The History of Christianity Among the Ancient Waldenses,
by Henry D'Anvers, 1674.
The other Historical Account we are to give you, is that of the Waldenses, that eminent and famous Christian people, who have not only given so large a testimony to the truth before treated; but by the learned Usher, and many of our Protestant writers, are owned to have been the TRUE CHURCH, and from whom the Protestants do derive, in opposition to the Papacy: concerning whom, the better to preserve the savour of their precious memory, we shall observe in their story, the following method, viz., 1. Give you an account of their several names they are known by in history. 2. Their original and antiquity. 3. Their excellent and worthy conversations, as certified by their greatest enemies. 4. The progress and success of the gospel in their lands, and the methods thereof. 5. Their faithful witness against, and great sufferings under Antichrist, as I have collected them out of the best historians, both of their own and others. Though as to their own records (as Perrin and Morland inform us) the Papists have used no small industry to raze and obliterate as they have had opportunity; though in spite of their utmost malice of that kind, Providence hath preserved something amongst themselves.
First, as to the names, by which they are known and distinguished in history, you will find to be various; viz., sometimes from the places and countries of their abode; sometimes from their men of name; sometimes from reproach and slander. 1. From the places of their abode; therefore called Lyonius, or the poor people of Lyons, from that city or county of Lyons in France. Albigenses, from the city of Albi in Languedock: Tholousians, from the city Tholouse in the same province; Picards from Picardy; Lumbards, from Lumbardy in Italy; Cazars, either from a city so called in Languedock, or from the word of disgrace, signifying execrable.
Sometimes by some of their principal leaders; as Waldenses, as many suppose, from one Waldo a citizen of Lyons; though others suppose upon another account, because they were so called long before his time; as appears by the book of Claudius Seifcelius, a counsellor to Charles the Great, in the 8th century, who mentions them by that name, in his Book advers. Waldenses; who, though a good man, and in many things holding with them, yet in some things against them, which was 260 years before Waldo's time.
Sometimes they are called Beringarians, from the famous Beringarius, one of their Barbs, or Elders; sometimes Petrobrussians, from that worthy martyr, Peter Bruis; sometimes Arnoldists, from Arnold, another eminent Barb and martyr; sometimes Henricians, from Henericus; sometimes Josephets, from Joseph; Lollards, from Lollard, another of their eminent Barbs.
Sometimes by Nick-names, or terms of disgrace, viz., the Apostolici, or the Apostolick men; the Cathari, or Puritans, the old name of reproach, by which the Novatians and Donatists were called in the fourth century. Perfectionists, because they pressed after holiness. Publicanos, because they said they were sent to publish the gospel. The Fratracelli, or the Little brethren; and Fraticelli, viz., Shifting-companions. Passagenes, from their itinerant preachings. Credentes, the Believers. The Humiliati, the Humble men. The bon-homes, the good men. Siccars, cut-purses. Gazars, Execrable. Lurlupins, because, like Wolves, they inhabited the woods, caves, and mountains.
Sometimes from slanderous, lying reflections, as, the Paterines, as though they only worshipped the Father; but refused to adore the Son; because they would not fall down to the Host, nor give reverence to the Braden God. And from like reason also Arrians, as denying thereby the divinity of Christ. Maniches, because they denied the Civil Magistrates authority to depend upon the Popes, as men asserting therefore two principles. Deniers of Baptism, because they denied that of Baptism of Infants; and their inventions to be Christ's Ordinance. Denyers of Marriage, because they disowned that to be one of the Sacraments; and that many of their Barbs lived single lives.
Secondly, as to their original and antiquity, which you will find to be very ancient. Eusebius tells us in his Ecclesiastical History, Lib. 5, p. 74, that there were Churches of them in those parts of France, under Antoninus Verus, the Emperor, An. 179. Recording there a large Epistle written by them; and as a preamble thereto, he makes this following inscription, Of the Martyrdom of Saints, and Cruel Persecution in France, under Anton. Verus the Emperor. "It was the country of France, wherein the Theatre of this Wrestling, before mentioned, lay; whose chief cities and most frequented, in respect of the rest in the same region, are Lyons and Vienna; by both which cities the river Rhodonus doth run, compassing that whole country: the holy churches there sent their letters touching their martyrs, unto the churches through Asia and Phrygia, making relation of their affairs, after this manner:
The Servants of Christ inhabiting Vienna and Lyons, cities of France, unto the Brethren throughout Asia and Phrygia, having with us the same faith and hope of redemption; peace and grace, and glory from God the Father, and Christ Jesus our Lord, be multiplied.
Which excellent epistle they mention at large, and which also you may read in the Book of Martyrs.
In the Preface of the French Bible, and the first that was ever printed, they say, That they have always had the full enjoyment of that heavenly truth, contained in the Holy Scriptures, ever since they were first enriched with the same by the Apostles themselves, having in fair Manuscripts preserved the entire BIble in their native tongue, from generation to generation. - Morland, Hist. p. 14.
Rainerius, one of their grand Persecutors, and chief Inquisitor, in the time of Pope Innocent the Third, in the Thirteenth Century, gives this account of their antiquity: Among all the sects, which are, or ever were, there is none more pernicious to the Church of God than that of the Poor People of Lyons. First, because of it is of longer duration; some say it hath remained from the time of Pope Sylvester, some from the time of the Apostles. Theodore Belvedere, another of the Popish missionaries, saith, That that religion (which he calls heresy), hath been always in the Valleys of Angrogna, in his Book De Pro. Fide, page 37.
Beza affirms in his book called Historie des Homes Illustres, That the Waldenses were so called from their abode in the valleys and straighter parts of the Alps, where they had for a long time retired themselves, and one may say, they were the relicques of the pure, primitive, Christian churches; some of them were called, The Poor Men of Lyons, who, as some men have judged, had for their head a merchant of Lyons, named John, and surnamed Waldo; but herein they abuse themselves, because on the contrary, this John was so named, being one of the Waldenses.
The Waldenses in their letter to Occolampadius affirm, That their churches had continued down in constant succession from the Apostles times, so Scultetus Anal. in Anno. 1530, p. 295.
Beza, as Peter Perrin, c. 6, tells us, That the seed of the most ancient Christian Church that was, hath been most miraculously preserved in the midst of the Darkness and Errors which have been hatched by Satan in these latter times. And farther tells us, That Constance upon the Revelation, sheweth that the Reformation of the Church in the west parts of the world, began in France; and that from their source it spread itself through the rest of Europe.
In the next place you have some account of their conversation, given by their enemies themselves.
Rainerius, the Inquisitor, aforesaid, saith thus of them, That whereas all others procure horror by their blasphemies against God, this of the Lyonists hath a greater appearance of Piety, inasmuch as they live uprightly before men, and put their trust in God in all things, and observe all the Articles of the Creek; only they blaspheme the Church of God, and hold it in contempt, and therein are they easily believed of the people.
And again Jacob de Riberia, Secretary to the King of France, in his collections of Thoulouse, hath these words, viz., The Waldenses, or Lugdenses, have continued a long time; the first place they lived was in Narbone in France, and in the Diocese of Albie, &c., who disputed of Religion more subtilly than all others; were after admitted by the priests to teach publickly, not for that they approved their opinion, but because they were not comparable to them in wit. In so great honor was the sect of these men, that they were both exempted from all charges and impositions, and obtained more benefit by the wills and testaments of the dead, than the priests. A man would not hurt his enemy, if he should meet him upon the way, accompanied with one of these hereticks; insomuch that the safety of all men seemed to consist in their protection. Du Plessie. Myst. Iniqit. p. 331.
Amongst the rules and directions Rainerius gives to discover these Hereticks by (as he calls them) these are written by him, as you will find them in the Bib. Pat. Printed at Paris, 1624. Hereticks, saith he, are known by words and manners; they are in manners composed and modest; no pride in apparel, because they are therein neither costly nor sordid. They transact their affairs without lying, fraud, and swearing, being most upon handicraft-trades. Yea, their doctors or teachers are weavers, and shoemakers, who do not multiply riches, but content themselves with necessary things. These Lyonists are very chaste and temperate both in meats and drinks, who neither haunt taverns nor stews. They do much curb their passions, they are always either working, teaching, or learning, &c., very frequent in their assemblies and worships, &c. They are very modest and precise in their words, avoiding scurrility, detraction, levity, and falsehood. Neither will they say so much as verily, truly, nor such like, as bordering too much upon swearing, as they conceive; but they usually say, yea and nay.
Claudius, Archbishop of Turin, in his Treatise against the Waldenses, gives this testimony of them, that as touching their lives and manners, they have been always sound and unreprovable, without reproach or scandal among men, giving themsselves, to their power, to the observation of the commandments of God. Perrins Hist. p. 40.
The Cardinal Baronius attributeth to the Waldenses of Tholouse the title of Good Men, and that they were a peaceable people. Baron. Tom. 12. An. 1176, p. 835. However, he elsewhere (saith Perrin) imputeth unto them sundry crimes, and that very falsely.
Bernard de Garard, Lord of Haillou, saith in his History of France, Lib. 10, the Waldenses have been charged with wicked things they are not guilty of; because, saith he, they stirred the Popes and great men of the world to hate them for the liberty of their speech, which they used in condemning the vices and dissalate behavior of princes and ecclesiastical persons.
Virer, Lib. 4, c. 13, p. 249, speaks of the Waldenses as followeth: The Papists, saith he, have imposed great crimes, and that very wrongfully, upon those Ancient, Faithful people, commonly called Waldenses, or the Poor of Lyons, whose doctrine makes appear, that the Pope is Antichrist, and that his Doctrine is nothing else but Human Traditions, contrary to the Doctrine of Christ Jesus; for which cause also, they have dealt against them, as the Ancient Paynims did against the Christians; accusing them that they killed their own children in their assemblies.
Many more evidences might be brought from their enemies, who have been enforced by the force of truth self, to give most honorable reports of them. But let this suffice.
The next thing we shall acquaint you with, is the great progress and success of their doctrine.
Bullinger tells us, That not only throughout France, but Italy, Germany, Poland, Bohemia, and other countries and kingdoms of the world, the Waldenses have made profession of the gospel of Christ Jesus. Bulling. in the Preface to his Sermons.
Rainerius saith, That another thing that makes this sect more considerable than all others, is because it is more general; for there is not any country almost whereinto this sect hath not crept.
Math. Paris saith, in his History of the Life of Henry the Third in the year 1223, That the Waldenses had goodly churches in Bulgaria, Croatia, Dalmatia, and Hungaria.
George Morel, in his Memorials, p. 54, asserts, That notwithstanding all the bloody persecutions that attended the Waldenses, that in the year 1160, there was in those days above eight hundred thousand persons, that made profession of the faith of the Waldenses.
The Sea of Histories tells us, That in the year 1315, there was in the county of Passau, and about Bohemia, to the number of fourscore thousand persons, that made profession of the faith of the Waldenses.
Le Sieur de Popeliniere hath set down in his History, That the Religion of the Waldenses, hath spread itself almost in all parts of Europe, even among the Polonians, &c. And that after the year 1100 they have always sowed their doctrine, little differing from that of the modern protestants; and mangre all the powers and potentates that have opposed themselves against them, they have defended it to this day.
Rainerius saith, That in his time there were Churches of them in Constantinope, Philadelphia, Sclavonia, Bulgaria, and Digonicia, and in Albania, Lombardy, Milain, and in Romagnia, Venice, Florence, &c.
Vignier saith, That after the persecution of Picardy, they were dispersed abroad in Livonia and Sarmatia.
Trithemius recounts, That they confessed in those times, that the number of the Waldenses was so great, that they could go from Cologne to Milan, and lodge themselves with Hosts of their own profession, and that they had signs upon their homes and gates, whereby they might know them.
In the year 1200, they were in such manner multiplied, that they possessed at home the cities of Tholouse, Apariss, Montauban, Villimur, St. Antoin, Puech Laurence, Castres, Lambes, Carcasonen, Bezieers, Narbonne, Beaucaire, Avignon, Tarascon, the Count Venicin; in Dauphine, Crest, Arnaud, and Montcil Amar. And had many great Lords who took part with them; as Earl Raimond of Tholouse, and the Earl of Foix, the Vicount Beziers, Gaston Lord of Berne, Earl of Carmaine, and the Earl of Brigor; the Kings also of Arragon and England too, did may times defend their cause, by reason of their alliance with Earl Raimaud. Hologary in the History of France.
The means by which truth came to be so propagated by them, were principally these; First, by the diligent care they had to instruct their youth in the knowledge of the Scriptures, and to train them up in the nurture, fear, and admonition of the Lord, as the nurseries, seminaries, and seed-plots of grace and truth. Secondly, the industrious care and pains they took, not only to beget ministerial abilities, but the due improvement made thereof, by those engaged therein, in all parts and places whither they were sent. And thirdly, by the violent persecutions of them, whereby they came to be dispersed into most parts of the world, that old way, that knowledge and truth was propagated in the primitive times.
The first means blessed for the increase of knowledge, was the care and pains they took in the catechizing of their youth, instructing them in the knowledge of the Scriptures. Perrin, in his Second Book, p. 16. And in this it was, saith he, that they have been blessed of God above all Christian people throughout Europe, insomuch that their infants were hardly weaned from their mothers breasts, but their parents took a singular care and diligence to instruct them in the Christian faith and doctrine, until they were able to confound the ancient and the learned. And of which you have a very pregnant instance out of Vessember, in his Oration touching the Waldenses, who tells us, The Bishop of Cavaillon, in the times of the great persecution against the Waldenses, of Merindal in Provence, first sent a Monk among them, to convert them; who returned so convinced himself, that he confessed, he had not so much profited in his whole life in the Scriptures as he had done in those few days of conference with them. The Bishop not being satisfied with this Trial, sent a company of young Doctors that came lately from Sorbon, to confound them by the subtilty of their questions; but one there was among the rest, that said at his return, with a loud voice, That he had learned more touching the Doctrine necessary to salvation, in attending to the answers of the little children of the Waldenses in their catechizings, than in all the disputations of divinity which he had ever heard in Paris. Then the Bishop sent for the children themselves, and caused them in the face of a great assembly, to be interrogated, and to question one with another, and which was done with that grace and gravity, and understanding, that it was marvelous to hear; to the confounding the Doctors and Learned men then present. The story whereof you may read at large in Fox Martyrel. Lib. 2, p. 194.
And thus it was that every family was as it were a college, to instruct into the true learning that which makes wise to salvation, and furnishes to every good word and work, and which was the seed-plot to their ministry.
Rainerius tells us, That they had the Old and New Testament in the vulgar tongue, and that they teach and learn it so well, that he had seen and heard, he said, a country-clown recount all Job word for word; and divers others, that could perfectly deliver all the New Testament; and that men and women, little and great, day and night, cease not to learn and to teach.
Secondly, as to the way of their ministry, that special means appointed by God to beget faith, and increase knowledge, you have it briefly set forth by P. Perrin, as he had extracted it out of their ancient manuscripts, viz. All those who are to be received as pastors amongst us, while they remain with their brethren, are to entreat our people to receive them into the ministry; as likewise that they would please to pray to God for them, that they may be made worthy of so great a charge; and this they are to do, to give a proof or evidence of their humility. We also appoint them their lectures, and set them their tasks, that they may get by heart, not only all the New Testament, but a great part of the Old, viz., The writings of Solomon, David, and the Prophets. And afterwards, having a good testimonial, and being well approved of, they are received with imposition (or laying on of hands) and preaching. He that is received the last, ought to do nothing without the permission of him that was received before him; and in like sort, the former ought to do nothing without the consent of his associate. Our daily food, and the raiment wherewith we are covered, we have ministered and given to us freely, sufficient for us, by the good people whom we teach and instruct.
Their ministers were called Barbes, or Unkles, as Fox, p. 186. Or as some suppose, because bearded men, Elders, or Fathers. Of those, some were married, to manifest thereby their approbation of the state of Matrimony; others kept themselves single, for conveniences sake, forasmuch as they were oft-times obliged to remove and shift their habitations and abodes; and as occasion required, to undertake long and tedious voyages, for the propagating the gospel in remote and far countries; with whom they had a particular and constant correspondence; namely, into Bohemia, Germany, Calabria, and Lumbardy, whither the above said Barbes went by turns as itineraries, to visit their brethren there, and to preach the gospel of Christ among them; having not only houses of their own to entertain their Barbes, but schools also in divers countries. Vign. Mem. p. 15.
Those Barbes who remained at home in the Valleys (besides their officiating and laboring in the work of the ministry) took upon them the disciplining and instructing of the youth; especially those that were appointed for the ministry, in grammar, logic, moral philosophy, and divinity. Moreover the greatest part of them gave themselves to the study of physick and chirurgery, and herein they excelled (as their histories tell us) to admiration, thereby rendering themselves most able and skilful physicians, both of soul and body. Others of them dealt in divers mechanick arts, in imitating of Paul, who was a tent-maker, and Christ himself, who was a carpenter. Once in the year they use to have a general meeting in the month of September, to ___ of their affairs. Taken out of an Ancient Italian manuscript, as you have it, Morland's Hist. l. 1, c. 8, p. 183.
Bucer, p. 159, saith, Besides ministers of the world and sacraments, they have a certain college of men excelling in prudence and Gra---- of spirit, whose office it is to admonish and correct offending brethren, to compose such as disagreed, and judge in their causes.
And again, in Morland's Hist. p. 179. Their ministers are through God's grace, endued with excellent spirits, and were for the most part a generation of humble, holy, and honorable men, of meek, peaceable, and quiet tempers, exceeding painful in their calling, and carefully watching over their flock committed to their charge; labouring faithfully in the Lord's vineyard, and employing their whole time and talents for turning souls unto righteousness, which they did with much labor, watchings, and prayings; by suffering many buffetings, stripes, and imprisonments; yea, and many times by death itself, sealing the truth they preached to others with their own blood. In ____, they were made mortified to all the pomp, glories, and riches, to all the pleasures, honors, and preferments that the world could afford them; having their conversation as strangers, pilgrims, and sojourners here below, conforming themselves, as much as they could, to the Scriptures. _____ example of the Apostles, and proportionable thereto, were their labors blessed, and succeeded to admiration in all places where they came.
Perrin, Hist. p. 16. Their pastors, saith he, did not only content themselves to exhort them on the Sabbath-days, but went all the week to instruct them in their villages, preaching also in the fields to the keepers of the flocks.
The other way whereby the gospel was thus promoted and spread, was by the great sufferings and persecutions that attended them, especially from the twelfth century downwards: for till then, as observed by Fox, Usher, and others, there was more calmness and serenity, Satan being as it were bound, as they conceived; and the reason thereof a learned pen observes to be, that Antichrist till about this time was not arrived to his perfect stature; having now attained as well a temporal as spiritual sovereignty; his temporal advantages accrued most to him by the donation of Pepin and Charles the Great, 7 c. And his spiritual, not only by the establishment of several orders of the regular monks and friars, viz., the Benedictines, Franciscans, and Dominicans, which much advanced and strengthened the Popish usurpations; but the ratification of the canon law about this time collected by Gratian as also the sophistical school, divinity now begun by Lombard, Aquint and Albertus Magnus, that gave no small addition thereto. Now it was they durst cope with Kings and Emperors for sovereignty, and assert their bloody idolatrous masses, images, breaden god, with all force, cruelty, and violence imaginable.
Against whose pride, pomp, idolatry, and Antichristian usurpation, doth the Lord raise up these his witnesses, even these poor mean, contemptible people, who by asserting and maintaining Christ's ministry and ordinances, according to the simplicity and plainness of the Scriptures, faithfully do oppose, impugn, and confront all the Popish traditions, usurpations, and inventions, in all their grandeur. And so it may be said, that against the Beast and his Armies doth the Lamb and his Army oppose themselves.
The Waldenses now standing up, with a loud voice do call upon all to come out of Babylon, to have no fellowship or communion with her; detecting her to be that Abomination that was to sit in the temple of God, and that should corrupt the earth with her filthiness: And about this time it was that that most excellent piece touching Antichrist was brought forth by them, which deserves to be written in Letters of Gold, supposed to be written by Peter Bruis, the famous French Martyr, and which hath been preserved in all ages since, by the Waldenses in the Alps; whence Perrin tells us he received it, and which he hath printed at large, Part 3, l. 3, c. x. In which Treatise we have Antichrist described to be the Mystery of Iniquity, or a Lie under the cloak of truth.
2nd. It is said, that this Antichrist is not one single person, but a confederacy of iniquity, in opposition to Christ, &c.
3rd. This contrariety of Antichrist to Christ, consists, (1) in his worldly wisdom, (2) His pharisaical religion. (3) Managing spiritual power by secular tyranny, riches, dignity, &c. (4) by filling up the churches of Christ with carnal worldlings.
4th. That the perfection of Antichrist consists in a full usurpation of the authority of Christ, according to II. Thess. 2:4.
5th. That the work of Antichrist is to change truth into error, and error into truth. (2) to rob Christ of his merits, &c. (3) Placing sanctification of the spirit in externals, and grace and salvation in the work done. (4) Neglecting discipline. (5) By maintaining unity by tyranny.
6th. The subterfuges of Antichrist are laid open, and its causes.
7th. The moving causes and Scriptures loudly calling to come out from, and not to touch her, &c.
By such like exasperations did the Popes, whose interest and grandeur was thus struck at, come forth now with all the subtilty, malice, and revenge, that Hell, by their Devilish natures could invent, and that by several methods and stratagems to crush and suppress truth; which the more they endeavoured, the more it thrived and got ground, and increased in the nations; the blood of the Martyrs proving the seed of the Church.
By whose cunning murderous designs were much after this sort; First, the better to discover their persons and principles, they sent forth missionaries in all points to imitate them, in a plain, humble way to go up and down afoot amongst them, to dispute with them, to preach to them, to gain upon them; of this sort was Francis, Dominick and Benedict; for whose excellent service then, they have since Sainted, and set up Orders in their names, in imitation of the Poor People of Lyons; or as they would be thought, in Apostolick guise; but when that would not do, when they could neither flatter, dispute, nor preach them out of the truth, then they, Secondly, came forth with Synodical censures, condemnations, anathemas and curses, Popes Bulls and Decretals, with Emperor's Statues, Decrees, and Injunctions. But they nothing prevailing, in the next place, Thirdly, They sent out their Inquisitors, empowered and commissioned to examine, censure, and condemn, and to deliver up to the secular powers to all manner of tortures and cruel deaths, which they exercised with great severity, but all in vain.
Fourthly, they betook themselves to surprises and massacres, and to stir up Kings and Princes to raise armies, to suppress and root up this generation, and by fire and sword to lay waste their cities and countries; which they did with great devastation, especially in Provence, Daulphine, Languedoc; but the effect was as they drove them out of one country and place, they went into others; and wherever they came, they still met with the same measure from that Spirit. But God carried them through wonderfully, so that they could rejoice and glory in their tribulations, that they were accounted worthy to suffer for Christ's sake, and whose titles of honor, as they say in the preface of their Bible, were injured, reproached, fugitives, forsaken, despised, abandoned, excommunicated, anathematized, confiscated, imprisoned, tortured, banished, publickly disgraced, wearing Miters in derision, spit upon, shewn upon scaffolds, their ears cut off, their flesh plucked off with pincers, drawn with horses, dragged up and down; broyled, roasted, stoned to death, burnt, drowned, beheaded, dismembered,and other like glorious and honorable Titles, they say, of the Kingdom of Heaven.
But the more they designed to suppress Truth by these means, the more it thrives. These worthy confessors being found Overcomers by the Blood of the Lamb, and word of their Testimony, not loving their lives unto Death, as it was experienced in the several countries, in the several Ages hereafter mentioned, as at large is given you in P. Perrin's Hist., viz.,
The sufferings of the Waldensian Churches in Dauphine, in the 12th, 13th, 14th, and 14th centuries, c. 5. Their sufferings in Piedmont in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries, c. 4. Their sufferings in the Marquisate de Saluces, 16th, 17th centuries, c. 5. Their sufferings in the New Lands, 16th cent. c. 6. Their sufferings in Calabria, 14th and 16th centuries, c. 7. Their sufferings in Provence, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries, c. 8. Their sufferings in Bohemia, 15th century, c. 9. Their sufferings in Austria, 14th and 15th centuries, c. 10. Their sufferings in Germany, 13th, 14th, 15th centuries, c. 11. Their sufferings in England, 12th, 13th centuries, c. 12. Their sufferings in Flanders, 13th centuries, c. 13. Their sufferings in Poland, 12th, 14th centuries, c. 13. Their sufferings in Paris, 13th, 14th centuries, c. 15. Their sufferings in Italy, 13th, 14th, 15th centuries, c. 16. Their sufferings in Dalmatia, Croatia, Sclavonia, Constantinope, Greece, Philadelphia, Digonicia, Livonia, Sarmatia, Bulgaria, in the 13th century, c. 17. Their sufferings in Spain, 13th century, c. 18.
Their sufferings by the cruel Wars managed against them by Pope Innocent the Third, for 18 years together, in conjunction with many Kings and Princes, in Century 13, together with other wars carried on by other Popes and Kings of France and Spain, in Centuries 13 and 14, with the wonderful detriment that accrued also to the enemy, who lost sometimes an hundred thousand men at a siege, you have largely set forth in Perrin's History of the Albigenses, in two Books. Those dreadful sufferings, by Burning, Drowning, Heading, in Flanders, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, in Centuries 15, 16, as particularly you have them, p. 258 to 275. Their sufferings at Merindal and Cabrigra, by Fox, p. 201, Vol. 2. Their late sufferings in our time by the Duke of Savoy, in the Valleys of Piedmont, 1655, is largely set forth by Sir Samuel Morland, who was the agent sent with the English contribution.
Having thus finished the historical account of these Eminent Worthies, I cannot but again remember you, That this was the People that bore so great a witness for Believers, and so firmly opposed Infants Baptism, as by so many arguments in the Seventh Chapter is made good to you.
