SECT. 1.]

Claude's defence of his principles.

369

yet more true) of stone or wood, which have neither life, feeling, nor reason. For if we may neither worship nor serve the works of God's hand, how much less may we worship the works of men's hands, and pay adoration to them in honour of those whose remembrance we say they are? For if the image you worship is not God, wherefore dost thou bow down to false images; and wherefore, like a slave, dost thou bend thy body to pitiful shrines, and to the work of men's hands? Certainly, not only he who serves and honours visible images, but also whatsoever creature else, whether heavenly or earthly, spiritual or corporeal, serves the same instead of God, and from it expects the salvation of his soul, which he ought to look for from God alone. All such are of the number of those concerning whom the apostle said, that "they worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator."

"But mark what the followers of superstition and false religion alledge! They tell us it is in commemoration and honour of our Saviour that we serve, honour, and adore the cross-persons whom nothing in the Saviour pleaseth, but that which was pleasing to the ungodly, viz. the reproach of his sufferings and the token of his death. Hereby they evince that they perceive only of him, what the wicked saw and perceived of him, whether Jews, or heathens, who do not see his resurrection, and do not consider him but as altogether swallowed up of death, without regarding what the apostle says "We know Jesus Christ no longer according to the flesh."

"God commands one thing, and these people do quite the contrary. God commands us to bear our cross, and not to worship it; but these are all for worshipping it, whereas they do not bear it at all-to serve God after this manner, is to go a-whoring from him. For if we ought to adore the cross, because Christ was fastened to it, how many other things are there which touched Jesus Christ, VOL. I.

3. B

and which he made according to the flesh? Did he not continue nine months in the womb of the virgin? Why do they not then on the same score worship all that are virgins, because a virgin brought forth Jesus Christ? Why do they not adore mangers and old clothes, because he was laid in a manger and wrapped in swaddling cloaths? Why do they not adore fishing-boats, because he slept in one of them, and [from it] preached to the multitudes, and caused a net to be cast out, wherewith was caught a miraculous quantity of fish? Let them adore asses, because he entered into Jerusalem upon the foal of an ass? and lambs, because it is written of him, "Behold the lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world." But these sorts of men would rather eat live lambs than worship their images! Why do they not worship lions, because he is called "the lion of the tribe of Judah?" or rocks, since it is said" and that rock was Christ?" or thorns, because he was crowned with them? or lances because one of them pierced his side?

"All these things are ridiculous, and rather to be lamented than set forth in writing; but we are compelled to state them in opposition to fools, and to declaim against those hearts of stone, which the arrows and sentences of the word of God cannot pierce. Come to yourselves again, ye miserable transgressors; why are ye gone astray from the truth, and why, having become vain, are ye fallen in love with vanity? Why do you crucify again the Son of God, and expose him to open shame, and by these means make souls, by troops, to become the companions of devils, estranging them from their Creator, by the hor rible sacrilege of your images and likenesses, and thus precipitating them into everlasting damnation?

"As for your reproaching me, that I hinder men from running in pilgrimage to Rome, I demand of you yourself, whether thou thinkest that to go to Rome is to repent of

SECT. I.] • Sentiments of Claude of Turin.

371

to do penance? If indeed it be, why then hast thou for so long a time damned so many souls by confining them in thy monastery, and whom thou hast taken into it, that they might there do penance, if it be so that the way to to do penance is to go to Rome, and yet thou hast hindered them? What hast thou, to say against this sentence, "Whosoever shall lay a stone of stumbling before any of these little ones, it were better for him that a millstone were hung about his neck, and he cast into the bot tom of the sea?"

"We know very well that this passage of the gospel is quite misunderstood---" Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven;" under the pretence of which words, the stupid and ignorant multitude, destitute of all spiritual knowledge, betake themselves to Rome, in the hope of acquiring eternal life. But the ministry [of the gospel] belongs to all the true presbyters and pastors of the church, who discharge the same, as long as they are in this world, and when they have paid the debt of death, others succeed in their places, who possess the same authority and power.

"Return, O ye blind, to your light; return to him who enlightens every man that cometh into the world. All of you, however numerous ye may be, who depart from this light, ye walk in darkness, and know not whither ye go, for the darkness has put out your eyes. If we are to believe God when he promiseth, how much more when he swears, and saith, If Noah, Daniel, and Job (that is, if the saints. whom you call upon, were endowed with holiness, righteousness and merit equal to theirs) they shall neither deliver son nor daughter; and it is for this end he makes the declaration, that none might place their confidence, in either the merits or the intercession of saints. Understand. ye this, ye people without understanding? Ye fools, when will ye be wise? Ye who run to Rome, there to seek for the intercession of an apostle.

** The fifth thing for which you reproach me is—that you are much displeased, because "the apostolic lord” (for so you are pleased to denominate the late Pope Paschal) had honoured me with this charge. But you should remember that he only is apostolic who is the keeper and guardian of the apostle's doctrine, and not he who boasts himself of being seated in the chair of the apostle, and, in the mean time, neglects to acquit himself of the apostolic charge, for the Lord saith that the scribes and pharisees sat in Moses' seat.'

From these extracts, some estimate may be formed of the principles and character of Claude of Turin-a name less known in the present day, and a character less honoured, than they deserve. By his preaching, and by his valuable writings, hé disseminated the doctrine of the kingdom of heaven-and, although the seed were as a grain of mustard seed cast into the earth, the glorious ef fects ultimately produced by it justify the truth of our Lord's parable, that when it is grown up, it produceth a tree, whose branches are so ramified and extended, that the birds of the air come and lodge therein. His doctrine grew exceedingly-the vallies of Piedmont were in time filled with his disciples, and while midnight darkness sat enthroned over almost every portion of the globe, the WALDENSES, which is only another name for the inhabitants of these vallies, preserved the gospel among them in its native purity, and rejoiced in its glorious light.

Claude continued his labours at Turin at least twenty years, for he was alive in eight hundred and thirty-ninebut we have no documents existing that enable us to trace out the operation of his principles in the formation of independent churches, in a state of separation from the world; and it is very probable that during the life of this venerable man, but few attempts of this kind were made.

Allix's Remarks, ch. ix. p. 64–77.

SECT. 1.] End of the ministry of Claude.

373

The Catholic writers, in particular Genebrard in his Chronology, and also Rorenco, have explicitly owned, that “the vallies of Piedmont, which belonged to the bishoprick of Turin, preserved the opinions of Claude in the ninth and tenth centuries ;" and, in the account of the PATERINES, which we shall soon arrive at, we shall see how extensively they spread not only in Piedmont, but throughout the neighouring country of the Milanese. "It is admitted," says Mr. Robinson," that if the Waldenses had reasoned consequentially on the principles of their master, they would, after his death, have dissented, but there is no evidence that they did reason so." He, therefore, is of opinion, that some considerable time elapsed (probably half a century) before they broke off all communion with the established church.

It will no doubt appear a matter of surprise to some that an opposer so zealous and intrepid as Claude certainly was, should have escaped the fury of the church of Rome. But it should be remembered, that the despotism of that wicked court had not yet arrived at its plenitude of power and intolerance. To which may be added, as another very probable reason, that some of the European monarchs viewed the domineering influence of the bishops of Rome with considerable jealousy, and gladly extended their protection to those whose labours had a tendency to reduce it; such was at this time the case with the court of France in regard to Claude. It is, nevertheless, sufficiently manifest, that this great man held his life in continual jeopardy. "In standing up," says he, " for the confirmation and defence of the truth, I am become a reproach to my neighbours, to that degree, that those who see us do not only scoff at us, but point at us one to another. But God, the father of mercies, and author of all consolation, hath comforted us in all our afflictions, that we may be able, in like manner, to comfort those that are cast down