Origins According to legend, Peter Waldo renounced his wealth as an encumbrance to preaching, which led other members of the Catholic clergy to follow his example. Because of this shunning of wealth, this early movement was known as The Poor of Lyon and The Poor of Lombardy. Although they rose to prominence in the twelfth century, some evidence suggests that the Waldenses may have existed even before the time of
Peter Waldo, perhaps as early as 1100. In 1179, at the
Third Council of the Lateran,
Pope Alexander III lamented that the Waldenses were a "pest of long existence". While the Inquisitor
Reinerius Saccho in the thirteenth century also spoke about the dangers of the Waldenses for among other reasons its antiquity "some say that it has lasted from the time of
Sylvester, others, from the time of the Apostles." In the seventeenth century, Waldensian Pastor
Henri Arnaud stated that "the Vaudois are, in fact, descended from those refugees from Italy, who, after St Paul had there preached the gospel abandoned their beautiful country, like the woman mentioned in the apocalypse and fled to those wild mountains where they have to this day, handed down the gospel from father to son in the same purity and simplicity as it was preached by St Paul. The Waldensian movement was characterized from the beginning by lay preaching, voluntary poverty, and strict adherence to the Bible. Between 1175 and 1185, Waldo either commissioned a cleric from Lyon to translate the New Testament into the vernacular—the
Arpitan (Franco-Provençal) language—or was himself involved in this translation work. In 1179, Waldo and one of his disciples went to Rome, where Pope Alexander III and the Roman Curia welcomed them. They had to explain their faith before a panel of three clergymen, including issues that were then debated within the Church, such as the universal priesthood, the gospel in the vulgar tongue, and the issue of voluntary poverty. The results of the meeting were inconclusive; in that same year, the Third Lateran Council condemned Waldo's ideas, but not the movement itself, while the leaders of the movement were not
excommunicated for the moment. The Waldensians proceeded to disobey the Third Lateran Council and continued to preach according to their own understanding of the Scriptures. In 1184, Waldo and his followers were excommunicated and forced from Lyon. The
Catholic Church declared them
heretics, stating that the group's principal error was contempt for
ecclesiastical power. Rome also accused the Waldensians of teaching innumerable errors. Waldo and his followers developed a system whereby they would go from town to town and meet secretly with small groups of Waldensians. There they would confess sins and hold service. A traveling Waldensian preacher was known as a
barba. The group would shelter the
barba and help make arrangements to move on to the next town in secret. Waldo possibly died in the early thirteenthcentury, possibly in Germany; he was never captured, and his fate remains uncertain. Many among the Waldensians claimed that people such as
Claudius of Turin and
Berengar of Tours were first representatives of the sect, but in modern times claims of the Waldenses to high antiquity are no longer accepted. Some religious groups attempted to associate
Vigilantius with proto-Waldensians in the European Alps.
Catholic response in
Le champion des dames, by Martin Le France, 1451 The Catholic Church viewed the Waldensians as unorthodox, and in 1184 at the
Synod of Verona, under the auspices of
Pope Lucius III, they were excommunicated. In 1207 there was a religious conference of Catholics and Waldensians at
Pamiers. Several leading Waldensians returned to Catholicism, notably including Waldo's disciple
Durand of Huesca who went on to found an order the
Poor Catholics intended to appeal to the Waldensian emphasis on evangelical poverty and to preach. In 1211 more than 80 Waldensians were burned as heretics at
Strasbourg; this action launched several centuries of
persecution that nearly destroyed the movement.
Pope Innocent III went even further during the
Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, officially denouncing the Waldensians as
heretics. In 1487 Pope
Innocent VIII issued a bull,
Id Nostri Cordis, for the extermination of the Vaudois.
Alberto de' Capitanei, archdeacon of
Cremona, responded to the bull by organizing a crusade to fulfill its order and launched a military offensive in the provinces of
Dauphiné and
Piedmont.
Charles I, Duke of Savoy, eventually interfered to save his territories from further turmoil and promised the Vaudois peace, but not before the offensive had devastated the area and many of the Vaudois had fled to
Provence or south to Italy. The theologian
Angelo Carletti di Chivasso, whom Innocent VIII in 1491 appointed Apostolic Nuncio and Commissary conjointly with the
Bishop of Mauriana, was involved in reaching a peaceful agreement between Catholics and Waldensians.
Reformation When the news of the
Reformation reached the Waldensian Valleys, the Tavola Valdese decided to seek fellowship with the nascent Protestantism. At a meeting held in 1526 in Laus, a town in the Chisone valley, it was decided to send envoys to examine the new movement. In 1532, they met with German and Swiss Protestants and ultimately adapted their beliefs to those of the Reformed Church. The Swiss and French Reformed churches sent
William Farel and
Anthony Saunier to attend the meeting of Chanforan, which convened on 12October 1532. Farel invited them to join the Reformation and to emerge from secrecy. A Confession of Faith, with Reformed doctrines, was formulated and the Waldensians decided to worship openly in French. The 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 churches in Waldensia collected 1500 gold crowns to cover the cost of its publication.
Massacre of Mérindol (1545) in 1545 Outside the Piedmont, the Waldenses joined the local Protestant churches in Bohemia, France, and Germany. After they came out of seclusion and reports were made of
sedition on their part, French King
FrancisI on 1January 1545 issued the "Arrêt de Mérindol", and assembled an army against the Waldensians of
Provence. The leaders in the 1545 massacres were
Jean Maynier d'Oppède, First President of the
parliament of
Provence, and the military commander
Antoine Escalin des Aimars, who was returning from the
Italian Wars with 2,000 veterans, the
Bandes de Piémont. Deaths in the
Massacre of Mérindol ranged from hundreds to thousands, depending on the estimates, and several villages were devastated. The treaty of 5 June 1561 granted amnesty to the Protestants of the Valleys, including liberty of conscience and
freedom to worship. Prisoners were released and fugitives permitted to return home, but despite this treaty, the Vaudois, with the other French Protestants, still suffered during the
French Wars of Religion in 1562–1598. As early as 1631, Protestant scholars began to regard the Waldensians as early forerunners of the Reformation, in a manner similar to the way the followers of
John Wycliffe and
Jan Hus, also persecuted by authorities, were viewed. Although the Waldensian church was granted some rights and freedoms under French King HenryIV, with the
Edict of Nantes in 1598, persecution rose again in the seventeenthcentury, with an extermination of the Waldensians attempted by the Duke of Savoy in 1655. This led to the exodus and dispersion of the Waldensians to other parts of Europe and even to the Western Hemisphere.
Piedmont Easter In January 1655, the
Duke of Savoy commanded the Waldensians to attend Mass or remove to the upper valleys of their homeland, giving them twenty days in which to sell their lands. Being in the midst of winter, the order was intended to persuade the Vaudois to choose the former; however, the bulk of the populace instead chose the latter, abandoning their homes and lands in the lower valleys and removing to the upper valleys. It was written that these targets of persecution, including old men, women, little children and the sick "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." By mid-April, when it became clear that the Duke's efforts to force the Vaudois to conform to Catholicism had failed, he tried another approach. Under the guise of false reports of Vaudois uprisings, the Duke sent troops into the upper valleys to quell the local populace. He required that the local populace quarter the troops in their homes, which the local populace complied with. But the quartering order was a ruse to allow the troops easy access to the populace. On 24April 1655, at 4a.m., the signal was given for a general massacre. 's
History of the Evangelical Churches of the Valleys of Piedmont, published in London in 1658 The Duke's forces did not simply slaughter the inhabitants. They are reported to have unleashed an unprovoked campaign of looting, rape, torture, and murder. According to one report by a Peter Liegé: This massacre became known as the Piedmont Easter. An estimate of some 1,700 Waldensians were slaughtered; the massacre was so brutal it aroused indignation throughout Europe. Protestant rulers in northern Europe offered sanctuary to the remaining Waldensians.
Oliver Cromwell, then ruler in England, began petitioning on behalf of the Waldensians, writing letters, raising contributions, calling a general fast in England and threatening to send military forces to the rescue. The massacre prompted
John Milton's poem on the Waldenses, "
On the Late Massacre in Piedmont". Swiss and Dutch Calvinists set up an "underground railroad" to bring many of the survivors north to Switzerland and even as far as the Dutch Republic, where the councillors of the city of Amsterdam chartered three ships to take some 167 Waldensians to their City Colony in the New World (Delaware) on Christmas Day 1656. Those that stayed behind in France and the Piedmont formed a guerilla resistance movement led by a farmer,
Joshua Janavel, which lasted into the 1660s.
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes and the "Glorious Return" In 1685
Louis XIV revoked the 1598
Edict of Nantes, which had guaranteed freedom of religion to his Protestant subjects in France. French troops sent into the French Waldensian areas of the Chisone and Susa Valleys in the
Dauphiné forced 8,000 Vaudois to convert to Catholicism and another 3,000 to leave for Germany. In the Piedmont, the cousin of Louis, the newly ascended Duke of Savoy,
Victor Amadeus II, followed his uncle in removing the protection of Protestants in the
Piedmont. In the renewed persecution, and in an echo of the Piedmont Easter Massacre of only three decades earlier, the Duke issued an edict on 31 January 1686 that decreed the destruction of all the Vaudois churches and that all inhabitants of the Valleys should publicly announce their error in religion within fifteen days under penalty of death and banishment. But the Vaudois remained resistant. After the fifteen days, an army of 9,000 French and Piedmontese soldiers invaded the Valleys against the estimated 2,500 Vaudois, but found that every village had organized a defense force that kept the French and Piedmontese soldiers at bay. On 9 April, the Duke of Savoy issued a new edict, enjoining the Waldensians to put down their arms within eight days and go into exile between 21 and 23April. If able, they were free to sell their land and possessions to the highest bidder. Waldensian pastor
Henri Arnaud (1641–1721), who had been driven out of the Piedmont in the earlier purges, returned from Holland. On 18 April he made a stirring appeal before an assembly at Roccapiatta, winning over the majority in favor of armed resistance. When the truce expired on 20April, the Waldensians were prepared for battle. They put up a brave fight over the next six weeks, but by the time the Duke retired to Turin on 8 June, the war seemed decided: 2,000 Waldensians had been killed; another 2,000 had "accepted" the Catholic theology of the Council of Trent. Another 8,000 had been imprisoned, more than half of whom died of deliberately imposed starvation, or of sickness within six months. But about two or three hundred Vaudois fled to the hills and began carrying out a guerilla war over the next year against the Catholic settlers who arrived to take over the Vaudois lands. These "Invincibles" continued their assaults until the Duke finally relented and agreed to negotiate. The "Invincibles" won the right for the imprisoned Vaudois to be released from prison and to be provided safe passage to Geneva. But the Duke, granting that permission on 3January 1687, required that the Vaudois leave immediately or convert to Catholicism. This edict led to some 2,800 Vaudois leaving the Piedmont for Geneva, of whom only 2,490 survived the journey. Arnaud and others now sought help of the allied European powers. He appealed to
William of Orange directly from Geneva, while others, amongst whom was the young
L'Hermitage, were sent to England and other lands to canvas for support. Orange and the allies were glad of any excuse to antagonise France, whose territorial encroachments on all fronts were intolerable. The
League of Augsburg was formed in 1686 under Orange, who promised support to Arnaud. In August 1689, in the midst of the wars between the League of Augsburg and France, Arnaud led 1,000 Swiss exiles, armed with modern weaponry provided by the Dutch, back to the Piedmont. Over a third of the force perished during the 130-mile trek. They successfully re-established their presence in the Piedmont and drove out the Catholic settlers, but they continued to be besieged by French and Piedmontese troops. By 2 May 1689, with only 300 Waldensian troops remaining, and cornered on a high peak called the
Balsiglia, by 4,000 French troops with cannons, the final assault was delayed by storm and then by cloud cover. The French commander was so confident of completing his job the next morning that he sent a message to Paris that the Waldensian force had already been destroyed. However, when the French awoke the next morning they discovered that the Waldensians, guided by one of their number familiar with the Balsiglia, had already descended from the peak during the night and were now miles away. The French pursued, but only a few days later a sudden change of political alliance by the Duke, from France to the League of Augsburg, ended the French pursuit of the Waldensians. The Duke agreed to defend the Waldensians and called for all other Vaudois exiles to return home to help protect the Piedmont borders against the French, in what came to be known as the "Glorious Return".
Religious freedom after the French Revolution After the
French Revolution, the Waldenses of Piedmont were assured liberty of conscience and, in 1848, the ruler of Savoy, King
Charles Albert of Sardinia, granted them civil rights. Enjoying religious freedom, the Waldensians began migrating outside their valleys. By the time of
Italian unification, the Waldensian had congregations throughout the peninsula, some originated by preaching, others by migration. However, poverty, societal discrimination, and demographic pressure led the Waldensians to emigrate, first as seasonal workers to the French Riviera and Switzerland, and later to
Colonia Valdense in Uruguay,
Jacinto Aráuz in
La Pampa,
Argentina and ultimately, to the United States. Those who remained in Italy have experienced upward social mobility. Waldensian companies dominated Turin's chocolate industry for the latter half of the nineteenth century and are generally credited with the invention of
gianduja (hazelnut chocolate). Waldensian scholarship also flourished in the nineteenth century. 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
William Stephen Gilly published in 1848, in which he described the history of the New Testament in use by the Waldensians. The Waldensian College began training ministers in 1855, first in
Torre Pellice. A few years later, the Waldensian College relocated to
Florence and, in 1922, to Rome. Economic and social integration have eased acceptance of ethnic Waldensians into Italian society. Writers like
Italo Calvino and politicians like
Domenico Maselli and
Valdo Spini are of Waldensian background. The church has also attracted intellectuals as new adherents and supporters and enjoys significant financial support from non-adherent Italians. In 2015, after a historic visit to a Waldensian Temple in
Turin,
Pope Francis, in the name of the Catholic Church, asked Waldensian Christians for forgiveness for their persecution. The Pope apologized for the Church's "un-Christian and even inhumane positions and actions".
Characteristics of the modern Waldensian Church The present Waldensian Church considers itself to be a Protestant church of the Reformed tradition originally framed by
Huldrych Zwingli and
John Calvin. The Waldensians also influenced some in the
Bohemian reformation, especially
Petr Chelčický. Petr Chelčický was influenced by the Waldensians very early in his life, as there existed Waldensian congregations in the area of his birth. However, on the other hand, some Hussites rejected Waldensian doctrines, including
Jacob of Miles. == Appraisal by Protestants ==