The Catholic Confession

This Waldo Peter Waldo, the 12th-century merchant from Lyon who founded the Waldensians. followed as his leaders in teaching Peter of Bruys (or Bruizius) and his successor, a certain Henry, from whom the Petrobrusians Petrobrusians: A medieval religious group named after Peter of Bruys that rejected many Catholic ceremonies and the baptism of infants. took their name. Peter of Cluny Also known as Peter the Venerable, a prominent Benedictine abbot who wrote against what he considered heresies. wrote against them in his Letters, in which he attributed these doctrines to them: that infants are not saved by the faith of others, but must be baptized and saved by their own, that is, their personal faith; that the Body and Blood of Christ are not offered in the theatrical Mass, nor is that offering made for the salvation of souls; that the teaching regarding the species of the Sacrament—namely, that the substances themselves are changed—is false original: "doctrinam de speciebus Sacramenti, ipsis nimirum substantiis mutatis, esse falsam" — This is a rejection of transubstantiation, the belief that bread and wine literally become the body and blood of Christ.; that sacrifices, meaning Masses, prayers, almsgiving, and other works of the living for the deceased, are foolishness and impiety, and of no benefit to them; that Priests and Monks ought rather to take wives than be burned in the furnace of unchastity or live with prostitutes; that crosses are not to be adored and venerated, and so many crosses serving superstition should be removed rather than retained; that temples should not be built with such great and numerous expenses; that God is mocked by those songs which Monks or Priests sound out in the temples; that it is lawful to eat meat on the Lord's Day and other days; that one must believe in the Holy Scripture alone, and that the writings of the Fathers The "Church Fathers," early influential Christian theologians. are not to be held with equal authority to the Holy Scripture. These were the principal heads of the doctrine of the Waldensians and Petrobrusians, to which these are also added in their own Confession: that there are only two Sacraments; that the Eucharist is to be given to both Priests and Laypeople under both species Giving the wine as well as the bread to the congregation, a practice often denied to the laity in the Middle Ages.; that the true Church of Christ is that which possesses the word of Christ and uses the Sacraments, wherever it may be, along with other things of this kind.

Indeed, we do not deny that, besides these doctrines (which, if correctly explained, are entirely in conformity with the Holy Scriptures), detestable errors and horrendous crimes have been attributed to them by writers both of previous centuries and of our own time. For they accuse them of Manichaeism Manichaeism: An ancient dualistic religion often used as a label for any group that rejected the material rituals of the Church., as is evident from Baronius Cesare Baronius, a 16th-century Cardinal and historian. for the year 1178, numbers 17 and 21. But this accusation undoubtedly drew its origin from the famous chapter Unam Sanctam A papal bull issued by Pope Boniface VIII in 1302 which famously stated that "it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff." in the section On Superiority and Obedience. In that decree, Boniface VIII [condemned] those who deny the monarchical and supreme power of the Pontiff (which it is well known the Waldensians did)...