The Catholic Confession

...compares them with the Manichaeans A major dualist religion that taught the universe was a struggle between a good realm of spirit and an evil realm of matter., who established two principles of all things referring to the belief in two gods: one good and one evil. They group them with the Gnostics, Cathars, Montanists, Adamites, and other most pestilential heretics. Guido the Carmelite and, following him, Alfonso de Castro in the fourth book of Against Heresies under the entry "Coitus," heresy 1, attributes to the Waldensians the teaching that under the burning lust of the flesh, all carnal mingling between both men and women is lawful. Regarding the Petrobrusians Petrobrusians: 12th-century followers of Peter of Bruys who rejected infant baptism and the physical structure of churches., Peter of Cluny writes in his second Letter: The rumor about them is that they do not accept the whole canon, that is, they do not accept all the writings of the Old and New Testaments, but only the Gospel. In his first Letter, he reports: that they taught that one’s own faith without Baptism is of no use; that infants, being below the age of understanding, cannot be saved by the Baptism of Christ; that those baptized in infancy must be baptized again as adults; that the Holy Supper The Eucharist or Communion. should not be given to people now, because it was given only once to the Apostles; that all temples should be destroyed, etc. To both the Waldensians and the Petrobrusians they attribute the claims that they denied the obedience owed to Magistrates; that they practiced sorcery and witchcraft; and that they performed promiscuous sexual acts in their gatherings once the lights were extinguished. original: "promiscuos concubitus extinctis luminibus" — A common historical "blood libel" or trope used to demonize minority religious groups.

But the emptiness and falsehood of these accusations can be easily demonstrated from the very writings of their adversaries and the records of the Waldensians themselves. Rainerius Rainerius Saccho, a 13th-century Dominican inquisitor and former member of the Waldensians who wrote a detailed treatise against them. writes of them thus: Among all the sects which are or have been, none is more harmful to the Church of God than the Poor of Lyon, for three reasons. First, because it is more long-lasting; some say it has lasted since the time of Pope Sylvester, others say from the time of the Apostles. Second, because it is more widespread; for there is almost no land in which this sect does not crawl. Third, because while all other sects induce horror by the enormity of their blasphemies against God, this sect of Leonists Another name for the Waldensians, derived from Lyon. has a great appearance of piety, because they live justly before men and believe all things well concerning God, and all the articles contained in the Creed. original: "benè omnia de Deo credant & omnes articulos, qui in Symbolo continentur" — Referring to the Apostles' Creed.

Indeed, what more honest testimony could be given of their doctrine and life than this very one wrung from the mouth of an enemy? Emperor Frederick II Holy Roman Emperor (r. 1220–1250) who issued several harsh edicts against heretics to maintain social order. in his Constitutions against them...