* The author here states his obligations to Mons. Certon of Rotterdam, pastor of the reformed church, and to some others, from whom he had received manuscripts. He then gives some other particulars, not interesting to the general reader, and proceeds as above.--T.
I pass over other histories of the Vaudois, in English and Dutch, as well as other references to them in more general works, as for instance, Gekendorf in his history of the reformation, Ruchat Basnage, &c. &c. as they are probably derived from the above sources, and are only more or less carefully compiled....
Though I must not repeat here the evidences of the antiquity of the Vaudois, I cannot refrain from remarking that it is from the vallies of the Vaudois that the first sparks of that reformation have arisen, which has drawn back a great part of Europe to the purity of the gospel. It is extremely probable, that Calvin himself was of Vaudois origin, for there are still several families of this name in the vallies, from whence we believe his to have emigrated to Picardy. It is certain, that in the preface which this great reformer prefixed to the first French bible ever published; he acknowledges himself bound by the ties of kindred to the translator, one of our most celebrated "barbes," or pastors, named Olivetan, which makes it probable that Calvin had obtained from the Vaudois the doctrine which he afterwards preached at Geneva, and elsewhere. It is equally certain, that long before the reformation there were many persons who followed the doctrine of the Vaudois in Germany, Hungary, Bohemia, &c.; indeed the Vatïtiois of this last country, as well as those of Alsace, sent their youth into our vallies to be educated as pastors. It is known also that the celebrated Lollard who laboured with such zeal to diffuse the Vaudois doctrines in England, was not only a native of our vallies, but preached in them for a length of time with great success.* We may also assert that it is by means of the Vaudois that the reformation was introduced in the United Provinces.
* The Lollard tower in London takes its name from one of the disciples of Lollard, who in the age of intolerance was confined there.
The Vaudois of Provence, Languedoc, and Dauphiné also, originally sprang from our val-lies, and when their numbers had increased greatly at Lyons, they were persecuted by the Archbishop of that city, Jean de Belle Maison, about 1180, and retired into Picardy, under Peter Valdo, where they received the name of Picards. Here Philip Augustus, king of France, resolving to extirpate them, caused 300 gentlemen's houses to be razed to the ground, because the owners had embraced the tenets of the Vaudois. Forced again to leave their newly found country, these Picards, or Vaudois of Lyons, (also called poor of Lyons,) retired principally into the United Provinces of Holland, and there spread the knowledge of the truth. It was in the Low Countries that the Vaudois first took the name of Walloons, and that the first confession de foi (articles of belief) was drawn up by the celebrated martyr Guido Brez. This confession was first printed in 1561, addressed to Philip II. of Spain, in 1562; it was confirmed by the synod of Anvers, 1585, and finally adopted by that of Dordt. The above is sufficient to prove that the Vaudois church is the parent of all those which have arisen in Protestant Europe, and particularly of the churches of the United Provinces, as well Dutch as Walloon. Why do the Roman Catholics and the Protestants mutually hate each other? Why do they look upon each other with harshness and severity? It is, because instead of going to the source of their religion, the gospel itself, they content themselves with examining those streams, of which the waters have been rendered impure, by the admixture of human opinions: it is because they appeal to the confessions of faith of the heads of their sect or party, instead of seeking what really constitutes the essence of the Christian faith, and what ought to be the rule of our faith and practice, by means of the specific declarations of Jesus Christ and his apostles. It is because they generally adopt self-interest for their guide, instead of shielding themselves under that universal spirit of charity, without which there can be no real Christianity, and because they entirely forget that religion does not consist in words, but in virtue.
