WALDENSES. The Waldenses are a religious body who have inhabited for centuries the valleys of the south of France and north of Italy. Another form of the name is Vallenses. This has been derived from the Latin, French, and Italian word for " valley " (Latin rains), and explained as equivalent to " valesmen." It has also been contended that the Waldenses or Vallenses date back to Apostolic times. The truth seems to be that the sect was organized about 1177 in Lyons by Petrus Waldus. Waldus had come forward in 1160 as a re former of the abuses of the Church. The Waldenses (also Vaudois) are identical with the " Poor of Lyons " or Leonists, the Sabatati or Sab(Stiers (from their wooden shoes), and the Humiliati. Petrus Waldus is also called Peter of Waldo, Pierre de Vaud, and Pierre de Vaux. He was a merchant of Lyons, who came to feel that the ideal life meant a return to the simplicity and poverty of Apostolic times. In 1170 he had portions of the Bible translated into the Provencal dialect. He then trained a number of his followers as preachers of the Gospel. They were excommunicated by the Archbishop of Lyons, and forbidden to preach by Pope Alexander III. (1179). In 1184 the Waldenses were condemned at the Council of Verona. Nevertheless, they spread rapidly. The Waldenses had no idea originally of separating from the Church. They were driven to this, however, by the opposition of the ecclesiastical authorities. They now denied the authority of the Church and the efficacy of her ordinances. The Church of Rome was the Babylon and the harlot of the Apocalypse; the Waldenses repre sented the true Church of Christ; laymen, and even women, were entitled to preach; consecration and abso lution by a bad priest were invalid, whereas absolution by a good layman was valid: tithes and religions endow ments were unlawful; much of the ceremonial of Baptism was unnecessary; in the Eucharist, transubstantiation was only subjective; Extreme Unction was useless. As
a Roman Catholic writer puts it, " they made a clean sweep of all the beautiful and touching ceremonies—all the salutary institutes—with which the Church had sur rounded the life of Christians here below " (Cath. Diet.). Great and violent efforts were made to suppress the Waldenses, and they suffered cruel and continual perse cution. In 1530 they entered into communication with the Swiss and German Reformers. Georges Morel and Pierre Masson were sent to meet J. CEcolampadius (Heussgen; 1482-1531) in Basle, Berthold Haller in Bern, Wolfgang Capito (Koepfel: 1478-1541), and Martin Bucer (or Butzer: 1491-1551) in Strassburg. The result seems to have been that the Waldenses were willing to abandon some of their extravagant tenets, and to make some of their other tenets conform more closely to those of the Reformers. In 1532 they renounced communion with the Roman Catholic Church. In 1556 they expressed to the German Reformers their belief in the Old and New Testament, the Apostles' Creed, the Athanasian Creed, the Creeds of the first four Councils, the Holy Sacra ments as instituted by Christ, the Ten Commandments, and submission to divinely appointed superiors. In 1630, when they suffered from a dearth of pastors, ministers went to their help from Geneva and Lausanne. This involved a still closer approximation to the theology of the Protestant Reformers. In 1655 they accepted the Confession of Augsburg. In the same year and in 1685 supreme efforts were made to crush them. The latter was so far successful that thousands of the Waldenses were killed, imprisoned, or exiled. Some of the exiles returned in 1689, and more between the years 1690 and 1696. But. they were not safe until 184S, when the Turin Edict of Emancipation was signed. The Waldenses are said to number now more than 20,000. See Karl Mueller, Die Waldenses, 1886; J. A. Chabrand, Vaudois et Pro testants des .4lpes, 1886; J. H. Blunt; Prot. Diet.; Cath. Diet.; Brockhaus.