WALDENSES, wol-den'selz, a mediwval sect that owes its origin and name to Peter Waldus (Waldo), a rich citizen of Lyons, al though some writers attribute the appellation Waldenses as from vallie (valley), and called them Vaudois, or dwellers in the valleys, whilst others have traced their origin to the earlier sects of Henricians and Cathari. About 1170 Waldo, moved to repentance for his sins by the sudden death of a friend, came to the deter mination to imitate the mode of life of the apostles and primitive Christians, gave his goods to the poor and by his preaching collected numerous followers, chiefly from the class of artisans, who, from the place of their birth, were denominated Leonists, or the poor of Lyons; Sabatati or Insabatati, on account of their wooden shoes or sandals (sabots); Humiliatists, on account of their profession of humility; and were often confounded with the Cathari, Patarenes, Albigenses, and others, whose fate they shared. Their chief strong holds were, and still are, in the mountain tract of the Cottian Alps, southwest of Turin. In their fanatical contetnpt of the clergy and their opposition to the Roman priesthood the Waldenses resembled other sects of like char acter in the Middle Ages; but, going beyond the design of their founder, which was merely to preach penance and a life of poverty, they made the Bible alone the rule of their faith, and rejecting whatever was not founded on it as not conformabie to apostolical antiquity, they renounced entirely the doctrines, usages and traditions of the Roman Catholic Church and fortned a separate religious society. They were, therefore, excommunicated as heretics at the Council of Verona in 1184, but they did not suffer a general persecution until the war against the Albigenses, whom they closely re sembled in the extravagances of their doc trines and customs, after they had spread and established themselves in the south of France, under the protection of the counts of Toulouse and Foix. At that time (1209-30) many Wal denses fled to Aragon, Savoy and Piedmont. In Languedoc they were able to maintain themselves till 1330; in Provence, under severe persecution, till 1545, when the parliament at Aix caused them to be driven out of the coun try; still longer in Dauphiny; and not until the War of the Cevennes were the last Waldenses expelled from France. In the middle of the 14th century single congregations ot this sect went to Calabria and Apulia, where they were soon suppressed; others to Bohemia, where they were called Grubenheimer, because they used to conceal themselves in caverns. They soon became amalgamated with the Hussites; and from them the Bohemian brethren derive the apostolic consecration of their bishops. Their doctrines rest solely on the Bible, which, with some catechisms, they printed in their old dialect, consisting of a mixture of French and Italian. In this language their worship was performed till their old' Barbes (uncles, teachers) became extinct in 1603. They then received preachers from France and since that time their preaching has been in French. These teachers form no distinct priesthood and are supplied from the academies of the Calvinistic churches. Their rites are limited to baptism
and the Lord's supper, respecting which they adopt the views of Calvin. The constitution of their congregations, which are chiefly em ployed in the cultivation of vineyards and in the breeding of cattle, and which are connected by yearly synods, is republican. Each congre gauon is supenntended by a consistory of elders and deacons, under the presidency of the pastor, which maintains the strictest moral dis cipline and adjusts small differences. After they had entered into a religious communion with the Calvinists, in the 16th century, they were also exposed to the storm which was in tended to sweep away Protestantism, and this was the cause of their extirpation in France and their checicered fate in Piedmont. Those who had settled in the marquisate of Saluzzo were totally suppressed by 1633; and those in the other valleys, under the jurisdiction of the court of Turin, were subjected to severe perse cution, often occasioned by their own aggress iveness. Aided by the mediation of the Prot estant powers, they finally procured a new, though more limited, ratification of freedom by the treaty concluded at Pinerolo 18 Aug. 1655. The persecution exercised in 1685 through French influence obliged thousands to emigrate into Protestant countries, including the English colonies in North America. In London they united with the French Huguenots; in the Netherlands with the Walloons; in Berlin with the French congregations; and nearly 2,000 went to Switzerland. Some of these returned by force to Piedmont in 1680, and with those who had remained, maintained themselves under many restrictions, to which an end was finally put in 1725 in consequence of Prussian media tion.
The Waldenses were not permitted to enjoy full religious freedom and civil rights until the establishment of the kingdont of Italy, but now they do so not merely in their old vaBeys of Lucerne, Perusa and Saint Martin, but gen erally throughout Italy, and they have churches in Turin, Rome, Venice and elsewhere. Their church service is under the direction of a synod. After long negotiations, in the way of which great difficulties were thrown by the op position of the Tubingen theologians. several hundreds of the above-mentioned fugitives settled in Wiirtemberg in 1699, where their de scendants now form several parishes. They are next to the Calvinists in the simplicity of their worship and in their ecclesiastical consti tution, but in intellectual cultivation are behind the other Protestants. (See REFORMATION ; RELIGIOUS SEcTs). Consult Leger, (Histoire generale des eglises evangeliques des vallees de Piemont ou Vaudoises) (1699); Diedchoff, (Die Waldenser im Mittelalter' (1851); Her zog, (Die romanischen Waldenser' (1853) ; Melia, (Origin, Persecution and Doctrines of the Waldenses' (1870) ; Montet, (Histoire lit teraire des Vaudois du Piemont) (1885) ; Preger, (Die Verfassung der franzosischen Waldenser in der alteren Zeit' (1890) ; Bom piani, (Short History of the Italian Wal denses' (1897) ; Schaff, (Creeds of Christen dom' (1877-78); Lea, H. C., 'History of the Inquisition' (New York 1906).