M. Matthias Flaccius Illyricus (in his Catalog. Testitum heritatis, between fol. 263, and fol. 277, according to Jac. Mehrning in Bapt. Hist., page 601), writes, "About A. D. 1160, several of the principal citizens of Lyons were together, conversing on various matters, as is customary in the summer season, in Italy and France. As they were thus standing together, one of them suddenly fell down to the ground and expired, before their eyes., "This awful occurrence, an example of the mortality of man, and of the divine wrath, terrified one of their number, namely, Peter Waldo, a man who was very wealthy. He began to reflect and resolved (impelled, no doubt, by the Holy Spirit), to repent, amend his life, and be more diligent in the fear of God than he had hitherto been. He therefore began to distribute alms liberally, and at convenient seasons, to put his household and others who came to him, in mind of the good, and to admonish them to repentance and true godliness., "When he had thus for some time, done much;good to the poor, and was becoming the longer the more zealous to learn, as well as to teach others, the people also came to him more and more; he therefore began to present to them, not his own ideas, but the holy Scriptures, and to expound and explain the same in the common French language., "But the bishop and the prelates, who, as Christ says, have the key of heaven, and yet do not go in themselves, nor will suffer others to enter, were greatly vexed that this (in their opinion) unlearned and common man, should bring the holy Scriptures into the vernacular langdage, and expound the same, and that already great numbers came into his house, whom he instructed and admonished., "However, he was greatly in earnest, to promote both the honor of God and the salvation of men; and the people were so eager for the Word of God, which, in the churches, was not preached pure, nor publicly, that they could not be turned away by the command of these papistic Pharisees and high priests; hence, both the teacher and those taught said, that one ought to obey God rather than men., "Waldo therefore resolved, notwithstanding the commands of the wicked, to sustain the hungry Christians not only with his temporal living, which, owing to the liberal distribution, decreased day by day, but also with the Word of God, and good instructions and admonitions; and since the prelates, by tyranny and unchristian decrees, sought to suppress and exterminate the simDle and true Dreach-
