11. He quotes Roger Hoveden, who gives an account of a letter of Henry, Abbot of Clairvaux, who, lamenting the corruption of Toulouse by these arch heretics, adds these words, "Yea, so far had this plague prevailed in the land, that they had not only made to themselves Priests and Bishops, but had also their Evangelists."m 12. Allix says, "We find in Matthew Paris a letter of the Bishop of Porto, the Pope's legate, written in the year 1223, to the Archbishop of Rouen, in which he mentions one Bartholomew, a Bishop of the heretics, who had removed himself into the country near Toulouse, where he created Bishops, and set rules to the Churches of his communion.""

13. "Lucas Tudensis speaks of one of their Bishops that was burnt."o

Lastly, I quoted Mosheim, who expressly declares that "the Waldenses had in their Ministry three orders, Bishops, Priests, and Deacons."

Let us now see, whether your evidence that the Waldenses were Presbyterian in principle and practice, will outweigh these pointed and numerous testimonies.

Your first testimony is from Paul Perrin, who was one of the Pastors of that people. Here I would remark, before I notice the quotations from Perrin, that both Mosheim and Allix had read him, and yet they declare that the Waldenses were Episcopalians. This is very strange, if Perrin, one of their Pastors, had borne a contrary testimony! Mosheim could have had no conceivable motive for making them Episcopal, as he was not an Episcopalian. The same observation cannot indeed be applied to Allix; but his character is a sufficient guarantee for his fidelity. His quotations too have every mark of fairness, and no one has ever attempted to show that they are not correctly given. The decision of two such men must, therefore, have great weight in settling a point of this nature; and nothing but clear, unequivocal evidence to the contrary, can be deemed a counterbalance to their testimonies.

That Perrin's evidence is not decisive, must appear to every impartial eye that inspects it. As the quotation is too long to be transcribed, I must beg our readers to read it as it stands in your sixth letter, p. 218, 219. [p. 2d ed.] I have read it over three times, and I declare that I cannot see a single word by which it can be determined, whether the Waldenses were Episcopal or Presbyterian. He speaks of Pastors, Teachers, Elders; but surely these words do not determine what was the form of government. Perrin can afford you but little support, if he furnishes nothing more to the purpose than you have quoted from him.

Your second quotation is from a Confession of Faith drawn up about the year 1220, in which it is declared that the functions

m Pages 185 and 186.

n Page 108.

o Ibid.

of Ministers consist in "preaching the word and administering sacraments," and that all other ministerial things may be reduced to the aforesaid. Still there is not so much as a shadow of proof; for the passage is just as applicable to Bishops as to Priests.

Your next quotation is equivocal. From the passage it does not appear whether the Waldenses mean to condemn Confirmation altogether; or whether they mean, that confining the administration of it to a Bishop has no ground at all in Scripture. Whichever they mean, it is nothing to the purpose. A Church may be erroneous in its notion of Confirmation, and yet be episcopal; or it may use that rite, and not think it a duty appropriated to Bishops by apostolical sanction. The Waldenses might think that the Church of Rome made Confirmation essential to salvation, and a Bishop absolutely necessary to administer that rite. But these notions they may deny, and still be Episcopalians; for we certainly deny their correctness; but I hope you will allow us to be strong advocates for imparity. We do not think either Bishops or Confirmation essentially necessary to salvation; but we do think Bishops essentially necessary to an apostolical Church. All this, then, is too vague to afford the least ground for the opinion that the Waldensian Church was not Episcopal.

In the same work,' you say, 'it is expressly and repeatedly asserted, that the synods of the Waldenses were composed of Ministers and Elders;' and you observe, this mode of speaking is surely not Episcopal.'

Now, Sir, when it is considered that Commenius, the Bohemian Bishop, says that the three Presbyters who were consecrated Bishops by the Waldenses' did not take upon them the name of Bishops, because of the anti-christian abuse of that name, contenting themselves with the name of Elders;' we shall perceive at once the reason why the Waldenses, whose principles, and usages, and government, were similar to those of the Bohemians, made so little use of distinctive titles. Attend to this particular, and you have a proof from fact, that the titles of Ministers, Elders, Teachers, Pastors, imply the orders of Bishop, Presbyter, and Deacon.

You go on. 'The same historian tells us, that Waldo, (from whose name that of the Waldenses is said to be derived) upon his departure from Lyons, came into Dauphiny, and thence, having erected some churches, and laid the foundation of those which have been miraculously preserved there to this day, he went into Languedoc, and left some notable pastors there, who set up and governed those churches, which afterwards cost the Pope and his Clergy so much pains to destroy.' And on this you observe, that Waldo himself was no prelate; neither can we suppose that the Pastors whom he left in Languedoc were prelates. Yet these Pastors set up and governed churches.'

6

The first error in this quotation is, that the Waldenses were named after Peter Waldo, a merchant of Lyons, who died about

the year 1160. This, Dr. Allix shows, originated with the Papists, for the purpose of bringing down their date as low as possible, and to make their origin contemptible. He proves, by evidence unanswerable, that they existed long before Peter Waldo, and that they were called Wallenses (which is their proper name) from their dwelling in the Valleys of Fiedmont. They were also called Vaudois for the same reason, and, more anciently, Paterines, because they received their doctrines and ministry from the Churches of Milan and Lombardy, which separated from the Church of Rome in the eleventh century, but were afterwards recovered by those arts for which the Church of Rome is so famous; so that, become what may of the government of the congregations formed by Waldo in Languedoc and Dauphiny, the Wallenses of Piedmont will not be at all affected. It is very probable that a great number of the disciples of Waldo, to avoid the persecutions that were raised against them by the Church of Rome, fled into the Valleys of Piedmont, and there mixing with the Waldenses or Vaudois, became one people, and went indifferently under the three names.

Another observation that I have to make is, that Waldo, for any thing that appears to the contrary, was never either Bishop or Presbyter. When he began to oppose the Church of Rome, and to collect disciples, he was a merchant of Lyons, and not a Romish priest;-who then, I pray, could have ordained him? Surely not the Archbishop of Lyons, nor any Bishop in his province, when he was in open rebellion against their authority! If he ever was ordained, it must have been by some Bishop of the Vaudois, or by laymen. If the former, how can you tell whether to the office of a Bishop or Priest? If by laymen, it was a mere farce, and Waldo's pastors, like himself, were no pastors. So that, in truth, nothing but darkness rests upon the accounts of the disciples of Waldo. The probability is, that their ministry was nothing more than a lay-ministry, if the term may be admitted, and then you will certainly derive from it no advantage to your cause.

What you quote from Gillis hardly deserves notice after what has been said. You quote him as saying, that their "Pastors in their ordinary assemblies came together, and held a synod once a year, and most generally in the month of September, at which they examined the students, and admitted them to the ministry." Again: In the Confession of Faith, according to Gillis, the Waldenses declare that, "It is necessary for the Church to have Pastors esteemed sufficiently learned, and exemplary in their conduct, as well to preach God's word as to administer the sacraments, and watch over the sheep of JESUS CHRIST, together with the Elders and Deacons, according to the rules of good and holy Church discipline, and the practice of the primitive Church."

Here again we have nothing but general names. Pastors and Ministers include both Bishops and Presbyters, who are the

watchmen, shepherds, and governors of the flock. Episcopalians talk in the same manner, when they have no particular reason for distinguishing Bishops from Presbyters. I have several times heard, and often read, sermons by Episcopalians, on ministerial duties, in which not a word has been said about Bishops. But surely it would be ridiculous to infer from this, that the preachers were not Episcopalians. Such kind of evidence can be of nó weight against the numerous positive testimonies which I have produced, both from friends and foes, that the Church of the Waldenses was Episcopal.

After you have finished the evidence by which you think to establish the ministerial parity of the Waldenses, you observe― 'Here is better testimony than Thuanus or Walsingham, than Mosheim or Allix.' This is really curious. One would suppose, from this observation, that I had quoted Thuanus and Walsingham, when the fact is, that you had enlisted them on your side of the question. I did not quote them at all on this subject. Now it seems their testimony is good for nothing. Be it so.

But, Bellarmine acknowledges that the Waldenses denied the divine right of prelacy.' Very likely. And, no doubt, he denied that they had any ministry whatever. With this they were generally charged by the Papists. No less a man than the Bishop of Meaux endeavours to prove it; but Dr. Allix has clearly shown, from their own writers, that it is an impudent falsehood; and further, he has proved that they derived their ministry from the Italian diocese, or the Churches of Milan and Lombardy. The truth is, that they were loaded with the most infamous calumnies, and persecuted in the most cruel manner, to the eternal disgrace of the Church of Rome. What such furious zealots as Bellarmine say against them, is of very little consequence; and particularly when he is contradicted by the more candid in his own communion.

But Professor Raignolds asserts, that the Waldenses taught that "all Pastors, whether styled Bishops or Presbyters, have one and the same authority by the word of GOD." Very well. Raignolds was as liable to mistake as Dr. Miller. What either asserts, in opposition to the numerous and positive testimonies produced, has not the weight of a feather in the scale of evidence.

Let our readers now weigh, with impartiality, the testimonies on both sides, and if they can believe that the Waldenses were maintainers of parity, they must have a way of appreciating evidence to which I am an utter stranger.

You next endeavour to prove, that the dissenters from the Church of Rome, in Bohemia, were not Episcopalians. To establish this, you quote their Book of Order, or Discipline. From the quotation it appears, that they had superintendents, conspicuous for age and gifts, chosen by the suffrages of all the ministers for the keeping of order-that they had four, five, or six, and that each had his diocese-that their dignity was not

founded in the prerogative of honours or revenues, but of labours and cares for others; for that, according to the Apostles' rules, a Presbyter and Bishop are one and the same thing.

Now, from this same Book of Order or Discipline, the title of which is in Latin, Ratio Disciplinæ Ordinisque Ecclesias'tici in Unitate Fratrum Bohemorum, I present again the following quotation. "And whereas the said Waldenses did affirm that they had lawful Bishops, and a lawful uninterrupted succession from the Apostles unto this day; they solemnly created three of our ministers Bishops, and conferred upon them power to ordain ministers." This is positive and perfectly decisive.

This account, as I have already shown, is confirmed by Commenius, the only survivor of the Bishops that escaped from the Bohemian persecution. And this was done, according to him, "that they may fully satisfy the scruples, as well of their own conscience, as of others." One of the persons sent was Michael Zambergius, who had been ordained Priest by the Bishop of Rome himself. Now these three persons could not have been sent to the Bishops of the Waldenses, two of whom they found, and by whom they were consecrated Bishops, merely to be made superintendents. For, by the quotation you have given, that superiority was conferred simply by the election of the ministers. They were, therefore, sent to receive the power of ordaining, which, as Presbyters, the Bohemian Church thought they had not.

And as to their being called Superintendents, if you will but advert to what Commenius says, "that they (the three Presbyters consecrated Bishops) did not take upon them the name of Bishop, on account of the anti-christian abuse of that name," the obscurity and seeming inconsistency in the passages which have been quoted on both sides, are effectually removed. This account is confirmed by Crantz, in his Ancient History of the Brethren. "The Waldenses," says he, "traced the succession of their Bishops from the apostolic times. They (the Bohemians) despatched three of their Priests already ordained (amongst whom Michael of Zamberg is mentioned) into Austria, to Stephen, Bishop of the Waldenses, who rejoiced at the account of the brethren's emigration and regulations, and laid before them in the presence of the Elders, the rise and progress, the various vicissitudes, and the episcopal succession of the Waldenses, and consecrated them, with the assistance of his co-bishop, and the rest of the clergy, Bishops of the Brethren's Church."P

We have a similar account in a Compendium of the History of the Church of the United Brethren, "written by a venerable Bishop," says Latrobe, "and dedicated to the youth of the said Church." "The Vallenses," says this author, "traced their doctrines, and the succession of their Bishops, from the Apostles, and the primitive Christian Church."

p Page 28.

q Chap. V. page 23,