2:18. And [unto] BY the angel. — The messenger to the fourth epoch of the Church was Peter Waldo. "Peter, an opulent merchant of Lyons, surnamed Valdensis, or Valdisius, from Vaux, or Waldum, a town in the marquisate of Lyons, being extremely zealous for the advancement of true piety and Christian knowledge, employed a certain priest, called Stephanus de Evisa, about the year 1160, in translating, from Latin into French, the four Gospels, with other books of Holy Scripture. But no sooner had he perused these sacred books with a proper degree of attention, than he perceived that the religion which was now taught in the Roman church differed totally from that which was originally inculcated by Christ and His Apostles. Struck with this glaring contradiction between the doctrines of the pontiffs and the truths of the Gospel, and animated with zeal, he abandoned his mercantile vocation, distributed his riches among the poor (whence the Waldenses were called poor men of Lyons, and forming an association with other pious men who had adopted his sentiments and his turn of devotion, he began to assume the quality of a public teacher, and to Instruct the multitude in the doctrines and precepts of Christianity.
"Soon after Peter had assumed the exercise of his ministry, the archbishop of Lyons, and the other rulers of the church in that province, vigorously opposed him. However, their opposition was unsuccessful; for the purity and simplicity of that religion which these good men taught, the spotless innocence that shone forth in their lives and actions, and the noble contempt of riches and honors which was conspicuous in the whole of their conduct and conversation, appeared so engaging to all such as had any sense of true piety, that the number of their followers daily increased. They accordingly formed religious assemblies, first in France, and afterwards in Lombardy; from whence they propagated their sect throughout the other provinces of Europe with incredible rapidity, and with such invincible fortitude that neither fire nor sword, nor the most cruel inventions of merciless persecution, could damp their zeal, or entirely ruin their cause. All they aimed at was to reduce the form of ecclesiastical government, and the manners both of the clergy and the people, to that amiable simplicity and primitive sanctity which characterized the Apostolic ages, and which appear so strongly recommended in the precepts and injunctions of the Divine Author of our holy religion.
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"In consequence of this design, they complained that the Roman church had degenerated from its primitive purity and sanctity. They denied the supremacy of the Roman pontiff, and maintained that the rulers and ministers of the Church were obliged, by their vocation, to imitate the poverty of the Apostles and to procure for themselves a subsistence by the work of their hands. They considered every Christian as, in a certain measure, qualified and authorized to instruct, exhort and confirm the brethren in their Christian course. They at the same time affirmed that confession made to priests was by no means necessary, since the humble offender might acknowledge his sins and testify his repentance to any true believer, and might expect from such the counsel and admonition which his case demanded. They maintained that the power of delivering sinners from the guilt and punishment of their offenses belonged to God alone; and that indulgences in consequence were the criminal invention of sordid avarice. They looked upon the prayers and other ceremonies that were instituted in behalf of the dead, as vain, useless, and absurd, and denied the existence of departed souls in an intermediate state of purification. It is also said that several of the Waldenses denied the obligation of infant baptism. They adopted as the model of their moral discipline Christ's sermon on the mount, which they Interpreted and explained in the most rigorous and literal manner; and consequently prohibited and condemned in their society all wars, and suits of law, and all attempts toward the acquisition of wealth." — Buck.
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"In consequence of this design, they complained that the Roman church had degenerated from its primitive purity and sanctity. They denied the supremacy of the Roman pontiff, and maintained that the rulers and ministers of the Church were obliged, by their vocation, to imitate the poverty of the Apostles and to procure for themselves a subsistence by the work of their hands. They considered every Christian as, in a certain measure, qualified and authorized to instruct, exhort and confirm the brethren in their Christian course. They at the same time affirmed that confession made to priests was by no means necessary, since the humble offender might acknowledge his sins and testify his repentance to any true believer, and might expect from such the counsel and admonition which his case demanded. They maintained that the power of delivering sinners from the guilt and punishment of their offenses belonged to God alone; and that indulgences in consequence were the criminal invention of sordid avarice. They looked upon the prayers and other ceremonies that were instituted in behalf of the dead, as vain, useless, and absurd, and denied the existence of departed souls in an intermediate state of purification. It is also said that several of the Waldenses denied the obligation of infant baptism. They adopted as the model of their moral discipline Christ's sermon on the mount, which they Interpreted and explained in the most rigorous and literal manner; and consequently prohibited and condemned in their society all wars, and suits of law, and all attempts toward the acquisition of wealth." — Buck.
"Waldo's translation of the four gospels into French was the first appearance of the Scriptures in any modern language. The possession of these books soon discovered to Waldo that the Church was never designed to be dependent on a priesthood, even for the administration of the sacraments; and he became so obnoxious to the church that he was anathematized by the pope. No longer safe in Lyons, Waldo and his friends took refuge in the mountains, and there formed those communities from which the simple doctrines of Christianity flowed out all over Europe. Provence, Languedoc, Flanders, Germany, one after another tasted of the refreshing waters. Waldo traveled in Picardy, teaching his reformation doctrines, hundreds of years before Luther was born. He finally settled in Bohemia, where he died in 1179, the same year in which his tenets were denounced by an ecumenical council. The Waldensian Church was a light on the mountains during the Dark Ages." — McC.
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Of the church In Thyatira. — "Thyatira seems to mean 'the sweet perfume of sacrifice.' It was the period of Papal persecution." (Z.'16-347.) From the time of Peter Waldo's witness in 1160 until the next special messenger to the Church appeared, 1378, was a period of 218 years.
Write. — The first translation of the Bible into a modern language — French — was the work of Waldo.
These things saith the Son of God, who hath His eyes like unto a flame of fire. — "To watch over His faithful ones as they wandered through the dark valleys or hid in the darker caves of earth." (Z'16-347; Rev. 1:14.) His eyes search out every secret thought. — Rev. 2:23.
And His feet are like fine brass. — "To walk by their side as they sealed the rugged mountains or wandered footsore and weary, seeking a place to plant the seeds of Truth." (Z.'16-347; Rev. 1:15.) His feet "trample to fragments everything impure." — Cook.
2:19. I know thy works. — The Lord remembers that Peter Waldo was the first to translate His Word into a modern language.
And charity, [and service,] and faith, and [thy] patience, and thy works. — The Lord remembers that Peter Waldo literally "sold all that he had and gave to the [Lord's] poor."
And charity, [and service,] and faith, and [thy] patience, and thy works. — The Lord remembers that Peter Waldo literally "sold all that he had and gave to the [Lord's] poor."
[And] thy last works to be more than the first. — (Diaglott.) "So general and widespread became the so-called heresy that Innocent III determined to crush it out — 'exterminate the whole pestilential race' was the language of which he made use. The commission he gave to the authorities was to burn the chief of the Vaudois (Waldenses), to scatter the heretics themselves, confiscating their property, and consigning to perdition every soul who dared to oppose the pope. Joined with 'His Holiness; in his relentless persecution of the Waldenses was Dominic, the father of the Inquisition. Such has been the history of the Waldenses all through the ages — subject to untold Buffering from persecution; then enjoying, in the quiet valleys of Piedmont, comparative tranquility for a time; then assailed by their ever-relentless foe, the Roman Catholic Church, which has spared no pains, by fire and slaughter, and the horrors of the Inquisition, to put an end to the unfortunate victims of their violence." (McC.) How evident it is that the followers of Peter Waldo have given a larger witness by their sufferings (their "last works") than they did by the first works (the translation of the Gospel into French)!
2:20. Notwithstanding I have [a few things] MUCH against thee. — The fourth epoch of the church nominal
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