CHAPTER XII.

RESPECTING THE POOR MEN OF LYONS OR THE MISSIONARY VALDENSES OF FRANCE.

IN establishing the Antiquity of the Vallenses of Piedmont, I brought down their history, until, in the twelfth century, they stand connected with the Vallenses of France*. Resuming the subject, I shall now give some account of these modern Leonists, as they are styled by the Inquisitor Reinerius Sacco.

Perhaps, through the whole range of ecclesiastical story, there can scarcely be mentioned an individual, who in the hand of God has been more eminently an instrument for good, than the rich and holy merchant Peter of Lyons.

This illustrious reformer began his labours about the year 1160: and he is commonly thought to have died about the year 1179. He was the founder of the comparatively modern Society of the Poor Men of Lyons; and to them he imparted the name of Valdenses, derived from his own agno

See above, book iii. chap. 8.

men of Valdo or Valdès or Valdensis or Valdensius or Valdius; for, in all these slightly varied forms, does the agnomen occur *.

I. Thus far, the matter is perfectly clear: but, although Peter communicated to his new Society the title of Valdenses, the question still remains, whence he himself derived his own agnomen.

With respect to this question, the very form of that agnomen shews, with sufficient clearness, that it cannot be viewed as the proper family name of the wealthy merchant; that is to say, as his family name after the manner in which family names are now borne. It is evidently a title imposed, either from some town, or from some people, or from some country, or from some cir

* Petrus Valdus, locuples civis Lugdunensis, anno Christi circiter 1170, Valdensibus nomen dedit. Is, domo ac bonis relictis, totum se evangelicæ professioni devoverat; et prophetarum atque apostolorum scripta, populari lingua vertenda, curaverat.-Cum jam multos sectatores, exiguo tempore, circa se haberet; eos, tanquam discipulos, ad evangelium promulgandum, in omnes partes ablegat. Thuan. Hist. lib. vi. § 16. vol. i. P. 221.

Valdesios, a primate ipsorum Valde dictos, qui fuerat civis Lugduni super Rhodanum. Gualt. Mapes. de Nugis Curial. distinct. i. c. 31. apud Usser. de Eccles. Success. c. viii. § 5.

Valdenses dicuntur a suo hæresiarcha, qui Valdius dicebatur : qui, suo spiritu ductus, non a Deo missus, novam sectam invenit. Quorum discipuli, id est, muscipulæ, jam per diversas mundi partes, simplices seducunt a via. Alan. cont. Valdens. lib. ii. c. 1. apud Usser. de Eccles. Success. c. viii. § 5. Fuit quidam civis Lugdunensis, nomine Valdensius seu Val

cumstance connected with Peter's own religious sentiments.

Accordingly, we are told that he received the name from a town or district named Valdis or Vaudra or Valden, which is indifferently said to have been situated in the march of France or in the borders of France: for, in the middle ages, the term march was applied to all border countries; whence the Count or Warden of the Marches received the title of Margrave or Marquis.

On this point, simply, there is an universal agreement but, if we descend to particulars, there is a slight apparent variation. I say apparent because, in reality, when one account, that given by the Centuriators of Magdeburg, repre

densis, qui dives existens divitias reliquit, ut pauper fieret et Christum sequeretur et evangelicam perfectionem servaret. Sed, errore pravæ intelligentiæ Scripturarum abductus a veritate demens, ipse et ejus sequaces, ab unitate et obedientia Ecclesiæ alienati, per schisma in hæresim sunt prolapsi. Guid. Perpin. in Summa de hæres. apud Usser. de Eccles. Success. c. viii. § 5.

Insurrexit in partibus gallicanis, in archiepiscopatu et civitate Lugdunensi, quidam vocatus Valdensius seu Valdensis; qui, relictis omnibus, proposuit servare evangelicam paupertatem, sicut Apostoli servarunt: qui plures sibi adhærentes habuit, et congregationem magnam virorum et mulierum fecit.-Hi vocantur Valdenses, a Valdense eorum magistro errorum et auctore. Vocantur etiam Pauperes de Lugduno, a civitate Lugdunensi unde traxerunt originem, et quia vitam elegerunt pauperem. Nic. Eymeric. Direct. Inquisit. par. ii. quæst. 14. apud Usser. de Eccles. Success. c. viii. § 5.

sents his family, as having originated from that place or district; and when another account, that given by John Masson, speaks of him, as having been himself born there; and when yet a third account, that given by Pilichdorf, describes him, as having once been a citizen of Valden: there is nothing at all incongruous or irreconcileable in these several statements *. Rather, indeed, I apprehend, that they each convey a portion of the truth so that, from them all combined, we learn; that Peter was born in Valdis or Valden of a family belonging to that country, and that he himself had lived there in his youth before he settled as a merchant at Lyons.

Now, if these concurring statements are to be viewed as intimating nothing more, than that

* Petrus quidam Valdensis, ab oppido Valdis sito in marchia Galliæ, unde erat oriundus, sic appellatus. Centur. Magd. apud Usser. de Eccles. Success. c. viii. § 5.

Petrus ei nomen fuit; Valdo, cognomen: natus in vico, qui, prisco nomine postea mutato, dictus est Vaudra; eo quod, populari lingua, Valdo et sectarii ejus Vaudois cognominarentur. Masson. Præfat. in Alan. cont. Valdens. apud Usser. de Eccles. Success. c. viii. § 5.

Ortus et origo Valdensium hæreticorum talis est.-Notandum, quod, fere octingentis annis post Papam Sylvestrum, tempore Innocentii Papæ II, in civitate Valden, quæ in finibus Franciæ sita est, fuit quidam civis dives, qui vel ipse legit vel audivit, Dominum dixisse cuidam adolescenti, Si vis perfectus esse, vade et vende omnia quæ habes, et da pauperibus.-Putabat ille Petrus Valdensis, cum hanc audiret aut legeret scripturam, quod vita apostolica jam non esset in terra. Unde, cogitabat

Peter received his agnomen from some place called Valdis or Valden or Vaudra vaguely described as situated somewhere near the extensive frontier of France they will not explain his very peculiar conduct, when his mind first became deeply and vitally impressed with the importance of religion.

Luther, trained a Papist from his childhood, and having at the age of about twenty years finished his course of philosophy at Erfurt, happened one day to walk in the fields with an intimate friend and associate. A violent thunderstorm came on: and his companion, by a stroke of lightning, was killed at his side. This awful occurrence produced a mighty effect upon the mind of the future reformer: but, in what outward demonstration, did that effect shew itself?

eam innovare et, omnibus venditis et pauperibus datis, cœpit vitam pauperem ducere; quod videntes, quidam alii corde compuncti sunt, et fecerunt similiter.—Cum autem diu in paupertate stetissent, inceperunt cogitare, quod etiam Apostoli Christi non solum erant pauperes, imo etiam prædicatores : cœperunt et ipsi prædicare verbum Dei. Pilich. cont. Valdens. c. i. in Bibl. Patr. vol. xiii. p. 312, 313.

What Masson means, is, I suppose, this. The place of Peter's nativity was originally called Valden or Valles: and thence he and his disciples were styled Valdenses or Vallenses. But, since the French called the men Vaudois; they similarly, and on the same principle of lingual alteration, called the place Vaudra. The term Vauderie, by which the pretended sorcery of the Vaudois was described, is formed in a manner strictly analogous.