3. The General Synod of Zerawitz (1616), in the official preface to the Ratio Disciplinae, (p. 3 and 4) says:
“And inasmuch as the Waldenses, whom we mentioned before, affirmed that they had legitimate Bishops, and a legitimate and uninterrupted succession from the Apostles, they, in a solemn rite, created Bishops of three of our ministers, and conferred upon them the power to ordain ministers.”
4. Comenius (Ratio Disciplinae, Sect. 61, p. 18) says:
Knowing that there were certain Waldenses on the confines of Austria aud Moravia, the Brethren sent to them Michael Zambergius (the other name by which Michael Bradacius was known, from the village of Zamberg in which he lived,) with two others, in order that they might fully provide for conscientious scruples (namely, on the subject of ordination) among their own people and among others, both for the present and (mark!) for the future. These should tell them what had been done, and ask their opinion with regard to it. They find their Bishop Stephen. He having called the other Bishop and several of their ministers, these set forth their origin, the articles of their doctrine, and what horrible things the Waldenses had thus far suffered in Italy and Gaul. On the other hand, they listen to the account which our deputies give concerning our secession from the Pope and the Calixtines, approve of it and congratulate them upon it; and what is more, conferring upon these three the power to make ministers, they create them Bishops with the imposition of hands, and send them back to their own (quinimo tribus illis Ministros creandi potestate collata, manuum impositione Episcopos creant, et ad suos remittunt).
5. Adrian Wengersky (Regenvolscius, I, 8, p. 33), to quote the translation which Perceval has himself given, says:
“And whereas the aforesaid Waldenses affirmed that they had lawful Bishops, and a lawful and uninterrupted succession from the Apostles, they, in a solemn rite, created Bishops of three of the ministers of the Brethren, who had been already elsewhere ordained, and conferred on them the power of ordination.”
6. Gindely, in his “Geschichte der Bœhmischen Brueder” (vol. I, p. 37), says:
“To this Stephen the Brethren resolved to send Michael, that he might be consecrated a Bishop. Michael, accompanied probably by Matthias, proceeded on his journey, found Stephen, obtained what he had come to seek, and returned to his own.”
7. The Roman Catholic Encyclopaedia, one of the greatest modern works of the Romish Church—“Kirchen-Lexicon, oder Encyclopaedie der Katholischen Theologie und Kirche, von Wetzer und Welte. Freiburg, in Breisgau, 1848”—which called forth the Protestant Encyclopaedia edited by Herzog, in its article on the Bohemian and Moravian Brethren (vol. II, p. 65), says:
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