§ 84. THE WALDENSES. 497
identified them with the Poor Men of Lyons.1 Originally, as we know from other sources, the two groups were closely affiliated. It is probable that Waldo and his followers on their visits in Lombardy won so much favor with the older sect that it accepted Waldo's leadership. At a later date, a portion of the Humiliati associated themselves in convents, and received the sanction of Innocent III. It seems probable that they furnished the model for the third order of St. Francis.2 One portion of the Humiliati early became known as the Poor Men of Lombardy and had among their leaders, John of Roncho. A portion of them, if not all, were treated by contemporaries as his followers and called Runcarii.3 Contemporary writers treat the two groups as parts of the same body and distinguish them as the Ultra montane and the Lombard Poor Men or as the Ultramontane and Italic Brethren.4
A dispute arose between the Humiliati and the Poor Men of Lyons as to their relation to one another and to Peter Waldo, which led to a conference, in 1218, at Bergamo. Each party had six representatives.6 The two points of discord
1 The exact relation of the Poor Men of Lyons to the Humiliati is still a matter of discussion. Miiller, in his Anfdnge des Minoritenordens, etc., has done much to change our knowledge of the Humiliati. The view taken above may account for the language of the Verona council, Humiliati vel Pauperes de Lugduno, which was probably chosen for the very purpose of indicating that the resemblance between the two parties was so close as to make it uncertain whether there were two sects or only one. This view seems to be borne out by the two statements of Salve Burce. Dollinger, II. 64, 74.
2 See p. 411. Sabatier, Eegula Antiqua, p. 16, expresses the opinion that Francis may have been more indebted to them than we have supposed.
8 Salve Burce, who was acquainted with Roncho, called him " a simple man, without education," idiota absque literis. Dollinger, II. 64.
4 Rainerius, Martene, p. 1775, Rescriptuin, p. 57 ; Guy, p. 247 ; Dollinger, II. 320, etc. Rainerius is in substantial agreement with Burce who says that the Poor Men of Lombardy derived their existence from the Ultramontane Poor.
6 The account is given in the Eescriptum. See Preger, Dollinger, II. 42- 52, and Muller, Die Waldenser, p. 22. The separation between the Lombard and the Lyonnese parties is referred to in the list of inquisitorial questions to be put to them. Dollinger, II. 320 sq. 2 K
498 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
were the eucharist and whether Waldo was then in paradise. The Lombards contended that the validity of the sacrament depended upon the good character of the celebrant. The question about Waldo and a certain Vivetus was, whether they had gone to heaven without having made satisfaction before their deaths for all their sins.1 The Lyonnese claimed that Waldo was in paradise and made the recognition of this fact a condition of union with the Lombard party. The controversy at Bergamo points to a definite rejection of Waldo's leadership by the Lombard Waldenses. Salve Burce, 1235, who ridiculed the Waldensians on the ground of their recent origin, small number, and lack of learning, compared the Poor Men of Lombardy and the Poor Men of Lyons with the two Catliaran sects, the Albanenses and the Concorrezzi, and declared the four were as hostile, one to the other, as fire and water.2 This is an isolated testimony and not to be accepted. But it is the charge, so often repeated since by the Catholic Church, that Protestantism means division and strife.
In the crusades against heretics, in Southern France, the Waldenses were included, but their sufferings were small compared with those endured by the Albigenses. Nor do they seem to have furnished many victims to the Inquisition in the fourteenth century. Although Bernard Guy opened his trials in 1308, it was not till 1316 that a Waldensian was sentenced to perpetual imprisonment and another to death by burning. Three years later, twenty-six were condemned to perpetual imprisonment, and three to death in the flames.3 In 1498, Louis XII. granted them limited toleration. Dur ing the Reformation period, in 1545, twenty-two villages inhabited by the French Waldenses were pillaged and burnt by order of the parliament of Provence.
It was in Italy and Austria that the Waldenses furnished their glorious spectacle of unyielding martyrdom. From
1 Rescriptum, Dollinger, II. 46. 2D611inger, II. 73.
3 Summing up all the cases under Guy, Lea, II. 149, says that there was no very active persecution against the Lyonnese Waldenses,