Waldenses
a famous Christian tion of extracts from the Fathers to be translated into Romaunt, and, naturally failing to find the apostolic simplicity in caused the New Testament and a collecthe ecclesiastical condition of the ti caused the New Testament and a colleca famous Christian WALDENSES of the poor, and devoted himself to preaching the truth to the people by the wayside. Everywhere he found eager listeners, and was followed by groups of simple and earnest persons of both sexes who did their best, even to their dress, to carry out the apostolic ideal, loving to bear the name of the Poor Men of Lyons.
The tenets ascribed to them in the earliest accounts are chiefly that oaths even in a court of justice are not allowable, that homicide is under no circumstances justifiable, that every lie is a moral sin, that all believers are capable of priestly functions, and that the sacraments are invalidated by uncleanness of life in the officiating priest.
We find at first no special doctrines that could be condemned as heretical, and even in later days, as Mr. Lea points out, the documents of the Inquisition constantly refer to "heresy and Waldensianism," the former meaning Catharism. The archbishop of Lyons forbade them to preach, but in vain; Pope Alexander III. gave them a modified approval, but Lucius III. anathematized them at Verona in 1184, and Innocent III. at the fourth council of the Lateran in 1215. But it was impossible to compel silence, for the missionary zeal of these sincere enthusiasts was boundless, and their influence quickly grew. Alonso II. of Aragon ordered them to quit his dominions in 1194, and in southern France they became involved in the common destruction of the Albigenses, though their quarrel with the Church differed from that of the latter in relating to matters of practice rather than of doctrine.
But under persecution their divergences from the Church naturally grew ever the greater, and we find that gradually, though never uniformly, they came to repudiate the invocation of the Virgin and saints, transubstantiation, and purgatory with all its its consequences.
Thus the Waldensian martyrs at Strassburg in 1212 made no distinction between laity and priesthood, while at the same time both the French and Lombardian Waldenses held that the Eucharist could be celebrated only by an ordained priest, and it was at that time still the latter only who believed it invalid if the priest was living in sin. Yet they themselves maintained a kind of order of preachers (perfecti), living in voluntary poverty and celibacy, in contradistinction to the ordinary credentes. And by some accounts there was a kind of hierarchy among the perfecti, a theory which gains some support from the frequent use of such terms as majoralis, magnus magister, major, and minor. Their morality WALDENSES was austere, and we find the very inquisitors acknowledging their chastity, sobriety, truthfulness, and industry. Their crowning offenses were their paramount regard for Scripture and the unresting proselytism of their preachers, who went abroad two by two, ostensibly practicing some calling, as pedlers or tinkers, but ceaselessly exhorting the faithful in sequestered places, hearing confessions, and administering absolution. Their principal seats were the slopes and fastnesses of the Cottian Alps, E. in Piedmont, W. in Provence and Dauphiné. After the Cathari were finally crushed they supplied the chief work that remained to the Inquisition in France. They had grown strong among the poorer class in Languedoc, with schools, a good organization, and missionaries reputed to have skill in medicine. They next spread into Lorraine, Burgundy, Franche Comté, Narbonne, and the mountains of Auvergne. We find Bernard Gui burning them at Toulouse in 1316, and by this time persecution had done its perfect work as well in refining their piety as in completing their estrangement from Rome. Their doctrine of non-resistance made it easy to harry and confiscate their property, yet we find the victims often too poor to pay for the wood that burned them. During the years 1336-1346 especially they were severely harassed; 12 were burned in front of the cathedral at Embrun in 1348. Popes Clement VI. and Urban V. stimulated the zeal of the Inquisition, and we read how the great inquisitor, François Borel, burned 150 at Grenoble in one day in 1393. Gregory XI. urged on the unhappy work in Provence, Dauphiné, and the Lyonnais, and in 1375 the prisons were crowded with far more prisoners than could be fed, and charity was actually asked for them by the Church.
During the Great Schism they contrived to escape, and after the Council of Constance the Hussites engaged for a time all the energies of the Church. We hear, however, of the persecutions again in 1432 and later years, and by this time, says Mr. Lea, so completely had the Waldenses monopolized the the field of misbelief in the public mind of France that sorcery became popularly known as vauderie, and witches as vaudoises. Sixtus IV. tried to stir up Louis XI. in vain; but Charles VIII. was more docile, and Pope Innocent VIII. was able in 1488 to organize a crusade against them in both Dauphiné and Savoy. The valley of Pragelato, Val Cluson, and Freyssinières were ravaged pitilessly with fire and sword and wholesale confiscations, many barbes (pastors) were burned, and in Val Louise the poor fugitives were WALDERSEE smoked to death in their caves. Louis XII. stopped the proceedings, with consent of Pope Alexander VI., whose son Cæsar Borgia had just received the duchy of Valentinois. Their remnants continued to cherish their own faith, more or less under disguise of Catholicism, till they finally merged with the Calvinists after the Reformation.
The Cathari never made much way in Germany, but on the other hand the Waldenses became strong. Some were burned at Strassburg in 1212, and especially in the diocese of Passau in the second half of the same century there was much prosecution. Yet by the close of the century they had become very numerous, often succeeding in escaping notice by their quietness and outward conformity.
In 1392 the Archbishop of Mainz persecuted them vigorously, burning 36 at Bingen together. At Steyer in Pomerania, in 1397, over 100 of either sex were burned. Yet they were not extirpated, and remained strong, especially on the confines between Austria and Moravia.
In 1467 they united themselves with the famous Bohemian Brethren. The Waldensians on the French side of the Cottian Alps in 1530 opened negotiations with the Swiss and German reformers, and in 1532 a five days' synod at Chanforans in the valley of Angrogne drew up articles of agreement. The 18th century was not a favorable age for persecution, yet even at its close the Waldenses could hold no office nor real estate, nor have physicians of their own faith. Napoleon allowed their Church a constitution, but this Victor Emmanuel abolished in 1814, though two years later, urged by England and Prussia, he issued a milder edict. Meantime they prospered-Col. John C. Beckwith (1789-1862), who had lost a leg at Waterloo, through reading Dr. Gilly's "Visit to the Valleys of Piedmont" (1832) , settld among the people for the last 35 years of his life, marrying a peasant girl, and succeeded in establishing as many as 120 schools. At last in 1843 Charles Albert gave the Waldenses equal political and religious rights, and since that time their progress has been constant if not rapid.