Facts of Faith

Names Of The Waldenses

John P. Perrin of Lyons writes of how the Waldenses went under different names, either from the territory in which they lived, or from the name of the missionary they had sent to that country. He says: FAFA 124.1

“First therefore they called them ... Waldenses; of the countries of Albi, Albigeois [Albigenses] .... FAFA 124.2

“And from one of the disciples of Valdo, called Ioseph [Joseph], who preached in Dauphiney in the diocesse of Dye, they were called Iosephists [Josephites].... FAFA 124.3

“Of one of their pastors who preached in Albegeois, named Arnold Hot, they were called Arnoldists.... FAFA 124.4

“And because they observed no other day of rest but the Sabbath days, they called them Insabathas, as much as to say, as they observed no Sabbath. FAFA 124.5

“And because they were alwayes exposed to continuall sufferings, from the Latin word Pati, which signifieth to suffer, they called them Patareniens. FAFA 124.6

“And for as much as like poore passengers, they wandered from one place to another, they were called Passagenes,” — “Luther’s Fore-Runners,” (original spelling) pp. 7, 8. London: 1624. FAFA 124.7

This author quotes the following from the Waldensian faith: FAFA 124.8

“That we are to worship one only God, who is able to help us, and not the Saints departed, — that we ought to keep holy the Sabbath day, but that there was no necessity of observing other feasts’ — Id., p. 88. FAFA 124.9

Goldastus, a learned German historian (A. D. 1576-1635) says of them: FAFA 124.10

They were called “Insabbatati, not because they were circumcised, but because they kept the Jewish Sabbath.” “Circumcisi forsan illifuerint, qui aliis Insabbatati, non quod circumciderentur, inquit Calvinista [Goldastus] sed quod in Sabbato judaizarent.” Robert Robinson, in “Ecclesiastical Researches,” chap, 10, p. 803. (Quoted in “History of the Sabbath,” J. N. Andrews, p 412, ed. 1887.) FAFA 124.11

David Benedict, M. A., says: FAFA 125.1

“Robinson gives an account of some of the Waldenses of the Alps, who were called Sabbati, Sabbatati, Insabbatati, but more frequently Inzabbatati. ‘One says they were so named from the Hebrew word Sabbath, because they kept the Saturday for the Lord’s day. Another says they were so called because they rejected all the festivals.” — “General History of the Baptist Denomination,” Vol. II, P. 413. Boston: 1813.

Dr. J. L. Mosheim says: FAFA 125.2

“Pasaginians ... had the utmost aversion to the dominion and discipline of the church of Rome; ... and celebrated the Jewish Sabbath.” — “Ecclesiastical History” (two-volume edition), Cent. 12, Part 2, Chap. 5, Sec. 14, Vol. I, p. 333. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1871.

The papal author, Bonacursus, wrote the following against the “Pasagini “: FAFA 125.3

“Not a few, but many know what are the errors of those who are called Pasagini.... First, they teach that we should obey the law of Moses according to the letter - the Sabbath, and circumcision, and the legal precepts still being in force.... Furthermore, to increase their error, they condemn and reject all the church Fathers, and the whole Roman Church.” — “D’Achery, Spicilegium I, f. 211-214; Muratory, Antiq. med. aevi. 5, f. 152, Hahn, 3, 209. Quoted in “History of the Sabbath,” J. N. Andrews, pp. 547, 548. 1912. FAFA 125.4

The Roman Catholic Church has always had a special enmity toward the Bible Sabbath and Sabbath-keepers. Mr. Benedict says: FAFA 125.5

“It was the settled policy of Rome to obliterate every vestige of opposition to her doctrines and decrees, everything heretical, whether persons or writings, by which the faithful would be liable to be contaminated and led astray. In conformity to this, their fixed determination, all books and records of their opposers were hunted up, and committed to the flames.” — “History of the Baptist Denomination,” p. 50. 1849.

Dr. De Sanctis, who for years was a Catholic official at Rome, and at one time Censor of the Inquisition, but who later became a Protestant, reports in his book a conversation of a Waldensian scholar as he pointed to the ruins of the Palatine Hill at Rome: FAFA 126.1

“‘See,’ said the Waldensian, ‘a beautiful monument of ecclesiastical antiquity. These rough materials are the ruins of the two great Palatine libraries, one Greek and the other Latin, where the precious manuscripts of our ancestors were collected, and which Pope Gregory 1, called the Great, caused to be burned.”’ - “Popery, Puseyism; Jesuitism, “De Sanctis”, p. 53. FAFA 126.2

Eternity alone will reveal how many precious manuscripts have been destroyed by Rome in its effort to blot out all traces of apostolic Christianity. FAFA 126.3

We have now seen that the ancient apostolic church, scattered by persecution, and often in hiding, went under various names. Being peaceful, virtuous, and industrious citizens, they were tolerated, or even shielded, by princes who understood their value to the country, while the Catholic Church hunted them down like wild beasts. After the Waldenses and Albigenses had lived quietly in France for many years, Pope Innocent III wrote the following instruction to his bishops: FAFA 126.4

“Therefore by this present apostolical writing we give you a strict command that, by whatever means you can, you destroy all these heresies and expel from your diocese all who are polluted with them. You shall exercise the rigor of the ecclesiastical power against them and all those who have made themselves suspected by associating with them. They may not appeal from your judgments, and if necessary, you may cause the princes and people to suppress them with the sword.” — “A Source Book for Medieval History,” Oliver J. Thatcher and E. H. McNeal, p. 210. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1905. Philippus van Limborch, Professor of Divinity at Amsterdam, speaking of the way the liberty of the people was suppressed after 1050, says: FAFA 126.5

“In the following ages the affairs of the church were so managed under the government of the Popes, and all persons so strictly curbed by the severity of the laws, that they durst not even so much as whisper against the received opinions of the church. Besides this, so deep was the ignorance that had spread itself over the world, that men, without the least regard to knowledge and learning, received with a blind obedience every thing that the ecclesiastics ordered them, however stupid and superstitious, without any examination; and if any one dared in the least to contradict them, he was sure immediately to be punished; whereby the most absurd opinions came to be established by the violence of the Popes.” — “History of the Inquisition,” p. 79. London: 1816. FAFA 127.1

Ignorance and superstition generated vice of the basest sort, and brought the Christian world into the darkest of the Dark Ages, which made the Reformation of the sixteenth century an absolute necessity. And, as “the darkest hour of the night is just before dawn,” so the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries were the darkest in the Christian Era. For a time, however, there were still a few lights shining on the religious horizon, shedding their mild gospel light into the dense darkness. But when these were extinguished, the darkness became well-nigh complete. 1. The Celtic church of Scotland and Ireland had sent their missionaries with an open Bible into almost every country of Europe. The gospel lamp of Scotland was extinguished in 1069; that of Ireland in 1172; that of the ancient Albigenses in 1229; the Assyrian lamp of the East was extinguished at Malabar, India, by the Inquisition in 1560; and the Waldensian lamp, that had been shining the longest, and had sent its mild rays over Europe for centuries, was extinguished in 1686. The history of these evangelical churches during this dark period is very interesting and has many valuable lessons for our day. FAFA 127.2

The Waldenses and Albigenses were quiet and industrious people, and followed the Bible standard of morality, which actually caused their persecution. FAFA 127.3

“But their crowning offence was their love and reverence for Scripture, and their burning zeal in making converts. The Inquisitor of Passau informs us that they had translations of the whole Bible in the vulgar tongue, which the Church vainly sought to suppress, and which they studied with incredible assiduity.... Many of them had the whole of the New Testament by heart.... Surely if ever there was a God-fearing people it was these unfortunates under the ban of Church and State.... The inquisitors ... [declare] that the sign of a Vaudois, deemed worthy of death, was that he followed Christ and sought to obey the commandments of God.” — “History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages,” H. C. Lea, Vol. I, pp. 86, 87. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1888. FAFA 128.1

“In fact, amid the license of the Middle Ages ascetic virtue was apt to be regarded as a sign of heresy.” — Id., p. 87. FAFA 128.2

On the other hand, the licentious lives of the Catholic clergy placed insurmountable barriers for a Waldensian ever to become a Catholic. When in 1204 Pope Innocent III sent his commissioners to crush the peaceful Waldenses and Albigenses in Southern France “with fire and sword,” these monks returned to the pope asking for help to reform the lives of the Catholic priests. Lea says: FAFA 128.3

‘The legates ... appealed to him for aid against prelates whom they had failed to coerce, and whose infamy of life gave scandal to the faithful and an irresistible argument to the heretic. Innocent curtly bade them attend to the object of their mission and not allow themselves to be diverted by less important matters.” — Id., p. 129. FAFA 128.4

Professor Philippus van Limborch writes: FAFA 128.5

“It was the entire study and endeavour of the popes, to crush, in its infancy, every doctrine that any way opposed their exorbitant power. In the year 1163, at the synod of Tours, all the bishops and priests in the country of Tholouse, were commanded ‘to take care, and to forbid, under the pain of excommunication, every person from presuming to give reception, or the least assistance to the followers of this heresy, which first began in the country of Tholouse, whenever they shall be discovered. Neither were they to have any dealings with them in buying or selling; that by being thus deprived of the common assistances of life, they might be compelled to repent of the evil of their way. Whosoever shall dare to contravene this order, let them be excommunicated, as a partner with them in their guilt. As many of them as can be found, let them be imprisoned by the Catholic princes, and punished with the forfeiture of all their substance.’

“Some of the Waldenses, coming into the neighbouring kingdom of Arragon, king Ildefonsus, in the year 1194, put forth, against them, a very severe and bloody edict, by which ‘he banished them from his kingdom, and all his dominions, as enemies of the cross of Christ, prophaners of the Christian religion, and public enemies to himself and kingdom.’ He adds: ‘If any, from this day forwards, shall presume to receive into their houses, the aforesaid Waldenses and Inzabbatati, or other heretics, of whatsoever profession they be, or to hear, in any place, their abominable preachings, or to give them food, or to do them any kind office whatsoever; let him know, that he shall incur the indignation of Almighty God and ours; that he shall forfeit all his goods, without the benefit of appeal, and be punished as though guilty of high treason.” — “History of the Inquisition,” pp. 88, 89. London: 1816. FAFA 129.1

To destroy completely these heretics Pope Innocent 111 sent Dominican inquisitors into France, and also crusaders, promising “a plenary remission of all sins, to those who took on them the crusade ... against the Albigenses.” When Raymond VI, Earl of Tholouse, shielded these innocent people, who were such an asset to his country, he was “deposed by the pope.” ¹³ Being frightened by the savage crusaders Raymond submitted, and the papal legate had him publicly whipped twice till “he was so grievously torn by the stripes” that he had to leave the church by a back door. (Id., pp. 98, 100) He later appealed to Innocent 111. “The pope, however, ceded the estates of Raymond to Simon de Montfort,” (1215) ¹⁴. Thousands of God’s people were tortured to death by the Inquisition, buried alive, burned to death, or hacked to pieces by the crusaders. While devastating the city of Biterre the soldiers asked the Catholic leaders how they should know who were heretics; Arnold, Abbot of Cisteaux, answered: “Slay them all, for the Lord knows who is His.” — Id., pp. 99, 101. FAFA 129.2

In 1216 to 1221 Raymond reconquered his land, and after his death (1221) his son became Earl, and “the Inquisition was banished from the country of Tholouse.” But Pope Honorius III “proclaimed an holy war, to be called the ‘Penance war,’ against the heretics,” and “to subdue the Earl of Tholouse, he sent letters to King Louis” of France to make war on Raymond, which he did. But treachery, which has always been one of the most successful weapons of the Papacy against God’s people, had to be resorted to here: When the Pope’s legate saw that he could not take the city of Avignon by force, he “scrupled not to adopt the vilest treachery and to practice the basest hypocrisy. He offered to suspend hostilities, and to pave the way for peace, if the besieged would admit a few priests, only to inquire concerning the faith of the inhabitants: and those terms being agreed upon and scaled by mutual oaths; the priests entered, but in direct violation of their solemn engagement, brought the French army with them, who thus fraudulently triumphed over the unsuspecting citizens; they plundered the city, killed or bound in chains the inhabitants.” — Id., pp. 104-106. FAFA 130.1

(This is in perfect harmony with the Catholic teaching and practice, that they need not keep faith with a heretic, as carried out in the case of John Huss. In spite of the safe-conduct from the Emperor Sigismund, be was imprisoned, November 28, 1414, and burned July 6, 1415) FAFA 130.2