account he calls it the Truth of the Heavenly Sacrament We have a like Expression of Baptism alluding to the Passage of the Red-Sea in one of St. Augustin's Homilies upon Nicodemus's coming to Jesus Christ related by Paulus Diaconus In inventione S. Crucis and 't is the same we find also in several Passages of St. Caesarius We find that the word Transformation has perfectly charm'd him We therefore Lord keeping these Institutes and Precepts do most humbly beseech thee that thou wouldst be pleased to receive bless and sanctify this Sacrifice that it may be to us a true Eucharist in thy own and Son's Name and of the Holy Ghost that so there may be a Transformation of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ thy only Begotten c. And in a Marginal Note he observes that the same Word is made use of in this Liturgy That it may please thee to send down thy Holy Spirit upon these Solemnities that it may be to us a true Eucharist in thy own and Son's Name and of the Holy Ghost for a Transformation of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ thy only Begotten that it may bestow upon us who eat it eternal Life and the everlasting Kingdom to those that shall drink it And also That thy Blessing may come down upon this Bread and Wine for the Transformation of thy Holy Spirit that blessing thou may'st bless them and sanctifying thou may'st sanctify them c. And the like in other Missals as antient as this which he observes also in his Preface But this after all signifies nothing else but the Change which the Holy Ghost produceth in making the Elements after Consecration to become the Sacrament of the Body of Jesus Christ This is that which our Authors have fully justified by an infinite number of Examples borrowed from Baptism and other things consecrated by Prayer Boethius in his Books De consolatione Philosophiae saith Conversi in malitiam humanam quoque amisêre naturam Evenit ergo ut quem transformatum vitiis videas hominem existimare non possis Being turn'd into Malice they at the same time lose humane Nature So that if you see one transformed by Vice you cannot look upon him as a Man And Ratramnus in his Book of the Body and Blood of our Lord saith That Jesus Christ in former times could change the Manna and Water out of the Rock in the Wilderness into his Flesh and Blood the same Ratramnus that oppos'd Paschasius who was the first Publisher of the Doctrine of a real Change We find there the Notion of Vertere and convertere in carnem Beseeching that he who then changed the Water into Wine would be pleased now to change the Wine of our Oblations into his Blood And again Let us entreat him that he who as at this day by his Son turned the Species of Water into Wine would be pleased in like manner to change the Oblations and Prayers of us all into a Divine Sacrifice and to accept them as he did accept the Offering of Abel the Just and the Sacrifice of Abraham his Patriarch But the appearance of this seeming Difficulty we find in the following Leaf Besides that it is ridiculous to suppose the real Change of the Prayers of Believers into the Body and Blood of our Saviviour which is suppos'd of the Oblations We meet with an Expression which seems somewhat strange O Jesu Christ who in the Evening of the World wast made an Evening-Sacrifice on the Cross vouchsafe to us that we may become new Sepulchres for thy Body Tho indeed these Expressions plainly shew that they are only intended for the prefiguring the Death of Christ according to the Notion of Rabanus Maurus We find there frequently that the Sacrament is said to be a Remedy for the Body and an Expiation for the Soul but this doth no more suppose the carnal Presence or the Expiation which is the fruit of a Propitiatory Sacrifice than that which we find in the Roman Order in blessing a Grave that it may be a saving Remedy to the Party resting in it for the Redemption of his Soul In the same Liturgy they say to God Do thou therefore so come down into the present Oblation that it may afford Healing unto the Living and Refreshment unto those who are Dead But this regards only the Presence of Vertue as in the Roman Order they beg of God that he would afford his Presence and Majesty in Baptism There is mention likewise made of the Immolation of the Body of Jesus Christ but this is only said by way of Resemblance as St. Augustin explains it in his 23 d Epistle to Bonifacius for in other places this Liturgy speaks of Bread offered up There is also mention made of a Sacrifice But 1 st He gives that Name to the Eucharist which every-where throughout this Liturgy is termed a Sacrifice of Praises and Thanksgivings 2 ly It compares the Sacrifice with that of Melchizedeck wherein every one knows there was nothing of Transubstantiation This is that which Rabanus explains Lib. 1. de instit clericor cap. 31. Mabillon particularly triumphs when he takes notice of a Passage which is found in the 78 th Office He offer'd up himself first to thee a Sacrifice and first taught himself to be offer'd These words offer'd up himself seem to him to be applicable to the Act of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist but he must not take it ill if we tell him that it is not true that he then offer'd up any Sacrifice the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ consisting only in his Death on the Cross the Eucharist where he had only his Death before his Eyes was only the Memorial of his Sacrifice his Offering consisting only in his Death If he did offer up himself in the Eucharist then was he already dead which is a Notion attributed to Gregory Nissen but is refuted by the Divines of the Church of Rome as impertinent Some it may be will imagine that the Authors of the Gothick Liturgy take away all Equivocation when they say Let us receive that in the Wine which flow'd from thee on the Cross But indeed here we have reason to admire how far strong Prejudices will carry Men so as even to hinder common Sense from acting for really there can be no Notion more opposite to Transubstantiation since this Notion represents the State in which Christ was given to us that is a State of Death which is contrary to the Popish Notions by which they believe him alive in the Eucharist Besides it is absolutely false that Jesus Christ did after his Resurrection retake the same Blood which he lost on the Cross The Church of Rome pretends that she hath it in her keeping and it is shown in I don't know how many places This Expression is well known to be St. Augustin's whose Doctrine is vastly opposite to that of Transubstantiation as De
to the Priests of the Church of Rome is wholly unprofitable and that neither the Pope nor any one else in the Romish Church can absolve any Man of Sin but that they have power to absolve all those from their Sins who will join themselves to their Sect by the Laying on of Hands This last Clause is also laid to the charge of the Vaudois viz. That they have Power from God alone as the Apostles had to hear Confessions both of Men and Women that believe them and of imposing Penance upon such as confess to them as Fasting and several Repetitions of the Lord's Prayer whereupon they absolve their Penitents and that this Absolution and Penance is as available to the Salvation of their Souls as if they had been confessed to their own Priest That here is some wresting or mutilation of the Opinion of the Vaudois is manifest from the Confession of a certain Woman who as we read declared her Faith to this purpose That God alone forgives Sin and that he to whom Confession of Sins is made gives only his Advice what the Person ought to do and so enjoins Penance which any wise and prudent Man may do whether he be a Priest or no. That the Opinions of the Albigenses that were proper to them were that there be two Lords the one Good and the other Evil That the Body of Christ is not in the Eucharist but only meer Bread That Baptism is of no use One of the Albigenses was said to believe that the Baptism of Water celebrated by the Church stands Infants in no stead because they did not consent to the Sacrament but cried at the receiving of it I believe saith he who examined these Acts that they denied Baptism to be the Instrument of Regeneration or perhaps they might be against Infant-Baptism That an external Anointing of the Sick with material Oil was of no use That the Orders of the Church of Rome had no Power of binding and loosing since they themselves who conferred them were great Sinners That Marriage is always join'd with Sin and never can be without Sin and that it could never have been instituted by the good God That our Lord did not assume a real humane Body and true Flesh of our Nature and that he did not truly but only in Likeness rise again in the same and perform the other Works of our Salvation and that he never really ascended to the right-hand of the Father They deny the Resurrection of the Body but in the Declaration of Petrus Anterius a chief Teacher amongst them this is more clearly and distinctly explained that they feign that certain spiritual Bodies and a certain internal Man should rise again in such sort of Bodies And elsewhere they express themselves that though the Souls of Men shall come to Judgment yet they shall not come in their own Bodies They said that the Souls of Men were Spirits which fell from Heaven for their Sins so that they seem to have believ'd the pre-existence of Souls Man they say must not worship what he eats Moreover it is ascribed to them that they believe Man is saved by the Laying on of Hands which they confer on their Believers and that by the same means all Sins are forgiven without Confession and Satisfaction That they can bestow the Holy Ghost for Salvation upon those whom they receive That the Virgin Mary never was a carnal Woman but their Church which they say is true Repentance and that this is the Virgin Mary The very Obscurity of these Words shews that this Opinion is wrested because it is better exprest in another place thus That God never entred the Womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary and that he only is the Mother Brother and Sister of God who keeps the Commandments of God the Father These are said to be the Doctrines of the Albigenses whereof none are ascribed to the Waldenses but others different from these whereof we find no mention made in the Opinions of the Albigenses and they are these That all Judgment is forbid by God and that it is contrary to the divine Prohibition for any Judg in any Cause whatsoever to judg or sentence any Man to Punishment or Death That Indulgencies granted by the Prelats of the Church of Rome are of no use or efficacy That there is no Purgatory for Souls after this Life and that consequently the Prayers and Suffrages of Believers for the Dead are of no use to them That the Soul when it departs from the Body goes either to Paradise or Hell That there are no more than three Orders in the Church of Bishops Priests and Deacons From these Acts it appears how much the Rites and Ceremonies of the Albigenses differed from those practis'd by the Vaudois Besides saith the Author of the Extract the Rites and Institutions of them both were very different Of the Albigenses there were two Sorts some who professed their Faith and Rites and they were called perfect or comforted others who had entred into a Covenant with the former Sort called Perfect which they call la Convenenza the Agreement that at the end of their Life they should be received by them into their Sect. This Reception is frequently called by them Exercise and is performed in this manner The Benedicite or the Blessing conferred upon one Molinerius when he was sick Bernard Goes one of the Albigenses held the Hands of the sick Person between his own Hands and besides held a certain Book over him wherein he read the Gospel of St. John In the Beginning was the Word and deliver'd to the sick Person a fine Thread to tie about him as a Mark that he was admitted into their Heresy upon some others it is said that they laid a white Linen Cloath and besides that many Genuflections were performed by the Bed-side This Reception was supposed to save the Soul of him who was received and was call'd a Spiritual Baptism or Consolation a Reception and a good End and sometimes a Melioration by means of which they believ'd that the Person was sanctified so that it was not lawful for a Woman to touch any one that was thus received Now because it might sometime happen that the Person thus received after his recovery might relapse into his former Defilements therefore they always deferr'd this Reception till the extreamest Weakness when there was no longer hopes of Life for fear they might afterward lose the Good they had received For which reason also some sick Persons amongst them though the Person who thus initiated them was already come yet were not received because they were not believed to be at the point of Death But they who were thus received in their Sickness were commanded to put themselves upon Hardship that is to hasten their own Death by abstaining from all Meat and there are several Examples of those who are said to have kill'd themselves not only with Fasting but by opening of a Vein wounding of themselves yea and
St. Peter of his Commission all this is very gravely related by the Legendaries yea the Impudence of these Knaves proceeded to that Point as in the ninth Century to conciliate Authority to these fabulous Relations Several Councils were assembled at Limoges where with intolerable Impudence they imposed two Epistles upon St. Martialis the one as writ to those of Tholouse and the other to those of Bourdeaux and which bear much a like Resemblance to the Apostolical Writings of those times as Asses do to Lions and all that these insipid Authors tell us about it is so entirely framed according to the Manners Notions and Customs of the later Ages that we can find nothing in their Writings but what some stupid Monks have insolently invented and patch'd together with so little regard to Reason that one of these extravagant Fellows maintains that the Blessed Virgin was saying her Rosary at the time she was visited by the Angel Gabriel It is not certainly known whether the Books which St. Irenaeus has written against the Valentinians ought to perswade us that those Hereticks had then already spread themselves among the Gauls for seeing he writ them in Greek this Work seems to have been designed against the Hereticks of the East for though we have a Translation of these Books more ancient than the time of S. Austin yet we have no Proof that it was done with Design to refute Persons who had endeavoured to corrupt the Faith from the very Beginning of its Establishment in Gaul True it is that in the fourth Century Arianism had considerably corrupted and infected the Purity of these Diocesses Saturninus Bishop of Arles and those of his Cabal having condemned St. Hilary Bishop of Poitiers for an Heretick because he opposed Arianism with all his Might but soon after we find that Truth raised her self again from under its Ruins For though at the beginning of the fifth Century the Visi-Gothes who were Arians had made themselves Masters of these Provinces of the Gauls and which they remain possess'd of till they were taken from them by Clovis King of France yet we do not find that Arianism ever prevailed there the Vigilance of the Pastors having prevented the Peoples yielding so far to the Authority of these Arian Kings as to follow them in their Error the very Nature of these Disputes ingaging the Enemies of the Church to maintain such Maxims as put a stop to the Peoples Superstition with respect to the Veneration of Martyrs I am not ignorant that St. Gaudentius takes notice that several Priscillianists were scattered up and down these Provinces and Priscillianism was nothing else but Manicheism in Perfection as appears from the Writings of St. Austin But this evil Plant withered soon after both the Arians who were Masters and the Orthodox equally joining their Endeavours to confound that Heresy Neither indeed do we find after the sixth Century any mention made of Priscillianists in these parts so that we may affirm that Christianity was preserved there with much Purity in those primitive times and arrived to such a Degree of Strength and Vigor as to banish both those Heresies whereof the one attack'd the Father of our Saviour and the other denied the Divinity of the Son But what I have already said in general is not sufficient to give us a competent and just Idea of the Christianity which was planted in these Provinces and which the Albigenses have so happily asserted both by their Preachings and Sufferings We must therefore take a Review of these Primitive Ages and consider a little wherein consisted that Religion which these Diocesses received from those first Ministers of Jesus Christ who conveyed thither the Doctrine of the Gospel and transmitted the same to Posterity as a sacred Trust committed to them CHAP. II. The Faith of the Church of the Gauls in the Second Century WE have no Gallick Author whose Name is so famous as St. Irenaeus he was a Disciple of St. Polycarp Bishop of Smyrna and being sent into Gaul by that Apostolick Man he was first Priest of the Church of Lions and afterwards succeeded Photinus first Bishop of that City it was in his time that the Church suffered the fifth Persecution under the Government of the Emperors Verus and Marcus Aurelius Eusebius has preserved the Relation of the Martyrdom of the Believers of Lions and Vienna which according to all Probability is judged to have been made by St. Irenaeus in the Name of both these Churches This Relation tells us first of all that the Roman President having caused some Slaves to be apprehended that belong'd to Christians made them confess at the Sight of Tortures prepared for them that the Christians did eat Children in their Assemblies and that they there promiscuously polluted themselves by abominable Incests which was afterwards confirmed by weak Christians who for fear of Torments abjured their Religion 2. That the Christians having confuted this Calumny by their Constancy in induring the Torments and above all the rest Blandina who after a whole day's suffering Tortures having cried with a loud Voice I am a Christian there is no Wickedness committed amongst us which was seconded by Byblis who before had abjured How said she should the Christians to whom it is not lawful to eat the Blood of Beasts devour Infants 3. Blandina is represented to us in these Acts as praying to God with great Affection and as it were conversing with Jesus Christ in Prayer Attalus being set in a Chair of Iron to be there burnt and perceiving the smell of his broiled Flesh said to the Spectators in Latin In hoc demum est homines vorare quod agitis nos verò neque homines voramus neque omnino quicquam mali facimus This that ye do here is indeed to devour Men but as for us we neither devour Men nor do any thing at all that is evil Lastly The Church was desirous to bury what remained of their Bodies as the Relation informs us but the Fury of the Pagans who burnt them to Ashes hindred them These are the chiefest Heads of this Relation where we find nothing but God and Jesus Christ called upon where we do not see the Believers troubling themselves to explain or qualify the corporal Manducation of the Body of Jesus Christ as it became them to have done had they believed their eating of him with their bodily Mouth and where there is not the least Word that might give us to understand that these Churches took care to preserve these so precious Relicks to honour them with their Adorations as in latter times has been done We find here also the Spirit of Calumny transporting the Heathens against the Disciples of Jesus Christ and how far the Cruelty of Torments may prevail to make Men confess the most enormous Calumnies to be true The Reader must not forget these two Characters of old Rome because the Inquisitors have renewed these very same Slanders against the Albigenses and have
Baptism We may observe likewise that as he recommends to Believers the consideration of these Words sursum Corda at the Moment of their receiving these Mysteries so he doth not own that any receive the Body of Christ besides those that fear him and who by Faith are made the Sanctuary of God thus he argues in his Commentaries upon Psal 21 132. As for Faustus Bishop of Riez whatever Contests he had with those who defended the Doctrine of St. Augustin in the matter of Grace which made Pope Gelasius condemn his Writings yet certain it is that France has always had the highest esteem for him possible and his Name is registred in the Catalogue of her Saints in the Roman Martyrology till it was expunged by Molanes in the last Century Neither hath this hindred but that to this Day he is honoured and prayed unto as a Saint in the Diocess of Riez His Doctrine is as follows 1. He rejects the Merits of good Works and Works of Supererrogation as particularly as if he had had an Eye to the Papists Wherefore saith he though we endeavour with all Labours of Soul and Body though we exercise our selves with all the might of our Obedience yet nothing of all this is of sufficient Worth to be rendred or offer'd up by us as a deserving Recompence for Heavenly-good Things No temporal Obedience whatsoever can be equivalent to the Joys of Eternal Life Though our Limbs may be wearied with Watchings and our Faces discolour'd with Fastings yet when all is done the Sufferings of this time will never be worthy to be compared with that Glory which shall be revealed in us He discourseth much at the same rate concerning Grace and Free-will 2. We see clearly that he did not own the Existence of the Body of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist in the manner of a Spirit because he maintains all Creatures to be corporeal and that the Soul is distinctly in a certain place because if it were otherwise we must conclude it to be every where That which is very strange is that Mamertus who hath refuted him doth yet more directly thwart this Doctrine of Rome by the various Hypotheses which he proposeth when he confutes this Faustus Bishop of Riez But this Century hath detain'd me too long I proceed now therefore to consider the State of these Diocesses in the Sixth Century CHAP. VI. The State of these Diocesses in the Sixth Century WE do not find so many Authors of these Diocesses in the Sixth Century as we have had in the foregoing but however those we have of them are sufficient to inform us what their State was I begin with St. Caesarius Bishop of Arles who assisted at the Council of Agde in the year 502 and died in 542 so that he reach'd almost the middle of this Century This great Man fully represents the Notion that he had of the Eucharist when he shews that in Baptism there is the same Change and the same Presence of the Blood of Jesus Christ which he owns in the Eucharist as appears in his 4 th and 5 th Homily But in his 7 th Homily he speaks in such a manner as needs no Commentary And therefore since he was now about to withdraw his assumed Body from our Eyes and carry it up to Heaven it was needful that the same day he should consecrate for us the Sacrament of his Body and Blood that he might continually be remembred by the Mystery which was once offer'd up for our Redemption that so seeing his Intercession for the Salvation of Man was daily and continual the offering up of our Redemption might be perpetual also that this everlasting Sacrifice might live in our Memory and be always present by Grace 2. Though he speaks of the Eucharist as changed into the Body of Jesus Christ by the Power of God yet he maintains that it is by Faith and by the Acts of Understanding that we can partake thereof See how he speaks to a Christian who hath been regenerated by Baptism Wherefore as without any bodily feeling having laid aside what before thou esteemedst advantageous thou art suddenly become clothed with a new Dignity and as it is not thy Eyes but thy Understanding that persuades thee that God hath healed what was wounded in thee blotted out thy Sins and wash'd away thy Stains so when thou goest up to the venerable Altar to be satisfied with Food thou may'st see the sacred Body and Blood of thy God by Faith admire it with Reverence reach it with thy Mind receive it with thy Heart and above all take it in with thy Soul 3. He expresly asserts that the Body which the Priest distributes is as well in a little Part as in the Whole which agrees only with the Sacrament and not with the natural Body of Jesus Christ 4. He maintains that the Oblation of the Bread and Wine made by Melchizedeck did typically signify the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ which is absolutely false if it be true that the Consecration destroys the Nature of the things offered as the Church of Rome believes Hear what he saith He therefore in Melchizedeck whose Genealogy or Original was unknown to those of that time by the offering of Bread and Wine did foreshew this Sacrifice of Christ of whom the Prophet pronounceth Thou art a Priest for ever according to the order of Melchizedeck And Blessed Moses also speaking of this Mystery signifies the Wine and Blood with one Word Long before pointing at the Lord's Passion in the Blessing of the Patriarch he shall wash his Garment in Wine and his Clothes in the Blood of the Grape Mark how evidently it appears that the Creature Wine is called the Blood of Christ Consider what thou art further to enquire concerning this twofold Species seeing the Lord himself witnesseth Except saith he you shall eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood ye have no Life in you which Testimony is a most evident and strong Argument against the Blasphemies of Pelagius who impiously presumes to maintain that Baptism ought to be conferred upon Infants not to obtain Life but to attain the Kingdom of Heaven For by these Words of our Lord pronounced by the Evangelist You shall not have Life in you is plainly understood that every Soul that hath not been baptized is not only deprived of Glory but Life also Lastly In the same Sermon he saith in Conformity with the Notion of St. Cyprian about the Mixture of the Water with the Wine in the Chalice that by the Water is represented the Figure of the Nations and by the Wine the Blood of the Passion of our Saviour which supposeth the Subsistence of the Wine as well as of the Water and utterly overthrows the Doctrine of Transubstantiation 2. He overturns the Notion of the Romish Purgatory and follows here also the Sentiments of those of the Ancients who removed Purgatory to the last Day of Judgment
as the same Chronicle acquaints us We ought naturally to observe that from the Year 1050 wherein Berengarius appeared at Rome where he maintained his Opinions with so much Courage that Leo of Ostia Abbot of Mont-Cassin owns that there was no Body able to oppose him until the Year 1080 in which the Council of Bourdeaux met the Church of Rome could not overthrow Berengarius's Party though she had imployed by turns both Councils and Violence which shows that there were amongst Berengarius's Followers a considerable Party of the Clergy and of those of Aquitain in particular Neither was it only this Difference in Point of Doctrine that strengthned the Berengarian Party but also the Regulations of Pope Nicholas II and his Successors and above all those of Gregory VII in the Council of Rome in 1074 and 1075. We may see the Effect of his prohibiting Matrimony to Priests as Sigebert has recorded it upon the Year 1074. Gregory the Pope saith he at a Synod held by him anathematiz'd all that came into Preferments by Simony and removed all married Priests from their Functions and forbad Laymen to assist at their Masses by not only an unheard-of Precedent but also as several People thought at that time by an inconsiderate Prejudice contrary to the Opinion of the Holy Fathers who have written that the Sacraments used in the Church to wit Baptism Chrism and the Body and Blood of our Lord have the self-same Efficacy by the secret Operation of the Holy Ghost be the Dispensers of them good or bad Wherefore then since they are quickned by the Holy Spirit so that they are neither amplified by the Worthiness of the good Dispensers nor lessened by the Sins of the Wicked whence is this Man that baptizes which thing hath given so great occasion of Scandal that never was the Holy Church rent with a more dangerous Schism at any time by a prevailing Heresy than it is now whilst some act for Righteousness others against it some openly are guilty of Simony others cover the Stain of Covetousness with an honest Name selling that under the Name of Charity which they pretend to give freely as Eusebius saith of the Montanists whilst under the Name of Offerings they more artificially receive Bribes By this means also things are brought to that pass that there are very few that practise Continence whilst some make only an hypocritical Shew of it for Gain and Boasting and others aggravate their Incontinence by forswearing themselves and by multiplied Adulteries Besides upon this occasion Laymen rise up in Rebellion against the Holy Orders of the Church shaking off the Yoak of Ecclesiastical Subjection Laymen prophane Holy Mysteries and dispute about them baptize Infants using the filthy Excrement of the Ears instead of the Holy Oil and Chrism on their Death-Beds they scorn to receive at the Hands of married Priests the Lord's Provision for their last Journey and the usual Service of Church-Burial The Tithes that are assigned to the Priests they consume with Fire and that by one horrid Profanation you may make an Estimate of the rest Laymen have been often seen to trample the Body of our Lord that had been consecrated by married Priests under their Feet and wilfully spill his Blood upon the ground and many such things against the Laws of God and Man are daily committed in the Church By this means also many false Teachers rise in the Church who by their prophane Innovations alienate the Minds of the common People from the Discipline of the Church This therefore was the great occasion that was given to many of the Clergy and People of Aquitain not to entertain any Communion with the Church of Rome or to submit themselves to the Yoak which she was preparing for all the Western Churches I have in my Remarks upon the History of the Churches of Piedmont given an Account of the Rise of the Opinion of those who believed that the Popes Excommunications deprived such as had been duly ordained of all Power to exercise their Functions and did incapacitate them to confer Orders upon other Ministers This was the true Reason that made all that maintained the Principles of the Church of Rome look upon the Bishops Priests and Deacons who had thus renounced the Roman Communion as a Company of Lay-men and to consider their Ordinations as null I need not repeat the same here it being sufficiently confirmed by the Passage of Sigebert which I just now quoted It appears therefore that the Discipline of the Albigenses was the same that had been practised in the Primitive Church They had their Bishops their Priests and their Deacons whom the Church of Rome at first held for Schismaticks and whose Ministry she at last absolutely rejected for the same Reasons that made her consider the Ministry of the Waldenses as null and void We find in Peter the Abbot of Clugny that he reproacheth the Petrobusians for being join'd with Schismaticks whereas they took the Name of Apostolical Men. See how he speaks to them Vos Magistri Errorum caeci duces caecorum faeces Haeresium reliquiae Schismaticorum O you Masters of Errors and blind Leaders of the Blind the Dregs of Hereticks and the Relicks of Schismaticks Who were these Schismaticks but the Berengarians It is manifest that Union with the Church of Rome being become impossible by reason of the Errors she had defined and the Tyranny she had usurped over the State and Church there was even before his time a Separation made of the greatest Part of the Diocesses of Narbon Tholouse Agen and other places and that Peter Bruys and his Disciples were of his Party appears from his 2 d Epistle which is considerable to this purpose In your Parts saith he the People are re-baptized the Churches profaned the Altars overthrown Crosses burnt and Flesh eaten on the very Day of our Saviour's Passion Priests are whip'd Monks imprisoned and forced by Terrors and Torments to marry The Heads of which Contagion you have indeed by the Divine Assistance and the Help of Catholick Princes driven out of your Country but the Members as I have already said remain yet amongst you infected with this deadly Poison as I my self lately perceived By which Passage we find that the same Disorders had happened in those Diocesses which he speaks of that Sigebert had before observed Bouchet in his Annals of Aquitain understands the thing after the same manner where he speaks thus of the Voyage of St. Bernard In the mean time whilst all these things were a doing Godfry Bishop of Chartres and Innocent's Legate in France and St. Bernard who were to employ'd purge the Schismaticks out of Aquitain or to reduce them to the Union of the Church went first to Nantes c. I have shewed how Henry opposed himself to the Abuses and Superstitions which the Church of Rome endeavoured to introduce into these Diocesses But whatever Efforts the Romish Party made use of to overthrow this happy Work