Herzegovina - Or, Omer Pacha and the Christian Rebels by George Arbuthnot
page 49 of 220 (22%)
page 49 of 220 (22%)
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Waldenses, and by others in other places. Availing themselves of the
various Caliphs' tolerance of all Christian sects, they carried their opinions with their commerce into Africa, Spain, and finally into Languedoc, a neighbouring province, to Moorish Iberia, where Raymond, Count of Toulouse, gave them shelter and protection.[F] The same opinions were held by the Paulicians of Spain, who, having received much encouragement from the Kings of Arragon and Castile, also disseminated their doctrines throughout France, in the southern provinces of which they met with great success. There they received the name of Albigenses, from the town of Albiga or Alby. They afterwards spread into Italy, where they received the name of 'Patarenes,' as some suppose from the 'sufferings' which they endured, though other fanciful reasons are assigned for the bestowal of the name. The tenets of these early reformers 'have been transmitted through various sects under the different denominations of Vallenses, Paulicians, Patarenes, Cathari (Puritans), Bogomili, Albigenses, Waldenses, Lollards, Bohemian Brethren or Hussites, Lutherans, Calvinists, and other Protestants to the present day.' No very lucid account of their articles of faith has been handed down to our times, and some suppose that they entertained the Manichæan doctrines of the existence of the two principles, and of the creation of the spiritual world by the good, and of matter by the evil One. Krasinski appears to favour this supposition; but it is far more probable that, with the name indiscriminately bestowed as a term of opprobrium upon all who differed from the canons of the Romish Church, they have received the credit of supporting the doctrines of the Manichæans. This much, however, is certain,--that they denied the sovereignty of the Pope, the power of the priests, the efficacy of prayers for the dead, and the existence of purgatory;[G] while they rejected all images, relics, and the worship of the saints. Whether the |
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