by Jan Voerman
Was Ellen G. White wrong in her historical information in The Great Controversy?
Now and then we see claims that there are errors in inspired writings. While indeed God may not choose to prevent every expression of human fallibility in writings He has inspired (especially in minor matters of little consequence), we should be slow to pronounce as "error" that which does not agree with our views. In many cases additional evidence may prove the inspired writer correct. And making the judgment of "error" runs the risk of establishing us as the judges of inspired writings rather than letting those writings judge us.
An article in Ministry, February, 2000, the second of a two-part series on revelation and inspiration, mentioned several supposed historical errors in Ellen G. White's book, The Great Controversy. Such claims have been fashionable in some circles recently, but how well founded are they? In this two-part presentation, we will take a closer look at several examples from the Ministry article to see whether any good explanations (other than "error") seem possible. Part 1 will focus on a supposed error, where we have considerable significant and interesting information to examine.
How Long Did the Waldenses Exist?
The author of the Ministry article claimed, "Historical documents clearly show that the Waldenses did not exist for a thousand years as Ellen White asserted. They flourished from 1170 and ceased to exist in 1532, when they merged with another Christian group."
Was Ellen White mistaken? Is this indeed a historical error? The passage referred to in The Great Controversy, pp. 65, 66, says: "Behind the lofty bulwarks of the mountains—in all ages the refuge of the persecuted and oppressed—the Waldenses found a hiding place. Here the light of truth was kept burning amid the darkness of the Middle Ages. Here, for a thousand years, witnesses for the truth maintained the ancient faith."
The phrase "in all ages the refuge of the persecuted and oppressed" is a general statement, not applying to the Waldenses only. The thought is that where the persecuted and oppressed of all ages found shelter, the Waldenses also found a hiding place.
Ellen White then continued: "Here the light of truth was kept burning amid the darkness of the Middle Ages. Here, for a thousand years, witnesses for the truth maintained the ancient faith." The passage does not say that "Waldenses," but "witnesses" (a broader term), maintained the ancient faith there for a thousand years. Were these witnesses Waldenses only?
Context.
Amid the darkness of the Middle Ages many Waldenses indeed kept the light burning there. Since the context reveals aspects not to be limited to the Waldenses only, it will be hard to prove that "the witnesses" who maintained the ancient faith in that mountainous area for a thousand years refers specifically and exclusively to the Waldenses, as if they were the only witnesses who lived during those ages. In fact, "In every age there were witnesses for God" (p. 61). No doubt Ellen White referred here not only to the Waldenses but to all true witnesses in general.
The 1884 edition of The Great Controversy has a similar passage: "Here for a thousand years they maintained their ancient faith." The previous sentence mentions the Waldenses by name, so at first glance they appear to be the group in view here. However, the same previous sentence also names "the persecuted and oppressed" of "all ages," so possibly these are included as the ones that maintained their ancient faith there for a thousand years.
Yet even if we accept the premise that Ellen White indeed meant the Waldenses only, would she then be far from the truth? To answer fully, two other related questions are of vital importance: 1) Do we have sufficient reliable historical information at hand to paint a clear and indisputable picture about the history of the Waldenses? and 2) Can we always trust the more modern historical description to represent the truth of what really happened in ages past? We will then look at the historical information we do have, to see what it can tell us.
Rewriting History.
By the mid-1800s, the Roman Catholic Church realized more than ever that she could use the public press as a mighty weapon in favor of her interests, and she decided to influence the world by the political press. She formed her own Catholic political worldpress with Civiltà Cattolica as the most important periodical, published by the Jesuits and setting the direction and tone for other church-related papers. Pope Pius IX recommended the political press as a most excellent tool. And in 1879 Pope Leo XIII admonished all workers in the Catholic press throughout the world to speak out for the rights of the papal chair and the reinstatement of the papal worldly power.1
In 1883, in another letter concerning the study of history, the pope complained about how the Catholic Church was portrayed in various written histories. He claimed that those who try to criticize the church and the papacy attack the history of the Christian times "with great power and slyness." More than ever, he asserted, historiography seems to have been made "a conspiracy of people against the truth," exerting a "destructive influence." He appealed for the faithful "to avert this imminent danger."2
During the second half of the 19th century in Germany a Catholic book was published about the alleged falsification of history. Similar books soon appeared in other countries as well. A Dutch version, for instance, refuted what the Church characterized as the most important historical falsifications often presented in text-books, cyclopaedias, brochures, magazines, newspapers, etc.3
With regard to her bloody wars against the Albigenses, for example, we read in the Catholic sources that the Albigenses preached a morality that made possible the most abominable debauchery. They fought against the Catholic Church with slyness and violence, and they propagandized by the most immoral means, especially in the south of France. There they played havoc as a wild gang of robbers; they plundered city and country, destroyed the churches, raped women, trampled upon the consecrated wafer, and killed all who would not follow them. Pope Innocent III, who organized a crusade against this sect that ruined church and state, wrote most rightfully to the king of France: "The Albigenses are worse than the Saracenes [Moslems]." All means had been tried to bring them to their senses gently, but to no avail. And when the city of Bezieres was taken by storm, some claimed that the Pope's legate Arnoud of Citeaux cried out to the murdering troops: "Kill them all, the Lord knows how to select His own." But alas, said the book, this barbarous Protestant accusation is "contrary to the history."4
Trustworthy?
Now if we did not know anything else about the Waldenses and Albigenses, we might read this and perhaps sigh, "What a wonderful job the Catholic Church has done in eliminating such dangerous and hideous sects." But the question is, can we accept these historical refutations as truth, or is the picture that Protestant historians of old painted more trustworthy?
We did not witness the historical events that happened during the Middle Ages; moreover, it was a long time ago. However, we do still live rather close to two world wars, and some of the aged among us still have vivid memories of what happened. Can we evaluate the modern Catholic description of some recent historical facts, and if so, what can we learn from it?
It has been clearly demonstrated by able writers, for instance, that in the interest and for the benefit of Roman politics Pope Pius X encouraged World War I and took an active part in it. Yet forty years after his death, these edifying words were dedicated to him: "Pius X did all he could to prevent the start of the 1914 war and he died of anguish when he foresaw the sufferings it would unleash."5
Similarly, after World War II, everything was done to whitewash the Vatican's objectionable collaboration. The Jesuit fathers boldly testified after the Liberation that the church had never collaborated with the Nazis, and all kinds of damaging publications were forgotten, abolished, and evaporated. Some, knowing the facts, compare this historiography with novel writing and "many `historians' are contributing to it, well-disposed ecclesiastics and laymen, and we can be certain that the result will be edifying: a Catholic novel, of course. The Jesuits' contribution is extensive. . . . Whitewash and whitewash again. . . . And this whitewashing is being carried out extensively."6
Now when all this happened before our eyes, how can we be certain that we have a correct description of what happened in the more remote past? Would the Church's account of those events be more trustworthy? According to one scholar, in the ages that followed after the eleventh century, the ignorance was so deep "that men, without the least regard to knowledge and learning, received with a blind obedience everything that the ecclesiastics ordered them, however stupid and superstitious, without any examination; and if any one dared in the least to contradict them, he was sure immediately to be punished; whereby the most absurd opinions came to be established by the violence of the Popes."7
In the crusades against the heretics several papal bulls proclaimed as truth the wildest folly. Pope Gregory IX issued his bull "Vox in Rama" in 1233 with detailed information on how heretics worship the devil with frogs, black cats, and immoral vice. At Avignon Pope John XXII issued a similar bull, "Super Specula," to the Inquisitors, accusing the heretics of the most absurd devilish works of sorcery, while urging the necessity of their excommunication, the confiscation of their goods, and the administration of the appointed punishment. Pope Innocent VIII introduced as truth loathsome accusations of witchcraft, magic, vice, and even sexual intercourse with demons in his "Daemones incubi en succubi." As a result, a wave of superstition flooded many countries, and thousands of people were persecuted and murdered by instigation of the papal power.8 Regarding the barbarous persecutions, one author wrote that falsehood and deceit were worked out as a system designed and applied by ecclesiastical power and authority.9
When older histories are revised to sanitize one party and demonize another, one must always be watchful.
Antiquity of Waldenses.
How does all this affect the question we began with, the length of time the Waldenses existed? Most of the older Protestant authorities ascribe ancient or even apostolic roots to the Waldenses.10 Some assert that Peter Waldo (or Waldus) transferred his biblical concepts to the inhabitants of the Alpine area, but others maintain that the centuries before Waldo frequently testify of similar opposition by these inhabitants against the unbiblical presumptions of the papal church.11 One nineteenth-century historian wrote, "It is plainly established nowadays that Peter Waldus or Valdus was not the founder of the Waldensian church, but owes his enlightened ideas to her."12
Some ancient manuscripts may also testify to the antiquity of the Waldensian church. The Waldenses had a translation of the Scriptures which must be of a more ancient date than their preserved writings, which make many references to this translation.13 Ellen White wrote that "the Waldenses were among the first of the peoples of Europe to obtain a translation of the Holy Scriptures" (The Great Controversy, p. 65). Raynonard, a notable linguist who examined certain Waldensian writings, was convinced of their antiquity. For instance, with regard to the "Noble Lesson," he wrote that "the date of the year 1100, which we read in the poem, deserves entire confidence."14 This is three-quarters of a century earlier than the Ministry article's date for the Waldenses.
It is fairly certain that the ancient writings of the Waldenses were copied many times and were adapted linguistically (and perhaps in other ways) to more recent standards because of manifold daily use.15 But how old are the underlying documents, and how far back does the origin of the Waldenses go? Scholars differ on those questions. Nineteenth-century German scholars began to turn away from a very ancient, even apostolic, origin for the Waldenses, but a prominent scholar among them, Dieckhoff, noted that because of lack of further historical information, we are greatly dependent on suspicious Catholic sources.16 He wrote in his foreword that in no way were his investigations brought to a satisfying conclusion on all points.17
In his 1880 work Storia dei Valdesi avanti la Reforma, Emilio Comba, a Waldensian professor of historical theology and homiletics, was the first authority from within that group to reflect the new German investigations and conclusions regarding a non-ancient origin for the Waldenses.18 It appears, however, that he was not entirely convinced, since six years later, in 1886, his booklet Who are the Waldenses? compared the influence of the Waldenses with the river Nile that owes its origin to a source still clouded in darkness. He noted that some writers trace the origin of the Waldensian church to the first persecutions of the Christians by the Romans, others to the time of Vigilantius or of Claudius, bishop of Turin, while still others see the Waldensian church first appearing in the twelfth century. And then he stated plainly that the only thing that can be clearly proved is that the origin of the Waldenses is very closely related to the study of the Scriptures.19
In 1922 the Waldensian school was transferred from Florence to Rome with Emilio's son Ernesto Comba as professor of the theological faculty. Ernesto also wrote a book about the history of the Waldenses: Storia dei Valdesi, published in the Waldensian town of Torre Pellice in 1923. A Dutch copy was published in 1927. In the first chapter we are assured that at least as early as the fourth century there were flourishing churches in the Piedmont valleys. The chapter also indicated that we can accept Monastier's conviction that the Waldensian church is the connecting link between the ancient Christian churches and the later evangelical churches.
Comba presented arguments to demonstrate that the name Waldenses derives from valley ("vallis densa" valdensis) or from "vaudès," indicating also sorcery and heresy,20 and that they already existed before the time of Waldo. Comba cited Atto, bishop of Vercelli, who in his letters complained of apostates in that mountainous area. And in the chronicle of the monastery of St. Trudon in Belgium, the abbot Rodolf on his way to Rome indicated the Alps as a district with deep-rooted heresy. This was about 50 years before Waldo. Eberhard de Béthune mentioned the name Waldenses more than a decade before Waldo, while the abbot Bernard de Foncald wrote about heretics named "Valdensis" who were condemned during the pontificate of pope Lucius II (1144), nearly three decades before Waldo.21 Both Eberhard and Bernard said that their name is derived from "vallis densa," a dreary, deep valley.22
Further, a letter written by the bishop of Liège to pope Lucius II mentions heretics as "old enemies" who scattered themselves all over France with their own church polity and discipline.23 This proves clearly that a church organization, apart from Rome, was in existence before the year 1144. Well before the time of Waldo, in the early twelfth century, a report was written in the chronicle of the abbey of Corbie, telling about the activities of a "peculiar and ancient kind of people" inhabiting the Alps, who learned the Bible by heart and often wandered about as merchants. They despised the ceremonies and customs of the church and showed no regard for images and relics.24
Abbot Conrad of Lichtenau wrote in 1212 that the Poor Men or Leonists or Valdenses, "when viewed as a sect and when considered in reference to their ultimate theological origin, had already sprung up and had long existed in Italy, previous to their becoming celebrated in France under the auspices and tutelage of the piedmontese merchant Peter."25 Allix also held "that Waldo was not the founder of the churches of the valleys, which were in being long before him." He pointed out clearly and decidedly, "Wherefore, that I may once for all clear this matter, I say, first, that it is absolutely false, that these churches were ever founded by Peter Waldo."26 Some recent publications still uphold similar views. Mia S. H. van Oostveen wrote, "The opinion that the name `Waldens' would have its origin since [Waldo] and would mean `follower of Peter Waldo' is incorrect."27
Interestingly, in the canons of the councils and in other official documents we do not find the followers of Waldo named as Waldenses but as "poor men of Lyon."28 Another source remarks: "Peter Waldus, who was but a follower of the Waldenses, first became known after the persecution of Lyon in the year 1181," while "shortly afterwards the history of the Waldenses is confined mainly to the valleys of Piedmont."29 Waldo and his followers were at first also called "Leonists" (from "Lyon") and when persecuted they "fled into Piedmont, incorporating themselves with the Vaudois."30
Now if there is no question that Waldo and his followers were originally named "poor men of Lyon" or "Leonists," then it seems to be clear indeed that only after they were driven to the valleys and to other areas, where they incorporated themselves with the Waldenses, did they become identified as such and subsequently were also officially named after them.
Although it is widely accepted today that Waldo was the founder of the Waldenses, we should keep in mind that this remains an assumption, not a demonstrated fact. A "seemingly impenetrable veil" covers the religious movement identified with Peter Waldo, while very little is also known about him personally. Even his correct name is not clear. Names like Valdus, Valdes, Valdesius, Valdo, Waldensis, and more are handed down to us, while the name Peter first appears for him two centuries later.31 We are totally dependent upon Catholic information for the history of Waldo, and then only three sources provide us with some limited information.32 No wonder that the different sources do not paint a harmonious picture. It should be clear therefore that with so little information and so much uncertainty about Peter Waldo, no one can maintain with absolute certainty that the Waldenses owed their rise and name to him.
Churches Established Early.
There is clear evidence, however, that during the early centuries evangelical churches were established in southeast France.
According to the fourth-century church historian Eusebius, in the second century there were many Christian churches in and around the Alpine area.33 The Christians at Lyon requested Polycarp of Smyrna to send some men; in the year 160 or 161, Pothinus and Irenaeus with some others arrived at Lyon to help the church there. In 177, Pothinus and 47 other Christians lost their lives in persecution there. Between 286 and 290, the Christians there under Maximian again suffered under persecution. After the last severe persecution under Diocletian, a better time broke through for these Gallic Christians.34
We might well suppose that during these early times of oppression, many of these Christians sought and found shelter in the nearby mountains where in later ages the Waldenses also found their hiding place.35 It is not impossible, therefore, that in these mountain-valleys the Waldenses had their early roots, as Dr. Faber plainly asserted: "Hither their ancestors retired, during the persecutions of the second and third and fourth centuries: here, providentially secluded from the world, they retained the precise doctrines and practices of the Primitive Church endeared to them by suffering and exile."36Followers of Jovinianus (330-390) who protested against the papacy and awakened great interest "took refuge in the Alpine valleys and there kept alive the evangelical teaching that was to reappear with vigor in the twelfth century."37 One historian said that from Asia Minor the seeds of Christianity were blown over to Lyon and that it is "remarkable that after a thousand years the same spirit comes up again [in Waldo's time] in that same Lyon."38 These reports correspond remarkably well with the words of Ellen White that in this area for a thousand years witnesses for the truth maintained the ancient faith (The Great Controversy, p. 66).
It cannot be maintained therefore that the Waldenses "are simply the followers of Waldo of Lyons. It does not appear that he simply founded the community `de novo' or that its evangelical and Protestant character is entirely due to his influence."39 Waldo had a solid backdrop of spiritual relatives who had lived and preached before him.40 The principles for a reform movement to bring the decaying church back to the true fountain of Christianity had already been present for centuries before him, among both clergy and people.41
In fact, it is hardly imaginable that Waldo could have started such a new movement, previously unknown, and all at once had so many dedicated followers. Allix remarked that if we suppose Waldo to be the founder, it is "unquestionably plain, that it was impossible for a sect to spread itself so far and wide in so short a pace of time."42 And Wylie wrote, "If we grant that their religious beliefs were the heritage of former ages handed down from an evangelical ancestry, all is plain; but if we maintain that they were the discovery of the men of those days, we assert what approaches almost to a miracle."43
We should not forget that it was the malice of their enemies and the desire to blot out the memory of their antiquity which made their adversaries impute the origin of the Waldenses to the time of Peter Waldo.44
Enemies Testify.
Yet even some of their enemies openly admitted the antiquity of the Waldenses. Several authors cite Reynerius the Inquisitor and Claude Seyssel of Turin, who both stigmatized the Waldenses as most dangerous, because they were the most ancient sect. Marco Aurelio Rorenco, prior of St. Roch at Turin, is quoted as stating that "The Valdenses were so ancient, as to afford no absolute certainty in regard to the precise time of their origination; but, at all events, that, in the ninth and tenth centuries, they were even then not a new sect."45 In a report about some merchants of the valley of Cluson who were arrested in 1627 for selling religious books at a fair, the prior of Lucerne added that the Waldensian churches were said to exist already before the ninth century.46
Several authors have noted that since the earliest years, the Roman Catholic Church's customary practice was not only to punish her disobedient sons but also to erase any memory of them. All the works of their hands were systematically destroyed so that we often know them only in a most deficient way, by the witness of their persecutors.47 All heretical literature, including Jewish literature, was to be destroyed. In 1248, for instance, well before the invention of modern printing, fourteen wagon-loads were burned at one time in Paris.48
Most of the valuable ancient Waldensian manuscripts that were given for safe-keeping to the British and deposited in the University Library at Cambridge have since disappeared.49 There is reason to believe that during the reign of James II they were removed by some Catholics who were interested in destroying documents unfavorable to the papacy.50
Some Catholic historians also admit that almost everything of the heretics has been destroyed so that our knowledge about them comes mostly from their adversaries.51 About this history Daniël Rops wondered, "Is it certain that we know it correctly?"52
Ellen White's View. In The Great Controversy, pp. 61, 62, Ellen White wrote: "They were branded as heretics, their motives impugned, their characters maligned, their writings suppressed, misrepresented, or mutilated. . . . The history of God's people during the ages of darkness that followed upon Rome's supremacy is written in heaven, but they have little place in human records. Few traces of their existence can be found, except in the accusations of their persecutors. It was the policy of Rome to obliterate every trace of dissent from her doctrines or decrees. Everything heretical, whether persons or writings, she sought to destroy. . . . Rome endeavored also to destroy every record of her cruelty toward dissenters. Papal councils decreed that books and writings containing such records should be committed to the flames. Before the invention of printing, books were few in number, and in a form not favorable for preservation; therefore there was little to prevent the Romanists from carrying out their purpose."
Many historians support the correctness of this passage and we can be certain that this is the truth. Now if the writings of the Waldenses were destroyed, suppressed, misrepresented, and mutilated, and if their history is written in heaven while little place is found for it in human records, who can say with certainty that their antiquity is but a fable and that they originated only with Peter Waldo in the year a.d. 1170?
Ellen White testified that she was shown the Waldenses (Testimonies for the Church, 1:371). If she makes clear that there were Waldenses who kept the light burning through many ages of apostasy, we would not be wrong simply to believe what she wrote. As we have seen, there are still clear indications available which support precisely what Ellen White wrote.
Notes
1. P. Tschackert, Evangelische Polemiek tegen de Roomsche Kerk (Utrecht: Kemink & Zoon, 1886), p. 362. Cf. J. A. Wijlie, Geschiedenis, leer, geest en uitzigten des Pausdoms (Tiel: J. A. Faassen, 1856), p. 434.
2. N.n., Geschiedvervalsching met een brief van Dr. H. J. A. M. Schaepman (Utrecht: Wed. J. R. van Rossum, 1887), voorbericht, pp. x-xv. Here and throughout, translations from Dutch and German sources are my own.
3. Ibid., pp. xii, xiii.
4. Ibid., pp. 298, 299.
5. Quoted in Edmond Paris, The Vatican Against Europe, tr. A. Robson (London: The Wickliffe Press, 1961), p. 43.
6. Edmond Paris, The Secret History of the Jesuits (Chino, Calif.: 1975), p. 160. Prior to World War I, Von Hoensbroech touched a similar note when he wrote about historical truth being surrounded by misrepresentations and lies: "Nowhere are so many lies told, and so systematically, as in the ultramontanic science, primarily in the church- and papal-history." Graaf Von Hoensbroech, Het Pausdom (Leiden: A. H. Adriani, 1905), p. 3; cf. pp. 75, 92, and 291.
7. Philippus van Limborch, History of the Inquisition (London: 1816), p. 79.
8. Graaf Von Hoensbroech, Het Pausdom (Leiden: A. H. Adriani, 1905), pp. 120-123.
9. Ibid., pp. 3, 291
10. E.g., Jean Paul Perrin, History of the Old Waldenses (Philadelphia: Griffith & Simon), p. 289; William Beattie, The Waldenses (London: George Virtue, 1838), p. 2; Samuel Morland, The History of the Evangelical Churches of the Valleys of Piedmont (London: Henry Hills, 1658), pp. 8-29.
11. N.n., Schetsen van de Geschiedenis der Waldensen (Amsterdam: W. H. Kirberger, 1852), p. 19.
12. Ibid., p. 32.
13. Perrin, p. 288; Antoine Monastier, Geschiedenis der Waldenzen (Rotterdam: Van der Meer & Verbruggen, 1851), p. 131.
14. Monastier, pp. 132-135; Perrin, pp. 271, 272.
15. Monastier, pp. 139, 140.
16. A. W. Dieckhoff, Die Waldenser im Mittelalter (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1851), pp. 147-149.
17. Ibid., Vorwort, p. v.
18. Realencyklopädie für protestantische Theologie und Kirche,Band XX (Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs'sche Buchhandlung, 1908), p. 801.
19. Emilio Comba, Wie zijn de Waldenzen? (n.p., 1886), pp. 6, 7.
20. Cf. William Jones, The History of the Christian Church Vol. II (London: Paternoster Row, 1826), p. 2; Perrin, Introduction, p. x; Monastier, p. 106; Johannes Florentius Martinet, Kerkelyke Geschiedenis der Waldenzen in de Valeyen van Piemont, tot op deezen tyd (Amsterdam: Wed. Loveringh en Allart, 1775), pp. 14, 15.
21. Ernesto Comba, De Waldenzen, hun Oorsprong en Geschiedenis (Kampen: J. H. Kok, 1927), pp. 7-11.
22. Monastier, pp. 102-105; George Stanley Faber, An Inquiry into the History and Theology of the Ancient Vallenses and Albigenses (London: R. B. Seeley and W. Burnside, 1838), pp. 351-356.
23. Monastier, p. 102, n. 2.
24. Ibid., pp. 181, 182.
25. Faber, pp. 363-367.
26. Peter Allix, Some Remarks upon the Ecclesiastical History of the Ancient Churches of Piedmont (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1821), pp. 192, 199.
27. Mia S. H. van Oostveen, Henri Arnaud, leraar en veldheer der Waldenzen (Den Haag: J. N. Voorhoeve, Lichtstralen op de akker der wereld, 52e jaargang nr. 4, 1951), p. 5.
28. Monastier, pp. 98, 99.
29. Schetsen . . . , p. 43.
30. Jones, II, p. 7; cf. E. Guers, Geschiedenis der Kerk van Christus Jezus, in verband met de Profetie en de Openbaring (Amsterdam: H. M. Bremer, 1868), p. 274.
31. Wolfgang Erk, Waldenser, Geschichte und Gegenwart (Frankfurt am Main: Otto Lembeck, 1971), p. 15.
32. Realencyklopädie XX, p. 806.
33. Martinet, p. 24.
34. Geert Nijhoff, Vigilantius (Groningen: J. B. Huber, 1897), pp. 10-13; E. De Pressensé, Geschiedenis van de Drie Eerste Eeuwen der Christelijke Kerk, Deel II, Eerste Stuk (Utrecht: Kemink en Zoon, 1863), pp. 233-235; cf. Robert L. Odom, Sabbath and Sunday in Early Christianity (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 1977), pp. 144, 145.
35. Martinet, p. 25; Guers, p. 267.
36. Faber, p. 293.
37. Albert Henry Newman, A Manual of Church History I (Philadelphia: The American Baptist Publication Society, 1933), p. 376.
38. A. Pierson, Geschiedenis van het Roomsch-Katholicisme tot op het Concilie van Trente III (Haarlem: A. C. Kruseman, 1871), p. 293.
39. James Hastings, Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics XII (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, and New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1954), p. 666.
40. Nijhoff, p. 146.
41. Fritz Junker, Die Waldenser, Ein Volk unter Gottes Wort (Zuerich, EVZ, 1969), 46.
42. Allix, p. 193.
43. J. A. Wylie, History of the Waldenses (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub., Assn., 1977 reprint), p. 10.
44. E.g., Allix, pp. 191, 200; Perrin, pp. 23, 24; Jones, p. 3.
45. Faber, pp. 327, 328; Wylie, pp. 10, 11.
46. Schetsen . . . , p. 127.
47. Nijhoff, p. 30; Hastings, Encyclopaedia . . . XII, p. 665.
48. Henry Charles Lea, The Inquisition of the Middle Ages (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1993), pp. 250, 251.
49. Faber, pp. 369, 370.
50. Schetsen . . . , p. 166.
51. J. De Jong, Handboek der Kerkgeschiedenis, Deel II, "De Middeleeuwen" (Utrecht: Nijmegen, Dekker & Van de Vegt N.V.; Antwerpen, Brussel, Leuven: Standaard-Boekhandel, 1936), p. 197.
52. Daniël Rops, L'Eglise de la Cathédrale et de la Croisade (Paris: 1952), p. 661.