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From Here to Forever
In many cases the messenger of truth had made his way to other
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lands or was wearing out his life in some dungeon or perhaps his
bones were whitening where he had witnessed for the truth. But the
words he had left behind were doing their work.
The papal leaders saw danger from the labors of these humble
itinerants. The light of truth would sweep away the heavy clouds of
error that enveloped the people; it would direct minds to God alone
and eventually destroy the supremacy of Rome.
This people, holding the faith of the ancient church, was a con-
stant testimony to Rome’s apostasy and therefore excited hatred and
persecution. Their refusal to surrender the Scriptures was an offense
that Rome could not tolerate.
Rome Determines to Destroy the Waldenses
Now began the most terrible crusades against God’s people in
their mountain homes. Inquisitors were put upon their track. Again
and again were their fertile lands laid waste, their dwellings and
chapels swept away. No charge could be brought against the moral
character of this proscribed class. Their grand offense was that they
would not worship God according to the will of the pope. For this
“crime” every insult and torture that men or devils could invent was
heaped upon them.
When Rome determined to exterminate the hated sect, a bull
[edict] was issued by the pope condemning them as heretics and
delivering them to slaughter.
They were not accused
as idlers, or dishonest, or disorderly; but it was declared that they
had an appearance of piety and sanctity that seduced “the sheep of
the true fold.” This bull called upon all members of the church to
join the crusade against the heretics. As an incentive it “released
all who joined the crusade from any oaths they might have taken;
it legitimatized their title to any property they might have illegally
acquired, and promised remission of all their sins to such as should
kill any heretic. It annulled all contracts made in favor of Vaudois,
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forbade all persons to give them any aid whatever, and empowered
all persons to take possession of their property.
This document
clearly reveals the roar of the dragon, and not the voice of Christ. The
1
Wylie, bk. 16, ch. 1.