The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

II. Vaudois Literature and Language

1. MORLAND’S EMBASSY SECURES DOCUMENTS AND PRODUCES HISTORY

Sir Samuel Morland, Cromwell’s special ambassador to the duke of Savoy on behalf of the persecuted Waldenses, was urged by Archbishop Ussher, who had started his own collection, to acquire whatever manuscripts he could find while on his visit to the Waldensians. Morland did so, and upon his return brought a collection of these writings to England in 1658. As the result of this mission Morland produced his famous history, based on his researches and on the original source documents secured. It was an official report to the British nation, dedicated to Cromwell ³ The world owes a great debt to this Cromwell expedition and to Morland’s diligence, which resulted in gathering this remarkable exhibit of the writings of the Waldenses of the Cottian Alps-creeds, confessions, treatises, and sermons in the Vaudois dialect. From these documents he drew many extracts for his remarkable history, ⁴ which was written to demonstrate (1) the antiquity o f their origin, and (2) the apostolicity of their faith. These manuscripts, which were assembled in the form of books labeled “A,” “B,” “C,” et cetera, were deposited by Morland in the Cambridge University Library. This is his statement: PFF1 862.4

“The true Originals of all which were collected with no little pains and industry, by the Authour of this History, during his abode in those parts, and at his Return, by him presented to the publick Library of the famous University of Cambridg.” ⁵ PFF1 863.1

2. “ROMAUNT” LINK BETWEEN LATIN AND MODERN LANGUAGES

The language of the writings of the Piedmont Waldenses was a form intermediate between the Latin and the modern Romance languages. Under the impact of the barbarian conquerors from the north, during the dismemberment of Western Rome and in the following centuries, the Latin of the conquered, as well as the dialects of the conquerors, had undergone a profound change. Latin, which for centuries had been the language of Gaul, Spain, and Italy, had suffered a definite decomposition. The so-called Lingua Romana, the Romount, or early Romance vernacular, was the result, according to the older, theory, ⁶ but it is now believed that rather than one intermediate language there were from the, first a number of dialects which: grew directly out of the common spoken Latin in the various regions. ⁷ The term Remount is referred to here because Gilly, whose Romaunt Version is cited, uses the. terminology based on the older theory current in his day. PFF1 863.2

Picture 1: WHERE THE WALDENSES LIVED AND SUFFERED FOR THEIR FAITH
Old Waldensian stone church in innermost Angrogna Valley (upper); title page of master copy of bull of innocent VIII calling for complete extirpation of the Vaudois, and page showing authentication seal (lower left); stone table formerly used by student in Waldensian training school (inset).
Page 865

Gradually, as time passed, the many varieties of local patois settled down to well-defined forms, with accepted rules and grammar, until the modern French, Spanish, and Italian were formed-roughly from the eighth to the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries. ⁸ The older term “Romaunt” and the modern “Romance” refer to the languages which grew out of the “vulgar Latin” of the Gallic, Italian, and Spanish; provinces of the Roman Empire. PFF1 865.1

3. LANGUAGE OF REFORM AND OF VERNACULAR’ SCRIPTURES

The medieval Romance dialects not only contributed to the revival, of letters in the Middle Ages-Provencal was the language of the song-poems of the troubadours-but far more important, they furnished the vehicle for the early attempts to reform the corruptions of the church, both by preaching and by the circulation of religious treatises in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, which is our immediate concern. The homilies of the councils of Tours and Rheims: were translated into “Romaunt” under the urge of. Charlemagne. ⁹ PFF1 865.2

Walter Map states that at the Third Lateran Council some “Valdesians” presented to the pope a book of portions of the Scriptures with glosses, written in: the: “Gallic”. tongue. ¹⁰ The Passau Inquisitor of the thirteenth century complains that a leading citizen of Lyons taught the New Testament “in the vulgar tongue.” ¹¹ Finally, the first of the vernacular translations of Scripture were prohibited by ecclesiastical authority at the Council of Toulouse in 1299. ¹² Gilly also clearly believes that as early as the twelfth century the complete New Testament in the “Romaunt,” ¹³ the first vernacular version since the—fall of the empire, though there were earlier partial translations. PFF1 865.3

Claude Seyssel, archbishop of Turin, who visited the Waldenses of the Piedmontese valleys in 1517, boasted that he was the first prelate in the history of man to visit them episcopally. Seyssel refers repeatedly to books in the vulgar tongue by which the Waldenses were confirmed it’s their hostility to the Roman church. ¹⁴ PFF1 866.1

4. WALDENSIAN LANGUAGE AN ALPINE DIALECT

The Vaudois dialect was an intermediate Romance, idiom distinct from its original, with a characteristic suppression of certain final consonants indicating a loss of some original terminations. Experts have differed as to whether its source was France, as would be expected if Waldo’s followers settled the valleys and brought with them the speech of Lyons, and some of the arguments have been colored by controversy. Böhmer says that the Alpine Waldenses show affinities for the Lombard group, and that the language of their later manuscripts belongs not to Lyons but to the east Provençal branch, in the Cottian Alps. ¹⁵ Comba, citing various authorities, says that the progress of linguistic science returns to the opinion of Raynouard that the Waldensian language was Provencal, although the modern dialect is being transformed under French and Italian influence. ¹⁶ This becomes, therefore, an evidence of their Alpine origin. PFF1 867.1