FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
ROME’S ANATHEMAS AND BULLS AGAINST THE GENTLE AND GODLY WALDENSES
They were hunted like wild beasts! “The Earl of Tholouse (in France) was finally forced to bow to Rome, and God’s people [at that time] were hunted as wild beasts everywhere. Here are some of the laws of Louis IX, King of France, A.D., 1229:
Canon 3: The lords of the different districts shall have the villas, houses, and woods diligently searched, and the hiding-places of the heretics destroyed.
Canon 4: If anyone allows a heretic to remain in his territory, he loses his possession forever, and his BODY is in the hands of the magistrates to receive due punishment.
Canon 5: But also such are liable to the law [man’s, not God’s], whose territory has been made a frequent hiding-place of heretics, not by his knowledge, but by his negligence.
Canon 6: The house in which the heretic is found, shall be torn down, and the place or land confiscated.
Canon 14: Lay members are NOT ALLOWED TO POSSESS THE BOOKS OF EITHER THE OLD OR NEW TESTAMENT.’ – ‘Hefele’s Councils,’ Vol. 5, pp. 981, 982. ‘History of the Sabbath,’ New, p. 558.
“These laws were only ECHOES of the ‘BULLS’ of the Popes. But while the Waldenses of the French side of the Alps were being EXTERMINATED, the pope had a more difficult task to destroy them in the Piedmont Alps.
“From Pope Lucius III (A.D. 1181-1185) to the Reformation of the seventeenth century the persecution of the Waldenses was the subject of many papal ‘ANATHEMAS.’ Army after army were sent against them, and, ALL MANNER OF TRICKERY was resorted to in order to destroy these HONEST, PLAIN, CHRISTIAN PEOPLE.
“In 1488 Albert Cataneo, the papal legate came with an army into the midst of Val Louise. The inhabitants fled to a cavern for shelter, and the soldiers started a fire at the mouth of the cavern and smothered the entire population of 3,000, including 400 children.”……”In 1544 the treacherous and heatless Catholic leader, D’Oppede caused the terrible butchery of thousands of Waldenses. At Cabrieres he wrote a note to the people, saying that if they would open the gates of their city he would do them no harm. They, in good faith, opened the gates, and D’Oppede cried out: ‘Kill them all.’ Men, women, and CHILDREN were massacred or burned alive.
“In 1655 there was another massacre of Waldenses. After the Catholic leaders made several vain attempts to break into the fastness of the mountains where the Waldenses lived, and were defeated, the Marquis of Piannese wrote the various Waldensian towns to entertain certain regiments of soldiers to show their good faith. These CHRISTIAN people, who always had such SACRED REGARD for their own word, NEVER SEEMED TO LEARN that it is a FUNDAMENTAL CATHOLIC DOCTRINE, that Catholics need not, and SHOULD NOT, ‘keep faith with heretics when the INTEREST OF THE CHURCH [not Christ and His truth!] IS AT STAKE. After they had sheltered the soldiers, and fed them of their SCANTY store, a signal was given at 4 AM., April 24, 1655, and the butchery began.
“LITTLE CHILDREN, Leger says, were torn from the arms of their mothers, and dashed against the rocks, and cast carelessly away. The sick or the aged, both men or women, were either burned in their houses, or hacked in pieces, of mutilated, half murdered, and flayed alive, they were exposed in a dying state to the heat of the sun, or to the flames, or to ferocious beasts.’ – ‘Israel of the Alps,’ Dr. Alexis Muston, Vol. I, pp. 349, 350.
“These people [Christlike and apostles-like] suffered tortures TOO TERRIBLE to mention, which only DEVILS in human form could have invented. The towns in the beautiful valleys were left smoldering ruins. A few people saved themselves by fleeing to the mountains.” – ‘Facts of Faith,’ C. Edwardson, pp. 131, 132, 133, Southern Publishing Asso., Nashville 8 TN: 1943.
If we claim to be part of the remnant of spiritual Israel in these last days, our profession of faith will soon be tested even as the “Israel of the Alps” were tested and tried, and passed the test in ignominy but to God’s glory! Truly indeed, “the blood of martyrs was the seed of the genuine gospel,”—-not the “peace-and-safety prosperity gospel” which is “another gospel.”
Bless all in your study, NMF