“They can say a great part of the Old and New Testaments by heart. They despise the decretals, and the sayings and expositions of holy men, and only cleave to the text of Scripture.... [They say] that the doctrine of Christ and the apostles is sufficient to salvation, without any church statutes and ordinances. That the traditions of the church are no better than the traditions of the Pharisees; and that greater stress is laid on the observation of human traditions than on the keeping of the law of God. Why do you transgress the law of God by your traditions?... They contemn all approved ecclesiastical customs which they do not read of in the gospel, as the observation of Candlemas, Palm Sunday, the reconciliation of penitents, the adoration of the cross on Good Friday. They despise the feast of Easter, and all other festivals of Christ and the saints, because of their being multiplied to that vast number, and say that one day is as good as another, and work upon holy days, where they can do it without being taken notice of.”[888] Dr. Allix quotes a Waldensian document of A. D. 1100, entitled the “Noble Lesson,” and remarks:— “The author upon supposal that the world was drawing to an end, exhorts his brethren to prayer, to watchfulness, to a renouncing of all worldly goods.... “He sets down all the judgments of God in the Old Testament as the effects of a just and good God; and in particular the decalogue as a law given by the Lord of the whole world. He repeats the several articles of the law, not forgetting that which respects idols.”[889] Their religious views are further stated by Allix:— “They declare themselves to be the apostles’ successors, to have apostolical authority, and the keys of binding and loosing. They hold the church of Rome to be the whore of Babylon, and that all that obey her are damned, especially the clergy that are subject to her since the time of Pope Sylvester.... They hold that none of the ordinances of the church that have been introduced since Christ’s ascension ought to be observed, as being of no worth; the feasts, fasts, orders, blessings, offices of the church and the like, they utterly reject.”[890] A considerable part of the people called Waldenses bore the significant designation of _Sabbati_, or _Sabbatati_, or _Insabbatati_. Mr. Jones alludes to this fact in the following words:— “Because they would not observe saints’ days, they were falsely supposed to neglect the Sabbath also, and called _Insabbatati_ or _Insabbathists_.”[891] Mr. Benedict makes the following statement:—