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having, at an earlier or later period, submitted to the sway of the Roman pontiff, and ignominiously adopted his decrees, however unscriptural and absurd, with the single exception of the Waldensian community.

If some persons in France, or elsewhere, (who were classed in common language under the general name of Waldenses or Albigenses,) were averse to infant-baptism, their opinions no more prove that the great body of the Waldenses or Albigenses harmonized with them in sentiment, than the existence of antipodobaptists in the present age, (who are classed under the general name of Protestants,) proves that the great body of Protestants are now, or were at the era of the Reformation, opposed to administering the rite to infants.

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P. 450.... Episcopos, presbyteros, et diaconos."-It seems requisite in this place to examine what form of church-government has prevailed amongst the Waldenses at different periods.

1. With respect to their ecclesiastical polity before the era of the reformation, their historian Leger remarks, "That previously to the 7th century, it would be absurd to ask for proofs of the apostolic succession of the Vaudois churches;" and he proceeds to say,-"That

person would certainly expose himself to contempt, who wished to persuade any poor people that they are not of the race of Adam, because they are unable to make it appear by a constant succession from father to son, that they are his descendants; and he who would draw the inference, that they must either have fallen from the clouds, or that, like mushrooms, they sprang up in one night, or that they must be altogether a new species, would rather be considered a ridiculous than a profound character; for, learning from the word of God that the whole human race is of one blood, and finding the human nature in themselves as well as others, it is inferred, that without doubt they have the same common origin. So also, since the Holy Scriptures declare that the true church is the same from the beginning of the world, and that all those who maintain the true faith that it teaches us are its legitimate children; the Vaudois, proving beyond contradiction that they have always professed, and still profess this same faith, are such without contradiction; since the true succession of the church is not merely a local or a personal succession, but that of faith and sound doctrine; as the Holy Spirit himself informs us in Rom. iv. 9, 11. Mark iii. John viii. &c. : and since, as Gregory Nazianzen said in his funeral oration for

Athanasius," All those who follow the faith of Abraham are the true children of Abraham."

He afterwards shews, that whilst they maintained pure doctrine all the Italian churches, (the Roman and others,) had true succession from the apostles and their followers, &c.—that Rome becoming gradually corrupt, and resisting the remonstrances of other churches, the Vaudois separated,-yet did not interrupt succession, but preserve that genuine antiquity from which Rome had departed ;-just as the Jews who embraced christianity did not interrupt the succession of the true church, but preserve truth, when they differed from the unbelieving Jews who embraced traditions;-as Jerusalem and Judah had also previously done when the ten tribes became idolaters.

Claudius bishop of Turin successfully opposed the progress of superstition in the 9th century; and the Waldenses of Piedmont, whose territory lay within his diocese, subsequently preserved the sacred doctrines for which he contended. When the see of Turin became the seat of superstition, and fell under the control of the church of Rome, the Waldensian pastors and people could of course no longer profess subjection to its authority. Those pastors were reduced to the alternative,

of countenancing what they believed to be the pernicious, antichristian errors of the church of Rome, or of perpetuating primitive christian truth, and governing their churches independently of the authority of the see of Turin and that of Rome.

A fair discussion of the question of churchgovernment among the Waldenses, will require however fuller consideration.

1. It has been already shewn,* that the church of Rome possessed originally no authority over the dioceses into which the christian world was divided in the reign of Arcadius and Honorius. Now the Waldenses were subject to the bishop of Turin. The bishoprick of Turin was included in the province of the Cottian Alps. The province of the Cottian Alps belonged to the Italick diocese, and Milan was that metropolis of the Italick diocese to which the province of the Cottian Alps was subject. As long then as the diocese of Italy was independent of the pope, so long were the Waldenses likewise independent; and if it could be shewn that any of the bishops of Turin acknowledged the pope's supremacy after the age of Claudius of Turin and before the archbishop of Milan acknowledged it, this would only prove that those

† pp. 344–348.

bishops had opposed the authority of their metropolitan. It becomes an interesting question then,--at how late a period did the archbishop of Milan still cease to acknowledge the supremacy of the pope? This shall be now explained. In the 11th century Nicolas II. sent Peter Damian as one of his legates to Milan, to induce the clergy to submit to the interference and decrees of Rome respecting celibacy, &c. The clergy persuaded the people to contend that the church of Milan was not subject to Rome, non debere Ambrosianam ecclesiam Romanis legibus subjacere, nullumque judicandi vel disponendi jus Romano pontifici in illa sede competere. Peter Damian, however, succeeded by artifice in inducing the archbishop Wido and the clergy to submit to a penance, and receive those decrees of the second council of Nice in favour of image-worship, which Milan had, like France Germany and Spain, rejected at the council of Frankfort. After Damian's departure, the archbishop Wido and his clergy regretted their pusillanimity, and, supported by the nobility, re-asserted the right of the clergy to marry. The consequence was, that some of the clergy and people, headed by Landulfus Cotta the prefect, and Arialdus a deacon, arose in favour of the pope's pretensions; whilst many adhered to the archbishop,

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