Nevertheless, in the midst of these storms and billows of antichrist, God preserved the ark of his church, so that many persons still remained, who, notwithstanding the manifold troubles and persecutions that came upon them on this account, practiced and maintained the true worship of God, particularly in opposition to infant baptism, the office of criminal authority, the swearing of oaths, and almost all other superstitions of the Roman church.
_A. D. 1206._--In the beginning, yea, before the beginning of this century, and so through a number of years, the doctrine of the ancient Anabaptists increased not a little, which appeared more particularly in the year 1206, when they had so increased in many countries, that the wiles and power of the Roman church were not sufficient to bring them to apostatize, much less to exterminate them.
Concerning this, P. J. Twisck gives the following description: “The adherents of the doctrine of Peter de Bruis and Henry of Toulouse, Anabaptists, mentioned for the year 1135, which doctrine afterwards was also followed by the Waldenses (see the year 1159), multiplied so greatly about this time, namely, A. D. 1206, that few were found in the provinces of Albi, Languedoc, Narbonne, Gascony, Rouergue, and Toulouse, who did not adhere to said doctrine, notwithstanding Pope Innocent III. very cruelly opposed it. See account for the year 1198.
The principal points of their doctrine, besides others, were these: 1. That the Roman church was the whore of Babylon. 2. That her polity was impure and corrupted. 3. That the mass was a work replete with wickedness, and instituted neither by Christ nor by his disciples. _Chron. p. 523, col. 1 and 2_, from _Chron. Nicol. Gill., fol. 286_. _Guil. Merul., fol. 798_, _Henr. Boxh., fol. 22_.
_A. D. 1218._--For this year mention is made by Sebastian Franck, of the ancient Waldenses, whom he calls by three different names, _The Poor_, _Insabbatati_ and _Waldenses_. However, that they together were but one people, has already been proved. Said author writes thus concerning them: “These originated A. D. 1218, under Emperor Louis IV. They are also excommunicated in the bull of the Lord’s Supper, and hold:
1. “That men ought not to swear at all, not even to the truth.
2. “That no Judge, who would be a Christian, may put to death any one, not even a malefactor.
3. “That the pious person who holds to the faith of the Roman church, can not be saved.
4. “That an ungodly priest can not consecrate.
5. “That the church perished at the time of Sylvester.
6. “That they are not subject, neither intend to be, to the Pope or to other prelates.”
Then follow several other articles of their doctrine, which, for the sake of brevity, we will pass over; for instance, that they held: “That outside of their church there was no sacrament nor baptism (which completely overthrows the infant baptism of the Roman church); that they denied purgatory; that they counted the mass, alms, and prayers for the dead of no value, yea, that they regarded them as the inventions of priestcraft; that honoring the saints had not the slightest merit, and that they do not hear our prayers in heaven.”
These and similar articles are adduced there, from Aeneas, Sylvius and other writers, as charges against the Waldenses; of which the intelligent may judge. _Seb. Fr. Chron. der Rom. Kett., fol. 119, col. 4, letter P._
_A. D. 1230._--It is stated that the Waldenses, whose good confession we have already shown, declared at this time in the proceedings which it seems they had against the Pope, that their numbers were so great in Germany, France and Italy, and especially in Lombardy--where their teachers lived, to whom they annually sent sustenance from other countries--that any one of them traveling from his country to Milan, could lodge every night with one of his own persuasion, whom they recognized by by certain marks on the door or upon the roof. _P. J. Twisck, Chron., p. 546, col. 2_, from _Henr. Boxh., fol. 25_.