As Waldo became more acquainted with the Scriptures, he began to discover that a multiplicity of doctrines, rites, and ceremonies which had been introduced into the national religion, had not only no foundation in the word of God, but were most pointedly condemned in that book Inflamed with zeal for the glory of God, on the one hand, and with concern for the souls of his fellow sinners on the other, he raised his voice loudly against them, condemning the arrogance of the Pope, and the reigning vices of the clergy. Nor did he satisfy himself with mere declamation against what was wrong in others. He taught the truth in its simplicity, and enforced its practical influence on the heart and life; and by his own example, as well as by an appeal to the lives of those who first believed in Christ, he laboured to demonstrate the great difference there was between the Christianity of the Bible and that of the Church of Rome.

The consequences of all this may be easily supposed by a reflecting mind. The Archbishop of Lyons heard of these proceedings, and became indignant. Their tendency was obvious; the honour of the church was involved in them, and, in perfect consistency with the usual mode of silencing objectors among the catholic party, he forbad the new reformer to teach any more on pain of excommunication, and of being proceeded against as an heretic, Waldo replied, that though a layman, he could not be silent in a matter which concerned the salvation of his fellow-creatures. Attempts were next made to apprehend him; but the number and affection of his friends, the respectability and influence of his connections, many of whom were men of rank; the universal regard that was paid to his character for probity and religion; and the conviction that his presence was highly necessary among the people whom he had by this time gathered into a church, and of which he had taken the oversight, all

L

operated so strongly in his favour, that he lived concealed at Lyons during the space of three whole years.*

Information of these things was then conveyed to Pope Alexander III. who no sooner heard of such heretical proceedings than he anathematized the reformer and his adherents, commanding the archbishop to proceed against them with the utmost rigour. Waldo was now compelled to quit Lyons; his flock in a great measure followed their pastor; and hence a dispersion took place not unlike that which arose in the church of Jerusalem on the occasion of the death of Stephen. The effects were also similar. Waldo himself retired into Dauphiny, where he preached with abundant success; his principles took deep and lasting root, and produced a numerous harvest of disciples, who were denominated Leonists, Vaudois, Albigenses, or Waldenses; for the very same class of Christians is designated by these various appellations at different times, and according to the different countries or quarters of the same country in which they appeared.†

Persecuted from place to place, Waldo retired into Picardy, where also success attended his labours. Driven from thence, he proceeded into Germany, carrying along with him the glad tidings of salvation; and, according to the testimony of Thuanus, a very authentic French historian, he at length settled in Bohemia, where he finished his course, in the year 1179, after a ministry of nearly twenty years. He was evidently a man of very singular endowments; and one of those extraordinary persons whom God in his providence occasionally raises up and qualifies for eminent usefulness in his kingdom; but he has met with no historian capable of doing justice to his talents and character. Numbers of his people fled for an asylum into the vallies of Piedmont, taking with them the

new translation of the Bible. In the ensuing section, we shall have an opportunity of examining their doctrinal sentiments; and their history in that country, as well as in the south of France, and wherever else we can trace them, will occupy, in one way or other, the remaining pages of this volume.

The persecution of Waldo and his followers, with their flight from Lyons, is a remarkable epoch in the annals of the christian church. Wherever they went, they sowed * the seeds of reformation. The countenance and blessing of the King of kings accompanied them. The word of God grew and multiplied, not only in the places where Waldo himself had planted it, but in more distant regions. In Alsace and along the Rhine, the doctrines of Waldo spread extensively. Persecutions ensued-thirty-five citizens of Mentz were burned in one fire at the city of Bingen, and eighteen at Mentz itself. The bishops of both Mentz and Strasburgh breathed nothing but vengeance and slaughter against them; and at the latter city, where Waldo himself is said to have narrowly escaped apprehension, eighty persons were committed to the flames. In the treatment, and in the behaviour of the Waldenses, were renewed the scenes of martyrdom of the second century. Multitudes died praising God, and in the confident hope of a blessed resurrection. But the blood of the martyrs again became the seed of the church; and in Bulgaria, Croatia, Dalmatia, and Hungary, churches were planted, which flourished throughout the thirteenth century, and which are said to have owed their rise chiefly to the labours of one Bartholomew, a native of Carcassone, a city not far distant from Toulouse, in the south of France, and which may be not improperly termed the metropolis of the Albigenses. In Bohemia, and in the country of Passau, it has been computed that there were not less than eighty thousand of this class of Christians in the year 1315.

In short we shall find in the sequel, that they spread them. selves throughout almost every country in Europe; but they were every where treated as the filth of the world, and as the offscouring of all things.

It can excite no surprise that their increasing numbers should rouse the court of Rome to adopt the most vigorous measures for suppressing them. The Inquisition had not yet been established; but council after council had been convened in France; and about twenty years after Waldo had been driven from Lyons, the following persecuting edict was issued from Rome.

THE DECREE OF POPE LUCIUS III. AGAINST HERETICS, A. D. 1181.

To abolish the malignity of diverse heresies which are lately sprung up in most parts of the world, it is but fitting that the power committed to the church should be awakened, that by the concurring assistance of the Imperial strength, both the insolence and mal-pertness of the heretics in their false designs may be crushed, and the truth of Catholic simplicity shining forth in the holy church, may demonstrate her pure and free from the execrableness of their false doctrines. Wherefore we, being supported by the presence and power of our most dear son, Frederick, the most illustrious Emperor of the Romans, always increaser of the empire, with the common advice and counsel of our brethren, and other patriarchs, archbishops, and many princes, who from several parts of the world are met together, do set themselves against these heretics who have got different names from the several false doctrines they profess, by the sanction of this present general decree, and by our apostolical authority, according to the tenor

* Perrin's History, ch. ii.

of these presents, we condemn all manner of heresy, by what name soever it may be denominated.

More particularly, we declare all Catharists, Paterines, and those who call themselves "the Poor of Lyons;" the Passagines, Josephists, Arnoldists, to lie under a perpetual anathema. And because some, under a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof, as the apostle saith, assume to themselves the authority of preaching; whereas the same apostle saith, " "How shall they preach except they

be sent"-we therefore conclude under the same sentence of a perpetual anathema, all those who either being forbid or not sent do notwithstanding presume to preach publicly or privately, without any authority received either from the Apostolic See, or from the bishops of their respective dioceses: As also all those who are not afraid to hold or teach any opinions concerning the sacrament of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, baptism, the remission of sins, matrimony, or any other sacraments of the church, differing from what the holy church of Rome doth preach and observe: And generally all those whom the same church of Rome, or the several bishops in their dioceses, with the advice of their clergy, or the clergy themselves, in case of a vacancy of the See, with the advice if need be of neighbouring bishops, shall judge to be heretics. And we likewise declare all entertainers and defenders of the said heretics, and those that have shewed any favor or given countenance to them, thereby strengthening them in their heresy, whether they be called comforted, believers, or perfect, or with whatsoever superstitious name they disguise themselves, to be liable to the same sentence.

And though it sometimes happens that the severity of ecclesiastical discipline, necessary to the coercion of sin, is condemned by those who do not understand the virtue of it, we notwithstanding by these presents decree, That whosoever shall be notoriously convicted of these errors,