hendeth it not; the light, which perceiving not, ye are therefore in darkness, and walk in darkness, and know not whither you go because darkness hath blinded your eyes

VII. I must not omit to remark: that, in an evidential point of view, Dungal's perpetual reference to Vigilantius is not a little striking and important.

He charges Claude and his Vallenses with teaching and maintaining the same doctrines, as those taught and maintained by the eminent individual in question and his whole strain of uncomely vituperation serves only to shew; that, after a lapse of four centuries, the memory and influence of the admirable Leonist still, in the Valleys of the Cottian Alps, remained fixed and unimpaired t. Accordingly, while he forgets not to mention the birth of Vigilantius at the Lugdunum Convenarum of the Pyrenees, he describes him, certainly with much correctness, as having been the neighbour of Claude: though it may be doubt

* Claud. Epist. ad Theutmir. p. 877. I must not suppress the singular felicity of Dungal's retort courteous. He is quite sure that all Claude's contempt for relics is bottomed upon mere envy. If the Cathedral of Turin was but as well stocked with dead bones and old rags as the richer cathedral of Rome; truly Claude would then be as warm an advocate, as he is now an opponent. Dungal. Respons. p. 888. I do not recollect to have ever met with so palpable a hit. The suppression of it would have been a sin without benefit of Clergy.

† Dungal. Respons. p. 880, 881, 883, 888, 893, 895.

ed, whether, with equal correctness, he asserts Vigilantius to have been the author of Claude's madness *. The madness in question, as holy Claude well knew, existed in Scripture and in the Primitive Church, long before any of the contending parties, either in the fifth century or in the ninth century, had made their appearance upon the face of this nether world. Hence we may perfectly understand the immeasureable wrath of Dungal, that Claude, to confound idolatry, should actually have dared to quote Scripture t.

Here, then, we have evidence, both for the continued existence and for the resolute unchangeableness of the Vallenses at the beginning of the ninth century. For, as it appears from a specific date in the Work of Dungal, Claude must have written his epistle to Theutmir shortly before the

* Cognovit, quod illa (scil. Hieronymus) contra suum vicinum suæque auctorem insaniæ Vigilantium hæreticum scripserit. Dungal. Respons. p. 883.

-

+ Claude's appeal to Scripture runs, as follows:Cum enim distinctè dicatur, non faciendam similitudinem omnium quæ in cœlo sunt aut quæ in terra vel quæ sub terra; non de solis similitudinibus alienorum deorum intelligitur dictum, sed de cœlestibus creaturis aut quæ in honore Creatoris humanus sensus potuit excogitare. Claud. Taurin. apud Dungal. Respons. p. 880.

On this tough morsel, his stupendously long-winded antagonist hammers, with most exemplary perseverance, through eight closely-printed and double-columned folio pages.

year 820 and Dungal must have answered him, either in, or shortly after, that same year *. The Vallenses, therefore, must have been in their native fastnesses, bearing their appointed testimony to scriptural truth and against paganising idolatry, at the commencement of the ninth century.

VIII. Nor can it justly be said, as some have imagined, that they owed their origin to the faithful preaching of Claude of Turin. No doubt, he greatly encouraged and strengthened them: but, as we have had direct evidence to their long prior existence, so a diligent authoritative investigation, conducted by a bitter enemy, has been found to bring out the very same result.

Shortly before the year 1630, Marco Aurelio Rorenco, Prior of St. Roch at Turin, was employed to institute a strict inquiry into the opinions and connections and antiquity of the mountaineer Vallenses and his researches led to the production of two Works; the one, published in the year 1632; and the other published in the year 1649.

Now in the first of these Works, entitled, A narrative of the introduction of Heresies into the Valleys, he states that The Valdenses were so ancient, as to afford no absolute certainty in regard to the precise time of their origination; but, at all

events, that, In the ninth and tenth centuries, they were even then not a new sect *.

And, in the second of them, entitled Historical Memorials of the Introduction of Heresies, he makes some very important additions to his former statement; for he there tells us: that, In the ninth century, so far from being a new sect, they were rather to be deemed a race of fomenters and encouragers of opinions which had preceded them; further remarking, that Claude of Turin was to be reckoned among these fomenters and encouragers, inasmuch as he was a person, who denied the reverence due to the holy cross, who rejected the veneration and invocation of saints, and who was a principal destroyer of images .

* Della loro origine non si puo haver certezza.-Nel nono e decimo secolo, non era nuovo setta. Rorenc. Narrat. dell'introdutt. delle heresie nella valli. in Muston. Hist. des Vaud. vol. i. p. 165.

+ Nel nono secolo, non vi fu nuova setta, ma ben nuovo fomentatore delle precedenti: fra quali fu Claudio, vescovo di Torino, discepolo di Felice, che negava la reverenza alla santa croce, come anche la veneratione ed invocatione de Santi, e fu principale destrutor dell'imagini. Rorenc. Memor. Istoric. dell'introdutt. delle heresie. in Muston. Hist. des Vaud. vol. i. p. 166.

It is somewhat extraordinary, that neither of these Works of Rorenco is in the Bodleian Library: but, as Dr. Muston gives the precise words of the author, I cannot reasonably doubt his accuracy. Had the Works been within my reach, I should have been much gratified by the perusal of them. As it is,

I am unable to specify the nature and amount of the evidence, which brought the Prior to his conclusion. That it was overwhelming and decisive, is certain because, as in the case of Bossuet, it is the ordinary humour and practice of the Romish Divines to assert, that none of the Valdenses could claim a higher antiquity than the times of Peter the Valdo or the latter half of the twelfth century.