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048 - 17 The Waldenses and the Albigenses · Short History of the Christian Church

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  Speaker 1: Part two, Chapter seventeen of Short History of the Christian
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  Speaker 1: Church by John Fletcher Hurst. This LibriVox recording is in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain, Chapter seventeen. The Waldensis and the albigenseis
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  Speaker 1: more than once in the history of the Church there
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  Speaker 1: has arisen from among the laity a bold and fearless
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  Speaker 1: reaction against the moral decline of the priesthood. The most
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  Speaker 1: notable illustration is to be found in the rise and
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  Speaker 1: growth of the Waldensis. They represented the protest of the
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  Speaker 1: private members against the prevailing corruptions in the church. The
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  Speaker 1: Waldensians took their name from Peter Waldo of Lyon in France,
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  Speaker 1: who appeared as a bold and fearless preacher of reform
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  Speaker 1: in the second half of the twelfth century. He was
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  Speaker 1: a private citizen of large means and with no relation
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  Speaker 1: to the clergy. He gave all his wealth to the poor,
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  Speaker 1: circulated religious books among the peace people in their own language,
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  Speaker 1: and exposed the vices of his time. This strong protest
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  Speaker 1: from the laity soon awakened the hostility of Rome. Neither
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  Speaker 1: Waldo nor his followers had any thought of seceding from
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  Speaker 1: the Church, like the Pietists of Germany in the last century.
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  Speaker 1: They hoped to produce reform within the Church, but their
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  Speaker 1: efforts soon met with fierce opposition. The Bishop of Leon
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  Speaker 1: issued a decree against them. The Pope Alexander the Third
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  Speaker 1: in eleven seventy nine treated them with the same bitter hostility,
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  Speaker 1: and five years afterwards they were formally excommunicated by Pope
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  Speaker 1: Lucius the Third. They grew rapidly in numbers, however, but
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  Speaker 1: were compelled to seek the mountain fastnesses of Piedmont in Italy,
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  Speaker 1: where they found comparative security. They also established societies in
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  Speaker 1: Germany and in the mountain regions of France, but their
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  Speaker 1: existence out of Piedmont was always insecure. In some instances,
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  Speaker 1: they existed as individual believers, but knew each other by
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  Speaker 1: secret signs, led a pure and devout life, and labored
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  Speaker 1: by such methods as defied discovery to produce a better
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  Speaker 1: life around them. They regarded ordination as unnecessary, preached against purgatory,
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  Speaker 1: the worship of saints, and priestly absolution, and held that
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  Speaker 1: the real Church of Christ embraced many more believers than
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  Speaker 1: the papal church. The Waldensis were reinforced by the Catharists,
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  Speaker 1: who had arisen about the beginning of the eleventh century,
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  Speaker 1: and had preached fearlessly against the corruptions of the times.
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  Speaker 1: They were a sect strongly tinged with Manicheism, and had
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  Speaker 1: little in common with the Waldensis except their opposition to
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  Speaker 1: the Church. Rome had employed vigorous measures against the Catharists,
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  Speaker 1: who had rapidly gained strength in Ffies, France, Germany and
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  Speaker 1: even in England. The first Catharist martyrdoms took place in
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  Speaker 1: Orlean in ten twenty two, when the Waldensis were gaining strength.
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  Speaker 1: Notwithstanding the bitterness of Rome, the Catharists regarded their cause
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  Speaker 1: as identical with their own, and combined with them. The
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  Speaker 1: Waldensis were at first much less opposed than the Catharists
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  Speaker 1: had been, but in due time they stood alike as
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  Speaker 1: injurious and threatening in the eye of Rome. By and
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  Speaker 1: by a relentless warfare was declared against not only these heretics,
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  Speaker 1: but all similar reformatory bodies. Raymond roger By, Count of
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  Speaker 1: Besier and Albi represented the cause of the reformers, who
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  Speaker 1: were grouped under the general term of Albegensis. Simon de Montfort,
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  Speaker 1: one of the Pope's legates to carry on the crusade
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  Speaker 1: against the reformers, conquered them in battle, and was declared
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  Speaker 1: lord of the conquered territory. It is a beautiful illustration
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  Speaker 1: of the bond between Christians of all lands, that when
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  Speaker 1: these reformers were persecuted on the continent, their sufferings awakened
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  Speaker 1: a universal sympathy. In many of the nations of Europe.
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  Speaker 1: There were pure people who were praying for a better
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  Speaker 1: life throughout the Christian world. They watched with fear and
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  Speaker 1: trembling the persecutions of the believers in France and Piedmont,
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  Speaker 1: and believed that though conquered today, they would be victorious tomorrow.
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  Speaker 1: In England, this sympathy was intense, and the parties to
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  Speaker 1: the persecution were made to feel it. Milton, at a
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  Speaker 1: later day, put into ringing and immortal Verse the English
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  Speaker 1: protest against the crusade made upon the Waldensis, not only
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  Speaker 1: in the time of Waldo, but many times afterwards. Avengeol Lord,
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  Speaker 1: Thy slaughtered saints, whose bones lie scattered on the alpine
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  Speaker 1: mountains cold, even them who kept thy truth so pure
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  Speaker 1: of old, when all our fathers worshiped stocks and stones,
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  Speaker 1: forget not in thy book record their groans, who were
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  Speaker 1: thy sheep, and in their ancient fold slain by the
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  Speaker 1: body Piedmontese that rolled mother with infant down the rocks
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  Speaker 1: their moans, the vales redoubled to the hills, and they
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  Speaker 1: to heaven their martyred blood and ashes. So o'er all
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  Speaker 1: the Italian fields, where still doth sway the Triple Tyrant,
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  Speaker 1: that from these may grow a hundredfold, who, having learnt
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  Speaker 1: thy way early, may fly the Babylonian woe. End of
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  Speaker 1: Chapter seventeen.