provinces, from Peter Bruys, they were called Petrobrusians. Sometimes they received their name from their manners, as "Catharists," (Puritans) and from the foreign country whence it was pretended they had been expelled, they were called "Bulgarians" or Bougres. In Italy they were commonly called Fraticelli, that is, "men of the brotherhood," because they cultivated brotherly love among themselves, acknowledging one another as brethren in Christ. Sometimes they were denominated "Paulicians," and, by corruption of the word, "Publicans," considering them as sprung from that ancient sect which, in the seventh century, spread over Armenia and Thrace,* and which, when persecuted by the Greek emperors, might emigrate into Europe, and mingle with the Waldenses in Piedmont. Sometimes they were named from the country or city in which they prevailed, as Lombardists, Toulousians, and Albigenses. All these branches, however, sprang from one common stock, and were animated by the same religious and moral principles.

ALBIGENSES became latterly their common name in France, from the great number of them that inhabited the city of Alby, and the district of Albigeois, between the Garonne and the Rhone; but that name was not general and confirmed till after the council of Alby in the year 1254, which condemned them as heretics. Their number and prevalence in that country are ascribed to the patronage and protection which they received from Roger count of Alby, after they had been persecuted in other countries. Some writers have laboured to prove that the Waldenses and Albigenses were quite different classes of Christians, and held different principles and opinions; but there seems no solid ground for maintaining such a distinction. When the Popes issued their fulminations against the

See Vol. I. ch. iii. sect. 4.

Albigenses, they expressly condemn them as Waldenses; their legates made war against them as professing the faith of the Waldenses; the monks of the Inquisition formed their processes of indictment against them as being Waldenses; the people persecuted them as being such, and they uniformly adopted the title when it was given them, and even thought themselves honoured by it. To this may be added, that historians do not trace their origin to any local causes in Albigeois, and about Toulouse, but represent them as emigrants from other regions. Neither do they represent their origin as recent before the council of Alby, but as strangers from adjacent countries about a hundred years before,

Farther, the provincial councils of Toulouse, in 1119, and of Lombez, in 1176, and the general councils of Lateran in 1139 and 1179 do not treat of them, nor condemn them as Albigenses but as heretics, and when they particularise them, they denominate them "bons hommes"-(i. e. good men)—“ cathari”—“ paterini”—“ publicani," &c. which shews that they existed before they were generally known as Albigenses. It is also proved, from their books, that they existed as Waldenses, before the times of Peter Waldo, who preached about the year 1160. Perrin, who wrote their history, had in his possession a New Testament in the Vallese language, written on parchment, in a very ancient letter, and a book intituled, in their language, "Qual cosa sia l'Antichrist"-that is, "What is Antichrist?" under date of the year 1120, which carries us back at least twenty years before Waldo. Another book intituled, "The noble lesson"-is dated A. D. 1100.

Their enemies confirm their great antiquity. Reinerius Saccho, an inquisitor, and one of their most cruel persecutors, who lived only eighty years after Waldo, admits that the Waldenses flourished five hundred years before that preacher. Gretzer, the Jesuit, who also wrote against the

Waldenses, and had examined the subject fully, not only admits their great antiquity, but declares his firm belief "that the Toulousians and Albigenses condemned in the years 1177 and 1178, were no other than Waldenses. In fact, their doctrines, discipline, government, manners, and even the errors with which they have been charged (by the Catholics) shew that the Albigenses and Waldenses were two branches of the same sect, or that the former were sprung from the latter.*

From the death of Claude, bishop of Turin, who may not improperly be termed the Wickliff of that city, to the times of Peter Waldo of Lyons, a considerable period intervened, during which, the history of the disciples of that great man is involved in much obscurity. They seem to have had no writers among themselves capable of detailing their proceedings during this period; or, if any records of their ecclesiastical history were committed to writing, the zeal of their adversaries hath prevented their transmission to our times. In the writings of their enemies, indeed, we have abundant proof of their existence, as a class of Christians separated in faith and practice from the catholic church, and of the multiplication of their numbers; but of their proceedings in the formation of churches, and of their order, worship, and discipline, we are very imperfectly informed.

Of the Catharists, in Germany, and of the Paterines, in the duchy of Milan, &c. during this period, both of which held the same principles as the Waldenses, we have already taken some notice in the preceding chapter. But

* Dr. Rankin's History of France, vol. iii. p. 198–202. To this cotemporary and able writer, I have much pleasure in tendering my acknow ledgments for the eminent services which, in this instance, he has rendered to the cause of truth and virtue. His patient research, and his cool, correct, and discriminating judgment, have greatly abridged my labour on this branch of the subject.

*

it was not till the twelfth century that the Vaudois appear in ecclesiastical history as a people obnoxious to the church of Rome. And even then it seems, in great measure, to have been occasioned by the indefatigable labours, the ardent zeal, and the amazing success which crowned the ministry of Peter Waldo of Lyons, whose followers first obtained the name of Leonists, and who, when persecuted in France, fled into Piedmont, incorporating themselves with the Vaudois. The following is the account which Mr. Robinson gives of this intricate article of ecclesiastical history, and as it appears to myself more probable than any other that I have seen, I incline to admit it as the true one.

"In the twelfth century, towards the close, a great reformation was begun at Lyons, under the auspices of a merchant there, who procured a translation of the four Gospels from Latin into French, and who both preached himself, and engaged others to do so in various parts of the country. Reinerius Saccho thought all the believers (Credenti) sprung from this stock; and he therefore calls them all Leonists. Whether the merchant received his name (Valdus) from the Vaudois, or whether they received theirs from him is uncertain; the former is the more probable opinion of the two, and the fact seems to be that, till then the Vaudois were (comparatively speaking) few and obscure, and the Leonists at once numerous and popular; that the Vaudois and Leonists soon incorporated themselves together; that the Vaudois communicated their name, which passed for that of a low, rustical and obscure people to the Leonists; and that the Leonists emboldened the Vaudois to separate openly from the church. This view of things in part reconciles the opinion of the catholic bishop, Bossuet, with that of Dr. Allix and other Pro

* From the Latin word "Leo"-a lion, whence the name of the city.

testants. Bossuet says, the separation of the Vaudois was for a long time a mere schism in the church, and that Waldo was their parent. Protestants deny this, and say that the Vaudois were the parents of the Leonists. It should seem the Vaudois were the first, and that they continued in the church a sort of party till Waldo emboldened them to separate, and so became not the founder of the party, but the parent of their separation."

But the history of Peter Waldo, his exemplary life, his zeal in the cause of truth and virtue, the noble sacrifices which he made to religious principle, and the extraordinary success which crowned his labours in the promulgation of the gospel of peace, entitle him to somewhat more than an incidental mention in the history of the times in which he lived. He was an opulent merchant in the city of Lyons→→ a city which, in the second century of the christian æra, as we have formerly seen,* was blessed with the clear light of divine truth-where Christ had planted a numerous church to serve as a pillar on which his truth was inscribed, or a candlestick on which he had placed the lamp of life. But the lamp had long been extinguished, and the pillar removed. Lyons, in the times of Peter Waldo, was sunk into a state of the grossest darkness and superstition. About the year 1160 the doctrine of transubstantiation, which sometime afterwards Pope Innocent III. confirmed in a very solemn manner, was required by the court of Rome to be acknowledged by all men. A most pernicious practice of idolatry was connected with the reception of this doctrine. Men fell down before the consecrated wafer and worshipped it as God; an abomination, the absurdity and impiety of which forcibly struck the mind of Waldo, who opposed it in a most courageous man. ner.†

See Vol. i. p. 163.

+ Perrin Histoire des Vaudois, ch. įs