduced, for the express purpose of avoiding schism, and for the greater uniformity of ecclesiastical government; what benefit can be derived from this apostolical ordinance, should matters be transacted 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 Shepherd and Bishop of our souls?

This, so far as respects the episcopate, is the very clear and very reasonable argument of Ignatius: and hence arose his saying, which might seem to have passed into a sort of proverb; Let no one do anything, which belongs to the Church, separately from the Bishop.

Ignat. Epist. ad Smyrn. 8. Unless the authority of the Bishop were respected, he might just as well never have been appointed at all. With this key, thus furnished by Jerome, let us read those numerous statements of Ignatius which some have deemed so extravagantly highchurch: and the whole, I think, will appear natural and consistent.

They are little more than sermons upon St. Paul’s text to a newlyappointed Bishop; Let no man despise thy youth: for they all bear upon the point, that The authority was not to be undervalued, but to be acknowledged and reverenced. With the same key also, we may open the full drift and purpose of the Apostle’s wise admonition to the youthful Prelate, touching the very delicate matter of dealing with his subject Presbyters; many of whom, no doubt, exceeded him in age.

Rebuke not a Presbyter: but admonish him as a father. 1 Timothy 5:1.

As if he had said, in the tone and manner of Jerome: Execute thy official duties meekly, especially toward those who are older than thyself: for, though Presbyters, by a custom henceforth to be introduced into the Church, are subjected to thee; yet know, that thou art greater than thy Presbyters, rather by this ecclesiastical custom than by the verity of the Lord’s disposition, and therefore that thou oughtest to govern the Church in common with them.

Jerome, I am aware, has been cited, as saying in another place, that Bishops and Priests and Deacons constitute three distinct Orders. If he really made any such declaration, he would, so far as I can perceive, directly contradict himself. But, in truth, his language, when cited to this effect, is given in a somewhat mutilated form, the commencement and the termination of the sentence being alike omitted. When given in full, it will be found to speak, not of Orders in the ecclesiastical sense of the word, but only of different degrees of rank with reference to the many mansions which our Lord declares to exist in his Father’s house.

Si autem non sunt plurimae mansiones, quomodo, et in Veteri Testamento et in Novo, alium ordinem Pontifex tenet, alium Sacerdotes, alium Levitae, alium Janitores, alium Editui? Hieron. adv.

Jovinian. lib. 2. c. 15.

Does Jerome here speak of Porters and Churchwardens constituting two additional apostolic Orders?

Certainly, to depart from the divinely-appointed model by the entire rejection of Bishops, save only in a case of palpably 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, undertake to say, that, in such circumstances, the transmission of the Apostolical Succession was an ecclesiastical impossibility. I would rather, until better informed, express myself as in the text. A transmission of the Apostolical Succession, by the simple imposition of the hands of the Presbytery, they themselves having previously received the imposition of hands, and so backward to the very beginning, is rather to be deemed less regular than roundly to be pronounced invalid. 2 See above, book 3. chap. 4. 3 Gilly’s Excurs. to Piedm. p. 74. 4 Gilly’s Excurs. to Piedm. p. 74. 5 Gilly’s Excurs. to Piedm. p. 73, 74. 6 See above, book 2. chap. 1. 7 Vetust. Auctor. in Vignier. Hist. Eccles. in A. D. 1023. apud Usser. de Eccles. Success. c. 8. Section 18. 8 Ordines Catharorum sunt quatuor. Ille, qui est in primo et maximo ordine, vocatur Episcopus. Ille, qui in secundo, vocatur Filius Major.

Qui in tertio, Filius Minor. Qui in quarto et ultimo, vocatur Diaconus.

Caeteri, qui sunt sine ordine, vocantur Christiani et Christianae.

Officium Episcopi est, semper tenere prioratum in omnibus quae faciunt, scilicet in impositione manus, in fractione panis, et in incipiendo orare: quae quidem servant, Filius Major absente Episcopo, et Filius Minor absente Majore. Reiner. de haeret, c. 6. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 13. p. 304.

Probably the junior Priests of the Cathari were simply coadjutors or (as we should say) curates to their seniors. 9 See Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. 4. c. 20. 10 On the supposition, that The Albigenses and the Vallenses had, in their Communities, no Apostolical Succession, either less regular or altogether regular; which supposition, however, is incapable of evidential establishment: I should say that we have here a case directly in point to the present statement.

From the Condition of the dominant Church, whether in the East or 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 supposition makes them to be circumstanced, to have obtained at least an episcopal transmission of the Succession: nay, so far as respects the French Valdenses, two attempts, as we have seen, were actually made, without success, to obtain the papal sanction and authority.

How, then, by the hypothesis, would such Communities be situated?

Inevitably, they must either remain within the awfully predicted Church of the Apostasy, and thence, under the soul-destructive guidance of the Man of Sin, partake of all its idolatrous and heretical abominations; in order that they may enjoy the privilege of an Apostolical Succession: or else they must relinquish the privilege of an Apostolical Succession; in order that they may worship God, in separate assemblies, with a pure and scriptural worship, unstained by the idolatrous and heretical abominations of the awfully predicted Church of the Apostasy.

This is the alternative: 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 has answered the question: and has thus, still on the supposition now before us, decided in favor of the course taken by the two Communities of the Vallenses and the Albigenses.

Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven: and God hath remembered her iniquities.

To such of the Lord’s people as are within the mystical Babylon, the unconditional command, we see, is toCOME OUT.

This command must, at all hazards, be obeyed: and, when weighed against the duty of implicit obedience, every ulterior ecclesiastical consequence, and every difficult and curious question which may be raised upon it, are but as dust in the balance.

Thus, even on an extreme supposition, which yet can never be verified, I should say, that the Vallenses and the Albigenses stand fully vindicated: and thence, even according to the course of God’s providential dispensation, I should say, that they stand recognized by himself as two most amply commissioned Churches, whose office was to prophesy in sackcloth against the degenerate rotaries of a new form of Paganism.

CHAPTER - 1 Hist. des Variat. livr. 11. Section 93, 96. 2 Si quis dixerit, in ministris, dum sacramenta conficiunt et conferunt, non requiri intentionem saltem faciendi quod facit, Ecclesia: anathema sit.

Concil. Trident. sess. 7. can. 11. p. 85. 3 I subjoin the statements of Reinerius and Pilichdorf, that the reader may judge of their value in regard to evidence.

Quidam autem hoc dicunt tantum per bonos fieri: alii, per omnes qui verba consecrationis sciunt. — Dicunt, quod peccator sacerdos aliquem solvere aut figare non possit, cum ipse sit ligatus peccator; et quod quilibet bonus et sciens laicus alium absolvere valeat et poenitentiam injungere. Reiner. juxta Coussord. cont. Vald. p. 126.

De sacramento Eucharistiae dicunt, quod sacerdotes in mortali non possint conficere. — De sacramento Poenitentiae dicunt, quod nullus possit absolvi a malo sacerdote; item quod bonus laicus potestatem habeat absolvendi; -item, quod confitendum sit potius bono laico, quem malo sacerdoti. Reiner de haeret. juxta Gretser. c. 5. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 13. p. 300.

Obloqueris etiam sacerdotibus Ecclesiae, dicens: Fornicarii sunt; usurarii sunt; tabernarii sunt; et alia multa vitia conjectas in eos.

Respondeo: Quid ergo? Numquid ideo sacerdotes non sunt? Absit.

Sicut autem bonitas hominis singularis non confert sacerdotium: sic ejus pravitas non aufert ipsum. - Sed dicis, haeretice: Tamen dixit Christus ad discipulos; Accipite Spiritum Sanctum: quorum remiseris peccata, remittuntur eis. Ergo sacerdos, qui Spiritum Sanctum non habet quando fornicarius est aut aliter criminosus, non potest absolvere. Respondeo: Etsi Presbyter criminosus charitatem non habet aut Spiritum Sanctum, ut homo singularis: nihilominus dignum est ejus sacerdotium, dignum est ejus ministerium, quoad sacramentorum efficaciam, etsi, quoad ministerium indignum. — Est ergo idem valor sacramentorum, dignitas, et nobilitas, sive a digno, sive indigno, Presbytero conferantur. Pilich. cont.

Valdens. c. 16. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 13. p. 316. 4 Credimus: quia non salvatur, qui non manducat corpus Christi; et quod corpus Christi non consecratur, nisi in Ecclesia; et non nisi a sacerdote, sive bono sive malo; nec melius per bonum, quam per malum. Confess.

Albig. apud Roger. Hoveden. Annal. par. poster. in A. D. 1176. fol. 319. 5 Art. 25. 6 Reiner. de haeret, c. 5. in Bibl. Patr. vol. 13. p. 300. Bohem. Confess. A.

D. 1508. art. 11. in Morland’s Hist. of the Churches of Piedm. p. 52. 7 Neque enim civitates tantum, sed vicos etiam atque agros, superstitionis istius contagio pervagata est. Plin. Epist. ad Trajan. lib. 10. 8 Obsessam vociferantur civitatem; in agris, in castellis, in insulis, Christianos: omnem sexum, aetatem, conditionem, etiam dignitatem, transgredi ad hoc nomen, quasi detrimento, moerent. Tertull. Apol. adv. Gent. Oper. p. 801. 9 Hesterni sumus, et omnia vestra implevimus: urbes, insulas, castella, municipia, conciliabula, castra ipsa, tribus, decurias, palatium, senatum, forum. Tertull. Apol. Oper. p. 874. 10 How vivid is St. John’s picture of a Church, which, during the rampancy of Paganism, could not subsist otherwise than on what, in modern nomenclature, is called the Voluntary Principle.

I wrote unto the Church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, RECEIVETH US NOT. Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and, not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and CASTETH THEM OUT OF THE CHURCH. 3 John 9,10.

Well may we say, that Scripture is written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come! Here, even while the living authority of an .Apostle subsisted, we behold, painted to the life, the genuine workings of coarse tyrannical Voluntarism! 11 De vestris fuimus: fiunt, non nascuntur, Christiani. Tertull. Apol. Oper. p. 844.

CHAPTER - 1 In novum inchoatur saeculum, quod, sua asperitate ac boni sterilitate ferreum, malique exundantis deformitate plumbeum, atque inopia scriptorum, appellari consuevit, obscurum. Baron. Annal. in A. D. 900. 2 Dormiebat tunc plane alto (ut apparet) sopore Christus, cum navis fluctibus operiretur: et, quod deterius videbatur, deerant, qui Dominum sic dormientem clamoribus excitarent discipuli, stertentibus omnibus.