c
9o\2.\l ^
RAIVAID COLLEGE LIBRAITY
Entered, according to Act of Congrcaa, in the year 1848, by
L. COLBY Sl CO.,
In the Clerk*a Cffice sf the Diatrict Court of the United Btatea^ for the
SoaUiem Diatrict of New York.
Stereotyped by C. Daviboic A Co 33 Gold atrcet, New York.
•I
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PREFACE
TO FOREIGN BAPTISTS, BAPTIST AUTHORS, AND THE BAPTISMAL CONTROVERSY.
It is now seven years since I commenced in earnest my preparation for this continoation of Baptist History.
Id the prosecution of this long and laborious undertaking I have gone much beyond my original afbign, and as an unavoidable consequence, th^ period of bringing it to a close has be^D protracted far beyond my own calculations and the expectations ot my patrons and friends.
fWdgn DrparimnU. An abridgment of what is contained in my first vol., with the addition of such items and facts as I could collect from Orchard's work on Foreign Baptists^ and other productions of baptist writers which have been published since my Ibrmer accounts were made out, was all that I at first proposed under this head. But as I progressed in my inquiries and researches, for the reasons which I shall soon name, I resolved on a more thorough investigation of the history of the people among whom our peculiar sentiments are found Than I had ever before made.
WoJdcnses and kindred communities. I found so many conflicting statements relative to the denominational character of these ancient witnesses for the truth, Siat I determined, as far as pu^ible, to go back to the original works, from which baptists and pedobaptists have made ihcir quotations in support of their adverse and respective claims. This I have found a lat<*rious task; the result of my examinations is expressed in pp. 60, 61, 72—76.
Dr. Wall's maxim in matters of dispute on the baptismal question is full of sound sense and ought always to be observed, viz.: " It is unwise to deny to an opponent what can certainly l« proved, as it creates a suspicion of all else we have to say." Those who contend that " the Waldenses as a whole always baptized their children," and those who maintain tnai the practice was not known among them, mutually place themselves in an extremely awkwara position, since facts in history are continually coming up which most categorically di*^prove both these statements. I would as soon attempt to affirm or deny the practice of ped^'baptism among the Dissenters and N&namfor mists of England of all classes for many centuries past, as to establish cither of the above theories.
The very generic character of the term Waldenses, is overlooked by most writers respecting the wide-spread community to whom it is applied; they view them as we do any sect or denumination of the present time, and do not seem to realize that the people in question were spread over all Europe for many centuries, and were, as Robinson denominates them, the Anie-Lutheran Protestants, who, while they all agreed in opposing the errors and oppressions of the papal power, still differed from each other in their creeds and forms much the same as do ine anti-catholics of the present day. Whatever local name they bore, the catholics called them all Yaudois or Waldenses, the same as they now do Lutherans all dissenters from their church in all the east.
This view of the diversified character of this great pconle enables us as baptists to meet our opponents in an open field which we may range aU around, and if we can prove, as we certainly can, that any portion of them rejected infant baptism, our main position is established.
No writer on our side should lay claim to all who passed under the general names of Waldenses. Albigenses, Patarines, Picards, &c. ; the protestants, to be sure, have generally done »o. and I have become so ineffably disgusted with their sweeping pretensions in opposition to !W many facts of history, and especially to catholic impeachments of the anti-pedobaptist h*?resr of some of them, that I am sorry to see any of our people follow their example.
I have endeavored to exhibit the arguments and concessions of Mosheim in a clearer point of light than our writers have generally done; my comments on the statements of this dia-tiiisriii^'hed historian may be found in pp. 44—49.
Dr. Wall, of England, lived among the baptists and had free intercourse with them rcla live to their pi^culiar views, which may account for his treating them in his writings will mure mildness and respect than most authors of that age were accustomed to do; but Dr Mosheim does not aopear to have had any personal acquaintance with them nor any pred
!▼ PREFACE.
lections in their favor; on the other hand his feelings toward the whole commanitj and their primordial principles, I think it not too much to say, were excessively bitter and severe; he uniformly describes them as a deluded and fanatical people. This being the case, any of his statements which favored their cause must have been the result of the abstract principles of historical veracity.
From the accounts of this author, as may be seen in my quotations and comments, the three following points are made exceedingly plain:
1. That there was an intimate connection between the German Anabaptists and the old Waldenses, Petrobrussians and kindred sects, from whom, in his opinion, tney descended.
2. That " the origin of that sect which acquired the name of anabaptisUs by their administering anew the rite of baptism to those who came over to their communion, is hid in the remote depths of antiquity, and is, of consequence, extremely difficult to be ascertained."
3. That the Waldenses, Petrobrussians, Wickliffites, Hussites and Henricians, were all essentially alike, and all were the denominational ancestors of the German Anabaptists. Thus much for the concessions of the great Grerman historian and distinguished doctoi of the Lutheran church.
My readers will discover that in my descriptions of the ancient sects, I have selected those who by the general consent of protestant writers, were evangelical christians, and also were distinguished for the extent and duration of their institutions; and the five parties above named will, I believe, be admitted, by all who have but a moderate acquaintance with ecclesiastical history, to have embraced the substance of the dissenting interest for many centuries.
1 became so much interested in the history of these ancient people, and found such increasing evidence of the extensive spread of baptist sentiments among them, that 1 very much regretted that my time and limits compelled me to suspend it for the present.
Sources of infarmalion yet t'O be expU^red. Many of our brethren have an idea that with pn)per attention, there may be found in the libraries of the old world hi.storical facts which will illustrate more fully than has yet been done the affairs of our denomination in the dark ages; my own impression is, that our historians have already dug out most of the facts which are available for us as a denomination, which can be obtained from ancient authors, and that the archives of the old ecclesiastical courts must be examined for additional intelligence. With the exception of those who were destroyed by mobs, by clandestine malevolence, and by local crusades, the martyrs had formal trials according to the established forms of law, which were generally in contormity to the Roman system of jurisprudence. The records of these trials were deposited among the oflicial documents of the tribunals before which the reputed heretics were arraigrned, whether of the Inquisition or of the bishops; and the indictments, the interrogatories and the answers of the criminals, indicate the heresies of which they were accused. Detailed accounts of a number of these trials are tbund in Allix's History of the Waldenses; the author of the Dutch Martyrology gathered much of his information from records of this kind, some of them were in latin^ others in the German, Dutch, and French languages.
Robinson's story of the existence of a baptist church near Cambridge, about four centuries ago, was obtained from the records of the bishop of Ely, which were in latin. There might be some difficulty in gaining access to the documents under consideration, as they are mostly in the hands of the Roman Catholics; but literary men even in that church are becoming more courteous as literary antiquarians than formerly; great freedom is allowed at Rome and other strongholds uf the catnolics for researches of this kind.
No small amount of literary acquirements would be needful for the investigations I propose; many of the works are in manuscript with all the abbreviations of former years.
The Baptismal controversy. This whole article is in addition to my original plan, and is ■o much beyond what I promised to my patrons; the examination of all the works on my list, and which I have reviewed to a greater or less extent, with the article on Foreign Baptists, coftt me a full year's labor more than I had anticipated. Reading men will understand the amount of labor I have performed, however imperfectly it has been done; others will have but little conception of tne toil which I have endured. Completeness of enumeration of all works on the subject was my aim; on the baptist side I am confident that hut few productions uf any considerable size have been omitted; the list of pcdobaptist authors, I am conscious, as yet is very imperfect, but I am pursuing my inquiries ana augmenting my caia-logu" by frequent additions. I shall esteem it a favor to have information of any works which 'an not on my list, on either side great or small.'
M<>dr ef baptism. In conformity to the custom of ecclesiastical writers, I have uniformly adopted this term, although upon the strict principles of philology it is ungrammatical and improper, when any but immeision in administering the rite is employed. The mode of dipping is a form of .speech which no one would think of using; pouring or sprinkling may be administered in ditTerent ways, and the application may l>e more or less copious, according to the instruments employed by the administrator, or his notions of propriety or aeccKsitv in the case.
* All must bc-nr in mind that ocrording to my rulrs of proceeding, as a general thine I omit anonymous productions, unless the authors are won known, and fix on those which are devoted prind-pslly to the baptismal controversy.
PREFACE TO FOREIGN BAPTISTS. T
Strictlj speakinff, it would be jast as proper to speak of the/imn of a circle, or the shape of a triangle, as ofthe mode of baptism. The term baptism defines itself, and nothing but
reodo and sectarian criticism would ever make anything else oat of it but immersion. So was viewed by the ancients, and is still by all branches of the Greek Charch. They speak as lightly of aspersion or affusion as do the baptists; and this, as my quotations have abim-dantly shown, nas been the opinion of learned men of all parties, countries, and ages.
Hfant baptism. This expression 1 have also uniformly used, unless in quoting from others, when infant sprinkling in most cases would be the appropriate language. In all accounts of baptism for thirteen centuries, and at present among the Greeks, the phrase is a proper one. In these and all other descriptions of ecclesiastical affairs, as a matter of courtesy, and to avoid circumlocution, I have conformed to the current language of authors in general.
Indifference to ordinances of ail kindi. I did intend to have made some comments on this •object in my general remarks, but as they have been omitted, I will in this place merely say that loose views of theology uniformly superinduce a cool and philosophical indifference to baptism in all ways, the Lord's supper, and christian ordinances and duties in general.
The old General Baptists in England, sunk down to a low point in their requisitions of candidates for membership in their churches. The same may be said of most uf the Menno-Biles, whether in Europe or America. They required a profession of faith, such as it was, but in process of time ail barriers will be broken down, in the wide sweep of a liberal creed; and it will take but a few centuries to do the work.^
Therms of communion. This subiect has often been incidentallv referred to in the course of my narratives, but facts connected with it, have been exhibited without much comment. I bad intended, in my closing remarks, to show that the Baptists as a body, in all ages and countries, have literally adhered to the giand primordial principle of all churches in Christendom, national or dissenting:
" Nemo ad ccsnam admittitur nisi baptizatus." No one is admitted to the Lord's supper unless he is baptized.'
Dr. Wall comes to the same point, as follows:
" Among all the absurdities that were ever held, none ever maintained tkaty that any person should partake ofthe communion before he was baptized."*
These statements are not only confirmed by the practice of all churches who baptize at all, hot their rules of church building, as defined by their oldest divines, are very explicit on the point, as 1 could show from their writings.
The only difficulty with the baptists is, that they differ fh)m most others as to what constitutes a valid baptism. All must admit that they conform to the great law of baptism, as above stated, and that in their peculiar requirements of their communicants they adhere to the letter of the scriptures, and are consistent with themselves.
Mm rules of proceeding on controverted points. When treating on all matters of controversjr^ or when speaking of all churches, creeds, and forms, 1 have studiously avoided all terms or reproach or disrespect, so far as my own language is concerned; when quoting from others, I could not always follow the rules which in the beginning of my work I had prescribed for myself, without using undue freedom with their writings. My work is professedly of a denominational character, and one great object, from first to last, has been the defense and propagation of the peculiar sentiments of the baptists, yet even on the baptismal question, I have published noihing of ray own writing which I would not have said to any one on the other ^ide. As I most sincerely believe that pcdobaptism is an unscriptural institution, and mjarious in its tendency, 1 have used my best endeavors to cut it up root and branch, and would a.^ heartily rejoice to see it banished from the christian church, as I would to see that churr-h universally prevail. Yet I know no bounds to my friendship, fellowship and goodwill, to multitudes who maintain it While 1 regard them as most certainly in an error quoad hoc, in this one thing, yet I most cordially agree with them upon almost every other
' Not long since, I fell into conversation with an intelligent layman, whose sympathies were rtronfily tnlintcd on the side of the Unitarian creed as professed by the descendants of the New England Purif ins. In answer to my questions on this subject he frankly admitted that there was a growing indifference to the ordinances of religion among the religious community with whom he was as.<ociated; that infant baptism was much more generally neglected than formerly ; the same of th»; Lord's supper, and the outward forms of religion in general.
Wiiile the cause of evangelical religion suffers from the paralyzing influence of latltudinarian aty-d^. thit of h-siorical literature becomes the gainer. This is especially true of the present race of n£ ol.)g *>t.s of Germ jny ; as they have become indifferent to all the dogmas and rites of their an-c^-stors. t'fuy throw open all the archives of antiquity, bring everything to the test of a fair and imp;rti A «L*nitiny, and follow the facts of history wherever they mny lead them, whether the doc-tr>ni-« rind d^'-^d* of old ecclesiasticil establishments are approved or undermined. In this way, all th** hitherto hidden mysteries ofthe Munster affair are being fairly examined, and the characters of men whom «e:'tnriin bigotry, for three centuries past, has doomed to infimy and disgrace, are ai»iit ti» be pre^ent^d according to the principles of historifal veracity, whi*'h they have never before hr-fTi, and thus far the old anaba])tists have gained in credit by the investigations which have been mad'.'.
* Humbeckius, as q»ioted in Booth's Apology for the Baptists, Boston ed., p. 17.
* History of Infant Baptism, Part II., Chap. IX.
t1 preface to foreign baptists.
point, and have no hesitation in sajring, that I most devoutly wish that in many things manr of my own people would more closely follow their examples. Their notions of baptism, both as to the subjects and mode, for almost half a century I nave disowned and opposed, but for the people themselves 1 cherish fraternal affection and profound respect.
Friends and helpers. These have been so many even on this first volume of m^ new series of Baptist History, that I am somewhat embarrassed in making a selection from the list. As all cannot be mentioned, I will name among my pedobaptist correspondents, Drs. Miller, Murdock, Woods, Pond, Colman and Coit; among the baptists, Drs. Williams, Dowling, Sears, Chase, Choules, Sharpe, and Rev. Messrs. Hague, Tumbull, Ripley, Woolsey, of the northern states, and Fox, Dr. Malcomof Ky., and Rev. Messrs. HaynesofS. C.,and Williams of Penn., &c. These gentlemen have afilorded me assistance in the loan of books, in references to works needful for my use, or in historical facts pro and con on disputni matters.
From England I have had books and documents from Rev. Messrs. Orchard and Norton of London; in the book line they have sent me. D'Anvers on Baptism, which I could not find in this country in any library, public or private, Stonel's Do., and the first vol. of the Hansard KnoUys society.
A number of the gentlemen above named have referred me to other works of an historical or controversial character, which I have not been able yet to obtain, or else my limits would not permit me to use.
I found it out of the question to do justice to the baptismal controvers)' without a thorough examination of the works on both sides. Dr. Wall's three volumes I have gone into as I would into a text-book, and the same may be said of many others. This labor has caused a great consumption of time, but it has given me a more full view of the positions and the various arguments of all classes of pedobaptists in every age and country than I could otherwise obtain.
These varying positions, from those of the strongest defenders of baptismal regreneration, without figure or contingency, as held by the catholics and most national churches, to the mild and attenuated views of the Independents and kindred parties, I have endeavored to describe and present to the public, as far as possible, without notes or comments of my own. I will not, with Dr. Wall, say that I have been more thorough and candid than preceding writers on either side; but thus much I will say, that according to my judgment and belief the number of persons is not large who have so patiently and fully examined more of the works of the dififerent parties.
Acknowledgment. As a matter of justice, I am pleased to inform my readers, that, superadded to all other aids of my brethren, Dr. Williams, of New York, examined generally my MS. copy, and also the printed proofs of my work, so far as Foreign Baptist^ and Baptist authors were concerned, and by my request made such additions and amendments as his superior reading enabled him to do; so that to his assiduity and paternal kindne*ts my readers will be indebted for a considerable number of facts and passages which are interspersed in my narratives.
Midtum in parvo has been my motto, and I have found to my cost the difference betweei
PREFACE
TO THB
fflSTORY OF THE AMERICAN BAPTISTS.
Ths main object in this department of my history has been to fill in a space of 07er thir^ years since my old work was published; bat as that may be difficult of access to many reao-ers, I have abridged its most prominent parts, so as to present a connected and continuous riew of all the affairs of all classes of baptists, from their first settlement and their earliest movements in the country.
Although a number of local histories have been put forth within a few years past, yet most of my materials for the American department have been obtained from my numerous correspondents in all parts of the wide-spread field which I have endeavored to explore; to whom, m the last seven years, a large amount of my historical papers and circulars have been sent
In many cases it has been somewhat difficult to make them understand my wants, and while some have been too brief in their communications, others have gone much more in detail than was needful for my plan. As mv researches are to be continued if Providence permits, they will see in my historical sketches what kind of materials are wanted, and in what form they should be presented.
Ckurch Manuals. But a small number of these useful documents have I been able to obtain; some few came to hand too late, but I am inclined to think that very few churches have published them. They should always contain some brief historical sketches of the origin of the body, its succession of pastors, &c., and no full-grown church should be witJb-OQt one. When well got up, they are the best documents for a historian, and on which implicit confidence may be placed.
Want nf sfnbility in churches and associations. Many of them are more like the cncamp-menLs of travelling companies, than permanent settlements, such has been the migratory character of great multitudes of our people. Changes of location and names, and new and different dates, I have often found serious difficulties in the way of historical correctness. A near set of men would often remodel the institutions which they find on the ground, to make them con form to their notions of building. But as the people become more stationary in their habits, these changing propensities will subside.
T%c American field well fiUed for Baptists. Since the commencement of the Christian dispensation, never did people of our sentiments find a country so suited to their principles and parsuits, where they could operate with such entire freedom, and with such surprising effect. in all other countries, the ruling powers either in church or state, and generally in both, have thrown obstructions in their way, but here everything is inviting them go up and possess the land, not for the purpose of domination and control, but for the diffusion ol their free and primitive institutions. In view of these special favors of Providence toward our de-tomination, how often have I been grieved and astonished that so many of them would spend so much of their time in carping about little matters, and in distressing each other with th^ir sectional or provincial jealousies and altercations. And although I am a decided advocate for the foreign mission cause, yet I am often surprised, beyond measure, that our people generally do not look with more interest upon, and put forth more vigorous efforts in favor of. the great Hcmiefi^ld^ which is spread open before us; this great field of moral desti-tu'tion. to which millions are flocking from almost all parts of the old world, and which is fast filling up with the exuberant growth of our native population. Other sects and parlies, and v>me whose success all deplore, seem to have more correct views of the importance of this field than is entertained by many of our own society, and not unfrequenlly ao I inquire in what year of our Lord shall we awake from our slumbers, shake off our apathy, and, instead of standing entirely aloof from the Home mission cause, or doling out our scanty pittances for its support, give it our hearty approval. We are doing well in our foreign efforts, but how much better could we do if our nome field was under good cultivation, and our people had all learnt the important lesson of each one building over against his own hooae.
VIU PREFACE TO AMERICAN BAPTISTS.
The BapUds at home in this country. The American soil seems well fitted for the spread of our peculiar opinions: they are m a measure indi^nous to this new world of freedom, civil and religious; they have spread with astonishing rapidity for the last half century, as may he seen by the augmentations of their numbers amons^ the people who are altogether baptists de facto! and not only this, but they have been widely diffused among many other communities where, they cither do not preponderate, or who, while they are of the baptist persuasion, have not hitherto been counted of their connection.
The Millerites, or Adventists, by thousands, have separated from the baptists of different parties, but still are staunch advocates for immersion; or, if they came from the Methodists or other pedobaptist communities, all I believe follow their custom as to baptism.^
The whole body of the Mormons or LaUer-^a/y Saints, however it may affect the credit of our principles, are inveterate dippers, and as thorough-going anti-pedobaptists as can bf fbona.
With the Methodists in this country the practice of immersion and the neglect of infant iMiptism are both making rapid advances; m many places their converts almost uniformly reouire the primitive mode of baptizing.
Members not a few, who by the aid or consent of their pastors, have followed the baptist rule in the business of baptism, are found in connection with a number of the large evangelical denominations in this country.
Many thousands of baptists de facto in these positions, are thus led out of our statistical accounts of the denomination, as we count none but those who are members of churchej among the different classes of baptists whom we have placed on our list
Smnll associations. As I have said in mj narratives, I am mortified to present so many ▼enr small bodies of this kind where there is no excuse for their inferior size, but the splits and divisions among them. If many of them would unite together, the measure, I should think, would be a gcKxl one.
Small churches. While large bodies in cities and populous places, are often too slow in getting up new interests, by sending out colonies or encouraging them to form new organi-lations, many of those of moderate size in country locations have sometimes carried their divisions much too far, even when made by mutual agreement; and the result has been, we have bv far too many feeble and pastorless'communities. The old system of having branches^ which hung in colonial dependence on the central or parent stock, was, after all the objections against it, preferable to the one which has succeeded it. These remarks are made on a broad scale, and will not apply to all cases where either the former or more modern system has been maintained.
One thing is certain, that no churches can get along well without good ministers and comfortable houses of worship; and it is pleasing to witness the rapid advances which have been made in both these respects within a few years past*
> These people aro not sufficiently organized to be reported as a distinct community. So far as I am acquainted with them, thcv aro a much better people than is p;cncrally supposed, and I am always sorry to see them treated with ridicule and contempt. Their theory Is nothing new, but has often been advanced for many centuries past.
Our people ^nerally, I presume, are not aware of the inroads which the AdventiHs have made among them tor a few years past From this cause I account, in part, for the diminution of our linmbers in many of the northern States. My correspondents have given me hints on this subject which I did not think it expedient to incorporate in my narratives. The disputes between the parties have, no doubt, in many cases been unskilfully managed on both sides, the result of which has been to add a new sect to the multitudes heretofore existing, which is baptist in practice, though not in name. A portion of them, in time, will probably come back to their quondam associates.
* I did intend to have said much more than 1 have done cither In my narratives or here, relative to the evil consequences of so many feeble communities; also on the proper course to be pursued in cities for the accommodation of the multitude of membere who cannot afford to obtain scats in the modem costly temples which wealthy ones build for themselves; many of them will go to Other places of wonhip, and all must see the danser of serious losses to the denomination unloM chapen of ease, in some way or other, are provided. But more of this hereaftei;
HISTORY OF THE BAPTIST DENOMINATION.
|)art L
FOREIGN BAPTISTS.
CHAPTER I.
THE HISTORY OF THE VARIOUS DISSENTING PARTIES, WHOSE AFFAIRS ARB HERE DESCRIBED UP TO THE TIME OF THE WALDENSE8.
SECTION I.
National Churches. — Greek Dissenters^ ^c.
The history of foreign baptists, as I have arranged it, embraces a period of fifteen centuries, from the introduction of Christianity till the Reformation, in the early part of the sixteenth century.* It is not my design to give even an al>ri«)tred account of ecclesiastical affairs during this long lapse of ages, but rnrnly to exhibit the best evidence that can be procured, that the peculiar scn-liintiiis of that portion of christian professors, now called baptists, have always lived, and been maintained, among the different sects and parties which have been constantly seceding from the Greek, the Roman, and other irri'at bodies, which may properly be denominated
National Churches. —The term is at once understood by all readers of ec-rU *i:i<i\c:i\ history ; bnt, as there may be some into whose hands the work may fall. \o wlioni some brief explanations on this subject may be acceptable, I will profoed to give them.
The Greek Church. —This church claims priority of that of Rome; it came out as a distinct body from a division of the great catholic party in early times, iiifi* the ra.^tern and western churches. The story is very long, and cannot be iTiieii here in its most summary details. Besides, the names of eastern and irrjifern. those of the Greek and Latin churches, have been applied to these an-r'.crit and extensive communities, on account of the languages which prevailed ill ilie two respective sections of country.
The Greek church embraces in its communion a population nearly equal, anil some accounts make it superior, to that of Rome. This church is overwhelmed in superstition, but the ancient mode of immersion, in all ages and countries, it has unifonnly maintained, whether in the temperate climes of the ti>uth. or in the frozen regions of Russia and Siberia.
The Church of Rome is now a phrase of magnitude and splendor; yet, at first, it flood for no more than an assembly of converted Jews, dwelling at Rome.
b
Z NATIONAL CHURCHES.
who met for worship in the hired house of Saul of Tarsus, then a prisoner. The general ideas conveyed by this imposing title, are familiar to all classes of readers.
The Lutheran Church takes its name from that of the distinguished man by whom it was founded, a little more than three centuries since. This body embraces many millions, and is the established religion of a number of European kingdoms and states.
The Churches of England, Scotland, Holland, Switzerland or the Helvetic Church, and the Reformed Church of Germany, or Calvinists—all come under the head of national churches; they all seek protection and support from the civil power, and are zealous advocates for the old doctrine of union of church and state, which the baptists, in all ages, have reprobated and condemned, as fraught with absurdity and harm.
From all these churches large bodies of members, for different reasons, in all ages, have withdrawn, and united in separate communities, which were always branded with the name of heretics, and • were pursued with unchristian and unfeeling severity by the great bodies from which they dissented, and by none more than the church of Rome.
Among this class of ** heretics," to adopt the language of all old ecclesiastical historians, and some of more modern date, the baptists look for their denominational kindred, whose doctrines of religious freedom, of the ordinances of the gospel, and of primitive purity and simplicity, were similar to their own.
For the purpose of coming at the testimony of which we are in pursuit in the most clear and convincing manner, I shall in the first place give some brief sketches of the history, and exhibit a few of the most prominent incidents pertaining to the rise, progress, and general character of the most considerable bodies of these heretical dissenters, which have appeared at different times in all parts of the christian world.
This will enable us to discover their various locations, the extent of their operations, and their claims to the sympathy and fellowship of evangelical christians of the present time.
The great mass of these dissenters were in the common walks of life, with but little information or influence. In all cases, however, they had among them men of talent and education, who were capable of writing in defense of their character and cause. It is certain, moreover, that all wones of this kind were destroyed, so that all we now know of them is derived from the statements of their opponents, as we shall more fully show in another place.
The first three Centuries. —I shall omit the recital of the common arguments of the baptists in favor of their cause, from all that appears in the New Testament, and in the histories of the primitive times, and will only say, that I have always considered their appeal to the records and commands of the great christian lawgiver, the bulwark of their da£ense for their departure from the pedobaptist system.
Christ's commission to his apost^s, his own baptism by John» the story of Philip and the eunuch, of Lydia, the jailer, and kindred narratives—in the language of Dr. Carson—** •*ll the ingenuity of all the critics of Europe cannot silence the evidence of these passages,"—and the bare recital of them on baptismal occasions, and the solemn administration of the sacred rite to the willing C(»nvertH, who thus publicly profess a religion which they love and understand, has done ^^yre to incline mankind to favorable views of the baptist creed, than all the books that were ever written, however distinguished for candor, learning and ingenuity.
It is generally admitted that, for the first three hundred yean of the christian era, although the original simplicity of the gospel was in many cases greatly perverted, yet there was still a semblance of the primitive model id the ordinances and institutions of the gospel; and if we were anxious to trace a Hneal succession of churches which we could recognize as our own, that many of tiMm might still be found up to the days of Constantine and SylT6ater» and
perhaps for a long time afler, in different parts of the world to which the gospel had been carried, without going among the dissenters.
By this time the christian religion had spread far and wide among the people of the civilized world and among many of the barbarous nations.
Corruptions first began in places of opulence and refinement, in imitation of the splendid, imposing, and time-honored system of the pagan worship, which the new religion had abjured, and extended more slowly into the outskir^ of rusticity, poverty, and obscurity. The gospel, as at first promulgated, was dis gu!«ting to men who had been accustomed to splendid temples and a showy exterior of religious worship, and the native propensity of mankind to conform to models more popular and attractive, was early developed among the ministers and people, and I often think how far the best of modern christians are on the road, which in a few ages conducted them to a degree of conformity which we all deplore.
But dissensions very early appeared in what is generally denominated the christian church; and although the leaders of them were ridiculed, denounced, and persecuted, as the dominant party became more hostile and powerful, yet so prevalent was the desire of multitudes to return to the primitive standard, that they easily fell in with the plans of reform, as the multitude of churches which were organized under the bold reformers abundantly show.
The catholics reason just the other way; the great church, say they, was the true standard of the gospel, and all who departed from it were, heretics and blasphemers.
Early Dissenters, —I shall not attempt to give a Hst, still less a description of the numerous parties which come under this head; some separated because the leading party had become corrupt, and others to follow the reveries of enthusiastic zeal.
Robinson, in his Ecclesiastical Researches, under the head of the Greek church, has entered largely into the history of the dissenters from that widespread community, where they first appeared; and according to his account the founders of the dissenting sects were primitive christians, who could not conform to the increasing superstitions of the times. Mosheim is always disposed to be the advocate of the great body which he uniformly calls the Churchy and to speak in terms of censure and reproach of all who dissented from it. Yet ill tins case he has the candor to make concessions on this point in the following terms:
" The accounts which have been given of them are not in all respects to be dej)en<led upon; and there are several circumstances which render it extremely probable that many persons of eminent piety and zeal for genuine Christianity, were confounded by the Greeks with these enthusiasts, and ranked in the lists of heretics, merely on account of their opposing the vicioUs practices and the insolent tyranny of the priesthood, and their treating with derision that motley •spectacle of superstition that was supported by public authority. In short, the rii^hteous and the profligate, the wise and the foolish, were equally compre-hf nded under the name of Messalians, whenever they opposed the reigning >uperi?titions of the times, or looked upon true and genuine piety as the essence of the christian character.*
Puritans^ Messalians, Euchites, Bogmolians,^ &c., were the appellations generally applied to these people by their opponents, all at first intended as terms of reproach. The names were derived from different languages, as the people
> Mosheim, Vol. III., pp. 105-6.
• Mtfs/dians and EuAues, the one a Hebrew, the other a Greek name, and both sig-nifyir? a people that pra^. Bogmolians were so called by the people of Myria, from two BaigcLiian words, which signifies Chd be merciful. — JRoHnson. And Puritan then, as evei after, was thrown at these people, as pretending to be more relic^ious than their neighbors. At that early period, as in an after ages, many, and some high in office in the church, were disposei to favor the principles of these dissenters, who •till continued in the estaUial^
were spread out into diflerent countries, but all intended to represent a more pure and spiritual state of things than was found in the reigning party.
Montanists, —According to the representations of most writers, this sect took its name from Montanus; others suppose they were so called from their dwelling in the mountains, to avoid the persecutions of their enemies.
The Montanists were in a flourishing condition towards the latter part of the second century. They began in Phrj^gia, and spread abroad throughout Asia, Africa, and a part of Europe. The severity of their doctrines, says Moshcim, gained them the esteem and confidence of many who were far from being the lowest order.'
With this party the famous TertuUian united, about A. D. 200, and wrote many books in defense of their sentiments. It is proper here to remark that heresies in abundance were attributed to this people, relative both to tlicir faith and practice; but when we consider that such a man as TertuUian, with many other eminent characters, became their associates and defenders, it seems to relieve in a measure the gloomy picture which many have drawn of their ignorance and fanaticism.
As the first church of this sect was formed at Pepuza, in Phry'gia, as also Quintilla, a famous lady, was a prophete " among them, from all these circumstances these early dissenters went by the name of Cataphrygians, Quintillian-bts, and Pepuzians, as well as Montanists.^
This people will be referred to in the narratives which will follow. Afler the Donatists arose they were often called by that name.^
SECTION II.
Novatians, or Novatianists,
As this is the first party of importance who were acknowledged to be sound in doctrine which withdrew from the established church, it is proper to give a full account of the reasons which led to the separation, and also some of the leading facts of their history while they continued as distinct and independent churches.
Robinson, in his Ecclesiastical Researches, has given ample details on this subject, and my first selection will be from that work.
♦* The history of Novatian is long, and, like that of all others in his condition, is beclouded with fables and slander The case in brief was this. Novatian was an elder in the church of Rome. He was a man of extensive learning, and held the same doctrine as the church did, and published several treatises in defense of what he believed. His address was eloquent and insinuating, and his morals were irreproachable. He saw with extreme pain the intolerable depravity of the church. Christians, within the space of a few years, were caressed by one emperor, and persecuted by another. In seasons of prosperity, many rushed into the church for base purposes. In times of adversity they denied the faith, and ran back to idolatry again. When the squall was over, they came again to the church, with all their vices, to deprave others by their examples. The bishops, fond of proselytes, encouraged all this, and tnmsferred the attention of christians from the old confederacy for virtue, to vuin shows at Easter, and other Jewish ceremonies, adulterated too with paganism. On the death of bishop Fabian, Cornelius, a brother elder, and a vehement parti/an for taking in the multitude, was put in nomination. Novatian ()j)pc)sed him; but as Cornelius carried his election, and he saw no prospect of reformation, but on the contrary a tide of immorality pour-
» F^clisiaMical History, Vol. I. p. 233.
* Hannah Adams' Dictionary or all Religions. This stoiy of female teachers, as we ■hall M'e, runs thiough the hi.^'lory of most oi the aocient sects.
• Orchard's Foicign Baptists, p. 84.
ing into the church, he withdrew, and a great many with him. Cornelius, irritated by Cyprian, who was just in the same condition, through the remon-strances of virtuous men of Carthage, and who was exasperated beyond meas* urc by one of his elders, named Novatus, who had quitted Carthage, and had gone to Rome to espouse the cause of Novatian, called a council, and got a sentence of excommunication passed against Novatian. In the end Novatian formed a church, and was elected bishop. Great numbers followed his example, and all over the empire puritan churches were constituted, and flourished through the succeeding two hundred years. Afterward, when penal laws oblig^ them to lurk in comers, and worship God in private, they were distinguished by a variety of names, and a succession of them continued till the
Reformation."
• ••••••••
** Novatian was the first anti-pope ; and yet, at that time, there was no pope in the modem sense of the worcL They call Novatian the author of the heresy of Puritanism; and yet they know Tertullian had quitted the church near fifty years before for the same reason ; and Privatus, who was an old man in the time of Novatian, had, with several more, repeatedly remonstrated against the alteration taking place ; and, as they could ^et no ^ redress, had dissented, and formed separate congregations. They tax Novatian with being the parent of an innumerable multitude of congregations of puritans all over the empire; and yet he had no other influence over any than what his good example gave him. People saw everywhere the same cause of complaint, and groaned for relief; and when one man made a stand for virtue, the crisis had arrived ; people saw the propriety of the cure, and applied the same means to their own relief. They blame this man and all these churches for the severity of their discipline ; yet this severe moral discipline was the only coercion of the primitive churches, and it was the exercise of this that rendered civil coercion unnecessary. Some exclaimed, It is a barbarous discipline to refuse to readmit people into christian communion, because they have lapsed into idolatry or vice. Others, finding the inconvenience of such a lax discipline, required a repentance of five, ten or fifteen years ; but the Novatians said :—" If you be a virtuous believer, and will accede to out confederacy against sin, you may be admitted among us by baptism ; or, if any catholic has baptized you before, by rebaptism; but, mark this, if you violate the contract by lapsing into idolatry or vice, we shall separate you from our community; and, do what you will, we shall never readmit you. God forbid that we should injure either your person, your property, or your character, or even judge the truth of your repentance and your future state ; but you can never be readmitted to our community without our giving up the best and only coercive guardian we have of the purity- of our morals." Whether these people reasoned justly or not, as virtue was their object, they challenge respect, and he must be a weak man indeed who is frightened out of it because St. Cyprian, the most intolerant of all saints, says they were the children of the devil."*
Mr. Orchard's account of the origin and early operations of the Novatians goes more into detail, and will give a more distinct view of them to those unacquainted with ecclesiastical history than any which is before me.
** When Decius came to the throne, in 249, he required, by edicts, all persons in the empire to conform to pagan worship. Forty years' toleration had greatly increased professors, and they were found in every department of the government. They had been so long unaccustomed to trials, that the lives of many were unsuited to suflfering. Decius' edicts rent asunder the churches, multitudes apostatized, and many were martyred. In two years the trial abated, when many apostates applied for restoration to christian fellowship, and sanctioned their application by letters written by some eminent christians who had been mart3rrs during the persecution. The flagrancy of some apostates occa-
• The fubstance of this account is copied into Mr. Jones' Ch. HisU
tioned an opposition to their readmission. In the time of peace many had entered the church without calculating on trials; and when persecution arose, such persons revolted easily to idolatry, and, on trials subsiding, gained but too easy admittance again to communion. One Novatian, a presbyter in the church of Rome, strongly opposed the readmission of apostates; but he was not successful. The choice of a pastor in the same church fell upon Cornelius, whose election Novatian opposed from his readiness to readmit apostates. Novatian consequently separated himself from the church, and from Cornelius' jurisdiction.
•♦ Novatian, with every considerate person, was disgusted with the hasty admission of such apostates to communion, and with the conduct of many pastors, who were more concerned about numbers than purity of conmiunion. Novatian was the first to begin a separate interest with success, and which was known for centuries by his name.
** It is evident that many persons were previously in such a situation as to embrace the earliest opportunity of uniting with churches whose communion was scriptural. Novatian became the first pastor in the new interest, and is accused of the crime of giving birth to an innumerable multitude of congregations of Puritans in every part of the Roman empire; and yet, all the influence he exercised was, an upright example and moral suasion. These churches flourished until the flfth century.
** There was no diflerence in point of doctrine between the Novatianists and other christians. Novatian had seen evils result from readmitting apostates; he consequently refused communion to all those who had fallen after baptbm.
•♦ * They considered,' says Mosheim, • the christian church as a society where virtue and innocence reigned universally, and none of whose members, from their entrance into it, had deflled themselves with any enormous crimes ; and, of consequence, they looked upon every society which readmitted heinous oflenders to its communion as unworthy of the title of a true christian church. On account of the church's severity of discipline, the example was followed by many, and churches of this order flourished in the greatest part of those provinces which had received the gospel.' "'
Learned men and historians have investigated the pretensions of these churches to puritanical character, and have conferred on them the palm of honor. Dupin says :—** Novatian's style is pure, clear, and polite ; his expressions choice, his thoughts natural, and his way of reasoning just; he is full of citations of texts of Scripture, that arc always to the purpose; and besides, there b a great deal of order and method in those treatises of his we now have; and he never speaks but with a world of moderation and candor."" ♦♦ Their manners," says Dr. A. Clark, ** were, in general, simple and holy; indeed, their rigid discipline is no mean proof of this." We well know that the people called Pietists, in Germany, and Puritans in England were, in general, in their respective times, among the most religious and holy people in both nations. "They were," says Robinson, "trinitarian baptists."
These churches existed for sixty years under a pagan government, during which time the old corrupt interests at Rome, Carthage, and other places, possessed no means but those of persuasion and reproach, to stay the progress of dissent. During this period the Novatian churches were very prosperous, and were planted alt over the Roman empire^
"They were numerous," says Lardner, "in Phrygia, and a number of eminent men were raised up in the work of the ministry. It is impossible to calculate the benefits of their services to mankind. Their influence must have considerably checked the spirit of innovation and secularity in the old churches. Although rigid in discipline and schismatic in character, yet they were found extensive and in a flourishing condition when Constantine came to the throne,
T Hist. Ch. 3, ^ 17.
> Dupin, chap. 3, dd. 125, 146.
• Moeheim, Giil, Milner, Neal, Robixuon and Jones, as quoted by Orchard, p. 56.
(906). Their toundnefls in doctrine, eyident unity among themselves, with their numbers, suggested to Ck>n8tantine the propriety of uniting them with the catholic church, but this comprehension they refused. These churches with other dissenters, realized religious liberty in 313, from Constantine.
** In 331, he changed his policy towards these people, and they were inyolved, with other denominations, in distress and sufferings. Their books were sought for, they were forbidden assembling together, and many lost their places of worship. The orthodoxy of the Novatian party, with the influence of some of their ministers, is supposed to have procured some mitigation of the law. Constantine's oppressive measures prompted many to leave the scene of sufferings and retire into some more sequestered spots. Claudius Seyssel, the popL^ archbishop, traces the rise of the Waldensian heresy to a pastor named Leo, leaving Rome at this period for the valleys.'^
** In 375, the emperor VaJens embraced the Arian creed. He closed the Novatian churches, banished their ministers,' and probably would have carried his measures to extreme severity had not his prejudices and zeal been moderated by a pious man named Maxcion. During this severe ^al the benevolent feelings of the Novatians became so apparent as to extort admiration from their enemies.
**At the conclusion of the fourth century, the Novatianists had three, if not four, churches in Constantinople. They had churches alto at Nice, Nicomedia and Cotiveus, in Phrygia, all of them large and extensive bodies ; besides which, they were very numerous in the western empire. There were several churches of this people in the city of Alexandria in the beginning of the fifth century. In 412, Cyril was ordained bishop of the cathoUc church in this city. One of his first acts was to shut up the churches of the Novatianists, to stnp them of an their sacred vessels and ornaments. One minister, Cyril, was deprived of everything he possessed. They experienced very similar treatment at Rome from Innocent, who was one of the first bishops to persecute the dissenters and rob them of their churches.
** In the fourth Lateran Council, canons were made to banish them as heretics, and these canons were supported by an edict in 413, issued by the emperors Theodosius and Honorius, declaring ** that all persons rebaptized, and the re-baptizers, should be both punished with death. Accordingly, Albanus, a zealous minister, with others, was punished with death for rebaptizing. The edict w:.s probably obtained by the influence of Augustine, who could endure no rival, nor could he bear with any who questioned the virtue of his rites, or the sanctity of his brethren, or the soundness of the catholic creed ; and these points, being disputed by the Novatianists and Donatists—two powerful and extensive bodies of dissidents in Italy and Africa—they were consequently made to feel the weight of his influence. These combined modes of oppression led the faitliful to abandon the cities and seek retreats in the country, which they did, particularly in the valleys of Piedmont, the inhabitants of which began to be called Waldenses.
** The Novatianists had hitherto flourished mightily in Rome, having a great many places of worship and large congregations ; but the rising power of the catholic interests, its union with the sword, the ambitious character of its officers, with the tyrannical spirit of its bishops, prompted them to crush every opposing interest. They consequently robbed the Novatianists of all their churches, and drove them into obscurity. About this time some epistles appeared against them, written by different individuals, which had a baneful influence at this period on the interests of this people. One individual, whose hostility was felt by the Novatianists, was Celcstines, one of Innocent's successors, A.D. 432. He took possession of all their churches in the city of Rome, and
»• Facte opp. to Fiction, p. 37. As quoted by Orchard, p. 57.
» This Valens, who required baptism for nis dying son, sent eighty ministers into banishment ; but before the vessel had got far from land, it was fired, and all of them perished
compelled them to worship in private houses in the most obscure places. A council was convened at Aries and at Lyons, in 455, in which the views of the Novatianists on predestination were controverted, and by which name they were stigmatized.'
*♦ These holy people now retired from public notice ; yet, it is pretty manifest that, while some of them sought asylums in other kingdoms, many of these despised people continued in Italy, and a succession of them will be found under mnother name.*
** In 476, on the twenty-third day of August,a period was put to all persecution in Italy by the subjection of that kingdom to the Goths, whose laws breathed the purest spirit of equal and universal liberty. The state of religion out of the catholic church is not made apparent. This civil and religious liberty continued for about three centuries, during which time the dissidents, no doubt, greatly increased. The accounts given of the Novatianists by Eusebius and Socrates in their histories, are decided proofs of their extensive influence. That they subsisted towards the end of the sixth century, is evident from the book of Eulogius, bishop of Alexandria. Dr. Lardner remarks, * The vast extent of this sect is manifest from the names of the authors who have mentioned or written against them, and from several parts of the Roman empire in which they were found. It is evident, too, that these churches had among them some individuals of note and eminence.'
'* The rise of those puritans at so critical a period, their soundness in the faith, their regard to character and purity of communion, theii' vast extent and long success, must have had a powerful influence in all the vicinity of their churches, in checking the ambition and secularity of the established clergy, and in shedding a moral auspice on benighted provinces. These sealed witnesses (Rev. vii. 3) were the flrst protestant dissenters from assuming heirarchies; and it is most gratifying to be able to prove ourselves the successors of a class of men who first set the example of contending for the purity and simplicity of christian worship, and a firm adherence to the laws of the King of Zion."*
Although these people ceased to exist as a separate community after a few centuries,yet we shall see their names often occur during the narratives which will follow.
SECTION III.
Donatists.
My first account of the people who bore this name I shall take from Jones' Church History. His information was derived from Dr. Lardner, who says he has collected into a few pages almost everything that is now interesting relative to this denomination of christians. ^
" The Donatists appear to have resembled the followers of Novatian more than any other class of professors in that period of the church of whom we have any authentic record ; but their origin was at least half a century later, and the churches in this connection appear to have been almost entirely confined to Africa. They agreed with the Novatians in censuring the lax state of discipline in the catholic church, and though they did not, like the former, refuse to readmit penitents into their communion, nor like them condemn all second marriages, they denied the validity of baptism as administered by the church of Rome, and rebaptized all wiio left its communion to unite with them. In doctrinal sentiments they were agreed with both the catholics and the Novatians; while the regard they paid to the purity of their communion,
• Mczerav, p. 19, Clovis, as quoted by Orchard, p. 61.
• Mosh. Hist, in many places.
« Robinson's Ec. Res.,'en. 8; Jones* Lect., 25. Se« a detailed account of the Novatianints in Lardncr's Credibility of the Gospel History, Vol. HI., Part 2, ch. 47, p. 2, seq. As quoted by Orchard, p. 62.
occasioned their being stigmatized with the title of puritans, and uniformly treated as schismatics by Optatus and Augustine, the two principal writers against them in the catholic church.
«»The Donatists are said to have derived their distinguished appellation from Donatus, a native of Numidia, in Africa, who was elected bishop of Carthage about the year 306. He was a man of learning and eloquence, very exemplary in his morals, and, ais would appear from circumstances, studiously set himself to oppose the growing corruptions of the catholic church. The Donatists were consequently a separate body of christians for nearly three centuries, and in almost every city in Africa there was one bishop of this sect and another of the catholics. The Donatii^ts were very numerous, for we learn that in the year 411 there was a famous conference held at Carthage, between the catho lies and the Donatists, at which were present two hundred and eighty-six catholic bishops, and of the Donatists two hundred and seventy-nine, which, when we consider the superior strictness of their discipline, must give us a favorable opinion of their numbers, and especially as they were the subjects of severe and sanguinary persecutions from the dominant party. The emperor CoA-Btans, who reigned over Africa, actuated by the zeal of his family for the peace of the church, sent two persons of rank, Paul and Macarius, in the year 34S, to endeavor to conciliate the Donatists, and, if possible, to restore them to the communion of the catholic church. But the Donatbts were not to be reconciled to such an impure communion! To all their overtures for peace they replied. Quid est imperatori cum ecclesia t that is, ' What has the emperor to do with the church V —^An excellent saying, certainly, and happy had it been for both the church and the world, could all christians have aidopted and acted upon it. Optatus relates another maxim of theirs, which is worthy of being recorded. It was usual with them to say, * Quid christianis cum re> gibus, aut quid episcopis cum palatio V , ^ What have christians to do with iingSj or what have bishops to do at court f' These hints are strikingly illustrative of the principles and conduct of the Donatists, who had among them men of great learning and talents, and ndio distinguished themselves greatly by their writings."*
These sentiments of the old Donatists relative to the union of church and state, and the interference of the civil powers in religious concerns, are precisely those which the baptists have always maintained. In a number of other points a striking resemblance appears between these African dissenters and the baptists of the present day.
•' The Donatists and Novatianists very nearly resembled each other in doctrines and discipline; indeed, they were charged by Crispin, a French historian, with holding together in the following things:—
*' First, For purity of church members, by asserting that none ought to be admitted into the church but such as are visibly true believers and true saints. St'condly, For purity of church discipline.
'* Thirdly^ For the independency of each church ; and, Fourthly, They baptized again those whose first baptism they had reason to doubt. They were consequently termed rebaptizers and anabaptists.
** Osiander says our modem anabaptists were the same with the Donatists of old. Fuller, the English church historian, asserts that the baptists in England, in his day, were the Donatists new * dipped ;'* and Robinson declares they were trinitarian anabaptists.
'*The disputes between the Donatists and catholics were at their height when Constantine became fully invested with imperial power, A.D. 314.
'' In 362, after a long series of persecutions from the dominant party, Julian, commonly called the apostate, permitted the exiled Donatists to return and en-
* See Lardner's Works, 4to ed., Vol. II., p. 295-301, and Loog's History of the Donatists, M quoted in Jones' Ch. Hist., pp. 225, 226. f Danver's Hist of the Baptiam, p. 271.
t»
t«
ioy the sweets of liberty, which revived the denomination; and, by their zealous and unceasing efforts, brought over, in a short time, the greatest part of the African province to espouse their interest. From various sources of information, it is most evident that the Donatists were a most powerful and numerous body of dissenters,^ almost as numerous as the catholics, which, considering the strictness of their discipline, and their close adherence to the laws of Zion, is a subject of pleasing reflection. Their influence must have been considerable, since, as Mr. Jones remarks, * There was scarce a city or town in Africa in which there was not a Donatist church.'^
** The catholics found by experience that the means hitherto used had been ineffectual against the Donatists. They now (413) prevailed on Honorius and Theodosius, emperors of the East and West, to issue an edict, decreeing, that the person rebaptizing and the person rebaptized, should be punished with death. In consequence of this cruel measure, martyrdom ensued. Gibbon remarks on these edicts, that three hundred bishops, with many thousands of the inferior clergy, were torn from their churches, stripped of their ecclesiastical possessions, banished to the islands, proscribed by laws, if they presumed to conceal themselves in the provinces of Africa. Their numerous congregations, both in cities and the country, were deprived of the rights of citizens and the exercise of religious worship.*
** According to Long, they were professed anabaptists. They did not only rebaptize the adults that came over to them, but refused to baptize children contrary to the practice of the catholic church.*"
** In 416, the council of Mela, in Numidia, with Augustine at its head, passed a solemn decree in the following words :—* We will that whoever denies that children by baptism are freed from perdition and eternally saved, that they be accursed.' "'
The history of the Donatists is much like that of the Novatianists as to the changes, trials and persecutions to which they were exposed, except that the power of the anathemas of the church were often enforced by imperial statutes. There was this difference, however, in their location and operations. The Novatian churches extended all over the Roman empire, while those of the Donatists were principally confined to Africa.* As both parties had abjured the established church, and uniformly robaptized all who came over to them from it, this made them continually obnoxious to the ruling party, by which they were treated in a most severe and unchristian manner.
\:
7 Mosheim^s Ec. Hist, ubi supra. « Ecc. Lect, Vol. I., p. 474. • Ro. Hist., ch. 33.
»• Hist, of the Donatists, p. l(«; as quoted by Orchard, p. 95.
' " An honest indignation,^' says Robinson, " rises at the sound of such tjrranny; and if a man were driven to the necessity of choosing one saint of two candidates, itwoula be Saint Balaam, the son of Bozor, who indeed loved the wages of unrighteou^^ness, as many other saints have done, but who, with all his madness, had respect enough lor the Deity to say. How shall I curse wh^nn God Juith not cursed! To curse citizens for sajring; to curse Christians for not saying more of a subject than the Scripture says: to be cursed by the very men who were "kept only for the sake of blessing mankind with good examples of virtue; fifteen African slaves to mount themselves on a tribunal, and denounce curses on the whole world! Who can help being offended at the sight 1 Who can be grieved to see the Vandals come forward and subvert all the labors of Austin's life 1"
« As Africa has been frequently mentioned in the preceding narrative, it may be proper to observe what part of that dark quarter of the glooe is intended. A person acquainted with ecclesiastical history will need no explanation, but others, into whose hands this work may fall, may desire one. Africa, which is now in a deplorable state of ignorance, once contained a number of civilized kingdoms, famous for commerce and the liberal arts. Among these, Carthage was probably the most distinguished; it was situated on the north of Africa, along the southern shores of the Mediterranean sea, where are now the Barbary States or Tunis, Algiers and Morocco. Carthage once vied with Rome in power, but it was finally subdued by her, and reduced to a province. It was overrun by the Vandals in the fifth century, and by the Saracens in the seventh; and from that period Mahometanism has been the'establistied religion of the country. In this part of Africa Christianity was planted in earlv times; and here, too, it was earlv corrupted. Here, and not in Jndea, inl'ant baptism originated, as is evident to every candfd investigator of historical facts.
Under the long reiffn of the Vandals in Africa, the Donatists, with other dissenters, were allowed the sweets of civil and religious freedom; but, on the restoration of the old dynasty, their sufferings were renewed, and it is supposed a portion of them retired into the interior, or emigrated into Spain and Italy.
in the seventh century, they were dwindled almost into obscurity; and, in the century after, the whole coast of Africa along the shores of the Mediterranean, which, for many ages, had been renowned for christian churches, was overrun by the religion of the false prophet, under which it still remains.
"To review," says Orchard, ** the history of such a people, so correct in morals, simple in spiritual worship, scriptural in faith and practice, for the period of above four centuries, is a pleasing employment. The continued preservation which the Donatists realized amidst trials the most formidable, from crowned and mitred heads, is a satisfactory proof of their character, as forming part of that church against which the gates of hell shall never successfully prevail. We cannot help realizing a sacred respect for the memories of thu body of people, whose religious profession and views were so nearly allied to our own ; and some feelings of pleasure may be lawfully indulged at the remembrance of being their legitimate successors. ">
For a thousand years aAer the rise of the Donatists, we find them spread along in all parts of Europe under different names, but recognized by friends and foes as substantiaUy the same people; and, in the middle of the seventeenth century, Fuller, the English ecclesiastical historian, says of the English baptists, that " they were Donatbts new-dipped.''
SECTION IV.
Paulicians.
This was a very important company of the Greek dissenters ; and, as the following sketches will show, they continued long, and spread far and wide into many other countries, and from them sprung many other parties of different names, who withstood the corruptions of the Roman hierarchy, and spread the light of the gospel into many parts of Europe.
Their history has been variously given by different writers, a number of which I have examined. The one compiled by Mr. Orchard is the bestl have ffeen, and gives in a condensed manner an account of the origin, principles and progress of this people, which bears the strongest marks of probability : 1 shall therefore insert it without alteration.
''It was about the year 653 that a new sect arose in the East under the name of Paulicians, which deserves our attention. There resided in the city of Mananalis, in Armenia, an obscure person of the name of Constantine, with whom this sect appears to have originated. One day a stranger called upon him, who had been a prisoner among the Saracens, in Syria, and having obtained his release, was returning home through the city. He was kindly received by Constantine, and entertained some days at his house. To requite t]i«' hospitality of his generous host, he gave Constantine two manuscripts which he had brought out of Syria ; and these were the four gospels, and the episiles of the apostle Paul. From the nature of the gift, it is not unreason-bif to conclude that the stranger set a value upon these manuscripts, that he wa* acquainted with their contents jEnid was one who knew the truth; all which received corroboration from the fact that he had been an office-bearer, a deacon in the christian church. It is equally probable that the conversation of Constantine and his guest would occasionally turn upon the contents of these manuscripts. That this conversation and present had some effect on
* Orchard's Foreign Baptists, pp. 82-100.
the mind of Constantine, is evident, for, from the time he got acquainted with the contents of these writings, it is said he would touch no other book. He threw away his Manichean library, and exploded and rejected many of the absurd notions of his countrymen. He became a teacher of the doctrines of Christ and his apostles.^ * He formed to himself,' says Milner, *a plan of divinity from the New Testament; and, as Paul is the most systematic of all the apostles, Constantine very properly attached himself to his writings with peculiar attention. From the attention (this sect paid) to this apostle's epistles and doctrines, they obtained the name of Paulicians.' 'In the present instance,' continues Milner, '* I see reason to suppose the Paulicians to have been perfect originals. The little that has been mentioned concerning them carries entirely this appearance; and I hope it may be shortly evident that they originated from a heavenly influence, teaching and converting them ; and that in them we have one of those extraordinary effusions of the Divine Spirit (on his word) by which tlie knowledge of Christ and the practice of godliness b kept alive in the world.'*
"These originals, or rather restorers of the New Testament order of things^ being allowed by all historians to have been the encouragers, if not the main strength, of the Albegensian churches in France at after periods ; we shall be more particular in our attention to their character and practice.*
*' The Paulicians sincerely condemned the memory and opinions of the Manichean sect, and complained of the injustice which impressed that invidious name on the simple followers of Paul and Christ. The objects which had been transformed by the magic of superstitions, appeared to the eyes of the Paulicians in their genuine and naked colors. Of the ecclesiastical chain many links were broken by these reformers; and, against the gradual innovations of discipline and doctrine, they were strongly guarded by habit and aversion, as by the silence of Paul and the evangelists. They attached themselves with peculiar devotion to the writings and character of Paul, in whom they gloried. In the gospels and epistles of Paul, Constantine investigated the creed of the primitive christians ; and, whatever might be the success, a protestant reader will applaud the spirit of the inquiry. In practice, or at least in theory, of the sacraments, the Paulicians were inclined to abolish all visible objects of worship, and the words of the gospel were, in their judgments, the baptism and communion of the faithful. A creed thus simple and spiritual was not adapted to the genius of the times, and the rational christian was offended at the violation offered to his religion by the Paulicians."^
In confirmation of the above historian as to their views of the ordinance of baptism, we subjoin the authority of a few respectable writers.
*' In these churches of the Paulicians, the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's supper they held to be peculiar to the communion of the faithful; i. e. to be restricted to believers.*
** *• These people were called Acephali, or headless (from having no distinct order of clergy, or presiding person in their assemblies), and were hooted in councils for rebaptizing in private houses,' says Robinson, 'and holding con-▼enticles; and for calling the established Church a worldly community, and rebaptizing such as joined their churches.'' The religious principles and practices of these people are purposely mangled and misrepresented ; but it is possible to obtain some evidences of what they were.
'' But we now return to their efforts. Constantine gave himself the scriptural name of Sylvanus. He preached with great success in Pontus and Cappa-docia. Regions once enlightened and renowned for Christianity and suffering piety (1 Pet. i.), were again blessed with the gospel, through his exertions.** Great numbers of disciples were made and ^thered into societies. The body
« Jon<*s' Lect. on Elcc. Hist., Vol. II., pp. 179. * History of Church, Cent. 9, ch. 3.
• Gibbon's Ro. Hi«t., ch. 54. ^ Gibbon'.s ut sup. • Jones* Lect., Vol. II., p. 181.
• Rob.'8 Res., p. 93. » Miloer's Ch. HisL
of chrUtians in Armenia came over to the PaiUicians and embraced their views. In a little time congregations were gathered in the provinceB of Asia Minor, to the westward of Uie river Euphrates. Their opinions were riso silently propagated in Rome, Milan, and in the kingdom beyond the Alps, (France.)
*« Churches were formed as much upon the plan and model of* the apostolic churches as it was in their power to bring them. Six of their principal churches took the name of those to which Paul addressed his epistles: Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi, Colosse and Thessalonica; while the names of Sylranus* fellow-teachers were Titus, Timothy and Tychicus. This innocent alle^ry, says Gibbon,' revived the memory and example of th^ first ages. The PauHcian teachers were thus distinguished only by their scriptural names. They were known by the modest title of fellow-pilgrims, by the austerity of their lives, their zeal or knowledge, and the credit of some extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit They were incapable of desiring the wealth and honors of the catholic prelacy; such anti-christian pride they bitterly censured ; and even the ranks of elders or presbyters were condemned as an institution of the Jewish synagogue.* There is no mention in all the accounts of this people of any clergy among them.^ Though charged with the Manich-ean errors, they have been honorably freed from this reproach by respectable writers.^ They called themselves christians, but the catholics they named Romans, as if they had been heathens.'
** We have here exhibited a confession of simple worship, a scriptural constitution to their churches and its officers, with a blameless feature in the manner of these christians, which has been conceded by their enemies. Their standard of perfection was so high in christian morals, that their increasing congregations were divided into two classes of disciples.* They had not any ecclesiastical governments administered by bishops, priests or deacons; they had no sacred order of men distinguished by their manner of life, their habits, or any other circumstance fVom the rest of the assembly. They had certain teachers whom they called companions in the journey of life; among these there reigned a perfect equality, and they had no peculiar rights, privileges, nor any external mark of dignity to distinguish them from the people. They recommended to the people without exception, and that with the most affecting and ardent zeal, the constant and assiduous perusal of the scriptures, and expressed the utmost indignation against the Greeks, who allowed to the priests alone an access to those sacred fountains of Divine knowledge.''
*'*' No object can be more laudable than the attempt to bring back the christian profession to its original simplicity, which evidently appears to have been the aim of the Paulicians, though, for this commendable conduct, terms of reproach and epithets of disgrace have been heaped on their memories by inte-reste<l historians and dictionary writers. In this good work of preaching and evangelizing provinces, Sylvanus spent twenty-seven years of his life, taking up his residence at Cobossa, and disseminating his opinions all around. The united exertions of these people, their scriptural views, doctrine, discipline and itinerating system, were attended with evident displays of Divine approbation, and multitudes embraced a gospel simply and fully preached.
" Alarmed at the progress these novel opinions were making, and discover-in £ the growing importance of the Paulicians, the church party ' engaged in the most bitter and virulent controversy with them.' InefTectuul in their efforts, the Greek emperors began to persecute them with the most sanbinary severity. The Paulicians were sentenced to be capitally pim-
J Rom. Hist., ch. 54. * Id. Note. —" The character of Gibbon is remarkable in thi» part of his history."—A/i/n^. ' Rob.'s Res., p. 80. < Jortin's Rem. on Hist., Vol. III. p 49w; and Lardner's Cred. of the Gospel Hist., Part 2, ch. 63, Vol. III., p. 546. « Lardner, irj.. p. 407. • These two classes can be traced through the Albegensian, Waldcnsian, German and Datch baptist churches from this parent stock. 7 Mosh. Hist., Cent. 9,
p. 2. ch. 5, $ 5,
iflhed, and their books, whereTer found, to be committed to the flames; and further, that if any person was found to hare secreted them, he was to be put to death, and his goods confiscated.
** A Greek officer named Simeon, armed with legal and mUitary authority, appeared at Coronia to strike the shepherd Sylvanus, and to reclaim, if possible, the lost sheep. By a refinement of cruelty, this minister of justice placed the unfortunate Sylvanus before a line of his disciples, who were commanded, as the price of their pardon, and as proof of their penitence, to stone to death their spiritual father. The affectionate flock turned aside from the impious office; the stones dropped from their filial hands, and of the whole number, only one executioner could be found. This apostate, Justus, after putting Sylvanus to death, gained, by some means, admittance into communion, and again deceived and betrayed his unsuspecting brethren; and as many as were treacherously ascertained, and could be collected, were massed together into an immense pile, and, by order of the emperor, consumed to ashes. Simeon, the officer, struck with astonishment at the readiness with which the Paulicians could die for their religion, examined their arguments, and became himself a convert, renounced his honors and fortune, and three years afterwards wc^it to Cobossa, and became the successor of Constantine Sylvanus, a zealous preacher among the Paulicians, and at last sealed his testimony with his blood.^ To free the East from these troubles and commotions, said to arise from the Paulician doctrines, a great number of them were transported into Thrace during this century ; but still a greater number were left in Syria and the adjoining countries. From Thrace these people passed into Bulgaria and Sclavonia, where they took root, and settled in their own church order.
" From these churches, at after periods, colonies were sent out, and they are said to have inundated Europe ;* though some relics of these ancient communities were to be traced till the fifteenth century.
** From the blood and ashes of the first Paulician victims, a succession of teachers and congregations repeatedly arose. The Greeks, to subdue them, made use both of arguments and arms, with all the terror of penal laws, without effecting their object. The great instrument of this people's multiplication was, the alone use of the New Testament, of which some pleasing anecdotes are related. One Sergius was recommended by a Paulician woman to read PauPs writings, and his attention to the sacred records brought him to embrace their views. For thirty-four years he devoted himself to the ministry of the gospel. Through every city and province that Sergius could reach, he spread abroad the savor of the knowledge of Christ, and with such success that the clergy in the hierarchies considered him to be the forerunner of anti-Christ, and declared he was producing the great apostacy foretold by Paul. The emperors, in conjunction with the clergy, exerted their zeal with a peculiar degree of bitterness and fury against this people. Though every kind of oppressive measure and means were used, yet all efforts for their suppression proved fruitless, ' nor could all their power and all their barbarity exhaust the patience nor conquer the obstinacy of that inflexible people, who possessed,* says Mosheim, 'a fortitude worthy of a belter cause !'
** The face of things changed towards the end of the eighth century, and the prospects of this harassed people brightened under the emperor Nicephorus, who restored to them all their civil and religious privileges. During this auspicious season the Paulicians widely disseminated their opinions, and it is recorded that they became formidable to the East.*" Those persecuting laws which had been suspended for some years, were renewed and enforced with redoubled fury under the reign of Michael and Leo, who made strict inquisition throughout every province in the Grecian empire, and inflicted capital punish ment upon such of them as refused to return to the bosom of the church.
' Milner and Jones, ut supra. • Mosh. Hist., Cent. 11, p. 8, ch. 5, ( 3, 3.
M Chamben' Cyclop. Art Paulicians.
These decrees droTe the Panlidans into desperate measures. Oppression maketh a wise man mad.> The Paulicians are now charged with having put lo death some of their clerical oppressors, and also of taking refuge in those provinces goTemed by Saracens, and that, in union with those barbarians, they infested the Grecian States.
** The power and influence of these dissidents were found to be so great as to sugeest the policy of allowing them to return to their own habitations, and dwelling there in tranquillity. The severest persecution experienced by them was encouraged by the empress Theodora, A.D. 845. Her decrees were severe, but the cruelty with which they were put in execution by her officers, was horrible beyond expression. Mountains and hills were covered with inhabitants. Her sanguinary inquisitors explored cities and mountains in lesser Asia. After confiscating the goods and property of one hundred thousand of these people, the owners to that number were put to death in the most barbarous manner, and made to expire slowly under a variety of the most exquisite tortures. The flatterers of the empress boast of having extirpated in nine years that number of Paulicians. Manv of them were scattered abroad, particularly in Bulgaria. Some fortified the city of Tephrice and Philippopoli, from which last city they were called Philippopolitians; and, though they were driven hence, yet the spirit of independence was not subdued. A portion of this people emigrated from Thrace, and their doctrine soon struck deep root in the European soil. Such as escaped from the inquisitors fled to the Saracens, who received them with compassion; and in conjunction with whom, under experienced officers, they maintained a war with the Grecian nation for a period of one hundred and fifty years.
*' From Italy, says Mosheim, the Paulicians sent colonies into almost all the other provinces of Europe, and formed gradually a considerable number of religious assemblies, who adhered to their doctrine, and who realized every opposition and indignity from the popes. It is undoubtedly certain, from the most authentic records, that a considerable number of them were, about the middle of the eleventh century, settled in Lombardy, Insubria, but principally at Milan ; and that many of them led a wandering life in France, Germany and other countries, where they captivated the. esteem and admiration of the multitude by their sanctity. In Italy they were called Paterini and Cathari, In France they were denominated Bulgarians, from the kingdom of their emigration, also Publicans instead of Paulicians, and boni homines, good men ; but were chiefly known by the term Albigenses, from the town of Alby, in the Upper Languedoc. The first religious assembly which the Paulicians formed in Europe, is said to have been at Orleans, in the year 1017, on which we ^hall enlarge under the Churches in France, to which we shall repair after we have traced their existence and labors in the kingdom of Italy.
** Here we may be permitted to review the apostolic character and exer-. tions of this extensive body of people, while we may express our surprise at the virulent opposition, the cruel measures used, and the extensive sacrifice of human life, for successive ages, on the alone ground of religious views. A special instance of divine grace was displayed in this people's rise and early success; and we must attribute their preservation and enlargement to the cx-
1 Gibbon renders an indirect apology for the conduct of these people at this period. This would be natural for a secular historian. But I must confess it is an item in their history, which [ am sorry to find, as in my opinion, no circumstances nor provocations on the part nf christians will justify a resort to arms, but we must remember this was about two hundred years after this people commenced their operations; that it is the history of a whole community, and not merely of church members that we are pursuing; that a portion of them had gone among the Turks, and there found a shelter and protection which nominal christians denied them; and unaer a chief of that nation, their wars were long carried on; that they were fighting lor their country and freedom in accordance with the notions of most churches since the Reformation, but utterly at variance with the peace principles of most ot the ancient lects am/cmg whom the baptists look for their denommational kindred.
ercise of the same compassion. An evident mark of apostolic spirit possessed by this people must be admitted by all: without any funds or public societies to countenance or support the arduous undertaking, otherwise than their respective churches, the Paulicians fearlessly penetrated the most barbarous parts of Europe, and went, single-handed and single-eyed, to the conflict with every grade of character. In several instances Qiey suffered death or martyrdom, not counting their lives dear, so that they could promote the cause of their Re-deemer.'*' This narrative carries us into the eleventh century, a period of about four hundred years from the organization of the first company of the Paulicians under Constantine, surnamed Sylvanus. They had travelled from Armenia in the East into the heart of Europe, had formed a number of new sects under different names, or amalgamated with old ones in which they came in contact in the course of their wanderings. We shall see them frequently referred to in the accounts which will follow, where their baptist character will very distinctly appear. For the present, I will remark that Dr. Mosheim in his Ecclesiastical History, Dr. Allix in his Remarks on the Ancient Churches of Piedmont, and Mr. Robinson in his History of Baptism, explicitly ascribe to them the rejection of infant baptism.
Dr. Allix's words are as follows:—** They, with the Manicheans, were Anabaptists, or rejectors of infant baptism, and were consequently often reproached with that term.8"
Paterines.
** Much has been written on the etymology of the word Paterines; but is the Italians themselves are not agreed on the derivation, it is not likely foreigners should be able to determine it. In Milan, where it was first used, it answered to the English word vulgar, illiterate, low-bred; and these people were so called because they were chiefly of the lower order of men ; mechanics, artificers, manufacters, and others who lived of their honest labors. Gazari is a corruption of Cathari, Puritans; and it is remarkable that in the examination of these people, they are not taxed with any immoralities, but were condemned for speculations, or rather for virtuous rules of action, which all »n power accounted heresies. They said a christian church ought to consist of only good people ; a church had no power to frame any constitution ; it was not right to take oaths ; it was not lawful to kill mankind ; a man ought not to be delivered up to officers of justice to be converted ; the benefits of society belonged alike to all the members of it; faith without works could not save a man ; the church ought not to persecute any, even the wicked; the law of Moses was no rule to christians ; there was no need of priests, especially of wicked ones ; the sacraments, orders, and ceremonies of the church of Rome were futile, expensive, oppressive, and wicked, with many more such positions, all inimical to the hierarchy.
" As the catholics of those times baptized by immersion, the Paterines, by what name soever they were called, as Manicheans, Gazari, Josephists, Pas-sigines, &c., made no complaint of the mode of baptizing, but when they were examined, they objected vehemently against the baptism of infants, and condemned it as an error. Amon^ other things, they said that a child knew nothing of the matter, that he had no desire to be baptized, and was incapable of making any confosHion of faith, and that the willing and professing of another could l)e of no service to him. 'Here then,' says Dr. Allix, *vcry truly, we have found a body of men in Italy, before the year one thousand and twenty-six, five hundred years before the Reformation, who believed contrary to the opinions of the church of Rome, and who highly condemned their errors.' Atto, Bishop of VerceuUi, had complained of such people eighty years before, and so had others before him, and there is the highest reason to believe that they had always existed in Italy. It is observable that those who are alluded
* Sec Moshcim's Hist., Gibbun's Roman Hist., ch.M; Robinson'ft Ecc. Re?., ch. 6, pp. 74-79} Jones' Lectnrtson Ecc. Hist., Vol. 11., pp. 179-184. * Rem. Ch. Pied., p. 138.
to by Dr. Allix were brought to light by mere accident No notice was taken of Uiem in Italy, but some disciples of Gundulf, one of their teachers, went to settle in the Lower Countries (Netherlands), and Gerard, bishop of Cambray, imprisoned them under pretence of converting them.
*" From the tenth to the thirteenth century the dissenters in Italy continued to multiply and increase, for which several reasons may be assigned. The excessive wickedness of the court of Rome, and the Italian prelates, was better known in Italy than in the other countries. There was no legal power in Italy in these times, to put dissenters to death. Popular preachers in the church, such as Claude of Turin, and Arnold of Brescia, increased the number of dissenters, for their disciples went further than their masters. The adjacency of France, and Spain too, contributed to their increase, for both abounded with christians of this sect. Their churches were divided into sixteen compartments, such as the English baptists would call associations. Each of these Was subdivided into parts, which would be termed churches or congregations. In Milan there was a street called Pataria, where it is supposed they met for divine worship. At Modena they assembled at some water-mills. They had houses at Ferrara, Brescia, Viterbo, Verona, Vicenza, and several in Rimini, Romandiola. and other places. Reinerius says, in 1259, the Paterin church of Alba consisted of about five hundred members; that at Concorezzo of more than fifteen hundred; and that of Bognola about two hundred. The houses where they met seem to have been hired by the people, and tenanted by one of the brethren. There were several in each city, and each was distinguished by a mark known to themselves. They had bishops, or elders, pastors and teachers, deacons and messengers; that is, men employed in traveling to administer to the relief and comfort of the poor and persecuted. In times of persecution they met in small companies of eight, twenty, thirty, or as it might happen; but never in large assemblies for fear of the consequences.
'* The Paterines were decent in their deportment, modest in their dress and discourse, and their morals irreproachable. In their conversation there was no levity nor scurrility, no detraction, no falsehood, no swearing. Their dress was neither fine nor mean. They were chaste and temperate, never frequent-in sr taverns or places of public amusement. They were not given to anger and other violent passions. They were not eager to accumulate wealth, but content with the necessaries of life. They avoided commerce, because they thought it would expose them to the temptations of collusion, falsehood, and oaths, chousing rather to live by labor or useful trades. They were always employed in spare hours either in giving or receiving instruction. Their bishops and offi-cen» were mechanics, weavers, shoemakers, and others who maintained themselves by their industry.
*' About the year 1040 the Paterines had become very numerous at Milan, which was their principal residence, and here they flourished at least two hundred years, They^had no connection with the (catholic) church, for they re-* jected not only Jerome of Syria, Augustine of Africa, and Gregory of Rome, but Ambrose of Milan ; considering them and other pretended fathers, as cor-rupiurs of Christianity. They particularly condemned Pope Sylvester as antichrist. They called (the adoration of) the cross the mark of the beast. They had no share in the State, for they took no oaths, and bore no arms. The State did not trouble them, but the clerg)' preached, prayed, and publisHcd books against them with unabated zeal. About the year 1170 the archbishop of Milan, ail old infirm man, while preaching against them with great vehemence, dropped down in a fit and expired as soon as he had received extreme unction! About fourteen years afterwards, one Bonacursi, who pretended he had been one of these Paterines, made a public renunciation of his ophiions, and embraced the catholic faith, filling Milan with fables, as all renegades do. He reported thai cities, suburbs, towns, and castles, were full of these false prophets—that it was the time to suppress them, and that the prophet .Jeremiah had directed the Milanese wliat to do when he said, * cursed be he that keepeth back his sword
2
from blood!!' advice which we'shall presently see was too implicitly followed."*
The scene is here laid between six and seven hundred years ago, and among this people, besides their opposition to infant baptism, we see in the arrangement of their associations a very distinctive trait of the baptist character. ** One of these associations at this time, about IO6O9 contained upwards of fifteen hundred members."'
Mr. Orchard has traced the history of the Paterines in Italy to the middle of the thirteenth century. A few detached sketches in the words of this author I shall now present to the reader.
'* It is acknowledged that the Latin church in this century (the 12th) was troubled with the puritans, a term, according to Moshiem, expressive of the successors of the Novatianists; but the pontiffs were particularly annoyed by the Paulicians, who emigrated in numbers from Bulgaria, who, leaving their native land, spread themselves throughout various provinces. Many of them, while doing'good to others, and propagating the gospel, were put to death with the most unrelenting cruelty. Their accessions from different sources made the puritan or Paterine churches very considerable, and to their enemies very formidable, even before the name of Waldo of Lyons was known. Besides these foreign accessions, some books had been written and circulated by the puritans, while several reformers appeared in different kingdoms, all advocating the same doctrines and practice ; so that tlic clergy and pontiff were aroused to vigorous opposition. In 1180, the Puritans had established themselves in Lombardy and Puglia, where they received frequent visits from their brethren who resided in other countries; in this and the next century they wer** to be found in the capital of Christendom."* Effective measures were matured about this time, when Waldo and his followers were driven from France.
'* In 1210, the Paterines had become so numerous and so odious to the State clergy, that the old bishop of Ferrara obtained an edict of the emperor Otho IV. for the suppression of them ; but this measure extended only to that city.
** In five years after, pope Innocent III., of bloody celebrity, held a council at the Lateran, and denounced anathemas against heretics of every description. Dr. Wall declared that this council did enforce infant baptism on the dissidents, as heretics taught it was to no purpose to baptize children.^
** In this council the Milanese were censured for sheltering the Paterines. After a variety of efforts to suppress them, the cruel policy of the court of Rome extended its sanguinary measures over Italy. In 1220 Honorius III. procured an edict of Frederick II., which extended over all the imperial cities, as had been the case for some years over the south of France, and the effects of the pontiff's anger were soon felt by the deniers of the infant right. These edicts were every way proper to excite horror, and which rendered the most illustrious piety and virtue incapable of saving from the most cruel death such as had the misfortune, says Mosheim, to be disagreeable to the inquisitors. No alternative of escaping those human monsters presented itself but that of flight, which was embraced by many; * indeed,' Mosheim observes, 'they passed out of Italy and spread like an inundation throughout the European provinces, but Germany in particular afforded an asylum, where they were called Gazari instead of Cathari (puritans). One Ivo, of Narbonne, was summoned by the
« This article I have copied entire from Jones' Ch. Hist. pp. 287—289. By him it was •elected from Robinson's lurclesiastical Researches, pp. 409—412, and p. 455.
"As it may afiord satisfaction to some readers (says Mr. Jones) to know from what source of authority Mr. R. has drawn his account of the Paterines, I here subjoin them:—Muratori Antiq. Jial. tom. v. Gregorii cwUra Mcnickaos^ qui Paterine dicuniur, ojntsculi specimen. Cap. Ti. Sicardi Episcojri Crem/meiutis chronicon, ad An. 1213. Bonacursi VUa kctreticomm ManifeS' UUio karesis Cafharorum D'Acherii, SpeciUgium^ tom. i. 308. De Catkaris ffumitunt." Tbo writers above referred to were all Roman Catholics who lived more than six centuries ago.
( Orchard's Foreign Baptists, p. 143.
• McCrie's Reform in Italy, p. 4, as ouoted by Orchard.
V Hist of Infknt Baptism, pit. 2, p. 213.
inquisitors of heretical pravitj. Ito fled into Italy. At Como he became acquainted with the Paterines, and accommodated himself to their views for a time. They informed him, after he was a member of their society, that they had churches in almost all the towns of Lombardy, and in some parts of Tuscany ; that their merchants, in frequenting fairs and markets, made it their business to instil their tenets in the minds of the rich laymen with whom they traded, and the landlords in whose houses they lodged. On leaving Como, he was furnished with letters of recommendation to professors of the same faith in Milan; and in this manner he passed through all the towns situated on the Po, through Cremona, and the Venetian States, being liberally entertained by the Patennes, who received him as a brother, on producing his letters and giving the signs, which were known by all that belonged to the sect.^
** The Paterines knew their discipline could not possibly be practiced in the church, they therefore withdrew, constantly avowing the sufficiency of scripture, the competency of each to reform himself, the right of all, even of woman, to teach ; and openly disclaiming all manner of coercion in matters of religion.
** In conformity with their declaration of the sufficiency of the scriptures to regulate a christian church, they had houses in many cities in which they assembled for religious if orship, with their barbs, or religious teachers.
** And notwithstanding the persecutions to which they were exposed, they maintained themselves m Italy, and kept up a regular correspondence with their brethren in other countries. They had public schools where their sons were educated, and these were supported by contributions from churches of the same faith in Bohemia and Poland.* Their prosperity irritated the pontiff, who, on Frederick's death, 1250, and during an interregnum, resolved on extirpating heresy. The usual methods were attempted—^preaching and mustering crusaders ; but, after every effort devised for their instruction, they appeared no less in number, and still formidable to their adversaries. Indeed, it was found in the middle of this century that the Paterines had exceedingly increased^ so that his holiness found it necessary to give full powers to his inquisitors, and to erect a standing tribunal, if possible, in every country where puritans were known to infest. These inquisitors were armed with all imaginable power to punish all those persons who dared to think differently to the pope and his successors. Unity of views, sentiments and practices was to be eflfected by these cruel measures; but, instead of accomplishing this object, we conclude the Paterines were dispersed abroad into other provinces, or else they retired into obscurity, from either of which circimistance their local names would become extinct. The terror of the inquisitors awed the Italians into silence ; but it is highly credible, indeed, there are some reasons to believe the Paterines did continue dispersed in Italy till the Reformation in Germany. It is very probable that many of these people became incorporated with the Waldensian churches in the valleys of Piedmont, which at this period enjoyed, under the Duke of Savoy, the sweets of religious liberty. This incorporation could be easily effected, since it is proved, by Allix and others, that the most part of the Paterines held the same opinions as the churches in the %'alleys, and therefore were taken for the one and the same class of people.
*' The straitened circumstances of the Vaudois in Pragela, suggested the propriety' of seeking for a new territory. This they obtained on their own terms of liberty, in Calabria, a district in the northeast of Italy. This new settlement prospered, and their religious peculiarities awakened displeasure in the old inhabitants; but the landlords, well pleased with their industry, afforded them protection. This colony received fresh accessions from time to time of those who fled from the persecutions raised against them in Piedmont, and continued to flourish when the Reformation dawned on Italy, after which they were barbarously murdered.*^
• McCrie's Rcf. in Italy, p. 4, Ac., as quoted by Orchard. • Perrin in McCria. » Icmes' LecL 2, p. 420; McCrie't Ref. in Italy, p. 7, as quoted by Orchard.
** These plain facts allow us to conclude that Italy must have, in parts, enjoyed the lamp of truth from apostolic days. That the Cathari or puritan churches continued for ages, is acknowledged of the views of which we have spoken. Such churches were strengthened by the baptists from Bulgaria, whose sameness of views admitted their incorporation. When these congregations became too large to assemble in one place, they parted, and held separate assemblies, in perfect unity with each other.> They owned the scriptures as a rule of conduct, and administered the ordinances of baptism to believers by one immersion.* They maintained church discipline even on their ministers, as examples are recorded.' They were always found on the side of religious liberty, and considered the oppressing clergy the locust which darkened and tormented the world. They were persecuted, awed, dispersed, or destroyed, yet their spirit and conduct will be again exhibited in future sections of our history."
««The Paterines, in 1260," says Reinerius, **had four thousand members in the perfect class, but those called disciples were an innumerable multitude.'* *
1 Robinson's Hist. Bapt, p. 356. * Robinson's Researches, p. 384.
8 Jones' Lect., Vol. II., p. 273; Robinson's Ecc. Res., ch. 11, passim. < This mode of designation is often mentioned amon^ other parties. I suppose thej meant to convey by it much the same as we do by church and society, or cangregaaoD.
CHAPTER II.
SECTION I.
WALDSN8S8 AND ALBIOSHSSS, AND GERMAN ANABAPTISTS.
Origin of the names Waldenses and Alhigenses^ vnth some account of Peter fValdo, of Lyons, and the sanguinary edicts of Pope Lucius IlL against the disciples of Waldo.
** Having sketched the more prominent features of the christian church for the first ten centuries, and arriving at that period in which we are to give the reader some account of the Waldenses, it will be proper to introduce die subject by an attempt to ascertain the origin of their distinguished appellation. The learned Mosheim contends, with considerable pertinacity, that they derived their name from Peter Waldo, an opulent merchant of Lyons, whose history will presently come under our notice. But, in this he is contradicted by his learned translator, and, I believe I may truly add, by most writers of authority since his time.
•^^The most satisfactory definition that I have met Mrith of the iermWaldenseSf is that given by Mr. Robinson in his Ecclesiastical Researches; and, in the confidence that it is the true one, and that I may not unnecessarily trespass on the reader's time and patience, I submit it to his consideration.
"From the Latin word Vallis. came the English word valley^ the French and Spanish ro/Ze, the Italian voidest, the low Dutch vaUeye^ tas Provencal vaux^ vaudois^ the ecclesiastical ValdenstSf Ualdenses and Waldenses. The word simply signifies valleys —inhabitants of valleys—and no more. It happened that the inhabitants, of the valleys of the Pyrenees did not prbfesA the catholic faith; it fell out, also, that the inhabitants of the valleys about the Alps did not embrace it; it happened, moreover, in the ninth century, that one Valdo, a nicnd and counselor of Berengarius, and a man of eminence, who had many followers, did not approve of the papal discipline and doctrine; and it came to pass, about a hundiea and thirty years after, that a rich merchant of Lyons, who was called Valdus, or Waldo, openly disavowed the Roman catholic religion, supported many to teach the doctrines believed in the valleys, and became the instrument oi the conversion of great numbers;— all THESE PEOPLE WERE CALLED Waldenses.^ This vicw of the matter which, to myself, appears induiputably the true one, is also supported by the authority of their own historians, Pierre, Gilles, Perrin, Leger, and by Sir S. Morland and Dr. Allii.
" To the preceding account of the derivation of the term Waldenses, I shall now add the explanation given by these writers of various other appellations that were bestowed on this class of christians, and particularly that of Albigenses.
" The names imposed on them in France by their adversaries, they say, have been intended to vilifv and ridicule them, or to represent them as new and different sects. Being stripped of all their property, and reduced by persecution to extreme poverty, they have been called ' the poor of Lyons.' From their mean and famished appearance m their exiled and destitute state, they nave been called, in provincial jargon, ' siccan,' or pickpockets. Because they would not observe saints' days, they were falsely supposed to neglect the sabbath also, and called Inzabbatati, or insabbathists.^
" As they denied transubstantiation, or the personal and divine presence of Jesus Christ in the host, or wafer exhibited in the mass, they were called ' arians.' Their adversaries, premising that all power must be derived from Grod, through his vicegerent^ the pope, or from an
^ Ecclesiastical Researches, pp. 302, 303.
* •• Dr. Mosheim traces the derivation of this word to a kind of slipper which they wore, as a dis-tl^giiishing bad^ of the sect, and Gibbon has adopted his opinion. But I agree with Mr. Robinson in thinking it very unlikely, that people who could not descend from the mountains into neighboring states without hazarding their lives throujdi the furious zeal of inquisitors, should tempt danger by affixing a visible majk on their ^oes. The above opinion, therefore, appears to me much more probable."— Jonee,
opposite and evil principle, inferred that the Waldenses were < Manicheans/ becauBe they denied the pope's supremacy over the emperors and kings of the earth.
" In Langniedoc, tne catholics affirmed that the origin of these heresies were recent, and that they derived their name of Vaudois, or Waldenses, from Pcicr Waldo, one of their barbs
people who were branches of the same original sect, as in Dauphiny, were, from a noted preacher, called Josephists: in Languedoc, tney were called Henncians; and in other provinces, from Peter Bru)rs, tney were called Petrobrusians. Sometimes they received their name from their manners, as catharists, Cpuritans^) and from the foreign country whence it was presumed they had been expelledj they were called ' Bulgarians,' or Bougres. In Italy they were commonly called fratricelli, 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, spreaa over Armenia and Thrace, and whiclLwhen persecuted by the Greek emperor, might migrate 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 Albigenscs. All these branches, however, sorang from one common stock, and were ani* mated 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, in 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 latored to prove that the Waldenses and Albigenses were quite diflerent classes of christians, and that ther held different principles and opinions; but there seems no solid ground for maintaining sucn a distinction. When the popes issued their fulminations against the Albigenses, they expressly condemned 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 bein£f Waldenses; the people persecuted them as such; and they uniformly adopted the title when it was given them, and even felt themselve: honored oy it To this may be added, that historians oo not trace their origin to any local causes, in Albigeois, and about Toulouse, but represent them as emigrants from other regions. Neither do mey 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 Albi^nses, but as heretics; and when they particularize them^ they denominate them 'bona hommes,'--(i. e. good men,)—* Cathari,'' Faterini,*' Publicani,' d&c., which shows that they existed before they were generally known as Albigenses. It is also proved, from their books, that they existed as Waldenses, before the time of Peter Waldo, who preached about the year llQO. Perrin, who wrote their history, had in his possession a New Testament in the Vallese language, written on parchment, m a very ancient letter, and a book, entitled, in in their language, ' dual cosa sia I'anti-Christ V that is, ' What is antichrist V under date of the year 1130, which carries us back at least twenty years before Waldo. Another book, entitled, ' The Noble Lesson,' is dated 1100.
" Their enemies confirm their great antiquity. Reinerius Saccho, an inquisitor, and one of their most implacable enemies, 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 doctrine, discipline, government, manners, and even the errors with which they had been charged (by the catholics), •how that the Albigenses and Waldenses were distinct branches of the same sect, or that the former were spnmg from the latter.*
" From the death of Claude, bishop of Turin, who may not be improperly termed the WickliflTe of that city, to the time oi Peter Waldo, of Lyons, a consideraible 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 opponents hath prevented their transmission to our times. In the writingrs of their adversaries, 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 mul-
» " Dr. Rankings History of France^ Vol. III., p. 198-202. To this contemporary and able writer, I have much pleasure m tendering my acknowledgments for the eminent service 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 labor on this branch of the tub-Jeet.'*—Jm«f.
tipticitioii of their number; but of their proceedings in the formation of churches, and of their order, worship and discipline, we are very imperfectly informed.
^ Of the CaUiorisUy in Grermany, and of the Pattrines in the duchy of Milan, dDc., during this period, both of which held the same principles as the Waldenses, we have already taken some notice in the preceding chapter. But it was not till the twelfth century that the Vau-dois appeared in ecclesiastical history as a people obnoxious to the church of Rome. And eren then, U seems in great measure to have been occasioned by the indefatigable labors, 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, lied to Piedmont, incorporating themselves with the Vaudois."
" The foDowing is the account which Mr. Robinson gives of this intricate ar» tide of ecclesiastical history; and, as it appears to myself more probable than mny other that I have seen, I incline to adlmit it as the true one:—
" In the twelfth century, towards the close, a great reformation was begun in Lyons, under Che au&pices of a merchant there, who procured a translation of the four gospels, from Latin into French, and who both preached in person, and engaged others to do so in various parts of the countnr. Iteinerius Saccho thougnt all the believers (crederUi) sprung from this stock; and he therefore called them all Leonists. Whether the merchant received his name (Valdut) 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 fcomoaratively speaking) few ana obscure, and the Leonists at once numerous and popular; that me 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 Protestants. Bossuet says the separation of the Vaudois was, for a kmg 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 Vaudou were the first, and that they continued in the church a sort of a party, until Waldo emboldened them to separate, and so became not the founder of the party, but the parent of their separation.'^
•
Mr. Jones goes on to show that Waldo was an opulent merchant in the city of Lyons, in France, in which the gospel was planted in the second century; but, at the time this extraordinary man began his evangelical career, it was sunk in the grossest darkness and superstition. Waldo, at first, like other great reformers, had not the most distant idea of withdrawing himseli from the communion of the Romish church ; that his first attack on the superstitions of that body was against the monstrous doctrine of transubstantiation. His first early efforts were directed to a translation of the four gospels into French, which he caused to be circulated extensively among his countrymen, especially the poor —which his wealth enabled him to do. He soon became a preacher, gathered a church in his native city, from which, after a few years, he and most of his adherents were driven by the anathemas of the pope.
" Waldo himself retired into Dauphiny, where he preached with abundant success; his principles took deep and lasting root, smd 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 hist labors. Driven from thence, he proceeded into Germany, canning along with him the glad tidings of salvation; and, according to the testimony of Thuanus, the eminent and singularly exact French historian, he at length settled at Bohemia, where he finished his course in the year 1179, after a ministry' of nearly twenty years.
" 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 the reformation. The countenance and blessing of the King of kings accompanied them. The word of Gfod 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 bishop of both Mentz and Strasburg 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
• Ch. Hist., pp. 907-311. 7 Perrin't Hist., chap. 1.
were committed to the flames. In the treatment, and in the behavior of the Waldenses, wert 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 flourish^ throughout the thirteenth century, and which are said to have owed their rise chiefly to the labors of one Bartholomew, a native of Carcassone, a city not far distant from Toulouse, in the south of France, and which may not be improperly termed ^e 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 themselves throughout almost every country in Europe; but they were everywhere treated as the filth of the world, and as the on-scouring of all tnings.s
" It can excite no surprise that their increasing numbers should rouse the courts 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 firom Rome."
This decree was passed in 1181, under Pope Lucius III. It is very long* and contains the ususil amount of anathema and proscription to be fotmd in such edicts from the papal power.
The following paragraph may serve as a specimen of the whole:—
" More particularly, we declare all Catharists, Paterines, and those who call themselves the ' poor of Lyons,' the Passignes, Josephists, Amoldists, 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 aumority 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 tfraid to hold or teach any opinions concerning the sacraments of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, baptism, the remission of sins, matrimony, or any other sacrament of the ihurch, diflering from what the holy church of Rome doth preach and observe; and, gener-illy, all those whom the same church of Rome, or the several bishops in their dioceses, with ihe advice of their clergy, or the clergy them.selves, in case of a vacancy of the See, with the advice, if need be, of a neighboring bishop, shall judge to be heretics. And we likewise declare, all entertainers and defenders of the said heretics, and those who have showed any favor, or given countenance to them, thereby strengthening them in their heresy, whether they be called cmnforUd, believers^ or perfect^ or with whatsoever superstitious name they disguise themselves, to be liable to the same sentence."*
SECTION II.
Some account of the doctrinal sentiments and religious practices oj the WaldenseSy collected from the writings of their adversaries.
Thus far the Waldenses and Albigenses are described as one people, which, in most respects, they were. I will now represent their affairs under separate heads.
** it is intended in this and the two following sections to lay before the reader a more detailed account of the principles and practices of the Waldenses than hath hitherto been given; and there appears no method of doing this more satisfactorily than by hearing the charges first brought against them, by their adversaries of the Romish church, and then attending to the apologies, reasonings and confessions of faith which, from time to time, the ever laudable principle of self-defense necessarily extorted from them. This is the plan, therefore, which I intend to pursue, and the present section shall be devoted to the testimony of their adversaries.
** Reinerius Saccho, whose name I have had occasion more than once to mention, was, for seventeen years of the earliest part of his life, in some way or other connected with the Waldenses ; but he apostatized from their profession,
• Perrin't Hict, chap. 2. • Church Hict, pp. 313-316.
entered the catholic church, was raised in it to the dignified station of an inquisitor, and became one of their most cruel persecutors. He was deputed by the pope to reside in Lombardy, in the south of France; and, about the year 1250, published a catalogue of the errors of the Waldenses under three-and-thirty distinct heads. The reader who wishes to peruse the original Latin, may find it in Dr. Allix's Remarks upon the Churches of Piedmont, pp. 188-191. The following is a faithful translation :—
"The first error," says he, "is a contempt of ecclesiastical power, and from thence they have been delivered up to Satan, and by him cast headlong into innumerable errors, mixing the erroneous doctrines of the heretics of old with their own inventions. And being cast out of the catholic church, they affirm that they alone are the church of Christ and his disciples. They declare themselves to be the apostle's successors, to have apostolic authority^ and the ke3rs of binding and loosing. They nold the church of Rome to be the whore of Babylon (Rev. ch. rvii.), and that all that obey her are damned, especially the clergy that have been subject to her since the time of pope Sylvester.*** They deny that any true miracles are wrought in the church, because none or themselves ever worked any. They hold that none of the ordinances of the church, which have been introduced since Christ's ascension, ought tc be observed, as being of no value. The feasts, fasts, orders, blessings, officers of the church, and the like, they utterly reject. They speak against consecrating churches, churchyards, and other things of like nature, declaring that it was the intention of covetous priests to augment their own gains, in spunging the people by those means of their money and oblations. They say that a man is then £rst baptized when he is received into their commun-itv. Some of them hold that baptism is of no advantage to infants, because they cannot actually believe. They reject the sacrament of confirmation, but, instead of that, their teachers lay hands upon their disciples. They say the bishops, clergy, and other religious orders^ are no better than the scribes and pharisees, and other persecutors of the apostles. They do not believe the body and blood of Christ to be the true sacrament, but only blessed bread, which, br a figure only, is called the body and blood of Christ, even as it is said,' and the rock was dhrist,' &c. Some of them hold that this sacrament can only be celebrated by thost that are good ;> others, again, by any that know the words of consecration. This sacrament they celebrate in their assemblies, repeating the words of the gospel at their table, and participating together, in imitation of Christ's supper.' .... They say that malefactors ought not to be put to death by the secular power Accoraing to them, there is no purgatory, and all that die immediately pass either into heaven or hell. Tnat therefore the prayers of the church for the dead are of no use, because those that are in heaven do not want them, nor can those that are in hell be relieved by them. And fi*om thence they infer that all ofierinp made for the dead are only of use to the clergymen that eat them, and not to the deceased, who are incapable of being profited by them."
** Such is the view which Reinerius gave of the principles of the Waldenses, about eighty years subsequent to the times of Peter Waldo; and we must understand this description as applicable to one general class of christians, scattered throughout the south of France, the valleys of the Pyrenees mountains, the valleys of Piedmont, and the country of the Milanese, though probably distinguished in diflferent places by the dififerent names of Puritans or Catharists, Paterines, Arnoldists, Leonists, Albigenses or Waldenses, the last of which ultimately became their more general appellation. No doubt there were shades of difiference in sentiments among them on points of minor importance, even as there are among christians in the present day; and it is very certain that the catholic writers sometimes class under the general name of Waldenses or Albigenses, persons whose theological sentiments and religious practices were very opposite to those which were professed by the followers of Peter Waldo. ♦♦•♦♦#♦•••
** In the sketch which Reinerius has furnished of the principles of the Waldenses, it is to be remarked that there is not the slightest allusion to any erroneous opinions maintained by them regarding the faith and doctrines of the gospel, and this is a noble testimony to the soundness of their creed. For having himself been connected with them—a man of learning and talents,—he doubtless was intimately acquainted with their doctrinal sentiments ; and, hay-
« This pontiff was bishop of Rome in the days of Constantine the Great, about the year 330.
' "The meaning of this aoes not seem obvious. The words in the original are, Quidam autem hoc dicuni tantum per bonosJUri alii per omne» qui verba consecraiionis aciunt ; and the reason of the obscurity is, that, as I shall hereafter show, they did not aUow any but pastors to administer the tndiuUV^—JaMs. s Church Hist., pp. 318, 319.
ing apostatized from their profession, and become their determined adversary, he did not want inclination to bring forward any accusation against them which could be done with the smallest regard to decency on his own part. The errors of which he accuses them (a few instances excepted, and on which they repelled his slanderous charges), are such as no protestant dissenter of the present day would shrink from the odium which is connected with holding, since they will all be found in one way or other to resolve themselves into the unfounded claims of the clergy, or the introduction of human traditions and the basest superstition into the worship of God. ••••••
**Crantz, who wrote the history of the Bohemian brethren, mentions a colony of Waldenses as obtaining permission to settle at Saltz and Lun, on the river Eger, so early as. the twelfth century, which, the coincidence of time renders it nighly probable, refers to the persecuted Waldo and his brethren. Certain it is, that hb labors were crowned with great success in that country; and we have two noted authors who have left us a particular account of the faith and practices of the Waldenses in Bohemia during the fourteenth century, at which time their numbers had increased very considerably, and they had to sustain the fire of papal persecution. The first is an inquisitor of the church of Rome, who says, ^he had exact knowledge of the Waldenses,^ at whose trials he often assisted in several countries. The other is JBneas Sylvius, who wrote the history of Bohemia, and afterwards ascended the pontifical chair, with the title of pope Pius II. Thus writes the inquisitor concerning the Waldenses of Bohemia.
" Tke first error of the Waldenses, says he, is, that they affirm the church of Rome is not the church of Jesus Christ, but an assembly of ungodly men, and that she has ceased to be the true church, from the time of pope Sylvester, at which time the poison of temporal advantages was cast into the church; that all vices and sins reign in that church, and that they alone live righteously;—that they are the true church of Christ, and that the church of Rome is the whore mentioned in the Revelations. ♦•••••••
" As to the second class of their errors:—They condemn all the sacraments of the church. Concerning the sacrament of baptism, they say that the catechism signifies nothing, that the absolution pronounced over infants avails them nothing, that the godfathers and godmothers do not understand what they answer the priest. That the oblation which is called Al wo^en is nothing but a human invention. They reject all exorcisms and blessings. Concerning the eucharist, they say that a wicked priest cannot celebrate that sacrament, that transubstan-tiation is not performed by the hands of him who celebrates unworthily, and that it (the eucharist) may oe celebrated on our common tables, alleging for this the words of Malachi, i. 3:—• In every place shall a pure offering be offered to my name.' • ♦ • •
" Their third class of errors is as follows:—They contemn all approved ecclesiastical customs which they do not read of in the gospel: such as the observation of Candlemas, Palm-Sunday, the reconciliation of penitents, and the adoration of the cross on Good Friday. They despise the feast of Blaster, and all other festivals of Christ and the saints^ and say that one day is as good as another, working upon holy days, where they can do it without being taken notice of."» ••••♦•♦•♦
*^ An ancient inquisitor, to whose writings against the Waldenses I had occasion to refer in a former section, thus describes them :—
" These heretics are known by their manners and conversation, for they are orderly and modest in their behavior and deportment They avoid all appearance of pride in their dress; they neither indulge in finery of^ attire, nor are they remarKable for being mean and ragged. They avoid commerce that tney may be free from falsehood and deceit. They get their livelihood by manual industry, as day-laborers or mechanics; and their teachers are weavers or tailors. They are not anxious about amassing riches, but content themselves with the necessaries of life. They are chaste, temperate and sober. They abstain from anger. Even when they work, they either learn or teach. In like manner, also, their women are modest, avoiding backbiting, foolish jesting, and levity of speech, especially abstaining from lies or swearing, not so much as making use of the common asseverations, * in truth,' ' for certain,' or the like, because they regard these as oaths, contenting themselves with simply answering ' yes,* or ' no.'" ••••••••
" In the time of a great persecution of the Waldenses of Merindol and Provence, a certain monk was deputed by the bishop of Cavaillon to hold a conference with them that they might be convmced of their errors, and the effusion of blood prevented. But the monk re-
> Church Hist, 320-326.
timed in confnsioii, owning that, in his whole life, he had neyer known so much of the serip-tores as he had learned during those few dajrs that he had been conversing with the heretics. The )>ishop, however, sent among them a number of doctors, young men, who had lately come from the Sorbonne, which, at that time, was the very centre of theological subtlety at Paris. One of these publiclv owned that he had understood more of the doctrine of salvation from the answers of little cnildren in their catechisms, than by all Uie disputations he had ever before heard."* •••%•*%%%
** But of all the catholic writers who have treated of the Waldenses, there is none whose testimony is more important than that of Reinerius Saccho. He had himself been one of their number, and consequently could speak of them from personal knowledge. He had apostatized from their profession; was, * by merit* raised to the bad eminence ' of an inquisitor in the catholic church, and, of coarse, was become one of their bitterest persecutors. He wrote a book against them (A.D. 1258). from which I have already quoted largely in a former section. But that extract is almost wholly confined to an enumeration of the articles on which they did not agree with die catholic church. Let th^ reader now remark his unbought testimony in their favor.
" Of all the sects that have risen up against the church of Rome," says he " the Waldenses have been the most prejudicial and pernicious, inasmuch as their opposition has been of very long continuance. Add to which, that this sect is become very eeneral, for there ia •carxreiy a country to be found in which this heresy is not planted. And, In the third place, because, while all other sects beget in people a dread and horror of (tusm on account or their blasphemies against Ood, this, on the contrary, hath a great appearance of godliness: for,
" The first lesson," sajrs he in another place, " that the Waldenses teach those whom they bring over to their party, is to instruct them what kind of persons the disciples of Christ ought to be; and this they do by the doctrine of the evangelists and apostles, saying, that those only are Uie followers of the apostles who imitate their manner of ufe. Inferring from thence," says he, ** that the pope, the bishops, and the clergy, who possess the riches of this worki, and make them the object of their pursuit, do not tread in the footsteps of Uie apostles, and therefore are not the true guides of the church; it never having been the desicn of the Lord Jesus Christ to commit his chaste and well-beloved spouse to those who woiud rather prostitute her by their bad example and abominable works, than preserve her in the same state of purity in which they at nrst received her, a virgin chaste and without spot."
**• The same author has furnished us with an interesting account of the manner in which the Waldenses privately disseminated their principles among the gentry; and a proper attention to it will sufficiently explain to the reader the amount of various charges brought against them, from time to time, by the catholic writers, viz., that they allowed their women to teach. It seems to have been a common practice with their teachers, the more readily to gain access for their doctrine among persons in the higher ranks of life, to carry with them a small box of trinkets, or articles of dress, something like the hawkers or pedlars of our day, and Reinerius thus describes the manner in which they were wont to introduce themselves :—
'• • Sir. will you please to buy any rings, or seals, or trinkets V * Madam, will you look at any handkerchiefs, or pieces of needlework for veils 7 1 can aflford them cheap.* If, after ih*' purcha^, the company ask, * Have you anything more V the salesman would reply, ' O, re> I have commodities far more valuable than these, and I will make you a present of them if vou will protect me from the clergy.' Security being promised, on he would go. * The inestimable jewel I spoke of is the word of God, by which he communicates his mind to men, and which inflames their hearts with love to him. In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel wa*» «^nt from God, unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,' and so he would proceed to repeat the remaining part of the first chapter of Luke ;5 or he would begin with the thirteenth of John, and repeat the last discourse of Jesus to his disciples. If the company should seem pleased,' he would proceed to repeat the twenty-third of Matthew: ' The scribes and pharisees ■it in Moses* seat'—* Wo unto you; ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for ye
* Vesembedus's OrHtion on the Waldenses, quoted by Perrin in his Hist, des Vaudois, ch. v., M OToted by Jones, Ch. Hist., p. 347. . , „„^, . ., j v *u
s The fwwitr should keep in mind, that at this time the use of the Bible was not allowed by the pope to the hity; and, indeed, very few of the clergy knew anything about its contents.
neither go in yonrselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering, to go in. Wo nnto yon, ▼e devour widows' houses.' * And pray/should one of the company say, * against whom are these woes pronounced, think you Y —^he would reply, * Against the clergy and the monks. The doctors of the Roman church are pompous, both in their habits and their manners; thejr kyye the uppermost rooms, and the cniet seats in the synagogues, and to be called, rabbi, rabbi. For our part, we desire no such rabbis. They are incontinent. We live each in chastity, with his own wife. They are the rich and avaricious, of whom the Lord sayB. * Wo unto you, ye rich, for ye have received your consolation;' but we, * having food ana raiment, are therewith content.' They are voluptuous, and devour widows* houses;—we only eat to be refreshed and supported. They fignt, and encourage wars, and command the poor to be killed and burnt, in defiance of the saying, * He that taketh the sword shall perish oy the sword.' For our part, they persecute us for righteousness' sake. Thev do nothing but eat the bread of idleness;—we work with our hands. They monopolize tne giving of instruction, and < wo be to them that take away the key of knowledge.' But, among us, women teach as well as men; and one disciple, as soon as he is informed himself, teaches another. Among them, you can hardly fina a doctor who can repeat three chapters of the New Testament by heart;—but of us, there is scarcely man or woman who doth not retain the whole. And because we are sincere believers in Christ, and all teach and enforce a holy hfe and conversation, these scribes and pharisees persecute us to death, as their predecessors did Jesus Christ."
'* The plan adopted by the Waldenses for engadng the attention of others to the word of God, as described by Reinerius in the foregoing extract, is both simple and striking, and deserves the attention of missionaries in the present day. It seems to have been prosecuted for several centuries, even beyond the time of the reformation, as appears from the following circumstance :—" The first editor of the complete book of Reinerius, was Father Grctzer, who published it in the year 1613. In the margin of that work, opposite to the passage quoted, he has placed these words: * This is a true picture of the heretics of our age, particularly of the anabaptists.' There are few of the baptists of the present day, it is to be hoped, who would blush to own an alliance with either of the old Waldensian preachers, or the heretical baptists referred to by this father of the catholic church, at least in this part of their conduct; and. Indeed, it would be well if all our missionaries and private christians of the present day were as conversant with the word of God as the Waldenses, even in that dark age, appear, from the testimony of their very enemies, to have becn."«
Cardinal Hosius, a learned and zealous champion for the papacy, who presided at the council of Trent, lived during the Lutheran reformation, and wrote a history of the heresies of his own times, in which he says, ** The leprosy of the Waldenses spread its infection throughout all Bohemia ; and following the doctrine of Waldo, the greatest part of that kingdom separated itself from the church of Rome."^
Then follows Mr. Jones' description of the rise of the inquisition, and the armies of the crusades, by which vast multitudes of these people were slain.
SECTION III.
ALBIGENSES.
Their terrible persecutions^ and dispersion.
As these people were the same in their sentiments and general character as the Waldenses, and took their name from the city of Alby, in France, as has already been related, I shall confine my remarks to the terrible sufferings which they endured, and the scenes of havoc and slaughter to which they were exposed, and the general dispersion of those who survived into other countries.
Mr. Jones goes on to describe the efforts of the court of Rome and its col-
• Church Hist, pp. 360-362. ▼ Id., p. 367.
Afairs of. the Waldenses from 1230 to 1530.
Only a few detached sentences can be ^ren under this head, which I shall select mostly from Jones and Orchard.
During the long period of time now under review, which b scarcely equal to that which has elapsed since the reformation, the circumstances of the Waldenses were always afflictive, but, at some periods, and in some places and countries, they were much more so than others. The church of Rome, with the aid of the inquisition and the armies of crusaders, which were always ready to lend their assistance for the suppression of heresy at any point where their forces were directed, was never more active nor powerful than in the three centuries preceding the reformation. But notwithstanding this condition of this august establishment, so many were the contests of the pope with secular princes, whose affairs he attempted to regulate and control, and so violent were the wars of the dijfTerent catholic states with each other, that these obnoxious dissenters had, in different locations, seasons of temporary repose.