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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28933	The history of the Vaudois. Wherein is shewn their original; how God has preserved the Christian religion among them in its purity, from the time of the Apostles to our days; the wonders he has done for their preservation, with the signal and miraculous victories that they have gained over their enemies; how they were dispersed, and their churches ruined; and how at last they were re-established, beyond the expectation and hope of all the world. / By Peter Boyer ... ; and newly translated out of French by a person of quality.; Abrégé de l'histoire des Vaudois. English	Boyer, P. (Pierre), 1619-ca. 1700.; Boyer, Abel, 1667-1729.; Person of quality.	1692 (1692)	Wing B3918A; ESTC R5697	97,378	276

for his Church when she fled before the Dragon and this corruption began to infect the Church about the beginning of the fifth Age for about the beginning of this Age Popery began to triumph over Truth without staining or defiling the Churches of Piemont who after this corruption were publickly nourished with the bread of the word of God without any mixture of humane Traditions or Pagan Ceremonies Now from the time that this corruption began in the Church till the year 1686. that these poor Churches were dissipated are past 1260 years which are the 1260 prophetical days that the Church was to be nourished in the desart neither the Devil nor his Imps being able in so long a tract of time by all their craft and subtilty to introduce their errors into the Church and that which is the greatest proof of this verity and confirms us the most in this sentiment that this was the place that God prepared to preserve his Church in is that neither the Inquisition that the Popes have established in Italy so many ages ago nor the Croisade that Pope Innocent the 8th made to destroy them nor so many wars that Antichrist and his Emissaries raised against them nor so many bloody Battles they have sustained nor so many Persecutions and Massacres that have been made of them that professed the truth in these Churches could force them to forsake their Faith or dissipate them till the year 1686. For it was then that the time of the Prophecy was accomplished in respect of these Churches If God had not prepared this place to preserve his Church in why would he have done such wonders to make them subsist in spight of the Devil and all his works How should she have been preserved pure and immaculate among these Mountains if God had not declared himself her Protector and Defender and had not fought for her and with her and brought to confusion all the plots and frauds of Antichrist who raged like a roaring Lyon seeking to devour her The two witnesses of the Eleventh Chapter of the Revelation are the faithful who after that the Church was corrupted taught either by word of mouth or by writings the pure doctrine of the Gospel and confuted the errors that the false Doctors introduced into the Church by their fraudulent Dealings and false Interpretations of the Scriptures and it is apparent by the writings of many Protestant Doctors that there has no age passed in which God has not raised up some holy and learned men who writ and preached against these errors from the beginning of the fifth Age till our times These holy persons are represented to us by the two witnesses for they borrowed their Testimony from the old and new Testaments which are the true witnesses and the true treasuries of Coelestial verity and with the doctrine drawn out of the old and new Testament they confuted all errors and confounded the false Doctors It 's said of these two witnesses that they shall prophesy 1260 days which are prophetical days as is apparent by the event for that false doctrines were introduced into the Church in the fifth age it was then that Innocent the 1st Bishop of Rome elevated himself above the other Bishops which they tamely submitted to he performing the Office of universal Bishop in receiving appeals from the sentences of the Bishops of Asia and Africa and in excommunicating Arcadius the Emperor of the East who was not under his jurisdiction but under the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople who likewise declared by a Bull that none should presume to judge the Pope It was in the Pontificate of this Pope that the Eucharist or Supper of our Lord began to be called Mass and that Pelagius began in England to sow his Doctrine of Merits from whence sprung the Doctrines of Indulgencies Pilgrimages Celibacy of the Clergy and Abstinence from certain sorts of meat it was about this time that the doctrine as well as manners of the Church began to be corrupted And if we reckon from the Death of Pope Innocent the 1st till the year 1686. we shall find that 1260 years the time that these two witnesses were to prophesy are past Now the Holy Ghost says that when they shall have finished their Prophesy and the time that God has allotted to preach and cry out against the errors of the Church of Rome to leave her inexcusable before he pour out upon her the Vials of his just wrath and indignation it 's said that the Beast that rises out of the deep shall make war against the two Witnesses and shall vanquish them and kill them now this was fulfilled first of all in France and afterwards in Piemont in France the Witnesses were vanquished and killed by the cruel war that was made against them all the Ministers were banished and others that would not abjure their Religion either dyed under the heavy burthen of their sufferings or were imprisoned or condemned to the Gallies or driven into perpetual Banishment those that have abjured are dead to heaven if they do not rise by a serious and true Repentance Perpetual Banishments and Imprisonments according to all the Lawyers are civil deaths those whom God gave the grace to rise after their fall and dyed in France their bodies were dragged through the streets and after they had been publickly exposed thrown upon the Dunghills in Piemont the witnesses were vanquished and killed as well as in France the Ministers some were hanged some imprisoned others massacred and those that remained after in the Country were condemned to the Gallies or else to perpetual Banishment some were killed in cold blood others in endeavouring their escape lest they should fall into the hands of their Enemies and their bodies left without burial to be devoured by wild beasts A great number perished in Prison and the remainder were driven into perpetual exile the True Religion was then totally extinguished in the Valleys and in the sad estate that the Vaudois were then one may say they were killed The Prophecy says in the second place that the dead bodys of the Witnesses shall lie exposed in the most publick place of the City and that those of the Tribes Languages and Nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half and shall not permit them to be buried Those of France as well as the Vaudois of Piemont who escaped the hands of their Persecutors were banished and dispersed in foreign Countries amongst divers Nations People and Languages and those that kindly received them hindred their bodies condemned to death by a perpetual banishment from being buried and put in the Sepulchre which is a state of corruption and total dissolution of the body by the great charity they bestowed upon these distressed people and these Nations have seen them in this sad estate of which we have spoke three days and an half which are prophetical days every day being counted a year according to the twelve hundred and sixty days

THE HISTORY OF THE VAUDOIS WHEREIN Is shewn their Original how God has preserved the Christian Religion among them in its Purity from the time of the Apostles to our days The Wonders he has done for their preservation with the Signal and Miraculous Victories that they have gained over their Enemies how they were dispersed and their Churches ruined and how at last they were re-established beyond the expectation and hope of all the World By Peter Boyer a Minister of the Gospel Dedicated to the King of England and newly translated out of French by a Person of Quality LONDON Printed for Edward Mory at the Three Bibles in St. Paul's Church-Yard M DC XCII TO THE KING OF Great BRITTAIN SIR THE wonders that God has done by Your Ministry in England and Ireland makes me hope that the History of the Vaudois will not be unacceptable and makes me take the liberty of presenting Your Majesty with it You will in it as in a fine mirror clearly see the wonders God has done for the preservation the of Churches of Piemont and the calm they enjoyed from the time of the Apostles when they received the doctrine of the Gospel till the year 1488 that Pope Innocent the VIII caused the Croisade to be published against them The number of those that took upon them the Badge of the Cross were 18000 men of regular Troops and 8000 Voluntiers of Piemont which were all intirely defeated by a handful of Vaudois Ever since that time they have been continually persecuted and disturbed with cruel wars But as they fought the battel of God in defending his truth so it visibly appeared that the God of battel was with them and fought for them without whose aid it had been impossible for them to have performed such extraordinary exploits and gained so many victories over their Enemies who were often times twenty or thirty sometimes a hundred against one Your Majesty shall see the cruel persecutions that the Enemies of the Gospel have made them to undergo and the constancy with which the Martyrs have sealed this Celestial Verity with their Blood If the Enemies had any advantage over them it was only then in violating the Publick Faith which should be inviolably sacred among men In conclusion Your Majesty will be astonished how so few have been able to subsist in the Valleys of Piemont till the year 1686 being surrounded with such puissant Enemies cruel full of diabolical artifices without Faith without Law but if their subsisting be miraculous their return and re-establishment is no less One may see every where that it 's the work of God and not of men I could not Sir address this my Little Work better to any than to Your Majesty who has seen the God of Armies march before you as anciently he marched before the Camp of Israel and as he marched and yet marches before them who are the subject of this History You maintain as they Sir the Cause of God and you fight for his Truth and there is no doubt but that he is with you and fights for you and with you the happy success of Your Enterprizes puts it beyond all doubt I pray God with all my heart that he may preserve Your Majestys Sacred Person that he may give you a flourishing and happy Kingdom and bless all Your Just Designs to his Honour and Glory this is the Ardent Prayer of him who with the most profound respect is SIR Your Majesties Most Humble Most Faithful and Most Obedient Servant P. Boyer ADVERTISEMENT OF all the people that ever have been from the Creation of the world till our times there is none except the ancient people of the Jews whose History contains so many wonders as this of the Vaudois of Piemont for whether one consider their Perseverance in the profession of the holy doctrine of the Apostles or one reflects upon the wars they have maintained these 200 years to preserve among them the Purity of the Christian Religion one sees so many miracles of Wisdom Goodness and Power of God that it 's impossible not to confess that God has declared himself plainly to be the God of this people and that he is the Protector and Defender of their Persons as well as Religion We learn from the Holy Scripture that the people of the Jews whom God had chosen above all the people of the Earth to be his people and in favour of whom he had done so many miracles in Aegypt in the Red Sea and the Wilderness often fell into Idolatry and polluted thimselves with the abominations of the Heathens that dwelt round about them but we do not find that the Vaudois did ever fall into Idolatry after they were once planted in the field of the Church we likewise see that many Heresies were introduced into the Primitive Church by the craft of Satan as those of the Eutichians Nestorians and above all that of the Arians but we can never discover that any of these Heresies took footing in the Valleys of Piemont and when all the world ran after the Beast of the Apocalypse after the great Harlot with whom the Kings of the Earth have committed Whoredom and who with her wine made all the Inhabitants of the Earth drunk the Churches of Piemont only followed Iesus Christ and inviolably adhered to his Doctrine So the Valleys had antiently for their arms a Torch environed with thick Darkness with this Motto Lux lucet in tenebris Light shines in darkness and as all Aegypt was covered over with palpable Darkness only in the Land of Goshen shined a clear bright Light even so as long as the Christian world was covered over with the Darkness of Idolatry and Errors there were only the Churches of Piemont that were illuminated with the clear light of the Gospel Now how was it possible that this celestial verity should be preserved pure in these Valleys even to our times if God by his infinite power and adorable wisdom had not hindred Satan from sowing his Cockle in the mystical Field of his Church to corrupt as he had done in other places the good seed of his word by the mixture of humane Traditions and Pagan Ceremonies which have corrupted sound Doctrine and that which is the greatest cause of admiration is that these Valleys are scituated in Italy where the great Whore has her Seat and the Princes of Piemont are subject to her Empire As to the wars that the Vaudois have maintained against their Enemies who rose against them to destroy them and to extinguish the bright Lamp of the Gospel they are all full of Miracles where one may see a handful of men conducted by Chieftains of no military experience put to flight great Armies commanded by the most valiant and most experienced Captains of the Age their Enemies were 20 and 30 and sometimes 100 against one Now how was it possible they should have got so many signal victories if the God of Battle had not fought for them and

confirm the authority of Ecclesiastical Doctrine The Apocryphal Books are as follow The third of Esdras the fourth of Esdras Tobie Judith Wisdome Ecclesiasticus Baruc with the Epistle of Jeremiah Esther from the tenth Chapter to the end the History of Susanna the History of the Dragon the first of Maccabees the second of Maccabees The Books of the New Testament The Gospel of St. Matthew of St. Mark St. Luke and St. John The Acts of the Apostles The Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans the first to the Corinthians the second to the Corinthians to the Galatians to the Ephesians to the Philippians to the Colossians the 1 to the Thessalonians the 2 to the Thessalonians the 1 to Timothy the 2 to Timothy to Titus to Philemon to the Hebrews the first Epistle of St. Peter the second Epistle of St. Peter the first Epistle of St. John the second Epistle of St. John the third Epistle of St. John the Epistle of St. Jude the Revelations of St. John IV. The foresaid Books teach this That there is one God Almighty all wisdom and goodness and who by his power has created all things who made Adam according to his own Image but by the malice of the Devil and the disobedience of Adam Sin entred into the World and that we are Sinners in Adam and by Adam V. That it was promised to the Fathers who received the Law that by the Law knowing their sins and their own defect of Iustice and their inability of keeping it that they should desire the coming of Christ to satisfie for their sins and to accomplish the Law in his own person VI. That Christ was born at the time ordained by the father viz. when all iniquity abounded and not for the good works of any for all were sinners VII That Christ is truth life justice peace our pastor advocate oblation sacrificer that he is dead for the salvation of all believers and that he rose for their justification VIII Likewise we firmly believe that there is no other advocate or mediator for us sinners to the Father but Iesus Christ and that the blessed Virgin was holy humble full of grace and the same we believe of all other Saints and that they expect in heaven the resurrection of the body at the dayf Iudgment IX Item We believe that after this life that there are but two places one for those that are saved which we call Paradice and another for those that ae damned which we call Hell totally renouncing the doctrine of Purgatory invented by Antichrist and his Ministers X. Item We have always believed that it was an abomination of which we ought not to speak in the presence of God and invented by men viz. the doctrine of Feasts and Vigils of Saints of Holy Water of abstinence from flesh and other meats upon certain days and above all the doctrine of the Mass. XI We have in abomination humane traditions as being Antichristian and of great prejudice to the liberty of the Spirit XII We believe that the Sacraments are the signs or visible forms of holy things believing that from time to time the faithful should make use of those holy signs or visible forms if they can but nevertheless we believe that the faithful may be saved if they never received the foresaid signs or visible forms when they could not have an opportunity of receiving them XIII We never knew of any other Sacraments than Baptism and the Supper of our Lord. XIV We owe honour to all superiour powers in paying them subjection obedience and tribute with alacrity It 's now 570 years since this confession of Faith was made by the Churches of Piemont at which time all other Churches were corrupted by the mixture of humane doctrine and Pagan Ceremonies the world at that time being overspread with an Aegyptian darkness and so the Authors of both Religions agree in calling that age the dark age This confession of Faith being drawn from the writings of the holy Apostles and in every respect conformable to their Doctrine it follows by a necessary consequence that the Religion of the Vaudois is the true and pure Religion of the Apostles and that they have always kept it pure from the first receiving of it till the beginning of the eleventh age and from thence till these times since they now profess the same Faith and teach the same Doctrine that was contained in that famous confession All other Churches both of the East and West being infected with divers Heresies Satan for to hinder the advancement of the Reign of Jesus Christ has from time to time stirred up false Teachers who have sown their cursed Seed in the field of our Lord and by their false Doctrine varnished over with a seeming Piety have corrupted the doctrine of the Gospel This is what our Saviour foretold saying to his Disciples that false Christs and false Prophets would arise and would do signs and wonders to deceive if it were possible the elect c. St. Peter 2 Ep. C. 2. 1 2 3. prophesied the same thing there has been false Prophets among the people as likewise there will be among you false Teachers who shall privately introduce Sects of perdition and shall deny the Lord who hath redeemed them bringing upon them sudden perdition and many shall follow them by which the ways of Truth shall be blasphemed But O the wonderful works of God! who has conserved by his wise Providence the purity of his Religion in the Valleys of Piemont from the time of the Apostles to our time by a singular effect of his Goodness towards these poor people of the Vallys and has hindered that Satan by his false Doctors and Teachers could not sow the Cockle of their poysonous Doctrine in the mystical field of his Church Notwithstanding all their crafty endeavours God in spight of the Devil and all his works has kept among these Mountains and Deserts the bright light of his Gospel and has never suffered the candle to be extinguished and the great wonders that God has done from time to time to keep his bright Lamp always shining clear to these happy countries makes it evident that this is the place which God Apoc. 12 has prepared to keep and defend his Church in against the furious Attaques of the infernal Dragon who gave his power and throne to the Beast to make war against the Saints and to vanquish them For this is the true Desart where the woman Apoc. 12. 6. cloathed with the Sun with the Moon under her feet crowned with twelve Stars made her retreat where God had prepared her a place where she might be nourished 1260 prophetical days which make 1260 years where God Almighty has kept her safe against all the storms raised by Satan without any effect till the year 1686 the term of the Prophecy of the eleventh Chapter of the Revelations was accomplished it was then that the Beast which rose out of the deeps vanquished them and killed

he marched before them and fought for them without which it had been impossible to have forced so many difficult Passes and gained such signal victories The King of England being informed of their design of returning unto their country blamed their enterprize as rash and ill grounded and looked upon those 900 Vaudois as lost men The States of Holland were of the same opinion and refused to assist them looking upon it as to no purpose but when they saw that contrary to the hopes of all the world that they subsisted in the Country last May 1690. they sent them Money and procured some of the French Protestants that were in Switzerland and the Elector of Brandenburgs Territories to go and assist them If the Vaudois had not been entred into their Country and had not generously defended themselves against their Enemies the D. of Savoy when he broke with France had not thought of setting at liberty those that were unjustly imprisoned nor of recalling those that were dispersed in Foreign Countries and the Allies would have contented themselves with the Dukes declaration for themselves and embracing their party without troubling their heads about establishing the Vaudois though driven out against all right and justice The conduct of God in the Re-establishment of the Vaudois is admirable and makes it evident that his divine providence has Judgment and ways incomprehensible surpassing all human understanding The King of France in the year 1686. pushed on the Duke of Savoy to compel the Vaudois to forsake their Religion and to take the same measures he had taken against the Protestants of France they joined their arms together to force them and to compass their design they violated not only the treaty made with the Predecessors of the Duke but likewise all Treaties Oaths and Promises made by their Generals took them Prisoners killed and massacred them violated their Wives and Daughters killed their little Children and made use of all sorts of Cruelty against these innocent people after they had laid down their arms and in the year 1690 God sent a Spirit of Division between the King of France and the Duke of Savoy insomuch that they strove who should first gain the Vaudois to their party and by this division the Duke of Savoy was forced to re-establish the Vaudois in their Rights and Priviledges and to set all at liberty that had been imprisoned and to recall all those that were dispersed in Foreign Countries And so the King of France who had been the principal cause of their ruine became against his will the cause of their Re-establishment by forcing the D. of Savoy by his Haughtiness to join with the Allies this shews that God mocks and derides the designs and councils of Princes when they are levelled against Jesus Christ and his Church and with the breath of his mouth makes all their enterprizes vanish in Smoak Oftentimes he makes use of the Enemies of his Church to protect and defend it Henry the 2d. King of France while he persecuted the Protestants of his own Kingdom succoured the Protestant Princes of Germany against the Emperor Charles the 5th Lewis the 13th did the same against the Emperor Ferdinand 2d. and Lewis the 14th while he did his best to ruine the Protestants in France succoured the Protestants of Hungary against the Emperor Leopold Henry the 3d. King of France when he was but Duke of Anjou gave advice in an Assembly that was held at St. Clou to commit the Massacre of St. Bartholomew and when he was King of France he emoloyed all his Forces to finish the destruction of those that remained after the Massacre but while he busied himself wholly and took the most probable measures to put in execution his wicked designs God stirred up the Duke of Guise against him who under the specious pretence of destroying the Protestants of France made a League against Henry and drove him out of Paris seized upon his Guards and constrained him to throw himself upon the Protestants and implore their aid and assistance without which he had been lost the Duke would have put him in a Cloister as Charles Martel did Chilperick the 3d. and seized upon his Crown Henry in acknowledgment of the Services that he had received of the Protestants began to be very favorable to them gave them places of security and many other Priviledges and appointed Henry de Borbon who was a Protestant his lawful Successor to the Crown And so God by a secret and unhop'd for way of a cruel and implacable Enemy of the Protestants made him against his will their Defender and Protector King Henry and the Duke of Guise were both in arms against the Protestants they jointly made war upon them and had equally sworn their ruin God permits they should be divided and by their division the one to destroy the other to deliver the Protestants who were sore oppressed and persecuted almost the same thing hapned in the delivery of the Vaudois God sent the Spirit of division between the King of France and the Duke of Savoy to punish them for the cruel persecution they had raised against the Protestants these two Princes were equally their Enemies and had resolved and vowed their destruction and when their malice was at the highest pitch against these poor innocent Creatures and all things seemed desperate God Almighty blasted their design and made them turn their arms the one against the other to destroy the one by the other as he destroyed the Duke of Guise by Henry whom he caused to be assassinated at Blois in the sight of all France assembled in the persons of those that composed the States general and after God had punished the Duke of Guise for the evils he had done to the Protestants he likewise punished Henry who was assassinated in the Castle of St. Cloy by a Fryer in the same Hall where the consult was held and the Massacre of St. Bartholomew was resolved on of which Henry and the Duke of Guise were the principal Counsellors and Ring-leaders of that horrible Butchery CHAP. XXVII Of the two Prophesies of the Scripture accomplished in the History of the Vaudois of Piemont the one contained in the 11th Chapter and the other in the 12th of the Revelation THE History of the Vaudois shews us clearly the accomplishment of two Prophesies of Scripture the one contained in the 11th and the other in the 12th Chapter of the Revelation of St. John We have made mention of the last when we shewed that the Churches of Piemont have conserved the Doctrine of the Apostles in its purity from the time of the Apostles even to our days and that the Roman Church was corrupted in adopting and receiving Pagan Doctrine and Ceremonies and communicated her Corruptions to the other Churches of the West only the Churches of Piemont were preserved pure and undefiled from whence it follows by a necessary consequence that these Mountains and Valleys were the places assigned by God Almighty