5. The}' admit no indulgences nor confessions of sin, with any of their consequences, excepting mutual confessions of the faithful for instruction and consola- tion.
0. They hold the sacraments of baptism and of the encharist to be only symbols, denying the real jiresence of Christ in the bread and wine, as we find in the au- thoritative book of the sect concerning antichrist, and as Ebrardus de Bethunia accuses them in his book An- tihcBresis.
7. They hold only three ecclesiastical orders— bish- ops, priests, and deacons; other systems they esteem mere human tigments; that monasticism, now in great vogue, is a putriil carcass, and vows the invention of men ; and that the marriage of the clergy is lawful and necessar)-.
8. Finally, they denounce Rome as " the whore of Babylon," deny obedience to the papal domination, and vehemently repudiate the notions that the pope has any authority over other churches, and that lie has the power either of the civil or the ecclesiastical sword.
II. History of their Persecutions.— '\!\\2it Peter Waldo (q. V.) became intimately associated with the already existing Waklenses there is no doubt. Among the simple inhabitants of the Piedmont valleys, he found those who sympathized with him in his religious senti- ments and practices. So general and wide-spread be- came the so-called heresy that Innocent III, one of the proudest and most bigoted of the Roman pontiffs, de- termined to crush it out — " exterminate the whole pesti- lential race" was the language of which he made use. The commission he gave to the authorities, who knew no law above that which went forth from St. Peter's, was to burn the chiefs of the Vaudois, to scatter the heretics themselves, confiscating their property, and consigning to perdition every soul who dared to o|)pose the haughty mandate of the pope. How these com- mands of his holiness were carried out history is a faith- fid witness. Joined with him in his relentless persecu- tion of the Waldenses was Dominic, the father of the Inquisition, the prime article in whose creed came to be that it was a crime against God and the Church to keep faith with heretics. For many years, however, the in- habitants of the more secluded valleys and fastnesses escaped the storms of persecution, and it was not until towards the close of the 14th century that the ven- geance of their relentless foes reached this class of the Waldenses, and multitudes perished, victims of the tierce storm of wrath which was poured out on their once peaceful homes. With but few intervals, all through the 16th and 17th centuries, Rome did not cease in her cruel endeavors to exterminate the hated rebels against her authority. Vast numbers of the suf- ferers from the papal policy of extirpating the Reformed faith, in F'rance and other countries, fled to these se- cluded valleys of Piedmont, hoping, in places inaccessi- l)le to their enemies, to escape from their pitiless wrath. But the seasons of tranquillity were short; and when the tempest broke forth again, it seemed to be with ten- fold furv. It was in vaia that Protestant nations ap-
WALDEXSES
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pealed to the dukes of Savoy to put a stop to the perse- cutions of tlie eiDissaries of the jiope. They were appeals made to men who dared not face tlie ire of Koine.
In 15G0 commenced one of those dreadful outbursts of the Church's rage against these humble, earnest Waldenses. We are told that, "the poi)ulation of the valleys still remaining faithful to the religion of their forefathers, the sword was openly unsheathed and the scabbard thrown away. An armed force, commanded by a chief whose name was in terrible contrast with his character— the count de Trinite — poured into the pro- scribed territory. But a Spirit stronger than the sword upheld the Waldenses, and an arm more powerful than tliat which assailed them fouglit on their side. The villages near the plains were tlescrted ; the women, the children, the feeble and the aged, were sent for refuge to the heights of the mountains, to the rocks, and to the forests. Every man and boy who could handle a weapon [ilanted himself against the invaders, and a suc- cesstul guerilla warfare was carried on by small brigades of peasants against the veteran troops that were let loose upon tliem. (Ireater exploits antl instances of more enduring fortitude were never recounted than those wiiich have immortalized the resistance offered by the Waldenses to their oppressors."
In ]t)55 the persecution raged again, and if all the Protestant powers of Europe had not interposed, a com- plete annihilation of the Waldenses would have been the result. The blood of John jMilton was stirred by the story of the barbarous treatment to which they were subjected, and through his influence Cromwell issued one of those mandates which foreign powers had been compelled to respect. A few years of comparative rest were succeeded by another storm of persecution, which burst upon them under the administration of Victor Amadeus, the duke of Savoy, stirred np by France and Home to make one more effort to exterminate the hated heretics; and the effort was well-nigh successful, for it is said that "during three years and a half the exercise of the ancient religion of the Waldenses had to all ap- pearance ceased in Piedmont." But after the lapse of two or three years, in 1689 several hundreds of them, who had been driven into exile, returned, and the fort- unes of the duke of Savoy having undergone a change, he now craved the help of those who had been such se- vere sufferers at his hands. The account of this cam- paign by their devoted pastor and leader, Henri Ar- naud (q. v.), is one of the most thrilling passages of his- tory in any age.