rose again for their justification. They acknowledged no purgatory, calling it a “dream of Antichrist,”; and admitted but two sacraments Baptism and the Eucharist. “Sacraments,” they aver, “are signs, or visible forms of invisible graces; good, but not essential to salvation.” They subscribed to all the articles of the Apostles Creed, and received the Athanasian Creed, and the decisions of the first four Councils.
Their morality was very severe; they denounced taverns as “the fountains of sin, and schools of the devil, where he works miracles of his own kind;” and forbade dancing, “as a procession and pageant of the evil spirit.” “In the dance,” say they, “God’s ten commandments are broken; the hearts of men are intoxicated with earthly joy; they forget God, they utter nothing but falsehood and folly, and abandon themselves to pride and concupiscence.” As may be supposed, the instruction of youth formed a part of their code, as well as the duties of children to their parents; and in fraternal and ecclesiastical discipline, the commands of the apostle were strictly enforced and obeyed.
Such, then, though imperfectly explained by our short summary, were the admirable doctrines and regulations of the Vaudois Church, even amid the darkness of mediaeval error. Let us now inquire what was their influence on the life and conversation of her children. We are content on this, as on former occasions, to abide by the testimony of their enemies,—and surely amongst the bitterest we may class Claude Seyssel, who, whilst at the head of the persecuting Propaganda, attests,[1] “that as to their life and manners they were irreproachable among men, applying themselves
- ↑ Léger, pt. 1, p. 184. Storia d Italia di Carlo Botta. Paris, 1832, pp. 369, 370, as quoted by Monastier.
