Vaudois

The Church In the Wilderness, Part 3

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“The Waldenses stand apart and alone in the Christian world. Their place on the surface of Europe is unique; their position in history is not less unique; and the end appointed them to fulfill is one which has been assigned to them alone, no other people being permitted to share it with them.” The Waldenses, by J.A. Wylie, 19.

The testimony of the Waldenses carries a two-fold message. In the first place their teachings and lives are in direct contrast to the apostasy of the papal church resulting in that power’s attempt to eradicate the hated “heretics.” In the second place their witness strengthened the position of the Protestant reformers. This is another reason why the Roman church persecuted the Waldenses.

The first incident we will describe occurred on Christmas of 1400. It took place in the Valley of Pragales in the Alps of northern Italy. The people felt safe because the snow lay very deep around them. An inquisitor named Borelli had previously caught 150 men as well as women and children and burned them alive. His army came suddenly, at night, upon those living in this valley. The Waldenses fled in the icy cold. Some lost hands and feet to frostbite, while others froze to death.

In 1487, Pope Innocent VII issued a bull denouncing the Waldenses as a “malicious and abominable sect of malignants.” He appointed Albert Canteneo, Archdeacon of Cremona, to carry out the bull and destroy the “venomous snakes.”

The plan of attack was to approach the Valley of Angrogna from two directions. The army was made up of two divisions, one French and the other Italian. One was to approach from the French side of the Alps while the Piedmontese from the Italian side were to converge in the valley. As the inhabitants of the Loyse valley saw the French coming, they retreated to a cavern nearly six thousand feet up a mountainside. This cave became their graves as the soldiers built a fire at the entrance, suffocating all within.

The people in other cities and valleys realized their only recourse was to resist and they prepared to defend themselves. The magnitude of the defenses set up discouraged the French army from attacking, so they continued on their way to Angrogna pillaging and burning as they went. Pragales was once more attacked and obliterated.

Cataneo led his Italian division on various excursions in an attempt to bring his mission to a victorious end. But it was not to be so. As he entered the Valley of Angrogna, the inhabitants prepared themselves for battle. They had tried to obtain a peace settlement with Cataneo, but were unsuccessful. Therefore, they decided to fight for their very lives.

The Waldenses moved further up the valley to a place that was easily defended. The papal army had to traverse a narrow defile with steep mountains on one side and a precipice on the other. The people climbed up the mountain so they were looking down on the path the army was to follow. As Cataneo moved along, a fog descended and enshrouded them. The Waldenses rolled rocks down on the soldiers, killing many of them, and followed by attacking and killing most of the remaining men; few escaped alive. These godly people now enjoyed a short respite from persecution.

The sword was sheathed for a time but the artful plots of the papal power continued. To secure their peace, the persecuted ones compromised themselves by attending the Romish mass and having their children baptized by the priests. The church in the wilderness appeared to fall but it did not, for the Reformation had already begun. Most of the countries of Europe had been stirred by the reformers before the tidings reached the Waldenses. “The blessed God hath never left Himself without witnesses in the world; and even during the reign of Antichrist—a period of the most general and awful defection from the purity of His worship, He had reserved to Himself thousands and tens of thousands of such as kept His commandments and the faith of Jesus. Nor is there any thing in this to occasion our surprise. The real followers of Christ are subjects of a kingdom that is not of this world.” The History of The Christian Church, 234, 235.

We have arrived at the time of the opening of the Reformation. Upon hearing of this the Vaudois were ecstatic. Eager to know what was happening, they sent a Pastor Martin of the Lucerna valley on a mission to discover the extent of the reform. He returned in 1526 revealing that the yoke of Rome had been cast off in Germany, Switzerland, and France and that every day many were being added to those who openly professed the same faith as the Waldenses. To prove that what he said was true, he brought back books he received in Germany containing the teachings of the Reformers. Later, two more pastors were sent from the French side of the Alps to Germany and Switzerland. The reformers were overjoyed to hear from these two men the voice of the primitive, apostolic gospel. The Alpine confessors had believed they were the only people who kept the true faith of the Bible, and they were very happy to find there were many others who believed and taught the same truth.

 

Peace and War

 

In 1532, a Synod was called and representatives from both sides of the Alps, attended along with deputies from churches in Switzerland and Bohemia. A confession was drawn up which contained seventeen articles with the main ones being: “Moral inability of man; election to eternal life; the will of God, as made known in the Bible, the only rule of duty; and the doctrine of two Sacraments only, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.” Ibid., 60. A resolution was passed to translate the Bible into French making it available to the churches of the Reformation. It was printed in Switzerland in 1535.

Near this time, a quarrel occurred between Francis I of France and the Duke of Savoy, resulting in Francis gaining control of both sides of the Alps. The Waldensian people enjoyed a twenty-eight year time of partial peace with incidents of persecution and destruction here and there. Then persecution once again broke out on a large scale. The Inquisition continued to do its terrible work selecting individuals—one here and another there for extermination. A man named Bersour attacked the Valley of Angrogna but was repulsed. He then turned to the Vaudois living around his residence in Turin, seizing many of them and putting them in prison, and burning others.

Then there came a change in the politics of Europe that brought peace to the valleys. A treaty was signed in 1553 restoring Piedmont to the House of Savoy and a new monarch was placed on the throne. In 1560, he issued an edict forbidding his subjects to hear Protestant preachers on pain of death. There followed, shortly, another edict demanding all to attend mass under pain of death. Carignano was the first town to feel the tempest. The wealthy were dragged to the flames resulting in the rest of the people being scattered to various places including Turin. Wherever a Vaudois congregation existed there the persecutor turned. Rumors of confiscation, arrest, cruel tortures, and horrible deaths preceded the coming of the armies of destruction into the Waldensian Alps. The Waldenses decided to appeal to the throne. They sent a petition in the hands of M. Gilles, Pastor of Bricherasio, to the king’s Counsel, asking that they be allowed to live in peace and enjoy liberty of conscience.

The pastor was well received by the Duke of Savoy, but the requirements that the Duke made were not acceptable. In October of 1560, he declared war against the Vaudois. They determined to depend upon God for their defense. On October 31, as the Papal army appeared at Burbiana, the entrance to the Waldensian Valleys, the population humbled themselves in a public fast and partook of the Lord’s supper. They packed their belongings, and singing psalms as they traveled, made their way to the Pra del Tor. It was here they made their stand and successfully defeated the enemy in a number of battles and skirmishes, resulting in a considerable slaughter of the Papal army.

The leader of the Papal forces, Count La Trinita, recognizing the futility of pursuing the use of force, turned to diplomacy to achieve his ends. He made promises that if the Waldenses would compromise a little here and a small amount there, the persecutions would cease. But, having acceded to the wishes of La Trinita, they discovered, as had occurred so many times before, that the promises were empty. The terrible torture and murder continued unabated, their houses and lands were pillaged and destroyed.

Once more the Alpine churches determined to stand firm for truth and to defend themselves to the death. The Waldenses of Italy made a pact with those on the French side of the Alps to assist each other at all costs. An order from the Duke had been issued on January 20, 1561, that all people of the valleys were to attend mass or die. La Trinita knew he had to control the Pra del Tor in order to conquer the Waldenses. His attempt to accomplish this was completely defeated and his forces nearly destroyed. A treaty of peace was signed between the deputies of the valleys and the Duke of Savoy on June 5, 1561. Seedtime and harvest had been hardly restored when another calamity struck. In August of 1629, a flood occurred, wiping out the villages of Bobbio and Prali, followed by an icy dry wind in September, destroying all crops.

Yet another tragedy took place in the same year, even worse than persecution. The plague was brought into the valleys by members of the French army who had contracted the disease. Nearly half of the population of the valleys died from the plague.

Another settlement was signed and peace reigned for fifteen years. Then the valleys were invaded by a swarm of Capuchin monks sent to convert the heretics. As long as the people had their pastors to keep them on the true path, the monks had little success in their endeavors. To accomplish their goal, the pastors and leaders of the Vaudois were banished and driven into exile. The population was forbidden to go outside their territory, on pain of death. Even then, the conversion of the people moved ahead very slowly, so the Waldenses were commanded to leave and go to other areas where they were welcomed by the Vaudois of other valleys.

 

Deception and Death

 

Again the appeal was made to the House of Savoy for relief, and once again they were ignored. On April 15, 1655, an army of 15,000 men led by the Marquis de Pianeza, invaded the valleys only to meet total disaster time and time again. Recognizing the uselessness of carrying out any more forays into the valleys, the Marquis used craft and deceit to gain his objective. He made an agreement with the Vaudois that if they would allow a regiment of soldiers to be stationed in each valley for a few days, peace would come. On the Sabbath of April 24, at four in the morning, the blow fell upon the unsuspecting populace. The assassins did their work of murder and torture. “ ‘Our valley of Lucerna,’ exclaims Leger, ‘which was like a Goshen, was now converted into a Mount Etna, darting forth cinders and fire and flames. The earth resembled a furnace, and the air was filled with a darkness like that of Egypt, which might be felt, from the smoke of towns, villages, temples, mansions, granges, and buildings, all burning in the flames of the Vatican.’ The soldiers were not content with the quick dispatch of the sword. They invented new and hitherto unheard-of modes of torture and death. No man at this day dare write in plain words all the disgusting and horrible deeds of these men; their wickedness can never be all known, because it never can be all told.” Ibid., 142, 143.

Following this massacre, the Waldenses were relatively free from persecution for thirty years, though it never completely ceased. They still suffered annoyances and harassment at the hands of the papacy.

As Louis XIV came to the close of his life, he asked his confessor what he might do to atone for his sins. The reply was that he must extirpate Protestantism from France. A treaty was signed between the king of France and the Duke of Savoy in which the king promised to aid the Duke in eliminating the Vaudois. On January 31, 1686, an edict was issued containing the following:

  1. Vaudois to cease practicing their religion.
  2. No religious meetings under pain of death.
  3. All ancient privileges removed.
  4. All churches and religious buildings to be destroyed.
  5. All pastors and schoolmasters to embrace Romanism or be banished.
  6. All children to be raised as Roman Catholics.
  7. All Protestant foreigners to leave the country or become Roman Catholics within fifteen days.
  8. Persons who had acquired property in Piedmont were to sell it to Roman Catholics.

The Vaudois sent delegates to Turin seeking redress for their grievances from the Duke. The Protestants of Switzerland, Germany, and Holland interceded with the Duke on behalf of the Alpine populace to no avail. The Swiss counseled the Waldenses to leave their country to save their lives and to carry the torch of truth elsewhere. They chose rather to remain and defend themselves. They were attacked by a force of 15,000 men, who, at first, were defeated with a loss of 500 to two Vaudois. Then the army fell upon less strongly fortified villages and valleys and murdered and pillaged unmercifully. Wherever the army met a strongly fortified area, they told the defenders their neighbors had capitulated. The unsuspecting people believed this lie and they surrendered. The result of giving up resulted in a wholesale massacre with the loss of 3,000 persons, and the remaining 12,000 were imprisoned. The land of the Waldenses stood empty for the first time in its history.

In December of 1686, when the prisoners were released at the intervention of the Swiss Protestants—only 3000 were left alive. They were commanded to leave the country in the depth of winter. Many lost their lives on this journey. Small parties were released at intervals so that the last to leave arrived in Geneva in February of 1687. They were invited by some German princes to settle in their estates, but the influence of Louis XIV was too strong for them to remain at peace, so they had to move from place to place.

The Vaudois yearned to return to their valleys, and so on June 10, 1688, they made their way toward their homeland. But, they were discovered by the French forces and were then scattered throughout Germany. Then war broke out between France and Holland, drawing the attention of their enemies away from the Waldenses. They saw the hand of God intervening in their behalf and decided to once more return to their homeland. The return began on August 16, 1689, with Henry Arnaud leading 800 men. On their journey they met the enemy many times, but without defeat. Their last battle was at the crossing of the Dora River where they met 2500 French soldiers. In the battle that followed, 500 French died, while only fifteen Vaudois died and twelve wounded. Twelve days after leaving Switzerland they reached the borders of their land having lost only 100 men. “This great exploit is called the ‘Glorious Return.’ By the time the 1260-year period had run out, this faithful branch of the Church in the Wilderness had secured religious toleration.” Truth Triumphant, by Benjamin G. Wilkinson, 266.

The Waldenses still had many a battle to fight to regain their homeland, but they were successful in the end. However, it was not until 1870, with the disappearance of the French empire and the establishment of Germany and Italy, that they had complete freedom from harassment and persecution. Now, even the city of Rome was open to the Waldensian colporteur.

“The persecutions visited for many centuries upon this God-fearing people were endured by them with a patience and constancy that honored their Redeemer. Notwithstanding the crusades against them, and the inhuman butchery to which they were subjected, they continued to send out their missionaries to scatter the precious truth. They were hunted to death; yet their blood watered the seed sown, and it failed not of yielding fruit. Thus the Waldenses witnessed for God centuries before the birth of Luther. Scattered over many lands, they planted the seeds of the Reformation that began in the time of Wycliffe, grew broad and deep in the days of Luther, and is to be carried forward to the close of time by those who also are willing to suffer all things for ‘the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.’ Revelation 1:9.” The Great Controversy, 78.

A lesson to be learned from these experiences of the Waldenses is succintly revealed in the writings of St. Hilarius against Auxentius. “Of one thing I must carefully warn you, beware of Antichrist! It is ill done of you to fall in love with walls. It is ill done of you to reverence the church of God in buildings and stately edifices; it is wrong to rest in these things. Can you doubt that it is on these Antichrist will fix his throne? Give me mountains, forests, pits, and prisons, as being far safer places; for it was in these that the prophets prophesied by the Spirit of God.” The History of the Christian Church, by William Jones.

 

The Church in the Wilderness, part 2

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Last month we noted the rise of the Papacy as pagan rites, ceremonies, and philosophy crept into the church. The Bishop of Rome gradually gained more and more power as many bishops from that part of the world looked to Rome for direction and counsel. The emperor moved his capitol from Rome to Constantinople leaving a vacuum which the Roman bishop gladly filled. His objective now was three-fold. Namely: world wide bishop of bishops, temporal monarch, and king of earthly kings all of which he attained by the twelfth century.

Throughout this period of time there remained individuals and groups who refused to be caught up in the terrible apostasy prevailing in the church. They were found in Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, and England, as well as other parts of the world. “The apostasy was not universal. At no time did God leave His ancient Gospel without witnesses. When one body of confessors yielded to the darkness, or was cut off by violence, another arose in some other land, so that there was no age in which, in some country or other of Christendom, public testimony was not borne against the errors of Rome, and in behalf of the Gospel which she sought to destroy.” Wylie, The History of Protestantism, vol. 1, 18. The earliest protesters were found in northern Italy. The Diocese of Milan included Lombardy, the Alps, and southern France. These were not under the control of the Roman bishop until the middle of the eleventh century. The See of Rome encompassed only the city of Rome and the surrounding provinces.

Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, who died in 394, maintained the Bible only as his rule of faith and

Christ as the foundation of the church. For him justification and remission of sins was by the expiatory sacrifice of Christ on the cross. He believed in only two sacraments, Baptism and the Lord’s supper. For him the bread was only a symbol of Christ’s body. Others believed and taught as did Ambrose: Rufinus first metropolitan of Milan, fifth century, Laurentius Bishop of Milan, sixth, followed by Mansuetus, seventh, and in the eighth, Paulinus Bishop of Aquileia.

Claude, Archbishop of Turin, proclaimed the apostolic faith throughout his diocese which included the Waldensian valleys. He resisted, by both pen and voice image worship, which was rapidly progressing in the church. He refused to accept the primacy of the Roman Bishop and based his belief upon Matthew 16:19.

Claude’s death left no one to carry the torch of truth. As a result, the clergy of Milan finally succumbed to Papal pressures and joined the Papacy. However, there were those who did not accept the Roman Bishop’s offers and moved into the mountains and valleys of the Piedmont, in the Alps. It was here that the Waldenses kept the apostolic light shining all through the long night that was to follow the establishment of the Papacy. They moved here to avoid the corruptions of the Roman church and kept alive the true faith of the Bible. This is attested to by many documents including the Nobla Leycon which sets forth the following doctrines: the trinity, the fall of man, the incarnation, perpetuity of the Law, the need for Divine grace for good works, need for holiness, institution of the ministry, resurrection of the dead, and the eternal bliss of heaven.

They possessed the New Testament in the Romaunt language which was common in southern Europe from the eighth to the fourteenth centuries. “The church of the Alps, in the simplicity of its constitution, may be held to have been a reflection of the Church of the first centuries. The entire territory included in the Waldensian limits was divided into parishes. In each parish was placed a pastor, who led his flock to the living waters of the Word of God. He preached, he dispensed the Sacraments, he visited the sick, and catechized the young. With him was associated in the government of his congregation a consistory of laymen. The synod met once a year. It was composed of all the pastors (barbes), with an equal number of laymen, and its most frequent place of meeting was the secluded mountainengirdled valley at the head of the Angrogna.” Ibid.

The Bible was the textbook used by these pastors for teaching the youth, who were required to memorize large sections. After spending some time in this manner many would go to seminaries in Lombardy or Paris where they would evangelize as opportunity afforded. Before becoming pastors, the young were required to spend three years traveling and evangelizing. They often concealed their true mission by posing as merchants offering their wares, and at every opportunity would share a portion of Scripture with someone. These faithful evangelists made their way to France, Germany, Spain, Bohemia, Poland and even to Rome itself. Many lost their lives in this service, as they were discovered by Papal representatives and imprisoned or slain. But the Pope of Rome, becoming aware of the work of these people, saw that if it was allowed to continue, it would sweep away like a flood all that centuries of toil and intrigue had achieved. And so began the terrible crusades to eliminate and destroy this hated group of people. But before we pursue this part of history, we pause to take a look at a few other people or groups that held the same faith.

The first are known as Paulicians, so named because they believed and taught the faith of Paul the apostle, based upon Scripture. They were the remnant that escaped from the apostasy of the eastern church and settled in the mountains by the headwaters of the Euphrates river in Armenia. A man named Constantine received a portion of the New Testament, the epistles of Paul and the four Gospels. The study of these books drastically changed his life, resulting in the founding of a church. As this church began to grow, it came to the attention of the emperor at Constantinople. They were falsely charged with being Manicheans (after one named Manes). On the contrary they believed in the trinity, incarnation, and they renounced the worship of Mary, saints, and the cross. They said that the bread was only a symbol of the body of Christ. The copies of the Scriptures they had were uncorrupted and pure, revealing that they could not have been followers of Manes.

Because of their refusal to accept the tenets and authority of Rome they were severely persecuted and many were burned. “The firmness of their religious adherence to principle was marked by their frequent and ready submission to martyrdom. Hundreds of them were burned alive upon one huge funeral pile: two, out of three more eminent presidents, were severally stoned and cut in sunder with the axe.” George S. Faber, The History of the Ancient Vallenses and Albigenses, 59, 60.

Although persecuted they continued to flourish to the end of the eighth century. Taking up the sword in revenge for the persecution by the eastern emperor, they were joined by the Saracens in conducting a civil war. In the end they were driven back into the mountains whence they came. However, many of the Paulicians traveled around the empire evangelizing as they went and winning many converts.

By the end of the tenth century they settled in Europe, particularly in southern Bulgaria, Italy, Germany and France. They became the forerunners of the Albigenses. “When the emigrating Paulicians first appeared in that country, the people were already pre-disposed to resist the papal authority, and were already inclined to maintain what the Pontificials were pleased to call heresy.” Ibid., 262. “During a period of one hundred fifty years, these Christian churches seem to have been almost incessantly subjected to persecution, which they supported with Christian meekness and patience; and if the acts of their martyrdom, their preaching and their lives were distinctly recorded, I see no reason to doubt, that we should find in them the genuine successors of the Christians of the first two centuries. And in this as well as former instances, the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the church.” William Jones, The History of the Christian Church, vol. 1, 423.

By this time this movement blended with other believers in the true doctrines and so we turn our attention now to the south of France in the mountains and valleys of Piedmont. It was from this area that men carried the gospel, converting disciples and forming congregations wherever they went. They were joined by barons, cities and provinces. When they came to the attention of Rome, Pope Innocent III began a struggle to exterminate this hated “heretical sect.” Where once stood flourishing towns and villages now there was only a blackened desert. In spite of the terrible persecution, the gospel continued to spread. When men and women were martyred, others took their place and the torch of truth burned even brighter.

Meanwhile, the Pope had been sending millions of crusaders to the Holy Land in an attempt to wrest it from the Saracens, but this failed. Now Pope Innocent III saw a growing menace in the form of the various bodies of true believers such as the Albigenses, Waldenses, and others. He turned his fury back upon these people residing in southern France and northern Italy. “He resolved without loss of time to grapple with and crush the movement. He issued an edict enjoining the extermination of all heretics. Cities would be drowned in blood, kingdoms would be laid waste, art and civilization would perish, and the progress of the world would be rolled back for centuries; but not otherwise could the movement be arrested, and Rome saved.” Wylie, History of Protestantism, vol. 1, 39.

As the messengers of death and destruction carried out their evil work, some powerful and rich men, such as Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse became afraid. As the papal crusaders approached his dominion he recanted his faith only to be stripped of his territory and power. On the other hand some wealthy rulers, followers of the true faith, resisted the assaults of the Pope’s crusaders, only to have their people exterminated, holdings destroyed, and often their own lives taken as well. One such was Raymond Roger of Beziers. As the hordes of murderers drew near, he hastened to set up his defenses, but to no avail. He was overcome, all the citizens of his territory were killed, their houses looted and burned to ashes. Having gained control of the Albigenses territory, the Roman power turned to rooting out all heretics.

In 1233, Pope Gregory issued a bull giving the responsibility of establishing the Inquisition to the Dominicans. The Bishop of Tournay was given authority to complete the organization of that tribunal—the terror of Christendom—resulting in the death of so many faithful Christians. A council of Inquisitors was established in every city to seek out those not following the Roman demands. This council consisted of one priest and two laymen. They sought out the heretics in towns, houses, cellars, caves, woods, and fields and denounced them to the bishops. Then the people were tried, burned at the stake, and their dwellings leveled with the ground. Along with the religious extermination of many of the faithful, other cultural forms perished also. Education, liberty, art, and commerce all of which tended to enrich society, were swept away by a power seeking revenge, without regard to what was destroyed along with the hated Protestant heresy. The thirteenth century ended with the complete obliteration of the Protestantism of the Albigenses until the Reformation of the sixteenth century.

“Even during the world’s midnight, when the dark cloud of papal superstition was spread in blackness over the moral sky of the civilized nations, here and there a star was seen, bright, beautiful and peculiar, pouring celestial splendor upon the surrounding gloom. When Popery was the world’s despot—when, with all deceivablness of unrighteousness, the Man of Sin had ascended to the throne of universal dominion—when Rome, under the Pontiffs more than under the Ceasars, was the mistress of the world—when the Pope had successfully maintained his right to dispose of scepters and croziers, kingdoms and continents, according to his sovereign and arbitrary pleasure—when the kings and the chief captains of earth were his sycophants and serving men—even then there were multitudes of the meek and humble followers of our Savior who defied his power and refused to acknowledge his supremacy. And in this, history is the verification of prophecy. The same inspired seer that foretells the rise and reign of the Roman Anti-Christ, also predicts the persecutions and privations of those who, during the night of his dominion, should suffer for the witness of Jesus and the Word of God. The church of God, though cast down, was never destroyed.” William Jones, The History of the Christian Church, vol. 1, P2, P3.

In the middle of the eleventh century Berengarius appeared, the first to oppose the widespread papal teaching of transubstantiation. The bishops were alarmed at this opposition. They held six councils over the next twenty-five years, in which Berengarius’ teachings were discussed and condemned. He recanted three times when faced with the stake. However, upon his return to France he published his former views condemning transubstantiation. He died in his bed in 1088, expressing deep sorrow for his weakness.

We will briefly mention three more reformers: Peter de Bruys whose followers were named Petrobrussians, Henri of Italy whose followers were called Henricians. Both Peter and Henri were eventually seized and imprisoned; Peter was burned and Henri disappeared. We can only surmise what his end was. The third famous champion who battled for truth was Arnold of Brescia. This man labored untiringly to reform his church in Rome and in Germany. He, too, was burned at the stake.

“One is apt, from a cursory survey of the Christendom of those days, to conceive it as speckled with an almost endless variety of opinions and doctrines, and dotted all over with numerous and diverse religious sects. We read of the Waldenses on the south of the Alps, and the Albigenses on the north of these mountains. We are told of the Petrobrussians appearing in this year, and the Henricians rising in that. We see a company of Manicheans burned in one city, and a body of Paulicians martyred in another. We find the Petrini planting themselves in this province, and the Cathari spreading themselves over that other. We figure to ourselves as many conflicting creeds as there are rival standards; and we are on the point, perhaps, of bewailing this supposed diversity of opinion as a consequence of breaking loose from the ‘centre of unity’ in Rome. Some even of our religious historians seem haunted by the idea that each one of these many bodies is representative of a different dogma, and that dogma an error. The impression is a natural one, we own, but it is entirely erroneous. In this diversity there was a grand unity. It was substantially the same creed that was professed by all these bodies. They were all agreed in drawing their theology from the same Divine fountain. The Bible was their one infallible rule and authority. Its cardinal doctrines they embodied in their creed and exemplified in their lives.” Wylie, The History of Protestantism, vol. 1, 56.

All these men who believed and taught the Biblical apostolic faith were the antecedents of those later called Waldenses and Albigenses. Men who to the best of their ability attempted to develop a true church, whether to reform the present church or to raise up one that followed the Bible and the Bible only as a rule of faith. “Bruno and Berengaraius, Peter de Bruis and Henry his disciple, Arnold of Briscia, Peter Waldo, and Walter Lollard, seem to have been among the principal leaders of the Waldenses in ancient times. They all had numerous followers, who, according to the custom of the times, were called after the names of their leaders. We have the testimony of Mosheim, Robinson, and others, that the Papists comprehended all the adversaries of the Pope and the superstitions of Rome, under the general name of Waldenses. The Albigenses or Albienses, a large branch of this sect, were so denominated from the town of Albi, in France, where the Waldenses flourished.” David Benedict, A General History of the Baptist Denomination, 112.

“But here in the twelfth century, at the chair of Abelard, we stand at the parting of the ways. From this time we find three great parties and three great schools of thought in Europe. First there is the Protestant, in which we behold the Divine principle struggling to disentangle itself from Pagan and Gothic corruptions. Secondly, there is the Superstitious, which had now come to make all doctrine to consist in a belief of ‘the church’s’ inspiration, and all duty in an obedience to her authority. And thirdly, there is the Intellectual, which was just the reason of man endeavoring to shake off the trammels of Roman authority, and go forth and expatiate in the fields of free inquiry.” Wylie, The History of Protestantism, vol. 1, 57,58. And thus, through the development of intellectualism and skepticism, attempting to free themselves from the stranglehold of the authority of the Roman church, men planted the seeds of the French revolution and the age of reason. “The war against the Bible, carried forward for so many centuries in France, culminated in the scenes of the Revolution. That terrible outbreaking was but the legitimate results of Rome’s suppression of the Scriptures. It presented the most striking illustration which the world has ever witnessed of the working out of the papal policy—an illustration of the results to which for more than a thousand years the teaching of the Roman Church had been tending.” The Great Controversy, 266, 267.

 

The Waldenses, part 1

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“Amid the gloom that settled upon the earth during the long period of papal supremacy, the light of truth could not be wholly extinguished. In every age there were witnesses for God—men who cherished faith in Christ as the only mediator between God and man, who held the Bible as the only rule of life, and who hallowed the true Sabbath. How much the world owes to these men, posterity will never know. They were branded as heretics, their motives impugned, their characters maligned, their writings suppressed, misrepresented, or mutilated. Yet they stood firm, and from age to age maintained their faith in its purity, as a sacred heritage for the generations to come.” The Great Controversy, 61.

God in His wisdom prepared a place in the wilderness for His faithful church. There they were able to maintain the light of truth when the Dark Ages covered Europe. They lived their simple lives raising their children in the truth of God’s Word, which they had in their own language, while that Word was known only by ‘scholars’ throughout the rest of the continent. From their valleys and mountain passes, after years of preparation, missionaries were sent to share the Good News with the nations around them. They were the forerunners of the sixteenth century Protestant Reformation.

The Roman Catholic church did all in her power to destroy the Waldenses. It tried, during many crusades and persecutions, to annihilate them. Every attempt was made to destroy the writings of their leaders and although books from other authors of that time are still preserved, the books of the people of the valleys were largely destroyed. The Latin Vulgate Bible, with its many errors, was produced to try to replace the Latin Itala Bible of the churches of the Waldenses. False reports and slanders were spread.

Years of persecution failed to wipe out this faithful church so Rome tried to destroy their history through false accounts of their origins and doctrines. The enemies of the Church in the Wilderness have tried to trace their name to Peter Waldo, an opulent merchant of Lyons, France, who began his work about 1160. However, evidence is clear that the name Waldenses comes from the Italian word for “valleys” and as they spread over France they were called Vaudois which means “inhabitants of the valleys.” Waldo was converted in his mid-life and labored to spread evangelical teachings. When he met persecutions he fled to the Waldenses. But evidence is ample that the people of the valleys were an organized body for hundreds of years before he lived among them.

The Ancient Beginnings of the Waldenses

There is abundant evidence that the history of the Waldenses dates back to the time of the apostles. It is their claim that their religion passed to them from the apostles and in fact even the writings of their enemies give credence to this. (Note that the Waldenses were called by several different names: Leonists, Vallenses, Valsenses, Vaudois and others.)

Reinerius Sasso was a well informed Inquisitor of the thirteenth century. He had once been a pastor among the Waldenses but had apostatized and become their persecutor. The book The History of the Ancient Vallenses and Albigenses by George Faber gives a translation of this testimony on page 272. His testimony described the Leonists (Waldenses) as being the most ‘pernicious’ of the sects of heretics for three reasons. The first reason was because of their longer continuance, for they had lasted from the time of Pope Sylvester or even from the Apostles. Secondly, because there was scarcely a land where they did not exist. And the third reason being because they lived justly before all men and blasphemed only against the Roman church and clergy while maintaining every point concerning the Deity and the articles of faith which made their doctrine appeal to the populous. He also writes that they were simple, modest people who instructed their children first in the Decalogue of the law, the Ten Commandments. (See Truth Triumphant, 254.)

Faber also shares the testimony of Pilichdorf, also of the thirteenth century, who writes that the Valdenses claimed to have existed from the time of Pope Sylvester. Claude Scyssel, the Archbishop of Turin, who lived in the neighborhood of the Waldenses in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries tells us that the Valdenses of Piedmont were followers of a person named Leo. In the time of Emperor Constantine, Leo, on account of the avarice of Pope Sylvester and the excesses of the Roman Church, seceded from that communion, and drew after him all those who entertained right sentiments concerning the Christian Religion. (See The History of the Ancient Vallenses and Albigenses, 276.)

For nearly two hundred years following the death of the apostles, the process of separation went on between those who rejected pagan practices being brought into the church and those who accepted this baptized paganism, until there was open rupture. The Waldenses date their exclusion from communion with the papal party to the year 325 and the Council of Nicaea when Sylvester was given recognition as bishop of Rome and given grand authority by Constantine. “Such believers did not separate from the papacy, for they had never belonged to it. In fact, many times they called the Roman Catholic Church ‘the newcomer.’ ” Truth Triumphant, 220.

Scientific inquiry into the dialect of the Waldenses by M. Raynouard and discussed in his Monuments of the Roman Tongue, reveals that their language is a primitively derived language and leads to the conclusion that the “Latin Vaudois must have retired, from the lowlands of Italy to the valleys of Piedmont, in the very days of primitive Christianity and before the breakup of the Roman Empire by the persevering incursions of the Teutonic Nations.” The History of the Ancient Vallenses and Albigenses, 285. It is from their language that the Romance languages of French and Italian were derived. They were the first to write modern literature in their vulgar tongue with their religious poems being prized today as the most perfect compositions of that period.

Vigilantius — Leader of the Waldenses

The name of Leo and the term Leonist come from Vigilantius Leo or Vigilantius the Leonist so named after his birthplace of Lyons on the Rhone and credited by Faber as the first supreme director of the Church of the Waldenses. In his book Truth Triumphant, 63, Benjamin Wilkinson says that in the time of Vigilantius (AD 364–408), “the protests against the introduction of pagan practices into primitive Christianity swelled into a revolution. Then it was that the throngs who desired to maintain the faith once delivered to the saints in northern Italy and south-western France were welded into an organized system.”

Vigilantius was a contemporary of Helvidius and Jovinian, who were also from northern Italy. Helvidius was famous for his exposure of Jerome for using corrupted Greek manuscripts in bringing out the Vulgate, the Latin Bible of the papacy. Jovinian taught and wrote against celibacy and asceticism. It is likely that “followers of Jovinianus took refuge in the Alpine valleys, and there kept alive the evangelical teaching that was to reappear with vigor in the twelfth century.” Truth Triumphant, 69, quoting Newman, A Manual of Church History, vol. 1, 376. So it was to these people of the valleys, who adhered to the teachings of scripture, that Vigilantius came to begin his public efforts to stop the pagan ceremonies. He did amighty work with wide influence.

The Church in the Wilderness

Vigilantius was able to build a strong organization among the Waldenses and evidence suggests that these apostolic Christian people had already occupied their valleys for some time. “The splendid city of Milan, in northern Italy, was the connecting link between Celtic Christianity in the West and Syrian Christianity in the East. The missionaries from the early churches in Judea and Syria securely stamped upon the region around Milan the simple apostolic religion.” Ibid., 67. This territory enjoyed a separate recognition from Rome for a thousand years as the bishoprics in northern Italy were called Italic and those of central Italy were named Roman. It is likely the Itala Bible received its name from this region. (See Truth Triumphant, 218, 219.)

“Now this district, on the eastern side of the Cottian Alps, is the precise country of the Vallenses. Hither their ancestors retired, during the persecutions of the second and third and fourth centuries: here, providentially secluded from the world, they retained the precise doctrines and practices of the Primitive Church endeared to them by suffering and exile; while the wealthy inhabitants of cities and fertile plains, corrupted by a now opulent and gorgeous and powerful Clergy, were daily sinking deeper and deeper into that apostasy which has been so graphically foretold by the great Apostle.” Faber, The History of the Ancient Vallenses and Albigenses, 293, 294.

“The faith which for centuries was held and taught by the Waldensian Christians was in marked contrast to the false doctrines put forth from Rome. Their religious belief was founded upon the written word of God, the true system of Christianity. But those humble peasants, in their obscure retreats, shut away from the world, and bound to daily toil among their flocks and their vineyards, had not by themselves arrived at the truth in opposition to the dogmas and heresies of the apostate church. Theirs was not a faith newly received. Their religious belief was their inheritance from their fathers. They contended for the faith of the apostolic church,—‘the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.’ Jude 3. ‘The church in the wilderness,’ and not the proud hierarchy enthroned in the world’s great capital, was the true church of Christ, the guardian of the treasures of truth which God has committed to His people to be given to the world.” The Great Controversy, 64.

The Itala

“The Waldenses were among the first of the peoples of Europe to obtain a translation of the Holy Scriptures. Hundreds of years before the Reformation they possessed the Bible in manuscript in their native tongue.” Ibid., 65. It is from the city of Brescia, a city with an independent spirit like Milan and Turin, that the Itala, the first translation of the New Testament from Greek into Latin, is given to the apostolic Christians. This translation was made “three centuries before Jerome’s Vulgate.” Truth Triumphant, 242. ” They prized their Latin Bible (not the Latin Bible of Jerome), generally called the Itala, ‘because it was read publicly in all the churches of Italy, France, Spain, Africa, and Germany, where Latin was understood; and Vetus, on account of its being more ancient than any of the rest.’ To supplant this noble version, Jerome, at the request of the pope and with money furnished by him, brought out a new Latin Bible.” Truth Triumphant, 70, 71, quoting Gilly, Vigilantius and His Times, 99.

Robert Oliveton, a native of the Waldensian valleys, who translated the Vaudois Bible into French in 1535, wrote in the Preface of that work that this Bible had been a precious treasure received from the apostles and ambassadors of Christ and held by a certain poor people and friends in Christ since that time. “When the fall of the Roman Empire came because of the inrush of the Teutonic peoples, the Romaunt, that beautiful speech which for centuries bridged the transition from Latin to modern Italian, had become the mother tongue of the Waldenses. They multiplied copies of the Holy Scriptures in that language for the people. In those days the Bible was, of course, copied by hand.”

“The Bible formed the basis of their congregational worship, and the children were taught to commit large portions of it to memory. Societies of young people were formed with a view of committing the Bible to memory. Each member of these pious associations was entrusted with the duty of carefully preserving in his recollections a certain number of chapters; and when the assembly gathered round their minister, these young people could together recite all the chapters of the Book assigned by the pastor. It thus can be seen how naturally their pastors, called barbes,’ were a learned class. They were not only proficient in the knowledge of the Bible in Latin and in the vernacular, but they were also well schooled in the original Hebrew and Greek, and they taught the youth to be missionaries in the languages which then were being used by other European peoples.” Ibid., 250, 251.

Missionary Spirit

“The spirit of Christ is a missionary spirit. The very first impulse of the renewed heart is to bring others also to the Savior. Such was the spirit of the Vaudois Christians. They felt that God required more of them than merely to preserve the truth in its purity in their own churches; that a solemn responsibility rested upon them to let their light shine forth to those who were in darkness; by the mighty power of God’s Word they sought to break the bondage which Rome had imposed.” The Great Controversy, 70.

The Vaudois minister was required to receive experience in evangelism gained in a three year mission field assignment. They were sent out with an older pastor two by two. They had to conceal their mission behind a secular disguise, often that of a merchant. They were able thus to spread God’s Word throughout Europe. Often they lost their lives while on these missionary travels.

“Seemingly they took no share in the great struggle which was going on around them in all parts of Europe, but in reality they were exercising a powerful influence upon the world. Their missionaries were everywhere, proclaiming the simple truths of Christianity, and stirring the hearts of men to their very depths. In Hungary, in Bohemia, in France, in England, in Scotland, as well as in Italy, they were working with tremendous, though silent power. Lollard, who paved the way for Wycliffe in England, was a missionary from these Valleys . . . In Germany and Bohemia the Vaudois teachings heralded, if they did not hasten, the Reformation, and Huss and Jerome, Luther and Calvin, did little more than carry on the work begun by the Vaudois missionaries.” Truth Triumphant, 249, quoting McCabe, Cross and Crown, 32.

“There is an abundance of testimony to show the harmonious chain of doctrine extending from the days of the apostles down to the Reformation and later, including the beliefs held by the believers of northern Italy, the Albigenses, the Wycliffites, and the Hussites. Andre Favyn, a well-known Roman Catholic historian, who wrote in French, traces the teachings of Luther back through Vigilantius to Jovinianus, claiming that Vigilantius gave his doctrines to ‘the Albigenses, who otherwise were called the Waldenses,’ and that they in turn passed them on to the Wycliffites and the followers of Huss and Jerome in Bohemia.” Ibid., 263.

Early Waldensian Heroes

The Waldenses were often called by many different names. “Whenever from the midst of the Church in the Wilderness a new standard-bearer appeared, the papacy promptly stigmatized him and his followers as ‘a new sect.’ This produced a twofold result. First, it made these people appear as never having existed before, whereas they really belonged among the many Bible followers who from the days of the early church existed in Europe and Asia. Secondly, it apparently detached the evangelical bodies from one another, whereas they were one in essential doctrines. The different groups taken together constituted the Church in the Wilderness.” Ibid., 224, 225. These names were usually derived from the name of a leader. We have already seen this with Vigilantius Leo and the term Leonists.

Waldensian leaders included Claude of Turin of the ninth century. He battled to restore New Testament faith and practice and denounced image worship and the worship of the cross, stating that many were willing to worship the cross who would not bear it. Transubstantiation was introduced in 839 through a new book. Joannes Scotus Erigena, an Irish scholar and head of the royal school at Paris, who had authored many celebrated works, took up his pen and produced a book which successfully met this falsehood. Two centuries later his book was condemned by a papal council which recognized that it had long stirred the believers of primitive Christianity. There is a tradition which states that Scotus came from one of the schools established by Columba who was a mighty leader among the primitive Celtic Christian church in Scotland.

Berengarius was hated by the papacy and more church councils were held against him than against anyone else. He lived two hundred years after Scotus and had also analyzed the doctrine of transubstantiation and believed it to be the height of seductive errors. Apostasy had strengthened since the days of Vigilantius and Claude, and Berengarius had to oppose all they fought against and more. He was driven into exile. Thousands who rejoiced in the light he brought were called Berengarians but who were really part of the increasing numbers who refused to follow Rome. In the eleventh century those who favored a married clergy retired to a separate place called Patara and were reproachfully called Patarines. Three new names were given to the people of the valleys; namely, Berengarians, Subalpini, and Patarines.

The next century saw three outstanding evangelical heroes. The Petrobusians were the followers of Peter de Bruys who was burned for his faith. He stirred southern France with a message that transformed the characters of the masses influenced by this deep spiritual movement. “He especially emphasized a day of worship that was recognized at the time among the Celtic churches of the British Isles, among the Paulicians, and in the great Church of the East; namely, the seventh day of the fourth commandment, the weekly sacred day of Jehovah.” Ibid., 237.

Henry of Lausanne traveled, labored, prayed, and preached to raise the masses to the truth. Pope Innocent II declared the doctrines of Henry to be heresies and condemned all who held or taught them. His followers were called Henricians. They were credited along with the Petrobrusians as being the spiritual fathers of French Protestantism.

Arnold of Brescia denounced the overgrown empire of ecclesiastical tyranny and also did what the reformers failed to do by attacking the union of church and state. His words were heard in Switzerland, southern Italy, Germany, and France. He preached against transubstantiation, infant baptism, and prayers for the dead. His followers were called Arnoldists. “The Waldenses look up to Arnold as to one of the spiritual founders of their churches; and his religious and political opinions probably fostered the spirit of republican independence which throughout Switzerland and the whole Alpine district was awaiting its time.” Ibid., 243.

Sabbath Keeping

“Among the leading causes that had led to the separation of the true church from Rome was the hatred of the latter toward the Bible Sabbath.” The Great Controversy, 65.

“In his (Vigilantius’) day another controversy existed which was to rock the Christian world. Milan, center of northern Italy, as well as all the Eastern churches, was sanctifying the seventh-day Sabbath, while Rome was requiring its followers to fast on that day in an effort to discredit it.” Truth Triumphant, 75.

Bible Sabbath keeping was widespread in Europe. Rome ever sought to persecute the keepers of the fourth commandment. A. C. Flick and other authorities claim that the Celtic Church observed Saturday as their sacred day of rest, and reputable scholarship has asserted that the Welsh sanctified it as such until the twelfth century. The same day was observed by the Petrobrucians and Henricians, and Adeney, with others, attributes to the Paulicians the observance of Saturday. There are reliable historians who say that the Waldenses and the Albigenses fundamentally were Sabbath-keepers.” Ibid., 211.

Socrates and Sozomen, fourth century historians, reveal to us that the Christianity of the Greek Church was a Sabbathkeeping Christianity; and that the Christianity of the West, with the exception of the city of Rome and possibly Alexandria, was also a Sabbathkeeping Christianity. (See Ibid., 256.)

Fortunately, the records of the church council at Elvira, Spain, in 305, still exists and in Canon 26 it reveals that the Church of Spain at that time kept Saturday, the seventh day. This is significant since Spain had the good fortune to escape the influence of Rome for many centuries and many believe that the true original Waldenses were from the Spanish Pyrenees. The original word is the Latin, vallis. From it came “valleys” in English, Valdesi in Italian, Vaudois in French, and Valdenses in Spanish. Near Barcelona is a city named Sabadell, “dell of the Sabbathkeepers.” Another author in Gebbes, Miscellaneous Tracts notes that ancient Spanish Gothic Church and the ancient British Church were the same. (See Ibid., 261.)

Pope Gregory issued a bull against the community of Sabbathkeepers in Rome in 602. It stated, “Further when speaking of that Sabbath which the Jews observe, the last day of the week, which also all peasants observe.” Ibid., 259. In 865–867 the Roman and Greek churches were fighting over the newly converted Bulgarians. The issue of the Bulgarians Sabbath-keeping was raised and is seen in a reply of Pope Nicolas I to the Bulgarian king.

Allix, in his Ancient Churches of Piedmont, says, it was a doctrine of the Waldenses that the Sabbath of the Law of Moses was to be observed. David Benedict says they were called Sabbatarians for keeping the seventh day. (Ibid.) Adeney indicates that a synod of “heretics” was held in Toulouse in 1167 and that the attendants disregarded Sunday and sanctified Saturday. Gilly notes, “It has been affirmed that the orders of the Franciscans and Dominicans were instituted to silence the Waldenses.” Ibid., 260.
In 1194, Alphonso of Aragon declared the Sabbathkeeping Waldenses, Insabbati, as heretic. There is an abundance of references to “heretics” under the name of Sabbatiti, or Insabbatiti, in the records of the Inquisition. These terms refer to keeping the seventh day. Lucas Tudensis, a papal writer, shows that the Insabbatiti in Spain were numerous in 1260.

Mosheim declares that in Bohemis, Moravia, Switzerland, and Germany, prior to Luther, there were groups who believed as the Waldenses, Wycliffites and Hussites. Lamy declares that these groups after the days of Luther were Sabbathkeeping, ” ‘All the counselors and great lords of the court, who were already fallen in with the doctrines of Wittenburg, of Ausburg, Geneva, and Zurich, as Petrowitz, Jasper Cornis, Christopher Famagali, John Gerendo, head of the Sabbatarians, a people who did not keep Sunday, but Saturday, and whose disciples took the name of Genoldist. All these, and others, declared for the opinions of Blandrat.’ ” Ibid., 263.

“There is an abundance of testimony to show the harmonious chain of doctrine extending from the days of the apostles down to the Reformation and later, including the beliefs held by the believers of northern Italy, the Albigenses, the Wycliffites, and the Hussites . . . Erasmus testifies that even as late as about 1500 these Bohemians not only kept the seventh day scrupulously, but also were called Sabbatarians.” Ibid., 264.

The Continuing Reformation

The prophetic twenty-three hundred day period of Daniel came to an end. “The centuries of faithfulness seen in the history of the Church in the Wilderness were succeeded by the period of the Remnant Church who would ‘keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.’ ” Ibid., 267.

“The Waldenses witnessed for God centuries before the birth of Luther. Scattered over many lands, they planted the seeds of the Reformation that began in the time of Wycliffe, grew broad and deep in the days of Luther, and is to be carried forward to the close of time by those who also are willing to suffer all things for ‘the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.’ Revelation 1:9.” The Great Controversy, 78. ‘the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.’ Revelation 1:9.” GC, 78.