Survey of Church History CH505 y r o t s i Hch r u h f C o ...

Survey of Church History

Transcript - CH505 Survey of Church History © 2019 Our Daily Bread University. All rights reserved.

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LESSON 12 of 25CH505

Heretics and Inquisitors

Survey of Church History

Greetings once again in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let me invite you to join me in prayer as we begin. Let us pray. Eternal God, we come to You asking once again for Your guidance as we study together. We thank You for the promise of Your presence among us and Your teaching power. For Christ’s sake we pray. Amen.

During the course thus far, most of our attention has been given to the development of, what we could call, mainstream Christianity—Roman Catholic and Orthodox. This has been due, of course, to the fact that most Christians, the overwhelming proportion of Christians, were connected with what was called the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. That definition was given at Nicaea and has come to be called “Christendom.”

During this period, however, there were literally hundreds of dissenting Christians who challenged the direction which was being taken by the larger church and who opposed its doctrines or practices with deep conviction, and sometimes at great personal sacrifice. These were people whom we might call the dissenters or the protestors—what I like to call the Great Free Church Tradition. The Orthodox Christians, of course, tended to call them heretics. And by the fifth century Augustine, along with others, were listing some 85 different heresies which were resident in his day. Despite these critiques and charges, however, the so-called heretics, these protestors or dissenters, were a remarkably gifted and fascinating group of people. And today I want us to examine them more closely. And as we do, some of you are going to discover that these folk come very close to positions that you would like to take and with which you would like to identify.

We have some marvelous resources to help us in this task. Those of you who are reading along in our text in Kenneth Scott Latourette will want to look especially at pages 447-494. Others of you, wanting to look more deeply on this subject may want to pick up Donald Durnbaugh’s fascinating little book The Believers Church, published in paperback by McMillan. He has a whole section on

Garth M. Rosell, Ph.D. Professor of Church History and Director

Emeritus of the Ockenga Institute at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

in South Hamilton, Massachusetts



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what he calls “The Medieval Sectarians.” That is the group that I’m identifying as the Great Free Church People. These and other sources are available to us. And I would encourage you to begin to explore and to read some of these, and I’ll mention a couple more as we go through the lecture today.

Let me introduce this remarkable collection of people and movements to you by way of a letter which I received from the pastor of a Baptist church. It is my privilege to receive letters and calls regularly about issues in church history. Some people simply have questions [while] other people want to discuss matters of interpretation. And I always consider it a great delight and privilege to have contact with former graduates and other friends, both clergy and lay, who have gotten interested in church history and want to talk about it.

Well one of the letters that I received is a letter from this pastor. And I won’t identify it and we will disguise the name. So, you won’t need to worry about my letting on who actually wrote it. But it reads:

Dear Dr. Rosell. Perhaps you can help me in leading me to a book or some reading materials that can be a study basis in dealing with a young couple attending our church, who just recently attended my pastor’s study class. Joan—comes from a very conservative Baptist background. As a young person, she was taught that the roots of the Baptist church came from the first century church and apparently are completely separate from the historical line of the Christian church. When I talked in class about the Baptist heritage coming from the Anabaptists of the Reformation period, she responded by saying that she “was taught that the Baptist church did not grow out of the Reformation.” She mentioned a little booklet entitled Trail of Blood that apparently portrays this position. You are probably familiar with the booklet. If there’s one in the seminary library, I would like to read it just to know what she’s been taught. Joan is a college graduate who teaches elementary school. She has an interest in church history and would like to read more about the history of the Baptist church. What books could you suggest for her? Jim, her husband, also a college graduate in business administration, comes from a Roman Catholic background. He understands our teaching about baptism, but still holds that baptism is essential to salvation and believes in infant baptism as well. He sees some of the differences in perspective between the Baptist



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church and the Catholic church, and would be open to a deeper understanding of the historical perspective. Could you suggest some books that he could read? I would appreciate any suggestions that you might be able to give that would help me in dealing with this couple. Thank you for your assistance.

That is a fascinating letter, and it points in the direction of a little book which has gotten very wide attention in many circles. It is a book called The Trail of Blood. It was written by J. M. Carroll, who is no longer living. It is 56 pages in length and thousands of copies have been circulated. I’m holding one in my hand right now that I own. And let me read a section of the introduction and then the conclusion. And then I want to talk a little bit about the chart which he includes in the book and which is the most fascinating part of it.

Dr. J. M. Carroll, the author of this book, was born in the state of Arkansas, January 8, 1858 and died in Texas, January 10, 1931. His father, a Baptist preacher, moved to Texas when Brother Carroll was 6 years old. There he was converted, baptized, and ordained to the gospel ministry. Dr. Carroll not only became a leader among Texas Baptists, but an outstanding figure in Southern Baptists and in the world. Years ago, he came to our church and brought the messages which are found in this book. It was then I became greatly interested in Brother Carroll’s studies. I too had made a special research in church history as to which the oldest church was and most like the churches in the New Testament. Dr. J. W. Porter attended the lectures. He was so impressed, he told Brother Carroll that he would write the messages and he would see that they were published in a book. Dr. Carroll wrote the lectures, gave Dr. Porter the right to publish them along with the chart with illustrates the history so vividly.

Then he mentions that Dr. Carroll died actually before the book came out. He describes this whole history, which he is pointing to, and then comes to the fundamental doctrines at the end, which give us some flavor of this particular perspective in church history.

A spiritual church with Christ its founder has Christ as its only head and lawgiver. Its ordinances are only two—baptism and the Lord’s Supper. They are typical and memorial, not saving. Its officers are only two—bishops or pastors and deacons, they are servants of the church. Its government [is] a pure democracy and that executive only, never legislative. Its laws and doctrines [come from]



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the New Testament and that only. Its members—believers only, and they, saved by grace, not works, through the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. Its requirements—believers, on entering the church, are to be baptized, and that by immersion. Then, obedience and loyalty to all New Testament laws. The various churches—separate and independent in their execution of laws and discipline and in their responsibilities to God, but cooperative in work. Complete separation of church and state. And finally, absolute religious liberty for all.

Now you get some of the flavor of where he is heading in his argument. But that is filled out even more fully in this fascinating chart which is a long chart divided up into centuries, beginning with the first and coming right down to the 21st century. There are two basic categories: (1) There is a larger section that runs across horizontally across the chart on the top, and those are what he calls “the irregular churches;” Then (2) there is a smaller line of those that run across the bottom of the chart, and those he calls “The Baptists.”

Now let me describe a little bit of how he puts this chart together. This is right from his own writing:

The purposes of this book and chart is to show, according to history, that Baptists have an unbroken line of churches since Christ, and have fulfilled His promises, “I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” In the irregular churches [That is what we essentially call Mainline Christianity] is clearly seen then the growth of Catholicism and Protestantism. Baptists are not Protestant since they did not come out of the Catholic Church. The numbers at the top and bottom represent 20 centuries. The first vertical line is AD 1 and the second, AD 100 and so on. The horizontal lines at the bottom have between them the nicknames given to Baptists during the passing years and ages: Novatians, Montanists, Paulicians, Waldensians, and so on. The red circles represent Baptist churches, beginning with the first church at Jerusalem founded by Christ during His earthly ministry and out of which came the churches of Judea, Antioch, and others. The red indicates that they were persecuted. In spite of the bitterest opposition and persecution, Baptist churches are found in every age. The first nickname given to them was “Christians,” the next “Anabaptists,” [and so on]. You will



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notice that the Dark Ages are represented by a dark space. Even during this time, you will notice a continual line of churches called “Anabaptist.” They were continually and bitterly persecuted, even unto death, by the Catholics. Near the first of the 16th century the “Ana” was dropped and they were simply called “Baptists.” The black circles represent churches into which error came and are, therefore, called “irregular churches.” [Now this is essentially all of Christendom, as we know it]. The first error was in church government, pastors assumed authority not given them by Christ, pastors of larger churches claimed authority over other smaller churches, thus in the third century, the Roman hierarchy was established. The emperor Constantine issued a call in 313 inviting all churches to send representatives to form a council. The red churches [that is, the Baptist churches] refused the invitation, but the irregular churches responded. The emperor was made the head and, thus the group of churches known as irregular churches became the state church. The emperor continued to head the churches until Leo II claimed authority as the successor of Peter. Thus is seen how the error in church government developed into Popery. In the 16th century, the Protestant churches began to come out of the Roman Catholic Church. They are called Protestants because they protested against the errors of Catholicism. It was in the year 251 that Baptist churches declared non-fellowship with the irregular churches. They refused to accept baptism administered in infancy or for salvation and, thus came the oldest nickname, Anabaptist, which means “Rebaptizers.”

Now one could look through the chart, given that description which is across the bottom of the chart, to all of the things that we have been looking at thus far. And much of that he includes as a part of this “Irregular Christianity.” And the real story of the faith, the faithful remnant, is carried from Jerusalem all the way through in the bottom of the chart, in folk who were not always called Baptist, but who always were Baptist—even though it is difficult historically to establish that.

Now I have taken some time to go through that because it seems to me that this is not only a popular view by those who have read J. M. Carroll, but it is a very popular view within many churches today. And it needs to be honestly looked at and addressed. Historically, I think, it’s very difficult to make any of the concrete normal historical linkages that Carroll seems to assume. In fact,



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however, Carroll has an important point to make in that many of these groups, these protesters or dissenters, shared common features and common interests which not only were important for their day, but are an important part of that corrective force within the life of the church—a kind of renewal force in the church, bringing the church back to biblical faith and a Christ-centeredness again and again, as it has tended to drift off into other practices.

Now let me mention a few of the things that tend to tie together all of these groups. And then what I’d like to do is to talk about a few of those. Some of those that he has mentioned, and a couple of others, that show some of the pattern through the Middle Ages of these dissenting bodies. Tying them together are five major principles.

The first [principle] is voluntary church membership. The church is to be a gathered church rather than based upon who is born into a parish. It is to be gathered of the regenerate only. Conversion is a requirement for church membership. And that conversion must be something that an adult affirms, a profession of faith, which grows out of that experience of conversion or new birth which had entered their lives in their concrete experience.

The second principle is adult baptism upon profession of faith. Infant baptism, of course, became the normal practice from sometime in the second century on. All of these dissenters reject infant baptism and affirm adult baptism upon profession of faith only. And that, of course, becomes the key to unlock the membership of the church.

The third principle is separation from the world. There is a stress upon radical obedience in Christian lifestyle—an emphasis upon holy living, a contrast of the church with the world. After Constantine, one of the continuing problems of mainstream Christianity is its culture attraction and its culture identity. Remember, we talked about that a bit when we talked about Constantine. There is always this lure to draw to the culture, especially if it is a comfortable culture, and to reflect it rather than to be prophetic in the midst of that culture, “to be salt and light.” The dissenting bodies continued to stress the need for holiness [and] to see themselves in their practice over against the larger culture of the world.

The fourth principle [is] separation of church and state. All of the dissenters shared a common commitment to an elimination of that linkage between church and state which Constantine had



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forged. The church is to have no relationships, subordinate or coordinate, with the political authorities. We’re going to see that popping up again in the left wing of the Reformation with the Anabaptists of that period.

The fifth [principle] is simplicity in church organization and worship. They are wary of hierarchy. They are wary of trappings in worship. They are desirous to avoid the symbols which can lead people in wrong directions and to wrong understandings. Worship is to be simple. It is to be performed in very common, everyday surroundings. Local churches are to be independent. They are to attempt to follow the New Testament in their theology and practice. They are to be simple in their organization.

So here you have five basic principles that tie all of the dissenters together: (1) voluntary church membership, (2) adult baptism upon profession of faith, (3) separation from the world, (4) separation of church and state, and (5) simplicity in church organization and worship.

Now if we look at those actually fleshed out in historical form, we see a number of very interesting groups. Let me begin with the Montanists. This is a movement that emerged in the second century. It was an attempt to recreate the old biblical faith, to restore the primitive practice—including the office of the prophet. It began in the spiritual experiences of Montanus and takes his name, in the very heart of Asia Minor, in a place called Phrygia. Pietism had flourished for some years in these secluded valleys, and now Montanus draws together those who have inclinations in that direction.

Montanus himself was laid hold of suddenly, as he likes to describe it, by God’s Spirit, about AD 160. He experienced ecstasies [and] probably spoke in tongues. This was stimulated by his interpretation of the book of Revelation. Montanus announced the advent of the New Jerusalem, which was to be signaled by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. He declared a doctrine of holiness in light of signs of the imminent end of the world. His followers saw themselves as an elite spiritual core. Preparation for the new advent was to be preceded by withdrawal from the world, the establishment of special fast days, and the desire for persecution to purify the ranks.

As you can understand it, conflict is going to soon arise between these Montanist Christians and the local church authorities. And in fact, it did. The local church authorities were wary of false prophets. Furthermore, they hadn’t seen tongues for some time.



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They had become rather lax in their lifestyle. All of these things had become part of church practice in this period and in this region. So, Montanus and his followers became a real threat.

Furthermore, some of them disliked the prophetic element, this new order of prophets which were represented in the Montanist ranks. The work of the two prophetesses, Prisca and Maximilla, raised questions among some of the local authorities. The stress upon holy living brought a kind of uneasiness to those who had become somewhat lax in their practice. Some in the movement claimed to have direct revelations from God by the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, they were claiming that lay people could be priests and could administer the sacraments. They looked to Paul as their great authority.

Well orthodoxy couldn’t allow for them to continue their teachings unimpeded. So they brought this matter to Synod. And as a result, the Montanists were excommunicated from the church in this Synod of Iconium in AD 230. And Montanism, now cut off from the mainline, began to establish its own congregations with the practice of ecstasy, prophecy, tongues, a strong apocalyptic content to their preaching, rigorous asceticism. They had enormous success in the beginning. The centers of their activity were at Pepuza, a city in Phrygia. There, a central treasury was established and offerings were collected to support itinerant preachers. Increasingly, the group developed a rather tightly knit organization. They created their own church offices, [and] they spread out in fervent missionary activity.

Eusebius, the church historian, records their presence in Rome. They also moved out to Alexandria, as reflected in Clement of Alexandria’s writings against the Montanists. They moved into North Africa and, in fact, established themselves as a strong church in North Africa, winning people like Tertullian to their cause. And Tertullian was evidently a Montanist for a period of his own Christian experience. He, in fact, wrote a reply to the anti-Montanist tracts that were circulating. And you can read that in his writings “On Ecstasy,” as it is labeled. He argues that when beholding the presence and power of God, it is natural to expect that at times people are going to lose control of their senses. The power of that presence is going to lift one up in ecstasy and that that is quite proper for a Christian.

We find the movement also entering parts of Europe. And we see the writings, both pro and con, emerging out of the church in that part of the world in that period. It continued to flourish despite



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all of this bitter opposition well into the Middle Ages. Emperor Annoris, in AD 407, decreed the death penalty on all Montanists. Yet they continued to grow.

Despite their frequent excesses, and I think they probably were guilty of some of that, Montanism was spurred by genuine desire to return to a primitive form of Christianity. They wanted to challenge the growing structuralism of the church, its hierarchical organization. And they brought back a stress upon holy living and personal discipline that we need in every age of the church.

Another group picking up many of these same concerns was a group called the Novatians, which emerged in the mid-third century. It grew largely out of the problem of handling church discipline. And you can recall our discussing that earlier on. Especially this was true after the Christian church was accepted in the Roman Empire. This had created a tendency toward moral laxness, mass growth. The question of forgiveness or penance for mortal sins committed after baptism had been a topic of discussion for many years. But it was highlighted after the Decian Persecutions when the controversy in the third century began to blossom again. What do you do with those who have fallen away from Christianity under the pressure of persecution? And in fact, thousands have denied their faith under persecution. What do you do with these lapsed or these backsliders? Both in Rome and in North Africa, the churches instituted requirements for the restitution of such lapsed people. And this caused a bitter debate. [In] AD 250, there was a dual election to fill the office of Bishop of Rome between Cornelius, who was lenient toward those who had fallen, and Novatian, who wanted to keep them out of the church. Novatian was eventually elected bishop in opposition to the moderate who had previously been elected, and it caused a split in the Roman Synod. The orthodox synod of Rome excommunicated Novatian. He and his followers formed alternative congregations, called themselves “The Pure,” katharoi. They developed a tightly knit organization which is very parallel to what was true in the Orthodox Church. And they called for a separatist church, an alternate church structure. And there was enormous growth as people were drawn toward this—especially in Africa, where many Montanists came to join that cause as well. In some areas, Novatianism had as many adherents as did mainline Christians. This continued well into the Middle Ages also as a kind of alternate church system, a dissenting church paralleling that of mainline Christianity.



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We see in the Donatists, an early fourth century reflection of this kind of dissenting body. Around the time of the Edict of Milan, AD 313, the controversy was once again revived, especially in North Africa, about what to do with those who had given up the faith under persecution. And again, Donatism emerges focused on that particular issue. The problem is sparked by an election of a Bishop in Carthage. And the two candidates, again, are one who favors readmittance of those who had lapsed, and a candidate who wants to keep them out, representing that wing of the church. Many refused to recognize the bishop who was elected, who was the bishop who had favored the readmittance. And in fact, they felt so strongly about it, that they elected an alternate bishop, and the leader of this movement was Donatus, who was the dominant figure in the movement until about AD 350.

He was quite a substantial preacher and teacher. And this movement, which he helped to launch, had great strength in North Africa. And we hear from Saint Augustine and others, that in parts of Africa there were actually more Donatists than there were mainline Christians.

Two synods considered this delicate and frightening matter: (1) The Synod of Rome in AD 313, and (2) The Synod of Arles in South France in AD 314. Both of these Synods censored the Donatists, rejected their claims to church property, and gave Constantine the authority, if he needed it, to suppress Donatism in the Empire. He issued an edict legalizing the confiscation of Donatist churches and property and forbidding Donatists’ rebaptism. The use of military force was brought to bear, to try to enforce this edict, and many Donatists died as a result.

Why did this movement grow so rapidly in North Africa? And you have both the Novatians and the Donatists making enormous inroads in North Africa. I think there are several reasons for this. First, there is resident in North Africa a kind of hostility toward Rome, politically and culturally. [There] was a strong sense of nationalism, a desire among the people to break from Rome. And Donatism, Montanism, other movements became, in a sense, kind of nationalistic folk movements. Second, some were drawn for genuine Christian purposes. Third, others were drawn because it seemed a convenient route to express their hostility toward Rome. Rome had continued to tax this part of the world, as you will remember, but gave them very poor service in return for their taxes.



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Earlier teachers, furthermore, especially Tertullian, had stressed purity and discipline in the life, and what they heard these Donatists and Novatian leaders calling for was precisely that same thing—righteousness in Christian living, and that appealed to them. It also drew on a kind of anti-state sentiment generally. Donatus was the one who coined the slogan: “What does the emperor have to do with the church?” And there was a kind of growing sense that the church and state should not be linked together, not only animosity toward Rome, but the fact on principle that these two should not work together. And that drew additional people into the movements.

Consequently, these churches grew rapidly, especially in areas like North Africa, setting up complete alternate church systems. They built church buildings. They reordained preachers who joined them. They rebaptized individuals who came from other churches. They refused all state support. During the fourth century, Donatism became, in a sense, almost as strong and flourishing in North Africa as the mainline church. And it’s interesting to imagine what would have happened if it had come completely to dominate and become the pattern of life for the mainline church, not just the dissenting tradition.

Augustine, of course, was one of the great opponents of the Donatists. And many of his writings are aimed precisely at this anti-Donatist argument and sentiment. He was instrumental in the conference at Carthage in AD 411. In 279, Donatist bishops attended, and in 286, Catholic bishops participated. You can see how strong they were in comparison with one another, and the discussion there was centered on “wheat and tares.” Donatists held that the field is the world, not the church—that the world has both wheat and tares, both Christians and non-Christians in it, but not in the church. The church is to be only wheat. And it is to keep itself pure in that way from any of the weeds which would naturally grow up in the world.

Augustine and the mainline churches held that the field was the church, and that in the church were growing both tares and wheat, and that at the harvest time God would not only harvest the two, but He would distinguish the wheat from the tares. And the wheat would be brought to eternal bliss, and the tares would be destroyed in hell. Augustine and his forces ultimately won the day, but severe persecution broke out on both sides. The emperor issued laws forbidding Donatist meetings, threatening the death penalty for non-compliance. Their churches were closed and confiscated when discovered. And despite this, Donatism



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flourished and continued to grow for centuries after this.

What are the differences? The mainline stressed: (1) state-supported church, (2) membership by baptism, (3) clemency and leniency for those who had lapsed, (4) wheat and tares growing together. The Donatists stressed: (1) the free character of the church, (2) regenerate church membership, (3) the rejection of those who had denied the faith and (4) a pure church, wheat only church, in terms of its structure.

Other groups picked up some of these same themes later in history. The Paulicians, whom Adolph Harnack believes were connected with the early Marcionites. The Paulicians who went back to Paul as their authority rose in Asia Minor in the eighth century, stressing holy living, separation from the normal Christian community, dissatisfaction with the ceremonies and practices of the hierarchical church. They opposed the use of the cross, of church buildings, of clerical vestments, of celebration of the mass, and so on. They called themselves “Simple Christians,” and they wanted to go back to the simple practice of the faith of the first century.

The two most famous groups of all, within this dissenting tradition, are the Albigensians and the Waldensians. The Albigensians appear at the beginning of the 11th century in Western Europe. And although their origin is obscure, their views on church life are very clear. They oppose ceremonies and the trappings of orthodoxy. They demanded holy living by their members, separation from worldliness, [and] reception of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. A consecrated Christian should renounce all worldly property and home and life, and devote himself completely to a life of piety to Christ and to missionary activity.

They divided the church into two groups, one called the Perfecti (perfect) and the other the Credentes (believers). The Credentes were allowed to live a relatively normal life. The Perfecti, however, were those who had reached a certain standard of holiness in the life of the church, and practiced an ascetic life pattern with genuine godliness. And here you see an example of what is going to be true again and again across the church’s history, and that is the division of the Christian community into, what we might call, super Christians and regular Christians. And there are some real dangers in that kind of division. We’re going to see that [division] emerge, and we’ll talk about that in more detail later on.

The worship of the Albigensians was to stress prayer and preaching, very little use of the sacraments in any normal sense.



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They had a deep hostility toward mainline Christianity. And mainline Christianity had a growing fear of the growth among the Albigensians. So what emerged was a series of wars called the Albigensian Wars from AD 1209-1229 which wiped out a good many of the Albigensian Christians.

Furthermore, as a response to the Albigensians and to the Waldensians (about whom we’ll talk in a moment), the mainline church established what is called the Inquisition. Let me take just a moment to give you some background on the Inquisition: It was a special tribunal established by the medieval church for the purpose of combating heresy. The Albigensians and Waldensians and others were seen as a threat to the church. And because of this, this particular method was adopted to try to get rid of them. The precursor of this was Alexander III, who was pope, AD 1159-1181. At the Council of Tours in AD 1163, he urged the secular princes to prosecute the heretics, to imprison them and confiscate their property. And he called upon bishops to search them out, which replaced the older method of trial by accusation which depended upon the initiative of the accuser and the judge. In this case, there was a concentrated effort to seek them out and to bring them to justice.

Gregory IX is given credit with establishing the actual Inquisition. He established the procedures for the Inquisition in a series of actions which he took from AD 1231-1235. These were people called “Papal Inquisitors.” They were usually Dominicans or Franciscans, and their process was to go to a town, to call the people in the clergy to solemn assembly. And those who felt themselves guilty of heresy in any way were called upon to confess. And they gave about two to six weeks grace period for this—usually very light penalties for people who came forth immediately. Then they began their systematic search for suspects to be brought before the tribunal for interrogation. When they brought a person before the tribunal, that person could be charged on the testimony of two witnesses whose names could remain secret. They could be charged with heresy, no legal defense was allowed. They were allowed a counselor. But they could use torture in order to get them to confess to the charges. They were often punished by death, imprisonment, confiscation of their property, the wearing of a yellow cross, fasting, pilgrimages, [and] all kinds of other penalties which were placed upon them once they were found guilty.

Now many Albigensians, and later Waldensians, are drawn into these courts. [They were] sought out by these inquisitors on



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behalf of the Pope, brought to justice as the mainline churches would have seen it, and punished as a result.

The impact of this was enormous, not only with the wars of the mainline forces against the Albigensians disastrous in wiping out thousands of them, but also these inquisitorial efforts brought many of them to punishment, and some lost their lives in the process.

The Waldensians are probably the most famous of all the medieval dissenting groups. They emerged about the same period, the 12th and 13th century. The movement attracted an enormous following. The story really begins with Peter Waldo, a prosperous merchant in southern France, in Lyon. He turned his back on a very prosperous business, attired himself in poor clothing, [and] pursued the life of an ascetic. He went out to preach in the city and in the countryside, began his work in AD 1170, [and] spoke out against church customs and hierarchy. That is [he spoke] against the mass, purgatory, property, priesthood, pilgrimages, saint worship, and the like. He doubted the validity of the sacraments, especially those that were administered by what he called “unworthy priests,” those who had fallen into sin and were not living holy lives. He maintained two basic principles: The first, the Bible is the only conclusive authority in faith and practice for the Christian. And second, the greatest present need is the Bible translated into the vernacular.

Do these sound familiar? They’re early portents of what we are going to see in the Protestant Reformation. And in fact, many of the Protestant Reformers look back to these earlier dissenting bodies as the early voices of the Reform, which ultimately comes into sharp focus in the 16th century. And we’ll be coming back to that.

One of the most interesting places to read about the Waldensians is in an entire issue of Christian History which is now owned and published by Christianity Today, but which regularly comes out with issues that are focused on the church’s past. And in issue 22, volume 8, number 2, this entire magazine is given over to the Waldensians—what they call “Ancient Evangelicals from the Italian Alps.” And in that you’ll see described stories of their leader, stories about the persecutions, a discussion of some of their historical development and emphases. And I would commend to you, if you’d like to read something further in this area, that you’d find that a very compelling and fascinating little magazine to read. It will teach you a lot about this very interesting group,


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one of the major groups within the dissenting tradition.

What, then, are we to conclude about all of these dissenting bodies? Well I think several things are important for us to point out as we conclude our lecture today. First of all, there is need for balance in the life of the church. These groups were, in fact, a healthy corrective to the growing abuses which were coming in the larger Christian community. They called people back to disciplined Christian living, to holiness of life. They raised questions about the structure of the church, about abuse of power, about the need for reform. They reminded their listeners of the need for conversion, of new birth and living faith.

Furthermore, they also give us a flavor of the diversity and richness of the tradition of the church’s past. Most of us draw, in one way or other, on this Great Free Church Tradition. We’ve learned from them principles such as the separation of church and state, voluntary church membership, adult baptism on profession of faith, separation from the world, simplicity in organization and life. In short, to put it in a kind of odd way, we ought to thank God for these heretics, for they’ve taught us many valuable lessons in the past, and their memory continues to teach us today.

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