7.30.2012 VAUDOIS (WALDENSES) I - EARLY HISTORY

taken from 'history of the waldenses', vol. 1,by alexis muston, 1875..a brief chronological history of the vaudois from the times of the apostles until the beginning, in earnest, of the inquisition launched against them by the roman church in the twelth century..seeking to give a sense, generally, of their beliefs and of their pastors whom they call barbas.
(note: although wycliffe, in england did not know of them, they had the word of God in their own tongue without interruption)
p4...in the first centuries of the christian era, each church founded by the disciples of Christ had a unity and an independence of its own. they were united by the same faith, but that faith was not imposed by authority upon any one. each of these churches thus had its independent organization, as each individual may have his particular constitution and mode of life, whilst the general characters of human life are common to all men. that desire for a visible unity, which characterizes all human governments, impelled the emperor constantine to seek the union of all the christian churches of the empire under a uniform legislation. the spirit of domination soon extended from the civil government to the ecclesiastical;
the institution of the patriarchs (council of constantinople, in 381, gave title of 'patriarch' to the bishops of rome, constantinople, alexandria and antioch)
preceded that of the papacy; (boniface III, in 1607, received for the first time the title of ecumenical bishop or universal pontiff)
the latter was slowly matured (the principal institutions of catholicism, the celibacy of the priests, ecclesiastical investiture, etc. are to be referred to the days of gregory VII who was elected pope in 1073)
and the exclusive character which its organization finally assumed, caused the separation which then took place between the eastern and western churches. (this schism, long foreseen upon account of a number of increasing differences which the autonomy of the christian churches at that period still permitted to subsist, may be regarded as completed in 1054, by the excommunication which leo IX pronounced against the patriarch of constantinople.)

scarcely had this rupture taken place when popery stirred up the crusades (the first was preached by urban II to the councils of plancentia and of clermont, in 1095 and 1096),
and soon afterwards those internal persecutions by which it effected the destruction of the albigenses. but down to this time the bible had been read in the vulgar tongue in france (the council of toulouse, 1129, prohibited the reading of the bible in the vulgar tongue)
and in piedmont the diocese of milan maintained its independence,
the ambrosian ritual preserved there the recollections of the 4th century and the vaudois could still find shelter and peace behind this venerated shield. (this diocese comprehended, among other areas the cottian alps in the border area between france and italy, where the vaudois valleys are)

ST. AMBROSE did not acknowledge any authority on earth as superior to that of the bible;
ans he wished that for the study of it, men would recur to the original text.
if any passage appeared obscure, he did not admit that the word of man should interfere with the word of God in order to determine its sense,
but HE RECOMMENDED THE CHRISTIAN TO ENDEAVOUR TO DECIDE FOR HIMSELF THE DOCTRINAL IMPORT OF OBSCURE PASSAGES, BY COMPARING THEM WITH OTHER PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE RELATING TO THE SAME SUBJECT.
the bible was to be elucidated only by its own light.
moreover, he declared that nobody could pretend to call himself the successor of st peter, unless he had the faith of st. peter;
and he said with regard to a certain pope (liberius), that he was a decided arian.
the sinner, according to him, is justified only by the merits of Christ;
we can derive no merit from our own works,
the sacraments confer no grace of themselves, they are only the visible sign of that which we receive from the saior.
st augustine, who was the disciple of st. ambrose, admitted only 2 sacraments, baptism and the Lord's supper..
nor was ..ambrose..any more a believer in the bodily presence of Christ in the eucharist,
or in the renewal of His sacrifice at each celebration of the sacrament of the supper...
as to the worship of images, he called it paganism.

ambrose ..died in 397..he did not stand alone in the maintenance of these doctrines.
one of his contemporaries, philastrius, bishop of brescia, condemned also..
the worship of images,
maintained the authority of the bible,
rejected that of rome,
rejected also all pretension to meritorious works..
his successor, gaudentius and rufinus of aquileia, maintained the same doctrines. the latter, a simple priest, having been condemned by pope anastasius, as a partisan of the followers of origen; the bishop of aquileia, to whose authority he was immediately subject, maintained him notwithstanding in the post which he occupied, thus affording us a proof of the ecclesiastical independence which the north of italy enjoyed at that period...

the end of this century was disturbed by the invasions of the barbarians. aquileia and milan were ravaged by attila; the huns, the heruli, and the goths successively burst into upper italy; ..rome, with difficulty ..to defend herself, could not then extend over these countries an authority to which they had not been subjected before, and from which we afterwards find them free.

in the commencement of the following century, st. saurence..to..milan, about the year 507, declares, contrary to the opinions at present received among papists, that repentance is the only means by which we can obtain the pardon of our offences, and that pardon cannot come to us by the intercession of any creature whatever, nor by any human absolution, but only by grace and the love of Christ. finally, says he, we must trust in God rather than in men....

about the middle of the 6th century, a par of the bishops of upper italy (ie. venetia, istria and liguria) refused to adhere to the decisions of the council of chalcedon, held in 553; and in 590, nine of them separated themselves from the roman church, or rather they solemnly renewed the protestation of their independence of it. the bishops being then elected by the people of their diocese, we may presume..that the latter were imbued with the same doctrines and with the same spirit.

the permanence of this state of things in upper italy, is attested in the 7th century by a new bishop of milan, mansuetus, 677. to combat the opinion that the pope is the head of the church, he directs attention to the fact that the councils of nice, constantinople, chalcedon, and many others, had been convoked by the emperors and not by the pope. this bishop himself was not afraid to condemn pope honorius as a monothelite; and thus give us a new proof of the independence then enjoyed by the diocese of milan, across which the vau would have been obliged to pass, in order to reach rome.

...and the 8th century still presents us with examples of resistance to the pretensions of the papal see in upper italy. as these pretensions are more strongly urged, we find the resistance also becoming more vigorous in the following centuries, and we can follow its traces quite on to the 12th century, when the existence of the vau is no longer doubted by anybody.

the council of narbonne, at which a number of bishops of upper italy were present, recommended to the faithful no other prayers than the pater and the credo. the council of frankfort, at which also italian prelates were present, formally condemned the worship of images. st. paulinus, bishop of aquileia, maintained, like his predecessors,
the symbolical character of the eucharist,
the nullity of satisfactory works,
the sovereign authority of the bible in matters of faith, and
the efficacious mediation of one only mediator between God and man, even Jesus Christ.

but the grasping ambition of the church of rome, overcoming by degrees the resistance made in quarters nearest to its centre of action, forced back towards the chain of the alps, the limits, still becoming narrower, of that independence inherited from past ages, which had at first opposed it over the whole of upper italy. this independence was defended, in the 9th century, by claude of turin; in whom, at the same time, we behold the most distinguished advocate of evangelical doctrines whom that age produced. whilst the bishop of milan contented himself with deploring the corruption of the roman church, by which he had been reduced to subjection, but in whose iniquities he did not take part, the bishop of turin boldly declare against the innovations which she had so long sought to introduce into the sphere of his influence and power. the numerous wors of this prelate on different books of the bible, had prepared him for defending it against the attacks of popery; and strong in the might of truth, claude of turin owned Jesus Christ as the sole head of the church, attached no value to pretended meritorious works, rejected human traditions, acknowledged faith alone as securing salvation, ascribed no power to prayers made for the dead, maintained the symbolical character of the eucharist, and, above all, opposed with great energy the worship of images, which he, like his predecessors, regarded as absolute idolatry.

thus the doctrines which characterized the primitive church, and which still characterize the vaudois church at the present day, have never remained without a witness in the countries inhabited by the vaudois..in the 10th century, atto, bishop of verceil, still appears as their defender; he maintains the authority of the word of God, and does not admit that of the fathers of the church, except in so far as they agree with it; insisting that the church is founded only upon the christian faith, and not upon the pre-eminence of any..pontif-that the pope has no administrative authority beyond the see of rome and that all the faithful ought to partake of the eucharist...

in the 11th century, although there were already numerous monasteries in lombardy, the vows of those who entered them were not yet rendered irrevocable by any other authority than that of their own consciences; and in the 12th century all the priests of upper italy were still free from the yoke of the celibate. this independence, so long disputed by rome and maintained by the lombard clergy, was a protecting shield for the vaudois valleys.

thus we see that the apostolic church of italy, disowned and proscribed by papal pride, gradually retired from rome, withdrew into upper italy, and sought a retreat in the wilderness to preserve her purity. we see her first sheltered in the diocese of milan, where popery still pursues her. she then retires into the diocese of verceil, and thither also the hostile pretensions of popery are extended. she takes refuge in the diocese of turin, but popery still gains upon her and at last she seeks an asylum in the mountains. we find her in the vaudois valleys!

the inhabitants of these valleys, previously unregarded, became an object of attention from the 12th century, not because they were new opponents of rome's domination, but because they remained alone in their opposition.
 (note: the Inquisition began at this time, an attempt by the roman church to take the offensive and seek out and either convert or destroy until only the roman church was left. this was aimed at the cathari in france, a group which did not follow orthodox christian belief, witches, etc. and...the vaudois which they pursued incessantly for about one half of a millenium (ie. into the 17th century) without being able to destroy or convert though murdering many and creating a host of christian martyrs who would not turn from following the bible.)
rendered distinct by her isolation, their church found her own pale a separate one for this reason only, that she herself had never changed. but as they did not form a new church, they could not receive a new name; and because they inhabited the valleys, they were called vaudois (their french name).

let us now see how these events are reflected in their own writings.

st. peter and st. james, in addressing their epistles to THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, show us that it was something very different from CATHOLICISM. they meant by the Catholic Church the whole body of christians of that time-christians who were apostolic. now the vaudois, in their most ancient works, written in the romance tongue, at a date when there existed schismatical sects which have now disappeared, speak of themselves always as being in union with the Catholic Church, and condemn THOSE WHO SEPARATE FROM I, but at the same time, the doctrines which they set forth in their works are only those of the primitive Catholic Church, and not at all those of later Catholicism. the successive corruptions which gradually constituted it, were everywhere introduced BY SMALL DEGREES, and did not for a long time reach the threshold of their secluded valleys.

when they did become known there, the vaudois boldly stood up against that variety of INVENTED THINGS, which they called a horrible heresy, and unhesitatingly pointed them out as the cause of why the church of rome had departed from the primitive faith. they no longer give to popery the name of the Catholic Church, but speak of it as the Roman Church; and then also they openly separated from it, because it was no longer the primitive church such as theirs had been left to them by their fathers, but a corrupt church., delighting in vain superstitions...

thus the name vaudois, in its original use, did not designate a particular sect, but merely the christians of the valleys. when this name had become a term of reproach among the papists, the ignorance of the middle ages made it synonymous with magician or infidel; but the vaudois themselves called themselves only by the name of christians, and above all, endeavoured to merit it...
we find, accordingly, that the writers nearest to the time of valdo (peter waldo) do not speak of the vaudois as if they were the disciples of that reformer, but present them to our notice as if they derived their origin from their valleys. moreover, it was in these valleys that, according to writers of the same country, opponents of the vaudois, peter de bruys, the precursor of valdo, was born; from which it would follow that the doctrines common to these two reformers must have been known in these valleys before the appearance of valdo. these doctrines, in fact, are already alluded to before that period and even in official documents.

the edict of otho IV, of ..1209, ascribes to the vaudois of piedmont a notoriety and an influence so great, that it may be presumed they were already of long standing in the country...

the vaudois of the alps are, in my opinion, primitive christians, or descendants and representatives of the primitive church, preserved in these valleys from the corruptions successively introduced by the church of rome into the religion of the gospel. it is not they who have separated from catholicism, but catholicism which has separated from them by changing the primitive religion.(note-the encyclopedia britannica takes the view that they date from the time of peter waldo and were his disciples...but i think i am won over by the evidence and reasoning of this author)

hence arises the impossibility of assigning any precise date for the commencement of their history. the church of rome, which at first also was a part of the primitive church, did not change all at once; but as it became powerful, it adopted, along with the sceptre, the pomp, the pride and the spirit of domination which usually accompany the possession of power; whilst, in the retirement of the vaudois valleys, that primitive church was reduced to an obscure existence, retaining its freedom in its isolation, and thenceforth little tempted to abandon the pure simplicity of its first days. the independence of the diocese of milan, to which the christians of the alps then belonged and that of which the episcopal see of turin gave evidence, by opposing the worship of images in the 9th century, must have contributed to their security in that situation...

the vaudois valleys could not always preserve that unnoticed independence in which their security consisted. catholicism having gradually attired itself in new forms of worship unknown to the apostles, made the contrast daily more striking between its pompous innovations, and the ancient simplicity of the vaudois. in order, therefore, to reduce them to the despotic unity of rome, there were sent against them the agents of a ministry equally unknown to apostolic times. these were the inquisitors. in consequence of the resistance which they encountered in these retired mountainous regions, the valley of lucerna was placed under ban. but this measure served only to make more manifest the line of demarcation betwixt the 2 churches; for whilst the vau had not schismatically separated themselves from the catholic church, whose external forms they still retained, they had their own clergy, their own religious service and their own parishes.

THE BARBAS...their pastors were designated barbas. (a title of respect; in the vau idiom literally signifying and uncle.) it was in the almost inaccessible solitude of a deep mountain pass that they had their school, where the whole influences of external nature were opposed to anything soft and yielding to the soul. they wer required to commit ti memory the gospels of matthew and john, the general epistles and a part of those of paul. they were instructed..during 2 or 3 successive winters and trained to speak in latin, in the romance language, and in italian. after this they spent some years in retirement, and then were set apart to the holy ministry by the administration of the Lord's supper and by imposition of hands. they were supported by the voluntary contributions of the people. these were divided annually in a general synod: one part was given to the ministers, one to the poor and the third was reserved for the missionaries of the church.

these missionaries always went forth 2 and 2, to wit, a young man and an old one. the latter was called the regidor and his companion the coadjutor. they traversed italy, where they had stations organized in many places and secret adherents in almost all the towns. at venice they reckoned 6000; at genoa they were not less numerous. vignaux speaks of a pastor of the valley of lucerna, who was away from it for a period of 7 years. the barba jacob was returning from a missionary tour in 1492, when he was arrested by the troops of cattanee on the col de coste-plane, as he passed from the valley of pragela to that of freyssinieres; and the records of judicial investigations directed against the vaudois from 1350-1500 and so often quoted by bossuet, make mention also of the characteristic circumstance of these habitual journeys.

what a delightful and truly festival time it must have been to these scattered christians, when the missionary pastor came amongst them, expected all the year with the certainty of the regularly returning seasons!-a time soon past, but fraught with blessings, and in which the fruits of the soul and the harvest of the Lord made progress towards maturity.

each pastor was required to become missionary in his turn. the younger ones were thus initiated into the delicate duties of evangelization-each of them being under the experienced guidance of a man of years, who, according to the discipline of his church, was his superior, and whom he was bound to obey in everything, as matter of duty, and not merely out of deference. the old man, on his part, thus made his preparation for repose, by training for the church successors worthy of it and of himself. his task being accomplished, he could die in peace, with the consolatory assurance of having transmitted the sacred trust of the gospel into prudent and zealous hands.

besides this, the barbas received instructions in some trade or profession, by which they might be enabled to provide for their won wants. some were hawkers, others artisans, the greater part physicians or surgeons, and all were acquainted with the cultivation of the soil and the keeping of flocks, to the care of which they had been accustomed in their early years. very few of them were married; and their perpetual missions, their poverty, their missionary tours, their life always spent amidst warfare and dangers, make it easy to understand the reason of their celibacy. (footnote: the barbas fo not appear to have had a particular dress. an eyewitness describes them clothed in a long white woollen robe ..others have seen some of them wearing a gray dress..)

in the annual synod, which was held in the valleys, inquiry was made concerning the conduct of the pastors and changes of residence were made amongst them. the barbas actually employed in the ministry, were changed from place to place every 3 years-two of them always exchanging places with one another, except the aged men, who were no longer removed. a general director of the church was named at each synod, with the title of president or moderator. the latter title became more prevalent, and continues to this day.

the vau barbas were bound to visit the sick, whether sent for or not. they nominated arbiters in disputes; they admonished those who behaved ill, and if remonstrances produced no effect, they went the length of excommunication; but it was very rare. their preaching, catechizing and other exercises of instruction and devotion, were generally similar to those of the reformed churches, except that the worshippers pronounced, with a low voice, the prayer which preceded and that which followed the sermon. the vau had likewise hymns, which they only sung in private; which, moreover, agrees with what we know of the customs of the primitive church.

..the vau had also their own houses of ritirement from the world. in the number of the 32 propositions which were ascribd to them and which were affixed upon the gates of the cathedral of embrun, in 1489, the following occurs, 'they deny that a christian should ever take an oath;. i cannot say, however, that they have anywhere made so absolute a declaration on this subject; but it is certain that they considered it as a fruit of perfection, that the truth should never need from the lips of man the guarantee of any kind of oath. the perfect man, said they, ought not to swear; and these words imply, on th other hand, the lawfulness of oaths, from the very absence of perfection, for no one is perfect here below.

their opposition to the church of rome was always founded upon the bible; (in no polemical writing of the time will we find wo large a number of quotations from the bible as in those of the vaudois...nowhere was the authority of the bible ever more respected.) the character of a christian, according to them, was to be found in the christian life and the christian life was a gift of the grace of God.

the barbas went once a year to each of the scattered hamlets of their parishes, (we many suppose that the district examinations prevailing at the present day in the vaudois church are a relic of this custom. each pastor is bound to go annually to each of the principal hamlets or quarters of his parish, to conduct there a separate religious service, to receive communications, and to give the most confidential advices, according to circumstances.) in order to listen to each person apart in a private confession. but this confession had no other object than to obtain the salutary counsels of christian experience, and not a delusive absolution.

such was, in its pricipal features, the state of the vaudois church of the middle ages. in a poem in the romance language, entitled la nobla leyczon, and which is of the date of the end of the 11th century, or the commencement of the 12th, the va are said to have been already persecuted upon account of their customs and their doctrines. we may form a ready notion of that war of a corrupt world against a people, the severe puity of whose manners condemned at once its disorders and its superstitions. 'if there be any one of whom it is said, that
he will not slander
nor swear,
nor lie,
nor be guilty of dishonesty,
or theft
nor give himself up to dissoluteness,
nor revenge himself upon his eneies
they call him a VAUDOIS, and exclaim,
DEATH TO HIM!
but these were, unquestionably, nothing more than the rsults in particular and isolated instances of that hostility which the spirit of evil always excites in the hearts of worldly persons and impenitent sinners, against the visible fruits of evangelical sanctification.