FACTS OF FAITH By Christian Edwardson
Chapter 12
The Waldenses
(118) While
Constantine's purchased converts, and the superficial-minded multitude followed
the popular church, there were many honest, God-fearing Christians, who
resented this sinful compromise with paganism; and, when they saw that all
their protests were useless, they withdrew to places where they could more
freely follow their conscience and bring up their children away from the
contamination of the fallen church, which they looked upon as the
"Babylon" of Revelation 17. Several hundred Sabbath-keeping Christian
churches were established in southern India, and some were found even in China.
Likewise the original Celtic Church in England, Scotland, and Ireland kept the
seventh-day Sabbath. St. Patrick, Columba, and the churches they established
kept the seventh day.
The majority of these original Christians settled, however,
in the Alps, a place naturally suited for their protection, being situated
where Switzerland, France, and Italy join. They could, therefore, more easily
get protection in one or another of these countries, as it would be harder for
the Papacy to get joint action of all these countries in case of persecution.
Then, too, these mountains were so steep and high, the valleys so narrow, and
the passes into them so difficult, that it would seem as though God had
prepared this hiding place for His true church and truth during the Dark Ages.
William Jones says:
"Angrogna, Pramol, and S. Martino are strongly fortified
by nature on account of their many difficult passes and bulwarks of rocks and
mountains; as if the all-wise Creator, says Sir Samuel Morland, had, from the
beginning, designed that place as a cabinet, wherein to put some inestimable
jewel, or in which to reserve many thousand souls, which should not bow the
knee before Baal." - "History of the
Christian Church," Vol. I, p. 356, third ed. London: 1818.
(119) Sophia V.
Bompiani, in "A Short History of the
Italian Waldenses" (New York: 1897), quotes from several
unquestionable authorities to show that the Waldenses, after having withdrawn
to the Alps because of persecution, fully separated from the Roman church under
the work of Vigilantius Leo, the Leonist of Lyons, who vigorously protested
against the many false doctrines and practices that had been adopted by the
Church. Jerome (A.D. 403-306) wrote a very cutting book against him in which he
says:
"'That monster called Vigilantius...has escaped to the
region where King Cottius reigned, between the Alps and the waves of the
Adriatic. From thence he has cried out against me, and, ah, wickedness! There
he has found bishops who share his crime.'" Sophia V. Bompiani the
remarks: "This region, where King Cottius reigned, once a part of
Cisalpine Gaul, is the precise country of the Waldenses. Here Leo, or
Vigilantius, retired for safety from persecution, among a people already
established there of his own way of thinking, who received him as a brother,
and who thenceforth for several centuries were sometimes called by his name
[Leonists]. Here, shut up in the Alpine valleys, they handed down through the
generations the doctrines and practices of the primitive church, while the
inhabitants of the plains of Italy were daily sinking more and more into the
apostasy foretold by the Apostles." - "A
Short History of the Italian Waldenses," pp. 8, 9.
"The ancient emblem of
the Waldensian church is a candlestick with the motto, Lux lucet in tenebris ['The
light shineth in darkness']. A candlestick in the oriental imagery of the Bible
is a church, and this church had power from God to prophesy in sackcloth and
ashes twelve hundred and sixty days or symbolic years." - Id., p. 17.
Dr. W. S. Gilly, an English clergyman, after much research,
wrote a book entitled: "Vigilantius and His Times," giving the same
information.
Roman Catholic writers try to evade the apostolic origin of
the Waldenses, so as to make it appear that the Roman is the only apostolic
church, and that all others are later novelties. And for this reason they try
to make out that the Waldenses originated with Peter Waldo of the twelfth
century. Dr. Peter Allix says:
(120) "Some
Protestants, on this occasion, have fallen into the snare that was set for
them....It is absolutely false, that these churches were ever founded by Pete
Waldo....It is a pure forgery." - "Ancient
Church of Piedmont," pp. 192. Oxford: 1821.
"It is not true, that Waldo gave this name to the
inhabitants of the valleys: they were called Waldenses, or Vaudes, before his
time, from the valleys in which they dwelt." - Id., p. 182.
On the other hand, he "was called Valdus, or Waldo,
because he received his religious notions from the inhabitants of the
valleys." - "History of the Christian
Church," William Jones, Vol. II, p. 2. See also Sir Samuel
Morland's "History of the Evangelical
Churches of the Valleys of Piedmont," pp. 29, 30.
Henri Arnaud, a leading pastor among the Waldenses, says:
"Their proper name, Vallenses, is derived from the Latin
word vallis, and not, as has been
insinuated, from Valdo, a merchant of Lyons." - "The Glorious Recovery by the Vaudois," Henri Arnaud,
p. xiii. London: 1827.
The Roman Inquisitor, Reinerus Sacho, writing about 1230
A.D., says:
"The heresy of the Vaudois, or poor people of Lyons, is
of great antiquity. Among all sects that either are, or have been, there is
none more dangerous to the Church, than that of the Leonists, and that for
three reasons: the first is, because it is the sect of the longest standing of
any; for some say that it has been continued down ever since the time of Pope
Sylvester; and others, ever since that of the apostles. The second is, because
it is the most general of all sects; for scarcely is there any country to be
found where this sect hath not spread itself. And the third, because it has the
greatest appearance of piety; because, in the sight of all, these men are just
and honest in their transactions, believe of God what ought to be believed,
receive all the articles of the Apostles' Creed, and only profess to hate the
Church of Rome." - Quoted on page 22 of William Stephen Gilly's "Excursion," fourth edition.
London: 1827.
(121) Now it must be
clear as the noonday sun, that Reinerus would not have written as he did, if
the Waldenses had originated with Peter Waldo, only seventy-five years before;
nor could Waldo's followers have multiplied and spread over the whole world in
so short a time, under great persecution, and with so slow means of travel.
Henri Arnaud, a Waldensian pastor, says of their origin:
"Neither has their church been ever reformed, whence
arises its title of Evangelic. The
Vaudois are, in fact, 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." - "The Glorious Recovery by the Vaudois," p. xiv of
preface by the Author, translated by Acland. London: 1827.
THE
WALDENSIAN FAITH
The Waldenses took the Bible as their only rule of faith,
abhorred the idolatry of the papal church, and rejected their traditions,
holidays, and even Sunday, but kept the seventh-day Sabbath, and used the
apostolic mode of baptism. (See "Ancient
Churches of Piedmont," by P. Allix, pp. 152-260.). Their old
catechism shows that they believed in justification by faith in the grace of
Christ alone, and that obedience to the Ten Commandments was the sure fruit of living faith:
"Q.--By what means do we hope for grace? A.--By the
Mediator Jesus Christ....
"Q.--What is a living faith? A.--That which worketh by
charity.
"Q.--What is a dead faith? A.--According to St. James,
that faith which is without works, is dead....
"Q.--By what means canst thou know that thou believest
in God? A.--By this: because I know that I have given myself to the observation
of the commandments of God.
"Q.--How many commandments of God are there? A.--Ten, as
it appeareth in Exodus and Deuteronomy....
"Q.--Upon what do all these commandments depend?
A.--Upon the two great commandments, that is to say: Thou shalt love God above
all things, and thy neighbor as thyself." - "Waldenses,"
Perrin, Part III, Book I, pp. 1-10. (1624 A.D.) "The Glorious Recovery by the Vaudois," Henri Arnaud,
pp. Xcvi, xcvii, cv. London: 1827.
(122) Dr. Peter Allix
quotes the following from a Roman Catholic author: "'They say that blessed
Pope Sylvester was the Antichrist, of whom mention is made in the Epistles of
St. Paul, as being the son of perdition, who extols himself above everything that
is called God: for, from that time, they say, the Church perished.'...
"He lays it down also as one of their opinions; 'That
the Law of Moses is to be kept according to the letter, and that the keeping of
the Sabbath, circumcision, and other legal observances, ought to take
place.'" - "Ancient Churches of
Piedmont," p. 169 (page 154, edition of 1690). Oxford: 1821.
In regard to the accusation that the Waldenses practiced
circumcision, Mr. Benedict truthfully says:
"The account of their practicing circumcision is
undoubtedly a slanderous story, forged by their enemies and probably arose in
this way: because they observed the seventh day they were called, by way of
derision, Jews, as the Sabbatarians are frequently at this day, and if they
were Jews, it followed, of course, that they either did, or ought to circumcise
their followers." - "General History
of the Baptist Denomination," Vol. II, p. 414, edition of 1813.
That this was exactly the way this slander was fastened on
Sabbath-keepers, we can see from the "Epistle" written against them
by Pope Gregory I (A.D. 590-604), in which he says:
"It has come to my ears that certain men of perverse
spirit have sown among you some things that are wrong and opposed to the holy
faith, so as to forbid any work being done on the Sabbath day....
(123) "For, if any
one says that this about the Sabbath is to be kept, he must needs say that
carnal sacrifices are to be offered: he must say, too, that the commandment
about the circumcision of the body is still to be retained." - "Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers" (Second
Series), Vol. XIII, Book 13, epist. 1, p. 92. New York: 1898.
Going back to Judaism was considered by the Roman Catholic
Church as one of the most serious heresies, punishable with death. And any one
at all familiar with the tactics of Romanists knows that it has been a
practice, only too common among them, to blacken the character of those whom
they would destroy, so as to justify their destruction. Dr. Peter Allix says:
"It is no great sin with the Church of Rome to spread
lies concerning those that are enemies of the faith....There is nothing more
common with the Romish party, than to make use of the most horrid calumnies to
blacken and expose those who have renounced her communion....Calumny is a trade
the Romish party is perfectly well versed in." - "Ancient Church of Piedmont," pp. 224, 225. (Pages
205, 206 in edition of 1690.)
William Jones says:
"Louis XII, King of France, being informed by the
enemies of the Waldenses, inhabiting a part of the province of Province, that
several heinous crimes were laid to their account, sent the Master of Requests,
and a certain doctor of the Sorbonne, who was confessor to his majesty, to make
inquiry into this matter. On their return, they reported that they had visited
all the parishes where they dwelt, had inspected their places of worship, but
that they had found there no images, nor signs of the ornaments belonging to
the mass, nor any of the ceremonies of the Romish church; much less could they
discover any traces of those crimes with which they were charged. On the
contrary, they kept the Sabbath day, observed the ordinance of baptism,
according to the primitive church, instructed their children in the article of
the Christian faith, and the commandments of God. The King having heard the
report of his commissioners, said with an oath that they were better men than
himself or his people.""- "History
of the Christian Church," Vol. 2, pp. 71, 72, third edition.
London: 1818.
NAMES OF
THE WALDENSES
(124) John P. Perrin of
Lyons writes of how the Waldenses went under different names, either from the
territory in which they lived, or from the name of the missionary they had sent
to that country. He says:
"First therefore they called them...Waldenses; of the
countries of Albi, Albigeois [Abligenses]....
"And from one of the disciples of Valdo, called Ioseph
[Joseph], who preached in Dauphiney in the diocesse of Dye, they were called
Iosephists [Josephites]....
"Of one of their pastors who preached in Albegeois,
named Arnold Hot, they were called Arnoldists....
"And because they observed no other day of rest but the
Sabbath dayes, they called them Insabathas, as much as to say, as they observed
no Sabbath.
"And because they were alwayes exposed to continuall
sufferings, from the Latin word Pati, which signifieth to suffer, they called
them Patareniens.
"And for as much as like poore passengers, they wandered
from one place to another, they were called Passagenes," - "Luther's Fore-Runners," (original
spelling) pp. 7, 8. London: 1624.
This author quotes the following from the Waldensian faith:
"That we are to worship one only God, who is able to
help us, and not the Saints departed; that we ought to keep holy the Sabbath
day, but that there was no necessity of observing other feasts." - Id., p.
38.
Goldastus, a learned German historian (A.D. 1576-1635) says
of them:
They were called "Insabbatati, not because they were
circumcised, but because they kept the Jewish Sabbath." "Circumcisi forsan illi fuerint, qui aliis
Insabbatati, non quod circumciderentur, inquit Calvinista [Goldastus] sed quod in Sabbato judaizarent." - Robert
Robinson, in "Ecclesiastical
Researches," chap. 10, p. 303. (Quoted in "History of the Sabbath," J. N. Andrews,
p. 412, ed. 1887.)
(125) David Benedict,
M. A., says:
"Robinson gives an account of some of the Waldenses of
the Alps, who were called Sabbati, Sabbatati,
Insabbatati, but more frequently Inzabbatati.
'One says they were so named from the Hebrew word Sabbath, because they
kept the Saturday for the Lord's day. Another says they were so called because
they rejected all the festivals." - "General
History of the Baptist Denomination," Vol. II, p. 413. Boston:
1813.
Dr. J. L. Mosheim says:
"Pasaginians...had the utmost aversion to the dominion
and discipline of the church of Rome;...and celebrated the Jewish
Sabbath." - "Ecclesiastical
History" (two-volume edition), Cent. 12, Part 2, Chap. 5, Sec. 14,
Vol. I, p. 333. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1871.
The papal author, Bonacursus, wrote the following against the
"Pasagini":
"Not a few, but many know what are the errors of those
who are called Pasagini....First, they teach that we should obey the law of
Moses according to the letter - the Sabbath, and circumcision, and the legal
precepts still being in force....Furthermore, to increase their error, they
condemn and reject all the church Fathers, and the whole Roman Church." - "D'Achery, Spicilegium I, f. 211-214;
Muratory, Antiq. Med. Aevi. 5, f. 152, Hahn, 3, 209. Quoted in "History of the Sabbath," J. N. Andrews,
pp. 547, 548. 1912.
The Roman Catholic Church has always had a special enmity
toward the Bible Sabbath and Sabbath-keepers. Mr. Benedict says:
"It was the settled policy of Rome to obliterate every
vestige of opposition to her doctrines and decrees, everything heretical,
whether persons or writings, by which the faithful would be liable to be
contaminated and led astray. In conformity to this, their fixed determination,
all books and records of their opposers were hunted up, and committed to the
flames." - "History of the Baptist
Denomination," p. 50. 1849.
(126) Dr. De Sanctis,
who for years was a Catholic official at Rome, and at one time Censor of the
Inquisition, but who later became a Protestant, reports in his book a
conversation of a Waldensian scholar as he pointed to the ruins of the Palatine
Hill at Rome:
"'See,' said the Waldensian, 'a beautiful monument of
ecclesiastical antiquity. These rough materials are the ruins of the two great
Palatine libraries, one Greek and the other Latin, where the precious
manuscripts of our ancestors were collected, and which Pope Gregory I, called
the Great, caused to be burned.'" - "Popery,
Puseyism, Jesuitism," De Sanctis, p. 53.
Eternity alone will reveal how many precious manuscripts have
been destroyed by Rome in its effort to blot out all traces of apostolic
Christianity.
We have now seen that the ancient apostolic church, scattered
by persecution, and often in hiding, went under various names. Being peaceful,
virtuous, and industrious citizens, they were tolerated, or even shielded, by
princes who understood their value to the country, while the Catholic Church
hunted them down like wild beasts. After the Waldenses and Albigenses had lived
quietly in France for many years, Pope Innocent III wrote the following
instruction to his bishops:
"Therefore by this present apostolical writing we give
you a strict command that, by whatever means you can, you destroy all these
heresies and expel from your diocese all who are polluted with them. You shall
exercise the rigor of the ecclesiastical power against them and all those who
have made themselves suspected by associating with them. They may not appeal
from your judgments, and if necessary, you may cause the princes and people to
suppress them with the sword." - "A
Source Gook for Mediaeval History," Oliver J. Thatcher and E. H.
McNeal, p. 210. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1905.
(127) Philippus van
Limborch, Professor of Divinity at Amsterdam, speaking of the way the liberty
of the people was suppressed after 1050, says:
"In the following ages the affairs of the church were so
managed under the government of the Popes, and all persons so strictly curbed
by the severity of the laws, that they durst not even so much as whisper
against the received opinions of the church. Besides this, so deep was the
ignorance that had spread itself over the world, that men, without the least
regard to knowledge and learning, received with a blind obedience every thing
that the ecclesiastics ordered them, however stupid and superstitious, without
any examination; and if any one dared in the least to contradict them, he was
sure immediately to be punished; whereby the most absurd opinions came to be
established by the violence of the Popes." - "History
of the Inquisition," p. 79. London: 1816.
Ignorance and superstition generated vice of the basest sort,
and brought the Christian world into the darkest of the Dark Ages, which made
the Reformation of the sixteenth century an absolute necessity. And, as
"the darkest hour of the night is just before dawn," so the twelfth
to the fifteenth centuries were the darkest in the Christian Era. For a time,
however, there were still a few lights shining on the religious horizon,
shedding their mild gospel light into the dense darkness. But when these were
extinguished, the darkness became well-nigh complete. 1. The Celtic church of
Scotland was extinguished in 1069; that of Ireland in 1172; that of the ancient
Albigenses in 1229; the Assyrian lamp of the East was extinguished at Malabar,
India, by the Inquisition in 1560; and the Waldensian lamp, that had been
shining the longest, and had sent its mild rays over Europe for centuries, was
extinguished in 1686. The history of these evangelical churches during this
dark period is very interesting and has many valuable lessons for our day.
The Waldenses and Albigenses were quiet and industrious
people, and followed the Bible standard of morality, which actually caused
their persecution.
(128) "But their
crowning offence was their love and reverence for Scripture, and their burning
zeal in making converts. The Inquisitor of Passau informs us that they had
translations of the whole Bible in the vulgar tongue, which the Church vainly
sought to suppress, and which they studied with incredible assiduity....Many of
them had the whole of the New Testament [memorized] by heart....Surely if ever
there was a God-fearing people it was these unfortunates under the ban of
Church and State....The inquisitors...[declare] that the sign of a Vaudois,
deemed worthy of death, was that he followed Christ and sought to obey the
commandments of God." - "History of
the Inquisition of the Middle Ages," H. C. Lea, Vol. I, pp. 86, 87.
New York. Harper and Brothers, 1888.
"In fact, amid the license of the Middle Ages ascetic
virtue was apt to be regarded as a sign of heresy." - Id., p. 87.
On the other hand, the licentious lives of the Catholic
clergy placed insurmountable barriers for a Waldensian ever to become a
Catholic. When in 1204 Pope Innocent III sent his commissioners to crush the
peaceful Waldenses and Albigenses in Southern France "with fire and
sword," these monks returned to the pope asking for help to reform the
lives of the Catholic priests. Lea says:
"The legates...appealed to him for aid against prelates
whom they had failed to coerce, and whose infamy of life gave scandal to the
faithful and an irresistible argument to the heretic. Innocent curtly bade them
attend to the object of their mission and not allow themselves to be diverted
by less important matters." - Id., p. 129.
Professor Philippus van Limborch writes:
"It was the entire study and endeavour of the popes, to
crush, in its infancy, every doctrine that any way opposed their exorbitant
power. In the year 1163, at the synod of Tours, all the bishops and priests in
the country of Tholouse, were commanded 'to take care, and to forbid, under the
pain of excommunication, every person from presuming to give reception, or the
least assistance to the followers of this heresy, which
first began in the country of Tholouse, whenever they shall be
discovered. Neither were they to have any dealings with them in buying or
selling; that by being thus deprived of the common assistances of life, they
might be compelled to repent of the evil of their way. Whosoever shall dare to
contravene this order, let them be excommunicated, as a partner with them in
their guilt. As many of them as can be found, let them be imprisoned by the
Catholic princes, and punished with the forfeiture of all their
substance."
(129) "Some of the
Waldenses, coming into the neighbouring kingdom of Arragon, king Ildefonsus, in
the year 1194, put forth, against them, a very severe and bloody edict, by
which 'he banished them from his kingdom, and all his dominions, as enemies of
the cross of Christ, prophaners of the Christian religion, and public enemies
to himself and kingdom.' He adds: 'If any, from this day forwards, shall
presume to receive into their houses, the aforesaid Waldenses and Inzabbatati,
or other heretics, of whatsoever profession they be, or to hear, in any place,
their abominable preachings, or to give them food, or to do them any kind
office whatsoever; let him know, that he shall incur the indignation of
Almighty God and ours; that he shall forfeit all his goods, without benefit of
appeal, and be punished as though guilty of high treason.'" - "History of the Inquisition," pp.
88, 89. London. 1816.
To destroy completely these heretics Pope Innocent III sent
Dominican inquisitors into France, and also crusaders, promising "a
plenary remission of all sins, to those who took on them the crusade...against
the Albigenses." When Raymond VI, Earl of Tholouse, shielded these
innocent people, who were such an asset to his country, he was "deposed by
the pope." (Catholic Encyclopedia,
Vol. XII, art. "Raymond VI," p. 670.) Being frightened by the savage
crusaders Raymond submitted, and the papal legate had him publicly whipped
twice till "he was so grievously torn by the stripes" that he had to
leave the church by a back door. (Id., pp. 98, 100.) He later appealed to
Innocent III. "The pope, however, ceded the estates of Raymond to Simon de
Montfort," (1215) (Catholic Encyclopedia,
Vol. XII, art. "Raymond VI," p. 670.) Thousands of God's people were
tortured to death by the Inquisition, buried alive, burned to death, or hacked
to pieces by the crusaders. While devastating the city of Biterre the soldiers
asked the Catholic leaders how they should know who were heretics; Arnold,
Abbot of Cisteaux, answered: "Slay them all, for the Lord knows who is
His." - Id., pp. 98, 101.
(130) In 1216 to 1221
Raymond reconquered his land, and after his death (1221) his son became Earl,
and "the Inquisition was banished from the country of Tholouse." But
Pope Honorius III "proclaimed an holy war, to be called the 'Penance war,'
against the heretics," and "to subdue the Earl of Tholouse, he sent
letters to King Louis" of France to make war on Raymond, which he did. But
treachery, which has always been one of the most successful weapons of the
Papacy against God's people, had to be resorted to here: When the Pope's legate
saw that he could not take the city of Avignon by force, he "scrupled not
to adopt the vilest treachery and to practice the basest hypocrisy. - He
offered to suspend hostilities, and to pave the way for peace, if the besieged
would admit a few priests, only to inquire concerning the faith of the
inhabitants: and those terms being agreed upon and sealed by mutual oaths; the
priest entered, but in direct violation of their solemn engagement, brought the
French army with them, who thus fraudulently triumphed over the unsuspecting
citizens; they plundered the city, killed or bound in chains the
inhabitants." - Id., pp. 104-106.
(This is in perfect harmony with the Catholic teaching and
practice, that they need not keep faith with a heretic, as carried out in the
case of John Huss. In spite of the safe-conduct form the Emperor Sigismund, he
was imprisoned, November 28, 1414, and burned July 6, 1415.)
HUNTED
LIKE WILD BEASTS
(131) The Earl of
Tholouse was finally forced to bow to Rome, and God's people were hunted as
wild beasts everywhere. Here are some of the laws of Louis IX, King of France,
A.D. 1299:
"Canon 3. - The
lords of the different districts shall have the villas, houses, and woods
diligently searched, and the hiding-places of the heretics destroyed. Canon 4. - If any one allows a heretic to
remain in his territory, he loses his possession forever, and his body is in
the hands of the magistrates to receive due punishment. Canon 5. - But also such are liable to the law, whose territory
has been made the frequent hiding-place of heretics, not by his knowledge, but
by his negligence. Canon 6. - The house
in which a heretic is found, shall be torn down, and the place or land be
confiscated. Canon 14. - Lay members are
not allowed to possess the books of either the Old or the New Testament."
- "Hefele's Councils," Vol. V,
pp. 981, 982. ("History of the Sabbath,"
New, p. 558).
These laws were only echoes of the "Bulls" of the
popes. But while the Waldenses on the French side of the Alps were being
exterminated, the pope had a more difficult task to destroy them in the
Piedmont Alps. From Pope Lucius III (A.D. 1181-1185) to the Reformation in the
sixteenth century the persecution of the Waldenses was the subject of many
papal "anathemas." Army after army was sent against them, and all
manner of trickery was resorted to in order to destroy these honest, plain,
Christian people. In 1488 Albert Cataneo, the papal legate came with an army
into the midst of Val Louise. The inhabitants fled into a cavern for shelter,
and the soldiers started a fire at the mouth of the cavern and smothered the
entire population of 3,000, including 400 children. Then Cataneo entered the
Piedmont side. Here the Waldenses retreated to Pra del Tor, their "Shiloh
of the Valleys." Cataneo ordered his soldiers into the dark, narrow chasm
that formed the only path to this citadel. The poor Waldenses were now bottled
up, and their enemies were proceeding towards them, sure of their prey, but God
heard earnest prayers:
(132) "A white
cloud, no bigger than a man's hand, unobserved by the Piedmontese, but keenly
watched by the Vaudois, was seen to gather on the mountain's summit....That
cloud grew rapidly bigger and blacker. It began to descend....It fell right
into the chasm in which was the Papal army....In a moment the host were in
night; they...could neither advance nor retreat. {The Waldenses] tore up huge
stones and rocks, and sent them thundering down into the ravine. The papal
soldiers were crushed where they stood....Panic impelled them to flee,...they
threw each other down in the struggle; some were trodden to death; others were
rolled over the precipice, and crushed on the rocks below, or drowned in the
torrent, and so perished miserably." - "History
of the Waldenses," J. A. Wylie, pp. 48, 49.
In 1544 the treacherous and heartless Catholic leader,
D'Oppede caused the terrible butchery of thousands of Waldenses. At Cabrieres
he wrote a note to the people, saying that if they would open the gates of
their city he would do them no harm. They, in good faith, opened the gates, and
D'Oppede cried out: "Kill them all." Men, women, and children were
massacred or burned alive. In 1655 there was another massacre of Waldenses.
After the Catholic leaders had made several vain attempts to break into the
fastnesses of the mountains where the Waldenses lived, and were defeated, the
Marquis of Pianesse wrote the various Waldensian towns to entertain certain
regiments of soldiers to show their good faith. These Christian people, who
always had such sacred regard for their own word, never seemed to learn that it
is a fundamental Catholic doctrine, that Catholics need not, and should not,
keep faith with heretics, when the interest of the "Church" is at
stake. After they had sheltered the soldiers, and fed them of their scanty
store, a signal was given at 4 A.M., April 24, 1655, and the butchery began.
"Little children, Leger says, were torn from the arms of
their mothers, dashed against the rocks, and cast carelessly away. The sick or
the aged, both men and women, were either burned in their houses, or hacked in
pieces; or mutilated, half murdered, and flayed alive, they were exposed in a
dying state to the heat of the sun, or to flames, or to ferocious beasts."
- "Israel of the Alps," Dr.
Alexis Muston, Vol. I, pp. 349, 350.
(133) These people
suffered tortures too terrible to mention, which only devils in human form
could have invented. The towns in the beautiful valleys were left smoldering
ruins. A few people save themselves by flight to the mountains.
FURTHER
DESTRUCTION
In 1686 another terrible edict was issued against them, and
an army raised to exterminate them. And again it was the same story of
treachery. Gabriel of Savoy himself wrote them:
"'Do not hesitate to lay down your arms: and be assured
that if you cast yourselves upon the clemency of his royal highness, he will
pardon you, and that neither your persons nor those of your wives or children
shall be touched.'" - "Israel of the
Alps," Alexis Muston, Vol. I, p. 445.
The Waldenses accepted the official document in good faith
and opened their entrenchments. But the Catholic officials, true to the nature
of their church doctrines, rushed in and butchered men, women, and children in
cold blood. Unspeakable tortures were inflicted on the innocent people, while a
few escaped to the mountains. All the towns of the valleys were smoldering and
charred ruins. Rome had at last quenched the ancient lamp. "The school of
the prophets in the Pra del Tor is razed. No smoke is seen rising from cottage,
and no psalm is heard ascending from dwelling or sanctuary,...and no troop of
worshipers, obedient to the summons of the Sabbath bell, climbs the mountain
paths." - "History of the
Waldenses," Wylie, p. 173.
As these exiled Waldenses fled from country to country, they
were persecuted and harassed, but they sowed the seeds of truth as they went.
Let us now consider the experiences of other branches of the apostolic church,
that were scattered by persecution and by early missionary endeavors to the
outskirts of civilization.
