Source: http://geocitiessites.com/LandmarkBibleBaptist/History/Orchard2-9.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 16:53:32+00:00

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1. On entering upon the details of the eleventh century, we are called to realize emotions of joy and sorrow; joy, because a succession of pious men are raised up to advocate the cause of truth and virtue; sorrow, because their labor of love everywhere is attended with opposition and suffering; though the prospect of death itself does not appear to have checked their work of faith and patience of hope. One of the earliest names, as a reformer, in France, is LEUTARD, who arose (1000), and preached to the people in the bishopric of Chaalous. This man gained many followers. [Mezerays Fr. Hist., p. 228. C. 10, p. 94] The labors of the Paulician Albigenses, or Vaudois, with Leutard, are noticed by Gerbertus, who became a disciple, and died 1003. [Allixs Rem. Albig. Ch.] The zealous and commendable exertions of these puritans were the means of collecting religious societies, one of the earliest on record was brought thus prominent by the sufferings they experienced from their enemies. "The first religious assembly which the Paulicians had formed in Europe, is said to have been discovered at Orleans, in the year 1017, under the reign of Robert. A certain Italian lady is said to have been at the head of this sect." [Female teachers were allowed in these churches. The advantages and benefits to religion, from their devoted efforts, are shown by several writers. MCries Reform. in Italy, p. 187, &c.] Its principal members were twelve canons of the cathedral of Orleans; men eminently distinguished by their piety and learning, among whom Lisosius and Stephen held the first rank; and it was composed, in general, of a considerable number of citizens, who were far from being of the lowest condition. A council, held at Orleans, employed the most effectual methods that could be devised, "to bring these people to a better mind;" but all endeavors were to no purpose: they adhered tenaciously to their principles, and therefore were condemned to be burnt alive [Mosh. Ch. Hist., v. ii., p. 225]; which sentence thirteen actually realized.
A synod was held at Toulouse, to consider the most effectual method to rid the province of the Albigenses; [Allixs Rem. Ch. Albig. c. 11, p. 95] and though the whole sect was in 1022 said to have been burnt, yet the emigrants from Bulgaria, coming in colonies into France, kept the seed sown, the churches recruited, and soon after, the same class of people was found inhabiting Languedoc and Gascony. [Mezerays Fr. Hist. p. 229] It is recorded that Leuthericus, Archbishop of Sens, and who was a disciple of Gerbertus, advocated those views which afterwards were charged on Berenger. [Allixs Rem. Ch. Albig. c. 10, p. 93] Leuthericus died in 1032. Three years after, we become possessed of two names which resounded through Europe, and whose labors were accompanied with those beneficial effects and permanent results, as to be well worthy of the name of Reformers. BRUNO and BERENGER, or BEREGARIUS, were reformers in France, A.D. 1035; almost as early as Gundulphus appeared in Italy, with whom probably they were in correspondence. Berenger, by his discourses, charmed the people, and drew after him vast numbers of disciples. Some men of learning united themselves with him, and spread his doctrines and views through France, Italy, Germany, and other kingdoms. [Mezerays Fr. Hist. p. 229] The effect of these Reformers preaching was not only enlightening the ignorant, but it gave encouragement to the dissenters to come more prominently into society. The alarm was great to the Catholics: one of their prelates, Deodwin, Bishop of Leige, states that "there is a report come out of France, and gone through Germany, that Bruno, Bishop of Angiers, and Berengarius, archdeacon of the same church, maintain that the host is not the Lords body; and as far as in them lies, overthrow the baptism of infants." Matthew of Westminster speaks of Berenger as having corrupted all Italy. "It means," says Dr. Allix, "that his followers, who were of the same stamp with the Paterines, kept to the primitive faith of the church, which it was the object of the popes to remove them from; and in their opposing the church of Rome, they were called heretics and corrupters, though this name and practice belonged rightly to the popish party." [Allixs Pied. c. 14, pp. 122-3] His followers were so numerous, that old historians relate, that France, Italy, Germany, England, the Belgic countries, &c., were infected with his principles. [Usher in Bp. Newtons Diss. on the Proph. v. ii. p. 245; Facts Opposed, &c., p. 42; Usher in Danvers, p. 288] This proves that persons existed in these provinces in the profession of his sentiments, and who readily gave him support so soon as he appeared in the character of a reformer. Berenger, in his zeal against the corruptions of the church, calls the Roman community "a church of malignants, the council of vanity, and the seat of Satan." He was required by the pope to abjure his errors, and burn his writings, which he actually did; and yet, while he lived, he wrote and spoke in the same severe strain.
6. The religious sentiments of Peter de Bruys are not fully known; but the following particulars are handed down to us by historians:--that the ordinance of baptism was to be administered only to adults; [Mezerays Hist., p. 276] that it was a piece of idle superstition to build and dedicate churches to the service of God, who, in worship, has a peculiar respect to the state of the heart, and who cannot be worshipped with temples made with hands; that crucifixes are objects of superstition, and ought to be destroyed; that, in the Lords supper, the real body and blood of Christ were not partaken of by the communicants, but only represented in the way of symbol or figure; and lastly, that the oblations, prayers, and good works of the living, can in no way be beneficial to the dead. [Mosh. Hist. v. ii. p. 315] Prateolus, Mezeray, and Bellarmine record that Peter de Bruys held baptism to be useless to children who wanted the exercise of reason. [Facts Op. Allixs Albig. c. 14, p. 124] The Petrobrussians, those who withdrew from the church of Rome, did reckon infant baptism as one of the corruptions, and accordingly renounced it and practised only adult baptism. "All those baptized (immersed) in their infancy were re-baptized," says Dr. Wall, "before they could enter their churches." [Hist. Inf. Bapt. pt. 2, c. 7, ~ 8, p. 250] Peter de Bruys held, that persons baptized in infancy are to be baptized after they believe; which is not to be esteemed re-baptization, but right baptism. [Danver on Bap. p. 290, from Osiander. In this century they plunged the subject in baptism three times in the sacred font. Mezerays Fr. Hist., 12 cent. p. 288] His followers were called PETROBRUSSIANS, and were very numerous in France and the Netherlands. [Lon. Ency. Art. Petrobruss] From him the Albigenses were called Petrobrussians.
9. Within five years of Bruyss martyrdom, HENRY, of Toulouse, who had been a disciple of his, appeared as a reformer. He travelled through different provinces, and exercised his ministerial functions in all places, with the utmost applause from the people. He declaimed with great vehemence and fervor against the vices of the clergy, and the superstitions they had introduced into the church. [Mosh. Hist. v. ii. p. 316. p. 27] Contemporary with Bruys, Henry, and Arnold, was that extraordinary man, BERNARD, abbot of Clairval in France, whose learning and sanctity rendered him an object of general admiration, whose word appears to have regulated almost every court in Europe, and whose counsels decided the policy of the Catholic community, from the pope to the peasant. Though Bernard fully concedes the points of corruption in the hierarchy, and of children being promoted to dignities in the church, [Claudes Del. of the Reform. v. i. c. 2] yet his influence was fully given to uphold the man of sin, by all the severe measures of the times. We do not wish to detract from his excellencies; but all those features of sanctity about him, were placed in direct opposition to those good men who strove to reform abuses in the Catholic community, as we now exhibit. Writing to the Count of St. Giles, Bernard thus describes the state of affairs: "How great are the evils which we have heard and known to be done by Henry, the heretic, and what he is still every day doing in the churches of God! He wanders up and down in your country in sheep-clothing, being a ravenous wolf! but according to the hint given by our Lord, we know him by his fruits. The churches are without people--the people without priests--priests without reverence--and lastly, Christians without Christ. The life of Christ is denied to infants, by refusing them the grace of baptism, nor are they suffered to draw near unto salvation, though our Saviour tenderly cried out on their behalf, Suffer, &c. O most unhappy people! at the voice of an heretic all the voices of the prophets and apostles are silenced, who, from one spirit of truth, have declared that the church is to be called by the faith of Christ, out of all nations of the world; so that the divine oracles have deceived us." [Allixs Albig. Ch. C. 14, p. 127, and c. 11, p. 117, and c. 20, p. 185] The archbishop of Narbon, writing to Louis the 7th, king of France, about the same time, details the desolations of the Catholic community, he says, "My Lord, the King, we are extremely pressed with many calamities, amongst which, there is one that most of all affects us, which is, that the Catholic faith is extremely shaken in this our diocese, and St. Peters boat is so violently tossed by the waves, that it is in great danger of sinking." Similar statements and complaints reached Bernard, respecting the prevalency of persons holding Baptist sentiments in Germany, where, in a future section, we shall give particulars. [See on Sect. 12, ~ 4] We can from these extracts discover the perturbed and anxious state of mind among the clergy, at the success attending Henrys preaching. "At this very period, in the Catholic community, the night of ignorance," says Bishop Newton, "was so thick and dark, that there was hardly here and there a single star to be seen in the whole hemisphere." [Diss. on the Prophe. v. ii. p. 170] Yet such was the disposition of the supporters of establishments at this time, that they would have extinguished every star, had not Providence thrown its aegis around it. We may discover in these Paedobaptists the prevailing of a false charity, for while they express their solicitude for the rising race, they can run from those chitty acts of kindness, and with reviling and denouncing language, assign the parents, with all repudiators of the infant rite, to the regions of misery and death.
12. Not being able to ascertain the inward arrangements of the Albigensian mansions, the popes complained of them as not being under their regulation, and concluded they must be seats of sin, like their own abodes, and therefore sent forth their expressions of pious detestation in repeated anathemas; consequently, measures were now adopted of a vigorous character to stop the growing evil. The censures of men, the bulls of popes, and the decrees and anathemas of councils, which shall be given hereafter, follow now in rather close succession, at the same time, all bearing their expression of strong aversion towards those who deny the rite to infants. The councils we allude to were held in different parts of Europe; it must appear strange that those assemblies should all express themselves so strongly and decidedly against antipaedobaptists, unless persons did exist to a considerable extent holding those sentiments.
18. The opinion conveyed by many writers is, that these dissenters in France originated with Waldo; and even Robinson and Jones appear to admit, that the Vaudois or Puritans in France were in a low state at the time Waldo appeared as a teacher. Dr. Allix has shown with Mosheim, that these French dissenters descended from the Catharists and Vaudois; while their paucity in numbers, or laxity, is rather difficult to reconcile with Bernard and other writers statements, as to the desolation in the Catholic church from Peter de Bruys, Henry and Arnolds preaching, which last terminated his labors, only twenty-three years before Waldo appeared. The old Baptist interests no doubt were resuscitated and increased with members, new ones to a great extent were raised by Waldo and his worthy fellow-laborers; and these old and new interests together became formidable to the pontiff, and awakened their enemies to vigorous and barbarous measures; consequently, from this period the Vaudois became more known, and more prominent from their sufferings, and from recorded events by the catholic writers.
The voice and authority of the pope was feeble in the early ages of Christianity; nor was his power feared during the governments of the Goths and Lombards; but at the expiration of their dynasties, his character becomes apparent, and his pretensions are in some measure acknowledged; but in this (12th) century, the kings of the earth gave him their power, and the united power made war with the Lamb and his saints.
In 1181, Pope Lucius III held his general council at Verone; at which the Albigensian sect and heresy were damned, for teaching otherwise than the Church of Rome about baptism.
These severe methods prove anabaptists to have been a powerful body; and though these measures disturbed their local establishment, yet they did not impair the main body, since they remained sufficient to menace the papacy with a fatal overthrow. There could be no propriety in every synod, council, and assembly, making severe rules to enforce baptism on infants, unless a considerable body of Baptists existed, to thwart this vestige of the man of sin, which rite "his holiness" evidently considered as a palladium to his interest.
At the same time, it would be difficult to trace the extent of those persons in the early ages among the Albigenses, who held the truth unsophisticated; [Allixs Pied., Ch., c. 2] yet, amidst all the diversity of names and opinions charged upon them, no early author records infant baptism as practiced among them; indeed, every early testimony charges them with the error of Anti-paedobaptism and Ana-baptism.

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