in the apostolic doctrine, have continued in the grace of Christ, and
shall continue so to the end.... They affirm that the apostolic dignity
is corrupted by indulging itself in secular affairs, while it sits
[professedly] in St Peter's chair. They do not hold with the baptism of
infants, alleging that passage of the gospel, 'He that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved.' They place no confidence in the intercession
of saints and all things observed in the church, which have not been
established by Christ himself, or his apostles, they pronounce to be
superstitious. They do not admit of any purgatory fire after death,
contending, that the souls of men, as soon as they depart out of the
bodies, do enter into rest or punishment ... by which means they make
void all the prayers and oblations of the faithful for the deceased....
I must inform you also, that those of them who have returned to our
church, tell us that they had great numbers of their persuasion,
scattered almost everywhere.... And as for those who were burnt, they,
in defense they made of themselves, told us that this heresy had been
_concealed from the time of the martyrs_ [by which is meant the early
period of Christianity] and that it had existed in Greece and other
countries."

Although Bernard began a strenuous opposition to these people, still he
testifies: "If you ask them of their faith, nothing can be more
Christian-like; and if you observe their conversation, nothing can be
more blameless, and what they speak they make good by their actions....
As to life and manners, he circumvents no man, overreaches no man, does
violence to no man. He fasts much and eats not the bread of idleness;
but works with his hands for his support."

Claudius, archbishop of Turin, who joined in hunting and persecuting
them to the death, writes, "Their heresy excepted, they generally live a
purer life than other Christians." Again, "In their lives they are
perfect, irreproachable, and without reproach among men, addicting
themselves with all their might to the service of God."

The sum and substance of their offense is mentioned by Cassini, a
Franciscan friar, where he says, "That ALL THE ERRORS of these Waldenses
consisted in this, that they denied the church of Rome to be the holy
mother church, and _would not obey her traditions_."

In conclusion I quote from the celebrated Roman Catholic historian
Thuanus. He states their tenets as follows: "That the church of Ro