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"About the year 1400, a violent outrage was committed by the catholie party residing in that neighbour. hood, upon the Waldenses who inhabited the valley of Pragela, in Piedmont. The attack, which seems to have been of the most furious kind, was made towards the end of the month of December-when the mountains were covered with snow, and thereby rendered so difficult of access, that the peaceable inhabitants of the vallies were wholly unapprised that any attempt was meditated and their persecutors were in actual possession of their caves, ere they seem to have been apprised of their hostile designs upon them. In this pitiable plight they had recourse to the only alternative which remained for saving their lives-they fled to one of the highest mountains of the Alps, with their wives and children, the unhappy mothers carrying the cradle in one hand, and in the other leading such of their offspring as were able to walk. Their inhuman invaders, whose feet were swift to shed blood, pursued them in their flight, until night came on, and slew a great number of them before they could reach the mountains. Those that escaped, were, however," exposed to evils as great as those they had already avoided. "Overtaken by the night, they wandered up and down the mountains, covered with snow, without shelter" or succour; "benumbed with cold, they fell easy martyrs to the severity of the climate, and when the shades of night had passed away, there were found in their cradles, or lying upon the snow, scores of their infants destitute of life, many of their mothers also lying dead by their sides, and others just upon the point of expiring. During the night, their enemies were busily employed in plundering their houses of every thing valuable, which they conveyed away to Susa,”

Chap. 1.

Albert de Capitaneis.

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This first attack upon the churches of Piedmont was but a specimen of what they had to suffer in subsequent periods, and it made so deep an impression npou their mind, that "from generation to generation" they transmitted with deep sensations of horror the dismal history of their calamity and persecution. But what is remarkable, after this dreadful onset they were suffered to enjoy peace with but little interruption, till about the year 1487. Yet it must be remembered, that during this interval of rest in the vallies, the different sects, among whom were many of the followers of the Waldenses, suffered greatly in different parts of Europe, and especially within the precints of the inquisitorial courts.

The year, just mentioned above, had scarcely dawned before Pope Innocent the Eighth issued a bull whereby to empower Albert de Capitaneis, archdeacon of Cremona, to pursue with fire and sword all who would not submit to papal authority. The south of France was first fixed upon by Albert, and calling in the aid of the king's lieutenant in the province of Dauphiny, he attacked the inhabitants of the valley of Loyse. The poor people, apprised of the enemies approach, fled to their retreats and fastnesses in the mountains. The lieutenant finding his victims thus secured, ordered prodigious quantities of wood to be kindled at the entrances of their caves. “The consequence was, that four hundred children were suffocated in their cradles, or in the arms of their dead mothers, while multitudes, to avoid dying by suffocation, or being burnt to death, precipitated themselves headlong from their caverns upon the rocks below, where they were dashed in pieces, or slaughtered by the brutal soldiery." It is held unquestionably true, (says Perrin) that

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more than three thousand persons perished on this occasion."

From hence Albert and his blood hounds proceeded to Piedmont, where he was joined by an army of eighteen thousand soldiers, which he divided into detachments, and marched in different directions, so as to compass the several vallies and to attack them all at once. We need not say the consequences were dreadful, but they would have been much worse, had not the duke of Savoy compassionated the sufferings of his poor subjects, and interfered on their behalf.

By such means as these, and others equally cruel and oppressive, the Waldenses continued to suffer in a greater or less degree during the century. Under these cireumstances their preservation amounts almost to a miraole, they were like the Bush which Moses saw burning, but not consumed.

It is much to be regretted that the limits of this suceinet work will scarcely admit of even a brief outline of the doctrine, discipline, and communion of the Waldensian churches. Suffice it to say, the doctrines they avowed were truly evangelical, and such as are now asserted in the formularies of the Reformed Churches of Europe, and such as the New England Fathers avowed in the first churches of this country. Their churches were well organized and pastoral duties strictly attended to. The fellowship maintained in the several societies, and the affectionate communion which pervaded the whole, were such as not only to strike with astonishment, but prove that the Divine Saviour was eminently among them. Their prosperity is still more surprising, when we consider the perpetual persecution to which they were liable, and which they often suffered; but like the sons of Jacob in Egypt, the more they were oppressed, the more they increased and grew.

CHAPTER II,

Affairs in England-Lord Cobham-Persecution of the

Lollards.

THE seat and office of the papacy, divided as they were, made`no alteration in the spirit of the papal system: the kingdom of Satan was not divided against itself. It mattered not whether the banner of the scarlet whore were erected at Rome or at Avignon, or whether the two popes could be equally legitimate-the prince of darkness took care to rally his bloody regiment under it, and to make frequent inroads upon the sacred territories of the church. The translation of the scriptures into the native tongue was a most alarming circumstance; the lordly priests well knew that there was not an article of their ecclesiastical system to be found in the gospels, and that if men in general became acquainted with the truth, their spiritual domination and plunder would be at an end.

The religion of the Lollards or of Wickliff (terms indiscriminately used for the same people) was the religion of the Bible; therefore in propagating their tenets, they had only to propagate the scriptures: hence, an attachment to the word of God was sufficient to stamp a man for a heretic, and to point him out to the bloodyminded priesthood. Political affairs in England at this time contributed greatly to aid these persecutors of the saints. John a Gaunt, the friend and patron of Wickliff, was laid in the dust; and his son, having murdered King Richard the Second in order to place himself or the throne stood in need of papal unction to confirm him

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in that usurpation; he accordingly, as a true son of the church, joined the clergy against all that dared to oppose the holy see. The century before us had scarcely commenced, when the first fire that ever burned a martyr in England was kindled round William Sawtre, a London priest, who had embraced, and ventured to teach the doctrines of Wickliff. John Badby, an illiterate mechanic, a few years after, suffered the same fate, for maintaining that the sacramental bread was not the real body of Christ. At the execution of this man the prince of Wales, afterwards the renowned Henry the Fifth, attended, and exhorted the heretic to recant, promising him a stipend for life. Badby possessed the heart of a martyr, and nobly refused; the prince abandoned him in a rage, and the fire soon burned off the bands of mortality and set the spirit at liberty. Arundel, archbishop of Canterbury, was a principal agent in these persecutions; under his direction many were apprehended and accused; some through fear recanted, others continued stedfast, and sealed the truth with their lives. A very conspicuous and illustrious character among these sufferers we have in the person of Lord COBHAM, a man who, by his valour and loyalty, had raised himself high in the king's favour; nor was he less beloved by the people, in the estimation of whom he was considered to be a gentleman, a soldier, and a man of probity and honour. But he had rendered him. self odious to the popish ministers, by openly acknow ledging himself an admirer of the famous Wickliff. At very great expense he had collected, transcribed, and propagated the works of that reformer; in addition to which he countenanced, and even maintained, a number of preachers in different parts of the country, especially in the dioceses of Rochester, London, and Hereford.