The Holy Scripture - english version B.indd - Sabbat

328Pre-Reformation Interpreters.In his poem on Paradise he says:Che da te prese il primo ricco patre!“DANTE: „Inferno,“ canto xix.„My place he who usurps on earth has madeA common sewer of puddle and of blood.No purpose was of ours that the keysWhich were vouchsafed me should for ensigns serveTo the banners that do levy warOn the baptized: nor I for sigil markSet upon sold and lying privileges,Which makes me oft to bicker and turn red.In shepherd‘s clothing greedy wolves belowRange wide o‘er all the pastures. Arm of God,Why longer sleep you?“In the end of his poem on Paradise, he refers to the Apostle John as -„The seerThat ere he died, saw all the grievous timesOf the fair bride, who with the lance and nailsWas won.“You will obeserve that these beautiful and touching words recognise thehistorical interpretation of the Apocalypse. The Apostle John, according to Dante,saw „all the grievous times“ through which the Church was destined to pass.And what Dante saw, the Albigenses saw, and the Waldenses. What wonderwas there in this? Would not the wonder have been had the saints remained blindto a fulfilment of prophecy so plain and palpable that even the world recognisedit?In the sunny south of France, in Provence and Catalonia, lived the Albigenses.They were a civilized and higly educated people. Among these people theresprang up an extensive revival of true religion, and one of its natural effects wasa bold testimony against the abominations of apostate Rome. Here is Sismondi‘s„History the Albigenses.“ On p. 7 he says of them and of the Vaudois: „All agreedin regarding the Church of Rome as having absolutely perverted Christianity,and in maintaining that it was she who was designated in the Apocalypse bythe name of the whore of Babylon.“ Rome could not endure this testimony; shedrew her deadly sword and waged war against those who bore it. In the year 1208the Albigenses were murderously persecuted. Innocent III. (what a mockery hisname!) employed the crusaders in this dreadful work. The war of exterminationwas denominated sacred. The pope‘s soldiers prosecuted it with pious ardour;men, woman, and children were all precipitated into the flames; whole cities wereburned. In Beziers every soul was massacred; seven thousand dead bodies werecounted in a single church, where the people had taken refuge; the whole countrywas laid waste; an entire people was slaughtered, and the eloquent witness of