https://www.humanreligions.info/waldenses.html
By Vexen Crabtree 2025
#calvinism #christianity #christianity_history #crusades #germany #italy #methodism #waldenses
Peter Waldo was a rich merchant who lived Lyons, France. In 1170CE he declared a movement for the return to the observance of the law of Christ. He gave everything he had to the poor and founded the 'Poor men of Lyons', encouraging others to do the same1. In an era where the corruption and power of the Church affected everyone, this ascetic, humble and powerless Bible-based movement adhered strictly to virtuous and moral codes of conduct. They wanted to practice Catholicism but without all the additions and complications2. Their message was sorely needed, and they rapidly grew through the south of France, Lombardy, and extended to Germany and Italy in the decades after the death of Waldo3. They inspired the creation of the Franciscan order of monks2.
Pope Alexander III had given the Waldenses papal approval to preach "but they inveighed somewhat too forcibly against the immorality of the clergy, and were condemned by the Council of Verona in 1184"4 and were excommunicated3. They did not falter. In 1209, the Pope instigated a Crusade against heresy, which wiped out large numbers of Albigenses and Waldenses in a series of massacres. They continued to face persecution by the Catholic Church until the 19th century1,5. After the rise of Protestantism, they joined with the Calvinists and the Methodist Evangelical Church. Waldensians still exist in the Piedmont region of Italy3.
Peter Waldo was a Catholic who believed in following the life examples of Jesus, and giving up all wealth to help the poor1. He wanted to live simply, without the added-on aspects of Christianity. He gained influence and followers, and was expelled from the Catholic church in 11841, heralding the beginning of the Waldenses as a separate group, although, they still called themselves Catholic rather than Protestant2,6. The Waldenses took the famous triple vow of "poverty, chastity and obedience"2.
The movement believed that every good man is competent to preach and expounded the Scriptures; they appointed their own ministers, and dispensed with the services of the Catholic priesthood4.
Their simplicity and asceticism within a Catholic Theology likewise inspired Francis of Assisi (born 1181CE), but whom practised Waldensian beliefs but whilst turning a blind eye to the behaviour of the Catholic Church overall and the Dominican Order of monks2,7 who followed the same pattern but actively embraced Catholic theology and power (aiding, for example, in the Crusade against the Albigenses).
#calvinism #catholicism #france #italy #methodism #religious_intolerance #waldenses
Pope Alexander III had given the Waldenses papal approval to preach "but they inveighed somewhat too forcibly against the immorality of the clergy" and they were excommunicated at the Council of Verona of 1184CE4. They were declared heretics, and violently persecuted2,1. Pope Innocent III considered that they deserved death, because they were 'guilty of treason to Christ' for rejecting the abuses of Catholic clergy4. They were harassed, murdered, tricked into lethal traps and massacred, and forced to convert to standard Catholicism, although most chose imprisonment, starvation and death instead.
“Pope Innocent III [...] called upon the king of France to embark upon a crusade against the Albigenses [which affected the Waldenses also], which was done in 1209. It was conducted with incredible ferocity; after the taking of Carcassonne, especially, there was an appalling massacre.”
"History of Western Philosophy" by Bertrand Russell (1946)4
“By the middle of the thirteenth century, however, many of the Waldensians were imprisoned and those who were not burned as heretics were forced to flee to remoter regions of the Italian Alps, where their remnants survived. In the sixteenth century, they formed a predictable but loose alliance with the Calvinists and suffered intermittent persecution at the hands of the Catholic Church until the seventeenth century. Waldensians still exist in the North Italian region of Piedmont.”
"Cults: Secret Sects and Radical Religions" by Robert Schroëder (2007)3
It wasn't until 1848 that restrictions on the Waldenses were lifted in Italy and they were restored to full rights1, but the long period of Catholic oppression had ongoing social effects and the Waldenses, after the rise of Protestantism, had aligned themselves with the Calvinists and the Methodist Evangelical Church, and had no reason to go back to the torturous Catholic Church. In 1860, the New York Times event mentioned that the enduring of Catholic persecution has made the Waldeans better at proselytisation5. In 2015, the Pope officially asked the Waldenses for forgiveness for the inhumane and unchristian manner in which they were treated for over 700 years.