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Chapter 4—The Waldenses
Amid the gloom that settled upon the earth during the long
period of papal supremacy, the light of truth could not be wholly
extinguished. In every age there were witnesses for God,—men who
cherished faith in Christ as the only mediator between God and man,
who held the Bible as the only rule of life, and who hallowed the
true Sabbath. How much the world owes to these men, posterity will
never know. They were branded as heretics, their motives impugned,
their characters maligned, their writings suppressed, misrepresented,
or mutilated. Yet they stood firm, and from age to age maintained
their faith in its purity, as a sacred heritage for the generations to
come.
The history of God’s faithful people for hundreds of years after
Rome attained to power, is known alone to heaven. They cannot
be traced in human records, except as hints of their existence are
found in the censures and accusations of their persecutors. It was
the policy of Rome to obliterate every trace of dissent from her doc-
trines or decrees. Everything heretical, whether persons or writings,
was destroyed. A single expression of doubt, a question as to the
authority of papal dogmas, was enough to cost the life of rich or
poor, high or low. Rome endeavored also to destroy every record of
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her cruelty toward dissenters. Papal councils decreed that books and
writings containing such records should be committed to the flames.
Before the invention of printing, books were few in number, and in
a form not favorable for preservation; therefore there was little to
prevent the Romanists from carrying out their purpose.
No church within the limits of Romish jurisdiction was long left
undisturbed in the enjoyment of freedom of conscience. No sooner
had the papacy obtained power than she stretched out her arms to
crush all that refused to acknowledge her sway, and one after another,
the churches submitted to her dominion.
In Great Britain a primitive Christianity had very early taken root.
Faithful men had preached the gospel in that country with great zeal
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