Confession Of The Waldenses And Albigenses, Drawn Up By Those Of Merindol And Cabriere, And Sent To The King Of France.

Then, A. Mellinus presents certain doctrinal points which, for the most part unjustly, he says, were imputed, by their adversaries, to the Albigenses, and, consequently, also to the Waldenses, since they were one people; they consisted of twenty-eight articles, the first half, or first fourteen of which, he promptly rejects, saying, after presenting them: “These are the chief articles with which the Albigenses are charged by the papists; the first fourteen have been willfully fabricated, and falsely imputed to them, by their adversaries (which, we will not dispute); the other fourteen they have, for the most part, in common with the Waldenses, as well as with us.”

But, beloved reader, what are the contents of these last fourteen articles which A. Mellinus seems to admit so unequivocally? First of all, the first article (the fifteenth if we count the preceding ones), attracts our attention. “They (the Waldenses) overthrow,” says their accuser, “all the sacraments of the Roman Catholic church, and totally reject holy baptism (that is, the baptism of infants, for at that time nothing but infant baptism was known in the Roman church) as useless and unnecessary; and say that the external water of holy baptism differs in no respect from the water in the rivers.”

Coming to the article concerning the swearing of oaths, which, reckoned with the preceding, is the twenty-sixth, it is expressly stated there: “They teach that it is utterly unlawful to swear.” A. Mell., same book, fol. 447, col. 1.

Here it is to be observed, that if these last articles, respecting baptism and the swearing of oaths are justly imputed to the Waldenses, which has previously been proved to be true, and is also admitted here by A. Mellinus; whether those who made this confession, can justly be reckoned with the Calvinistic church, which, as regards said articles, has quite a different confession; or whether they may be reckoned with the church of the Anabaptists, who, as far as these articles are concerned, agree with their confession; namely, that infant baptism is useless, and that we ought not to swear in any wise.

As regards the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ, the office of authority, and other points, it has been said above, that the Waldenses and Albigenses did not differ from, but much rather, agreed with, the Anabaptistic Christians.