RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
WALDENSES.
In Italy (§ 1).
In Germany, Bohemia, Poland, and Hungary (§ 2).
Internal Development (§ 3).
Organization (§ 4).
Persecutions (§ 5).
. The Romance Waldenses after the
Reformation. Entrance into the Reformed Body 1)
Literature (§ 2). The Waldensian Reformed (§ 3).
Waldeck-Pyrmont Waldenses
State of Affairs in 1848 (§ 1).
Education in the Piedmont Valleys (§ 2).
Philanthropic Work and Statistics
Waldensian Emigration to France (§ 4).
The Waldensiansin North and South America (§ 5).
Missionary Work in Italy (§ 6).
Waldensian Churches in Italy (§ 7).
Educational and Philanthropic
fore the Reformation.
I. Early History: Under the name Waldenses— with its variants Valdesii [the modern Vaudois], Vallenses, Leonistee (of Lyons), Insabbatati, Sabbatati, Xabatati, Enc¢abots (sabot, “shoe’’), Sandaliati, Sotularii, and Cotularii—Roman Catholic polemical writers after about 1180 opposed an ascetic body of preachers whose origin they ascribed to a Lyons merchant named Valdes (Peter Waldo), Valdesius, Valdexius, or Gual-
densis. While, however, at first only
1. Waldo the French members of the organiza-
and the tion called their body Socitetas Valde-
Poor Men. sana, or Socit Valdesii, the official name of the society was Pauperes spiritu
(“ Poor in Spirit ”’); or, later, Pawperes Christi; or simply Pauperes, with or without the additions de Lugduno or de Lombardia. The society itself gave practically no information concerning its founder, except that he was a man of reckless determination, and that he died before 1218; and the sole source of knowledge consists, therefore, of Roman Catholic authorities of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, notably two anonymous writers of Laon and Passau and Stephen of Bourbon. According to the anonymous writer of Laon, Waldo heard, one Sunday in May or April of the famine year (1176), a traveling minstrel singing on the street the last stanzas of the old poem of St. Alexis [who had given away his property and gone on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and thereby had won great peace]. He invited him into his house and on the following morning asked a theologian the shortest and best way to God. The answer was that of Christ to the rich young man. Waldo, giving a portion of his property to his wife, sold the remainder, bestowing the greater part of the proceeds on the poor; and later casting the balance upon the street, he begged alms, and soon afterward took a formal vow of poverty. In the following year he was joined by others at Lyons, and gradually the “‘ poor men ”’ began to castigate the sins of both themselves and others. In the spring of 1179 Waldo went to the Lateran Council at Rome, where Alexander III. confirmed his vow of poverty, but forbade him and his companions to preach, unless expressly invited by the priests. This was long observed by the Waldenses, but finally they disobeyed the mandate, only to be involved in ruin for their fault. Stephen of Bourbon, on the other hand, ascribes Waldo’s conversion to his curiosity. Hearing of the Gospels, he had two priests translate them for him. In like fashion, he later obtained vernacular versions of many other books of the Bible
COLA
VI. Present Conditions.
Work in Italy (§ 8). Missionary Work Outside Italy (§9).
and of the sayings of the saints. He now resolved to practise apostolic poverty, sold his property, threw the money in the mire, and began to preach in the streets. He was soon joined by many uncultured men and women, but all being unlettered, they taught many errors. They were accordingly forbidden to preach by Jean aux Blanches-Mains, archbishop of Lyons, but they persisted and were banned and expelled. In 1179 they were cited to appear at Rome, where, proving obstinate, they were declared to be heretics. ‘The anonymous writer of Passau relates that the sudden death at a meeting at Lyons of one of the majores so shocked Waldo that he gave his property to the poor; taught them to imitate the voluntary poverty of Christ and the apostles, and forthwith began to translate the Bible into the vernacular. It is clear, moreover, from the account of Walter Map, that the followers of Waldo, when examined in connection with the Lateran Council, displayed utter ignorance of the simplest Christian teachings so that they were at once forbidden to preach. The anonymous writer of Laon, furnishing the most elaborate, immediate, and probable source, followed by Stephen, it may be concluded that the Waldenses originated according to the facts stated by the former; that, turning voluntarily to the Lateran Council (1179), the pope refused them the privilege of preaching; that, continuing, Pope Lucius III., instigated by Archbishop Jean of Lyons, issued against them, from Verona, the bull Ad abolendam, Nov. 4, 1184; and that the archbishop expelled them from Lyons toward the end of 1184, or at the beginning of 1185.
Meanwhile the Waldenses had gained a momentous advance elsewhere. In the spring of 1179 the Lombard Humiliati (q.v.) likewise sought at Rome to have their statutes confirmed and to be allowed to preach and hold religious gatherings.
They were, however, also refused, and
2. The the similarity of their aims and for- Lombard tunes led to a fusion of Waldenses Humiliati. and Humiliati. The latter recognized Waldo as leader, and assumed the name
Pauperes spiritu, and the customs of apostolic living and preaching abroad, and impressed on their new allies their distinctive custom of uniting those brethren who felt themselves unfitted for preaching and pastoral care into ascetic companies of laborers. A second branch of Waldenses was thus established in Lombardy, their chief center being Milan, where in 1209 they numbered over a hundred. They were also in Cremona, (1210), Bergamo, and, at least as
Waldenses