The Sabbath among the Waldenses.
"From their [the Waldenses'] mean and famished appearance in their exiled and destitute state, they have been called in provincial jargon 'Siccan,' or pick-pockets. Because they would not observe saints' days, they were falsely supposed to neglect the Sabbath also, and called 'Inzabbatati,' or 'Insabbathists.' As they denied transubstantiation, or the personal and divine presence of Jesus Christ in the host, or wafer exhibited in the mass, they were called 'Arians.' Their adversaries, premising that all power must be derived from God through his vicegerent the pope, or from an opposite and evil principle, inferred that the Waldenses were 'Manichæans,' because they denied the pope's supremacy over the emperors and kings of the earth." "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 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 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."-Jones' Church History, pp. 308, 348.