The Continuation Acts of the Apostles: Waldenses/Albigenses

(Revelation 12:1-17) Prophesied by John the Apostle in (A.D. 95). There appeared a great wonder in heaven; a Woman and she brought forth a Man Child (Jesus), who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron, and her child was caught up to God, and to his throne.  And the Woman (The Church) fled into the wilderness, where she has prepared for God. Satan, who deceived the whole world was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.  The accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.  They overcame Satan by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their testimony unto death.

When the dragon (Satan) saw that he was cast out unto the earth, he

persecuted the Woman, which brought forth the Man Child.  The Woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness into her place, where she is nourished, for a time, and times and half a time, from the face of the serpent.  He was angry with the Woman, and went to make WAR with the Remnant of her Seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

The History of the Christian Church by William Jones' first edition 1812

***** (A.D. 843-1160) During the dark ages, which succeeded the invasion of Europe by the barbarous nations, when feudal anarchy distracted the civil government, and a flood of superstition had deluged the church, Christianity banished from the seats of empire, and loathing the monkish abodes of indolence and vice, meekly retired into sequestered valleys of Piedmont.

The principality of Piedmont derives its name from the circumstance of it being situated at the foot of the Alps--a prodigious range of mountains, the highest indeed in Europe, and which divide Italy from France, Switzerland, and Germany.  Several of these valleys are described by our geographers as being remarkably rich and fruitful--as fertile and pleasant as any part of Italy.  In the mountains are mines of gold, silver, brass, and iron; the river abounds with variety of exquisite fish; the forests and the fields with game; while the soil yields everything necessary to the enjoyment of human life--abundance of corn, rice, wine, fruits, hemp, and cattle.

Indeed, from the borders of Spain, throughout the greatest part of the south of France, among and below the Alps, along the Rhine, and even to Bohemia, thousands of the disciples of Christ, as will hereafter be shown, were found, even in the very worst of times, preserving the faith in its purity, adhering to the simplicity of Christians worship, patiently bearing the cross after Christ: men distinguished by their fear of God and obedience to his will, and persecuted only for righteousness' sake.

In the following century a firm and noble stand was made against the papal usurpatation by 1)  Paulinus, of Aquilelia, in Italy. This Venerable man was born about the year (726), near Friuli, preached the gospel to the Pagans of Carinthia and Styria, and to the Avares, a nation of Huns.  He continued laboring until his death, which took place in (804).  In the year (787), he and some other Italians believers agreed to condemn the decrees of the famous second Council of Nice, which had established the worship of images, declaring it to be idolatrous.  The city of Rome and its environs seem to have been at that period the most corrupt part of Christendom in Europe.

Among other corruption which prevailed, the doctrine of transubstantiation then began to be generally propagated.  Paulinus undertook to refute that absurdity, in a treatise on the Eucharist, which he wrote at the request of Charles the Great, and which he dedicated to that monarch.  He affirms that the Eucharist was a morsel, or bit of bread, and that it is either death or life to him that partakes of it.   Paulinus denied the supremacy of Pete,r over the rest of the apostles and lays it down as an inviolable maximum of Christianity that God alone is the object of our faith, in opposition to what was taught in the church of Rome. [Allix's Remark, P.52]

Finding there a race of men unarrayed in hostile armor, uncontaminated by the doctrines and commandments of an apostate church, unambitious in their temper, and simple in their manners. The turbulence of the times, which drove many from the more fertile plain of France and Italy, in search of freedom and tranquility, in the 9th century, the doctrine of the kingdom of heaven had been held forth among them with considerable cleanness and ability by 2) Claude, of Turin.

We can scarcely expect any notice of them, until their increase and

prosperity excited the attention of ambition, and it to be rumored in the

neighboring ecclesiastical states: numerous people occupied the

southern valleys of the Alps, whose faith and practice differed from those of Romish church; who paid no tithes, offered no mass, worshipped no saints, nor had recourse to any recourse to any of the prescribed means for redeeming their souls from purgatory.

The archbishops of Turin, Milan and other cities, heard this report with

anxiety, and finding that these people were not to be controlled by authority and denunciations of the Church of Rome, and the aid of the civil power was demanded.  The princes and nobles at first refused to disturb them; they had beheld with pleasure, their simple manners, their uprightness and integrity, and their readiness to oblige.  The clamor of the Romish clergy, however, ultimately prevailed, and the civil power was armed against the peaceable and inoffensive inhabitants of the valleys.

Scaffolds were erected, and fires kindled at Turin and other cities around them. The fortitude and confidence of the Marty's, however, increased as their faith and constancy were tried.  Multitudes fled like innocent and defenseless sheep from these devouring wolves,  They crossed the Alps, and traveled in every direction, as providence and the prospect of safety conducted them, into Germany, England, France and Italy, and other countries.

Brethren making their way through Italy came into the South of France, finding everywhere those who shared their faith. The teaching they brought with them found ready acceptance. The Roman clergy called them Bulgarians, Cathars, Patarenes, and other names, following the habit of centuries in Asia Minor and in the Balkan countries affirmed that they were Manicheans.

Albigenses In Languedoc of Provence in the South of France, there was a civilization in advance of that in other countries.  The pretensions of the Roman Church to rule had been generally opposed and set aside there.  The congregations of Believers who met apart from the Catholic Church were numerous and increasing.  They were often called Albigenses, a name taken from Albi, a district where there were many of them, but this name was never used by them, nor of them until after the 12th century. They had intimate connections with the brethren---whether called Waldenses, poor men of Lyons, Bogomils, or otherwise---in the surrounding countries, where churches spread among various people.

3) Among such teachers was Pierce de Brueys, an able and diligent

preacher, who for 20 years braving all dangers, traveled throughout

Dauphiny, Provence, Languedoc, and Gascony, drawing multitudes from the superstitions in which they had been brought up, back to the teaching of Scripture, until he was burned at St. Gilles (1126).   He showed them from scripture that none should be baptized until they had attained to the use of their reason, useless to build churches, as God accepts sincere worship wherever offered.  (The Pilgrim Church by Edward H. Broadbent).

The crucifixes should not be venerated, but rather looked upon with horror, as representing the instrument on which our Lord suffered; that the bread and wine are NOT changed into the body and blood of Jesus Christ, but are symbols memorative of His death; and that the prayers and good works of the living cannot benefit the dead.

4) He was joined by  Henri, an Italian by birth.  Having received the

knowledge of the truth, said to have been Peter's Bruys' disciple, a monk of Cluny in deacon's orders, whose striking appearance, powerful voice, and great gift of oratory compelled attention, while denunciation of the crying evils that abounded, his convincing expositions of Scripture, and his zeal and devotion, turned very many to repentance and faith, among them notorious sinners, who were converted and became changed in life.

Priests who tried to oppose were terrified by the power of his preaching and at the sight of multitudes that followed him.  Undeterred by the violent death of his elder and admired brother and fellow-worker, he continued his testimony until Bernard Clairvaux, at that time the most powerful man in Europe, was called to oppose him, as being the only one who could hope to do so successfully.

Bernard found the churches deserted and the people wholly turned from clergy, and although Henri was obliged to flee from his powerful opponent.  All Bernard's oratory and authority could only put a temporary check on the movement, which was not dependent on any individual, but was a spiritual one affecting the whole population.  Henri was able to elude capture for a long time and continue his fearless work, but falling at last into the hands of the clergy he was imprisoned and either died in prison or was put to death there (1147)

The church without a name or a founder??

In accordance with the inveterate habit of attaching some sectarian name to return to the teaching of Scripture, many were called at this time

Petrobrussians, or Henricans, names which they themselves never

acknowledged. Bernard of Clairvaux, complained bitterly of their objection to taking the name of anyone as their Founder, he said: "Inquire of them the Author of their sect and they will assign to none. What heresy is there, which from among men, has not had its own heresiarch?  But by what appellation or by what title will you enroll these heretics? Truly none.   For their heresy is not derived from man, neither through man have they received it."  He then comes to the conclusion that they had received it from demons.

History of Christian Church by Philip Schaff originally published in 1858.   The Waldenses (1094-1294). The Waldenses, leaning upon the scriptures, sought to revive the simple precepts of the apostolic age. They were the strictly Biblical sects of the middle Ages. They present a rare spectacle of the survival of a body of believers, which has come up out of the great tribulation.

Southern France was their first home, but they were a small party, compared with the Albigenses in those parts.  From France they spread into Piedmont, and also into Austria, Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria, Croatia, Dalmatia, as recent investigations have clearly brought out.  The Waldenses derive their origin the name from Peter Waldo, who died in 1218, as many the contemporary writers agree.  They were called poor men of Lyons, from the city on the Rhome where they originated.

The name by which they were known among themselves was Brethren.  According to the anonymous writer of Passau, writing in the early years of the 14th century, some already in his day carried the Origin of the sect back to the Apostles.   Until recently all Waldensians writers have claimed for it Apostolic Origin, or gone at least as far back as the 7th century.

In the valley of Piedmont there had been, for centuries, a congregation of Believers calling themselves brethren, who came later to be widely known as Waldenses or Vaudois, though they did not themselves accept the name.   They traced their origin in those parts back to Apostolic times. Like many so-called Cathar, Paulican, and other churches, these were NOT "reformed" never having generated from the New Testament pattern, as had the Roman and Greek Orthodox Church and some others, but having always maintained, in varying degree, the apostolic tradition.  From the time of Emperor Constantine (A.D 312) there continued to be a succession of those who preach the Gospel and founded churches, uninfluenced by the relations between Church and State existing at the same time.

This accounts for the large bodies of christians, well established in the Scriptures and free from idolatry and the other evils prevailing in the

dominant, professing Church, to be found in Taurus Mountains and the Alps valleys.  These latter, in the quiet seclusion of their mountains, had

remained unaffected by the development of the Roman Church.

They considered the Scriptures, both for doctrine and church order, to be binding for their time, and not rendered obsolete by change of circumstances.  It was said of them that their whole manner of thought and action was an endeavor to hold fast the character of original Christianity.

The Inquisitor Reinerius, who died in (1259), has left it on record: Concerning the sects of the ancient heretics, observe, that there have been more than 70 all of which except the sects of Leonist (Waldo's) which have infected Germany, have through the favor of God, been destroyed.  Among these sects, which either still exist or which have formerly existed, there is not one more pernicious to the Church than that of the Leonists (Waldo's): and this is for two reasons.

The first reason is: because it has been of longer continuance, for some say it has lasted from the time of the Apostles.   The second reason is: because it is more general, for there is scarcely any land, in which this

sect does not exist.

Peter Waldo of Lyons, a successful merchant and banker,  was aroused to see his need of Salvation by the sudden death of one of the guests at a feast he had given.  Waldo sought counsel from a theologian who directed him to the Lord's words in the gospel of (Matthew 19:21) "If thou wilt be Perfect, go and sell what thou has, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me."

In (1173) Peter Waldo renounced his property to his wife, sold the remainder and distributed it among the poor.   For a time he devoted himself to the study of the Scriptures and then (1180) gave himself to Traveling and Preaching, taking as a guide the Lord's words: "He sent His disciples Two and Two before His face into every city and place whither He himself would come." Therefore he said unto them, "The harvest truly is great but the laborers are few: Pray ye the Lord of the harvest, that He would send forth laborers into His Harvest."  "Go your ways: behold I send you forth as lambs among wolves.   Carry neither purse or script nor shoes: and salute no man by the way."

Peter Waldo employed Bernard Ydros and Stephen of Ansa to translate into the vernacular the Four Gospels and other parts of the Scriptures, together the saying of the early Church Fathers.  He preached, and his followers, imitating his example, preached in the streets and villages, going about TWO and TWO.   Companions joined him, and traveling and preaching in this way, came to be known as the "Poor men of Lyons."   When the archbishop of Lyons attempted to stop them, they replied  "They ought to obey God, rather than men."  Their appeal for recognition (1179) to the third Lateran Council, under Pope Alexander III, had scornfully refused.  They besought the Pope Alexander III to

give his sanction to their mode of life and to allow them to go on preaching.  They presented him with a copy of their Bible translation.  The Pope appointed a commission to examine them.  Its chairman, Walter Map, an Englishman of Welsh descent and the representative of the English king, has left us a curious account of the examination.  He ridicules their manners and lack of learning.

"Being poor themselves, they follow Christ , and it is not possible for them to take a more humble place, for they scarcely learn to walk.  The Waldenses went about barefooted, clad in sheepskins, and had all things common like the Apostles.  If we ADMIT them, we ourselves ought to be turned out."

Without calling the Waldenses by name, the council forbade them to preach. They were driven out of Lyons, France by Imperial edict and (1184)

excommunicated.  Although they were expelled from Lyons and excommunicated by the highest authority of the Church, the Waldenses ceased NOT to teach and preach.  They were charged with being in rebellion against the ecclesiastical authorities and with daring to preach, though they were only laymen.

Durandus of Huesca, who had belonged to their company, withdrew in 1207 and took up propaganda against them.  He went to Rome and secured the Pope's sanction for a New Order under the name of the "Catholic Poor" who were bound to poverty; the name is as probable, being derived from the sect he had abandoned.

An old chronicle tells how as early as the year (1177)  "disciples of Peter Waldo came from Lyons, France to Germany and began to preach in Frankfurt and in Nuremberg, but because of the Council in Nuremberg was warned that they should seize and burn them, they disappeared into Bohemia."  Peter continued his travels and eventually reached Bohemia, where he died (1217), having labored there for years and sown much seed, the fruit of which was seen in the spiritual harvest in that country.  The accession of Peter Waldo and his band of preachers gave an extraordinary impetus to missionary activities of the Waldenese, who until this time had been somewhat isolated in their remote valleys, but now everywhere preaching the Word.

In their earliest period the Waldenses were NOT heretics, although the

charge was made against them that they claimed to be "The Only imitators of Christ."   It is possible, they held to the universal priesthood of believers. They place stress upon following the practice of the Apostles and obeying the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount. 

The first distinguishing principle of the Waldenses bore on daily conduct and was summed up in the words of Apostles, " We ought to obey God rather than men."   The second distinguishing principles was the reading of the Bible, and is true, it had not yet been forbidden, but Waldo made it a living book and the vernacular translation was diligently taught. The anonymous writer of Passau said he had seen a laymen, who almost knew the entire Gospels of Matthew and Luke by hear.  The third principle was the importance of preaching and the right of the laymen to exercise that function. Peter Waldo and his associates were laymen Evangelists.

***** Pope Innocent III's, writing, in (1199) of the Waldenses at Metz, declared their desire to understand the Scriptures a laudable one, but their meeting in secret, and usurping the function of the priesthood in preaching, as only evil.  Alanus, in a long passage, brought against the Waldenses that Christ was sent by the Father and that Jonah, Jeremiah, and others received authority from above before they undertook to preach, for "How shall they preach unless they be sent." The Waldenses, as at the disputation of Narbonne, answered that ALL Christians are in duty to bound to spread the Gospel in Obedience to Christ's last commandment to (James 4:17), "to him that knoweth to do good and doeth not, to him it is sin."

The Waldenses still went further in shocking old-time custom, and claimed the right to preach for WOMEN as well as for MEN, and when Paul's words enjoining silence upon the women were quoted, they replied that it was with them more a question of Teaching than of formal PREACHING and quoted back (Titus 2:3) "the aged Women should be teachers of good things."

The Heroic of men and women for religion of Jesus Christ by James D. McCaabe (1888) Waldenses:  They acknowledge the Holy Scriptures as their sole faith and reject all that was not taught of the New Testament. From the day of emperor Constanstine in A.D. 312 to the present day. The Vaudois called themselves only the name Christians. They were divided into two classes, the "Perfect" and the "Friends" or "Believers", among the perfect, bound by vow of poverty, wandered about from place to place preaching.   Such an itinerant life was ill-suited for the married state, and to the profession of poverty they added the vow of Chastity.

The "Perfect" were not allowed to perform manual labor, but to depend their subsistence on the members of the sect know as "Friends".   The Friends continue to live in the world, married, owned property and engaged in secular pursuits.  Their generosity and alms were to provide for the material needs of the "Perfect".

The missionaries always went TWO and TWO, a younger man and an older one.  The younger ones were thus imitated into the delicate duties of

evangelization, each of them under experienced guidance of a man of years, who, according to the disciples of his church, was his superior, and whom he bound to everything as a matter of duty, and not merely out of deference.

The older man on his part, thus made his preparation on by  training for the church successors, worthy of it and of himself.   His task being

accomplished, he could die in peace, with consolatory assurance of having committed the sacred trust of the gospel into prudent and zealous hands.   Their maintenance of the absolute authority of the word of God, and of the doctrine of Salvation by Jesus Christ.  The Vaudois, therefore not schematics, but continued inheritors of the church founded by the apostles.

The Pilgrim Church by Edward H.Boardbent (1800's)

At St. Felix de Caraman, near Toulouse, in (1167) a conference of teachers of these churches was held at which an elder from Constantinople took leading part; he brought good news of the progress of the churches in his own district and also in Romania, Bulgaria, and Damatia.  In (1201) the visit of another leader, from Albania, was the occasion of widespread revival in the South of France.

Some among the brethren devoted themselves entirely to *traveling and ministering* the Word and were called "The Perfect," and in accordance with the Lord's words in (Matthew 19:21) "If thou will be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor and come and follow me."   They possessed nothing, had no home, and literally acted upon this command.  It was recognized that ALL are not called to such a path, and that the majority of  Believers, while acknowledging that they and all have belong to Christ, should serve Him, while remaining in their families and continuing in the usual occupations.

Those whom they called "Apostles" played an important part in their

testimony.  While the "elders and believers" remained in their homes and

churches. The "Apostles" traveled continually, visiting the churches. A

distinction was made between those called to be "Perfect," and others of the followers of Christ, based on the fact that in the Gospels some were called to SELL ALL that they had, and follow Christ, while others of His disciples were equally called to serve Him in the surroundings in which He found them.

The Waldenses Apostles had no property or goods, or home or family; if they had had these they left them.  Their life was one of self-denial,

hardship and danger. They traveled in utmost simplicity, without money,

without second suit, their needs being supplied by the believers among

them whom they ministered the Word.

They always went TWO and TWO, an elder and a younger man.   The younger man, of whom later, waited on his older companion.  Their visits were highly esteemed, and they were treated with every token  of respect and affection.  They never asked for anything; indeed, many undertook serious medical studies that they might be able to care for the bodies of those they met with.  The name "Friends of God" was often given to them. Great care was used in commending men to such service, since it was felt the ONE devoted man was worth more than a hundred whose call to this ministry was less evident.

The brethren in the valleys never lost the knowledge and consciousness of their origin and unbroken history there.   To the Prince of Savoy, who had the longest dealing with them, they could always assert without fear and contradiction the uniformity of their faith, from father to son, through time immemorial, even from the very age of the Apostles. Another writer, Pilichdorft, also a bitter opponent, says that the person who claimed to have thus existed from the time of the Pope Sylvester were the Waldenses.

Founders: Some have suggested that Claudius of Turin in the 7th century was the founder of the Waldenses in the mountains of Piedmont. He, and they, had much in common, and must have strengthened and encouraged one another, but the Waldenses' were of a much older origin.

To Francis I of France they said, in 1544: "This confession is that which we have received from our ancestors in all time and in every age have taught and delivered."  A few years later, to the Prince Savoy they said, "Let your Highness consider this religion in which we live as not merely our religion of the present day, or a religion discovered for the first time only a few years ago, as our Enemies falsely pretend, but it is the religion of our fathers and of our grandfathers, yea, of our forefathers and of our predecessors still far remote.   It is the religion of the Saints and of the Martyrs, of the Confessors of the Apostles."

Marco A. Roreno, of Turin was ordered in (1630) to write an account of the history and opinion of the Waldenses.  He wrote that the Waldenses are so ancient, as to afford no absolute certain in regard to the precise time of their origin, but that, at all events, in the 9th, and 10th centuries they

were even then not a NEW sect.

When they came in contact with the Reformers in the 16th century they said: "Our ancestors have often recounted to us that we have existed from the time of the Apostles themselves, we have ever been consistent respecting the faith." Quotes Reinarius the Inquisitor who, in a report made by him to the Pope on the subject of their faith, admits, "They have existed from the time immemorial. It would not be difficult to prove that this poor band of the faithful was in the valleys of Piedmont more than 400 years before the appearance of Luther and Calvin the subsequent lights of the Reformation.  Neither church has been reformed.

The Vaudois are, in fact, descended from those refugees from Italy, who after apostle Paul had there preached the Gospel, abandoned their beautiful country and fled, like the Woman mentions in (Revelation 12), to these wild mountains, from father to son, in the same purity and simplicity as it was preached by Apostle Paul.

The relation of Peter Waldo with the Waldeneses were so intimate that many call him the FOUNDER of a sect of that name, though others derive the name from the Alpine valleys, Valleys, in which so many of those believers lived.   It is true that Peter Waldo was highly esteemed among them, but NOT possible that he should have been their FOUNDER, since they founded their faith and practice on the Scriptures and were followers of those who from the earliest times had done the same.

For Outsiders or their enemies to give them the name of a MAN Prominent among them was only to follow the usual habit of their opponents, who did NOT like to admit their right to call, themselves, as they did, "Christians" or "Brethren".

Very few of them were married in the ministry, and their perpetual

missions, their poverty, their missionary tours, their lives always spent

amid warfare and danger, make it easy to understand the reason of the

Celibacy.   They admonished those who behaved ill, and if remonstrance's produced no effect, they went to the length of excommunication, but it was rare.

Their missionaries went everywhere, proclaiming truths of Christianity and stirring the hearts of men and women to their very depths. In Hungary,

Bohemia, in France, England, Scotland, as well as in Italy, they were

working with the tremendous, through the silent power.  Such were the

organization, and such were the doctrines of the Apostolic Church of the

valleys of Piedmont.   Later in the same century (1685-1699) some of them, under stress of renew persecution, emigrated to Switzerland to several cities of southern of France and also to the South of America.