1) By the very fact the next iteration - this one by "G. H. C." - is called a continuation: "Lest We Forget (Con't.)." One would expect a different author unless the reader was otherwise made aware of the fact. On the contrary, the first line of this continuation in this series picks up right where this one leaves off in discussing the Waldenses: "Pope Innocent VIII, in 1488, determined to persecute the Waldenses." Clark also wrote two further iterations in this series for a grand total of four (including this first one with the typo).
2) No contributing editors for this issue had the initials A. H. C.
3) The style of signature by initials (G. H. C.) fits with what Clark's was in many of his writings for The Southern Presbyterian Journal.
1959. Lest We Forget. The Southern Presbyterian Journal, XVIII.
One Lord's Day morning an American worshipper was sitting in the Reformed church in Tours, France. On the wall he saw a plaque which read, "In memory of Catherine Marechal, first martyr of this parish, burned alive 1532."
1959. Lest We Forget. The Southern Presbyterian Journal, XVIII.
One Lord's Day morning an American worshipper was sitting in the Reformed church in Tours, France. On the wall he saw a plaque which read, "In memory of Catherine Marechal, first martyr of this parish, burned alive 1532."
The American wondered whether the details of
those days of the Protestant Reformation are fading out of the minds of the twentieth century public.
There is still some knowledge of the massacre of
St. Bartholomew's eve, when in 1572 the Catholics
massacred some sixty to seventy thousand Protestants.
But is this the faint and only memory of a long history of persecution? Near Tours, at the castle of
Amboise, the American saw the balcony from which
the Catholics hanged about 100 Protestant men in 1560 and where they threw the women and children into the Loire to drown. But what had happened
before 1560 and before 1532? Let us go back several
centuries before the Reformation.
The Middle Ages were saturated with superstition
and Popery. But there were always a few who had some appreciation of the Gospel and who tried to
dispel the errors which the priests and monks had
invented to deceive the people. In the year 1000, five
centuries before Martin Luther and Calvin, Berengarius preached evangelical truth in its primitive
simplicity. He had a good number of converts.
Berengarius was followed by Peter Bruis, who
preached at Toulouse, under the protection of the
Earl. By the year 1140 the number of the Reformed
was so great that the Pope was alarmed. He wrote
to several princes and ordered them to banish the
evangelical believers from their domains. Before
describing the events which the Pope's policy put
into effect, some idea should be given of the ideas
of these early reformers. Fairly full information is
available about one of the most famous of these men:
Peter Waldo, a wealthy gentleman of Lyons, who became the founder of the Waldensians.
Waldo and his followers held that holy oil is not
to be mingled with the water in baptism; prayers
said over inanimate things is superstition; flesh may
be eaten in Lent, the clergy may marry, and auricular
confession is unnecessary; confirmation and extreme
unction are not sacraments; masses and indulgences
are of no value to the dead; image worship is idolatry;
purgatory is a fiction; and prayer should not be offered to the saints. There are other details too, but
; the most important thing to notice is that Waldo
took the Scriptures as the sole authority in matters
of faith and practice. He definitely rejected the claims of the Pope and the infallibility of the Roman
church. When Alexander III heard of all this, he
excommunicated Waldo and ordered the Bishop of
Lyons to exterminate the sect.
For three years Waldo hid in Lyons and managed
to escape the diligence of the police. Then he escaped
to the mountains of Dauphiny, where he was able
to make many more converts. This enraged Philip,
King of France, who sent out a military expedition
that destroyed some 300 properties of the well-to-do,
razed some walled towns, and burned many of the
reformed people. Others fled to Normandy and to
Germany.
Notwithstanding these persecutions the reformed
religion flourished, and the Waldensians became more
numerous than ever. The Catholics slandered them,
anathematized them, legislated them out of positions
of trust, honor, and profit, denied them burial in
cemeteries, seized their lands, and confiscated their
goods.
As Peter Waldo continued to preach that the Pope
was the Anti-Christ, that mass was an abomination,
that the reserved host was an idol, and that purgatory
was a fable, Pope Innocent III organized the Inquisition to proceed against the Waldensians. In the
courts of the Inquisition surmise and slander were accepted as evidence, and the accused were soon handed
over to the executioner.
It was at this time that the Dominican order was
founded, and its members have often been the principal agents of the Inquisition in many different
countries. The powers of the Inquisition against
heretics was unlimited. No matter how infamous an
accuser was, the accusation could be accepted; even
anonymous accusations were deemed valid. Some
people were condemned more for being rich than for
being evangelical heretics, for the confiscation of
property was a profitable occupation. The friends
of the defendants could not supply them with straw
for bedding without the danger of being arrested as
friends of the heretics. It was worth their life to
give the defendant a cup of water. No lawyer dared
to speak in their behalf. If a man on his death bed
was accused of being a Waldensian, his estate was
seized, his heirs defrauded, while the Dominicans
took possession of the properties.
In the year 1380 a monk inquisitor, Francis Boralli, was granted a commission by Pope Clement, III
to punish the Waldensians in Aix, Ambrone, Geneva,
and Savoy. At Ambrone he summoned all the inhabitants before him; those suspected of being evangelical were burnt to death, and their property along
with the property of those who refused to appear was
confiscated. The seized property was divided so that
the secular executioners received one third and the
clergy two thirds.
In the year 1400 the Waldensians who resided in
the valley of Pragela were, at the instigation of the
priests, attacked by troops who plundered their
houses, murdered many of the people, and drove
others into the Alps. These latter froze to death, for
it was winter time. In 1460 a persecution was conducted in Dauphiny by the Archbishop of Ambrone.
The agent was a monk by the name of John Vayleti.
This Vayleti was so indiscriminately cruel that even
many Papists were murdered too. His excuse was
that some of these Papists had expressed sympathy
for the Waldensian sufferers. At length Vayleti's
cruelties became so intolerable that the Papists themselves sent a petition to the King of France, Louis
XI, who granted the petition and ordered an end to
the persecution. Vayleti, however, by order of the
Archbishop, continued the persecution and did not
cease until 1487 when the Archbishop died.
— A. H. C.
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