Peter Waldo was an early reformer. He lived 1140-1205 or so, 350 years before Luther.
Waldo was a wealthy merchant from Lyon, who gave up his wealth to serve the poor, like Francis of Assisi, and preach the gospel. Unlike Francis, however, his order was not approved by the Pope.
Statue of Peter Waldo at the Luther Memorial at Worms, Germany:
Waldo preached that “One cannot serve both God and mammon.” He criticized Papal excesses and Catholic dogmas, including purgatory and transubstantiation. By 1170 he had gathered a large number of followers who were referred to as the Poor of Lyons, the Poor of Lombardy, the Poor of God, or as the Waldensians.
Around 1175 or so Peter Waldo began working on a translation of the New Testament into the vernacular, the Arpitan (Franco-Provençal) language. This was, of course, forbidden.
In 1179 Waldo and some companions went to Rome to explain their beliefs to the Pope (Alexander III), who would not authorize them. They disobeyed and continued preaching, gaining converts.
In the early 1180’s they were excommunicated for contempt of ecclesiastical power and “innumerable errors.” The Waldensian were formally declared heretics by Pope Lucius III in 1184 at the Synod of Verona, and by Pope Innocent III during the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215.
Waldo was never captured to our knowledge. His fate is uncertain.
In 1211, more than 80 Waldensians were burned as heretics at Strasbourg. The burning of the Waldensians:
In 1487, when Luther would have been four years old, Pope Innocent VIII issued a bull for the extermination of the Vaudois. A crusade was organized to massacre the Waldensians in the provinces of Dauphiné and Piedmont. Charles I, Duke of Savoy, eventually interfered to save his territories from further confusion , but the damage was done.
During the Reformation the Waldensians became Reformed. The French Bible translated by Pierre Robert Olivétan with the help of Calvin and published at Neuchâtel in 1535 was based in part on a New Testament in the Waldensian vernacular.
Outside the Piedmont, the Waldenses joined the local Protestant churches in Bohemia, France, and Germany. After they came out of seclusion and reports were made of sedition on their part, the French king, Francis I issued on 1 January 1545 the “Arrêt de Mérindol”, and assembled an army against the Waldensians of Provence. Deaths in the Massacre of Mérindol ranged from hundreds to thousands, depending on the estimates.
In January 1655 the Duke of Savoy ordered the Waldensians to attend Mass or leave, giving them twenty days to sell their land. This was intended to persuade the them to choose the former, but most chose the latter. Frustrated, on 24 April 1655, at 4 a.m, the Duke gave the signal for a general massacre. More than massacre, there were gruesome tortures of young and old, men and women. I won’t go into detail.
I apologize for the graphic nature of this public domain print, but it conveys the seriousness of this matter. The message was clear: Obey Rome or this could be you.
The massacre prompted John Milton to write this poem:
On the Late Massacre in Piedmont
Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold,
Even them who kept thy truth so pure of old,
When all our fathers worshiped stocks and stones;
Forget not: in thy book record their groans
Who were thy sheep and in their ancient fold
Slain by the bloody Piedmontese that rolled
Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans
The vales redoubled to the hills, and they
To Heaven. Their martyred blood and ashes sow
O’er all th’ Italian fields where still doth sway
The triple tyrant; that from these may grow
A hundredfold, who having learnt thy way
Early may fly the Babylonian woe.
When we discuss the need for reform in the Medieval church, we don’t just mean 1517. The church is always in constant need of reform, but for hundreds of years (1100-1700), the church’s violent abuse of power and wealth was out of control. Some simply could not keep silent. The reformers did not want to leave the church. They wanted fix it. They did not leave. They were kicked out, excommunicated, ostracized and burned at the stake.
This new millennium offers us a new opportunity to reunite the factions of the church, long separated by age old wounds. In fact, Postmodernity requires it I believe. We must stop auguring over irrelevancies, focus on the essentials, tolerate our differences and unite around our center: Christ.
