DIVISIONS OF WALDENSIAN BELIEF The earliest definite account given of Waldensian beliefs is that of the inquisitor Sacconi about 125o. (D'Argentre, Collectio judiciorum de novis erroribus, i. 5o, etc.) He divides them into two classes; those north of the Alps and those of Lombardy. The first class hold (I) that oaths are forbidden by the gospel, (2) that capital punishment is not allowed to the civil power, (3) that any layman may consecrate the sacrament of the altar, and (4) that the Roman Church is not the Church of Christ. The Lombard sect went farther in (3) and (4), holding that no one in mortal sin could consecrate the sacrament, and that the Roman Church was the scarlet woman of the Apocalypse, whose precepts ought not to be obeyed, especially those appoint ing fast-days. This account sufficiently shows the difference of the
Waldenses from the Cathari: they were opposed to asceticism and had no official priesthood; at the same time their objection to oaths and to capital punishment are closely related to the principles of the Cathari.
These opinions were subversive of the system of the mediaeval church, and were viewed with disfavour by its officials. The earliest known document proceeding from the Waldensians is an account of a conference held at Bergamo in 1218 between the ultramontane and the Lombard divisions, in which the Lom bards showed a greater opposition to the recognized priesthood than did their northern brethren. (Preger, Beitrdge zur Geschichte der Waldensier.)