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The Spirit of Prophecy Volume 4
her tyranny, the leaders of these churches reluctantly acknowledged
[69]
the supremacy of the power to which the whole world seemed bow-
ing down. A considerable number, however, refused to yield to
the authority of pope or prelate. They were determined to maintain
their allegiance to God, and to preserve the purity and simplicity of
their faith. A separation took place. Some of the protesters crossed
the Alps, and raised the standard of truth in foreign lands. Others
retired into the more secluded valleys among the mountains, and
there maintained their freedom to worship God.
The religious belief of the Waldenses was founded upon the
written word of God, the true system of Christianity, and was in
marked contrast to the errors of Rome. But those herdsmen and
vine-dressers, in their obscure retreats, shut away from the world,
had not themselves arrived at the truth in opposition to the dogmas
and heresies of the apostate church. Theirs was not a faith newly
received. Their religious belief was their inheritance from their
fathers. They contended for the faith of the apostolic church,—“the
faith once delivered to the saints.”
Among the leading causes that had led to the separation of the
true church from Rome, was the inveterate hatred of the latter toward
the Bible Sabbath. As foretold by prophecy, the papal power cast
down the truth to the ground. The law of God was trampled in
the dust, while the traditions and customs of men were exalted.
The churches that were under the rule of the papacy were early
compelled to honor the Sunday as a holy day. Amid the prevailing
error and superstition, many even of the true people of God, became
so bewildered that while they observed the Sabbath, they refrained
[70]
from labor also on the Sunday. But this did not satisfy the papal
leaders. They demanded not only that Sunday be hallowed, but
that the Sabbath be profaned; and they denounced in the strongest
language those who dared to show it honor. It was only by fleeing
from the power of Rome that any could obey God’s law in peace.
The Waldenses were the first of all the peoples of Europe to
obtain a translation of the Scriptures. Hundreds of years before the
Reformation, they possessed the entire Bible in manuscript in their
native tongue. They had the truth unadulterated, and this rendered
them the special objects of hatred and persecution. They declared
the Church of Rome to be the apostate Babylon of the Apocalypse,