Peter Waldo of Lyons was a Catholic layman who read the gospels and based his theology on them. He soon attracted followers who came to be known as Waldensians, Waldenses, or Vaudois. They advocated a priesthood of all believers and they gave away their wealth. They rejected sacraments not sanctioned by the bible, and condemned practices such as the sale of indulgences and the adoration of saints.
Soon after the movement started around 1170 Waldo was excommunicated, after which he rejected papal authority. Persecution followed. The Roman Church, never very adroit at theologies other than their own, had great difficulty in distinguishing between Waldensians and Cathars. True enough, some of their ideas agreed, and Cathars and Waldensians seem to have got on well enough with each other, but their theologies were wildly different. This did not stop the Church from referring to Cathars as Waldensians and to Waldensians as Cathars, nor from prosecuting them all indifferently on the same charges including that old favourite, the sexual abuse of cats.
While the Cathars seem to have been extirpated, the persecution of Waldensians continued until the late eighteenth century, by which time the depleted survivors had been scattered to the Alpine Valleys and other remote areas. Waldensian ideas along with those of the Lollards had long before developed intoProtestant belief, so in a sense the persecution of the Waldensians was a failure. In the nineteenth century the few remaining Alpine Waldensians were assisted financially by Protestants in the UK and USA. Many emigrated to Uruguay and Argentina, but there are still descendents of the Waldensians in American today.
The Languedoc is fiercely proud of its record as a place of refuge for persecuted minorities. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the Hugenots (more Protestants) found refuge in the Lozere during the Wars of Religion and the Catholic persecutions that followed. After the Spanish civil war Spanish exiles fled here to find refuge. During the Second World War, members of the maquis found protection and support here as well, fighting a guerrilla war almost identical to that fought on the same land by Cathar faidits.
Click on the following link for more about the Waldensians
Back
to the last page
