with more ignominy; the convicted persons being branded with a hot iron on their shoulders, or even on their foreheads."

But, independent of those that fell by the edge of the sword, or were committed to the flames by the soldiers and magistrates, the inquisition was constantly at work, from the year 1206 to 1228, and produced the most dreadful havoc among the disciples of Christ. Of the effects occasioned by this infernal engine of cruelty and oppression, we may have some notion from this circumstance,—that in the last-mentioned year the archbishops of Aix, Arles, and Narbonne, found it necessary to intercede with the monks of the inquisition, to defer a little their work of imprisonment, until the pope could be apprised of the immense numbers apprehended-numbers so great, that it was impossible to defray the charge of their subsistence, or even to provide stone and mortar to build prisons for them. Their own language, indeed, is so remarkable, that it deserves to be laid before the reader, and here it is.

"It has come to our knowledge," say they, "that you have apprehended so many of the WALDENSES, that it is not only impossible to defray the charges of their subsistence, but also to provide stone and mortar to build prisons for them. We, therefore, advise you to defer for a while augmenting their number, until the pope be apprised of the great multitudes that have been apprehended, and until he notify what he pleases to have done in this case. Nor is there any reason you should take offence hereat; for as to those who are altogether impenitent and incorrigible, or concerning whom you may doubt of their relapse or escape, or that, being at large again, they would infect others, you may condemn such without delay." *

Perrin's Hist. des Vaudois, b. ii. ch. ii.

Such is the representation given us by writers of unimpeachable veracity, of the merciless treatment which the Albigenses received from the Catholics at this period, purely on account of their religious profession.* Before I dismiss the subject, it may be proper to notice a difficulty which will strike the minds of reflecting readers. It has been intimated both by the friends and enemies of the Waldenses, that they had religious scruples against bearing arms, and even shedding the blood of animals unnecessarily. The question, therefore, naturally presents itself, "Were they at last driven to the necessity of taking up the sword in defence of their religion and lives?" Upon the lawfulness or unlawfulness of doing so, when pressed by dire necessity, I shall offer no opinion in this place. My business is to state facts as I find them; and, that the reader may not suspect me of a wish to misrepresent their principles and conduct in the instance referred to, I shall quote the words of Mr. Robinson, who had much better means of information than have fallen to my lot.

"The difficulty here is," says he, "how such people as bore no arms, and shed no blood, could be said to bring large armies into the field to defend their rights. The proper answer is the pious were named from the

In the council of Toulouse, held in the year 1229, a most severe and sanguinary inquisition, was established against heretics. One of its canons is, 'It shall not be permitted to laymen to have the books of the Old and New Testament; only they who out of devotion desire it, may have a Psalter, a Breviary, and the hours of the Virgin. But we absolutely forbid them to have the above-mentioned books translated into the vulgar tongue. This is the first time, says the Abbé Fleury, in his Ecclesiastical History, that I have met with this prohibition: but it may be favourably explained by observing that the minds of men being then much irritated, there was no other method of putting a stop to contentions, than by taking away from them the Holy Scriptures, of which the heretics made a bad use." A poor excuse indeed! says Dr. Jortin. Remarks, vol. III. p. $11.

provinces, the provinces and princes from the pious; for one common principle, that all mankind had a right to be free, brought together Goths and professors of the gospel. Both loved liberty-the latter paid for it by taxes, the fruits of their industry, and the former fought for it, and, by defending one, preserved both parties. The church of Rome having adopted clerical dominion as an article of orthodox belief, it followed of course, that resistance to that, was heresy both political and religious. Too many historians take up the affair in the gross, lay it down as they took it up, and gravely say, the Lord, by a course of miracles, assisted his dear servants the Catholics to drown, stab, and burn, forty thousand heretics-because they (the catholics) were afraid of their lives, in a society of people who had such an aversion to the taking away [even] of animal life, that they never killed a bird, from a sparrow to an eagle; or a quadruped, from a weasel to an elephant; * and who perpetually exclaimed against penal laws, and thought it wrong to take away the life of a man,"

A proper attention to this matter, may help us to solve several things in the writings of the catholics themselves, which must otherwise prove extremely perplexing. Thus, for instance, several of their own writers describe the battle which proved so fatal to the cause of the Albigenses. "In the year 1213, the christian army of eight hundred horse and one thousand foot, near Toulouse,

• Mr. Robinson has here given the very words of the Inquisitor Reinerius, who, describing the Waldenses, says, “Ita, est communis opinio Catharorum, quod graviter peccaret, quicumque occiderit avem aliquam a minima usque ad maximam; et quadrupedia, a mustela usque ad eleplantem." That is, "It is also a common opinion among the Puritans (Cathari) that that man sins grievously who kills any bird, from the least to the greatest—or a quadruped, from a weasel to an elephant.” Contra Waldenses, cap. vi.

being divided into three corps, in honour of the Holy Trinity, the first, under the command of Simon, Count of Montfort, the second commanded by the Lord Bishop of Toulouse, and the third by the Lord Bishop of Cominge, attacked the army of the heretics, consisting of an hundred thousand fighting men, and defeated them. The Catholics lost about a hundred men, but of the Albigenses, two and thirty thousand were either killed or drowned in the river Garonne." This they call the battle of Murat† and they add, that after this victory many of the surviving heretics fled into the vallies of Piedmont, where their descendants resided, till twohundred years after, when Huss revived the same heresy in Bohemia, and Luther in Germany, about a hundred years after him. The explanation of all this miracle is, that the cities and towns that were attacked by the crusaders were peopled with mechanics, manufacturers, and husbandmen of the kind described by the inquisitors— an industrious and virtuous people, who took no oaths, objected to wars of every kind, and refused to shed the

Voltaire's remark upon this curious piece of Catholic history, may be thought by some not altogether impertinent. "Is it at all likely," he asks, "that only eighteen hundred men would attack an army of an hundred thousand in the open field, and divide themselves into three bodies? It is a miracle,' some writers will say, but military people, apon reading such a story, will tell them it is nonsense and absurdity." General History, Vol. I. ch. 1.

+ A singular disclosure was made after this battle, and as the circumstance tends to throw a ray of light upon the secret history of these times it deserves to be recorded. When the battle of Murat was over, there was found among the slain belonging to the Albigenses a knight in black armour. On examining, behold it was discovered to be Peter, king of Arragon-that very monarch, who had formerly been engaged in negotia. ting between the pope's legate and the earl of Beziers. (See p. 135.) There also lay one of his sons, and many of the Arragonian gentlemen and vassals, who, while ostensibly supporting the Roman church, had, in disguise, been fighting in defence of the Albigenses!!

blood of a fellow-creature, even in defence of their own lives. Such appears plainly to have been the case with the Albigenses. The Count of Toulouse, and the barons and vassals that constituted his army, no doubt acted upon different maxims; for, had they followed out the principles of these Albigenses, they would have dissolved the whole feudal system; but they approved of the conduct of these people in dissenting from the communion of the church of Rome, admired the simplicity of their doctrine and worship, and, to the utmost of their power, protected them from the rage of their bigotted and sanguinary persecutors. *

SECTION VII.

Some account of the state of the Waldenses, from the period of the suppression of their churches in France to the middle of the fourteen century. A. D. 1230-1350.

WHILE the dæmon of persecution was raging with resistless fury against the Albigenses in the southern provinces of France, the inhabitants of the 'vallies of Piedmont appear to have enjoyed a large portion of external peace;-their churches had rest, and walking in the fear of the Lord and the comforts of the Holy Spirit, were edified and multiplied. The kind providence of God appeared in blessing them with a succession of

See Robinson's Ecclesiastical Researches, ch. x. and Dr. Allix's Remarks on the Ecclesiastical History of the Ancient Churches of the Albigenses, ch. xxi.