Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/412

 396 GERMANY „, ■ i „ „f -WalflPTisiPs The Beghards had sue- nizant of the existence of Waldenses ine o ceeded in concentrating upon themselves the '^"ent^^ ^J JJ^ papal and episcopal inquisitions, and the f« f^-^^ °/J.^^*^; ™^ haS remained unnoticed, doubtless owmg their safety to outward conformity, though by absenting themselves from th - P^^^^^^^^^ about the Easter tide they sometimes managed to «^-P j^'^^» communion for five or six years ''^ .^^':°'^- J^'^^M^ nuietly and peacefully, preaching by mght m cellars, mills, stables rler retired pllces, they gained ^---.^-J^Xef the peasants and artisans, who saw m t^e — J of hei hves as sadly admitted by the so-called Peter of Pihchdorf, the stiong est contrast with the scandalous license of the ^;!-^^-; ^^^^^^^^^ multiplied in secret until aU Germany was ff f ^?'^' '~f. the closely-related sect of Winkelers. ,^b°«f ^^,^^,"^Xd un- ravered in Mainz, where for a hundred years they had luiked un TtuTber The A^^hbishop^^^ the matter m his . There has recently been discovered at St. Florian, in Austria, an epistle ■J 7uZ bv the Waldenses of Lombardy to some of their German breth- rr ;:e"::rof tl withdraw, of certam n— Of the sect, who leged in justification that the Waldenses were ^-an ' th at te had ^^ ^^^ vine authority, and that they were mercenary, ^v dent^ th ooiorl to the Lombards as to a central head, for an answer to mese appealed to the l^omoaru, „,„inder bv one of the apostates, throws tions, and the reply, together with a rejomder by F ^^^^^ valuable light upon the current beliefs of the '«'='^';^' f^,,^;, ,deces- carried their origin back to the primitive C^uvch c« th^^^^ the- p .ors had opposed the reception of the XToi^sZZtl^e^.en, "This Silvester refused to reject *«J- "^ „^i:;rd ^T ley were unyielding, day hath poison been spread in the Chuich ot ^.oa '^^ t,,, enuine th;y were driven out and persecuted sine, when bey had P-- ve ^^„ ^^^^^ tradition of the Church in obscurity '^^^ f'^''^". ,,evlossessed full author- Waldo had been ordained to the priesthood, and that * ^ Pos^^^^^^^^^^^^ ity, transmitted from God, but -t mg is said as ^^l^^^^^'^^^^,^^^ ,„i and the apostate, Sigfried, reproaches Hiem with ""^l ~l^^^^^^^^^_ There doctrine among them, and tiieir ireque 4 „,,„ ^„.„„ of the Church. They nurd show that they admitted the authority «f.'l^^/;;;"!;^ a priest who had allude to two Franciscans who had «<^-«y f ^^^ '^^V,^';*;;^^! same of- done so and had been burned, and to a Bishop ^^f ^''^'^X^^dVcomba. fence, had been summoned to Rome, whence he had never rcturnca. Histoire des Vaudois d'ltalie, I. 243-55,