250 Darwinism and Other Essays. 



held that the Devil exists independent of the will 

 of the good God, and was the creator of this 

 evil world, which it is the work of Christ to re- 

 deem from his control. They accepted as inspired 

 the New Testament, with the Psalms and Proph- 

 ets, but set little store by the historical books 

 of the Old Testament, and rejected the Mosaic 

 writings as dictated by Satan. They denied any 

 mystical efficiency to baptism, and laughed at the 

 doctrine of transubstantiation, maintaining that 

 the consecrated wafer is in no wise different from 

 ordinary bread. Some of them are said to have 

 neglected baptism altogether. They regarded 

 image-worship as no better than heathen idolatry, 

 and they paid no respect to the symbol of the 

 cross, asking, " If any man slew the son of a king 

 with a bit of wood, how could this piece of wood 

 be dear to the king ? " 1 Their aversion to the 

 worship of the Virgin was equally pronounced, 

 and they despised the intercession of saints. They 

 wore long faces, abstained from the use of wine, 

 and commended celibacy. Some went so far as to 

 refuse animal food, and in general their belief in 

 the vileness of matter led them to the extremes 

 of asceticism. Their ecclesiastical government 

 was in many respects presbyterian ; in politics 



i Evans, op. cit. p. xxx. 



