A Dominican inquisitor, in giving an account of the proceedings of that infernal tribunal in the north of Spain, declares that since it was known that many of the heretics were accustomed to solemnize the old Sabbath by religious worship, and an absolute inattention to secular employments, it became the policy of the Holy Office to take notice of such shops as were shut up on that day, and of such persons as were found to be absent from worldly engagements. "The result answered my expectations," he continues, "for when these people were arrested, and being brought before me, were shown the rack, they generally confessed their Judaical practices, at least so far as it related to sabbatizing, which the holy church had expressly forbidden." Other testimonies of this same character might be produced, but enough has been said to prove to our own denomination, and to the world, that at the time when the crusading armies made their frightful onsets upon the heretical churches of Piedmont, the South of France, and Catalonia, there were large communities of Sabbath-keeping Christians in all these parts. But historians are unanimous in confessing that they were drowned in blood, and driven into exile. Their race disappeared, and their opinions ceased to influence society. In hundreds of villages, all the inhabitants were massacred with a blind fury. Year after year new armies continued to arrive, more numerous than were employed in other wars. It is impossible to ascertain how many were destroyed by these dreadful crusades, but it is certain that the visible churches of these Christians were extirpated by fire and sword; though a bleeding remnant escaped by flight, concealment, and Catholic conformity. Of the details of their sufferings and miseries it is impossible to give in this place even an abridged account. For many consecutive years they suffered every species of cruelty, barbarity, and persecution, which the crusades and the Inquisition could inflict. Those who remained were indiscriminately slaughtered, and of those who fled, multitudes miserably perished by the way. Their total extirpation was effected in 1686, at which time the ancient Waldensian and Albigensian churches ceased to exist. It is true, that in 1689, three years after the expulsion of the whole fraternity, a company, sword in hand, fought their way back to the valleys of Piedmont, of which they took possession, and in which their descendants still reside. This company, under the command of one Amand, committed the most frightful acts of wickedness and barbarity, and exhibited in all their conduct a spirit entirely different from the ancient Waldenses. Their leader acted in the double capacity of spiritual pastor and military chieftain, and the creeds and formulas which he instituted, and which are still observed among them, are comparatively of modern date.