cal body and blood of Christ which were nailed to the cross; that they believe there is a place called purgatory, where the souls of persons, after this life, are purged from the sins of mortality, and that the pains and penalties here inflicted may be abated according to the masses said by, and the money paid to the priests; that they teach, the communion of one kind, or the receiving the wafer only, is sufficient for the lay people, though the clergy must be indulged with both bread and wine; that they pray to the Virgin Mary and saints, though their prayers ought to be immediately to God; that they pray for souls departed, though God decides their fate immediately on the decease of the person; that they will not perform the service of the church in a language understood by the people in general; that they place their devotion in the number of prayers, and not in the intent of the heart; that they forbid marriage to the clergy, though God allowed it; and that they use many things in baptism, though Christ used only water. When pope Alexander the Third was informed of these transactions, he excommunicated Waldo and his adherents, and commanded the bishop of Lyons to exterminate them: thus began the papal persecutions against the Waldenses.

Tenets of the Waldenses.

1. That holy oil is not to be mingled in baptism.

2. That prayers used over things inanimate are superstitious.

3. Flesh may be eaten in Lent; the clergy may marry ; and auricular confession is unnecessary.

4. Confirmation is no sacrament; we are not bound to pay obedience to the pope; ministers should live upon tithes; no dignity sets one clegyınan above another, for. their superiority can only be drawn from real worth.

5. Images in churches are absurd; image-worship is idolatry; the pope's indulgences ridiculous; and the miracles pretended to be done by the church of Rome are false.

6. Fornication and public stews ought not to be allowed; purgatory is a fiction; and deceased persons, called saints, ought not to be prayed to.

7. Extreme unction is not a sacrament; and masses, indulgences, and prayers, are of no service to the dead. 8. The Lord's prayer ought to be the rule of all other prayers.

Waldo remained three years undiscovered in Lyons, though the utmost diligence was used to apprehend him but at length he found an opportunity of escaping from the place of his concealment to the mountains of Dauphiny. He soon after found means to propagate his doctrines in Dauphiny and Picardy, which so exasperated Philip, king of France, that he put the latter province, which contained most of the sectaries, under military execution; destroying above three hundred gentlemen's seats, razing some walled towns, burning many of the reformed, and driving others into Flanders and Germany.

Notwithstanding these persecutions, the reformed religion seemed to flourish; and the Waldenses, in various parts, became more numerous than ever. At length the pope accused them of heresy, and the monks of immorality. These slanders they, however, refuted; but the pope, incensed at their increase, used all means for their extirpation; such as excommunications, anathemas, canons, constitutions, decrees, &c. by which they were rendered incapable of holding places of trust, honour, or profit; their lands were seized, their goods confiscated, and they were not permitted to be buried in consecrated ground. Some of the Waldenses having taken refuge in Spain, Aldephonsus, king of Arragon, at the instigation of the pope, published an edict, strictly ordering all Roman catholics to persecute them wherever they could be found; and decreeing that all who gave them the least assistance should be deemed traitors.

The year after this edict, Aldephonsus was severely punished by the hand of Providence; for his son was defeated in a great battle, and 50,000 of his men slain, by which a considerable portion of his kingdom fell into the hands of the Moors.

The reformed ministers continued to preach boldly against the Romish church; and Peter Waldo, in particular, wherever he went, asserted, that the pope was antichrist, that mass was an abomination, that the host was an idol, and that purgatory was a fable

Origin of the Inquisition.

These proceedings of Waldo and his reformed com panions, occasioned the origin of inquisitors; for pope Innocent III. authorized certain monks inquisitors to find and deliver over the reformed to the secular power. The monks, upon the least surmise or information, gave up the reformed to the magistrate, who delivered them to the executioner; for the process was short, as accusation supplied the place of evidence, and a fair trial was never granted to the accused.

Cruelties of the Pope, and artifices of Dominic.

When the pope found that these cruel means had not the desired effect, he determined to try others of a milder nature; he therefore sent several learned monks to preach among the Waldenses, and induce them to change their opinions. Among these monks was one Dominic, who appeared extremely zealous in the cause of popery. He instituted an order, which, from him, was called the order of Dominican friars; and the members of this order have ever since been the principal inquisitors in every country into which that horrible tribunal has been introduced. Their power was unlimited; they proceeded against whom they pleased, without any consideration of age, sex, or rank. However infamous the accusers, the accusation was deemed valid; and even anonymous informations were thought sufficient evidence. The dearest friends or kindred could not, without danger, serve any one who was imprisoned on account of religion; to convey to those who were confined a little straw, or give them a cup of water, was called favouring the heretics; no lawyer dared to plead even for his own brother, or notary register any thing in favour of the reformed. The malice of the papists, indeed, went beyond the grave, and the bones of many Waldenses, who had been long dead, were dug up and burnt. If a man on his death bed were accused of being a follower of Waldo, his estates were confiscated, and the heir defrauded of his inheritance; and some were even obliged to make pilgrimages to the Holy Land, while

the Dominicans took possession of their houses and property, which they refused to surrender to the owners upon their return.

Persecutions in Calabria.

About the fourteenth century, a great many Waldenses of Pragela and Dauphiny emigrated to Calabria, where, having received permission to settle in some waste lands, they soon, by the most industrious cultivation, converted those wild and barren spots into regions of beauty and fertility.

The nobles of Calabria were highly pleased with their new subjects and tenants, finding them honest, quiet, and industrious; but the priests, filled with jealousy, soon exhibited complaints against them, charging them with not being Roman Catholics, not making any of their boys priests, not making any of their girls nuns, not going to mass, not giving wax tapers to their priests, as offerings, not going on pilgrimages, and not bowing to images.

To these the Calabrian lords replied, that these people were extremely harmless, giving no offence to the Roman Catholics, but cheerfully paying the tithes to the priests.

whose revenues were considerably increased by their coming into the country, and who, consequently, ought to Le the last persons to make a complaint.

Those enemies to truth being thus silenced, things went on in peace for a few years, during which the Waldenses formed themselves into two corporate towns, annexing several villages to their jurisdiction. At length they sent to Geneva for two clergyman, one to preach in each This being known, intelligence was conveyed to pope Pius the Fourth, who determined to exterminate them from Calabria without further delay. To this end cardinal Alexandrino, a man of a violent temper, and a furious bigot, was sent, together with two monks, to Calabri, where they were to act as inquisitors. These authorized persons came to St. Xist, one of the towns built by the Waldenses, where, having assembled the people, they told them, that they should receive no injury if they would accept of preachers appointed by the pope; but if they refusel, they should be deprived both of their properties and lives; and that to prove them, mass should be publicly said that afternoon, at which they must attend.

But the people of St. Xist, instead of obeying this, fled with their families into the woods, and thus disappointed the cardinal and his coadjutors. Then they proceeded to Li Garde, the other town belonging to the Wildeuses, where, to avoid the like disappointment, they or bred the gates to be locked, and all avenues guarlel. The same proposals were then made to the inhabitants as had been mile to those of St. Xist, but with this artifice: the cardinal assured them that the inhabitants of St. Xist had immediately come into his proposals, and agreed that the pope should appoint them preachers. This falsehood succeeled; for the people of La Garde, thinking what the carlinal had told them to be truth, said they would exactly follow the example of their brethren at St. Xist.

Having thus gained this point by a lie, he sent for two troops of sol liers with a view to massacre the people of St. Xist. He accordingly commanded them into the wools, to hunt them down like wild beasts, and gave them strict orders to spare neither age nor sex, but to kill all they came near. The troops accordingly entered the woods, and many fell a prey to their ferocity, before the