Waldenses
The name of a Christian sect which arose in the south of France about 1170. They were much the same in origin and ethics as the Albigenses (q.v.), that is, their religious system rested upon that of Manichæism, which believed in dualism and severe asceticism. It undoubtedly arose from the desire of the bourgeois class to have changes made in the clerical discipline of the Roman Church. Its adherents called themselves cathari thus demonstrating the eastern origin of their system. There were two classes of these, credentes and perfecti, or neophytes and adepts, the perfecti only being admitted to the esoteric doctrines of the Waldensian Church. Outwardly its aim and effort was rationalistic; but the inner doctrine partook more of the occult. It was in 1170 that Peter Waldo, a rich merchant of Lyons, sold his goods and gave them to the poor, and from him the sect was named. The earliest account of Waldensian beliefs is that of an enemy, Sacconi, an inquisitor of the Holy Office, who wrote about the middle of the thirteenth century. He divides the Waldensians into two classes, those of Lombardy, and those north of the Alps. The latter believed that any layman might consecrate the sacrament of the altar, and that the Roman Church was not the Church of Christ; while the Lombardian sect held that the Roman Church was the Scarlet Woman of the Apocalypse. They also believed that all men were priests. As their opinions became more widespread, persecution became more severe, and the Waldensians latterly withdrew themselves altogether from the Church of Rome, and chose ministers for themselves by election. Papal bulls were issued for their extermination, and a crusade was directed against them; but they survived these attacks, and so late as the time of Cromwell were protected by him against the Duke of Savoy and the French king. Their ministers were later subsidised by the government of Queen Anne, and this subsidy was carried on until the time of Napoleon, when he granted them an equivalent. Latterly they have received much assistance from various Protestant countries of Europe, especially from England; and at the present time number some 12,000 to 13,000 communicants.
During the Middle Ages, it was strongly held by the priesthood of the Roman Church that, like the Albigenses, the Waldensians had a diabolic element in their religion and they have been from time to time classed with the various secret societies that sprang up in mediæval Europe, such as the Knights Templar, the Rosicrucians, and so forth; but although they possessed an esoteric doctrine of their own, there is no reason to believe that this was in any way magical, nor in any manner more esoteric than the inner doctrine of any other Christian sect. 66 " Walder, Phileas : A Swiss, originally a Lutheran minister, a well-known occultist and spiritualist, and friend of Eliphas Levi (q.v.). He is represented by the pseudohistorians of "Satanism" as a right-hand man of Albert Pike (q.v.) in his alleged diabolic practices at Charleston, U.S.A. (See Devil Worship.) In reality Walder was an earnest mason and mystic.
Wallace, Alfred Russel: A distinguished British naturalist, who discovered the theory of evolution independent of Darwin. He was born at Usk, in Monmouthshire, on the 8th of January, 1823. His scientific studies included an enquiry into the phenomena of spiritualism, and he became a firm believer in the genuineness of these manifestations. Dr. Wallace had unique opportunities for studying these in connection with Mrs. Guppy, who, as Miss Nichols, lived for a time with his sister. Among his works was one entitled Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, published in 1881. Dr. Wallace's views on psychic phenomena remained unchanged until his death in 1903. His scientific position made him a tower of strength to the spiritualists. War Wallenstein, Albert Von, Duke of Friedland: (See Astrology.) Wandering Jew, The: A mediæval German legend which has several forms. Through various writers, and differing in detail, the essential features of the narratives which have been handed down to us, are the same. The legend is that as Christ was dragged on his way to Calvary, he passed the house of a Jew, and stopping there, sought to rest a little, being weary under the weight of his cross.
Jew, however, inspired with the adverse enthusiasm of the mob, drove Him on, and would not allow Him to rest there. Jesus, looking at him, said, "I shall stand and rest, but thou shalt go till the last day." Ever afterwards the Jew was compelled to wander over the earth, till this prophecy should be fulfilled.
The The legend of the Wandering Jew is to be regarded as the epic of the Semite people in the Middle Ages.
In some parts of Germany we find the Wandering Jew identified with the Wild Huntsman, whilst in several French districts that mythical character is regarded as the wind of the night. The blast in his horn, which, rushing through the valleys creates a hollow booming sound not unlike a great bugle. In this legend we have in all probability the clue to the mythological side of the story of the wandering Jew. Or perhaps the idea of the Wandering Jew has been fused with that of the conception of the wind. The resemblance between the two conceptions would be too strong to escape the popular mind. From a literary point of view this legend has been treated by Eugene Sué and Croly.