THE WALDENSES, ALBIGENSES, OR VAUDOIS
By M. E. Cornell
Testimony of Eminent Authors.—No. 1.
THE WALDENSES, ALBIGENSES, OR VAUDOIS.
It is conceded by church historians generally, that the class of people known by these names, retained the truth, as held by the apostles, more free from corruptions than any other class whatever. Many Baptist authors claim a succession from John the Baptist through the Waldenses down to the Baptist church of this day, and that they only can go back to the apostles, outside of the Catholic church. But if the Waldenses were genuine Baptists, there has been a wonderful apostasy; for the Baptists of to-day, very many of them, are antinomians, teaching the abolition of the law of ten commandments. But the Waldenses taught the perpetuity of the entire decalogue. THEIR ANTIQUITY AND PURITY.
Bishop Claude, of Turin, A. D. 817, bears witness that the gospel was preserved among this people in the mountains, in its native purity and glorious light.” Dr. M'Crie says: “As for the Waldenses, give me leave to call them the very seed of the primitive and pure church.”—Hist. & Progress, &c. Theo. Beza says: “They have preserved the Christian doctrine and worship in evangelical purity and simplicity, while the most profound darkness covered the rest of Europe. It is from the apostles, or their immediate successors, that they have received the gospel.” “It is true, the Vaudois have departed more or less from their former simplicity since the Reformation.”—Preface, p. 94. Benedict says: “Their enemies confirm their great antiquity,” and “being, as it were, by natural walls, as well as by God’s grace, separated from the rest of the world, never partook of the overflowing corruption.” In the preface to the French Bible, the translators say that “they have always had the full enjoyment of the heavenly truth contained in the Holy Scriptures, ever since they were enriched with the same by the apostles; having, in fair manuscript, preserved the entire Bible in their native tongue, from generation to generation.”—Hist. Bap. Denomination, pp. 21, 33, 293. Baird says: “In the valleys of the Alps, by pure, visible churches, the ancient faith of Christianity has been preserved through all the middle ages of innovating superstition, sound and uncontaminated.”—Baird’s Hist., p. 123. Cassini, an Italian Priest, said he found it handed down, that “the Vaudois were as ancient as the Christian church.” Campain, the Jesuit, said: “They were said to be more ancient than the Roman Church.” The Catholic Bishop, Claude de Seyssel, made the following charges against the Vaudois: “They will receive only that which is written in the Old and New Testaments; nay, they say that the Roman Pontiffs and other Bishops have degraded the sacred text, by their doctrine and false commandments.”—Hist. Vaudois, p. 108. Bishop Claude affirms: “The Vaudois are without reproach before men, and do their utmost endeavors to keep the commandments of God.” The French Historian, De Thou, says: “The Vaudois keep the commandments of the decalogue.” The Waldenses’ Confession of Faith, Art. V, reads as follows: “That Christ is that promised to the [our] fathers who received the law. So that by the law, having a just idea of their sins and their want of justice and insufficiency, they desired the coming of Christ to make satisfaction for their sins.” The Vaudois Catechism of the 12th century, has, “Question. By what art thou enabled to know that thou believest in God?” “Answer. I know his commandments, and keep them.” “Question. How many commandments of God are there?” “Answer. Ten; as is shown in Exodus, &c.”—Hist. Vaudois, pp. 233, 234. In their Noble Lesson, they say: “Christ changed not the law, that it should be abandoned, but renewed it, that it might be the better kept.” In their Confession to the Parliament of Turin, A. D. 1556, they say: “We abide by the ten commandments of God, contained in the twentieth chapter of Exodus.” A woman testified before the tribunal, that she heard the Vaudois say, “They were the men who had, by God’s commandments, learned how to serve him.”—Baird’s Hist., p. 71. On image worship, the papists plead for excuse: “It is in commemoration and in honor of our Saviour, that we serve, honor, and adore the cross.” But the Vaudois minister replied: “God commands one thing; and these people do the contrary. God commands us to bear our cross, not to worship it.”—Hist. Vaudois by Henri Arnaud. Jones, in his Church Hist., chap. V, sec. iv, says, that “Louis XII, King of France, being informed by the enemies of the Waldenses inhabiting a part of the province of Provence, 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 the places of worship, but 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 articles 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.” The Comprehensive Commentary, on Rev. 12:17, makes the following important statement: “Some think hereby are meant the Albigenses, who were first by Dioclesian driven into barren, mountainous places, and afterward cruelly murdered by popish rage and power, for several generations; and for no other reason than because they kept the commandments of God, and held the testimony of Jesus Christ.” When we reflect that in making much of the commandments of God, we are in harmony with the purest church that existed, from the time of the apostles, we may say with the psalmist, “Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments.” Ps. 119: 6.