Grace and peace, Saints.
Most of us in the household of faith know little of our Protestant heritage. We may know something of Martin Luther and the Reformation, and we may have heard of the martyrdom of William Tyndale for his valiant efforts in making the Word of God available to the common folk in the English language. But we are mostly ignorant of those faithful believers who, centuries before the Reformation, defied the Catholic Church in obeying the Great Commission and preaching and teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Waldenses, a group of Bible-believing Christians who lived in the valley of the Piedmont, in France, are one such example. Today, little is known of the Waldenses, and nothing remains of their culture and literature, as the Catholic Church mounted a terrible crusade against these peaceful people for the express purpose of not only destroying them, but erasing them from memory. I have learned something of the Waldenses and of their remarkable founder, Peter Waldo; and I would like to share it with you in order to:Â
- Preserve their memory
- Inspire personal research
- Remind the Body of Christ that the Roman Catholic Church is the sworn enemy of Jesus Christ, the Bible, and all Bible-believing Christians, that is, Protestants.
I quote now from The Protestant.
“Early in the twelfth century, a great number of persons in Lyons, and other parts in the south of France, had their eyes opened to perceive the idolatry and absurdity of the Romish worship. The Vulgate Latin Bible was the only edition of the Scriptures at that time in Europe; and very few of the people were capable of reading it. We may well suppose, then, that the knowledge of divine things was very scanty; but nobody can tell how small the degree of knowledge is, by which a sinner may be saved, if it be but the knowledge of Christ. Multitudes, who were called the poor men of Lyons, had obtained that knowledge, and were enabled to maintain that truth, at the expense of being hated and persecuted by their neighbors.
“Providence raised up one among them, who was highly honored as an instrument of extensively propagating those truths which were, three hundred years after, embraced by Luther and his colleagues, at the time of the Reformation. This was Peter Waldo, a rich merchant of Lyons, from whom it is supposed the Waldenses took their name. Having had a better education than most of his neighbors, he was able to teach the people the text of the New Testament, in their mother tongue. Here he saw clearly the way of salvation by Jesus Christ, and found peace and comfort to himself. He was desirous of communicating to others the knowledge of that truth which he found to be his own salvation. He abandoned his mercantile pursuits, distributed his wealth to the poor, as occasion required; and, while the latter flocked to him, to partake of his alms, he labored to engage their attention to the things which belonged to their everlasting peace. He either translated, or procured to be translated, the four Gospels into French; and had the honor of being the first who gave the Word of God in any modern language of Europe. —See this subject, more in detail, in Jones’ History of the Waldenses, 2d Ed. Chap. V. §. 1.
“Waldo laboured incessantly in propagating the truth, and in demonstrating the great difference there was between the Christianity of the Bible, and that of the Curch of Rome. ‘Other Archbishop of Lyons heard of these proceedings, and became indignant. Their tendency was obvious; the honor of the Church involved in them; and in perfect consistency with the usual mode of silencing objectors among the Catholic party, he forbade the new Reformer to teach any more, on pain of excommunication, and of being proceeded against as an heretic.’—Waldo replied, ‘that though a layman, he could not be silent in a matter which concerned the salvation of his fellow creatures.’ ‘Information of these things was then conveyed to Pope Alexander III. who no sooner heard of such heretical proceedings, than he anathematized the Reformer and his adherents, commanding the Archbishop to proceed against them with the utmost rigor.’ He was now compelled to leave Lyons, and afterwards, ‘persecuted from place to place he retired into Picardy, where also success attended his labors. Driven from thence, he proceeded to Germany, carrying along with him the glad tidings of salvation; and, according to the testimony of Thuanus, a very authentic French historian, he at length settled in Bohemia, where he finished his course, in the year 1179, after a ministry of nearly twenty years.’ —Hist. Wald. vol. ii. P. 12.
“Attend now to the intolerant spirit of the Popish religion, and the cruelties exercised upon the followers of Peter Waldo;—The doctrines which he had taught, which were evidently those of the Gospel, spread extensively in Alsace, along the Rhine, and in many other places. ‘Persecutions ensued—thirty-five citizens of Mentz were burned in one fire, at the city of Bingen, and eighteen in Mentz itself. The bishops of both Mentz and Strasburgh [sic] breathed nothing but vengeance and slaughter against them; and, in the latter city, where Waldo himself is said to have narrowly escaped apprehension, eighty persons were committed to the flames. In the treatment and in the behavior of the Waldenses, were renewed the scenes of martyrdom of the second century. Multitudes died praising God, and in the confident hope of a blessed resurrection .’ Ibid. p. 13.
 “That these cruelties were inflicted, not on the mere authority of individual bishops, but on the authority and at the instigation of the Pope of Rome, as head of the Church, appears by a decree of Pope Lucius III. against heretics, A.D. 1181, which commences thus: ‘To abolish the malignity of diverse heresies, which are lately sprung up in most parts of the world, it is but fitting that the power committed to the Church should be awakened, that, by the incurring assistance of the imperial strength, both the insolence and mal-pertness of the heretics, in their False designs, may be crushed, and the truth of Catholic simplicity shining forth in the Holy Church, May demonstrate her pure and free from execrableness of their false doctrines. Wherefore we, being supported by the presence and power of our most dear son, Fredrick, the most illustrious Emperor of the Romans, always successor of the empire, with the common advice and. Ourselves of our brethren, and other patriarchs, archbishops, and many princes, who, from several parts of the world, are met together, do set themselves against these heretics, who have got different names from the several false doctrines which they profess, by the sanction of the present decree, and by our apostolical authority, according to the tenor of these presents, we condemn all manner of heresy, by whatsoever it may be denominated.Â
“More particularly, we declare all Catharists, Patorines, and those who call themselves the poor of Lyons; the Passagines, Josephites, Arnoldists, to be under a perpetual anathema. And because some, under a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof, as the Apostle saith, assume to themselves the authority of preaching; whereas the same Apostle saith, “How shall they preach, except they be sent?â€â€”we therefore conclude, under the same sentence of a perpetual anathema, all those who either being forbid, or not sent, do notwithstanding presume to preach publicly or privately, without any authority received from the Apostolic See, or from the bishops of their respective dioceses, &c. &c.Â
“Thus, by authority of the Holy Father, the emperor of the Romans, and many princes from different parts of the world, any man who shall tell his neighbor about salvation by Jesus Christ, however privately, is subjected to a perpetual curse: and the decree proceeds:—“As for any layman, who shall be found guilty, either publicly or privately, of any of the aforesaid crimes, (that is, preaching, or speaking improperly of the sacraments,) unless by abjuring his heresy, and making satisfaction, he immediately return to the orthodox faith, we decree him to be left to the sentence of the secular judge, to receive consign punishment, according to the quality of the offence.†—Hist. Wald. Vol. ii. P. 15,16.Â
“This of giving over to the secular judge, was well understood to infer certain death, often accompanied by the most cruel tortures that the ingenuity of man could invent.â€Â
—The Protestant: A Series of Essays of the Principle Points of Controversy Between The Church of Rome and the Reformed, by William McGavin, Vol. 1, Tenth Edition, 1887, Blackie and Sons, London, p. 97-100.
