CHAPTER - RESPECTING THE ANCIENT INTERCOURSE AND FINAL GEOGRAPHICALLY ECCLESIASTICAL JUNCTION OF THE ALBIGENSES AND THE VALLENSES.

Since on all hands, the Vallenses are acknowledged to have been free from every taint of Manicheism: the Albigenses, had they been Manicheans, could neither have been in communion with the Vallenses, nor could finally have become ecclesiastically and geographically united to them. Both these matters, however, took place. They furnish, therefore, incidentally, an additional vindication of the much calumniated Albigenses.

I. Notices of the intermingling of the Vallenses and the Albigenses, prior to their final ecclesiastical and geographical union. 1. Emigration of certain of the French Albigenses into the Valleys of Piedmont about the year 1165. 2. Testimony of Peter the Venerable, Abbot of Clugny. 3. Intermingling of the French Valdenses and Albigenses at the beginning of the thirteenth century, exemplified in the case of Arnold Hot and the conferences at Verfeuil and Pamiers and Montreal. (1.) The dissident religionists were Albigenses. (2.) Their chief pastor, Arnold, was a French Valdensis, the friend and associate of Peter the Valdo. 4. Testimonies to the early intermingling of the Valdenses and the Albigenses. (1.) The decree of Pope Lucius III., in the year 1184. (2.) The decree of King Alphonso of Aragon, in the year 1194. (3.) The decretal Epistle of Pope Innocent III., in the year 1199.

II. These early interminglings prepared the way for the final geographical and ecclesiastical amalgamation of the joint French Valdenses and Albigenses of Languedoc, with the primeval Vallenses of the Cottian Alps. 1. The emigration of a large body of French Valdenses into the Valleys of the Piedmontese Valdenses, about the middle of the fourteenth century. 2. The retreat of the remnant of the Albigenses into the Valleys of Dauphiny and Piedmont during the thirteenth century, in consequence of the bloody crusade of Simon de Montfort and his associates.

CHAPTER - RESPECTING THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE SCRIPTURAL PROMISES OF PERPETUITY TO A SINCERE CHURCH, IN THE CASE OF THE TWO ANCIENT CHURCHES OF THE VALLENSES AND THE ALBIGENSES A recapitulation of the remarks on the two prophetic promises of Christ.

I. By St. John it is foretold: that The Sincere Church should be reduced within narrow limits, while the great Body of the Visible Church should lapse into an apostasy of a very strongly marked and very peculiar character. 1. Our Lord’s promise of a spiritual as well as of a doctrinal Perpetuity to his Sincere Church is explained, ill a manner perfectly accordant with the preceding views, by the Prophet of the Apocalypse. 2. In History, two Churches held their integrity throughout the whole period of the great predicted Apostasy. 3. In Prophecy, these two Churches are the two Witnessing Churches of the Apocalypse.

II. The two apocalyptic Witnessing Churches are exhibited under the two-fold aspect of two not precisely identical conditions. 1. Exemplification of the first condition: The Prophesying in Sackcloth. 2. Exemplification of the second condition: The Bearing Martyria.

III. A brief comment on the series of facts detailed by History.

CHAPTER - RESPECTING THE ECCLESIASTICAL POLITTY OF THE VALLENSES AND THE ALBIGENSES The possessing of an apostolical succession by the Vallenses and the Albigenses cannot be absolutely demonstrated: but it may be established sufficiently for all legitimate ecclesiastical purposes.

I. The case of the Vallenses.

II. The case of the Albigenses.

III. Should what has been said be deemed unsatisfactory, the matter must be referred to the plain will and overruling providence of God.

CHAPTER - RESPECTING THE OCCASIONAL DISCREPANCE OF THE CHURCHES OF THE VALLENSES AND THE ALBIGENSES FROM THE CHURCHES OF THE REFORMATION.

The unreasonableness of the captious demand of Bossuet; that The Reformers of the sixteenth century should produce an already existent Church, with which they could agree in every, even the most minute, particular: is easily evinced. That some of the opinions of the Vallenses and the Albigenses were untenable, is readily allowed: but these affect not those primary essentials either of faith or of practice, which are indispensably necessary to the due accomplishment of our Lord’s prophetic promises.

I. They erred, for instance, in maintaining, if indeed they ever really did maintain, the opinion: that The efficacy of the Sacraments depends upon the personal holiness of the administrator.

II. They erred, again, in asserting: that The Church of Christ ought to possess no temporal endowment, however moderate; inasmuch as the Clergy ought to be exclusively supported by the voluntary contributions of the Laity, thus living (as the expression runs) purely from hand to mouth. 1. The case of the Church of Christ previous to its recognition and establishment by the State. 2. The pretext, that an unendowed Clergy would be more spiritual than an endowed Clergy. 3. The pretext, that the demand will always produce the requisite supply.

III. They erred, also, in contending: that All oaths of every description, even when solemnly and reverently taken for the purpose of securing the due administration of justice, are unlawful.

CHAPTER - CONCLUSION General conclusion to the whole discussion.

I. Agreeably to the promises of Christ, there has never been wanting, from the very first promulgation of the Gospel, a Spiritual Visible Church of Faithful Worshippers.

II. Through the medium of the Vallensic Church of the Cottian Alps, the Reformed Churches of the sixteenth century stand connected with the Primitive Church.