the seventh century, whereas he flourished towards the close of the twelfth.

P. 28. 66 Que cette secte est la plus ancienne de toutes, les uns voulant qu'elle subsistát depuis le pape Sylvestre."

"Que la secte des Vaudois a pris son origine de Léon, homme religieux qui fut choqué de l'avarice du pape Sylvestre, et de l'excessive largesse de Constantin, et qui n'ayant plus voulu avoir de communion avec l'évêque de Rome, fut suivi de beaucoup de gens de bien."*

These passages might induce us to suppose that the Leo alluded to lived in the age of Constantine, and was the founder of the Leonists— or Vaudois at that period. But here, as remarked in the last note, inaccurate tradition became, I apprehend, the source of an erroneous opinion. "Before the end of the seventh century," says Gibbon,† "some scribe, perhaps the notorious Isidore, composed the decretals and the donation of Constantine, the two magic pillars of the spiritual and temporal monarchy of the popes. This memorable donation was introduced to the world by an epistle of Adrian I., who exhorts Charlemagne to imitate the liberality ....of the great Constantine. According to the

* Claude Seissel, Archbishop of Turin, cited by Peyran. + Decline and Fall, vol. ix. pp. 159-162.

legend, the first of the christian emperors was healed of the leprosy, and purified in the waters of baptism by St. Silvester, the Roman bishop; and never was physician more gloriously recompensed. His royal proselyte withdrew from the seat and patrimony of St. Peter; declared his resolution of founding a new capital in the east; and resigned to the popes the free and perpetual sovereignty of Rome, Italy, and the provinces of the west......So deep was the ignorance and credulity of the times, that the most absurd of fables was received with equal reverence in Greece and in France, and is still enrolled among the decrees of the canon law. The emperors and the Romans were incapable of discerning a forgery that subverted their rights and freedom; and the only opposition proceeded from a Sabine monastery, which, in the beginning of the twelfth century, disputed the truth and validity of the donation of Constantine. In the revival of letters and liberty, this fictitious deed was transpierced by the pen of Laurentius Valla.... Such is the silent and irresistible progress of reason, that before the end of the next age the fable was rejected by the contempt of Christians and poets, and the tacit or modest censure of the advocates of the Roman church. The popes themselves have indulged a smile at the

credulity of the vulgar, but a false and obsolete title still sanctifies their reign."

To this quotation from Gibbon may be added, what the same author remarks relative to Charlemagne's donation of the exarchate of Ravenna to the Roman Pontiff,-that the popes "found in the archbishops of Ravenna a dangerous and domestic rival," and that "the popes often complain of the usurpations of Leo of Ravenna.”*

From the whole of these extracts we seem authorized to infer,

1. That the Leo to whom Claude Seissel attributes the origin of the Waldenses was Leo of Ravenna, who opposed the usurpations of the pope:

2. That when the Waldenses were termed Leonistes, (see p. 23) they were so denominated for having like Leo of Ravenna protested against papal dominion and papal fraud:

3. That the forged donation of Constantine to Pope Silvester, led the Waldenses and others who lived in a later age, erroneously to conclude that Leo lived in the age of Constantine, and that the Vaudois were the disciples of Leo at that early period, whereas the pretended donation of Constantine was not forged till the

* Codex Carolin. Epist. li. lii. liii.—pp. 200—205.

8th century, and then for the purpose of stimulating Charlemagne to make prodigal grants to the Pontiff.*

A passage in Mosheim strongly corroborates the opinion respecting the origin of the term Leonists now advanced. That historian remarks that Reynerus Sacco, who lived about 80 years after Peter Waldo (consequently in the thirteenth century) states that the Waldenses had existed under the denomination of Leonists about 500 years;† which brings us to the era of Charlemagne, and Leo of Ravenna's protest against the usurpation of the pope.

P. 30. "Claude Evêque de Turin."-This illustrious reformer, a native of Spain, was a celebrated preacher when chaplain at the court of Louis the Meek of France, and afterwards, (probably in 817) appointed to the bishoprick of Turin, partly for the purpose of opposing, amongst other innovations, image-worship.

* Accordingly Pope Adrian refers to the false document in his letter to Charlemagne. In this letter (cited by Mosheim from Muratori's Rer. Ital. Scrip.) the following words occur:-"Sicut temporibus beati Silvestri Romani Pontificis, a sanctæ recordationis piissimo Constantino M. Imperatore, PER EJUS LARGITATEM, Sancta Dei catholica et apostolica Romana ecclesia elevata atque exaltata est," words that precisely correspond with "l'excessive largesse de Constantin," alluded to by Seissel; and confirm the opinion I have ventured to state.

The disputes respecting the use of images were then violent; for in the year 786 the Empress Irene had summoned the second council of Nice, in which the worship of images and of the cross was authorized, and Pope Adrian had approved the decrees of that council; whilst Charlemagne had, in the year 794, assembled a council at Frankfort, in which the worship of images was unanimously condemned.

At such a crisis how valuable a bishop was Claude, as an opponent to the monstrous mass of superstition which the bishop of Rome was so strenuously bent upon supporting!

The works of Claudius, according to Dr. Allix,* are

1. A commentary on Genesis. 2. A commentary on Exodus.

3. A commentary on Leviticus.

4. A commentary on Ruth, (once in a library in Hainault.)

5. A commentary on St. Matthew, of which there are several MS. copies in England.

6. A commentary on the epistle to the Galatians, which has been printed.

7. A commentary on the epistle to the Ephesians; (with a dedicatory epistle to Louis the Meek, which Mabillon has published.)

* Remarks upon the ancient churches of Piedmont.