The Ancient Discipline of the Evangelical Churches in the Valleys of Pie(d)mont. Extracted out of divers Authentick Manuscripts, written in their own Language several hundreds of Years before either Calvin or Luther.
Article IV. The Catechism of the Ancient Waldenses for the instructing of their Youth.
Minister: What is that which thou believest concerning the Holy Church?
Answer: (B)y the Holy Catholick Church is meant all the Elect of God, from the beginning of the World to the end, by the grace of God through the merit of Christ, gathered together by the Holy Spirit and fore-ordained to eternal life; the number and names of whom are known to him alone who has elected them; and in this Church remains none who is reprobate; but the Church, as it is considered according to the truth of the Ministry, is the company of the Ministers of Christ, together with the People committed to their Charge, using the Ministry by Faith, Hope and Charity. (The History of the Evangelical Churches of the Valleys of Piemont , by Sir Samuel Moreland, London: 1658; p. 79)
Rules of Faith and Practice adopted by all the Waldenses who met in one assembly at Angrogne, September 12, 1535.
Article 1. Divine service cannot be duly performed, but in spirit and truth; for God is a spirit, and whosoever will pray unto him must pray in spirit.
Article II. All that have been, or shall be saved, were elected by God before the worlds.
Article III. They who are saved cannot miss of salvation.
Article IV. Whosoever maintaineth free-will, wholly denieth predestination and the Grace of God. (History of the Ancient Christians, by Jean Paul Perrin, France: 1618; 1991 reprint of Philadelphia: 1847 edition with English translation, p.81)
A brief Confession of Faith published by the Reformed Churches of Piemont, Anno Domini 1655.
Having understood that our Adversaries, not contented to have most cruelly persecuted us, and robbed us of all our Goods and Estates, have yet an intention to render us odious to the World, by spreading abroad many false Reports, and so not only to defame our persons, but likewise to asperse with most shameful calumnies that holy and wholesome Doctrine which we profess, we look upon ourselves as obliged…to make a short Declaration of our Faith, such as we have heretofore professed and held, and do at this day profess and hold, as conformable to the Word of God; so that everyone may see the falsity of those their calumnies, and also how unjustly we are hated and persecuted upon the account of our Profession.
We believe:
5. That God made all things of nothing by his own free will, and by the infinite power of his Word.
6. That he governs and rules all by his providence, ordaining and appointing whatsoever happens in this world, without being Author or cause of any evil committed by the Creatures, so that the defect thereof neither can be nor ought to be any ways imputed to him.
8. That man was created clean and holy, after the image of God, and that through his own fault he deprived himself of that happy condition, by giving credit to the deceitful words of the Devil.
9. That man by his transgression lost that righteousness and holiness which he received, and is thereby obnoxious to the wrath of God, Death and Captivity, under the Jurisdiction of him who has the power of Death, that is, the Devil; in so much that our free will is become a Servant and Slave to sin; and thus, all men, both Jews and Gentiles, are by nature children of wrath, being all dead in their trespasses and sins, and consequently incapable of the least good motion or inclination to anything which concerns their salvation; yea, incapable to think one good thought without God’s special grace, all their Imaginations being wholly evil, and that continually.
10. That all the posterity of Adam is guilty of his disobedience and infected by his corruption, and fallen into the same calamity with him, even the very Infants from their mothers’ womb, whence is derived the word of ‘original sin.’
11. That God saves from that corruption and condemnation those whom he has chosen from the foundation of the world, not for any disposition, faith or holiness that he foresaw in them, but of his meer mercy in Jesus Christ his Son; passing by all the rest, according to the irreprehensible Reason of his free will and Justice.
12. That Jesus Christ having been ordained by the eternal Decree of God to the only Saviour and Head of that Body, which is the Church, he redeemed it with his own Blood in the fullness of time, and communicates unto the same all his benefits, together with the Gospel. (Moreland, pgs. 61-64)
