Waldensian literature long retained the impress given to it by Waldo of stringing together extracts from the Fathers of the Church. The slavishness with which these were followed is curiously exemplified in an exposition of Canticles analyzed by M. Montet (op. cit. p. 66). The verse “Take us the little foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines” (Cant. ii. 15) in mediæval exegesis was traditionally explained by the ravages of heretics in the Church. In the papal bulls urging the Inquisition to redoubled activity the heretics are habitually alluded to as the foxes which ravage the vineyard of the Lord. If any originality could be looked for in Waldensian exposition, we might expect it in this passage, and yet Angelomus, Bruno, and Bernard are duly quoted by the Waldensian teacher to show that the foxes are heretics and the vines are the Church.
[58] Chron. Canon. Laudunens. ann. 1177, 1178 (Bouquet XIII. 682).—Stephani de Borbone 1. c.—Richard. Cluniac. 1. c.—David Augustens. 1. c.—Monetæ 1. c.—Gault. Mapes de Nugis Curialium Dist. 1. cap. xxxi.—Lucii PP. III. Epist. 171.—Conrad. Ursperg. ann. 1210—Bernardi Fontis Calidi adv. Waldenses Liber.
[59] Alani de Insulis contra Hæreticos Lib. II.—Disputat. inter Cathol. et Paterin. (Martene Thesaur. V. 1754).—Rescript. Pauperum Lombard. 21, 22 (W. Preger, Beiträge, pp. 60, 61).—Eymerici Direct. Inquis. p. ii. q. 14. (pp. 278, 279).—Petri Sarnaii Hist. Albigens. cap. 2.—In 1321, a man and wife brought before the Inquisition of Toulouse both refused to swear, and they alleged as a reason, in addition to the sinful nature of the oath, the man that it would subject him to falling sickness, the woman that she would have an abortion (Lib. Sententt. Inq. Tolosan. Ed. Limborch, p. 289).
In the persecution of the Waldenses of Piedmont towards the close of the fourteenth century, one of the crucial questions of the inquisitors was as to belief in the validity of the sacraments of sinful priests.—Processus contra Valdenses (Archivio Storico Italiano, 1865, No. 39, p. 48).
[60] Rivista Cristiana, Marzo, 1887, p. 92.—Pegnæ Comment. 39 in Eymerici Director. p. 281.—Steph. de Borbone 1. c.—Concil. Gerundens. ann. 1197 (Aguirre, V. 102, 103).—Marca Hispanica, p. 1384.
[61] See the Sentences of Pierre Cella in Doat, XXII—Montet, Hist. Litt. des Vaudois, pp. 116 sq.
[62] Tract. de Paup. de Lugd. (Martene Thesaur. V. 1792).—Wadding. Annal. Minor. Ann. 1332, No. 6.—Bern. Guidon. Practica P. v. (Doat, XXX.).—Montet Hist. Litt. pp. 38, 44, 45, 89, 142.—Haupt, Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte, 1885 p. 551.—Pet. Cœlest. (Preger, Beiträge, pp. 68, 69).—Kaltner, Konrad von Marburg, pp. 69-71.—Rescript. Paup. Lombard. §§ 4, 5, 17, 19, 22, 23.—Nobla Leyczon, 409-413; cf. Montet. pp. 49, 50, 103, 104, 143.—Passaviens. Anon. cap. 5 (Mag. Bib. Pat. XIII. 300).—Disput. inter Cath. et Paterin. (Martene Thesaur. V. 1754).—David Augustens. (ibid. p. 1778).—Lucæ Tudens. de altera Vita Lib. I. cap. 4-7.—Tract. de modo procedendi contra Hæret. (Doat XXX.).—Index Error. Waldens. (Mag. Bib. Pat. XIII. 340).—P. de Pilichdorf contra Waldens. cap. 34.—Lib. Sententt. Inq. Tolosan. pp. 200, 201.—Nobla Leyczon, 17-24, 387-405, 416-423.
Yet it was impossible to resist the contagion of superstition. The Pomeranian Waldenses, in 1394, are described as believing that if a man died within a year after confession and absolution, he went directly to heaven. Even speaking with a minister preserved one from damnation for a year. There is even a case of a legacy of eight marks for prayers for the soul of the deceased.—Wattenbach, Sitzungsberichte der Preuss. Akad. 1886, pp. 51, 52.
[63] Passaviens. Anon. cap. 5.—Bernard. Guidon. Practica P. v.—David Augustens. (Martene Thesaur. V. 1786).—Steph. de Borbone, l. c.—Wattenbach, ubi sup.—Lib. Sententt. Inq. Tolosan. p. 352.
[64] Wattenbach, Sitzungsberichte der Preuss. Akad. 1886, p. 51.—Lib. Sentt. Inq. Tolosan. p. 367.—Anon. Passaviens. cap. 7, 8.—Refutat. Error. Waldens. (Mag. Bib. Pat. XIII. 336).—David Augustens. (Martene Thesaur. V. 1771-1772).—Archivio Storico Italiano, 1865, No. 38, pp. 39, 40.—Rorengo, Memorie Istoriche, Torino 1649, p. 12.—Even as late as the end of the fourteenth century, in the extensive inquisitions of the Celestinian Peter, from Styria to Pomerania, there is no allusion to immoral practices. (Preger, Beiträge, pp. 68-72; Wattenbach, ubi sup.).