HUNDRED TO FIFTEEN HUNDRED A.D.
Climax of Popery
the fifteenth century corruption in the Romish church reached its greatest
extent, and the work of the true children of God within the Roman fold to clean
up the apostate system, was more than equalled by the ministry of the true
Church of God without the harlot system.
Protestant Reformation, which will be more fully treated in the following
century, can be said to have begun in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
through the work of Walter Lollard, Wycliffe, Huss, and others, and which work
was taken up in the following century by Luther, Knox, and others.
it must not be imagined that the true Church of God was not witnessing against
popery and its antichristian systems during this time; for it was faithfully
proclaiming the message against Babylon, the call of the angel in Revelation,
"Come out of her, my people," during the entire age of darkness, and
did not let up even when the Reformers came forth from the Romish church, but
continued to boldly witness against the harlot mother of the Tiber.
says: "But it is presumed the reader will have seen enough in the preceding
pages to satisfy him that the opinion, which has so currently prevailed among
us, of the almost total extinction of the Christian profession in its purity, at
the time of, and for ages preceding, the Lutheran reformation, is altogether a
popular error." -- Jones' Church History, p. 324, ed. 1837.
must not be thought, however, that the true church at the dawn of the
Reformation had lost its pristine purity, for it had not, but still faithfully
held to the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, which had in the
beginning of the Gospel age been delivered to the saints.
(History of the Baptists, p. 308) speaks of "separate and distinct
societies" of Sabbath-keeping churches, which were known with the dawn of
direct and important testimony is found in a "Treatise on the
Sabbath," by Bishop White. Speaking of Sabbath-keeping as opposed to the
practice of the church and as heretical, he says:
was thus condemned in the Nazarenes and in the Corinthians in the Ebionites and
in the Hypsistarii. The ancient Synod of Laodicea made decree against it,
chap.29; also Gregory the Great affirmed it was Judaical. In St. Bernard's days
it was condemned in the Petrobrussians. The same, likewise being revived in
Luther's time, by Carlstadt, Sternberg, and by some sectaries among the
Anabaptists, hath both then and ever since, been condemned as Jewish and
heretical." (P.8, London, 1635.) -- Lewis, Hist. S. & S., p. 218.
"Life of Milton," 2nd Edit., pp. 309, 319, is quoted from Dr. Symmons
note about the separateness of the Waldenses type of Christians and the
Protestant reformer type. Dr. Symmons says, "I call them, as they are
called in these official despatches, by the generally-known name of Protestants;
but the dissenters from the papal church who occupied the valley of Piedmont,
had neither connection nor common origin with those who were properly called
Protestants from one of the first acts of their association in Germany. The
Waldenses asserted a much more ancient pedigree, and assumed to be of the old
Roman church before it was corrupted by the papal innovations." -- Page
375, footnote, Jones' Church History, ed. 1837.
were no priests among them, no quarrels about religious worship, no lawsuits:
they determined their differences among themselves. None but those who repaired
to the neighboring cities knew that there existed any such things as mass or
bishops. They prayed to God in their own jargon, and being continually employed
they had the happiness to know no vice. . . . Such was the tranquility which the
Waldenses enjoyed (for above 200 years) when the reformers of Germany and Geneva
came to hear that there were others of the same persuasion as themselves."
-- Idem, p. 325.
shall now endeavor to show through the following extracts from historians of
repute, as quoted in the book The Intervening Hand of God, how the Lord has
watched over and delivered His people from the armed hosts of the adversary at
the dawn of the Reformation.
from Armed Hosts
the edge of the sword." -- Hebrews 11:34.
one of the centuries when armed ecclesiasticism sought to overrun and subdue
every land where the plant of reformed truth was taking root, come stories of
deliverance that read like the chapters out of the history of ancient Israel. As
the Syrian army before Samaria fled in panic, when the Lord "made the host
of the Syrians to here a noise of Chariots, and a noise of horses" (II
Kings 7:6), so, more than once, a supernatural terror set to flight invading
forces that had expected easy conquest.
was the old-time view of defending the truth for which Huss was burned at
Constance that led Bohemians who loved his memory to take up arms to defend the
truth of God. Luther caught the true idea when, at the beginning of his work, he
insisted that it was by the Word of God alone that error was to be met. But a
hundred years before Luther, this truth was imperfectly recognized, and it must
be admitted that the carnal weapons were sometimes drawn in essentially
religious conflicts. However, at this special time it was not an ordinary
conflict over religion, but a vast scheme of invasion of their whole land, that
the Bohemian people were called to meet. And evidently it was not to be allowed
by Providence that the forces of intolerance should overrun the region where the
early glimmerings of the light of reformation had begun to appear.
Martin had organized a great crusade, which entered Bohemia in June, 1427.
Electors, princes, and counts led the invading host, with a special papal legate
in charge. The little army of the Hussites, under Ziska, the
"one-eyed," went out to meet the invaders. The historian, J. A. Wylie,
says: "They were now within sight of them, and the two armies were
separated only by the river that flows past Meiss. The crusaders were in greatly
superior force, but instead of dashing across the stream, and closing in battle
with the Hussites whom they had come so far to meet, they stood gazing in
silence. . . . It was only for a few moments that the invaders contemplated the
Hussite ranks. A sudden panic fell upon them. They turned and fled in the utmost
confusion. The legate was as one who awakens from a dream. His labors were to be
crowned with victory, suddenly vanished in a shameful rout." -- History of
Protestantism, book 3, chap. 17.
on still by the Pope, a yet greater crusade was organized and entered Bohemia in
1431, "chanting triumph" as they marched. Wylie again says:
enemies were encamped near the town of Reisenberg. The Hussites were not yet in
sight, but the sounds of their approach struck upon the ears of the Germans. The
rumble of their wagons, and their war-hymn chanted by the whole army as it
marched bravely forward to battle, were distinctly heard. Cardinal Cesarini and
a companion climbed a little hill to view the impending conflict. Beneath them
was the host which they expected soon to see engaged in victorious fight. It was
an imposing spectacle, this great army of many nationalities, with its waving
banners, its mail-clad knights, its helmeted cavalry, its long lines of wagons,
and its numerous artillery.
cardinal and his friend had gazed only a few minutes when they were startled by
a strange and sudden movement in the host. As if smitten by some invisible
power, it appeared all at once to break up and scatter. The soldiers threw away
their armor and fled, one this way, another that; and the wagoners, emptying
their vehicles of their load, set off across the plain at full gallop.
with consternation and amazement, the cardinal hurried down to the field, and
soon learned the cause of the catastrophe. The army had been seized with a
mysterious panic. That panic extended to the officers equally with the soldiers.
The Duke of Bavaria was one of the first to flee. He left behind him his
carriage, in the hope that its spoil might tempt the enemy and delay their
pursuit. Behind him, also in inglorious flight, came the Elector of Brandenburg;
and following close of the elector were others of less note, chased from the
field by this unseen terror. The army followed, if that could be styled an army
which so lately had been a marshaled and bannered host, but was now only a
rabble rout, fleeing when no man pursued." -- Idem.-- The comment of the
historian Wylie expressed the conviction that must come to every heart:
is something more in the facts we have related than the courage inspired by the
consciousness of a good cause, and the feebleness and cowardice engendered by
the consciousness of a bad one. There is here the touch of a divine finger --
the infusion of a preternatural terror." -- Idem.
of the Aliens" Put to Flight
1487 Pope Innocent VIII issued a decree, or bull of extermination, against the
Vaudois people of the Piedmont valleys of Italy. Their consistent refusal to
accept Romish doctrine, long prior to the Reformation of the sixteenth century,
had made them objects of papal hatred.-- The Inquisition had been refused
permission to set up its machinery of espionage and torture in the valleys, the
people turning its agents back by force of arms. This brought the papal bull
ordering total destruction.
came in thousands, eighteen thousand regulars of France and Piedmont, joined by
a host of plunderers and brigands who were after the spoils of the happy valley
homes. Some of the accounts of deliverance that saved the people from total
destruction in this first general persecution of the Vaudois, read like stories
from the days of Israel.
campaign of massacre, watched by a legate named Cattanee (or Cataneo), in behalf
of the Pope, began in an attack on the valley of Angrogna. The enemy was
breaking the line of the Vaudois defense, at a point behind which were the women
and children and aged. Dr. Mauston says:
their defenders yield, these families threw themselves upon their knees with
many tears; women, and children, and old men united together in fervently
crying, `O Die aijutaci! O Lord help us! O my God, save us!' This cry of prayer
was the only cry which broke from their heart in their distress, and arose to
heaven. But their enemies laughed at it, and seeing this company upon their
knees, hastened their advance. My fellows are coming -- they are coming to give
you your answer,' exclaimed one of their chiefs, surnamed `The Blace of
Mondovi,' because of his swarthy complexion; and immediately, joining bravado to
insult, he raised the visor of his helmet, to show that he was not afraid to
encounter the poor people whom he insulted. But at the moment a steel-pointed
arrow, let fly by a young man of Angrogna, named Peter Revel, struck this new
Goliath with such violence that it penetrated into his skull, between his eyes,
and laid him dead. His troop, struck with terror, fell back in disorder; a panic
seized them; the Vaudois took advantage of the moment, and impetuously rushed
forward, hurling their adversaries before them, and, eagerly continuing the
pursuit, swept them into the very plain, where they left them vanquished and
dispersed. Then, reascending to their families so miraculously delivered, they
likewise flung themselves upon their knees, and all together gave thanks to the
God of armies for the victory which they had just gained." -- History of
the Waldenses, vol. I, pp. 33, 34.-- But the invaders were by no means defeated;
they had only been turned back and angered. On they came the next day, fiercer
than ever. This time let Wylie tell the story:
seemed impossible for their prey to escape them. Assembled on this spot, the
Waldensian people had but one neck and the papal soldiers, so Cataneo believed,
were to sever that neck at a blow.
God was watching over the Vaudois. He had said of the papal legate and his army,
as of another tyrant of former days, `I will put my hook in thy nose, and my
bridle in thy lips, and I will cause thee to return by the way which thou camest.'
But by what agency was the advance of that host to be stayed? Will some mighty
angel smite Cataneo's army, as he did Sennacherib's? No angel blockaded the
pass. Will thunderbolts and hailstones be rained upon Cataneo's soldiers, as of
old and Sisera's? The thunders slept; the hail fell not. Will earhtquake and
whirlwind discomfort them? No earthquake rocked the ground; no whirlwinds rent
the mountains. The instrumentality now put in motion to shield the Vaudois from
destruction was one of the lightest and frailest in all nature; yet no bars of
adamant could have more effectually shut the pass, and brought the march of the
host to an instant halt.
white cloud, no bigger than a man's hand, unobserved by the Peidmontese, but
keenly watched by the Vaudois, was seen to gather on the mountain's summit,
about the time the army would be entering the defile. That cloud grew rapidly
bigger and blacker. It began to descend. It came rolling down the mountain's
side, wave on wave, like an ocean tumbling out of heaven -- a sea of murky
vapor. It fell right into the chasm in which was the papal army, sealing it up,
and filling it from top to bottom with a thick, black fog. In a moment the host
were in night; they were bewildered, stupefied, and could see neither before nor
behind, could neither advance nor retreat. They halted in a state bordering
Waldenses interpreted this as an interposition of Providence in their behalf. It
had given them the power of repelling the invader. Climbing the slopes of the
Pra, and issuing from all their hiding-places in its environs, they spread
themselves over the mountain, the paths of which were familiar to them, and
while the host stood riveted beneath them, caught in the double toils of the
defile and the mist, they tore up huge stones and rocks, and sent them
thundering down the ravine.
papal soldiers were crushed where they stood. Nor was this all. Some of the
Waldenses boldly entered the chasm, sword in hand, and attacked them in front.
Consternation seized the Piedmontese host. Panic impelled them to flee, but
their effort to escape was more fatal than the sword of the Vaudois, or the
rocks that, swift as arrow, came bounding down the mountain. They jostled one
another; they threw each other down in the struggle; some were trodden to death;
others were rolled over the precipice, and crushed on the rocks below, or
drowned in the torrent, and so perished miserably." -- History of the
Waldenses, chapter 5.
weapons of our warfare are not carnal." The Reformation history shows that
it was by witnessing and suffering, and not by fighting, that the light of truth
was caused to shine. But in these experiences of deliverance we see God's
providence in keeping alive the little band of witnesses in the Piedmont valleys
until the time of reformation should come.
Vaudois of the Piedmont valleys had been all but exterminated. While the
Reformation was spreading in Northern Europe, the papal forces visited the
Vaudois villages with fire and sword. The remnant, driven out, had found refuge
in Switzerland and southern Germany. After several years of exile, they were
endeavoring to return to their homes. Spies sent into the valleys had reported
the fields untilled and the villages deserted; and now a pioneer band of eight
hundred men was making "the glorious re-entry," as it was ever
the assaults of their enemies, they had pressed on from lake Geneva, through
Savoy, near to their own country. But on the slopes of a mountain called the
Balsiglia, they were surrounded by the French and Piedmont troops sent to make
an end of them. Their last stand apparently had been made, and now the enemy,
with artillery in position, rested as evening drew on, confident that the next
morning would deliver the little band to the slaughter. Wylie says:
before had destruction appeared to impend so inevitably over the Vaudois. To
remain where they were was certain death, yet whither could they flee? Behind
them rose the unscalable precipices of the Col du Pis, and beneath them lay the
valley swarming with foes. If they should wait till the morning broke, it would
be impossible to pass the enemy without being seen; and even now, although it
was night, the numerous camp fires that blazed beneath them made it almost as
bright as day.
the hour of their extremity was the time of God's opportunity. Often before it
had been seen to be so, but perhaps never so strikingly as now. While they
looked this way and that way, but could discover no escape from the net that
inclosed them, the mist began to gather on the summits of the mountains around
them. They knew the old mantle that was wont to be cast around their fathers in
the hour of peril. It crept lower and yet lower on the great mountains. Now it
touched the supreme peak of the Balsiglia. "Will it mock their hopes? Will
it only touch, but not cover, their mountain camp? Again it is in motion;
downward roll its white, fleecy billows, and now it hangs in sheltering folds
around the war-battered fortress and its handful of heroic defenders. They dared
not as yet attempt escape, for still the watch-fires burned brightly in the
valley. But it was only for a few minutes longer. The mist kept its downward
course, and now all was dark. A Tartarean gloom filled the gorge of San Martino.
this moment, as the garrison stood mute, pondering whereunto these things would
grow, Captain Poulat, a native of these parts, broke silence. He bade them be of
good courage, for he knew the paths, and would conduct them past the French and
Piedmontese lines, by a track known only to himself. Crawling on their hands and
knees, and passing close to the French sentinels, yet hidden from them by the
mist, they descended frightful precipices, and made their escape. `He who has
not seen such paths,' says Arnaud in his `Rentree Glorieuse,' `cannot conceive
the danger of them, and will be inclined to consider my
of the march a mere fiction. But it is strictly true; and I must add, the place
is so frightful that even some of the Vaudois themselves were terror-struck when
they saw by daylight the nature of the spot they had passed in the dark.'
the day broke, every eye in the plain below was turned to the Balsiglia. That
day the four hundred ropes which Catinat had brought with him were to be put in
requisition, and the feux-de-joie so long prepared were to be lighted at
Pinerolo. Vaudois had escaped and were gone, and might be seen upon the distant
mountains, climbing the snows, far out of the reach of their would-be captors.
Well might they sing, "Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of
the fowlers. The snare is broken, and we are escaped." -- History of
Protestantism, book 16, chap. 15.
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