Waldensians

I

will quote to them one of my favorite poems because it's about my Waldensian ancestors and the persecution that they faced.

And so with this one, again, I'll just show it to them on the screen in mere paragraph form.

Does it look like a poem? Well, no.

Even in the Dark Ages, the followers of John Wycliffe, the Lollards, or a hundred years before Luther was the Bohemian Brethren under Jan Hus.

Other times it was the Waldensians, the Valdési.

This is in the Dark Ages now.

Even in the Dark Ages, there were faithful movements of God's Spirit, of true believers.

a single scene of the bloody drama is known as the hans mill massacre a small settlement had been founded by mormon families on shoal creek and here on the thirtieth of october eighteen thirty eight a company of two hundred and forty fell upon the hapless settlers and butchered a score no respect was paid to age or sex gray heads and infant lips that scarcely had learned to lisp a word vigorous manhood and immature youth mother and maiden fared alike in the scene of carnage and their bodies were thrown into an old well in october eighteen thirty eight the governor of missouri the same lilburn w boggs issued his infamous exterminating order and called upon the militia of the state to execute it the language of this document signed by the executive of a sovereign state of the union declared that the mormons must be driven from the state or exterminated be it said to the honor of some of the officers intrusted with the terrible commission that when they learned its true significance they resigned their authority rather than have anything to do with what they designated a cold-blooded butchery but tools were not wanting as indeed they never have been for murder and its kindred outrages what the heart of man can conceive the hand of man will find a way to execute the awful work was carried out with dread dispatch oh what a record to read what a picture to gaze upon how awful the fact an official edict offering expatriation or death to a peaceable community with no crime proved against them, and guilty of no offense other than that of choosing to differ in opinion from the masses.

American schoolboys read with emotions of horror of the Albigenses, driven, beaten, and killed, with a papal legate directing the butchery, and of the Vaudois, hunted and hounded like beasts, as the effect of a royal decree.

and they yet shall read in the history of their own country of scenes as terrible as these in the exhibition of injustice and inhuman hate in the dread alternative offered them the people determined again to abandon their homes but whither should they go already they had fled before the lawless oppressor over well-nigh half a continent already were they on the frontiers of the country that they had regarded as the land of promised liberty thus far every move had carried them westward but farther west they could not go unless they were entirely beyond the country of their birth and gave up their hope of protection under the constitution which to them had ever been an inspired instrument the majesty of which as they had never doubted would be some day vindicated even to securing for them the rights of american citizens this time their faces were turned toward the east and a host numbering from ten to twelve thousand including many women and children abandoned their homes and fled before their murderous pursuers reddening the snow with bloody footprints as they journeyed they crossed the mississippi and sought protection on the soil of illinois there their sad condition evoked for a time general commiseration the press of the state denounced the treatment of the people by the missourians and vindicated the character of the mormons as peaceable and law-abiding citizens College professors published expressions of their horror of the cruel crusade.

State officials, including even the governor, gave substantial evidence of their sympathy and good feeling.

The sacrifice of this friar gave a final proof of the hopelessness of looking to Rome for the purification of the Church.

Of the people who in the Middle Ages appealed to the authority of the Scriptures themselves, the Waldensians were the earliest.

Footnote The Waldensians consisted of two sets of people, the Vaudois of the Alpine valleys between Dauphiné and Piedmont, and the poor men of Lyon, followers of a certain Peter Waldo.

These later settled in various places.

Back to main text.

They accepted only two sacraments, baptism and the Eucharist, and rejected purgatory, prayers for the dead, and the invocation of saints.

They lived pure and simple lives and remained faithful to their opinions in spite of persecution, but they wrought no reformation in the Church at large.

The principles and teaching of John Wycliffe, the Oxford teacher, circa 1324 to 1384, were very similar to those of the Waldensians.

Well, no, they don't believe in consubstantiation, apparently.

That's apparently, was it Wycliffe or Waldensians or somebody like that? They believe in consubstantiation, which was condemned.

Lutherans don't believe in consubstantiation.

They'll say that they don't, but essentially it is.