FOUND IN SPAIN AND METZ. 299 this our cdict be read on the Sabbath by the clergy in all cities, forts and villages of our kingdom, and be enforced by our vicars, bailiffs and judges. Any person, noble or not, who shall find a Waldensian anywhere in our kingdom, after three days' notice has been given to leave, may injure him in any way, that will not mutilate his body or take his life, without fear of punishment, but rather with the assurance of receiving our favor. We grant the Waldensians till All Saints' Day to leave or begin to leave the land, or expose themselves to the risk of being plundered and scourged.' In the face of this edict, which was renewed by Alphonso's son, Peter II., the Waldensians continued to spread even as far as Seville. Peter's son, James I., 1227, at Pope Gregory's request, established an Inquisition which caused the flight of many into Castile. They were tracked to its valleys, thrust into prison and severely punished; but not one yielded, and the king himself carried wood to the pile and set fire to the martyrs. Thereafter any one who heard the Waldensians preach, knelt with them in prayer, gave them a kiss or called them 'good men,' was suspected and punished. 1 6 Another body of the Dispersed Waldensians was found at Metz, in Northern France, as early as 1199, when the bishop of that city informed Pope Innocent III. of the trouble which they made him. He sought the pope's advice in the matter, telling him that both in the city and diocese a large number of laymen and women were reading the Bible in the Gallic tongue and preaching from place to place. Some of them had come from Montpellier, bringing translations with them which they used in secret assemblies. When the parish priests undertook to correct these things they spurned their interference, telling them plainly that the Bible was better than any thing that they could give them. The pope's reply against the little flock said, that Although the desire to understand the Scriptures and edify one another out of them is not blamable, but rather commendable; still, he could not favor the secrecy of their meetings.' He warned them against Pharisaic pride, and threatened them with discipline if they would not hear his fatherly exhortations. But the 'heretics' went on with their Bible teachings; and a delegation of abbots came from Rome, A. D. 1200, who dispersed the assemblies, burned the Bibles and, according to the Chronicles of Albericus, 'extirpated the sect.' In order to stop these Christ-like proceedings of the Waldensians, the fourth Lateran Council, A. D. 1215, and the Council of Toulouse, 1229, forbade laymen to read the Bible either in the language of the people or in the Latin, and the Council of Tarragona, 1242, bound the prohibition on the clergy also. The Waldensians of the Dispersion became established in various cities, as Geneva, Aquileia, with others in Switzerland and Italy; and, in fact, they stretched all the way from Aragon to Milan and Florence, and dotted Lower Germany. The Bishop of Turin was greatly disturbed by some of them about 1209. He had been a Benedictine Abbot, and took advantage of the passage of the Emperor Otto IV., on his way to be crowned at Rome, to secure the right of expelling the Walden sians who were 'sowing tares in his diocese,' and of expurgating every thing that contradicted the Catholic faith. But the Counts of Lucerna befriended them and secured the free exercise of their religion, in the treaty made with the Duke of Savoy, in 1233. This protected them for many years. In 1212 a congregation of five hundred Waldensians was discovered at Strasburg. At first the bishop of that city sought to reason them out of their position against the Catholic faith; but such was their ready use of Scripture that disputations always inured to their advantage. Then he proclaimed that all of them who would not forsake their errors should be put to death by fire without delay. Many recanted, surrendered their books, and reported to him that they had three chief centers and three leaders in Milan, in Bohemia, and on the ground in Strasburg. These leaders, they said, were not clothed with authority like the pope, but owed their influence to the personal confidence reposed in them by their brethren. One of their chief duties was to collect money for the poor. Eighty persons in all, amongst whom were twenty-three women and twelve preachers, would not surrender their faith. John, the Strasburg leader, answered in the name of all. His appeal to Scripture could not be overthrown, and when his persecutors would apply the test of red-hot iron to see if he were sent of God, he replied: Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.' 'Ah, he does not want to burn his fingers,' scornfully cried the monks. I have the word of God,' he answered, and for that I would not only burn my fingers but my whole body.' All who stood with him were put to death. Before their execution they were charged with all sorts of heresy, to which John And when the final replied from the Scriptures, moving the by-standers to tears. demand was made: Will you maintain your belief?' he replied, 'Yes, we will.' They were then led, amid the cries of kindred and friends, to the church-yard, where a broad and deep ditch had been dug. Into this they were driven, wood was piled around them and they perished in the flames. To this day men tremble when the 'Heretics' Ditch' is pointed out in Strasburg. 2 6 6 We find another body of Dispersed Waldensians, A. D. 1231, in the provinces of the Danube. They were subjected to a terrible persecution for three years by bloody Conrad of Marburg. An extended account of others is preserved in a ‘Chronicle of 1260,' by an anonymous writer. They lived in the diocese of Passau, which was embraced in the Duchy of Austria. He gives the names of forty-two towns and villages in the diocese, some of them upon the Danube and others close to the borders of Bohemia, where Waldensian congregations were found. The Jesuit Gretser, in editing this report, omits the honest explanations which it gives for the spread of the Dispersed Waldensians. The manuscript lays it to the impure life of the priests, to the conversion of the sacraments into gain, to the multiplication of masses, to the prurient use of the confessional and to pretended miracles; such as, tears of blood flowing from a picture, the lighting of a lamp from heaven, the exaltation of false relics as those of angels, the sweat of Christ, and passing off the bones of oxen as those of saints. Great fault is also found with the adoration of the pope as God upon earth, greater than men and equal to angels, infallible and sinless. An additional cause for public favor was found in the Waldensians themselves; for the author says that they were content in poverty, avoided lying, profanity and theft, and were diligent in business. They were shoemakers, weavers and other artisans; temperate in eating and drinking, and they led godly lives. Their converts were made by the Bible and religious books. They went as peddlers to a cottage or a nobleman's castle, offering fabrics or jewelry for sale; and when asked if they had any thing else, they answered: Yes, great rarities; I have one precious stone through which you can see God, and another that kindles love to him in the heart.' With that these peddlers brought out the precious roll of Holy Writ. Whittier, our gentle Quaker poet, has beautifully pictured these heavenly, traveling Waldensian merchantmen with goodly pearls, thus: 'O, lady fair, I have yet a gem, which a purer luster flings Than the diamond flash of the jeweled crown on the lofty brow of kings; Still another reason for their increase is found in that they were loyal to their prince and country. About this time a violent contest between Pope Innocent IV. and the Emperor Frederick II. compelled every Austrian to choose between his civil and his ecclesiastical allegiance. As Bishop Rudiger took sides with the Emperor and smote the papal legate with his fist, love for the pope was turned into hate in many hearts. In these political convulsions, when the Inquisition and the pope were set at naught, every papal interdict brought a Waldensian jubilee and the sect spread rapidly. Frederick the Warlike, Duke of Austria, who died in 1246, unlike the Emperor, had shown favor to the Catholics by laying violent hands on the Waldensians. But no class of the Dispersed Waldensians call for more important notice than those of Lombardy. Those who settled in and about Milan were known as the 'Poor Italians,' and were a mixture with dissenters already on the ground. Our interest in thein is increased from the fact that many of the Waldensians of Lombardy were really the followers of Arnold of Brescia, of whom we have spoken. For as the followers of Waldo were scattered abroad after his death, so the Arnoldists were driven every-where after the martyrdom of their leader. These, with the 'Humble Men,' so called, of Lombardy, multiplied like fishes,' and grew in favor with the magistrates of Milan, who gave them a piece of ground for a meetinghouse, and allowed them to rebuild it after the archbishop had destroyed their first structure. Those who were merged into this body were numbered with the Wal |