Page:The Waldensian Church in the valleys of Piedmont.djvu/31

 and heirs of the primitive Church, preserved in these valleys secure from the alterations introduced successively by the Roman Catholics into the evangelical faith." Beza pronounces them to be "the seed of the pure Christian Church, - being those who have been appointed by the wontlerful providence of God, whom none of the storms by which the world has been shaken, nor persecution, have been able to prevail on to yield a voluntary submission to Roman tyranny and idolatry." An English historian observes, "With the dawn of history we discover some simple Christians in the valleys of the Alps, where they still exist under the ancient name of the Vaudois, who by the light of the New Testament saw the extraordinary contrast between the purity of primitive times and the vices of the gorgeous hierarchy which surrounded them." The late Rev. Dr. Gilly, than whom no one could have a better right to speak on the subject, in his Preface to the former Edition of the present work, observes: "Whether the Protestant inhabitants of the valleys on each side of the Alps, between the great mountain ranges of Mount Cenis and Mount Viso, can be proved by documentary evidence to derive their Christianity from primitive times or not, this is certain, that from very remote periods there has been a Christianity in this region, different from that of Rome, in the dark, mediæval, and modern ages; and this has been handed down to the present era by a succession of martyrs and confessors, and of other faithful men. The faith and discipline of these Alpine Christians may, at times, have been more or less true to the gospel rule; but their creed and church government have always contained articles