to them by their forefathers from the time of the martyrs, and apostles, would that great prince and his court have endured to be so told by these poor people, if there had been one particle of truth to be discovered to the contrary, by the ministers of his royal highness, or by his ecclesiastics, or if any of them could have maintained the reverse, and shewn, that they did not descend from father to son from the times of the martyrs and confessors, and holy Apostles' ?"

SECTION II.

THE SECOND ARGUMENT IN FAVOUR OF THE ANTIQUITY

OF THE WALDENSIAN CHURCH RESTS UPON THE SITUATION OF THE COUNTRY.

There is an Alpine region upon the frontiers of France and Italy, which has been long inhabited by a race of Christians, who have persevered in asserting, from age to age, that their Church has continued the same at all periods of ecclesiastical history; that it has never acknowledged the jurisdiction of the Roman pontiff, and that it is a pure branch of the ancient primitive Church :-and

who have reiterated in the ears of their princes the unpalatable and unrebutted boast, "Our religion was the religion of our forefathers, dwelling in the

valleys which we now occupy, before you and your

dynasty were established in Piemont."

Now is there any thing in the situation of the valleys, which renders it probable, that the Gospel was preached there at an early period? They lie within the direct, the nearest, and the most easy line of communication between those Italian and Gallic provinces, which we know to have been christianized in the second century at the latest. Tradition says, that the apostle St. Paul went from Rome to Spain by this line of communication. Whether he did or not will most probably ever remain an open question; but this is certain, that there were very frequent journeys made by the early Christians from Rome and Milan 1, and from the cities which lay between these capitals of Italy, to Lyons, and to the South of France. They would naturally take the most practicable and frequented road, and one of these traversed, or skirted the territory of the Waldenses, whose ancestors were therefore likely to receive a knowledge of the Gos

1 Travellers from Milan would pursue their route through Turin, and the valleys of Perosa and Pragela, and over Mount Genevre. Those from Rome would take the same course, or that of the Maritime Alps. The latter would conduct them through Provence and Dauphiné, where a branch of the Waldensian Church flourished till the reign of Louis XIV.

E

pel from wayfaring believers, who travelled by the passes in the immediate vicinity of their habitations; or from zealous missionaries, who would turn out of their way to preach redemption to the more remote and secluded mountaineers1.

Another probability is found in the persecution which raged under Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, and which drove many of the Christian fugitives from Milan, on one side, and from Lyons and Vienne on the other, to the Alpine retreats, which lay at a nearly equal distance from those scenes of cruelty. This persecution raged most fiercely in the year 168, according to some; and in 177 or 179, according to others.

It is recorded that Irenæus, who was afterwards Bishop of Lyons, was despatched to Rome, from Lyons, while he was yet a Presbyter, to communicate the state of that Gallic Church to the brethren at Rome. Irenæus himself, therefore, a disciple of Polycarp, who was the hearer of

3

1 "We know," says Neander, " from the account of Pliny to Trajan, from the notice in Clemens, and from the relations in Justin, that in many neighbourhoods there were country communities of Christians very early. Origen says expressly, that many made a point of going through, not only the towns, but he κωμαι και επαύλεις. The great number of Χωρεπίσκοποι, in particular neighbourhoods, also proves this." See Rose's valuable work on Progressive Christianity, p. 154.

2 Eusebius, 5. 4.

Jerome calls Irenæus, " Vir Apostolicus." Basil speaks of him as ὁ εγγυς των αποστόλων γενόμενος,

St. John the Apostle, might have trodden the mountain paths of the Vaudois, in his journey to the metropolis of the world, and might have preached that apostolic faith, which abided pure in the wilderness, when it became corrupted in cities. There is a temptation to fix upon this Father, as a person not unlikely to have been, by himself or his clergy, the first herald of the Gospel to the natives of our subalpine valleys, which is quite irresistible. His diocese extended to, and perhaps comprised the chain of mountains, among which the forefathers of the Vaudois dwelt1. His sentiments were, in a peculiar degree, those which the Waldenses, on either side of the Alps, have perseveringly maintained. This appears in his opposition to all doctrines which could not be supported by Scripture, and which, resting as he said, (quoting 1 Tim. i. 4.) upon "fables and endless genealogies, minister questions, rather than godly edifying"." It appears in his opposition also to every tradition, which could not be distinctly traced to the Apostles 3;-in his declaration that Scripture alone is sufficiently clear and perfect for our instruction in the faith ;in his accusations against those, who made use of images and pictures for purposes of worship,

1

1 See Pagi. Critica Histor. Chronol. Sub An. 374.

2 Irenæus contra Hær. Præfatio, lib. i.

and who invoked angels and beatified spirits'; -and above all, in his opinion, that the Bishop of one Church has no right to lord it over other Churches, or to interrupt the harmony of the universal body of Christ, by obstinate attempts to introduce uniformity of discipline. He sharply reproved Victor, the Roman pontiff, in the name of his brethren of Gaul, says Eusebius, and in a synodical epistle, for disturbing the peace of the church by a presumptuous endeavour to settle the paschal controversy by his authority *.

1 Irenæus contra Hær. Præfatio, lib. i. 24; and lib. ii. 57. 2 Eusebius, lib. v. 24.

• Thirteen Gallic Bishops were present at the Synod held by Irenæus. See Cave, 193.

* The respectful letters which were occasionally addressed by Irenæus, and other provincial prelates, to the Bishops of Rome, have been triumphantly adduced by Papists as so many proofs of submission to the Pontifical chair. They were nothing more than what might be expected towards residents at the metropolis of the empire. The letters for information and counsel, which the Bishops of Durham and Winchester sometimes write to the Bishop of London, might, with equal propriety, be cited as evidence of the supremacy of the Bishop of London.

The question of Primacy, which the Roman Pontiffs succeeded in making a question of Supremacy, was well understood in the early times to refer to nothing more than the rank or station of dignity, not the power of jurisdiction, which was assumed upon different occasions; and this depended upon the rank of episcopal cities in the scale of nations and provinces. Hence, when it was referred to the Council of Turin in 397, to decide upon the primacy between the Bishops of Arles and Vienne, the