Waldensian Researches During A Second Visit To The Vaudois Of Piedmont. With An Introductoru Inquiry Into The Antiquity And Purity Of The Waldensian Church, And Some Account Of The Compacts With The Ancient Princes Of Piemont, And The Treaties Between The English Government And The House Of Savoy, In Virtue Of Which This Sole Relic Of The Primative Church In Italy Has Continued To Assert Its Religious Independence.

London:: C. J. G. & F. Rivington,, 1831.. First Edition.. 8vo.. Modern calf-backed leatherette, title gilt (Waldensian mispelled Valdensian), verso of frontis. soiled, foxing (as usual), occ. browning from plates or tissue inserts, otherwise, a nice copy. Lithographic frontis., 2 maps (one folding), 11 lithographic plates, 2 facsimile plates. Smaller extra plate loosely inserted. Gilly,1789-1855, Church of England clergyman.ÒIn 1823 Gilly paid the first of many visits to the Vaudois, a persecuted Christian community in north Italy, which had long attracted the support of continental Protestant churches. During the following year Gilly published a Narrative of an excursion to the mountains of Piedmont, and researches among the Vaudois, or Waldenses (1824), which awoke much sympathy for the Vaudois in England. The Narrative reached a third edition in 1826, and a subscription, headed by the king and Shute Barrington, bishop of Durham, was started for the relief of the Vaudois; it was devoted in part to the endowment of a theological college and library at Torre Pellice in Piedmont...Gilly also published a further work on the Vaudois, Waldensian Researches (1831)Ó [Oxford DNB]ÒThe organization of the Waldenses was a reaction against the great splendour and outward display existing in the medieval Church; it was a practical protest against the worldly lives of some contemporary churchmen. Amid such ecclesiastical conditions the Waldenses made the profession of extreme poverty a prominent feature in their own lives, and emphasized by their practice the need for the much neglected task of preaching. As they were mainly recruited among circles not only devoid of theological training, but also lacking generally in education, it was inevitable that error should mar their teaching, and just as inevitable that, in consequence, ecclesiastical authorities should put a stop to their evangelistic work. Among the doctrinal errors which they propagated was the denial of purgatory, and of indulgences and prayers for the dead. They denounced all lying as a grievous sin, refused to take oaths and considered the shedding of human blood unlawful. They consequently condemned war and the infliction of the death penalty. Some points in this teaching so strikingly resemble the Cathari that the borrowing of the Waldenses from them may be looked upon as a certainty. Both sects also had a similar organization, being divided into two classes, the Perfect (perfecti) and the Friends or Believers (amici or credentes).Ó [Catholic Ency.] NSTC 2G8432.