We find in St. Paul's epistle to the Romans, written from Corinth, chapter xv. verse 24, that it was the intention of the apostle to go into Spain, and to pass through Italy on his way. Now if St. Paul afterwards performed this journey, he must necessarily have passed through the valleys, as they lay on his road to Spain at that time, and he would have preached the gospel in them, as he did wherever he went. From this, it is fair to conjecture that the Vaudois have received their doctrine from St. Paul himself; and if this is thought too bold an assertion, we have reason to suppose that his doctrine may have reached them during his lifetime, as it seems to have been propagated by his followers throughout Italy, before he left Rome; for in concluding his epistle from Rome, to the Hebrews, he says, "Salute all them that have the rule over you, and all saints, they of Italy salute you." He does not say they of Rome, as the number of Christians rapidly augmented in the capital, and they were nearly all dispersed by the persecutions under Nero and Domitian, it is extremely probable that some parties of this host of fugitives should have taken refuge among our mountains, in the time of the immediate successors of the apostles.

But to descend to a period of greater certainty, it is allowed by all that the whole of Italy embraced Christianity in the time of Constantine,* and therefore the Vaudois doctrines may be considered the same as those of the Universal Church, by which we do not find any superstitious rites or customs to have been adopted till the sixth century; nor are the dangerous and revolting dogmas of the court of Rome, and its flagitious practices to be traced before the end of the eighth. All that belongs to the doctrine and practice of the modern Roman communion was until then unknown, as is clearly proved by the testimony of Juellus DaitlÈ, Dumoulin, &c., and indirectly by the partizans of Rome, Baronius, Enuphius, Platina, &c.

These innovations, and particularly the adoration of images,** were loudly condemned by the churches of England, France, Germany, and the east.

Which condemnation was confirmed by the council convoked by Charlemagne,* at Frankfurt-on-the-Main, in 794. The Bishops of Italy also proclaimed their discontent in a letter which they addressed, by means of Photius, to the patriarchs of the Greek churches. Baronius, who gives this letter, subjoins the following answer of the Patriarchs.** "We have received a synodal epistle from Italy, in which the inhabitants lay to the charge of their bishop an infinity of crimes and perverseness; among other things, the tyranny he wishes to exercise over them, and they call us, with tears, to the defence of the church." Here again let it be remarked, that as long as the superior church retained its purity, the Vaudois did not secede from it. It was the court of Rome that began with innovations, not they. Of this so many proofs press upon me, that I scarcely know which to choose. At the end of the eighth, or beginning of the ninth century, flourished Claude, bishop of Turin, whose diocese embraced not only our valleys, but DauphinÉ and Provence.***

He opposed himself so strenuously to the innovations of the court of Rome, that his doctrine has been since called calvinistic by his enemies.* Illyricus makes the following mention of him in his Catalogue Test. Veritatis, lib. 9. "Claude, Bishop of Turin, lived in the time of Charlemagne and Louis the Pious, of whom he was the intimate friend, even before he became Bishop; he strenuously opposed, (both by preaching and writing,) the adoration of images, of relicts, and the cross, invocations to the saints, pilgrimages, the precedence of the Pope, &c. He treated the Pope himself with great severity, loudly condemning the profit which he made by the poor superstitious people, whom he drew to Rome on pilgrimages."

In the fragments that remain of this courageous Bishop, which are cited by Leger, Part I. p. 137, he combats with great vigour, the abuses above mentioned, and proves that it was not his wish to establish any new sect, but to preserve the doctrines of the apostles in their original purity.** We cannot, therefore, doubt his having used his utmost exertions in his own diocese, of which our valleys formed a part.

Indeed we have the fullest evidence that the Vaudois preserved the purity of their faith during the ninth and tenth centuries. To prove this fact, it will be sufficient to give a single quotation from the missionary Marco Aurelio Rorenco, Grand Prior of St. Roch, at Turin, whose work is entitled Narratione delle Intro-duzione delle heresie nelle valli de Piemonte, Turin, 1632.* Speaking of the doctrine of Claude, which this author is pleased to call heresy, he says—"This doctrine continued in the valleys all the ninth and tenth centuries;" and again, "that during the tenth century no change took place, but the old heresies were continued." In order to feel the full force of the above citation, we must call to mind that Rorenco** had been for ten years a missionary, directly sent out to the Vaudois, with orders to search into the origin of their doctrine; and that writing with the approbation of the clergy of Turin, he was little likely to favour the Vaudois.

In the eleventh century, Lambertus, a Catholic and friend of Gregory VII. writes thus: "The court of Rome has so completely stifled all charity and Christian simplicity, that almost all good and just men believe that the reign of Antichrist, of which St. John speaks, is already commenced." John the Fifth, who reigned before this period, has been called by cotemporary writers, the most wicked of men. In these unhappy times the Vaudois did not venture to preach any where but in the woods and highest mountains, except in their most remote villages, such as Macel and Pral, &c. In the eleventh century, Berenger, so celebrated for his knowledge and virtues, was condemned by two councils, convoked by Pope Leo IX., and was forced to retract what he had written against transubstantiation, &c. by Pope Nicholas. He lost no time, however, in protesting against this forced recantation, and persevered in his doctrine till his death, in 1091. Now the belief of Berenger, (says an ancient author,) the same as that of the Vaudois, was so well preserved in the valleys, that to call a man a Berengerian was the same as calling him a Vaudois. Peter de Bruys,* a priest of Toulon, whose doctrine was precisely similar, succeeded Berenger, and preached in Languedoc, Provence, and DauphinÉ, particularly at Gap and Embrun, a few hours distance only from the Vaudois valleys; his disciples were called Petrobrusians, and he was martyred at S. Gilles, 1124.

Henry de Bruys, and Arnaud de Bresse now took up the cause, and extended the Vaudois doctrines in Lombardy. Of the disciples of the former, St. Bernard, who wrote in 1120, bears this testimony, "that they prided themselves in being the true successors of the apostles, and conservators of their doctrine."

Arnaud de Bresse fell a victim to the cruelty of the Roman clergy in 1155, being first crucified and then burnt. He was succeeded by his zealous disciple Esperon. Rorenco in the work above cited, says, that we must by the names of Vaudois, Esperonites, Henricians, Petrobrusians, Arnaudites, and Apostolicals, understand one and the same sect, which is a sufficient proof of the identity of the doctrine of the Vaudois, and that of these zealous preachers. The celebrated Peter Valdo, a rich inhabitant of Lyons, openly professed the Vaudois doctrine in 1175. He abandoned all his possessions, gave himself up entirely to the promulgation of the gospel, had the bible translated into the vulgar tongue, and instructed the people publicly in the streets, commencing with the thesis, that we must obey God rather than man. He refused submission to the Pope and his bishops; exposed the scandalous lives of the monks; and refuted the doctrine of the mass, purgatory, adoration of images, and prayers for the dead. At the instance of Pope Alexander III., Valdo was driven from Lyons, with most of his disciples. A great part of them retired either to Lombardy, or (as an ancient writer observes,) into Cisalpine Gaul, and among the Alps, where they found a perfectly secure retreat, (tutissimum refugium.) That is among the valleys of Pragela, Meane, Saluces, &c., and we must pay great attention to this expression, since it appears natural that these valleys should be their surest place of refuge, being already peopled with Vaudois, who professed the same doctrines. Other disciples of Valdo withdrew to Picardy, Germany, Bohemia, and the Low Countries. I must here remark, that even those who in contradiction to the above chain of evidence, assert that the Vaudois derive their name and doctrine from Peter Valdo, must allow them to have been established in the valleys at least fifty years before the ancient counts of Savoy obtained the sovereignty of their country; for it appears in the history of the house of Savoy, that the first who began to make conquests in our country, was Thomas, son of Humbert, who had previously accompanied Louis, son of Philip Augustus, king of France, in his expedition against the Vaudois and the Albigenses of Provence. Hence we have every possible right to the possession of our country, in which we were established before our sovereigns.