Whoever is a good man, and wishes to love God, and fear Jesus Christ, who will neither speak ill of his neighbour, nor swear, nor lie; who will neither commit adultery, nor kill, nor steal, nor avenge himself of his enemy; of him they say, he is a Vaudois, and worthy to die (of death.)
The opinion of Theodore Bèze is given in these words. Some have believed that the Vaudois had for founder, (of this sect,) a merchant of Lyons, called Jean, surnamed Valdo, in which they are mistaken, since this John was so surnamed from being one of the first among the Vaudois.
But not to give more importance to these things than they are worthy of, let it be remarked, that it is not in the name that they bear that the Vaudois take a pride. We as well as our ancestors, esteem ourselves happy and render thanks to God in that he has pre-served in our valleys the evangelical doctrine in all its purity, without any mixture of human opinions. We rejoice that the Supreme Being has deigned to choose our country, to preserve there the torch of truth, and that it has been the beacon to which other nations have come to seek the light that has enlightened them.* We are proud of never having been reformed; but that it is at our school that the reformers have been instructed, as they themselves avow. We rejoice finally in this that our valleys are the mother church of all Reformed and Protestant Churches. These are our titles; these are our testimonies.
Every one knows that Luther and Calvin commenced their labours in 1517 and 1536, while we have a confession of faith dated 1120.**
* The Vaudois' state seal bears a candle, with rays,
surrounded by clouds; motto, Lux in Tenebris.—T.
** The noble Leiçon, quoted above; vide extract at the end
of Bresse.
It is almost needless to add the testimony of our enemies; Pope Pius II. known by the name of Aneas Sylvius before his election, and author of a history of Bohemia, printed by Anthony Bons, in which he says, they (the Bohemian heretics) have embraced the impious doctrine of the Vaudois, of that pestilential faction long ago condemned, whose doctrines are, that the Bishop of Rome is not superior to others; that there is no purgatory; that prayers for the dead are useless; that worship should not be rendered to the images of God, and the saints, &c. &c. To this testimony I must add that of Claude de Seyssel, bishop of Marseilles, and afterwards of Turin, celebrated in the reigns of Louis XI., Charles VIII., Louis XII., and Francis I., in whose reign it was thought no one could be so likely to bring back the Vaudois to the Roman Catholic faith, and he was in consequence made Bishop of Turin. The following, taken from a book written by him, expressly against them, shows all that he could find to complain of in their doctrine. They (says he of the Vaudois) will receive only that which is written in the Old and New Testaments; nay, they say that the Roman pontiffs, and other bishops, have degraded the sacred text, by their doctrine and false comments; they deny the power of absolution, celebrate no saints' days, and pretend that they alone possess the true evangelic and apostolic doctrine; they despise the indulgences of the church, detest images, teach the words of the evangelists and apostles in the vulgar tongue, and affirm that there is no power which can forbid the right of contracting marriages, and say that mass was not celebrated in the time of the apostles, &c.
CHAPTER III. ANTIQUITY OF THE VAUDOIS FAITH
We find in St. Paul's epistle to the Romans, written from Corinth, chapter xv. verse 24, that it was the intention of the apostle to go into Spain, and to pass through Italy on his way. Now if St. Paul afterwards performed this journey, he must necessarily have passed through the valleys, as they lay on his road to Spain at that time, and he would have preached the gospel in them, as he did wherever he went. From this, it is fair to conjecture that the Vaudois have received their doctrine from St. Paul himself; and if this is thought too bold an assertion, we have reason to suppose that his doctrine may have reached them during his lifetime, as it seems to have been propagated by his followers throughout Italy, before he left Rome; for in concluding his epistle from Rome, to the Hebrews, he says, "Salute all them that have the rule over you, and all saints, they of Italy salute you." He does not say they of Rome, as the number of Christians rapidly augmented in the capital, and they were nearly all dispersed by the persecutions under Nero and Domitian, it is extremely probable that some parties of this host of fugitives should have taken refuge among our mountains, in the time of the immediate successors of the apostles.
But to descend to a period of greater certainty, it is allowed by all that the whole of Italy embraced Christianity in the time of Constantine,* and therefore the Vaudois doctrines may be considered the same as those of the Universal Church, by which we do not find any superstitious rites or customs to have been adopted till the sixth century; nor are the dangerous and revolting dogmas of the court of Rome, and its flagitious practices to be traced before the end of the eighth. All that belongs to the doctrine and practice of the modern Roman communion was until then unknown, as is clearly proved by the testimony of Juellus Daitlè, Dumoulin, &c., and indirectly by the partizans of Rome, Baronius, Enuphius, Platina, &c.