Page:The Waldensian Church in the valleys of Piedmont.djvu/34

 of that pernicious heresy which already, in the year 1017, had raised its head in Orleans." We might greatly multiply our quotations on this head also, but must proceed to give the objections raised to this derivation of the Vaudois Church on other grounds. It is pleaded that the followers of Peter Waldo are usually termed the "poor men of Lyons," and not Waldenses - that "the appellation of Vallense or Valdesi in Italian, Vaudois in French, and Waldenses in English ecclesiastical history, means neither more nor less than 'men of the valleys;'" and further, as surnames were not then in use (men deriving their individual designation from some place or circumstance connected with their history), that it is more probable that Peter himself gained his appellation of Waldo, or Valdo, from his adoption of the principles of the Waldensian Church.

A third view of the history of this isolated Church, somewhat modified from that of the first, as explained above, seems to gain ground in the opinion of those most interested and best read in the subject. We will give a short summary of it, extracted from the pages of a modern periodical, in which it is very ably sustained.

It is assumed by the author that the Vaudois, who, as we have already stated, once inhabited a much larger extent of territory than they now possess, formed a portion of the primitive Christian Church planted in Italy, and remained attached to the same as long as she herself continued true to her original faith. There are abundant proofs given in yet existing manuscripts of the long fidelity to the Bible, and constant protestation against encroaching error, of the bishops of Milan and Turin, commencing as early as the fourth century, and continuing still unsilenced in the