Baptist History Notebook
By Berlin HiselChapter 16
THE WALDENSES CONTINUED
[142]
In the preceding chapter we saw something of the Waldenses as to their origin, place and what they believed about their ancestry back to Christ and the apostles. They definitely believed themselves to have been of apostolic origin.In this chapter we would like to consider their beliefs. It is belief or doctrine by which we identify our Baptist ancestors. We again issue caution. Not all the Waldenses believed alike just as not all Baptists believe alike. We only claim that among the ancient Waldenses we find the true churches of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Another caution must be kept in mind. Their enemies wrote much against them. That writing is often unfavorable. As Edward Overbey writes, “The information concerning them is small and often written by their enemies. Their enemies didn’t understand their beliefs and usually wrote from a prejudiced viewpoint.”1 Let us proceed to see some of their doctrine.
Waldenses Not Protestants One of the leading doctrines of Baptists is their claim not to be Protestants. This is the claim of Historical Baptists. Today many Southem Baptists speak of their being the largest Protestant denomination in America. Historical Baptists believe no such thing. In this, the Waldenses are in accord. Let us quote two Presbyterian writers. First, A.W. Mitchell writes: “The Waldenses disclaim the name “Protestant.” They say they never came out from Rome, inasmuch as they were never in Rome.”2 His writing is about the Waldenses after the Reformation had begun. The next quote comes from James Wharey and tells of the origin of the name ‘Protestant’ as a group. “In a diet of the German states assembled at Spire in 1526, it was decided that a petition should be presented to the emperor, to call a general council without delay; and, in the mean time, that each
[143]
one should be left to manage the religious concerns of his own territory, in his own way. In a diet at the same place, in 1529, this decree was revoked, and all changes in the public religion were declared to be unlawful, until the decision of a general council should take place. Against this proceeding, the elector of Saxony, the landgrave of Hesse, and other patrons of the Reformation, entered their protest, and appealed to the emperor, and to a future council. Hence originated the name of Protestants, borne from this time onward by those who forsook the communion of the church of Rome.” Note 3. Since the Waldenses existed long, long before this they could not be Protestants.The Antichrist “A Treatise concerning Antichrist, Purgatory, the Invocation of the Saints, and the Sacraments” is a writing of the Waldenses that has been preserved for us. John Paul Perrin, one of the Waldensian historians, dates this work at 1120 A.D., about fifty years before Peter Waldo. Many historians attribute this writing to Peter de Bruys. What it says about Antichrist sounds very Baptistic to me. Let us lift an extract from it out of the history by William Jones. “Antichrist is a falsehood, or deceit varnished over with the semblance of truth, and of the righteousness of Christ and His spouse, yet in opposition to the way of truth, righteousness, faith, hope, charity, as well as to moral life. It is not any particular person ordained to any degree, or office, or ministry, covering and adorning itself with a show of beauty and piety, yet very unsuitable to the church of Christ, as by the names, and offices, the scriptures, and the sacraments, and various other things, may appear. The system of iniquity thus completed with its ministries, great and small, supported by those who are induced to follow it with an evil heart and blind-fold — this is the congregation, which taken together, comprises what is called Antichrist or Babylon, the fourth beast, the whore, the man of sin, the son of perdition. His ministers are called false prophets, lying teachers, the ministers of darkness, the spirit of error, the apocalyptic whore, the mother of harlots, clouds without water, trees
[144]