2 Mar 1690 A.D. Reformed Churchmen: Waldensians’ Confession of Faith

2 Mar 1690 A.D.  Reformed Churchmen: Waldensians’ Confession of Faith

http://heritagebooktalk.com/waldensian-confession-reformed-confessions/ states the following.

Waldensian Confession – Reformed Confessions 

Taken from Reformed Confessions of the 16th and 17th Centuries in English Translation: Volume 4, 1600–1693

Waldensian Confession (1603)

Historical Background

The following document, while not a formal confession of faith, attests to the Reformed character of the Waldensian Church at the turn of the seventeenth century. Here the Vaudois align themselves emphatically with the Reformed churches of Europe.

The general context of the declaration is the ongoing persecution of the Waldensians in the region of Saluzzo/Salusse/Saluces (so-called Marquisate of Saluzzo), south of Turin, Italy. Emmanuel Philibert (1528–1580) had regained the Duchy of Savoy-Piedmont from the French in 1559 and made Turin his capital in 1562. He was succeeded in 1580 by Charles Emmanuel I (the Great [1580–1630]), who repeatedly attempted to conquer and suppress Calvinism in his domain and beyond (twice he failed to attack and conquer Geneva, in 1588 and in 1602). The Waldensians were classified along with other banditti as outlaws and heretics. They responded with an appeal to Charles Emmanuel at a conference in the spring of 1603. On April 9, he issued a decree of general amnesty (a copy is reproduced in Morland, 466–71). The Waldensians gained a few brief years of tranquility by this decree.

Our translation is based on the French text found in Leger, Histoire générale des églises évangeliques des Vallées de Piémont (1669), 1:111–12, as compared with the English version in Samuel Morland, The History of the Evangelical Churches of the Valleys of Piemont (1658), 41–43.

A Declaration of the Waldenses of the Valleys of Meane,  and of Maties and of the Marquisate of Saluzzo,  presented in the year 1603, to the Duke of savoy.

Whereas our predecessors from all time, and from father to son, have been instructed in the doctrine and religion which we have always openly professed from our childhood and in which we have instructed our families, as we have learned from our fathers, and which (while the king [of France] held the Marquisate of Saluzzo), we were permitted to profess without any disturbance no less than our brothers in the Valleys of Lucerne, who, by a treaty expressly made with their sovereign prince, have rejoiced with us in securing its continuation: and because His Highness, incited instead by persons of evil intentions than by his own will, has resolved to disturb us and to that end has brought forth an edict against us: that all the world may know that it is not for any crime which we have committed, either against the person of our prince, or to rebel against the laws, or that we have been guilty of murders, of thefts, etc.; that we have been tormented in that way, spoiled of our goods, and the possessions of our houses, etc. We declare that we are certain and persuaded that the doctrine and religion practiced by the Reformed Churches of France, Switzerland, Germany, England, Scotland, Geneva, Denmark, Sweden, Holland and other kingdoms, nations and dominions, of which we have before made open profession under the obedience of our princes and principal sovereigns, is the only doctrine and religion ordained of God, which alone is able to render us acceptable to God and to lead us to salvation. We have resolved to hold it at the peril of our lives, goods, and honor, and to continue in it up to the last breath of our life. And if anyone believes that we are in error, we very humbly beseech him that he show us our errors; we offer to renounce it without delay and to follow whatever would be shown to be more excellent, desiring nothing more than to render the obedience to God that we owe to Him, as poor creatures, and by this means obtain from Him true and eternal happiness. But if by violence, they wish to constrain us to abandon the way of salvation, to follow the errors and false doctrines invented by men, we choose rather to suffer the loss of our houses, goods, and lives, begging most humbly His Highness, whom we recognize as our lawful Prince and Sovereign, that he not permit us to be persecuted without cause, but rather that he allow us to continue all the rest of our life, and our children and posterity after us, in the same obedience which we have before inviolably rendered as his true and faithful subjects.

Since we request nothing else of him except the rendering whatever we ought according to the express commandment of God, we may also be allowed to give to God the service which is due to Him and which is required of us by His Word. And meanwhile in the midst of our calamities and banishment, we pray the Reformed churches to recognize us as true members of theirs, always ready to seal with our own blood, if God calls us to, the confession of faith which has been published, which we hold in every way agreeing with the doctrine of the holy apostles, wishing to live and die in it. And if for so doing we are persecuted, we return thanks to God, who has granted us the honor of suffering for Him, committing the outcome of our affairs and the justice of our cause into the hands of the providence of God, who will deliver us when and by the means which shall please Him. Most humbly praying that as He holds the hearts of kings and princes in His hand, He will be pleased to bend the heart of His Highness to have pity on us, who have never offended him, and have resolved not ever to offend him, that he may acknowledge us, he may recognize us to be most faithful subjects, than those who persuade him to persecute us severely, and for ourselves, that He will be pleased to strengthen us amid these temptations and give us constancy and patience to persevere in the profession of the truth until the end of our life and that of our posterity after us. Amen.