Facts of Faith

The Waldenses

WHILE Constantine’s purchased converts, and the superficial-minded multitude followed the popular church, there were many honest, God-fearing Christians, who resented this sinful compromise with paganism; and, when they saw that all their protests were useless, they withdrew to places where they could more freely follow their conscience and bring up their children away from the contamination of the fallen church, which they looked upon as the “Babylon” of Revelation 17. Several hundred Sabbath-keeping Christian churches were established in southern India, and some were found even in China. Likewise, the original Celtic Church in England, Scotland, and Ireland kept the seventh-day Sabbath, as will be shown in the next chapter. FAFA 118.1

The majority of these original Christians settled, however, in the Alps, a place naturally suited for their protection, being situated where Switzerland, France, and Italy join. They could, therefore, more easily get protection in one or another of these countries, as it would be harder for the Papacy to get joint action of all these countries in case of persecution. Then, too, these mountains were so steep and high, the valleys so narrow, and the passes into them so difficult, that it would seem as though God had prepared this hiding place for His true church and truth during the Dark Ages. William Jones says: FAFA 118.2

“Angrogna, Pramol, and S. Martino are strongly fortified by nature on account of their many difficult passes and bulwarks of rocks and mountains; as if the all-wise Creator, says Sir Samuel Morland, had, from the beginning, designed that place as a cabinet, wherein to put some inestimable jewel, or in which to reserve many thousand souls, which should not bow the knee before Baal” — “History of the Christian Church,” Vol. I, p. 356, third ed. London.: 1818. FAFA 118.3

Sophia V. Bompiani, in “A Short History of the Italian Waldenses” (New York: 1897), quotes from several unquestionable authorities to show that the Waldenses, after having withdrawn to the Alps because of persecution, fully separated from the Roman church under the work of Vigilantius Leo, the Leonist of Lyons, who vigorously protested against the many false doctrines and practices that had been adopted by the Church. Jerome (A. D. 403-406) wrote a very cutting book against him in which he says: FAFA 119.1

“‘That monster called Vigilantius has escaped to the region where King Cottius reigned, between the Alps and the waves of the Adriatic. From thence he has cried out against me, and, ah, wickedness! there he has found bishops who share his crime. Sophia V. Bompiani then remarks: “This region, where King Cottius reigned, once a part of Cisalpine Gaul, is the precise country of the Waldenses. Here Leo, or Vigilantius, retired for safety from persecution, among a people already established there of his own way of thinking, who received him as a brother, and who thenceforth for several centuries were sometimes called by his name [Leonists]. Here, shut up in the Alpine valleys, they handed down through the generations the doctrines and practices of the primitive church, while the inhabitants of the plains of Italy were daily sinking more and more into the apostasy foretold by the Apostles.” — “A Short History of the Italian Waldenses,” pp. 8, 9. FAFA 119.2

“The ancient emblem of the Waldensian church is a candlestick with the motto, Lux lucet in tenebris [‘The light shineth in darkness’]. A candlestick in the oriental imagery of the Bible is a church, and this church had power from God to prophesy in sackcloth and ashes twelve hundred and sixty days or symbolic years.” — Id., p. 17. FAFA 119.3

Dr. W. S. Gilly, an English clergyman, after much research, wrote a book entitled: “Vigilantius and His Times,” giving the same information. FAFA 119.4

Roman Catholic writers try to evade the apostolic origin of the Waldenses, so as to make it appear that the Roman is the only apostolic church, and that all others are later novelties. And for this reason they try to make out that the Waldenses originated with Peter Waldo of the twelfth century. Dr. Peter Allix says: FAFA 119.5

“Some Protestants, on this occasion, have fallen into the snare that was set for them.... It is absolutely false, that these churches were ever founded by Peter Waldo.... It is a pure forgery.” — “Ancient Church of Piedmont,” pp. 192. Oxford: 1821. FAFA 120.1

” It is not true, that Waldo gave this name to the inhabitants of the valleys: they were called Waldenses, or Vaudes, before his time, from the valleys in which they dwelt.” — Id., p. 182. FAFA 120.2

On the other hand, he “was called Valdus, or Waldo, because he received his religious notions from the inhabitants of the valleys.” — “History of the Christian Church,” William Jones, Vol. II, p. 2. See also Sir Samuel Morland’s “History of the Evangelical Churches of the Valleys of Piedmont,” pp. 29,30. FAFA 120.3

Henri Arnaud, a leading pastor among the Waldenses, says: FAFA 120.4

“Their proper name, Vallenses, is derived from the Latin word vallis, and not, as has been insinuated, from Valdo, a merchant of Lyons.” “The Glorious Recovery by the Vaudois,” Henri Arnaud, p. xiii. London: 1827. FAFA 120.5

The Roman Inquisitor, Reinerus Sacho, writing about 1230 AD., Says: FAFA 120.6

“The heresy of the Vaudois, or poor people of Lyons, is of great antiquity. Among all sects that either are, or have been, there is none more dangerous to the Church, than that of the Leonists, and that for three reasons: the first is, because it is the sect of the longest standing of any; for some say that it has been continued down ever since the time of Pope Sylvester; and others, ever since that of the apostles. The second is, because it is the most general of all sects; for scarcely is there any country to be found where this sect bath not spread itself. And the third, because it has the greatest appearance of piety; because, in the sight of all, these men are just and honest in their transactions, believe of God what ought to be believed, receive all the articles of the Apostles’ Creed, and only profess to hate the Church of Rome.” — Quoted on page 22 of William Stephen Gilly’s “Excursion, ” fourth edition. London: 1827.

Now it must be clear as the noonday sun, that Reinerus would not have written as he did, if the Waldenses had originated with Peter Waldo, only seventy-five years before; nor could Waldo’s followers have multiplied and spread over the whole world in so short a time, under great persecution, and with so slow means of travel. FAFA 121.1

Henri Arnaud, a Waldensian pastor, says of their origin: FAFA 121.2

“Neither has their church been ever reformed, whence arises its title of Evangelic. The Vaudois are, in fact, descended from those refugees from Italy who, after St. Paul had there preached the gospel, abandoned their beautiful country and fled, like the woman mentioned in the Apocalypse, to these wild mountains, where they have to this day handed down the gospel from father to son in the same purity and simplicity as it was preached by St. Paul.” — “The Glorious Recovery by the Vaudois,” p. xiv of preface by the Author, translated by Acland. London: 1827. FAFA 121.3