As regards the oath, the papists charged them with holding that perjury is no sin. “But,” says A. Mellinus, “let us examine these false articles a little more closely.” Coming to the article of the oath, he speaks as follows, in order to demonstrate the falsity of this accusation: “How should they have considered perjury no sin, when the papists themselves (in the _History of the Waldenses_) declare of them, that they were so loth to swear an oath, desiring that they should be believed on their yea and nay, in order to avoid all lying, slandering, perjury, and frivolous swearing?” Thus far. _Mellinus_, in the _2d book_ of the _Hist., fol. 479, col. 1, 2_.
Hence, these people sought to avoid not only false oaths, but all manner of swearing, desiring on this account, to be believed on their yea and nay, in accordance with the teaching of Christ: “Let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.” Matt. 5:37.
_The same year as above, A. D. 1315._--At this time, Pope John XXII., issued a papal decree against some apostate (?) Minorites, in which he accuses them of the following points:
“Firstly, that they asserted, that there were two churches; the one, carnal, abounding in the riches, luxuries and lusts of this world, polluted with all manner of sin and shame, and governed by the Pope of Rome and the prelates. The other, spiritual, temperate, pure, virtuous, honorable, and poor; to which latter they and their adherents alone belong.
“Secondly, that they declared the priests of the church, and all her ministers, divested of the jurisdiction and authority of their order, so that they could give neither sentence nor advice, nor administer the sacraments, nor teach the church under them; thus depriving them of all their ecclesiastical power, and that, on the other hand, they boasted that all ecclesiastical authority rested with them alone, since they ascribed the holiness of the spiritual life only to themselves.
“Their third error,” as the Pope says, “agrees with the error of the Waldenses; since they both maintain that men ought in no case to swear, teaching that it is a sin unto death to swear an oath.”
The fourth supposed error, the Pope acknowledges, likewise to proceed from the Waldenses: “That the priests who are confirmed or ordained legally, according to the form or order of the church (as he calls it), if they are laden with any crimes or sins unto death, cannot prepare, nor administer, the sacraments of the church.”
The fifth error, as the Pope says, was, that they said that the gospel of Christ, which hitherto had been covered, nay, almost entirely extinguished, was, at this time, fulfilled in them alone. In explanation of this article, the Pope adds that they said that they ascribed the promise of our Lord, concerning the sending the Holy Ghost, to themselves in such a manner as to exclude the general (the Roman) church from the general apprehension and observance of the holy Gospel.
“But see,” says A. Mellinus, who has recorded this, “how the Pope perverts the meaning of these people; for they never denied that the Holy Ghost, according to Christ’s promise, was poured out richly upon the apostles; but they denied that the Popes of Rome, who called themselves apostolic, and successors of the apostles, had part or lot in the sending of the Holy Ghost.” Second book of the _Hist., fol. 480, col. 1, 2_.
Besides these five articles, the Pope imputed additional errors to these pious people, though he did not mention them all. Hence, it appears that they concurred for the most part with the belief of the Waldenses; and that their belief was opposed, not only to the swearing of oaths, but also to infant baptism, revenge, the sacrament of the altar, the mass, and other superstitions of popery, has already been more than sufficiently shown.