Having sketched the more prominent features of the Christian Church, for the first ten centuries, and arriving at that period in which we are to give the reader some ac count of the Waldenses, it will be proper to introduce the subject by an attempt to ascertain the origin of their dis tinguishing appellation. The learned Mosheim contends with considerable pertinacity that they derive their name from Peter Waldo, an opulent merchant of Lyons, whose history will presently come under our notice; but in this he is contradicted by his learned translator, and I believe, I may truly add, by most writers of authority since his time.