It was not until the twelfth century that the Waldenses, and other heretical parties, appear in history as a people exposed to the persecuting edicts of Rome. And even then it seems to have been occasioned, in a great measure, by the great success that crowned the labours of Peter Waldo, whose followers first obtained the name of Leonists, or Poor Men of Lyons; and who, when persecuted, fled to the mountains, and became incorporated with the other inhabitants of the valleys. By this means, the Waldenses were brought into collision with the power of Rome, who, arming against them the civil authorities, proceeded to consummate their destruction and extirpation. At this time it appears, that under the protection and through the connivance of the Counts of Toulouse, the Viscount of Beziers, and many others of the French nobility, a score of the principal cities in Languedoc, Provence, and Dauphiny, were filled with the different heretical parties. But the civil power, and even the more summary efforts of the Inquisition, appear to have been too slow in their operations to meet the wishes of papal vengeance, although persecuted under the agency of Dominic, the chief inquisitor. The Pope was dissatisfied—new schemes were projected, apparently more mild and conciliatory, but under this pleasing exterior was concealed the most abominable treachery. The papal legates proposed holding a public debate, in which the points at issue between the parties should be decided by amicable arbitration. To this reasonable offer the unsuspecting brethren readily consented. The place of conference agreed upon was Montreal, near Carcassone. Two umpires were appointed from each side; those of the Catholics were the Bishops of Villeneuse and Auxerre, and those of the opposite party, R. de Bot and Anthony Riviere. On the part of the Albigenses, a number of the pastors were appointed to manage the debate, of whom the principal was Arnold Hot. He first arrived at the appointed place, accompanied by a number of his friends. He was met on behalf of the papacy, by a bishop named Eusas, the renowned Dominic, two legates of the Pope, and several others of the Catholic clergy. According to Catholic historians, who are very concise and remarkably unanimous in their accounts of this celebrated conference, the points which Arnold undertook to prove were, that the sacrament of the mass was idolatry, that the baptism of infants was unscriptural, that the festivals of the church were heathen appointments,[31] and, finally, that the Pope was Antichrist, and the Church of Rome the harlot mentioned in Revelations. In maintenance of these points, Arnold drew up certain propositions, which he transmitted to the bishop, who required two weeks to answer them, which was granted. At the appointed time the bishop appeared, and read his reply in the public assembly. Arnold requested permission to make a verbal answer, only entreating their patient hearing if he took a considerable time in answering so prolix a writing. He was answered with fair speeches and many promises of a patient hearing. He then discoursed upon the subject for four days, with such perspicuity, fluency and precision, such order and forcible reasoning, that a powerful impression was made upon the minds of the audience. He finally called upon the Catholics for their defence, when the Bishop of Villeneuse declared that the conference must be broken up, because the army of the crusaders was approaching, and near at hand.

What he asserted was true. The papal armies advanced, and all points of controversy were instantly decided by fire and fagot. It is estimated that not less than two hundred thousand of these innocent people perished in the short space of two months. The war of extermination continued twenty years, and one million persons were put to death. These disastrous scenes occurred in the commencement of the twelfth century, and three hundred years previous to the dawn of the Reformation in Germany. During this long period, the circumstances of the Waldenses were always afflictive, but at some times and in some countries more so than in others. The Church of Rome, with the armies of crusaders who were always at hand, and always ready to lend their assistance for the extirpation of heresy, and the monks of the Inquisition, who were never more numerous and active, seemed determined to exterminate them from the face of the earth. But the contests of the Catholic states among themselves, the quarrels of the popes with the secular princes, whose affairs they attempted to control, combined with other causes, afforded these victims of ecclesiastical tyranny some short and temporary seasons of repose.

Of the multitudes who perished beneath the iron power of the Inquisition, we have little account. Nevertheless some details of cases of individual suffering have been given to the world, and multitudes of others lie concealed among the manuscripts preserved in ancient libraries. From records of this kind, Philip de Mornay, a French author of some distinction, composed a work purporting to be the memoirs of celebrated Waldensian martyrs, in which detailed and circumstantial narratives of many trials were given, together with the interrogatories and answers of the criminals, and the heresies of which they were accused. According to these statements they were perpetually accused of Judaism, of practising circumcision, and observing the Jewish Sabbath. The former charges they repelled with disdain. Of the latter, they generally replied that God had commanded the observance of the seventh day, which command was binding upon Christians, as much as Jews, since neither Christ nor his Apostles had ever commanded its abrogation.

Some of these accounts are very interesting, and the Sabbatarians reasoned in precisely the same manner as we do now.

On the 14th of September, 1492, about thirty persons were committed to the inquisitorial dungeons of Toulouse, upon a charge of Judaism, which, as every one knows, was considered a mortal sin in Catholic countries. Of these, the most eminent was Anthony Ferrar, who had been a pastor or teacher in the Sabbatarian church of that city. After remaining in prison ten days, he received a visit from an Italian monk named Gregory, to whom his examination had been committed. He was accompanied by two other monks, who were to act as witnesses. After a long conference touching his age, property, manner of living, associates, relations, and similar subjects, Gregory at last came to the matter in question.

Greg.—But, Anthony, you must be a liar and a deceiver, for I have been credibly informed that yourself, and all your friends, were of the cursed race of Israel.

An.—It is false, we were all honest Frenchmen, and Christians, followers of Jesus.

Greg.—Nay! but you were Jews, for instead of baptizing your infant children, you have all the males circumcised.

An.—You do very wrong to accuse us of that practice; for it is something of which we are entirely innocent.

Greg.—Hey! do you then baptize your children?

An.—We do not, neither do we circumcise them.

Greg.—Nevertheless, you must be Jews, since you say that the law of Moses is still binding.

An.—We say that the ten commandments are still binding.

Greg.—Yes, and instead of observing the festivals of the Holy Church, and honouring the holy day of the Lord, on which he arose from the dead, you were accustomed to meet for worship upon the old Sabbath, or Saturday.

An.—We did, indeed, rest and attend to divine worship upon the seventh day, even as God commanded.

My limits will not permit me to transcribe the remainder of this interesting conversation. Anthony, with his associates in misfortune, were subsequently burned in the marketplace in Toulouse, and all died praising God that they were worthy to suffer for his name. Hundreds of others, of whom the names of Jean de Borgen, Matthew Hainer, Auguste Riviere, Philippe Nicola, and Henri Maison, have been preserved, were accused of and confessed to the same.

"Of the many who were burned, and otherwise destroyed for Judaism," observes a Spanish author of the sixteenth century, "it is not probable that one-tenth were of the race of Israel, but heretics, who, for persisting in saying that the law of Moses was still binding, were accused of Jewish practices, such as circumcision and sabbatizing, to the latter of which they uniformly plead guilty."

A Dominican inquisitor, in giving an account of the proceedings of that infernal tribunal in the north of Spain, declares that since it was known that many of the heretics were accustomed to solemnize the old Sabbath by religious worship, and an absolute inattention to secular employments, it became the policy of the Holy Office to take notice of such shops as were shut up on that day, and of such persons as were found to be absent from worldly engagements. "The result answered my expectations," he continues, "for when these people were arrested, and being brought before me, were shown the rack, they generally confessed their Judaical practices, at least so far as it related to sabbatizing, which the holy church had expressly forbidden."

Other testimonies of this same character might be produced, but enough has been said to prove to our own denomination, and to the world, that at the time when the crusading armies made their frightful onsets upon the heretical churches of Piedmont, the South of France, and Catalonia, there were large communities of Sabbath-keeping Christians in all these parts. But historians are unanimous in confessing that they were drowned in blood, and driven into exile. Their race disappeared, and their opinions ceased to influence society. In hundreds of villages, all the inhabitants were massacred with a blind fury. Year after year new armies continued to arrive, more numerous than were employed in other wars. It is impossible to ascertain how many were destroyed by these dreadful crusades, but it is certain that the visible churches of these Christians were extirpated by fire and sword; though a bleeding remnant escaped by flight, concealment, and Catholic conformity. Of the details of their sufferings and miseries it is impossible to give in this place even an abridged account. For many consecutive years they suffered every species of cruelty, barbarity, and persecution, which the crusades and the Inquisition could inflict. Those who remained were indiscriminately slaughtered, and of those who fled, multitudes miserably perished by the way. Their total extirpation was effected in 1686, at which time the ancient Waldensian and Albigensian churches ceased to exist. It is true, that in 1689, three years after the expulsion of the whole fraternity, a company, sword in hand, fought their way back to the valleys of Piedmont, of which they took possession, and in which their descendants still reside. This company, under the command of one Amand, committed the most frightful acts of wickedness and barbarity, and exhibited in all their conduct a spirit entirely different from the ancient Waldenses. Their leader acted in the double capacity of spiritual pastor and military chieftain, and the creeds and formulas which he instituted, and which are still observed among them, are comparatively of modern date.

In closing these very brief and imperfect accounts of these ancient witnesses for the truth, a few remarks may not be inappropriate, more especially as I have made a claim regarding their denominational character, that has never, to my knowledge, been advanced by our friends, and which will not be readily conceded by our opponents.

If we take the Waldenses under the great variety of names which they bore at different periods and in different locations, it appears that they were by far the most important branch of dissenters from the Church of Rome, and that they were divided among themselves like the present dissenters in England. The more I have investigated this matter, the more evident it appears; and as it would be unwise for us to attempt to establish an affinity with all of them in the distinctive feature of our order, it is certain that our claims at least to a due proportion can never be disproved. That many of them observed the seventh day, and that some of them paid a superstitious veneration to the first day, is quite as certain as the fact that they were all persecuted by the Church of Rome. The farther we go back into antiquity, the more distinctly does their Sabbatarian character appear. Nothing but the blindness of bigotry can induce any man, or class of men, who have paid the smallest attention to the accounts of all the Catholic authors concerning them, to deny that complaints against them for disregarding the festivals of the church, in which they included the Dominical day, were widespread and long-continued; and that almost equally with the former were the accusations of their paying an undue regard to Saturday, or the Jewish Sabbath. On the other hand, it is clear, from the terms "some of them," and "a part," with similar expressions employed by the writers in question, that they did not accuse all of having fallen into this monstrous heresy. The keeping of the first day appears to be the last thing that is given up by those who withdraw from the old, corrupt establishments; and nothing affords a clearer evidence of the prejudices of education than the slow reluctance with which it is yielded, as they find that the proofs for its support from the Scriptures fail them, and the moral and immutable character of the ancient Sabbath comes up to their view in its practical operations. Such has been the case in all places where we have certain knowledge, and the probability is that it was so in the dark ages beyond our sight.

It is not for us to claim the whole body of dissenters of the better class; but we may claim, and I believe that candid men of all parties will concede, upon a thorough examination of the ancient Catholic authors, that Sabbatarian sentiments have prevailed much more extensively among these ancient sects than has generally been supposed. Neither my time nor my limits would allow a full investigation of this very interesting subject. The most that I could hope to do was to make a beginning. The field for research is very wide, and upon the Sabbatarian question it is wholly unoccupied. And here I would remark, for the information of those who may feel disposed to examine the subject hereafter, that it is only by an immediate reference to the old Catholic writers that we can ever hope to obtain much information upon this point. These speak with great plainness, and without paraphrase, omission, or concealment, of the rejecters of the church-festivals, and the observers of the Jewish Sabbath. They were open and undisguised, and were far from exhibiting the cautiousness of the moderns upon this subject. They had no concern about the proofs for the observance of the first day, and no fear of publishing to the world how many of the incorrigible heretics refused to venerate it. It made no difference to them if it was not found in the Bible, since it was in the decrees of the councils and the bulls of the popes, which, with them, were of equal authority with the Scripture command.

For a long time their complaints ran high on this head against many of the seceding parties; and it is well for us that this testimony is placed beyond the reach of modern writers, where it cannot be garbled, mutilated, and suppressed. It is not to be expected that our first-day brethren, even those of the Baptist persuasion, would take any pains to prove that these apostolic communities were Sabbatarian, though possessing the knowledge that such was the fact. It has been their policy to represent us as insignificant in number and recent in origin. Unfortunately, we have contributed to extend that delusion. For my own part, I am of the opinion that in the dark ages there were many more of our denomination than there are at present. Not that any in these ages were called Seventh-day Baptists; no such thing: but that multitudes, like ourselves, refused to observe the festivals of the church, contended that the Decalogue was moral and immutable, and refused baptism to any but professing believers. Like ourselves, they took the Scriptures for their guide and rule of faith in everything, and were most decided in rejecting everything for which they found no warrant in that holy book, despising all human appointments, all priestly traditions, and man-made institutions. For many ages the valleys formed an asylum, to which all seceding parties from the Romish hierarchy fled for protection. It is not strange—indeed, we might expect—that this amalgamation with new parties would beget new customs, which in the end might entirely change their denominational character. This was certainly the case as it respects the discipline and government of their churches, which for a number of the first centuries partook of all the ease and freedom characteristic of modern Baptist communities, then was modelled by degrees into a Presbyterian form, and finally ended in something of the Episcopalian character. Such denominational changes are neither new nor strange, especially when we consider the severity of penal statutes on the one hand, and the spirit of conformity, lukewarmness, and indifference on the other, which continually operate to prepare dissenters for an approximation to the established church, and, finally, for a union with it.

At the time of the Reformation these old communities were in circumstances of peculiar trials and distress. New persecutions of unusual severity had been stirred up against them by the Catholics, whose resentment had been exasperated in the keenest manner, in consequence of the new and unexpected attacks that had been made upon the authority of the church by the Protestant reformers, and who were thereby led to vent their spite upon all whom they found without their pale, whatever might be their innocence, or however quiet and inoffensive they might have been. Thus harassed and distressed, these afflicted people were ready to submit to almost any terms, for the sake of gaining new friends and protectors; and one company after another of those who had been driven into exile, and were settled in Bohemia, Germany, and the Netherlands, became associated, as an incipient measure, and in the end were amalgamated with, the Reformed or Presbyterian party, under the direction of Calvin and Zuinglius. Of the fact of this union of the Waldenses with the Reformers there can be no dispute; but the process of this confederacy, and the terms upon which it was consummated, have never been satisfactorily decided. It is morally certain, however, that the subject of the Sabbath was discussed by some of these parties, since we are informed by various historical documents that Calvin objected to the seventh day, but conceded that the old Fathers had substituted the first day in its place, and proposed, as an instance of Christian liberty, to reject both, and make a Sabbath of the fifth day of the week. This overture, we are informed, was indignantly rejected; but there is reason to believe that the observance of the first day, together with infant baptism, were among the changes in their denominational character which were brought about by their union with the German reformers. In 1530, a Waldensian community, located in Provence, sent two of their ministers, George Morrel and Peter Masson, as deputies to the Swiss reformers, which resulted in their union with the new party. These deputies, after their return, declared to their brethren how many and great errors their old ministers had kept them in, and how their new allies had happily set them right. Subsequently a part of them, at least, became one with the Huguenots of France, and the Protestants of Germany.

But, so late as 1823, an English clergyman, named Gilly, visited the Vaudois in the valley of Perosa, making his journey thither by Turin, and had an interview with Mr. Peyrani, who was then seventy years old, and is since dead. He was the successor of a line of pastors whom tradition would extend to the Apostles themselves. In his possession was a library amply supplied with books, and parchments, and paper manuscripts, accumulated by his ancestors. According to his accounts, "in the summer, when these pastoral people are tending their cattle at a distance from the valleys, and occupying their chalets, or temporary cabins, upon the summits of the mountains, the clearness of the atmosphere allows the sound of the Sabbath bells to reach them, calling them to the worship of the Creator, beneath the canopy of heaven. They assemble in a convenient place on the green turf, to listen to the exhortations of their minister, who follows them on every seventh day to their remotest pasturings." From this it appears that a portion of them, at least, still observe the ancient Sabbath.