deep resentment hereof and will endeavour the consolation and reestablishment of many thousands of persons escaped from this Butchery who have chosen rather to quit their Houses and Goods than to make shipwrack of their Faith This also is an occasion which God by his providence hath set before your Highness to shew the incomparable zeale which you have for his service and Glory and to give to the Protestants an evident prof of the affection your Highness bears them and to confirm them in the confidence they have conceived of your Highnes Protection This all the Israel of God expects from your Highness upon this occasion looking upon your Highness as a Zerubbabel whom God hath sent for the repairing of his Hierusalem I beseech the Lord who by the marveilous dispensations of his Providence hath rais'd your Highnes to this great dignity that he would grant you to be the Protector of the people of God in all Nations as he hath in this and that he would long preserve your Highness to the end you may imploy the power he hath given your Highness for the accomplishment of his great Works for the defence of his whole Church the preservation of them which remain and the reestablishment of the desolate and afflicted for the propagation of his Gospell the advancement of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and the Glory of his great name Which is the Prayer My Lord of Your Highness's most humble faithfull and obedient servant J. B. Stouppe TO THE CHRISTIAN READER AMongst all the Churches of Christ that do profess the pure holy Religion which he hath taught in his Word that of the Waldenses is the most considerable as well for her Antiquity as for the sharp and continuall persecutions it hath suffred Her Antiquity is such that no man can truly find out her beginning so that even her Adversaries say that the Heresie of the Waldenses thus they call their Doctrine began in the Apostles dayes and allwaies hath been in the Valley of Angrogna But of all the Certificates which many Papists have given of the antiquity of the Waldenses and of their Doctrine that of Reynerius a Roman Inquisitor whose VVritings have been procured to us by Gretserus the Jesuite is most remarkable for thus he speakes of them Amongst all the Sects that are in the World there is none that hath been or is still more perncious than that of the VValdenses or Leonistes for three Reasons First because it hath lasted longer than all others some saying it began in Sylvester his time others deriving them from the Apostles Secondly because it is so Universall that there is no Countrie where it is not Thirdly because the Professors of it live more uprightly before men and hold all the Articles of the Apostles Creed blaspheaming onely against the Church of Rome and hating it But however this Reynerius living about the end of the Eleventh age of the Church and the beginning of the twelfth and so there being above 400. years since he did call the Waldenses an old Sect he shew's cleerely they had then been a time in the Church Besides it is certain as we find in many credible Historians that 1160. a great number of faithfull souls call'd then the poor of Lions or Waldenses because they had been taught by Peter Waldus a man of great Erudition and singular pietie being persecuted at Lions by the Roman Clergie by reason of the Reformation which he procur'd unto the Church they retir'd into those Vallies where finding the Natives to be of their own opinions they compos'd together those reform'd Churches of the Waldenses which have ever since subsisted Which proves that the reformed Religion profest in those Vallies did not begin within an age or two of this as some ignorant adversaries say but that it hath been either from the very Apostles or from the * Bishop Usher de Successione c. Pag. 151. and 210. first ages and that the Waldenses found there the seed of the true Religion having nothing to do on either side but to encourage each other to do better and better and to set up the banner of truth in the view of the world Since that time those poor Churches have always been the mark for worldlings to shoot at and spend against them all the arrows of their malice Sathan hath done all he could against them and Antichrist hath spar'd nothing to destroy them fires have been kindled and flames blown up to reduce them into ashes they have had experiments of the barbarous crueltie of men And as there is no war so bloudie as that which is undertaken in hatred of Religion so to suffer proscriptions and exiles confiscations of goods and imprisoning torturing and killing of bodies have been the ordinary excercises of the faithfull in those Countries Yet notwithstanding the great Massacres acted therein from age to age God by his Providence hath allwaies preserved a considerable number of them which made up many fine and flourishing Churches although they were alwaies under the Cross I will not enlarge my discourse to make a description of the perjecutions they have suffered since a large Volume would not suffice for that I will only say something of those evills they have been exposed to these two lest years There was great probability they should of late in the time of their Princes Coronation enâ—oy some quietness and tranquillity since they had obtained the confirmation of their Possessions and old Priviledges but they were soon frustrate of their hope For the Court of Rome and the Popes servants and Agents did work so cunningly that they were deprived of the benefit of those Priviledges Commerce was forbidden them many men driven out of their Habitations and finally after the publication of a Croisade they were 1653. assaulted by a great Army which had wholly extirpated them if God had not assisted them by an extraordinary Rain which did oppose the endeavours of their Adversaries and made them vain And because this bloody Design did not succeed them well they endeavoured afterwards to ruin wholly those faithfull persons by extraordinary Impositions and Burthens much above their own strength and which were not set upon the Papists in those parts Thus they did engage them unto great expences to obtain again the Confirmation of their Priviledges and being obtained their Enemies exacted from them prodigious summes of mony to have it sealed Yea the matter was brought to that height of injustice to make them bear the charges of those who were come to fight and ruin them Besides all that there being a French Army in those parts it was sent to take its winte quarters in the midst of those Churches which thus were wholly deprived of what remained for their subsistence But all that was but a beginning of greater sorrow for if they had then cause to grone and sigh they have had since occasions to shed whole streames of teanes since they have try'd how far the crueltie of
there remaine in peace both of body and soule he returned into his Country and perswaded many to goe to Bohemia and to inhabit there who were louingly entertained and after that time there haue been no assemblies of the Waldenses in particular but they haue ioyned themselues vnto the Churches of the Hussites CHAP. XI Of the Waldenses inhabiting in Germany and the persecutions that there they suffered whereof we haue the proofes NOtwithstanding that incontinently after that Peter Waldo with those that followed him came into Germany there was so great a persecution along vpon the Rhine by the incitement and instigation of the Archbishops of Mayence and Strasbourg that there were burnt in one day in one fire Dubranius in the history of Bohemia to the number of eighteene yet wee find that in the time of the Emperor Frederic the second about the yeere one thousand two hundred and thirteene Germany and especially Alsatia was full of the VValdenses The searchers were so diligent and exact Coistans vpon the Reuel that they were inforced to disperse themselues into other places to auoide the persecution This flight turned to the great benefit of the Church because hereby many learned Teachers were scattered here and there to make knowne vnto the world the purity of their Religion In the yeere one thousand two hundred thirty a certaine Inquisitor named Conrad de Marpurg Vigâ—ier in the 1. part of his Bibli Historiale was ordained by the Pope Superintendent of the Inquisition He exercised this charge with extreame cruelty against all sorts of persons without any respect euen of the Priests themselues Trithem in Chron. Hirsaugiensi Godefridus Monan Aunalâ—bus whose bodies and goods he confiscated He tried men with a hot iron saying that they that could hold an iron red hot in their hands and not be burnt were good Christians but on the contrary if they felt the fire he deliuered them to the secular power In these times the Waldenses had in the Diocesse of Treues many Schooles wherein they caused their children to be instructed in their beliefe and notwithstanding all the Inquisitions persecutions executed vpon their flockes yet they aduentured to preach Krautz in Metropol l. 8. §. 18 in Saxon l. 8. ca. 16. calling their assemblies by the sound of a bell maintaining in publica statione saith the Historiographer publikly that the Pope was an hereticke his Prelates Simonaicall and seducers of the people That the truth was not preached but amongst them and that had not they come amongst them to teach God before he would haue suffered their faith to perish would haue raised others euen the stones themselues to enlighten his Church by the preaching of the word Vntill these times say they our Preachers haue buried the truth and preached lyes we on the contrary preach the truth and bury falshood and lyes and lastly we offer not a feined remission inuented by the Pope but by God alone and according to our vocation Mathew Paris an English writer obserueth that about the yeere 1220 Math Paris in Henry 3. anno 1220. there were a great number in a part of Germany that tooke armes where the Waldenses were cut in peeces being surprised in a place of great disaduantage hauing on the one side a marish ground and on the other the sea in such sort that it was impossible for them to escape About the yeer 1330 they were strangely vexed in many parts of Germanie Vignier in his third part of his Historicall Biblio in the yeere 1330. by a certaine Iacobin Monke Inquisitor named Echard but after many cruelties executed vpon them as hee pressed the Waldenses to discouer vnto him the reasons for which they were seperated from the Church of Rome being vanquished in his owne conscience and acknowledging those defects and corruptions which they alleaged to be in the Church of Rome to bee true and not being able to disproue the points of their beliefe by the word of God he gaue glory vnto God and confessing that the truth had ouercome him hee became a member of that Church which hee had a long time before persecuted to the death The other Inquisitors being aduertised of this alteration were much displeased and they sent presently so many after him that in the end hee was apprehended and brought to Heidelberg where he was burnt maintaining that it was iniustice and wrong to condemne so many good men to death for the righteousnesse of Christ against the inuentions of Antichrist In the yeere 1391 the Monkes Inquisitors tooke in Soxony and Pomerania foure hundred forty three VValdenses Krautzin Metrop l. 8. p. 18. in â—ax l. 8. cap. 16. who all confessed that they had been instructed in that beliefe for a long time by their ancestors and that their teachers came from Bohemia In the yeere one thousand foure fifty seuen the Monkes Inquisitors of the Diocesse of Eisten in Germany discouered many VValdenses which they put to death They had amongst them twelue Pastors that instructed them We must not ouerpasse the thirty fiue Burgesses of Mayence that were burned in the Towne of Bingue because they were knowne to be of the beliefe of the VValdenses nor the fourescore which the Bishop of Strasbourg caused to be burnt in one fire nor that which Trithemius recounts that they confessed in in those times that the number of VValdenses was so great that they could goe from Cologne to Milan and lodge themselues with hostes of their owne profession and that they had signes vpon their houses and gates whereby the might know them But the most excellent instrument amongst them that God imployed in his seruice was one Raynard Lollard who at the first was a Franciscan Monke and an enemy of the VValdenses but yet a man carried with a sanctified desire to finde the way of saluation wherein he had so profited that his aduersaries themselues were constrained to commend him Iohn le Maire in the 3. part of the diff of Schismes in the 24. scisme For Iohn le Maire puts him in the ranke of those holy men that haue foretold by diuine reuellation many things that haue come to passe in his time This worthy man taught the doctrine of the VValdenses was apprehended in Germany by the Monkes Inquisitors and being deliuered to the secular power was burnt at Cologne This man hath writ a Commentary vpon the Apocalipse where hee hath set downe many things that are spoken of the Romane Antichrist This was he of whom the faithfull in England were called Lollards where he taught witnesse that Towre in London which at this present is called by his name Lollards Tower where the faithfull that professed his Religion were imprisoned CHAP. XII Of the VValdenses that haue been persecuted in England ENgland hath been one of the first places that hath been honoured for receiuing the Gospell for not long after that VValdo departed from Lion there were many condemned to
speakes of a sorcerer he cals him Vadois And that which is more he takes vpon him to proue that they are so To which temeritie it shall be necessarie to answer in his due place where they shall be cleared from all those impostures which their enemies haue layed vpon them out of those bookes from which we haue gathered that which followeth First they impose vpon them This imposture is found in the booke of Albertus de Capitaneis of the originall of the Vado◠pa. 2. In the booke of Ramertus de forma hoereticandi hoereticos fol. 36. Item in the accusation of the Priests of Bohemia which they make to the king Ladislaus against the Vadois Rai ibid. fol. 37. that ancient calumnie wherewith the painims defamed the Christians of the Primatiue Church that is that they assembled themselues in the night time in corners and lurking holes and that the Pastour cōmanded the lights should be put out saying Qui potest capere capiat that is catch who catch can whereupon euery man endeuoreth to fasten vpon whom he can without any respect of bloud or parentage and that the lights being put out they committed abhominable incests many times the child with his mother the brother with his sister and the father with his owne daughter adding moreouer that they were to vnderstand that the children begotten by such copulations were most fit to be Pastours Secondly they haue charged them that they maintaine that a man may put away his wife when he will and the wife her husband to follow that sect The third calumnie that they charge them withall is Claud. Rubis in his historie of Lion pa. 269. that they haue communitie of all things amongst them euen of their wiues and all The fourth is S. Bernard in his Homily 66. vpon the Canticles Albert ibid. that they reiect the baptisme of little infants The fifth that they adore their Pastors prostrating themselues before them The sixth Albert ibid. that they maintaine that it is not lawfull to sweare for any cause whatsoeuer The seuenth Rain fol. 36. that they maintaine that the Pope doth sinne mortally when he makes warre against the Turke and that they likewise sinne mortally that do obey him when by them he makes warre against heretickes The eight calumnie is Rain ibid. fol. 22. article 32. that they vse no reuerence towards holy places and that he sins not more grieuously that burneth a Church then he that breakes into any other priuate house The ninth Albert ibid. that they maintaine that the Magistrate ought not to condemne any to death and that they that do it sinne mortally and that they maintaine this error to the end they may escape the hands of the Iudge and go vnpunished The tenth Idem ibid. that the lay-man being in the state of grace hath more authoritie then the Prince that liues in his sinne The eleuenth Rain in Summa fol. 12. that with the Manicheens they ordaine two Princes that is one good God the creator of good and one bad that is the diuell the creator of euill The twelfth Idem lib. de forma haeret fol. 21. that whatsoeuer is done with a good intention is good and that euery one shall be saued in that which he doth in that said good intention The thirteenth Albert. de origine Vaud fol. 4. that it is a meritorious worke to persecute the Priests of the Church of Rome the Prelates and their subiects And that a man may without sinne hurt them in their persons or goods and withhold their tenthes from them without scruple of conscience The last is taken out of the booke of Rubis Claud. Rubis in his historie of Lion booke 3. pa. 169. where he saith that Valdo and his Pastors retired themselues into Dauphiney in the vale Pute and the valley Angrongne where they found certaine people rather like sauage beasts then men suffering themselues to be mocked and abused and where they became saith he one like another and such as rid post vpon a besom Adding therewithall to bring within the compasse of his calumnies the Townes Cities States where the Gospell is receiued in our times And to say the truth saith he these are two things that commonly follow the one the other heresie and forcerie as it is verified in our times in those Cities and Prouinces which haue giuen entertainment vnto heresie CHAP. IIII. How the Waldenses are iustified and cleared from the calumnies contained in the former Chapter by those writings which they haue left THe Waldenses of Bohemia whether they were the remainder of that people that followed Valdo as some are of opinion that he ended his dayes in Bohemia after he had retired himselfe out of Germany and escaped the hands of the Bishops of Mayence and Strasburge or whether they were such persons as afterwards professed the same faith which the Waldenses did it is without all doubt that they were gricuously persecuted by king Ladislaus king of Hungary and Bohemia and we haue in our owne hands an Apologie of the said Waldenses which they sent vnto the king whom they called Lancelau to iustifie themselues against sundry complaints which were made against them by their aduersaries as also we haue a booke with this inscription Aico es la causa del nostre despartiment de la Gleisa Romana That is to say Behold the cause of our separation from the Church of Rome And forasmuch as the answer to the first calumnie that is that they assembled themselues in darke corners where the candles being put out their aduersaries do affirme they committed villanous incests we haue copied out the answer of the said Apologie in their owne tearmes and language for the more certaintie and better edification This Apologie the author Iean Paul Perrin set downe in two columnes the one French the other in the language of the Waldenses which for breuity sake we set downe onely in English referring those vnto the French booke that desire to see the originall AMong other things say they they publish In the letter to king Ladislaus pa. 2. like angrie barking curres that it is a law and common amongst vs to say Yeeld thy selfe to whomsoeuer shal request thee and that we take our pleasures in darke caues and corners with whomsoeuer shall present themselues vnto vs whether they be our mothers or daughters or wiues or sisters How true this is it may appeare in that God hauing kept and preserued vs for aboue these forty yeares past it hath bene neuer knowne that there hath bene any whoredome amongst vs that hath escaped vnpunished or any such villanie committed In such sort that our liues and carriages condemne those that accuse vs. And for as much as the Waldenses speake this of themselues and to their owne praise and therefore this their iustification may seeme but weake looke a little into that which they haue written elsewhere against whordome which may
our selues any superioritie but out of that brotherly loue and charitie we beare towards you The Father of our Lord Iesus Christ hath imparted vnto you an excellent knowledge of his truth more then to many other people and hath blessed you with a spirituall benediction So that if you persist in his grace he hath in store greater treasures for you which he will enrich you withall and make you perfect that you may grow to the full measure of the inheritance of Christ The subscription of the letter is Oecolampadius wisheth the grace of God the Father by his Sonne Iesus Christ and his holy Spirit to his welbeloued brethren in Christ which they call Waldenses Martin Buoer writ vnto them at the same time this letter following BLessed be the Lord God and our louing Father who hath preserued you to this present time in so great knowledge of his truth and who hath now inspired you in the search thereof hauing made you capable and fit to do it Behold now what the nature of true faith is which is that so soone as it knowes in part any sparke of the diuine light it preserueth carefully the things that are giuen vnto it of God Saint Paul is an example vnto vs who in all his Epistles shewes the great care that he hath had to procure the glorie of God And doubtlesse if we pray with a good heart that the name of God be sanctified and his kingdome may come we shall prosecute nothing with such diligence as the establishment of the truth where it is not and the adnancement thereof where it is alreadie planted The rest of this letter is hereafter in the booke of the persecutions of the Waldenses Vigneaux in his Memorials of the Waldenses fol. 4. One onely thing doth especially grieue vs that our imployments at this time are such about other affaires that we haue no leisure to answer you at large as we desire c. Le Sieur de Vigneaux who was a Pastor of the Waldenses in the vallies of Piemont hath written a Treatise of their life manners and religion to whom he giues this testimonie that they were a people of a holy and godly life and conuersation well gouerned great enemies to vice but especially their Barbes for so they called their Pastors And speaking of those of his owne time he saith We liue in peace in these vallies of Piemont and in loue amitie one with another we haue commerce together neuer marrying our sonnes to the daughters of those of the Church of Rome or our daughters to their sonnes yea our manners and customes please them so well that such as are masters and call themselues Catholickes desire to chuse their men seruants and maid-seruants rather from amongst vs then themselues And they come also from faire to seeke nurses for their children amongst vs finding in ours more fidelitie then in their owne And as touching the doctrine for which the Waldenses haue bene persecuted It appeareth by the Historie of the Estate of the Church p. 337. they do affirme saith he that we are to beleeue the Scriptures onely in that which concerneth our saluation not any way depending vpon men That the Scriptures containe in them whatsoeuer is necessary to saluation and that we are not to beleeue any thing but what God hath commanded vs. That we haue one onely Mediatour and therefore we are not to inuocate Saints That there is no Purgatory but all such as are iustified by Christ go to eternall life They approue of two Sacraments Baptisme and the Supper of the Lord. They affirme that all Masses are damnable especially those that are said for the dead and therefore are to be abolished That all humane traditions are to be reiected as not being necessary to saluation That singing and often rehearsall of diuine Seruice fasts tyed to certaine dayes superfluous seasts difference of meates so many degrees and orders of Friers Monks and Nuns so many benedictions and consecrations of creatures vowes pilgrimages and the whole confusion and great number of ceremonies heretofore inuented are to be abolished They deny the supremacie of the Pope and especially that power that he vsurpeth ouer ciuill gouernment and they admit of no other degrees then Bishops Priests and Deacons That the Sea of Rome is the true Babylon and that the Pope is the fountaine of all the euils in these dayes That the marriage of Priests is good and necessary That they that heare the word of God and haue the true knowledge thereof are the true Church vnto which Christ Iesus hath deliuered the keyes to let in the flocke and to chase away the wolues Behold here saith Vinaux the doctrine of the Waldenses which the enemies of the truth haue impugned and for which in those times they persecuted them as their enemies themselues do witnesse Viret speakes of the Waldenses as followeth Viret of the true false religion lib. 4. chap. 13. p. 249. The Papists saith he haue imposed great crimes and that very wrongfully vpon those ancient faithfull people commonly called Waldenses or the poore people of Lions frō Waldo whose doctrine they followed by which they make it appeare that the Pope is Antichrist and that his doctrine is nothing else but humane traditions contrary to the doctrine of Christ Iesus For which cause they haue dealt against them as the ancient Painims did against the Christians accusing them that they killed their owne children in their assemblies The Author of the Historie of the reformed Churches in France writeth thus The Ecclesiasticall History of the reformed Churches of France tom 1. lib. 1. p. 35. The Waldenses saith he time out of mind haue opposed themselues against the abuses of the Church of Rome and haue in such sort bene persecuted not by the sword of the word of God but by all kind of violence and crueltie as also by a million of calumnies and false accusations that they haue bene enforced to disperse themselues into what parts of the world they could wandring through desart places like poore sauage beasts the Lord neuerthelesse preseruing the remnant of them in such sort that notwithstanding the fury of the whole world they were still preserued in three countries farre distant one from the other that is Calabria Bohemia and Piemont with the bordering parts thereabout from whence they haue bene dispersed into the quarters of Prouence about two hundred seuentie yeares since And as touching their religion they haue alwayes auoyded the Papall superstition For which cause they haue bene alwayes vexed by the Bishops and Inquisitors abusing the power of secular iustice in such sort that it is an euident miracle of God that they should be able to continue Iohn Chassagnon writes as followeth Iohn Chassagnon in his Historie of the Albigeois p. 25. It is written of the Waldenses saith he that they reiected all the traditions and ordinances of the Church of Rome as vnprofitable and superstitious and
that they made no great account of their Clergie and Prelates And for this cause being excommunicated and chased out of the countrey they dispersed themselues into many and diuerse places as into Dauphiney Prouence Languedoc Piemont Calabria Bohemia England and other places Some haue written that one part of the Waldenses retired themselues into Lombardie where they multiplyed in such a manner that their doctrine was dispersed throughout all Italie and came as farre as Sicile Neuerthelesse in this great dispersion they alwayes kept themselues in vnion and fraternitie for the space of foure hundred yeares liuing in great sinceritie and the feare of God The Author of the Historie of the State of the Church writes of them thus The Historie of the Estate of the Church p. 336. After that Waldo saith he and his followers were driuen out of Lions one part of them retired to Lombardie where they multiplied in such a manner that their doctrine began to disperse it selfe into Italie and came into Sicile as the Patents of Fredericke the second giuen out against them whilest he reigned do witnesse Vesembecius saith Vesemb in his oration of the Waldenses p. 3. that when the Pope and his catchpoles saw that the Romane Hierarchie receiued great detriment by meanes of the Waldenses insomuch that there were certaine Princes that had taken their defence amongst whom was the King of Aragon and the Earles of Toulonze in those dayes puissant Princes in France they began to oppresse them vpon most vniust occasions bringing them into hatred with the people and especially of Kings to the end that by this meanes they might be vtterly exterminated Vignier makes mention of the Waldenses in his Historical Bibliotheke Vignier in his Historicall Bibliothec p. 130. and saith that they haue endured many long and grieuous persecutions and yet notwithstanding there was neuer any thing that could hinder them from retaining that doctrine which they had receiued from the Waldenses deliuering it as it were from hand to hand vnto their children Hologaray affirmes Hologaray in his History of Foix p. 120. 121. that the Waldenses and Albigenses were of a contrary opinion to the Bishop of Rome in all those maximes or principles that were publickly preached commanded by his authoritie that is that were inuented by him and contrary to the word of God And he witnesseth withall that there were amongst them wise men and very learned and sufficient to defend their beliefe against the Monkes Mathias Illyricus writes Math. Illyricus in his Catal. of the witnesses of the truth p. 134. that he finds by the writings of Waldo which lay by him in certaine ancient parchments that Waldo was a learned man and that he did not cause the bookes of the Bible to be translated into the vulgar tongue but that he tooke paines therein himselfe It is most certaine that the aduersaries of Waldo and the Waldenses make no great account of these aboue named testimonies because they hold them to be both of one and the same ranke and order both the witnesses and those to whom they beare witnesse that is all for hereticks but this Historie is not onely for the enemies of the truth but to the end the louers thereof may see that that which is here produced doth not intend onely our owne particular commendations but to shew that there haue bene before vs certaine great personages whose memorie they reuerence that haue spoken of the Waldenses as of the true Sacraments of God who haue maintained the truth with the losse of their liues and earnestly desired in their times to see the reformation we enioy in ours And as le Sieur de S. Aldegonde saith In the first table of his differences the third part p. 150. the occasion why they were condemned for heretickes was no other but because they maintained that the Masse was an impious corruption of the holy Supper of the Lord. That the Hoste was an idoll forged by men That the Church of Rome was wholly adulterated and corrupted and full of infidelitie and idolatrie That the traditions of the Church were but superstitions and humane inuentions That the Pope was not the head of the Church and for other points of this nature And as the said Aldegonde obserues it was a great worke of God that how diligent soeuer the Popes with their Clergie haue bene vsing likewise the assistance of secular Princes and magistrates to roote them out yet they could neuer do it neither by proscriptions nor banishments nor excommunications nor publications of their Bulles nor Indulgences and Pardons to all those that shall make warre against them nor by any manner of torments fire flames gibets or other cruell effusion of bloud could they euer hinder the current of their doctrine but it hath spread it selfe almost into all the corners of the earth This hath le Sieur de Saint Aldegonde writ of the Waldenses But forasmuch as doubt may be made whether we haue in these dayes any proofes in the world of their beleefe it is necessary that we produce hereabouts an inuentorie of bookes which they haue left vnto vs to the end that when there shall be any question of their doctrine euery one may vnderstand what the writings are out of which we haue gathered that which they taught CHAP. VII That Peter Waldo and the Waldenses haue left bookes which make proofe of their beliefe and what they are THat Waldo left something in writing vnto vs In the former Chap. it appeares by that which Math. Illyricus saith that he hath certaine parchments of his which shew him to be a learned man Historie of the Estate of the Church p. 307. The Author of the Historie of the Estate of the Church giues this testimonie that followeth Waldo at the same time saith he made a collection in the vulgar tongue of sundry passages of the ancient Fathers to the end he might defend his opinions not onely by the authoritie of the holy Scripture but also by the testimonie of the Doctors against his aduersaties About fortie yeares since le Sieur de Vignaux Pastor of the Churches of the Waldenses in Piemont writ as followeth in his memorials that he made Of the beginning Antiquitie Doctrine Religion Manners Discipline Persecutions Confessions and progresse of the people called Waldenses I that write saith he can witnesse that being sent vnto these people to preach the Gospell of our Lord Iesus Christ which I did about some fortie yeares together I had no need to take much paines to win them from the ceremonies of the Church of Rome nor to roote out of their minds the Pope the Masse Purgatory and such other things wherein they were a long time Doctors before my coming although the greatest part of them knew neither A nor B. It is to this seruant of God to whom we are much bound for the multitude of bookes written by the Waldenses For as oft as he lighted vpon any
authority to that which by them should be executed the said Lieutenant of the King tooke in his company a Counseller of the Court named Mr. Iohn Rabot Being arriued at the said valley Loyse they found none of the Inhabitants to whom they might speake a word for they had all retired themselues into their cauernes into the high mountaines hauing carried thither with them their little children and whatsoeuer was most pretious vnto them and fit for nourishment This Lieutenant of the King caused a great quantity of wood to be laid at the entrance of their caues or cauernes and fire to be put vnto it in such manner that either the smoake by smothering them or the fire by burning them constrained a great number to cast themselues headlong from their cauernes vpon the rockes below where they ended their liues being broken in peeces and if there were any amongst them that durst to stirre hee was presently slaine by the souldiers of the said County of Varax Lord of Paln This persecution was very extreame For there were found within the said cauernes foure hundred small infants stifled in their cradles or in the armes of their dead mothers It is held for a certaine truth amongst the VValdenses of the neighbouring Valleis that there then died aboue three thousand persons men and women of the said Valley And to say the truth they were wholly extirpated in such sort that from that time forward the said Valley was peopled with new Inhabitants there was no family of the said Waldenses that euer tooke footing there which is a certain proofe that all the Inhabitants thereof of both sexes died at that time This Lieutenant of the King hauing destroyed the said Inhabitants of the Valley Loyse fearing lest the Waldenses should settle themselues there againe to the end they might not one day be troubled againe to chase them out he gaue the goods and possessions of the said Valley to whom it pleased him which was no sooner parted amongst them but the Waldenses of Pragela and Frassinieres had prouided for their safety attending the enemy at the passages and narrow straites of their Valleies in such manner that when the said Leiutenant of the King came to inuade them hee was constrained honestly to retire Albert de Capetaneis being called elsewhere by his Commission surrogated a certaine Monke of the Order of Saint Francis named Francis Ploieri who began to informe anew against the Waldenses of Frassiniere in the yeere one thousand foure hundred eighty nine He citeth them to appeare before him at Ambrun and for not appearing he excommunicateth them curseth and recurseth them and in the end condemned them for Heretickes partinacious and backsliders to be deliuered to the secular power and their goods confiscated To this iudgement there gaue assistance in behalfe of the Court of Parliament in Dauphine a certaine Counceller thereof named Ponce to the end that this mixt iudgement might be without appeale The sentence was pronounced in the great Church at Ambrun afterward fastned vpon the doore of the said Church in a great Table in the lower part whereof there were thirty two Articles of the beleefe of the said Waldenses that is to say against the Masse Purgatory the Inuocation of the Saints Pilgrimage the obseruation of Feasts distinction of Viandes vpon certaine daies and other matters that were affirmed by the said Waldenses But this Inquisitor added to the Articles of their beleefe that they held that for the augmentation of humane kind a man might company with his owne sister neece or other in any degree of proximity whatsoeuer because God hath said Increase and multiply Againe that euery man that burneth in lust may carnally know any woman whatsoeuer without sinning because the Apostle saith that it is better to marry then to burne and because it is said in the Gospell qui potest capere captat interpreting it thus catch hee that catch can Now the informations vpon which they grounded their sentence being come to our hands this imposture hath been dicouered to their owne condemnation for there is not any witnes or at leastwise the greatest part of those that were heard but they were Priests or Monkes who being demanded by the said Monke whether they knew this beleefe contained in the aforesaid Articles to be true answered that they neuer knew amongst the Waldenses any such things either taught or practised In the same bundle or bag of proces against the Waldenses there is there one framed against two Pastors who were taken Sur le col de coste Plane about the hill in the side of the Plaine the one named Francis Gerondin the other Peter Iames in the yeere one thousand foure hundred ninety two Being demanded why the Sect of the Waldenses grew and increased so fast and for a long time together had spred it selfe into so many places This Monke thus sets downe the answere of the Pastor Gerondin That the dissolute life of the Priests was the cause and because the Cardinals were couetous proud luxurious being a thing knowne vnto all that there was neither Pope Cardinall nor Bishop that kept not their whores few or none that had not their youth for Sodomy and therefore it was an easie matter for the VValdensian Pastors to perswade the people that the Religion of such scandalous persons was not good since their fruits were so bad And presently after the said Pastor being demanded what they taught touching Luxury They make him to answer that luxury is no sinne except it be betwixt the mother and her childe As if it had been possible that the Pastors could haue drawne the people from the Church of Rome by condemning the luxury of the Priests if they themselues should teach that luxury was no sin Againe being demanded why the incest of the childe with the mother was a sin they make him to answere because God hath forbidden it And being asked where hee hath forbidden it they make him to say that Christ Iesus said vnto Iohn before he ascended vp into heauen Garde to done seray failli vna volta non tornar piu. That is to say Take heed thou enter not into that place from whence thou once camest And all this was thus set downe and subscribed not onely by the dictat and appointment of the said Monke but by the approbation and signature of the Councellor Ponce and one Oronce Iudge of Briancon Wherin appeares the priuat conspiracy and vniust confederation of the said Inquisitors in that they were not content to persecute them with violence but to oppresse them with calumnies making the said Pastors to answer so vnaptly childishly touching those things wherein as it shall appeare in it due place that is to say in their exposition vpon the sixt Commandement the said Pastors were throughly exercised in the Scriptures and therefore that it is a plaine imposture which they haue forged and an idle tradition in which exposition they leaue nothing to say against
themselues out of those Countries that they should doe well if of their owne accordes they departed somewhether else which would be far better and more honourable for them then that they should stay till the Prince should enforce their departure out of his Countries by banishmnet They answered that they could not belieue that his Highnesse had any such meaning as the Gouernour would seeme to perswade them But that they might bee the better informed of the truth thereof they would depute some amongst them to go to his Highnesse The Gouernour being much moued that they would giue no credit to his words nor doe any thing by his perswasions suffered the souldiers of Castrocaro to compasse the temple at what time the Preacher was in the Pulpit and to doe diuers insolencies shooting off their gunnes and astonishing those who were disarmed and thought themselues surprised Master Steuen Noel was intreated to write to Madame Margarite which he did but the Letters by which Madame assured them that the Gouernour had commandement from his Highnesse to keepe himselfe within the limits of the treaty passed betwixt his Highnesse and the people remained still in the hands of the said Gouernour and in the meane time whilest these things were afoote the Massacre executed in France in the yeere 1572 happened which in such a manner puffed vp the pride and increased the courage of the said Gouernour that there was no meanes to stay his violences For the bone-fires of ioy being made throughout all Piedmont because of this effusion of bloud this Gouernour perswaded himselfe that he should shortly see the like persecution in the said Valleys and therefore the people hearing the Cannons that were shot off and the great contentment that his Highnesse tooke they perswaded themselues that they should not long continue in peace and therefore they thought their surest course was to conuey those goods that were most precious vnto them vnto the toppe of the Alpes into the hollow caues whereof they had been accustomed to retire themselues in troublesome times His Highnesse being aduertised that his people were resolued and ready to defend themselues thought it not wisdome to hazard the liues of his other subiects to bring them into obedience and so contented himselfe that hee had made them to feare giuing command in the meane time that whensoeuer vpon any occasion they came into Piedmont they should bee apprehended and executed as Heretickes whereof the people being aduertised they sought such commodities as were fit to maintaine life in Dauphine in the Valleys of their brethren of Pragela and Valcluson Afterwards his Highnesse and Madame Margarite being departed this life Charles Emanuel their sonne and Prince of Piedmont hath maintained them in peace vnder the treaty made with their said Highnesse his father and mother Notwithstanding the which the Inquisitors haue been alwaies watchfull to apprehend one or other especially to hinder them from speaking of their beliefe when they came downe into Piedmont For in such a case prouided that it appeare that they haue held any discourse they haue alwaies condemned them for teaching strange doctrines and swaruing from the agreement whereby it is enioyned that they broach no new opinions The last that hath been persecuted for this cause was a certaine merchant of Lucerna whose History we will here insert because by his constancy he did much edifie the people that it may appeare vnto the world that the Popes cease not to shew how odious vnto them the doctrine of the Gospell is and that if it were in their power to rule the hearts of the Kings and Princes of Europe at their pleasure the fires at this present should still be burning in all those places where they haue any power or authority It was in the yeere 1601 that Barthelmew Copin a Waldensian of the Valley of Lucerna was at Ast in Piedmont with his merchandize at a Faire that should be the next morrow and being at table in the euening at supper with diuers other Merchants there was one that began a discourse of the diuersities of Religions and spake many things tending to the dishonor of the Waldenses of the Valleys of Angrongne and their bordering neighbours Copin hearing him to speake of his brethren lesse modesty then became those that professed themselues to bee Merchants and of their Religion to the dishonour of God hee thought it would be a fault in himselfe if he should make no reply to those blaspemies that he heard He therefore answered the party that held this discourse in fauour of his Religion And what saith he that had been reprehended by Copin are you a Waldensian He answered Yea. And doe you not belieue that God is in the Hoste No saith Copin Fie vpon you replies the other what a false Religion is yours My Religion saith Copin is as true as it is true that God is God and as I am sure I shall die The next morrow Copin was called before the Bishop of Ast who told him that he had been aduertised of certaine scandalous discourses and opinions which but the day before hee held in the euening at his lodging and that hee must acknowledge the offence if he would obtaine pardon otherwise he would take order for his punishment Copin answered that he had been prouoked thereunto and howsoeuer he had said nothing that he would not maintaine with the danger of his owne life that hee had some goods in the world and a wife and children but he had lost the affection he bare vnto those things neither were they deare vnto him to the preiudice of his conscience And as touching his behauiour saith he if it would please the Bishop to enquire of the Merchants of Ast who all knew him whether he were an honest man they would all witnesse for him that he had neuer wronged any man in that whole time he had traded and conuersed with them and that being a Merchant he was to be dismissed for that cause for which he was then in that place that is for trafficke and therefore not to bee molested That if Iewes and Turkes were permitted to come to Faires and to trafficke throughout all Piedmont much more should he be permitted who was a Christian especially since that in that discourse of Religion he did but answere to a question moued vnto him and that it was lawfull for any man to answere and to giue a reason of his faith to whom and in what place soeuer euen by vertue of that treaty and agreement betweene the Waldenses of the Valleys and his Highnesse which forbids them to broach new opinions but takes not from them the liberty to answere to whomsoeuer shall aske any questions of them The Bishop harkened not at all to these allegations but gaue commandement that he should bee sent to prison The morrow after the Bishops Secretary came to visit Copin and making great profession of loue towards him he said vnto him that hee would haue him know
prouoke him to such persecutions In the the meane time that hee would bee pleased to support vs in the middest of these temptations and streng then vs with Patience and Constancy to perseuere in the profession of the truth vnto the end of our liues and our posterity after vs Amen This persecution hath cotinued vnto this present time at the instance of Pope Paul the fift and his Nuntio who still troubleth and vexeth this poore people by his Monkes the Inquisitors They haue made some to alter their opinions who had no power to quit themselues of their goods but haue accommodated themselues to the world but the greatest number persisted constant in calling on the name of God chusing rather to be banished here on earth from their natiue countries then to be depriued of eternall life hating their Possessions their Country their Houses being the places where they could not inhabit whithout the deniall of Christ and his truth CHAP. VI. Of the Waldenses inhabiting in the New Lands and the persecutions which they haue suffered THe New lands of which wee are here to speake are in the Alpes in the Frontiers of Piedmont Dauphine and Prouence of which the cheefe Citty is Barcelona or Barcelonette Within the said Lands there are certaine Villages which haue been peopled by the Waldenses time out of minde placed in the best part of the said Lands amongst others Iosiers These places haue continued a long time the Princes of Piedmont nothing regarding the abode of the said peoples within their Prouinces but the Priests made them odious to the world because they were vnprofitable vnto them by not liuing after the manner of other people who contributed vnto them for the liuing and for the dead in such sort that when his Highnesse persecuted in his state those that had quit themselues of the Lawes of the Romish Church these were not forgotten especially when the Gouernours of the said Valley opposed themselues against them These were therefore of the number of those that were summoned in the yeere 1576 to goe to the Masse or to forsake his Highnesse Country wherein they found not better meanes to helpe themselues then to ioyne themselues vnto others who being threatned with the same banishment had recourse to the Protestant Princes beseeching them to intercede for them to their Prince that he would be pleased not to trouble them in such manner for their beliefe which they had made profession off from the father to the sonne for many hundred yeeres during which time their Princes haue not had any Subiects that haue yeelded vnto them more faithfull obedience then they not giuing place vnto any other in their duties submissions and contributions which they haue alwaies most willingly payed to their Princes as they were still ready to continue yeelding obedience to their commands onely that that they might not be troubled in their consciences The Prince Palatine of the Rhine delegated to the Prince of Piedmont a Counseller of his State with certaine other honorable personages Being arriued at Turin they saluted his Highnesse in the name of the said Prince Palatine and deliuered their Letters of Credence He was heard by the Prince Emanuel Philibert very peaceably This Councellor gaue him to vnderstand that the onely charity of their Master towards Christians of the same Religion that he professed had moued him to mediate for them that his Highnesse would bee pleased to suffer them to liue peaceably in the exercise of their Religion not offering any violence to their consciences That he would account this benefit as done vnto himselfe and hee should oblige vnto him all the Protestant Princes of Germany who likewise made the selfesame request by their mouthes That he should haue God the more fauourable and his Subiects the more faithfull if he did not shew himselfe inexorable That the confusions that haue happened in all the States of Kings and Princes that haue indeauoured to raigne and reclaime the soules of their Subiects by armes and to reduce them by violence may make wise all other Princes which were not yet come to such extremities That forasmuch as they that haue not vsed rigorous courses haue won the hearts of their people to be more faithfull vnto them this meanes being in his power they humbly beseeched him to imitate herein the most debonaire and gentle Princes It appeared by his Highnesse answere that he took but little pleasure in this intercession but much more by the effects that followed For hee answered that notwithstanding that for his part he made no enquiry how the Prince Palatine of the Rhine and other Princes of Germany gouerned their Subiects and being a Soueraigne Prince he was not to yeeld an account vnto any of his courses and resolutions yet neuerthelesse he thanked the said Prince and all the rest that were thus charitable towards him his Estate and his Subiects as to wish their content and peace but that the miseries and calamities that haue happened amongst them by the diuersity of Religions had made him to desire to haue in his State but onely one and that must be that which he there found and in which he had been alwaies brought vp for feare lest vnder the mantle of Religion and liberty of conscience he must dispute with his subiects as a companion of those things which by iust title were in his power to determine as a Master as it had happened to other Princes in Europe that in this case had no power to rule their Subiects as Soueragines And that in might appeare vnto them that he loued peace he had maintained his Subiects the Waldenses dwelling in his State in the Valleys of the Alpes vnder an edict which he caused to be obserued vnuiolably That if without the said Valleys he had in his State any itching busie spirits affecting nouelties those he caused to be punished as Rebelles That he thought that as the said Princes had compassion of his Subiects that they might enioy the exercise of their Religion so he assured himselfe that they would not take it in ill part so iust and iudicious they were if he prouided for his surety and preseruation of his State by punishing the seditions that he would inquire in consideration of this their intercession more narrowly into the estate of his Subiects making profession of their Religion and would giue them some refreshing And because they had spoken particularly of a certaine Minister named Giles whom he detained locked vp in a dungeon he caused him to be brought forth and placed in a chamber and after inquiry made of what he was accused that is that he had writ to those of Geneua to the preiudice of his seruice he set him at liberty He disclaimed a certaine captaine of a Castle of the Valley Meane for some thing he had done against the Waldenses of the said Valley but for the rest the Counsellor was hardly gone halfe his way home-ward but the persecution grew greater then it
and little returned home to their old habitations which they built and repaired at such times as they could by the benefit of the aforesaid Edicts and were afterwards the seed of many goodly Churches which at this day are gathered together flourishing in all piety and zeale as other Churches in the Kingdome of France CHAP. IX Of the Waldenses that did flie into Bohemia and those persecutions which they suffred that haue come to our knowledge DIuers haue written Albertus de Capitaneis lib. de origine Waldensium Thuanus in historia sui temporis pa. 457. Petrus Valdus eorum Antesignanus patria relictain Belgium venit atque in Picardiam quam hodie vocant multos sectatores nâ—etus cum inde in Germaniam transisset per Vandalicas ciuitates diu diuersatus est ac postremo in Bohemia consedit See what is said of these two Barbes before in the first booke Chap. 9. that Waldo at his departure from Lion came into Dauphine and from thence hauing erected and ordered some Churches and laid the foundations of them which haue been miraculously preserued vnto this present time he went into Languedoc and there he left excellent Pastors who ordered and instructed those Churches that afterwards cost the Pope and his Clergy so much to destroy and from thence he went into Picardy from whence being chased he tooke his iourney into Germany and from Germany he retired himselfe into Bohemia where according to the opinion of some he ended his dayes The Waldenses inhabiting in Dauphine Piedmont and Prouence haue had communion and incelligence with their Brethren retired into Bohemia for proofe whereof we haue the message of Daniel de Valence and Iohn de Molin Pastors in Bohemia who did much hurt to the Churches of that Country by reuealing vnto the aduersaries those flockes or companies which before were hidden and vnknowne because of the great and grieuous persecutions that then were We haue also a certaine Apology of the Waldenses of Bohemia in the Waldensian tongue Vineaux in his memor fol. 15 in the forme of a Letter which they wirt to King Ladislaus wherof the Inscription is Al Serenissimo Princi Rey Lancelao A li Duc Barons a li plus veil del Regne Lo petit tropel de li Christians appella per falce nom falsament Pauuers o Valdes Gratia siaen Die lo Paire en Iesus lo Filli de luy This Letter makes proofe of the Communion which the Waldenses of Dauphine haue had with those of Bohemia in that they haue had in their language this Letter which containes a iust Apology against those impostures and other faults which in former times haue been imputed to the one and to the other and haue been common with the Christians of the primitiue Church We haue also in the same volume a treatise the inscription whereof is this Aico es la causa del nostre despartiment de la Gleisa Romana That is to say This is the cause of our separation from the Church of Rome Causes which haue been common with all those that haue withdrawen themselues from that Church for feare of participating of her plagues The Author of the Catalogue of witnesses of the truth Flac. Ill. in catal test verit p. 116. makes mention of a certaine forme of Inquisition which was practised against the Waldenses of Bohemia vnder King Iohn which was about the yeere 1330. As also in another Inquisition this is noted that the Waldenses of Bohemia sent into Lombardy to the Waldensian Doctors those whom they would haue trained vp in the profession of Diuinity In the treatise of the beginning of the Churches of Bohemia Lib. de origine EcclesiaruÌ„ Bohemiae pa. 273. Sed cum oppressae tyrannide Pontisicia conuentus publicos nullos haberent neque scripta horum extarent vllâ— ignotae nostris prorsus fuere Esrom Rudiger in narratiâ—ncula de Ecclesijs fratrum in Bohemia Valdenses ad minimum CCXL annis originem nostram antecedunt at what time the doctrine of Iohn Hus was there receiued the Pastors Ancients and faithfull of Bohemia say that the Waldensian Churches of Bohemia had been oppressed by the tyranny of the Pope in such manner that they had no more assemblies and that there were no more of their writings to be found in Bohemia Esrom Rudiger in his treatise of the Churches of Bohemia saith that the Waldenses haue had their Churches at the least two hundred and forty yeeres before those of the Hussites and though he confesse that their beliefe was one and the same yet he affirmeth that there was not in their times any memory of their Churches but onely of those that were in France at Merindoll and the places neere adioyning And that when they sent to Bohemia to ioyne themselues vnto them in the confession of their faith they enquired of them whether they made any publike profession of the truth and when they had vnderstood that there were some amongst them that sometimes frequented Papisticall Churches and were present at those idolatries that were there committed they did bitterly reprehend them for it And therefore they that haue answered vnder the name of the Waldenses See the Confession of the Waldenses in the Catalogue rerum expetendarum Lib de orig confess Eccl. Pohem Scimus quod multi boni viri veritatis Euangelicae instaurata cultares sectate res pij seducti indicationibus falsis criminationib aduer sariorum pro Valdensib nos habeant Ibid. Hoc quidem constat multum in ipsis lucis fuisse de plerisque eos rectè sensisse docuisse propter veritatem grauigima perpesso in Gallia in primis Aeneas Siluius in his history of the Taborites and haue brought vnto light their confession which at this day is to be found in the Catalogue of things to be desired are not any of the Waldenses but one of those that by way of reproach were afterwards so called and they haue not been ashamed of that name assuring themselues of the purity of their doctrine And this notwithstanding they reuiue againe this common opinion when they affirme that they know well that there are many good men that follow and loue the truth of the Gospell who being deceiued by false markes and notes whereby they haue described vs say they haue held vs for Waldenses And euen there to they giue this testimony of the Waldenses that there is in them much light and knowledge and that they haue well vnderstood and purely taught many things yea and that they haue suffered much for the truth especially in France And so they desired to be distinguished from them to the end that if it were obserued that the Waldenses had done much for the establishment of the truth in their times that it might likewise be knowne that the Hussites haue not done little in their time Aeneas Syluius reporteth of one Iames de Misne and Peter de Dreze disciples of the Waldenses
his heauenly benedictions in these latter times An excellent prouocation doubly to obliege them to loue the truth which hath bin freely manifested vnto them and to bring forth fruits worthy thereof As it should be an extreme griefe to those places that haue neglected and reiected is that God hath abandoned them and left them to their owne sence euen in that darkenesse which they loued reuenging the contempt of his word by the ignorance thereof and suffering those to perish in their error that haue preferred it before the truth CHAP. XII The conclusion of this History of the Albingenses IT is an easie matter to gather by the contents of this History of the Albingenses that the people inhabiting in the Countrey of Albi Languedoc and diuers other places neere adioyning haue made profession of the selfe-same Religion that they haue that elsewhere were called Waldenses and the rather because their aduersaries themselues haue affirmed that they haue persecuted them as Waldenses As also that the greatest troubles that haue lighted vpon them haue beene procured by the Priests whose corruptions they haue descryed and discouered their abuses maintaining against the Church of Rome the Gospell of Christ Iesus in it puritie refusing to yeeld to those Idolatries that bare sway in those times but aboue all detesting the Masse and the inuention of Transubstantiation shaking the authoritie of the Popes dominion as being abusiue and tyrannicall hauing no resemblance of the well-befitting humilitie of the true Pastors of the Church or conformitie to the doctrine and vocation of the Apostles but rather an excesse and ryot befitting those that loue the world and perish with the world By which libertie which they tooke vnto themselues to reprehend those that beleeued the right of all redargution to belong onely to themselues they haue beene charged with diuers faults and condemned for rash inconsiderare people prophane secular persons who had thrust themselues into the office of teaching when with silence they should rather learne And the Popes not being able to winne them to the obedience of their commands nor to conuince them of error by the word of God they haue persecuted them by their Monkes Inquisitors who haue deliuered to the secular Magistrate as many as the said Monkes could apprehend and forasmuch as this way was somewhat too slow to cut them off and to see the end of them the Popes haue drawne their swords against them haue armed their Cardinals and Legats and driuen to these bloudy warres the Kings and Princes of the earth giuing Paradice for a recompence to whomsoeuer would beare armes against them and aduenture his life for the extirpation of them for fortie daies together Many great Lords haue beene desirous to know the cause of that vnreconcilable enmitie of the Pope against their subiects and hauing perceiued that passion carried those that were offended for the truth they haue maintained their cause being grounded vpon this reason That when they should bee conuinced of this errror by the word of God they would giue the glory vnto God From hence haue proceeded those cruell warres wherein a million of men haue lost their liues In the meane time euen then when it seemed that all truth was buried in the ground and that the Dragon had ouercome God raised in diuers of those places where this grace had beene knowne and receiued many goodly Churches wherein his name is purely inuocated maugre the Deuill and all his adherents To God therefore who hath begunne to destroy the sonne of perdition by the blast of his Spirit To the Sonne-of God who hath bought vs with his precious bloud bee all honour and glory for euer and euer So be it * ⎠* FINIS THE THIRD PART OF THE HISTORIE OF THE WALDENSES AND ALBINGENSES THE FIRST BOOKE Contayning the Doctrine and Discipline that hath beene common amongst them The Catechisme or manner of instructing their Children which the Waldenses and Albingenses haue vsed in manner of a Dialogue where the Pastor asketh the question and the Childe answereth set down iointly in their owne proper Language in the French Copy for the more Authority CHAPTER I. Lo. Barba Si tu fosses demanda qui sies tu Respond L'Enfant Creatura de diorational mortal c. The learned Reader desirous to see the originall may haue recourse to the French Booke where it is faithfully set forth in their owne old Language The Pastor Question WHat art thou Answer A creature of God reasonable and mortall Q. Why hath God created thee A. To the end I should know and serue him and that I might be saued by his grace Q. In what doth thy saluation consist A. In three essentiail vertues which doe necessarily belong to saluation Q. Which be they A. Faith Hope and Charity Q. How dost thou proue it A. The Apostle saith in the 1 Epistle to the Corinthians Chap. 13.13 These three things remaine Faith Hope and Charity Q. What is Faith A. According to the Apostle Heb. 11.1 It is the substance of things hoped for the euidence of things not seene Q. How many kindes of Faith are there A. There are two sorts of Faith that is a liuely and a dead Faith Q. What is a liuely Faith A. That which worketh by Charity Q. What is a dead Faith A. According to Saint Iames That Faith which is without workes is dead Againe Faith is nothing without workes Or a dead faith is to beleeue there is a God and to beleeue those things concerning God and not to beleeue in God Q. What is thy Faith A. The true Catholike and Apostolike Faith Q. What is that A. It is that which in the Apostles Symbole is diuided into twelue Articles Q. What is that Symbole A. I beleeue in God the Father Almighty c. Q. By what meanes canst thou know that thou beleeuest in God A. By this Because I know that I haue giuen my selfe to the obseruation of the Commandements of God Q. How many Commandements of God are there A. Ten as it appeareth in Exodus and Deuteronomy Q. Which are they A. Hearken O Israel I am the Lord thy God Thou shalt haue no other Gods but me Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any grauen Image nor the likenesse of any thing that is in Heauen c. Q. Vpon what doe all these Commandements depend A. Vpon the two great Commandements that is to say Thou shalt loue God aboue all things and thy Neighbour as thy selfe Q. What is the foundation of these Commandements by which euery one ought to enter into life without which foundation no man can worthily fulfill the Commandements A. Our Lord Iesus Christ of whom the Apostle saith in the first to the Corinthians None can lay any other foundation but that which is laid euen Iesus Christ Q. By what meanes may a man attaine to this foundation A. By Faith So saith Saint Peter 1 Epist 2.6 Behold I lay in Sion a chiefe corner stone elect precious