that he can dispose of them all and solve every apparent difficulty *. To oaths of every description they objected †. II. The Author of the Index of Valdensic Errors, subjoined by Gretzer to the Work of Pilichdorf, has contributed some important additional notices. In the beneficial potency of the sign of the cross, the Valdenses had no faith: for they were wont to declare, that They would venerate, neither the very cross upon which Christ hung, nor the crown of thorns, nor the nails, nor the spear, nor the garment without seam, even if they could behold the really genuine articles themselves; inasmuch as the veneration of all such things is vain and useless, being merely contrived by the priests for the sake of filthy lucre‡. To the sayings of the Saints they paid no * Item reprobant hæretici imagines et earum venerationem. Et videntur habere pro se multas authoritates diversarum Scripturarum, quæ postea adducentur et solventur. Pilich. cont. Vald. c. xxxiii. p. 329. + Item dicunt Valdenses hæretici: quod omne juramentum, quantumcunque judicialiter et veridicè factum, sit peccatum et reprobatum. Pilich. cont. Vald. c. xxxvi. p. 331. Item, de signo crucis, nihil credunt: asserentes, quod nec venerentur illam crucem in qua Christus pependit, nec spineam coronam, nec clavos, nec lanceam, nec tunicam consutilem, si viderent: quorum omnium venerationem dicunt esse vanam et inutilem, et quod sacerdotes invenerunt propter lucra. Ind. error. Vald. ad calc. Pilich. in Bibl. Patr. vol. xiii. p. 341. regard, except in so far as they might be confirmatory to their own sect: for they admitted only the authority of the New Testament; and this they observed to the very letter *. General confession they made no account of t. Miracles, performed in the Church of God through the merits of the saints, they utterly rejected +. They said that The Pope is the head of all heresiarchs |. All Religious Orders of Monks and Sanctimonials they reprobated: saying, that They are vain and superfluous §. They maintained: that All the words of the Mass, and all the preparations appertaining to the Mass, beyond the simple words of consecration, are of error ¶. * Item dicta sanctorum nihil curant, nisi quantum pro secta eorum confortanta retinent: sed tantum Novum Testamentum ad literam observant. Ind, error. Vald. P. 341. + Item confessionem generalem nihil advertunt. Vald. p. 341. Ind. error. Item miracula, quæ fiunt in Ecclesia Dei Sanctorum meritis, omnino abjiciunt. Ind. error. Vald. p. 341. Item dicunt: Papam esse caput omnium hæresiarcharum. Ind. error. Vald. P. 340. § Item improbant omnes Religiones, tam monachorum quam sanctimonialium, dicentes esse superfluas et inanes. Ind. error. Vald, p. 341. Item dicunt: omnia verba Missæ, et omnia præparamenta ad Missam spectantia, esse de errore, præter verba consecrationis. Ind. error. Vald. p. 340. III. Various other matters of less moment have been omitted: and if there should be any doubt as to the import of the last specified particular, it is effectually solved by their own explanatory language as reported by Conrad of Magdenberg. They blaspheme, says he, the Priesthood of Christ, styling the Presbyters in the Church of God, by way of mockery and derision, GOD-MAKERS. Nevertheless, the Priests themselves make not God: but only, through the words of consecration instituted by Christ, under the species of bread and wine mixed with water, they make our Lord Christ to be corporeally present who was not corporeally present before, the Holy Spirit operating the transubstantiation of this oblation so as to make God *. Conrad is here speaking of the Beghards or Pighards or Picards. But this was the name, by which, from the circumstance of their abounding in the neighbour province of Picardy, the Valdenses were wont to be styled in Germany †. Blasphemant insuper sacerdotium Christi, presbyteros in Ecclesia Dei, Deifices, quasi Deum facientes, illusivè seu derisoriè nominando. Cum tamen non Christum faciant sacerdotes; sed, per verba consecrationis a Christo instituta, sub speciebus panis et vini aqua misti, Christum Dominum nostrum esse præsentem faciunt corporaliter ubi corporaliter non fuerat prius, Spiritu Sancto hujus oblationis transubstantiationem deificè operante. Conrad. de Mont. Puell. cont. Beghard. in Bibl. Patr. vol. xiii. p. 343. + See Thuan. Hist. lib. vi. § 16. vol. i. p. 221. Consequently, there can be no doubt touching the specific religionists, to whom he alludes. As for his language, it is useful to let a Romanist himself exhibit the blasphemous heresy of the Transubstantialists in all its naked deformity. CHAPTER XI. THE THEOLOGY OF THE VALLENSES AT AND IM MEDIATELY AFTER THE TIME OF THE REFORM ATION. For the ascertaining of the Doctrinal System, maintained by the Vallenses, at and immediately after the time of the Reformation in the sixteenth century, I shall adduce two several authorities : the testimony, to wit, of Claude Scyssel Archbishop of Turin about the year 1500; and the confession, presented, in the year 1542, to Francis I. of France, through the medium of Cardinal Sadolet. I. The testimony of Scyssel respects the Vallenses, who continued to occupy their ancient settlements in Piedmont, and who thence were geographically comprehended within the limits of the Archbishop's diocese. Scyssel's Work, against what he calls the Errors and Sect of the Valdenses, is written, both with much bitterness, and with no small measure to boot of absurd inconsistency: for while he stoutly |