A brief exposition of the whole book of Canticles, or Song of Solomon lively…

What is thy beloved more then another beloved,¹ O thou fairest among women? &c.]

1. 1Verse 9.

The Christians, the daughters of Jerusalem, from this day forward, to the days of Petrus Waldus (of whom the Waldenses took their name) were very ignorant of Christ, and therefore they ask who he ⟨p. 154⟩was, and wherein better then another: But in stead of him they magnified the Church; Holy mother Church was all in all with them: Her they acknowledged to be fairest among women, though they see nothing in Christ better then in another.

The Christians, the daughters of Jerusalem, from this day forward, to the daies of Petrus Waldus (of whom the Waldenses tooke their name) were very ignorant of Christ, and therefore they ask who hee ⟨p. 154⟩was, and wherein better then another: But in stead of him they magnified the Church; Holy mother Church was all in all with them: Her they acknowledged to be fairest among women, though they see nothing in Christ better then in another.

My beloved is white and ruddy, &c.]¹ Thus Petrus Waldus, a Citizen of Lions, opened Christ to the daughters of Jerusalem, to the children of the Church, setting before them the white innocency of true holiness in him, and the ruddy scarlet dye of his death. The righteousness and death of Christ plainly, yet powerfully, opened by him, brought many to behold Christ, and to profess him; who (when by persecution stirred up against them by the Bishop of Rome they were dispersed into many places) multiplied exceedingly; and being then called Albigenses, in many battles fought against the soldiers which Pope Innocent the third had sent against them, under conduct of Simon Montfort, and others signed with the cross: in many of which the Albigenses prevailed, helped by Raymond Earle of Thelus, and Peter King of Aragon; though