EPISTLE

[...linked]) only in the year 1517 from the open air, is not true, but is spurious and adulterated. To this accusation original: "ἐγκλήματι" (enklēmati), a legal charge or formal grievance. of the Papists, one may respond in various ways, as has been proven elsewhere at length; on this occasion, we emphasize only this: that the Churches of the Waldensians flourished several centuries before Blessed Luther. Even our adversaries cannot deny that these were joined to ours by a kinship of doctrine, since Poplinerius Lancelot Voisin de La Popelinière (c. 1541–1608), a French historian noted for his attempts at objectivity., a Catholic writer (to whom Genebrardus Gilbert Génébrard (1535–1597), a French Benedictine scholar and historian. gave this praise: that he narrated everything purely and simply according to the truth of History, and not for the sake of his own cause), says in his History of France, book 1, folio 7, edition of the year 1581, that the doctrine of the Waldensians differs little from that which the Protestants profess today; and Edmund Campion Edmund Campion (1540–1581), an English Jesuit who wrote "Ten Reasons" (Rationes Decem) to challenge the Protestant faith. in his third reason does not fear to call them our ancestors.

Indeed, the Waldensian Churches received their name from a certain Peter Waldo, or Waldensis, who obtained that surname from his homeland, Waldis, which is a town in the March of France A border region of France, likely referring to the Dauphiné or Lyon area.. Around the year of Christ 1160—when the Papal kingdom had already reached its peak original: "ἀκμήν" (akmēn), the highest point or zenith. and everything seemed enveloped and crushed by the Cimmerian In Greek mythology, the Cimmerians lived in a land of perpetual mist and darkness; here, it refers to a state of total spiritual ignorance. darkness of the Papacy—he began to scatter the purer doctrine of the heavenly word in various provinces, not only of France, but of all Europe. And because this same Peter Waldo was a citizen of Lyon, which is also commonly called Leon, those who gave their support to his doctrine were thereafter also called Lyonnese and Leonists; likewise, from the outcome of their lives, they were called the Poor Men of Lyon, and the Humble or Humiliated, because they were shaken out of their possessions and forced to migrate here and there in extreme poverty. They were also called Fratricelli, Albians, and Albigensians (under which name they are categorized in the Lateran Council under Pope Alexander III), for the reason that some of them preached in the city of the Albians or Albi located in the territory of Toulouse.

What the doctrine of these Waldensians truly was can be learned from the writers of previous centuries, and even from their own adversaries. Brother Rainerius Sachonus Reinerius Sacchoni (c. 1200–1259), a former Waldensian who became a Dominican friar and Inquisitor. His writings are among the most detailed medieval records of Waldensian beliefs., who wrote four books against the Waldensians around the year 1250, gave them this tribute,