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Where the Waldenses went wrong and a warning for today.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A little while back several questions were posed about the Waldenses and why they would be considered Baptist in doctrine when they were now Presbyterian. I believe that I have found what exactly happened and the turning point which shifted them to that position. Perhaps we can learn something it sure is relevant. JA Wile in his history of the Waldenses notes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1630, a French army, under Marshal Schomberg, suddenly occupied the Valleys. In that army were many volunteers, who had made their escape from a virulent contagious disease then raging in France. The weather was hot, and the seeds of the pestilence which the army had brought with it speedily developed themselves. The plague showed itself in the first week of May in the Valley of Perosaj it next broke out in the more northern Valley of San Martino; and soon it spread throughout all the Valleys. The pastors met together to supplicate the Almighty, and to concert practical measures for checking the ravages of this mysterious and terrible scourge. -They purchased medicine and collected provisions for the poor. They visited the sick, consoled the dying, and preached in the open air to crowds, solemnised and eager to listen. In July and August the heat was excessive, and the malady raged yet more furiously. In the month of July four of the pastors were carried off by the plague; in August seven others died; and in the following month another, the twelfth, was mortally stricken. There remained now only three pastors, and it was remarked that they belonged to three several valleys\u2014 Lucerna, Martino, and Perosa. The three survivors met on the heights of Angrogna, to consult with the deputies of the various parishes regarding the means of providing for the celebration of worship. They wrote to Geneva and Dauphine requesting that pastors might be sent to supply the place of those whom the plague had struck down, that so the venerable Church of the Valleys, which had survived so many calamities, might not become extinct. They also recalled Antoine Leger from Constantinople.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The plague subsided during the winter, but in spring (1631) it rose up again in renewed force. Of the three surviving pastors, one other died; leaving thus only two, Pierre Gilles of Lucerna., and Valerius Gross of Martino. With the heats of the summer the pestilence waxed in strength. Armies, going and coming in the Valleys, suffered equally with the inhabitants. Horsemen would be seen to drop from the saddle on the highway, seized with sudden illness. Soldiers and sutlers, struck in by-paths, lay there infecting the air with their corpses. In La Torre alone fifty families became extinct. The most moderate estimate of the numbers cut off by the plague is 10,000, or from a half to two-thirds of the entire population of the Valleys. The corn in many places remained uncut, the grapes rotted on the bough, and the fruit dropped from the tree. Strangers who had come to find health in the pure mountain air obtained from the soil nothing but a grave. Towns and villages, which had rung so recently from the sounds of industry, were now silent. Parents were without children, and children were without parents. Patriarchs, who had been wont with pride and joy to gather round them their numerous grandchildren, had seen them sicken and die, and were now alone. The venerable pastor Gilles lost his four elder sons. Though continually present in the homes of the stricken, and at the bedsides of the dying, he himself was spared to compile the monuments of his ancient Church, and narrate among other woes that which had just passed over his native land, and ” part of which he had been.” Of the Vaudois pastors only two now remained; and ministers hastened from Geneva and other places to the Valleys, lest the old lamp should go out. The services of the Waldensian Churches had hitherto been performed in the Italian tongue, but the new pastors could speak only French. Worship was henceforward conducted in that language, but the Vaudois soon came to understand it, their own ancient tongue being a dialect between the French and Italian. Another change introduced at this time was the assimilation of their ritual to that of Geneva. And further, the primitive and affectionate name of Barba was dropped, and the modern title substituted, Monsieur le Ministre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wylie, J. A. (James Aitken), 1808-1890. History of the Waldenses (Kindle Locations 1961-1996). London, New York [etc.] : Cassell & company, limited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps there are some lessons to be learned here. Statistically what we face today is nothing compared to what they faced in the past. When the Spanish Influenza in 1818 came everything shut down including churches. Afterward there was a revival. We know much more about disease spread than what they did then and it may be possible that the valiant efforts of the pastors did more harm than good. (remembering that they were ministering to the saved) We also can learn the lesson that compromise for the sake of expediency in reaching out to Geneva would forever change their doctrine. Did God have in their midst others that he could have raised up? Instead they sought out those that were doctrinally wrong. Many a church has made the mistake of bringing in a man that is doctrinally wrong for the sake of expediency. He will reach the young people is often the cry but in so doing he takes the Baptist name off, discards doctrine and turns the church into an emerging\/ charismatic mess- so much for expediency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n