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A similar veil is used in the case of the poor Paulicians, to conceal the true cause of, and to justify, the malice of their enemies. This sect were termed "pesti"lent," "pernicious," Manichæans," and so forth. But supposing that they were all that their executioners could wish us to imagine respecting them, is it the less antichristian to "crucify and drown," and at length by every species of barbarity, drive them headlong into rebellion? Is this the way an affectionate parent would take to recover a prodigal son? There is, however, good

reason to believe that the church of Rome defamed those whom her cruel policy found it advantageous to destroy. At the auto-da-fé, a vest of painted devils is cunningly designed to conceal the victim's innocence, and to excite anew the abhorrence of the spectator. The historian informs us, "that the Pauli66 cians held the common orthodox doc"trine of the Trinity, with the confes"sion and use of which the Manichæn "fable seems incompatible. They were

"also perfectly free from image-worship.

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They were simply scriptural in the use

of the sacraments. They disregarded "relics. They knew no Mediator but the "Lord Jesus Christ." It is very obvious, that if the church of Rome really loved the Lord Jesus, she would have loved and cherished these his faithful members. No one but Satan, or the children of his dark kingdom, could have delighted, on the contrary, in tormenting and destroying them.

The humble Cathari * were the next who felt the cruel intolerance of the Romish church, and upon whom were found, even by the admission of their enemies, "the real marks of godliness." Egbert, a monk of Schonauge, tells

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us," says Dr. Milner, who cites Allix, "that he had often disputed with "these heretics, and says, 'These are 'they who are commonly called Ca

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thari,'" (corresponding to our term puritan.) Egbert says, that "they main

* Milner's Eccl. Hist. 12th Cent.

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"tained their sentiments by the authority of Scripture. "They are armed," says the same Egbert, "with all those passages of Scripture which in any degree seem to favour their views; with these they know how to defend "themselves, and to oppose the catho"lic (papistical) truth. They are in"creased to great multitudes, through"out all countries. Their words eat "like a canker. In Germany we call "them Cathari; in Flanders they call "them Piphles; in French, Tisse"rands." The English author ob66 serves, "We seem, however, by comparing together several fragments of information, to have acquired some "distinct ideas of these Cathari. They

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were a plain, unassuming, harmless, "and industrious race of Christians ; condemning by their doctrine and "manners the whole apparatus of the reigning idolatry and superstition; placing true religion in the faith and love of Christ, and retaining a supreme regard for the divine word. It is a

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"strict attention to the revealed word "which, under the influence of the di"vine Spirit, has alone secured the "existence of a holy seed in the earth, "who should serve God in righteous"ness; though they might frequently "be destitute of learning and every "secular advantage; as seems to have "been the case with the Cathari. "Even so, Father, for so it seemed "good in thy sight!' There is a piece, "entitled the Noble Lesson, written undoubtedly by one of the Cathari.

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The people of whom (says Milner in a note) the author speaks, are called "Wallenses or Vaudes,* from the vallies of Piedmont. They afterwards were called Waldenses, from Peter Waldo, "and by that name they are known to "this day. But by the date, 1100,

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they were evidently a distinct people "before his time. The seeds of the "Cathari had, in all probability, been

* See a very interesting account of the present state of these excellent Christians, by Hugh Dyke Acland Esq.

sown by Claudius of Turin,* in the

ninth century. In the latter part of "the same century (the twelfth) they "received a great accession of members

* " But no one was more willing, as indeed no one "of that age was more able, to stem the torrent of superstition than Claude, bishop of Turin, in his

numerous writings and comments upon Scripture. "He asserted the equality of all the apostles with "St. Peter, and maintained that Jesus Christ was "the only head of the church. He overthrew the "doctrine of merit, and all pretences to works of

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supererogation. He rejected tradition in matters "of religion, held the church to be subject to error, "and denied the use of prayers for the dead. He proposed the doctrine of the eucharist in a manner totally different from Paschasius Radbertus "and entirely according to the sense of the ancient "church. He opposed with all his might the worship of saints, of relics, of images, together "with pilgrimages, penances, and other superstitions

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of the like kind. He may, in a manner, be said to "have sown the seeds of the Reformation in his "diocese of Turin; and his doctrines took such

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deep root, especially in the vallies of Piedmont, "that they continued to flourish there for some "centuries, as the papists themselves acknow"ledge!" (Vide Newton on the Prophecies, page 588.-12th edition in 1 vol.)