in a very awkward position; for whilst you made him preach that the king was infallible, you made him hold out a hope to the people who were injured by the infallible king, that they would be redressed by the same king when the grace of God should have led him to repair the evils produced by his infallibility. Really, it requires more penetration than I can lay claim to, to reconcile this and this. These Popes have always been a very inconsistent race of beings! Now, sir, as I am no advocate for the divine right of kings, believing also that they have no claim to infallibility, I promise you for the name of every Pope whom you shall specify to the editor of the Miscellany who preached in support of the divine right of kings, I will give to him, for you, the names of two Protestant bishops who have preached the same doctrine; but, Governor, we must have it a good close bargain: you must not only give the name of the Pope, but the passages of the sermon, and I will not only give the names of the bishops, but the passages of their sermons. It will be as well to inform you that unless you produce extracts from the sermons of seven Popes, I shall be victorious. I doubt that you can produce a single passage. Yet there were some Popes who held the doctrine, but not in the way that you appear to insinuate; like the gratia Dei, the jure divino has a meaning which a little more examination into the law of nations, the feudal system, and Christian morality would exhibit, and which even natural religion, or the jus divinum naturale, would establish for yourself as long as the constitution of Georgia permits it, and no longer. But, sir, I consent that we shall not construe the passages of sermons on either side upon this sound principle; those which I have will not admit such construction; it is for you to say what construction your passages will require. Catholic Church; and the revolt was against a Protestant king who persecuted Roman Catholics for not swearing that they would desert and reject the Pope. Yet, with admirable facility, with a tact peculiar to your self, you give as the prelude to your insult upon the Roman Catholics, and your assertions regarding the Pope, a declaration that it was the most inveterate of the enemies of Rome, was the superstitious Protestant despot. "Mr. Jefferson had already done enough for his country and for his own fame-he had marchhad palsied the arm of despotism, broken the chairs ed with his comrades in the vanguard of freedom, of superstition, declared the independence of his country, and promulgated the natural, imprescriptible, and unalienable rights of man." In doing all which he was aided by Roman Catholics!! A Roman Catholic signature to his declaration pledged not only life and sacred honour, but a million of money; General Washington testified that no blood was more freely shed in defence of Mr. Jefferson's principles, than that of Roman Catholics: the king of a Catholic nation, the king of all others most attached to Rome, sent his fleets and armies to be the copartners in palsying the despot's arm, and breaking the chains of superstition. What superstition? Certainly not Roman Catholic; because there was no Catholic superstition to enchain any person whom Mr. Jefferson had freed. What then does it mean? Protestant superstition! Be it so, if you will. It is not my province to contend with you that it was not. But if so, I ask you, why you attack the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church in the next paragraph? Come, Governor, honestly declare that you used the words as many of our fellow-citizens use them every day, merely for their sound, and without considering whether they had reaNow, your excellency must admit that in son or not. Why would you then carelessly revolting against King George III., Mr. Jef-insult a large portion of your fellow-citizens? ferson and his associates were aided by a I have done. Catholic king, the eldest son of the Roman Yours, [The ensuing controversy, which is taken up, in great part, with extracts from Bossuet and Mosheim, is found in Vols. XVI. and XVII. of the United States Catholic Miscellany."] SECTION I. WALDENSES, OR VAUDOIS. WE before remarked* that our reformed gentry, both founders and followers, have often been sorely perplexed on their succession. With an ingenuity that might be expected where so much lay at stake, they have laboured hard to point out a respectable ancestry. Having declared the church of all ages and all nations the mother of abominations, it would be strange should they identify themselves with her. On the other hand, the apostate founders of the now belligerent sects-as well as the guilty career of the lustful Henry, presented to the world credentials so utterly void of heaven's authority, that it became necessary to seek out predecessors in the faith of a character more above suspicion. It was thought such were discovered in the Waldenses, those beggars of Lyons to whom we previously referred and now return. It strikes us, however, that the stride from Luther to Waldo will not much advance the pretensions of the Reformers, inasmuch as it will be as difficult to trace the succession for the one as the other. We shall see whether our elect have much reason even to boast of them. Reserving the Albigenses for another series of papers, we for the present take up the Waldenses from the pages of Bossuet. Their name (says he, Hist. de Var. Liv. xi.) is derived from Waldo, the author of the sect. Lyons was the place of their nativity. They were called the " poor men" of Lyons, on account of the poverty affected by them; and as the city of Lyons was then called, in Latin, Leona, they had also the appellation of Leonists, or Lionists. They were also called the Insabbatized, from an ancient word signifying shoes, whence have proceeded other words of a like signification still in use in several other languages. They took, therefore, the name of the Insabbatized from a sort of shoes of a particular make, which they cut * [In some former articles on the succession in the Protestant Churches.] in the upper part, to show their feet naked like the Apostles, as they said; and this fashion was affected by them in token of their apostolic poverty. Peter Now, continues the same author, here is an abridgment of their history. At their first separation, they held but few tenets contrary to ours, if any at all. In the year 1160, Peter Waldo, a merchant of Lyons, at a meeting held, as was customary, with the other rich traders of the town, was so lively struck with the sudden death of one of the most eminent among them, that he immediately distributed all his means, which were considerable, to the poor of the city; and having, on that account, gathered a great number of them, he preached to them voluntary poverty, and the imitation of the life of Jesus Christ and his Apostles. This is what Renier says, whom the Protestants, pleased with the encomiums we shall find he bestows on the Vaudois. will have us believe in this matter preferably to all other authors. But we are going to see what misguided piety can arrive to. Pylicdorf, who beheld the Vaudois in their most flourishing condition, and related not only their dogmas, but deportment too, with much simplicity and learning, says, that Waldo, moved with those words of the Gospel so highly favourable to poverty, believed the apostolic life was no longer to be found on earth. Bent on restoring it, he sold all he had. "Others, touched with compunction, did the same," and united together in this undertaking. At the first rise of this obscure and timorous sect either they had none, or did not publish any particular tenet; which was the reason that Ebrard of Bethune remarks nothing singular in them but the affectation of a proud and lazy poverty. One might see these Insabbatized or Sabbatized, so he calls them, with their naked feet, or rather with "their shoes cut open" at top, waiting for alms, and living only on what was given them. Nothing was blamed in them, at first, but ostentation,—and, without ranking them as yet amongst heretics, they were reproached only with imitating their pride. But let us hear the sequel of their history: "After Another proof that their errors did not regard the Eucharist. living awhile in this pretended apostolic | cient to say in general, they held “ some poverty, they bethought themselves that the superstitious dogmas." Apostles were not only poor, but also preached the Gospel. They set themselves, therefore, to preach, according to their example, that they might wholly imitate the apostolic life." But the Apostles were sent; and these men, whose ignorance rendered them incapable of such mission, were excluded by the prelates, and lastly, by the Holy See, from a ministry which they had usurped without their leave. Nevertheless, they continued it in private, and murmured against the clergy, that hindered them from preaching, as they said, through jealousy; and on account of their doctrine and holy life, cast a reproach on the corrupt manners of the others. Whether Waldo were a man of learning. Some Protestants have asserted, that Waldo was a man of learning; but Renier says only, "he had a small tincture of it," aliquantulum literatus. Other Protestants, on the contrary, take advantage from the great success he had in his ignorance. But it is too well known, what a dexterity often may be met with in the minds of the most ignorant men, to attract to them those that are alike disposed,-and Waldo seduced none but such. The Vaudois condemned by Lucius III. This sect, in a little time, made great progress. Bernard, abbot of Fontcauld, who saw their beginnings, remarks their increase under Pope Lucius III. This Pope's pontificate commences in 1181, to wit, twenty years after Waldo had appeared at Lyons. Twenty years, at least, were requisite to make a body and so considerable a sect as to deserve notice. At that time, therefore, Lucius III. condemned them; and as his pontificate held but four years, this first condemnation of the Vaudois must have fallen between the year 1181, when this Pope was raised to St. Peter's chair, and the year 1185, wherein he died. They come to Rome. They are not accused of anything in respect to the real presence. Conrade, abbot of Ursperg, thoroughly acquainted, as we shall find, with the Vaudois, has written, that Pope Lucius placed them in the number of heretics, on account of some dogmas and superstitious observances. As yet, these dogmas are not specified; but there is no question, that, if the Vaudois had denied such remarkable points as that of the real presence (a matter become so notorious by Berengarius's condemnation), it had not been thought suffi Much about the same time, in the year 1194, a statute of Alphonsus or Ildephonsus, King of Arragon, reckons the Vaudois or Insabbatized, otherwise the poor men of Lyons, amongst heretics anathematized by the church; and this is manifestly in consequence of the sentence pronounced by Lucius III. After this Pope's death, when, in spite of his decree, these heretics spread themselves far and near, and Bernard, Archbishop of Narbonne, who condemned them anew after a great inquest, could not stem the current of their progress, many pious persons, ecclesiastics, and others, procured a conference, in order to reclaim them in an amicable manner. "Both sides agreed to choose for umpire," in the conference, a holy priest called Raimond of Daventry, a man illustrious for birth, but much more so for the holiness of his life." The assembly was very solemn, "and the dispute held long." Such passages of Scripture as each party grounded itself on, were produced on both sides. The Vaudois were condemned, and declared heretics in regard to all the heads of accusation. Proof of the same truth by a famous Conference, wherein all points were discussed. Thence it appears that the Vaudois, though condemned, had not as yet broken all measures with the Church of Rome, inasmuch as they had agreed to the umpirage of a Catholic and a priest. The abbot of Fontcauld, present at the conference, did commit to writing, with much judgment and perspicuity, the debated points, and the passages alleged on both sides; so that nothing can give a clearer insight into the whole state of the question, such as it then was, and at the beginning of the sect. Articles of the Conference. The dispute chiefly turned on the obedience due to pastors. It is plain the Vaudois refused it, and, notwithstanding all their prohibitions, believed they had a right to preach, both men and women. As this dis obedience could be grounded on nothing else but the pastors unworthiness, the Catholics, in proving the obedience due to them, prove it is due even to the wicked,-and that grace, be its channel what it will, never ceases to diffuse itself on the faithful. For the same reason they showed, that slandering of pastors (whence was taken the pretext of disobedience) was forbidden by the laws of God. Then they attack the liberty, which laymen gave themselves, of preaching without the pastors' leave, nay, in spite of their prohibitions, and show, that this seditious preaching tends to the subversion of the weak and ignorant. Above all, they prove from Scripture, that women, to whom silence is enjoined, ought not to interfere in teaching. Lastly, it is demonstrated to the Vaudois how much they are in the wrong to reject prayer for the dead, so well grounded in Scripture, and so evidently handed down by tradition: and whereas, these heretics absented themselves from the churches, in order to pray apart in their houses, they are made sensible that they ought not to abandon the house of prayer, whose sanctity the whole Scripture and the Son of God himself had so much recommended. It was nearly about this time that Alanus wrote the book above mentioned; wherein, after carefully distinguishing Vaudois from the other heretics of his time, he undertakes to prove, in opposition to their doctrine, "That none ought to preach without mission; that prelates should be obeyed, and not only good, but also evil ones; that their bad lives derogate not their power; that it is to the sacred order we ought to attribute the power of consecrating and that of binding and loosing, and not to personal merit; that we ought to confess to priests, and not to laymen; that it is lawful to swear in certain cases, and to execute malefactors." This is much what he opposes in the errors of Vaudois. Had they erred in relation to the Eucharist, Alanus would not have forgotten it, the very thing he was so mindful to reproach the Albigenses with, against whom he undertakes to prove both the real presence and transubstantiation; and after reproving so many things of less importance in the Vaudois, he would never have omitted so essential a point. trine. Nor Peter de Vaucernay. A little after Alanus's time, and about the year 1201, Peter de Vaucernay, a plain, downright man, and of unquestionable sinAlbigenses by their proper characters, when cerity, distinguishes the Vaudois from the he tells us, "the Vaudois were bad, but much less so than these other heretics," who admitted the two principles, and all the consequences of that damnable docthor, "their other infidelities, their error "Not to mention," proceeds the auchiefly consisted in four heads, viz.: their wearing sandals in imitation of the Apostles; their saying it was not lawful to swear for any cause whatsoever; nor to put to death even malefactors; lastly, in that they said that each one of them, though but mere laymen, provided he wore sandals, (namely, as above seen, the mark of apostolic poverty,) might consecrate the body of Jesus Christ." Here are, in reality, the specific characters that denote the true spirit of the Vaudois; the affectation of poverty in the sandals which were the badge of it; simplicity and apparent meekness, in rejecting all oaths and capital punishments, and, what was more peculiar to this sect, the belief that the laity, provided they had embraced its badge, that is, provided they were of their pretended apostolic poverty, and bore their sect, might administer and consecrate Christ. The rest, as their doctrine concernthe sacraments, even the body of Jesus ing prayer for the dead, was comprised in the other infidelities of these heretics, which this author forbears to particularize; yet, had they risen up against the real presence, since the disturbance this matter had caused in the church, not only this religious would not have forgotten it, but had been far from saying, "they consecrated the body of Jesus Christ," thereby making them not to differ from Catholics in this point, except their attributing to laymen that power which Catholics acknowledged only in the priest hood. The Vaudois come to demand the approbation of Innocent III. It appears then, manifestly, that the Vaudois in 1209, at the time of Peter de Vaucernay's writings, had not so much as thought of denying the real presence, but retained so much either true or apparent submission to the Church of Rome, that, even in 1212, they came to Rome, in order to obtain "the approbation of their sect from the Holy See." It was then that Conrade, Abbot of Ursperg, saw them, as he himself reports, with their master Bernard. They may be discovered by the characters given them by this chronicler: they were the poor men of Lyons, those whom Lucius III. had put in the list of heretics," who made themselves remarkable by the affectation "of apostolic poverty, with their shoes cut open at top;" who, in their private preaching and clandestine assemblies, "reviled the church and priesthood." The Pope judged the affectation was very odd, which they discovered "in these cut shoes, and in their capuches, like those of the religious, though, contrary to their custom, they wore a long head of hair like laymen." And, truly, these strange affectations most commonly cover something bad; but especially men took offence at the liberty these new apostles gave themselves, of going promiscuously together men and women, in imitation, as they said, of the pious women that followed Jesus Christ and the Apostles to minister to them; but, very different were the times, the persons, and the circumstances. The Vaudois begin to be treated like obstinate heretics. mission;" whereby he seems to have particularly pointed out the Vaudois, and distinguished them by the origin of their schism. We shall return to the subject. SECTION II. THE WALDENSES. We have found the following article in the Charleston Observer, of last Saturday: "AN OLD CONFESSION OF FAITH. "Where was your religion before Luther?' is a standing interrogatory, fabricated for the double purpose of sustaining the pretensions of the Papacy to universal Catholicism, and to tantalize unlettered Protestants, by assuring them that their religion is of a very modern origin. The question, however, can be triumphantly answered. But, without attempting it at present, we shall merely adduce the Confession of Faith which was adopted by the much-persecuted Waldenses more than 400 years before Luther. There are several confessions of the faith of these Christians of the valleys, some of them bearing a very early date, still extant. Sir Samuel Morland has fixed the date of the earliest in the year 1120; it is as follows: It was, says the Abbot of Ursperg, with the design of giving to the church men truly poor, more divested of earthly goods, than these false poor of Lyons, that the Pope afterwards approved the institute of the Brother Minors, assembled under the direction of St. Francis, the true pattern of humility, and miracle of the age; whilst these other poor, who brought hatred against the church and her ministers, notwithstand-rated correspond exactly with our received canon; ing their fallacious humility, were rejected by the Holy See; insomuch that, afterwards, they were treated as contumacious and incorrigible heretics; yet they made a show of submission till the year 1213, which was the fifteenth of Innocent III., and fifty years since their beginning. The Church's patience in regard to the Vaudois. Thence a judgment may be formed of the church's patience with respect to these heretics, using no rigour against them for fifty years together, but endeavouring to reclaim them by conferences. Besides that mentioned by Bernard, Abbot of Fontcauld, we also find another in Peter de Vaucernay, about the year 1206, where the Vaudois were confounded; and lastly, in 1212, when, on their coming again to Rome, the church proceeded no further against them than by rejecting their imposture. Three years after, Innocent III. held the great Council of Lateran, where, in his condemnation of heretics, he particularly takes notice of "those, who, under pretext of piety, arrogate to themselves the authority of preaching without We believe and firmly maintain all that is contained in the twelve articles of the symbol, commonly called the Apostles' Creed, and we regard as heretical whatever is inconsistent with he said twelve articles. 2. We believe that there is one God, Father, Son, and Spirit. 3. We acknowledge, for canonical Scriptures, the books of the Holy Bible. (The books enumethe Apocrypha is excluded.) 4. The books abovementioned teach us, that there is one God Almighty, unbounded in wisdom, and infinite in goodness, and who in his goodness has made all things; for he created Adam after his own image and likeness: but, through the enmity of entered into the world, and we became transthe devil and his disobedience, Adam fell. sin gressors in and by Adam. 5. That Christ had been promised to the fathers who received the law, to the end that knowing their sin by the law, and their unrighteousness and insufficiency, they might desire the coming of Christ to make law by himself. 6. That at the time appointed satisfaction for their sins, and to accomplish the by the Father, Christ was born; a time when iniquity everywhere abounded, to make it mani fest that it was not for the sake of any good in ourselves, for we were all sinners, but that he who is true might display his grace and mercy towards us. 7. That Christ is our life, and truth, and peace, and righteousness, our shepherd and advocate, our sacrifice and peace, who died for the satisfaction of all who should believe, and rose again for our justification. 8. And we also believe, that there is no other mediator or advoand as to the Virgin Mary, she was holy, humcate with God the Father, but Jesus Christ; ble, and full of grace. And this we also believe concerning all other saints, namely, that they are waiting in heaven for the resurrection of their |