Waldensians, Waldenses or Vaudois are names for a Christian movement of the later Middle Ages, descendants of which still exist in various regions, primarily in North-Western Italy. There is considerable uncertainty about the earlier history of the Waldenses because of a lack of extant source material.[1] They were persecuted as heretical in the 12th century onwards, and endured near-annihilation in the 17th century.[2][3] There are active congregations in Europe, South America, and North America. The contemporary and historic Waldensian spiritual heritage describes itself as proclaiming the Gospel, serving the marginalized, promoting social justice, fostering inter-religious work, and advocating respect for religious diversity and freedom of conscience.[4] Modern Waldensians are gathered in the Waldensian Evangelical Church.
Burning of the Waldensians in
Toulouse in the 13th century.
In 1179, some Waldensians went to Rome, where Pope Alexander III forbade explanation or critical interpretation (exegesis) without authorization from the local clergy.[5] They disobeyed and began to preach according to their own understanding of the scriptures.
Waldensians were divided by three types of activity: Sandaliati, who received sacred orders and were to prove the heresiarchs wrong; Doctores, who instructed and trained missionaries; and Novellani, who preached to the general population.[6] They were also called Insabbatati, Sabati, Inzabbatati Sabotiers due to the unusual type of sabot they used as footwear.[7][8]
Seen by the Roman Catholic Church as unorthodox, they were formally declared heretics by Pope Lucius III in 1184 at the Synod of Verona, and by Pope Innocent III during the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215.[5] In 1211, more than 80 Waldensians were burned as heretics at Strasbourg, beginning several centuries of persecution that nearly destroyed the movement.[9] Part of their legacy is recognized as works of the writer Henri Arnaud. The Waldensian Church of Italy has survived to the present day.[10]
Some groups of Mennonites, Baptists, Seventh-day Adventists, and other Protestants have claimed that the Waldenses' history extends back to the Apostles.[1] Some Waldenses claimed for their churches an Apostolic origin, but this is far from universal.[11] The supporters of the ancient origin claim the Waldenses' name did not in fact come from Peter Waldo[1][3] but from the area in which they lived.[12] They claim Peter Waldo in fact got his name by association with the Waldenses. This thought was current in the early 19th century:
- "Some Protestants, on this occasion, have fallen into the snare that was set for them...It is absolutely false, that these churches were ever found by Peter Waldo...it is a pure forgery."[13]
- "It is not true, that Waldo gave this name to the inhabitants of the valleys: they were called Waldenses, or Vaudes, before his time, from the valleys in which they dwelt."[13]
- "On the other hand, he "was called Valdus, or Waldo, because he received his religious notions from the inhabitants of the valleys."[14]
Other supposed founders for an ancient origin included Claudius, Bishop of Turin (died 827) and Berengarius of Tours (died 1088).[5] Many scholars have contested these claims, asserting that the Waldensians were followers of Peter Waldo.[5] Likewise, the modern Waldensian churches themselves claim their movement began with Peter Waldo.[15][16][17][18]
The Alexandrine La Nòbla Leiçon written in Old Occitan ("The Noble Lesson"), has traditionally been thought to have been composed in 1100, but scholars now date it to between 1190 and 1240.[19]
According to modern scholars and the Waldensians themselves, the Waldensians began with Peter Waldo, who began to preach on the streets of Lyon in 1177.[5]
Peter Waldo preached without permission of the Roman Catholic Church and by the early 1180s he and his followers were excommunicated and forced from Lyon. The Roman Catholic Church declared them heretics — stating the group's principal error was "contempt for ecclesiastical power". The Waldensians were also accused by the Catholic Church of teaching "innumerable errors".[20][21]
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 and house the barba and help make arrangements to move on to the next town in secret.[22]
Illustrations depicting Waldensians as
witches in
Le champion des dames, by Martin Le France, 1451.
The members of the group were declared schismatics in 1184 in France and heretics more widely in 1215 by Pope Innocent III during the Fourth Council of the Lateran's anathema. The rejection by the Church radicalized the movement; in terms of ideology the Waldensians became more obviously anti-Catholic—rejecting the authority of the clergy.
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 two reports for the Inquisition, Summa de Catharis et Pauperibus de Lugduno (roughly) "Of the Sects of Modern Heretics" (1254)[23] Waldo possibly died in the early 13th century, possibly in Germany, but he was never captured, and his fate remains uncertain.
When the news of the Reformation reached the Waldensian Valleys, the Tavola Valdese[24] decided to seek fellowship with the nascent Protestantism. A Synod held 1526 in Laus, a town in Chisone valley, 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. Moreover, the Waldensian absorption into Protestantism led to their transformation from a group on the edge of Catholicism that shared many Catholic beliefs into a Protestant church adhering to the theology of John Calvin, which differed much from the beliefs of Peter Waldo. From that moment the Church became the Italian branch of Reformed churches.
The Swiss and French Reformed churches sent William Farel and Anthony Saunier to attend the Synod of Chanforan, which convened in October, 12th 1532. Farel invited them to join the Reformation and to leave 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 cost of its publication was defrayed by the churches in Waldensia who collected the sum of 1500 gold crowns for this purpose.[25]
Outside the Piedmont, the Waldenses joined the local Protestant churches in Bohemia, France, and Germany. After they came out of clandestinity and reports were made of sedition on their part, the French king, Francis I issued on 1 January 1545 the "Arrêt de Mérindol", and armed an army against the Waldensians of Provence. The leaders in the 1545 massacres were Jean Maynier d'Oppède, First President of the parlement 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.[26]
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 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).
As early as 1631, Protestants scholars began to regard the Waldensians as early forerunners of the Reformation, in a manner that is similar to how the followers of John Wycliffe and Jan Hus - who were also persecuted by Roman Catholic authorities - were viewed.
In 1655 the Duke of Savoy commanded the Waldensians to attend Mass or remove to the upper valleys, giving them twenty days in which to sell their lands. In a most severe winter these targets of persecution, 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." There they found refuge and rest. Deceived by false reports of Vaudois resistance, the Duke sent an army. On 24 April 1655, at 4 a.m., the signal was given for a general massacre, the horrors of which can be detailed only in small part.
Print illustrating the 1655 massacre in La Torre, from
Samuel Morelands "History of the Evangelical Churches of the Valleys of Piemont" published in London in 1658.
The massacre was so brutal it aroused indignation throughout Europe. 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 famous poem on the Waldenses, "On the Late Massacre in Piedmont".[27] The resistance which lasted into the 1660s was then led by a farmer, Josué Janavel.[28]
Waldensian Church of Florence, Italy
In 1685 Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes, which had guaranteed freedom of religion to his Protestant subjects in France. The cousin of Louis, The Duke of Savoy, Victor Amadeus II followed his uncle in removing the protection of Protestants in the Piedmont. 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 pastor Henri Arnaud sought help from William of Orange. He gathered a band of followers in Switzerland; and in 1689 made an attempt to regain their homes in the valleys.
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. 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 Waldensians.[29] A group of Waldensians settled in the United States at Valdese, North Carolina. Waldensian companies dominated Turin's chocolate industry for the latter half of the nineteenth century and are generally credited with the invention of gianduja (chocolate).[30]
Later denominations such as Anabaptists and Baptists also began to point to the Waldensians as an example of earlier Christians who were not a part of the Roman Catholic Church, and held beliefs they interpreted to be similar to their own. 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. James Aitken Wylie (1808–1890) likewise believed that the Waldensians preserved the apostolic faith during the Middle Ages.[31] Still later, Seventh-day Adventist Ellen G. White taught that the Waldenses were preservers of biblical truth during the so-called Great Apostasy of the Roman Catholic Church.[32] She believed that the Waldenses kept the seventh-day Sabbath, engaged in widespread missionary activity, and "planted the seeds of the Reformation" in Europe.[33][34] Based on the Catechism of the Waldenses they believed in keeping the ten commandments.[35]
Some Waldensians families joined Anabaptism. A group from North Italy fled to Switzerland for religious protection and then to Pennsylvania later on after becoming followers of Menno Simons. Some later migrated north to Canada,[36] where some of the communities still exist.[37]
Today, the Waldensian Church is included in the Alliance of Reformed Churches of the Presbyterian Order.
The Waldensian Church in Milan, built in 1949, incorporates materials from the demolished gothic church of
San Giovanni in Conca.
In 1848, after many centuries of harsh persecution, the Waldensians acquired legal freedom in the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia as a result of the liberalising reforms which followed Charles Albert of Sardinia's granting a constitution (the Statuto Albertino). Subsequently the Waldensian Evangelical Church, as it became known, developed and spread through the Italian peninsula.
The Waldensian church was able to gain converts by building schools in some of the poorer regions of Italy, including Sicily. There is still a Waldensian church in the town of Grotte, Province of Agrigento at the southwest part of the island.[38]
During the Nazi occupation of North Italy in the Second World War, Italian Waldensians were active in saving Jews faced with imminent extermination, hiding many of them in the same mountain valley where their own Waldensian ancestors had found refuge in earlier generations.[39]
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. It has 50,000 members (45,000 Waldensians, of whom 30,000 in Italy and some 15,000 divided between Argentina and Uruguay, and 5,000 Methodists).
The first Waldensian settlers from Italy arrived in South America in 1856 and 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.[40]
Since colonial times there have been Waldensians who found freedom on American shores, as marked by the presence of them in New Jersey and Delaware. Many Waldensians, having escaped persecution in their homelands by making their way to the tolerant Dutch Republic, went to start anew in the New Netherland colony. In the late 19th century many Italians, among them Waldensians, emigrated to the United States. They founded communities in New York City, Boston, Chicago, Monett, Galveston, Rochester and Salt Lake City.[41] The Monett congregation was among the first to be established in the United States, in 1875, by some 40 settlers who had formed the original South American settlement in Uruguay in the 1850s, and who had fled violence in the Uruguayan countryside, traveling first back to Europe then across the Northern Atlantic to New York and by train to southern Missouri. Waldensians living in the Cottian Alps region of Northern Italy continued to migrate to Monett until the early 1900s, augmenting the original colony, and founded another, larger settlement in Valdese, North Carolina in 1893. Both the Monett and Valdese congregations use the name Waldensian Presbyterian Church.
In 1853 a group of approximately 70 Waldensians, including men, women, and children left their homes in the Piedmont Valleys and migrated to Salt Lake City, Utah, after being converted to Mormonism by John Taylor. These Waldensians maintained their cultural heritage, while passing on their mixture of Mormon and Waldensian faiths to their descendants. These descendants still consider themselves both Mormon and Waldensian, and have met occasionally over the many decades to celebrate both heritages.[42][43][44] [45]
In 1906, through the initiative of church forces in New York City, Waldensian interest groups were invited to coalesce into a new entity, The American Waldensian Aid Society (AWS), organized "to collect funds and apply the same to the aid of the Waldensian Church in Italy and elsewhere…and to arouse and maintain interest throughout the US in the work of said Church…" Today, this organization continues as the American Waldensian Society. The American Waldensian Society recently marked its Centennial with a conference and celebrations in New York City.
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 work of the American Waldensian Society continues in the United States today. The mission of the American Waldensian Society is to foster dialogue and partnership among Waldensian Churches in Italy and South America and Christian churches within North America in order to promote a compelling vision of Waldensian Christian witness for North America.
The vision of the society is to be a passionate witness in North America to the contemporary and historic Waldensian spiritual heritage: to Proclaim the Gospel; to Serve among the Marginalized; to Promote Social Justice; to Foster Inter-religious Work; and to Advocate Respect for Religious Diversity and Freedom of Conscience. As such, the society is committed to: Tell the Story; Encourage ‘Crossings’; and Provide Financial Support.[46]
The most well known Waldensian Churches in America were in New York, Monett, Missouri and in Valdese, North Carolina. The church in New York City was disbanded by the mid-1990's. [47]
The American Waldensian Society assists churches, organizations and families in the promotion of Waldensian history and culture. The society is friend to those who work to preserve their millennial heritage among their descendants. For example, over the course of 41 years, the Old Colony Players in Valdese, North Carolina, have staged " From this Day Forward", an outdoor drama telling the story of the Waldenses and the founding of Valdese.
The Waldensian Presbyterian churches in the United States and the American Waldensian Society have links with the Italian-based Waldensian Evangelical Church, but, unlike the South American Waldensian communities, today they are independent institutions from the European organization.
In 1698 approximately 3,000-3,200 Waldenses fled from Italy and came 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 in Deutschland.
The present Waldensian Church considers itself to be a Christian Protestant church of the Reformed tradition originally framed by Huldrych Zwingli and John Calvin.[5] It recognizes as its doctrinal standard the confession of faith published in 1655 and based on the Reformed confession of 1559. It admits only two sacraments, baptism and the Lord's Supper.[5] Supreme authority in the body is exercised by an annual synod, and the affairs of the individual congregations are administered by a consistory under the presidency of the pastor.[5]
Over the centuries, Waldensian churches have been established in countries as far away from France as Uruguay and the United States. However, most historians agree with Audisio,[48] who says that “Waldensianism came to an end at the time of the Reformation,” when it was “swallowed up” by Protestantism.
In 1229 the Catholic Church completed its Crusade against the Catharism, or Albigenses, in the south of France. The Waldenses next became objects of such efforts. The Inquisition would soon be turned against the church’s other opponents. This caused the Waldenses to go underground. By 1230 they no longer preached in public. Gabriel Audisio[48] explains: “Rather than going to seek new sheep ..., they devoted themselves to looking after the converted, maintaining them in their faith in the face of outside pressure and persecution.” He adds that “preaching remained essential but had completely changed in practice.”
- Waldensian Evangelical Church
- Union of Methodist and Waldensian Churches
- List of Italian religious minority politicians
- Henri Arnaud, writer, pastor, and soldier
- John Jacob Astor, American merchant and trader
- Italo Calvino, writer
- Luigi Comencini, film director
- Durand of Huesca, early follower of Peter Waldo (later re-converted to Catholicism)
- Paolo Ferrero, politician
- Riccardo Illy, politician
- Lucio Malan, politician
- Domenico Maselli, politician and pastor
- Giovanni Morelli, art historian
- Adriano Olivetti, industrialist (Waldensian mother, became Catholic as an adult)
- Rosario Olivo, politician
- Frederick Henry Snow Pendleton, Anglican protector in South America
- Valdo Spini, politician and writer
Texts on Wikisource:
Media related to Waldensians at Wikimedia Commons
- ^ a b c Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, pp. 874–876
- ^ url=Milton: Sonnet 18
- ^ a b American Waldensian Society
- ^ http://www.waldensian.org
- ^ a b c d e f g h http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15527b.htm The Waldenses
- ^ Herbermann, Charles George (1913). The Catholic Encyclopedia, p. 250. Universal Knowledge Foundation
- ^ Herzog, Johann Jakob; Schaff, Philip (1910). The new Schaff-Herzog encyclopedia of religious knowledge. Funk and Wagnalls
- ^ Spini, G. I Valdesi e la non-osservanza del Sabato. Lecture delivered at Waldensian College, Rome 1994
- ^ Ellwood, Robert S. and Gregory D. Alles, eds. The Encyclopedia of World Religions, p. 471. Infobase Publishing, New York: 2007.
- ^ Fahlbush, Erwin, ed. The Encyclopedia of Christianity, Vol. 5, p. 704. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, Grand Rapids: 2008.
- ^ Catholic Encyclopedia: Waldenses
- ^ Ancient Church of Piedmont, Dr. Peter Allix, pp. 182, Oxford: 1821
- ^ a b Ancient Church of Piedmont, Dr. Peter Allix, pp.192, Oxford: 1821.
- ^ History of the Christian Church, William Jones, Vol II, p.2.
- ^ Chiesa Evangelica Valdese - Who We Are - Our History - Our Beginnings
- ^ Die Waldenser in Deutschland - Deutsche Waldenservereinigung e.V. - Geschichte
- ^ American Waldensian Society's History page
- ^ Iglesia Evangélica Valdense - Nuestra Historia
- ^ Bosio, Enrico – "La Nobla Leyczon considérée au point de vue de la doctrine, de la morale et de l’histoire", Bulletin de la Société d'Histoire Vaudoise, n. 2 (dic. 1885), pp. 20–36.
- ^ Rosalind B. Brooke, The Coming of the Friars (NY: Barnes and Noble, 1975), 72–73.
- ^ A.H. Newman, A History of Anti-Pedobaptism from the Rise of Pedobaptism to A.D. 1609 (Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1897), 41
- ^ Comba, Emilio, History of the Waldenses of Italy, from their origin to the Reformation
- ^ Reinarius Saccho, Of the Sects of the Modern Heretics 1254. e-text of this list of Waldensian beliefs
- ^ Church structure described by American Waldensian Society—see second paragraph.
- ^ Wylie, (p. 62)
- ^ Francis I R. J. Knecht p.405
- ^ "On the Late Massacre in Piedmont"
- ^ Janavel, Combats, Exil et Pouvoir d'un Grand Capitaine, Biography of Josué Janavel (in French).
- ^ Gilly, William S., The Romaunt Version of the Gospel according to St. John, from MSS. preserved in Trinity College, Dublin, and in the Bibliothèque du Roi, Paris. With an introductory history of the version of the New Testament, anciently in use among the old Waldenses, and remarks on the texts of the Dublin, Paris, Grenoble, Zurich and Lyons MSS. of that version.
- ^ Bächstädt-Malan Camusso, Christian. Per Una Storia dell’Industria Dolciaria Torinese: il Caso Caffarel. Doctoral thesis (Economics and Business), Universitá degli Studi di Torino. 2002. P. 63.
- ^ J. A. Wylie, The History of Protestantism
- ^ Ellen G. White. The Great Controversy. Chapter 4–The Waldenses. http://www.whiteestate.org/books/gc/gc4.html.
- ^ J.N. Andrews. History of the Sabbath. Chapter 21–The Sabbath During the Dark Ages. http://dedication.www3.50megs.com/historyofsabbath/hos_twentyone_b.html#Anathema.
- ^ J.N. Andrews. History of the Sabbath. Chapter 25–Sabbath Keepers During The Reformation Times From The Fifteenth To The Seventeenth Century. http://dedication.www3.50megs.com/historyofsabbath/hos_twentyfive.html#Keepers.
- ^ von Zezschwitz, Gerhard (1863). Die Katechismen der Waldenser und Böhmischen Brüder: als Documente ihres wechselseitigen Lehraustauches. Erlangen: Verlag von Theodor Blasing. p. 14. http://books.google.com/books?id=WQy5tjJiA4MC&vq=sabbat&pg=PA14#v=onepage&q&f=false.
- ^ http://wampumkeeper.com/mennonites.html
- ^ http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/M46607.html/?searchterm=Canadian%20Mennonite%20Church
- ^ http://www.grotte.info/ag/chiesavaldese.htm
- ^ files.splinder.com/d70423e374b3b379008c7ec7bda05020.pdf
- ^ Iglesia Evangélica Valdense – Nuestra Historia
- ^ Brigham Young University
- ^ Mormon Historic Sites Foundation
- ^ Maxwell Institute For Religious Scholarship BYU
- ^ Harold B. Lee Library Digital Collections
- ^ Christianity Today Library
- ^ http://www.waldensian.org/2-whoweare/
- ^ [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/medny/halsall6.html Halsall,Paul Waldensians in New York City
- ^ a b [1], The Waldensian Dissent.
- Audisio, Gabriel, The Waldensian Dissent: Persecution and Survival, c.1170–c.1570, (1999) Cambridge Medieval Textbooks. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-55984-7
- Cameron, Euan, The Waldenses: Rejections of Holy Church in Medieval Europe, (2001) ISBN 0-631-22497-1, ISBN 978-0-631-22497-6
- Comba, Emilio, History of the Waldenses of Italy, from their origin to the Reformation, (1978) ISBN 0-404-16119-7
- Muston, Alexis, The Israel of the Alps : a complete history of the Waldenses and their colonies : prepared in great part from unpublished documents, (1978) ISBN 0-404-16140-5
- Wylie, James Aitken, History of the Waldenses, (c.1860) ISBN 1-57258-185-9, online ebook
- Arnold, Eberhard, The Early Anabaptists, (1984) Plough Publishing House, ISBN 978-0-87486-192-1
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