No cross, no crown

by William Penn

XV. The Waldenses[54] were a people so called from one Peter Waldo, a citizen of Lyons in France, in the year 1160, who inhabited Piedmont, elsewhere called Albigenses, from Albi, a city of Languedoc in France; Lollards in England, from one Reynard Lollard, who some time after came into these parts, and preached boldly against the idolatries, superstitions, and vain conversation of the inhabitants of this island. They had many other names, as Arnoldists, Esperonists, Henricians, Siccars, Insabaches, Paterenians, Turlupins, Lyonists, Fraticelli, Hussites, Bohemians (still the same;) but finally, by their enemies, damnable heretics, though by the Protestants, the true church of Christ. And to omit many testimonies, I will instance only in Bishop Usher, who in his discourse of the succession of the Christian church, defends them not only as true reformers, but makes the succession of the Protestant church to be mainly evincible from their antiquity. I shall forbear all the circumstances and principles they held, or in which he strongly defends them against the cruelty and ignorance of their adversaries, particularly Rainerius, Rubis, Capetaneis, &c. only what they held concerning our present subject of apparel and recreations, I cannot be so injurious to the truth, their self-denial, the good of others, at whose reformation I aim, and my own discourse, as to omit it. And therefore I shall proceed to allege their faith and practice in these matters, however esteemed but of a trifling importance, by the loose, wanton, and carnal minded of this generation, whose feeling is lost by the enjoyment of their inordinate desires, and that think it a high state of Christianity to be no better than the beasts that perish, namely, in not being excessive in Newgate and mere kennel enormities. That these ancient reformers had another sense of these things, and that they made the conversation of the gospel of a crucified Jesus to intend and require another sort of life, than what is used by almost all those who account themselves members of his church, I shall show out of their own doctrines, as found in their most authentic histories.

XVI. To be brief, in their exposition upon the Lord's prayer, that part of it which speaks thus, "Give us this day our daily bread:"[55] where, next to that spiritual bread, which they make it to be the duty of all to seek more than life, they come positively to deny the praying for more than is requisite for outward necessities, or that it is lawful to use more; condemning all superfluity and excess, out of fashion, pride, or wantonness, not only of bread, but all outward things, which they judge to be thereby comprehended; using Ezekiel's words,[56] (Ezek. xvi. 45,) that fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness were the cause of the wickedness and the abominations of Sodom, for which God by fire destroyed them off the earth. Whereupon they conclude with an ancient father of the primitive church, after this manner, that costly apparel, superfluity in diet, as three dishes when one will serve, play, idleness, and sleep, fatten the body, nourish luxury, weaken the spirit, and lead the soul unto death; "But," say they, "a spare diet, labour, short sleep, plain and mean garments, help to purify the soul, tame the body, mortify the lusts of the flesh, and comfort the spirit." So severe were they, that, in the chapter of the instructions of their children,[57] they would not suffer them to converse with those of strange places or principles, whose conversation was gaming, plays, and the like wanton recreations; but especially concerning young women. "A man," say they, "must have a great care of his daughter. Hast thou daughters? Keep them within to wholesome things; see they wander not; for Dinah, Jacob's daughter, was corrupted by being seen of strangers." They affirm no better to be the general event of such conversation.

To which I shall add their judgment and practice concerning taverns,[58] public houses for treats and pleasures, with which the land swarms in our days.

XVII. "A tavern is the fountain of sin,[59] the school of the devil; it works wonders fitting the place. It is the custom of God to show his power in his church, and to work miracles; that is to say, to give sight to the spiritually blind, to make the lame to leap, the dumb to sing, the deaf to hear: but the devil doth quite contrary to all these in taverns, and the like places of pleasure. For when the drunkard goes to the tavern, he goes upright: but when he comes forth, he cannot go at all; he has lost his sight, speech, and hearing too." "The lectures that are read in this school of the devil," say these poor Waldenses, and first reformers, "are gluttonies, oaths, perjuries, lyings, blasphemies, flatteries, and divers other wicked villanies and pernicious effects, by which the heart is withdrawn further and further from God." And, as the book of Ecclesiasticus saith, the taverner shall not be freed from sin.

But above other recreations, do but seriously observe, of what danger and ill consequence these first reformers thought dancing, music, and the like pastimes to be, which are the greatest divertisements of the times, viz.:

XVIII. "Dancing is the devil's procession,[60] and he that entereth into a dance entereth into his procession, the devil is the guide, the middle, and the end of the dance; as many paces as man maketh in dancing, so many paces doth he make to go to hell.[61] A man sinneth in dancing divers ways, for all his steps are numbered, in his touch, in his ornaments, in his hearing, sight, speech, and other vanities. And therefore we will prove, first by the Scripture, and afterwards by divers other reasons, how wicked a thing it is to dance. The first testimony that we will produce is that which we read in the gospel, where it is said, it pleased Herod so well, that it cost John Baptist his life. (Mark, vi. 22-28; Exodus, xxxii. 4-7, 19.) The second is in Exodus, when Moses, coming near to the congregation, saw the calf, he cast the tables from him, and broke them at the foot of the mountain; and afterwards it cost three thousand of their lives. Besides, the ornaments which women wear in their dances, are as crowns for many victories which the devil hath got against the children of God: for the devil hath not only one sword in the dance, but as many as there are beautiful and well-adorned persons in the dance; for the words of a woman are a glittering sword. And therefore that place is much to be feared wherein the enemy hath so many swords, since that only one sword of his may be justly feared. Again, the devil in this place strikes with a sharpened sword; for women, who make it acceptable, come not willingly to the dance, if they be not painted and adorned; which painting and ornament is as a whetstone on which the devil sharpeneth his sword.—They that deck and adorn their daughters, are like those that put dry wood to the fire, to the end it may burn the better: for such women kindle the fire of luxury in the hearts of men. As Sampson's foxes fired the Philistines' corn, so these women, they have fire in their faces, and in their gestures and actions, their glances and wanton words, by which they consume the goods of men." They proceed, "The devil in the dance useth the strongest armour that he hath: for his most powerful arms are women; which is made plain unto us, in that the devil made choice of the woman to deceive the first man; so did Balaam, that the children of Israel might be rejected of God. By a woman he made Sampson, David, and Absalom to sin. The devil tempteth men by women three manner of ways; that is, by the touch, by the eye, by the ear; by these three means he tempteth foolish men to dancing, by touching their hands, beholding their beauty, hearing their songs and music."—Again, "They that dance break that promise and agreement they have made with God in baptism, when their godfathers promise for them, that they shall renounce the devil and all his pomp; for dancing is the pomp of the devil; and he that danceth maintaineth his pomp, and singeth his mass. For the woman that singeth in the dance is the prioress, or chief of the devil, and those that answer are the clerks, and the beholders are the parishioners, and the music are the bells, and the fiddlers the ministers of the devil. For, as when hogs are strayed, if the hogherd call one, all assemble themselves together; so the devil causeth one woman to sing in the dance, or to play on some instrument, and presently gather all the dancers together."—Again, "In a dance, a man breaks the ten commandments of God: as first, Thou shalt have no other God but me, &c., for in dancing, a man serves that person whom he most desires to serve, after whom goes his heart; and therefore Jerome saith, 'Every man's god is that he serves and loves best;'[62] and that he loves best which his thoughts wander and gad most after. He sins against the second commandment when he makes an idol of that he loves. Against the third, in that oaths, and frivolously using God's name, are frequently among dancers. Against the fourth, for that by dancing the sabbath-day is profaned. Against the fifth, for in the dance parents are many times dishonoured, since thereby many bargains are made without their counsel. Against the sixth, a man kills in dancing, for every one that sets about to please another, he kills the soul as oft as he persuades unto lust. Against the seventh, for the party that danceth, be it male or female, committeth adultery with the party they lust after; for he that looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart. Against the eighth, a man sins in dancing when he withdraweth the heart of another from God. Against the ninth, when in dancing he speaks falsely against the truth, and for some little honour, or secret lascivious end, denies what is true, or affirms what is false. Against the tenth, when women affect the ornaments of others, and men covet the wives, daughters, and servants of their neighbours, which undeniably attends all such plays and sports."—Again, "A man may prove how great an evil dancing is, by the multitude of sins that accompany those that dance; for they dance without measure or number;" "And therefore," saith Augustine,[63] "the miserable dancer knows not, that as many paces as he makes in dancing, so many leaps he makes to hell. They sin in their ornaments after a five-fold manner: First, by being proud thereof. Secondly, by inflaming the hearts of those that behold them. Thirdly, when they make those ashamed that have not the like ornaments, giving them occasion to covet the like. Fourthly, by making women importunate in demanding the like ornaments of their husbands: and, Fifthly, when they cannot obtain them of their husbands, they seek to get them elsewhere by sin. They sin by singing and playing on instruments; for their songs bewitch the hearts of those that hear them with temporal delight, forgetting God; uttering nothing in their songs but lies and vanities; and the very motion of the body which is used in dancing, gives testimony enough of evil.—Thus, you see that dancing is the devil's procession, and he that enters into a dance, enters into the devil's procession. Of dancing, the devil is the guide, the middle, and the end; and he that entereth a good and wise man into the dance, if it can be that such an one is either good or wise, cometh forth a corrupt and wicked man: Sarah, that holy woman, was none of these."[64] Behold the apprehensions of those good old reformers, touching those things that are so much in practice and reputation in these times, with such as profess their religion: thus far verbatim. But I cannot leave off here, till I have yet added the conclusion of their catechism and direction, and some passages out of one of their pastor's letters, fit to the present occasion.

They conclude with this direction, namely, how to rule their bodies,[65] and live in this world as becomes the children of God. Not to serve the mortal desires of the flesh. To keep their members, that they be not arms of iniquity and vanity. To rule their outward senses. To subject the body to the soul. To mortify their members. To fly idleness. To observe a sobriety and measure in eating and drinking, in their words and cares of this life. To do works of mercy. To live a moral or just life by faith. To fight against the desires. To mortify the works of the flesh. To give themselves to the exercise of religion. To confer together touching the will of God: to examine diligently the conscience. To purge and amend, and pacify the spirit.

To which I add the epistle of one of their pastors, as I find it recorded amongst other matters relating to these poor afflicted people.

XIX. An epistle of pastor Bartholomew Tertian, written to the Waldensian churches of the valley of Pragela, thus translated: