amalgamation with new parties would beget new customs, which in the end might entirely change their denominational character. This was certainly the case as it respects the discipline and government of their churches, which for a number of the first centuries partook of all the ease and freedom characteristic of modern Baptist communities, then was modelled by degrees into a Presbyterian form, and finally ended in something of the Episcopalian character. Such denominational changes are neither new nor strange, especially when we consider the severity of penal statutes on the one hand, and the spirit of conformity, lukewarmness, and indifference on the other, which continually operate to prepare dissenters for an approximation to the established church, and, finally, for a union with it. At the time of the Reformation these old communities were in circumstances of peculiar trials and distress. New persecutions of unusual severity had been stirred up against them by the Catholics, whose resentment had been exasperated in the keenest manner, in consequence of the new and unexpected attacks that had been made upon the authority of the church by the Protestant reformers, and who were thereby led to vent their spite upon all whom they found without their pale, whatever might be their innocence, or however quiet and inoffensive they might have been. Thus harassed and distressed, these afflicted people were ready to submit to almost any terms, for the sake of gaining new friends and protectors; and one company after another of those who had been driven into exile, and were settled in Bohemia, Germany, and the Netherlands, became associated, as an incipient measure, and in the end were amalgamated with, the Reformed or Presbyterian party, under the direction of Calvin and Zuinglius. Of the fact of this union of the Waldenses with the Reformers there can be no dispute; but the process of this confederacy, and the terms upon which it was consummated, have never been satisfactorily decided. It is morally certain, however, that the subject of the Sabbath was discussed by some of these parties, since we are informed by various historical documents that Calvin objected to the seventh day, but conceded that the old Fathers had substituted the first day in its place, and proposed, as an instance of Christian liberty, to reject both, and make a Sabbath of the fifth day of the week. This overture, we are informed, was indignantly rejected; but there is reason to believe that the observance of the first day, together with infant baptism, were among the changes in their denominational character which were brought about by their union with the German reformers. In 1530, a Waldensian community, located in Provence, sent two of their ministers, George Morrel and Peter Masson, as deputies to the Swiss reformers, which resulted in their union with the new party. These deputies, after their return, declared to their brethren how many and great errors their old ministers