The Rise of Popular Heresies 5 of 6

The Waldensians

In about 1173, a merchant of the French city of Lyons by the name of Pere Valdes (generally known in English as "Peter Waldo") was moved to defend the orthodox Church by carrying its message to the urban masses of which he was a member. Several of his acquaintances agreed to follow him. After making financial arrangements for their families, they gave the rest of their money to aid the poor, and, adopting an austere style of life doubtless modelled upon that of the Albigensian perfecti, began to travel about in pairs, preaching to the people in their own language. In order to advance this movement, Waldo arranged for the translation of the Bible into the French of the region, and he and his companions applied themselves to reading and preaching on its basis.

They proved quite popular, but orthodox clerics were soon complaining to the papacy about their activities. Their audiences saw the austerity and poverty of the Waldensians as a reproach to the local clergy and Church, and the Waldensians were soon drawn into preaching reforms that left their audiences with distinct anti-clerical attitudes. The papacy tried to control the Waldensian preachers, particularly since their Biblical translation varied from the official Latin Vulgate in some important points and the Church began to feel that the Waldensians' preaching were bordering on heresy. It proved impossible to control a popular and loosely-organized movement such as that of the Waldensians, and the Church eventually felt itself forced to order them to stp preaching and to restrict themselves to good works on behalf of the sick and needy.

A significant minority of the Poor Men of Lyons regarded this as a blow against their entire movement and as an attempt by the Church to curb legitimate criticism and to avoid facing the need of reforming itself. They continued to preach, and the pope finally declared them to be heretics. They reacted by attacking the established Church and the entire sacramental system, denying that there was any Scriptural basis for these institutions, and characterizing them as devices which were designed to oppress the poor and to secure wealth and privilege for an undeserving few.

They were attacked in the same manner as other heretics and were eventually driven underground. It was only with the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century that it was found that the Waldensian movement had survived in some isolated valleys of northern Italy. The movement has continued from its world center of Agape, but even these modern Waldensians have little in the way of records or institutional memory of the early days of the movement, its nature and aims.