We have already noticed certain bodies of persons who in very early times were found outside the professing Church. Mention has been made of the Priscillianists, the Nestorians and the Paulicians. The two latter continued to exist for some centuries in the East. The last remnants of the Paulicians were scattered after terrible persecution in the ninth century.
In the valleys of Piedmont in northern Italy the truths of Christianity were preserved by a pious and earnest people who clung to “the faith once delivered to the saints” (Jude 33Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. (Jude 3) JND) and lived such irreproachable lives that their worst enemies were compelled to admit that the only fault that could be found with them was that they were opposed to the Church of Rome and all the idolatry and superstition that had become attached to it. These people were called Vaudois.
Reynerus Sacco, inquisitor of the Vaudois, recorded that they were followers of a certain Leon who lived in the third century, and he held that there was no sect so pernicious to the Church for three reasons: (1) because it was the most ancient of all, some deriving its origin from the apostles themselves, (2) because it was the most extensive, there being scarcely any country into which it had not penetrated, and (3) because instead of inspiring horror as other sects did by their frightful blasphemies against the Deity, it had a great appearance of piety, since its members “lived justly before God and received the apostles’ creed, but they blasphemed against the Roman Church and clergy.”
This testimony is confirmed by Claude de Seyssel, Archbishop of Turin, whose bishopric included these valleys. “The sect of the Vaudois,” says he, “took its origin from one Leon, a truly religious man, who, in the time of Constantine the Great, detecting the extreme avarice of Pope Sylvester and the lavish expenditure of Constantine, preferred living in poverty, with simplicity of faith, to the reproach of accepting a rich benefice with Sylvester. To this Leon all attached themselves who thought rightly of their creed. There must be some important and efficacious reason why this Vaudois sect had endured during so many ages. Again all kinds of different attempts to extirpate them have been made at different times, but they always remained victorious and absolutely invincible, contrary to the expectations of all.” This was written in 1500 A.D.
Space does not allow a complete description of this remarkable body of Christians, who clearly maintained the truth of Christianity among themselves during the Dark Ages, when the Church was becoming more and more corrupt. They held to the truth of Scripture and refused all else as false. They had at least a large part of the Scriptures in their own tongue. An ancient author tells of one of their peasants who could repeat the whole book of Job from memory and of others who had the New Testament at their fingertips. Their piety was proverbial. They were poor, hard working, honest and trustworthy. Their lives accorded with their profession.
An interesting old document called The Noble Lesson, written by one of the Vaudois, throws light on their doctrine and practice. They regarded the Papacy as Antichrist, which, they said, began in apostolic times but was then in its infancy, but in their days was full-grown. “It had assumed,” says one of them, writing in 1120, “an appearance of external sanctity, even using the sayings of Christ Himself to cover its enormities.” This writer admitted that there were some who really lived to God in Babylon, but Antichrist sought to hinder them from putting all their hope in Christ alone. “Knowing these things,” he says, “we depart from Antichrist, according to express scriptural directions. We unite ourselves to the truth of Christ and His spouse, however small she may appear.” It is interesting to see how this writer, even in that dark day, was able to distinguish the true Church from the false system of Rome.
The valleys of Piedmont seem to have been the cradle in which this truly Christian testimony was nurtured during the darkest periods of the history of the Church. But the truth gradually spread. In southern France there were the Albigenses who formed a fairly homogeneous community and shared the faith and characteristics of the Waldenses. Christians bearing the same features were to be found, too, in Germany and other Continental countries, under various names.
A German monk, writing of them at that time, says, “They are armed with all those passages of Holy Scripture which in any degree seem to favor their views. ... They are increased to great multitudes throughout all countries.” “They declare,” says the same writer, “that the true faith and worship of Christ is nowhere to be found but in their meetings, which they hold in cellars and weaving rooms.” This testimony shows that they followed the Scriptures and were separate from the professing Church and its false worship. It indicates too that they were numerous and widespread. These simple believers exerted a powerful influence on those around, and many shared their faith who were not prepared actually to leave the Church. Such continued to attend the public services of the Church while accepting, in a measure, the Scriptural teaching of their more separate brethren. The light was by this means spread among the common people and even among the monks and friars of the Roman Church.
About the middle of the twelfth century lived Peter Waldo, a rich merchant of Lyons. Deeply affected by the sudden death of a friend, he began to seek after God. He gave up his occupation and parted with much of his wealth, giving bountifully to the poor. He also tried to help them spiritually, and his liberality made them the more ready to listen. Being well educated, he could read the Latin Bible, for none in French then existed. Thus he taught the people from the Word itself. It was a strange thing in those days for a layman to be teaching and preaching. Ere long this brought him into trouble with the clergy. He realized what a boon it would be for the people to be able to read the Bible in their own language, and he proceeded to meet this need.
His knowledge of the Scriptures increasing, he saw more plainly than ever how utterly at variance with the truth the prevailing system was. He condemned the errors of Rome and thereby incurred its wrath. Being anathematized by the Pope, he had to escape. His followers, too, were scattered, but the dispersion, as in the first century, only resulted in the truth being more widely spread. His teachings were so congenial to the Vaudois of Piedmont that the two movements tended to coalesce, and the term Waldenses became general for those who professed the faith of the gospel. Humble and unlettered folk, they have left little in the way of literature to record their lives and teaching, and much has to be derived from the testimony of their enemies. These, however, testify that they read the Holy Scriptures frequently; “they taught men to live by the words of the gospel and the apostles; they led religious lives, that their manners were seasoned with grace, their words prudent, they discoursed freely of divine things, they taught their children the Scriptures, they were blameless, without reproach among men, and observed the divine commands with all their might.”
Rome viewed the growth of this so-called heresy with alarm and pursued them with violence. Lies and calumnies of the basest kind were spread regarding them. When the Inquisition was instituted in 1206, they were among the earliest objects of its activities. They were driven from their homes and treated with every cruelty the evil mind of man could contrive. Many were tortured, and many were burned alive. Those in the hitherto sheltered valleys of the Alps were driven ruthlessly over the mountains to perish in the snows or stifled to death in the caves in which they sought to find refuge. Mothers with infants in their arms died thus without pity. Such is the nature of religious zeal when the heart is not warmed by divine grace — such the inveterate hatred of Satan for those who follow Christ.
The Albigenses, who were very numerous in the region of Toulouse, became the object of a violent crusade proclaimed by the Pope. Early in the thirteenth century, Simon de Montfort of England, urged on by the papal decree, invaded the realm of Raymond of Toulouse, whose subjects were Albigenses, plundered the country and destroyed the inhabitants with ruthless barbarity. These awful persecutions dragged on century after century, and hardly anywhere in Europe were the Waldenses immune from attack. How could they have endured if divine grace and power had not sustained them? But the enemy could not stamp out the faith of Christ. God thus maintained throughout the Dark Ages, not only individual witnesses, but a people bearing the features of the true Church “outside the camp” (Heb. 13:11, 1311For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp. (Hebrews 13:11)
13Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. (Hebrews 13:13) JND).
It was from the Waldenses that a Franciscan monk named Raynard Lollard received the light. He who had before been a persecutor became a preacher of the gospel and finally suffered as a martyr, being burned at the stake at Cologne.
In spite of this continual and violent persecution, it is said that at the time of the Reformation there were 800,000 Waldenses in Europe, which probably includes all who held such views. Those in the south of France continued to suffer right up to the time of the French Revolution. In England this movement does not seem to have got a footing till the time of Wycliffe. There is, however, a poignant account of thirty of these simple Christians who came to England from Germany in the reign of Henry II. They were brought before a council of the clergy at Oxford. Their spokesman said they were Christians, believed the doctrine of the apostles, and denied purgatory, prayers for the dead and the invocation of saints. The King, in conjunction with the Council, ordered them to be branded with a hot iron on the forehead, to be whipped through Oxford, to have their clothes cut short by their girdles, and to be turned into the open fields, expressly forbidding anyone to succor them. It was the depth of winter, and the whole company perished, as was intended, by cold and starvation. They died patient and serene, repeating the Lord’s words, “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:1010Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:10)). This was in 1159. It was this Henry whose fit of anger led to the murder of Thomas à Becket in 1170.
On the Continent, however, the movement continued to spread during the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, doubtless greatly aided by the Romance version of the Bible which had been translated under the superintendence of Peter Waldo. Part of the Bible was also translated into German in 1203. These Christians were numerous in Piedmont, the Dauphiné, Naples, Sicily and southern Italy, all over the south of France, the Netherlands, Flanders, Brabant, northern France and Spain. They were called by many names: Leonists, Poor Men of Lyons, Waldenses, Vaudois, Cathari, Italian Brethren, Swiss Brethren, Brethren of Lombardy and Apostolic Brethren. They spoke of one another simply as brethren.
There were among them many who traveled as merchants and peddlers, whose main object was to disseminate the truth, and who would carry with their wares Scripture portions which they sold and sometimes gave away. Thus the truth spread with great rapidity all over Europe, and Rome awoke to find that its very foundations were being sapped by what to her was heresy, but what was, in reality, none other than the truth of the gospel. There were many who did not publicly leave the Church, who still attended the mass and Church festivals, but who, nevertheless, held the simple truths of the gospel.
Among them were many who were not wholly delivered from the errors of Rome. This is not to be wondered at. It is said, moreover, that these “brethren,” while receiving the whole of Scripture as inspired, were inclined to put the epistles on a lower level than the gospels and thereby missed some of the vital truths taught in the writings of Paul. In some parts they established houses for the care of the poor and infirm. They were constant objects of persecution; in 1212 five hundred were seized at Strasbourg (including nobles, priests, rich and poor, men and women), of whom eighty were burned to death. Still they continued to multiply all over Europe. It was said that in 1260 they had more schools and scholars in Lombardy, Provence and elsewhere than the “orthodox.” They partook of the Lord’s supper in its scriptural simplicity and had their own meeting rooms.
The Emperor Lewis of Germany protected them, and his realm was laid under interdict by the Pope and he was himself accused of being tainted by heresy. He had received and harbored Marsilius, rector of the University of Paris. This man had dared to question Romish teaching publicly and fled to the Court of Lewis in 1328, where he became the Emperor’s physician until 1342.
During the interdict a famous preacher in the Roman Church, Dr. Tauler, continued to minister to the people. He was a pious man but deeply involved in the teaching of Rome and without the light of salvation. God was pleased to use one of these Waldensian brethren (Nicholas of Basle, according to some) for his conversion, and he became a channel of blessing, the living water flowing to many thirsty and benighted souls. He preached in the city of Strasbourg. Two centuries later Luther himself read with interest and approval the sermons of Dr. Tauler, for they contained much that he, himself, had been taught by God.
In 1348-1349 the Black Death visited Europe, and a large proportion of the population of Europe was swept away by this awful pestilence. May we not believe that many of these had already “passed from death unto life” (John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24)) through the gospel, which despite the opposition of Rome, was reaching many thirsty souls?