Waldensians or Waldenses were followers of Peter Waldo. They originated in the late 12th century around 1176 as the Poor Men of Lyons, a group organized by Waldo, a wealthy merchant of Lyon. Waldo was a model Christian who gave away all of his property and went about preaching apostolic poverty as the way to salvation.

Waldo and his followers were Catholics, perfectly orthodox in every respect. But problems arose over the question of preaching. At the time, preaching required official Church permission, which Waldo was unable to secure from the Bishop in Lyon. In 1179 Waldo attended Pope Alexander III at the Third Lateran Council and asked for permission to preach. Walter Map, in De Nugis Curialium, narrates the discussions at one of these meetings. The pope, while praising Peter Waldo's ideal of poverty, ordered him not to preach unless he had the permission of the local clergy. He continued to preach without permission and by the early 1180s he and his followers were excommunicated and forced from Lyon.

The Catholic Church declared them heretics - the group's principle error was "contempt for ecclesiastical power" - that they dared to teach and preach outside of the control of the clergy "without divine inspiration". They were also accused of the ignorant teaching of "innumerable errors" and condemned for translating literally parts of the Bible which were deemed heretical by the Church. Waldo's teaching was very similar to that of Francis of Assisi, and his followers experienced a similar fate. St Francis's closest adherents, the Spiritual Franciscans, like Waldensians would be declared heretic and persecuted.

In attempting to justify their right to preach Waldensians read the bible closely and deduced that the papacy was mistaken not only in claiming the right to restrict their preaching, but also in a number of other respects - for example the role of priests as mediators between God and humankind, noting Matthew 23: "All of you are brethren." They also questioned the justification and extent of papal authority, and the interpretation of a number of biblical passages.

Waldensians were declared schismatics by Pope Lucius III in 1184 and heretics in 1215 by the Fourth Lateran Council, which anathemamitised them. The rejection by the Church radicalised the movement; the Waldensians became anti-Catholic - rejecting the authority of the clergy, declaring any oath to be a sin, claiming anyone could preach and that the Bible alone was all that was needed for salvation, and rejecting the concept of purgatory along with the adoration of relics and icons.

In 1211 more than 80 were burned as heretics at Strasbourg. So began centuries of severe persecution.

They were in many respects early Protestants. Waldenses proclaimed the Bible as the sole rule of life and faith. They rejected the papal authority and indulgences along with theological novelties of the time such as purgatory and the doctrine of transubstantiation. They laid stress on gospel simplicity. The doctrines included absolute poverty and non-violence. As they diverged from Catholic orthodoxy they started refusing the sacraments and denying the efficacy of the cult of Saints. They translated the bible into Occitan and established their own clergy. Services consisted of readings from the Bible, the Lord's Prayer, and sermons, which they believed could be preached by all Christians as depositories of the Holy Spirit.

As early as the twelfth century Waldensians were granted refuge in Piedmont by the Count of Savoy. Although the House of Savoy itself remained Roman Catholic this gesture angered the Papacy. The Holy See had been willing to tolerate Muslim populations in the Normans' Kingdom of Sicily, but it was not willing to accept a Christian sect in Piedmont.

In 1207, one of Waldo's early companions, Durand of Huesca, converted to Catholicism after debating with Bishop Diego of Osma and Dominic Guzman (St Dominic). Durand later went to Rome where he professed the Catholic faith to Innocent III. Innocent gave him permission to establish the Poor Catholics, a mendicant order, who continued the Waldensian preaching mission against the Cathars. Waldensianism became a diverse movement as it spread out across Europe in Spain, France, Italy, Germany and Bohemia.

Concerted Catholic efforts against the Waldensians began in the 1230s with the Inquisition seeking the leaders of the movements. Within twenty years the movement had been almost completely exterminated in southern France. Waldensians held that the Pope and his bishops were guilty of homicides because of the inquisition and the crusades. They believed that the land and its people should not be divided up, that bishops and abbots ought not to have royal rights and that the clergy should not own possessions. They reportedly believed that none of the sacraments, including marriage, were of any effect. They also denied the validity of the secular use of force, which they considered a mortal sin. Inquisitors often noted the Waldensian belief in early church fathers.

Their distinctive doctrines are set forth in a Waldensian Catechism (c.1489). They had contact with similar groups, especially the Humiliati. They were altogether distinct from the contemporary Cathars, though the distinction escaped many contemporary Catholic writers, and continues to escape many modern Catholic and Protestant writers who are keen to identify Cathars as proto-Protestants. The confusion may be due to the fact that they shared common criticisms of the Catholic Church, which persecuted Cathars and Waldensians indiscriminately. They also shared a taste for following biblical injunctions. For example both Cathars and Waldensian preachers travelled in pairs, practicing as well as preaching poverty.

Waldo and his followers developed a system whereby they would go from town to town and meet secretly with small groups of sympathisers. There they would confess sins and hold service. A traveling Waldensian preacher was known as a barba and could be either man or woman. The idea of a female preacher was yet another blasphemous idea that Waldensians shared with the Cathars. The group would shelter and house the barba and help make arrangements to move on to the next town in secret - again identical to Cathar practices.

The Waldenses were most successful in Dauphiné and Piedmont and established permanent communities in the Cottian Alps southwest of Turin. In 1487 at the prompting of Pope Innocent VIII Church persecution overwhelmed the Dauphiné Waldenses, but those in Piedmont defended themselves successfully. Waldensians are also known as Vaudois. The term refers to inhabitants of the Swiss canton of Vaud, one of the places they were most heavily concentrated.

A crusade against Waldensians in the Dauphiné region was declared in 1487. Papal representatives continued to devastate towns and villages well into the mid 16th century as the Waldensians became absorbed into the burgeoning Protestant Reformation. Waldensian absorption into Protestantism led to its transformation into a Protestant church adhering to the theology of John Calvin, which differed from the beliefs of Peter Waldo.

In 1532, after the early stages of the Reformation, Waldensians met German and Swiss Protestants and soon adapted their beliefs to those of the Reformed Church. After they came out of clandestinity, the French king, Francis I, armed a crusade against the Waldensians of Provence, leading to a genocide that virtually exterminated them in 1545.

A treaty of 5 June 1561 granted amnesty to the Protestants of the Italian Valleys, including liberty of conscience and freedom to worship. Prisoners were released and fugitives were permitted to return home. The Reformation was also somewhat beneficial to the Vaudois, with the religious reformers showing them respect, but they still suffered in the French Wars of Religion (1562-1598). In 1655 the French along with Charles Emmanuel II of Savoy began a campaign against them. Oliver Cromwell sent a mission of protest; prompting John Milton's famous poem on the Waldenses.

In 1655 the Duke of Savoy commanded the Vaudois to attend Mass or remove to the upper valleys, giving them twenty days in which to sell their lands. In a most severe winter men, women and children, including the old and infirm, "waded through the icy waters, climbed the frozen peaks, and at length reached the homes of their impoverished brethren of the upper Valleys, where they were warmly received." There they found refuge.

Deceived by false reports of Vaudois resistance, the Duke sent an army to pursue them. On 24 April 1655, at 4 a.m., the signal was given for a general massacre.

The massacre was so brutal it aroused indignation throughout Europe. Oliver Cromwell, then ruler in England, began petitioning on behalf of the Vaudois, writing letters, raising contributions, calling a general fast in England and threatening to send military forces to the rescue. The most famous reminder in English of this persecution is John Milton's 1655 poem "On the Late Massacre in Piedmont." Survivors were promised restoration to their homes and freedom of worship. A few years of troubled peace followed, until Cromwell died.

In 1685 Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes, which had guaranteed freedom of religion to his Protestant subjects. In the renewed persecution, an edict decreed that all inhabitants of the Valleys should publicly announce their error in religion within fifteen days under penalty of death and banishment and the destruction of all the Vaudois churches. Armies of French and Piedmontese soldiers invaded the Valleys, laying them waste and perpetrating cruelties upon the inhabitants.

A Waldensian leader, Henri Arnaud, led a band into Switzerland. He is the principal Waldensian writer.

After the French Revolution the Waldenses of Piedmont were assured liberty of conscience. In 1848, the ruler of Savoy, King Charles Albert of Sardinia granted them full religious and civil rights.

A group of Waldensians settled in the United States at Valdese, North Carolina.

Today, the Waldensian Church is included in the Alliance of Reformed Churches of the Presbyterian Order.

Anabaptists and Baptists point to the Waldensians as an example of Christians who were not a part of the Roman Catholic Church, and held beliefs similar to their own, including the belief in Believer's Baptism and opposition to infant baptism. John Milton in one of his sonnets professes a belief that the Waldensians are the true followers of Christ, who have preserved his original teachings, in contrast to Roman Catholics, who Milton firmly believed had distorted the original Christian message. The Mennonite book Martyrs Mirror lists them in this regard as it attempts to trace the history of believer's baptism back to the apostles.

 

Waldensian Sources

Much of what is known about the Waldensians comes from reports from Reinerius Saccho (died 1259), a former Cathar who converted to Catholicism and wrote reports for the Inquisition.

Summa de Catharis et Pauperibus de Lugduno (roughly) "Of the Cathars and the Poor of Lyon" (1254) (discovered and printed in S. R. Maitland), Facts and Documents Illustrative of the History, Doctrine, and Rites of the Ancient Albigenses and Waldenses, (London, 1832). Reinerius' lists of their tenets reveals that Waldensians considered themselves the true representatives of the apostolic Christian church, that statues and decorations were superfluous, that their obedience was to God, not to prelates, of whom the pope was the chief source of errors, and that no one is greater than another in the church, following Matthew 23: "All of you are brethren."

 

Waldensian Bibles

Copies of the Romaunt version of the Gospel of John were preserved in Paris and Dublin. The manuscripts were used as the basis of a work by Gilly published in 1848, in which it was related to the history of the New Testament in use by the ancient Waldensians.[2]

The first French Bible translated by Pierre Robert Olivétan with the help of Calvin and published at Neuchâtel in 1535 was based in part on a New Testament in the Waldensian vernacular. The cost of its publication was defrayed by the churches in Waldensia who collected the sum of 1500 gold crowns for this purpose.

 

Modern Waldensians

Modern Waldensians in Italy

After many centuries of harsh persecution, they acquired legal freedom under the King Carlo Alberto of the Piemonte, in 1848. Since then the Waldensian Evangelical Church developed and spread through the Italian Peninsula. During the Nazi occupation of North Italy in the Second World War, Italian Waldensians were active in saving Jews faced with extermination, hiding them in the same moutain valley where their own Waldensian ancestors had found refuge in earlier generations. In 1975 the Waldensian Church joined the Italian Methodist Church to form the Union of Waldensian and Methodist Churches, which is a member of the World Council of Churches, of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and of the World Methodist Council.

Modern Waldensians in Germany

In 1698 some 3,000 Waldenses fled from Italy to South Rhine valley. Most of them returned to their Piedmont valleys, but those who remained in Germany were assimilated by the State Churches (Lutheran and Reformed) and 10 congregations exist today as part of the Evangelische Kirche.

 

Modern Waldensians in South America

Waldensian settlers from Italy arrived in South America in 1856. Today the Waldensian Church of the Río de La Plata (which forms a united church with the Waldensian Evangelical Church) has approximately 40 congregations and 15,000 members shared between Uruguay and Argentina.

Modern Waldensians in the United States of America

Since colonial times Waldensians who found freedom in North America, as marked by their presence in New Jersey and Delaware. William Paca, one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence was a descendant of Waldenses immigrants.

In the late 1800s many Italians, among them Waldensians, immigrated to the United States. They founded communities in New York City, Chicago, Monett, Galveston and Rochester as well as the most notable Waldensian settlement in North America in Valdese, North Carolina, where the congregation uses the name Waldensian Presbyterian Church.

In 1906, through the initiative of church forces in New York City, Waldensian interest groups were invited to combine into a new entity, The American Waldensian Aid Society (AWS). Today, this organization continues as the American Waldensian Society.

By the 1920s most of the Waldensian churches and missions merged into the Presbyterian Church due to the cultural assimilation of the second and third generations.

The most well known Waldensian Churches in America were in New York and in Valdese North Carolina. There is no longer a church in New York City.

The American Waldensian Society assists churches, organizations and families in the promotion of Waldensian history and culture. The Old Colony Players in Valdese, North Carolina, stage an annual outdoor drama telling the story of the Waldenses and the founding of Valdese.

Both the Waldensian Presbyterian Church and the American Waldensian Society have links with the Italian-based Waldensian Evangelical Church, but, differently to the South American Waldensian communities, they are independent from it.

 

 

Click on the following link to read an on-line copy of a book published by the American Tract Society in 1866, giving a Protestant account of the the persecution of proto-Protestants, Vaudois and Cathars: W. Carlos Martyn, A History of the Huguenots