Facts and Documents Illustrative of the History, Doctrine and Rites of the Ancient Vallenses and Albigenses

PREFACE.

MANY writers have supposed the Albigenses and Waldenses to be the "Witnesses" predicted in the Apocalypse A reference to Revelation 11:3.. One of the most recent and popular advocates of this opinion is Mr. Faber, who, in his Sacred Calendar of Prophecy, has endeavored to maintain the high antiquity and orthodoxy of these sects.

That part of his work being comparatively new—and only published by him after I had ceased to think that any of the systems founded on the mystical interpretation of the 1,260 days A prophetic period mentioned in Revelation 11:3 and 12:6. required minute examination—it remained almost unknown to me until my attention was recently called to it. Much as I had seen of the manner in which historical facts have been selected, distorted, and misstated to support the system of the 1,260 years, it was not without surprise that I read the testimonies which Mr. Faber has adduced in support of his opinion. I felt it was due to the cause of truth, and to those who, not having the means of judging for themselves, might be misled by positive assertion and the appearance of argument and authority, to show how utterly insufficient and even irrelevant those testimonies were.